Why is QQ, which was abandoned by the post-90s generation, so popular among the post-00s generation?

1.

As a person born in the 90s or 80s, what is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

Open WeChat to check if there are any messages, then click on the Moments to see the wonderful "night life" of friends. What movies did you watch, where did you go on vacation, you have to post it on the Moments.

Or you can use WeChat to communicate work news. When you are free, click on the WeChat public account full of red dots and scan it. You will be overwhelmed by the various articles and videos.

It seems that WeChat has long been a part of life. Looking back, QQ space, various diamond memberships, personal signatures and sayings... seem to have been a thing of the past.

Those born in the 80s and 90s who grew up using QQ probably think that QQ is a thing of the past and has been replaced by WeChat.

However, big data shows that QQ is still the online "utopia" for those born after 2000.

According to the "New Potential Population Leisure and Entertainment App Preference Insight Report" released by Moyicheng, ADD Advertising Research Alliance and Morketing Research Institute, based on the statistics of the question "What social app do you use most often", QQ ranks first among the most commonly used social apps among the respondents with a selection rate of 52.70%; 41.90% of the respondents said that WeChat is their most frequently used social app.

A report released by Tencent QQ on May 4 also showed that half of QQ members were born after 2000, and the number of active users aged 21 and below increased by 16% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2018 and 13% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, with young forces dominating.

Carrying common online memories, those born in the 80s and 90s left the continent of QQ, and their successors, those born in the 00s, began to sow the seeds of their era.

"CQY", "NSS" and "expand your list"... These words that are incomprehensible to others are forming the online discourse system of the post-00s. CQY and NSS are the abbreviations of "ChuQyou" and "NuanShuoShuo", which respectively mean "become QQ friends" and "help others like and comment on their posts".

As the name suggests, "expanding the QQ friend list" means "expanding the QQ friend list". According to their interests, the post-00s post "expanding the friend list" in QQ interest tribes to find friends with common interests. For example, "animation + expanding the friend list", "games + expanding the friend list" and so on.

The reason why those born after 2000 choose QQ is largely because of its youthfulness and entertainment value.

You should know that most of the post-00s are only 19 years old this year, still in college, and most of them have not yet entered or have just entered the society. For these teenagers, socializing is "what I like" rather than "what I need". Whether online or offline, choosing a friend is often based on "common hobbies" rather than "common interests". Under such a purely social purpose, QQ, which is rich in entertainment, has become their favorite.

In addition, elders and teachers have long isolated QQ from their own online social interactions. The post-00s can enjoy more social freedom without interference in this "pure land" of QQ.

2.

Unlike the post-00s who have QQ, for the post-80s and post-90s who have become "social people", social networks are no longer their "spiritual Eden".

Writer Michael King wrote an article called "Familiarity Annoyance". In the article, the protagonist met a good friend of four years in college on the bus. The two people, who should have had a good chat, became unfamiliar and had nothing to talk about because they had not seen each other for many years. In order to get rid of the torment, both decided to get off the bus early, but unexpectedly, they ran into each other awkwardly on the road again.

There are countless examples of "acquaintance annoyance" in life. Now that social platforms have brought "acquaintance social networking" online, they have naturally brought "acquaintance annoyance" online: people are afraid of being seen by their relatives and friends, so they dare not post updates as they please; they have to reply to customer messages even during breaks; they are annoyed by all kinds of requests for likes and reposts...

The reason why social platforms can bring offline "social interaction among acquaintances" online is because they bring "strong social relationships" online. Your online ID basically represents your personal and social relationships. All your friends and daily relationships are here, and you are also used to operating your social relationships here.

On the one hand, no matter whether you make new friends online or offline, they will inevitably enter your online "social circle of acquaintances" in the end. On the other hand, more and more people are beginning to get tired of the interpersonal relationships in the "social circle of acquaintances", and the updates they post have become a tool to maintain their image and improve their personalities.

Therefore, on the social platform of "acquaintances", people play a public social identity. At the same time, people also need an online platform to "separate" themselves and become an "anonymous netizen."

Life is peaceful and smooth on WeChat, but life is depressing on Weibo. This is really not just a joke.

We can intuitively feel without data that on Weibo, a platform that is separated from social interactions among acquaintances, the content people discuss is more controversial, the remarks they publish are closer to their own hearts, and are often accompanied by irrational emotions.

Weibo's traffic focus is very obvious, with the vast majority of traffic going to celebrities and influencers, leaving ordinary users with little presence, which easily creates the illusion of "privacy". In this state where no one is paying attention, netizens can easily let go of their social responsibilities and use words to release their stress.

But when users’ irrational comments are “exposed” or searched by friends and family, users will realize that the “privacy” of Weibo is actually just “pseudo-privacy.” This is the general environment of Weibo, because there are many non-public figures who have gotten into trouble because of their comments on Weibo.

In addition to Weibo, Douban, which is used by "literary youths", Tantan, which focuses on looks, and Soul, which emphasizes soul compatibility, are all tools for people to escape from "socializing with acquaintances."

The social form of modern people has shifted from offline to online. For users, each platform carries a different identity, and a person may show completely different images on different platforms. "Everyone has many faces", and balancing and coordinating different online identities is the most reasonable way to socialize.

3.

So how did QQ, a social networking app for acquaintances, become the mainstream choice of the post-00s generation without causing acquaintance boredom?

The reason is that those born after 2000 can “be themselves” as they please on QQ.

Data shows that the top 10 favorite mobile apps of the post-00s and post-90s have a high duplication rate, but there is a very obvious difference that the post-90s prefer Sina Weibo more than the post-00s. In the 2017 list of users aged 20-24, Sina Weibo ranked 7th, while it ranked 13th among the post-00s, with a penetration rate of only 20%.

Those born in the 1990s need Sina Weibo to escape from "socializing with acquaintances", while those born in the 2000s can speak freely on QQ Space.

Parents and teachers don’t use QQ, and even if they do, there is a complete blocking mechanism. For the post-00s, the “talks” on QQ Space are equivalent to the Weibo of the post-90s, where they can share freely without having to maintain a persona. And there are also “warm talks” from friends, which makes QQ Space more attractive to the post-00s than talking to themselves on Weibo.

In addition, in order to cater to young people, QQ has been planning a "youth strategy", adding various personalized and colorful functions and designs to satisfy users, such as Centimeter Show, Changing Bubbles, Interest Tribes, List Expansion Function, etc.

These functions, which made those born in the 1980s and 1990s feel bloated and leave QQ, are the reasons that attract those born in the 2000s to stay in QQ.

For example, QQ Kandian, launched by QQ, combines the platform with content, allowing users to stay on QQ more instead of switching to other content platforms. Currently, QQ Kandian has more than 100 million daily active users, of which more than 70% are born after 1995.

In addition, QQ has expanded content modules that young people like, such as live broadcast, short videos, e-sports, animation, etc. QQ is becoming less and less like a social product and seems to be transforming into a "social + content" model.

However, this transformation is not without its concerns. QQ has launched quite a few modules. Take QQ Kandian for example. Similar products within Tencent include Tencent News, Penguin Accounts, and Tiantian Express. How to avoid internal competition and balance resources is also a problem that Tencent should consider.

Ma Huateng once said, "You did nothing wrong, except that you are too old." In any case, QQ's transformation is a confrontation with apps like Douyin that eat up the time of young users, and it is a way to keep this 20-year-old app "younger."