Three Contradictions About Mini Programs

On January 9, 2017, WeChat Mini Programs were officially launched.

Two years later, mini programs have become ubiquitous in WeChat. On November 7, Ma Huateng stated at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen that the number of daily active users of mini programs has exceeded 200 million, and more than 1.5 million developers have joined in the development of mini programs. Those who had initially predicted the decline of mini programs have been slapped in the face.

Today, the mini program boom has exploded again. On November 17, Toutiao's new CEO Chen Lin announced the launch of Toutiao mini programs at the Vitality Conference. The first batch of Toutiao mini programs launched include Toutiao Store, Maoyan Movies and Xiaomi Mall. Earlier on November 1, at the 2018 Baidu World Conference, Baidu Vice President Shen Dou announced that the Baidu Smart Mini Program Open Source Alliance was officially established, with iQiyi, Bilibili, Kuaishou and 58.com as the first members.

Mini Programs have become an application ecosystem that is on par with Native Apps. On the one hand, users are accustomed to obtaining various content and services through Mini Programs, and on the other hand, developers and entrepreneurs start businesses around Mini Programs.

However, the emergence of the mini-program trend has also triggered a series of reflections. On November 16, Tencent Public Relations Director Zhang Jun said on Weibo:

"Recently, discussions about mini programs have become lively again, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that we can more clearly see what kind of mini programs are truly valuable. The bad thing is that the speculative mentality of thinking that making a mini program will become popular has reappeared. The latter is actually what worries us most. Getting rid of impetuousness and working hard to create applications that are truly valuable to users is the right way."

This response seems to be directed at some recent articles that have been pessimistic about mini programs.

Indeed, although mini programs have become popular and have become a unique "wonderful" product of China's mobile Internet, they are not perfect. Just like the websites and apps that were once popular, mini programs still have some problems.

Three Contradictions of Mini Programs

The first to create a mini-program format was Baidu, and WeChat was the platform that successfully popularized the mini-program.

The predecessor of mini programs can be traced back to the light application launched by Baidu in 2013, but due to its over-reliance on H5 and other reasons, it did not receive much response. In January 2017, WeChat mini programs were officially released and quickly became popular based on social networks. Nowadays, when people talk about mini programs, they usually refer to WeChat mini programs first. WeChat has the right to formulate and interpret the rules of mini programs, and is also responsible for the access approval of WeChat mini programs. In 2017, Zhang Xiaolong said in the WeChat Open Class that the characteristics of WeChat mini programs are that they do not require installation, are within easy reach, can be used and left, and do not need to be uninstalled.

However, there are some contradictions between the concept of WeChat mini-programs and the demands of developers.

Contradiction 1: WeChat Mini Programs are used and then forgotten, but developers want to retain users.

Zhang Xiaolong hopes that users will "use it and leave" on WeChat, which means that he hopes that every function of WeChat will be highly efficient and save users time. Mini programs are a representative example. After users finish using a mini program, they often have no contact with it again.

However, developers hope to establish a lasting connection with users and continuously provide more services to users, thereby forming continuous user value. Just like Meituan, which claims to be a super platform, its approach is to attract users through high-frequency functions and then load them with a large number of medium- and low-frequency services. Therefore, in theory, developers do not want users to leave after using their services, but to come back again after using them.

In the post-mobile Internet era, with the disappearance of the demographic dividend, user growth has become increasingly difficult. At this time, retaining users and acquiring their time has become more important, which is in conflict with the “use it and leave” approach.

Contradiction 2: WeChat mini-programs are distributed in a decentralized manner, and developers are most afraid of cold starts.

Whether it is WeChat official accounts or mini-programs, they have always adhered to the concept of decentralized distribution, which means that the WeChat platform itself will not use traffic to support mini-programs, and developers need to find traffic themselves. For this concept, a self-media has a vivid metaphor: WeChat is a river, and the self-media is responsible for digging channels and diverting water; Toutiao is a reservoir, and the algorithm opens the gates for the self-media to release water. The same applies if the self-media is replaced by developers.

Mini Program developers dig their own channels and divert water, because Mini Programs do not have a centralized distribution mechanism like the App Store. A Mini Program often faces the problem of cold start. For most developers, they are good at product technology, not marketing. Therefore, developers are most afraid of cold start. They want to actively distribute and have initial traffic and users, which is inconsistent with centralized distribution.

Contradiction 3: Developers want to embrace mini programs, but are afraid of being eliminated by the platform.

If app developers want to gain traffic and users, they have to develop mini programs on super platforms. However, when super platforms rely on mini programs to establish a closed loop between data, scenarios and transactions, they will have the ultimate voice based on the huge number of users and traffic, formulate and change rules, and control the life and death of mini programs. It is precisely because of this that many platforms are very entangled with mini programs, and some are reluctant to welcome them.

