Analyzing the user growth model of "Taojiji" in 4 stages!

Taojiji is an online farmers' market dedicated to developing people in rural counties. It focuses on low prices and high quality, and its target users are the 800 million people with an income below 2,000. It spreads its products through the relationship chains among friends, and eventually gained hundreds of millions of users in a short period of time.

According to public information on Baidu Encyclopedia: Taojiji was launched in August 2018 and is a social e-commerce app that includes daily necessities, beauty and personal care products, clothing, shoes and bags, home textiles, food and fruits, etc. By February 2019, a public article on the Internet showed that the number of users had reached 100 million. As of now, it is believed that the number of users has exceeded 100 million.

However, since the early version 1.0.0 of Taojiji APP was established, it took until mid-September for it to find its own social fission gameplay. The initial approach was somewhat similar to that of Vipshop, which focused on low prices for online shopping. Later, it transformed into social e-commerce and used the group buying model to attract a portion of users.

Through the Android download trend chart of Chuanku.com, we can see that Taojiji has surpassed Pinduoduo in download volume when it was first established and had been developing for a period of time.

(The left picture is Taojiji, the right picture is Pinduoduo, the data source is Chuanku.com, Taojiji starts from the launch of version 1.0.0, Pinduoduo starts from the time when Baidu Encyclopedia publicly established it, and the time dimension is one and a half years after the launch)

During the analysis process, it was concluded that Taojiji is a company that encourages users to constantly interact with friends through low prices and monetary incentives, which can also help users arouse friendly interactions between friends.

However, from the beginning of the product's establishment to its formal development, it was not initially spread in this way, so its product development history is also divided into four stages, exploring step by step to finally find the growth engine.

The first stage is the online shopping e-commerce version, the second stage is the social group buying gameplay, the third stage is the shopping cashback method of relay purchase and earning, and the fourth stage is the optimization and upgrade of the cashback method. Looking at the product's growth curve from the four stages, Taojiji is currently in the growth stage of its product life cycle and is in a healthy growth state.

Taojiji’s first phase: November 2017 – August 2018

(Product page image, the left side is the startup page, the right side is the login page)

This stage is the development period of Taojiji, which lasted for 9 months. It focused on online shopping and the page was very simple. The time was before it went online in August 2018 according to Baidu Encyclopedia.

Judging from the introduction on the startup page, Taojiji’s original e-commerce model was somewhat similar to Vipshop’s development model at the time. This also has a lot to do with the founder of Taojiji. At the beginning, Taojiji founder Zhang Zhengping created a brand special sale platform for men, focusing on cost-effectiveness, while Vipshop sells brand clearance goods and mainly develops female users.

Precisely because of this gene, the original e-commerce version of Taojiji was founded with a low-price model as its main focus. However, the product did not have the ability to grow naturally, and the cost of acquiring customers would naturally increase during operations and promotions. Especially in the era of the red ocean of e-commerce, without a good growth model, it is impossible to obtain enough user data to support the platform.

Taojiji’s second development phase: August 2018 – September 2018

(The left side of the above picture is the startup page, the middle is the login entrance, and the right side is the e-commerce order page, with buttons for group purchase and VIP purchase)

During this stage, Taojiji upgraded from online shopping e-commerce to social e-commerce, and after more than a month of promotion, it harvested a group of seed users. When the company was growing fastest, sales exceeded 2 million within two weeks of its launch, and the app download trend returned to the normal development trajectory of the product life cycle.

Taojiji has gained a group of seed users, laying a good foundation for its subsequent rapid development. Taojiji has achieved the following points:

• The benefits of mini programs
• Price-sensitive consumers
• The group play method has been accepted by everyone

Mini Programs were launched in January 2017. Many users have begun to accept Mini Programs, and the fission method of Mini Programs is the best of all fission methods - users do not need to download the app, but can just click to forward; merchants can directly acquire users and realize most of the functions of the APP.

As for price-sensitive consumers, Zhang Zhengping, the original founder of Taojiji, also said that it is necessary to find enough pain points of users. For users, the pain points of e-commerce are low price and good quality. Through analysis, it is found that Taojiji's prices are actually lower than Pinduoduo.

At the Boao Forum for Asia in 2015, Zhou Hongyi once said: "So-called disruptive innovation, one kind is to be cheaper than competitors, which is the so-called business model innovation; the other is that users are lazy." Therefore, being able to use laziness is also a new business model. For example: in the past, you had to go to the market to buy goods, but now the market has moved directly to the mobile phone, you place an order on the mobile phone, and the express delivery will deliver the goods to your door.

The group buying method has been widely accepted by everyone, but the users who play it the most are the lower-tier population, that is, the users of Pinduoduo defined by Huang Zheng as people outside the Fifth Ring Road. The target users of Taojiji overlap with those of Pinduoduo. This is equivalent to Taojiji using lower prices and Pinduoduo's group buying method to attract a group of seed users.

Taojiji Phase 3: September 2018 - February 2019

By bargaining and earning red envelopes, user data was once again increased. During this period, Taojiji was in the stage of establishing its gameplay. The original way of group buying has been abandoned. One brand’s slogan is “Always imitated, never surpassed.” For the latecomers to group buying, basically no one has surpassed Pinduoduo.

Through these two ways of playing, the number of Taojiji app downloads has actually begun to surpass Pinduoduo at the time.

(The data in the above figure comes from the trend chart of the Android download rankings of two apps on Kuchuan.com: the right picture shows the starting point of 10 months after the launch of Taojiji APP version 1.0.0, and the curve is about 4 months; the left picture shows the development curve of Pinduoduo at that time.)

