Analysis of product operations in Zhihu circles!

At the end of 2019, Zhihu app officially launched the "Circle" function after internal testing.

Recently, Zhihu opened a first-level entrance for "Circles", replacing the original posting entrance and giving it equal weight to the "Home Page" on the navigation bar.

So why did Zhihu launch the “Circle” function? How does the circle operate? How ambitious is the circle that has risen to the first-level entrance? This article will discuss these issues.

1. Product Analysis

1. Product structure diagram

Home page: Zhihu's circles are presented in the form of communities, and the home page shows the circles that users have joined and the post information flow. The source of information flow is all circles, not limited to the circles you have joined.

In addition, there is no entrance to subscribe to the circle information flow. Below the rankings are lists of hot posts and circles of different types.

Let’s look at the functions in different information units:

Information unit: Circle, the information flow is displayed in a dynamic form in reverse chronological order.

Function:

1. Post pictures and videos
2. On the event square page, "Telepathy" unlocks pictures or small notes by answering questions, and those who answer correctly can greet the other party
3. "Voting" allows users to vote on both sides

Information unit: Post

Function:

1. Like
2. Send Emoji
3. reply
4. Posts from the home page can be added to the corresponding circle

2. Product Features

(1) Reduce the social radius by using circles as units

1. The records of the same user in different circles are independent, that is, posts, levels, sign-ins, etc. are calculated and displayed separately according to the circle.
2. A circle is more like a section under the previous forum, with administrators recruited independently and a points system independently formulated.

(2) Anonymous friends, amplifying social functions

1. In each circle, users can edit the circle nickname and introduction, and choose whether to display the Zhihu personal homepage link.
2. The "Telepathy" under the activity square is similar to QQ's new anonymous matching, with the addition of gamification. Regardless of whether the answer is correct or not, you can get the opportunity to send a private message to the questioner.

(3) Increase channels and expand interest circles

• The circle square is divided into categories such as celebrities, industries, emotions, humanities, etc. Users can quickly find the circles they are interested in and join.
• The information flow under the homepage recommendation will increase the possibility of encountering posts with the same interests, and the circle links in the posts also make it convenient to quickly join the circle.

(4) Incentive system of hierarchy and status

1. The circle stipulates that level 4 users can initiate votes, and level 5 users can initiate topics. Level experience is gained by posting, replying to posts, signing in, and sharing circles or posts.
2. Become a circle administrator, operate the circle, and gain the sense of honor provided by the identity. In addition, the official account will "praise" the administrator when promoting.

2. The layout of Zhihu community

Why was Circle launched at the end of the 2010s and the beginning of the 2020s? Are Zhihu circles a product of the platform or a response to user demand? It can be analyzed from the following key points:

1. The product of the young circle

Zhihu, which was labeled as a "highly knowledgeable business community" in the early days, sacrificed the professionalism of its content in exchange for users in order to attract traffic and active users after several years of operation. The influx of users means an expansion in the breadth of topics, but the quality of content inevitably declines.

In recent years, question-and-answer communities have become increasingly popular, and Zhihu has also been continuously developing Live, column, and magazine functions around knowledge payment. However, looking at the download data over the past year, the number of downloads has shown a wave-like downward trend.

Let’s take a look at a description of Zhihu users’ age data: people under 19 years old account for 20%, users between 20 and 29 years old account for 70%, users between 30 and 39 years old account for 9%, and the rest of the users account for 1%.

Users over the age of 30 account for less than 10%, and most of them are seed users of the platform. Zhihu relies on these elites to contribute high-quality answers and attract users. But after nearly a decade, the heyday of this group of people has passed, and the influx of younger users has made the question-and-answer community even more "mixed".

The traffic of people born in the 19th year and above seems to have reached its limit, while the market of millennials is still huge. Zhihu has set its sights on this group of people.

Zhihu is a real-name system, but in order to cater to the dating preferences of Generation Z, Zhihu Circles has created a place for anonymous dating. The feature is that users can change the nickname of each circle and selectively link it to the Zhihu homepage.

This design allows users to do things that are different from the big track in a corner of public places anonymously, stimulating the interest of Generation Z who likes to explore and pursue novelty.

It can be found that the gamification design of fast friendship such as Xinyoulingxi has more participants in the entertainment circle.

At the same time, circles are based on interests. Unlike topics which are based on issues, the units under the circle can focus on a certain school, celebrity, or industry, making the connections between people closer.

Generation Z is such a group that is willing to pay for their own preferences. They will form small groups to chase stars, and circles provide a gathering place for this group.

Zhihu, which has been running for nine years, has begun to embrace its young users.

2. Social layout of the Q&A community

Zhihu’s slogan has always been “If you have any questions, go to Zhihu”, positioning it as a question-and-answer community. The earliest social functions that could be discussed were the comment section and private messages. Later, live broadcasts with social attributes were put in a corner by Zhihu and were not operated as a high-conversion business.

After the circle was launched, the initial entrance was placed under the card of the personal homepage, and the search did not provide a keyword entrance. The process of entering the circle to browse was not as fast as it is now.

Upgrading to the first-level entrance and increasing the search weight of circles is a secret sign that Zhihu attaches importance to social networking.

