With WeChat and QQ as two major platforms, why does Tencent want to "revive" Pengyou.com?

The social field has always been a major competition among Internet companies, and Tencent, which owns the two major platforms WeChat and QQ, firmly holds the top spot. However, even in the face of these two "mountains", many companies can still open up new social ideas in some vertical fields. Most of these products are aimed at those born after 1995 and 2000, and are considered "newcomers" in the social field.

Facing these potential competitors, established social platforms are not willing to sit still and wait for death. Weibo launched the photo social application "Oasis" in September, and Renren.com re-emerged with a new look a year after being acquired. Recently, Tencent also "revived" an old social product "Friends Network" that was almost forgotten. It focuses on real social interaction and is positioned similarly to Renren.com.

Why would Tencent, which already owns WeChat and QQ, revive such an old product? How is it different from the previous Friends Network?

Focus on real social interaction, with classmates and colleagues as the core

People who have used Pengyou.com (which closed in 2017) may still remember that its logo was in the shape of a four-leaf clover. The logo of this Pengyou app is also a four-leaf clover, but the upper right corner has turned yellow.

Click into the App, and there are two ways to log in: WeChat and QQ. When filling in basic information, you will be advised to use your real name and profile picture, but it is not mandatory, and you can use the App normally even if you do not use real information.

However, when filling in the school and work experience, you need to authenticate. This is to make it easier for you to find colleagues and classmates, and it is also the core function of the Friends App. Students need to fill in the school (university) they are attending and upload their student ID and graduation certificate for authentication.

Those who are already working need to fill in the company they are working for and upload their work badge and employment certificate for verification. However, the company database in the Friends App currently only supports some large companies, and many company names cannot be searched or added independently.

The next step is to fill in personal information, including birthday, permanent residence, zodiac sign, etc. The personality display part is more detailed, and you can choose a label that suits you from the aspects of industry, hobbies, etc., which will be used as a reference for friend matching later.

Renren + Instagram

The Friends App has three main functions. The "Meet" function helps you match friends with common interests and supports options for dating and making friends. However, since the company has not passed the certification, we are unable to use this function for the time being.

The second function is "Circles", which displays content in a similar way to Instagram, with three columns: friends, schoolmates, and citymates. This is more like Renren, where you may be able to find some old classmates or colleagues you haven't contacted for a long time.

You can post updates in the circle. The app supports simple filter functions, and smart filters can automatically identify background objects. When sending, you can @ friends, choose to be visible to everyone/only friends, and add location information.

The third function is "chat", but the Friends App is not focused on instant messaging, so the chat function is very simple and can only be used for typing and sending simple emoji expressions.

Your biggest rival is yourself

Overall, the Friends App wants to create a social circle of acquaintances, mainly classmates and colleagues, so that people in the same city can meet more people with similar interests. Compared with the previous Friends Network, the Friends App does not rely too much on QQ's social relationship chain and is more independent in content. However, in terms of product form, the Friends App is similar to Renren and Instagram.

A few days ago, a hot search appeared on the Internet: "WeChat is set as a regular office software by default." This is to some extent an accusation against WeChat's overly complex relationship chain, and the Friends App can be seen as Tencent's challenge to itself.

In addition to reviving Pengyou.com, Tencent has recently launched a number of new products in the social field: Huiyin focuses on voice dating, Maohu focuses on video social networking, Qingliao locates the artifact for finding a partner, and Youji focuses on photo social networking. Just like the previous competition in the short video field, large companies will place their pieces in multiple tracks, but not all of them will reach the finish line.

Most of these attempts in the social field may just be "running alongside", but for Tencent, being defeated by itself is always better than being defeated by its competitors.

Currently, the "Friends" App is still in the internal testing stage and requires an invitation code to use it.