Through the comparison in the above figure, we can find that Taojiji quickly stimulated the growth data of the APP through the method of cash back, and in the same length of time, it exceeded the development power of Pinduoduo at that time.

And during this period, Taojiji had many historical events:

• In October 2018, the founder called out Pinduoduo (for requiring merchants to choose one of two options).
• In October 2018, it ranked first in the month-on-month growth ranking of MAUs in the tens of millions.
• Ranked third in the user favorite ranking of discount price comparison APP (comprehensive e-commerce) (November 2017 - November 2018).
• On December 15, 2018, Taojiji topped the AppStore shopping category free rankings.
• The fourth stage of Taojiji: February 2019 to present.
• This stage is the most rapid growth stage of Taojiji.

Taojiji’s fourth phase: February 2019 to present

This stage is the most rapid growth stage of Taojiji:

(From the above picture, the area circled by the red line belongs to the fourth stage of development so far, which is to determine the growth engine and continuously polish it to achieve the optimal state of growth)

Taojiji has been around for 9 months since its social e-commerce version was launched last year. Taojiji initially attracted seed users through group buying, but eventually abandoned the group buying and bargaining methods. Even Pinduoduo is still using free bargaining to acquire users for its platform.

Taojiji has now given up on bargaining and is now driving rapid growth in users directly through order transactions. It is also constantly optimizing the entire gameplay to form a complete growth system.

In the above picture, promoting users to place orders and promoting user activity are both to promote the rapid rotation of the fission model in the middle. Once users enter this model, the platform's traffic can have a flywheel effect and achieve exponential growth.

Promote user orders

When users enter the platform, Taojiji will find ways to get users to place orders and offer the lowest prices. Different strategies to promote conversion are used for different users to encourage users to place orders. Through group buying for one yuan, five items for ten yuan, flash sales, and full refunds for new users, new users are encouraged to place orders and receive cash back. The most important thing is that they can make money after placing an order.

The suffix introduction of Taojiji’s app is “the more you buy, the more you earn”, and it is also the startup page of the app.

In Pinduoduo's bargaining activity, there is no reward for bargaining for others. After placing an order, you can get a small machete to bargain for yourself. Other activities usually offer coupons or nothing at all, leaving only an entry to initiate bargaining. For most users, this is not attractive enough to download the app for conversion.

At the same time, Pinduoduo's bargaining activities are also one of the sources of acquiring customers. When users help their friends to bargain, they have to download the app, but they do not get any real benefits. This will also hinder the user conversion rate to a considerable extent. Therefore, I believe that Taojiji's fission coefficient is greater than Pinduoduo.

Taojiji's way of promoting user conversion and fission

As long as users place an order, they can get cash back, but the cash back needs the help of friends to disassemble it in order to be finally obtained. And there is no restriction on new and old users. Friends can help disassemble it every day, which greatly increases the user's enthusiasm for participation and forms a cycle of growth in the middle.

In order to increase user app download conversion and fission conversion, users need to have at least 2 yuan to withdraw cash. When it comes to cashing out, they need to download the app and log in to their account to cash out. This is equivalent to converting an app download and registered user for 2 yuan, and the cost is already very low. At the same time, they are generally users who have made transactions, because as long as the user enters the platform, he will receive cash given by the platform and deposit it into his account.

(The above picture shows the behavior of users coming in to receive tasks, purchasing and sharing)

(The above picture shows the process page from the invitee helping his friend to dismantle the red envelope, and finally receiving the new red envelope himself to receiving the task)

Constantly stimulate old users to participate through games

There are two growth groups within Taojiji, one of which is the game growth group, which specializes in planning related games.

Up to now, 5 mini-games have been launched in the 9 months since the official launch of the Taojiji social e-commerce version. Especially recently, the games have become more frequent, with a new mini-game every month. Through games, the activity of old users is constantly stimulated, and then the growth of new users is driven.

Summarize

There are many ways to play in social e-commerce, and the current social e-commerce track is very crowded, especially with the portability of mini-programs, there are countless social e-commerce platforms of all sizes emerging.

However, among the social e-commerce platforms that are doing well, the platform that first pioneered the gameplay must be the best. Latecomers must have a certain distance from the early comers. Let’s look at how Pinduoduo did group buying at that time. Many group buying platforms followed suit, including Suning.com, JD.com and other platforms were all doing group buying, but without exception, they could surpass Pinduoduo’s group buying.

Even Yunji, which was fined nearly 10 million yuan in the beginning, managed to list its platform step by step through the distribution strategy. Taojiji’s current strategy is actually a micro-innovation of social e-commerce and a growth strategy that it is mainly promoting.

The way Taojiji plays is a bit similar to when we usually order takeout, like Ele.me. When you purchase a fast food meal and reach a specified amount, you will be given a bonus. The bonus can be used to directly deduct the next time you order. You can also share red envelopes after the purchase. If everyone helps to split them, you can continue to get red envelopes, and the cycle continues in this way. What makes Taojiji different is that the red envelopes can be cashed out, the threshold for obtaining rewards is extremely low, and the product prices are extremely cheap, which is in line with the needs of Taojiji's development of target groups in rural counties and focuses on their online collective markets.

Related reading:

1. User operation: new funnel model for conversion analysis!

2. User operation: How to use B-side operation thinking to increase user growth?

3. Product operation: How to use data analysis to drive product user growth?

4. APP user growth: One model solves 90% of growth problems!

5.How to increase users? Take Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu as examples

6. Triggering user growth: Is user operation just about attracting new users?

Author: Da Liu Xiaofei

Source: Growth Hacker