In the past two years, leading Internet companies have launched their own social software, trying to cover young user groups under the age of 30 in scenarios such as campus, blind dating, and workplace. In the social track, Zhihu, which provides knowledge question and answer services, is also catching up.

It can be said that Zhihu was previously a question-and-answer platform, and users did not come to Zhihu simply for the purpose of socializing.

The circles built on anonymity give this platform a purer social attribute. After downloading Zhihu, users can go directly to the circles without visiting the question-and-answer community, and regard it as another "social venue" after QQ Space.

Zhihu, which has weak sociality, is increasing its social proportion.

3. A place of purification outside the recommendation algorithm

Zhihu's homepage is divided into three question-and-answer entrances: following, recommended, and hot list. The widespread use of recommendation algorithms based on browsing history makes the topics that users can see increasingly limited to a certain circle. Except for searching for specific keywords, the possibility of seeing topics that are less consistent with their interests is also greatly reduced.

Zhihu needs to break this vicious circle of machine manipulation. The birth of circles can alleviate this phenomenon well.

Circle Square has a navigation bar by category, providing users with a "menu" of their interests. Satisfy the user's psychology of "Although I don't order some dishes, I can still look at the menu when I want to refer to it."

Zhihu, a closed circle, wants to discover new possibilities for users.

3. The operational logic of the circle

1. Keywords in Zhihu: fun, interesting

In Zhihu, the official account introduction of Zhihu Circle is: Taking you to the most interesting circle. In the "Zhihu Circle Exhibition Hall" column, the exhibition areas under the theme of each circle tour are recommended around the keywords "fun" and "interesting".

2. Weibo keywords: entertainment, celebrities

The official Zhihu circle’s official blog posts daily mainly about celebrities. It diverts traffic from fan clubs to Zhihu and encourages fans to speak actively by participating in topics.

On Weibo, fans are encouraged to participate in the fan circle creation competition through the topic “What is it like to be a fan?” to attract traffic to the circle.

IV. Future Outlook

Having reached the end of the Internet dividend, Zhihu chose to redeem itself by reducing its dimensionality.

Judging from the data, there was some success at the end of 2019, but there was a decline in downloads at the beginning of the year. The subsequent Spring Festival holiday and the special period of the epidemic brought Zhihu an increase until today.

The future is unknown. But we can guess, what other development possibilities are there for the circle?

1. Customer acquisition

By focusing on operating Weibo accounts that carry traffic from celebrities, what other traffic potential can be tapped?

First, IP

The IP here can generally refer to movies, literature, trendy toy brands, characters, etc.

For example, the "Qi Pa Shuo 6" circle operated under the Qi Pa Shuo IP is very active, and the user group of Qi Pa Shuo is basically consistent with the user portrait of Zhihu. They can accept the novel ways of playing in the circle, and the conversion rate is higher.

Second, campus

The circle not only has separate rankings for each university, but there is also a "campus" gathering area in the circle square.

Zhihu, which is positioned as a "highly educated community", has adopted the strategy that Renren used many years ago - bringing alumni together.

Currently, there are only dozens of university circles established, and the number of participants is not large. You can establish corresponding university circles by inviting excellent respondents under university topics.

In the later stage, you can increase exposure by pushing it to the campus circle at one time.

Third, KOLs in Q&A communities

In addition to university circles, which can use the above-mentioned "KOL effect" to expand their traffic, other circles can also apply the same approach.

Taking the pet circle as an example, invite excellent respondents under the pet topic to join the circle and become managers or post to drive the participation of followers.

Fourth, collaborative operation of the community

Circles and other businesses such as live broadcasts and memberships should be interconnected, such as pushing circles in Zhihu hot lists, or promoting them through Q&A, live broadcasts, etc.

2. Design

In addition to acquiring customers, the design of the gameplay of the circle is also very important.

First, improve the points incentive system

Currently, reaching a certain score has no special use other than being able to initiate votes and topics.

The platform can combine the rankings to reward points for circles and hot posts on the hot list, and distribute them to administrators and active users, increasing the circle's motivation to "make the list."

After obtaining points, for example, in celebrity circles, you can use them to participate in raffles, win gifts and other activities.

Second, the exploration of gamification

The telepathic gameplay has appeared in similar forms on many platforms. The circle needs a hot spot like "WeChat red envelope" in its gamification exploration.

It could be a knowledge contest after imitation, or it could be the introduction of VR games.

3. Profit model

At present, currency gameplay has not been introduced in the circle.

If new users who come to the circle do not participate in question-and-answer related gameplay on Zhihu, Zhihu will face the fate of becoming a social platform. Even the information flow on the circle’s homepage will face the embarrassing situation of being flooded with product promotion posts on e-commerce platforms.

So in what ways can the circle make money?

1. Knowledge rewards, but the circle that likes to send Emojis doesn’t seem to do that.
2. The introduction of the points mall allows points to be exchanged for virtual or physical rewards.

Final Thoughts

When Zhihu was opened to the outside world in beta, it attracted new traffic but also lost a group of loyal old users. Nowadays, as Zhihu becomes more comprehensive and caters to young people, will it lose another group of highly educated users?

We will not predict this for now, but as an old user, I earnestly hope that the young Zhihu will not abandon those users who are truly interested in Q&A. It is the responsibility of Zhihu as a Q&A platform to coordinate the needs of users of different age groups and maintain a professional level.

Author:47

Source:47