How to eliminate the three major contradictions?

Although WeChat has always advocated decentralization, it has in fact become an increasingly centralized product, becoming people’s social center, information center, entertainment center, and even life center…

However, a big difference between mobile Internet and PC Internet is that traffic has become very fragmented and there is not only one entrance. WeChat is the most popular super platform, but it is not the only one.

I have previously mentioned in the article "Mini Program Economy Explodes, WeChat Goes Left, Baidu Goes Right": As long as an App has a sufficiently large scale, relatively high-frequency usage habits, and a certain basic application ecological capability, it is necessary to build its own application system. By building its own application system, it can provide users with a more consistent experience, prosper its own open ecology, obtain more user time, and maximize the value of traffic.

It is precisely because of this that Toutiao, Baidu, Alipay and other products with massive users and traffic are all betting heavily on mini programs. Meituan, 58, iQiyi, Kuaishou and other platforms with considerable user scale are also making plans. The mini programs of platforms other than WeChat are not based on social networking, nor do they directly copy the gameplay of WeChat mini programs, intentionally avoiding the contradictions of mini programs.

1. How to retain users?

How can we keep the application and users connected? Sit back and wait for something to happen. If we don’t actively operate, if we don’t provide continuous services, if we don’t create stickiness, users will “use it and leave” and won’t come back when they need it. They may even use competing mini-programs with similar functions and never come back.

Aiming at the needs of developers who want to retain users, Baidu Smart Mini Programs allow developers to actively recommend and push return visit information. In general, Baidu grants Mini Programs multiple permissions to actively activate users, continuously provide users with more services, form stickiness and avoid being forgotten or abandoned by users. WeChat Mini Programs are also changing, allowing users to add Mini Programs to "My Mini Programs" to increase the frequency of user use, and some Mini Programs also have the permission to actively push messages.

2. How to actively distribute?

Decentralization is not necessarily the most elegant solution, because not every developer has the ability to dig channels, they may only be good at "cultivating" themselves. A website can obtain natural traffic from search engines, and an App can obtain seed users from the application market. Can the mini program platform solve the problem of developers' "first bucket of gold"? The answer is yes.

Unlike WeChat's "decentralization" strategy, Baidu emphasizes the combination of centralization and decentralization. Like AppStore, Baidu has a strong operation and distribution mechanism such as "hot recommendations". Baidu search and information flow, two major traffic engines, will provide a strong entrance to mini programs: when users search for keywords on Baidu search, they can see the results of mini programs in the associated words and natural search results; Baidu's information flow will also appear in smart mini program recommendations such as train tickets. "My" is the mini program entrance for retaining users. Developers can also obtain global traffic on more platforms and offline. Baidu's approach solves the cold start problem that is the most troublesome for developers.

Of course, WeChat is also changing. Although WeChat has always talked about decentralization, it has been constantly providing various entrances to mini-programs, such as pull-down on the WeChat main interface, mini-program service notifications, WeChat search, mini-program search, etc. According to incomplete statistics, WeChat mini-programs now have more than 64 entrances.

3. How to avoid dependency?

The mini-program ecosystem of super platforms is mostly closed, and developers are subject to platform systems. If they encounter problems such as competition, they may be wiped out. For small and medium-sized developers, relying on super platforms is the only option. However, for platforms of a certain scale, it is obviously unacceptable to put their life and property on other platforms.

Aiming at this pain point, Baidu established the Smart Mini Program Open Source Alliance on November 1. Alliance members can conduct secondary development based on the Baidu Smart Mini Program open source framework and combine their own business characteristics to launch their own mini programs, thereby better integrating with their own ecosystem. At the same time, Baidu Smart Mini Programs can run on all member apps of the open source alliance, allowing the traffic islands of apps to connect with each other.

What can prove the value of Baidu Smart Mini Program Open Source Alliance is that even platforms such as 58 and Bilibili, which have Tencent background, have joined Baidu Mini Program Alliance, developed platform-specific mini programs based on Baidu Mini Program open source framework, attracted developers to improve platform services and serve users together, and each operated the mini program ecosystem within the platform. The move of Baidu Mini Program Open Source Alliance seems to be somewhat similar to the open source camp led by Linux to compete with Windows, reflecting a new direction.

Tmall defined Double 11, but Double 11 is already a festival for the retail industry; iPhone defined smartphones, but Android has the largest market share. Similarly, although WeChat has defined Mini Programs, Mini Programs are not a market for WeChat alone, but for all Internet platforms and developers. Judging from the exploration of Mini Programs by platforms such as Baidu and Toutiao, WeChat Mini Programs may not be the largest form of Mini Programs, and Mini Programs are full of more possibilities. The only thing that is certain is that Mini Programs will become another mainstream application form on the mobile Internet after Web applications and NativeApps, and will become a must-have for developers.