After the craze, all that is left for Bullet Messenger is a flash in the pan

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"I don't remember where I heard the news about Bullet Message."

Just as Luo Yonghao launched Bullet Messenger at the Nut Pro 2s launch conference, Bullet Messenger unexpectedly topped the AppStore free app list for several consecutive days in just one week, decisively kicking WeChat, Tantan and other regular top users off the list. At the same time, more than 50 VCs took the initiative to invest in it, which was undoubtedly a surprise and excitement for Luo Yonghao. He may have long forgotten how many Nut Pro 2s were sold.

Although Luo Yonghao tried his best to distance himself from Bullet Messenger on Weibo, repeatedly stating that it was a product of KuaiRu Technology, a company he invested in, but judging from the content and UI form, Bullet Messenger is an app with Luo Yonghao's personal touch.

The popularity of Bullet Messenger has also aroused public concerns about WeChat, believing that WeChat will be overturned and become a dark horse after the bloated social ecosystem. But we don’t know how it will turn out. It can’t be said to be completely impossible, but the possibility is very, very small. After all, Tencent has occupied the social ecosystem for too long.

The biggest highlight of Bullet Messenger is its difference from WeChat

However, I agree more with another statement. In the opinion of industry insiders, the popularity of Bullet Messenger is mainly due to Luo Yonghao's strong ability to sell products. His more than 15 million fans on Weibo have become the final promotional advertisement.

For example, veteran Internet observer Ding Dao Shi said in the Wu Xiaobo Channel: "Luo Yonghao's influence has exceeded the products he made, so no matter what Luo Yonghao does, even if he makes a bullet browser, a bullet game, a bullet cleaning tool... as long as it is made by Luo Yonghao, the effect will definitely be far better than that of others."

Everything still needs to be told with facts;

After I downloaded and tried Bullet Messenger for the first time, my first impression was that it did not have any exciting functions or interface. On the contrary, in terms of appearance and function, there was nothing special about it except that there was an additional information flow on the main interface, which was different from WeChat.

The user design experience of its UI is really low, but the biggest problem is that almost no one wants to chat with it after trying it. It has become a dead app that people don’t open again, but they don’t uninstall it. This is also the key to whether Bullet Messenger can retain users with this wave of popularity. Otherwise, after the craze fades, the user’s sense of novelty will also disappear.

Bullet Messenger also has its own unique features, otherwise it would not have been able to successfully squeeze into the top of the AppStore. I have summarized the three highlights of Bullet Messenger.

• First, it can realize voice-to-text conversion. Bullet SMS has developed real-time voice-to-text conversion through cooperation with iFLYTEK. When the other party sends a voice, it can be automatically converted into text and pushed at the same time. That is, the other party will receive both voice and text. This is a function that WeChat does not have. Although WeChat can also convert text, it must be manually operated by you to achieve it.
• Secondly, the voice playback of Bullet Message can be frozen and the progress bar can be dragged at any time; I personally think this is a good idea, especially when receiving long voice messages that need to be listened to multiple times. For WeChat, no matter how many seconds the voice playback is heard, once it is interrupted, it needs to be played again from the beginning, which is very cumbersome.
• Third, Bullet Messenger also provides two functions: "Process later" and "Reply by quote". They effectively improve communication efficiency. The former aims to solve the problem that people forget to process messages after reading them. Bullet Messenger can mark such messages, and the marked messages will be grouped and wait for users to reply in their free time; "Reply by quote" means that users can reply to a certain message. QQ also has this function, but WeChat has not launched it yet.

In fact, the biggest highlight of Bullet Messenger is that it has realized functions that WeChat does not have, and used its differentiation from WeChat to seize the niche market. This is also another key reason why Bullet Messenger can quickly become popular.

Bullet SMS is more like an instant communication tool for WeChat merchants and enterprises

As for whether Bullet Messenger can subvert WeChat, in my opinion, as I said at the beginning of the article, it cannot be said to be completely impossible, but the possibility is very, very small. From the several major features of Bullet Messenger just listed, we can find a common point, which is that they are all aimed at instant efficiency, and there are no other exciting features.

This is not an urgent need for the general consumers and users, as users are not usually very busy when chatting on social tools.

Take WeChat for example. Its original intention was to be a consumer-grade social tool, which is used to chat and make friends in free time. There is no need for efficient communication due to work pressure, nor is there any need for quick decisions due to busy business.

So does it mean that WeChat is incapable of or does not recognize the existence of these problems? Not at all. WeChat has gone through so many years of product iteration and verification, which just proves that this method may not be the best way to select products.

However, judging from its instant and efficient features, it is more like a timely communication tool for enterprises and micro-businesses, which can effectively solve the communication efficiency between employees at work; solve the communication efficiency between micro-businesses and customers, and between upper and lower levels.

However, DingTalk has already occupied a large share of the enterprise market by leveraging Alibaba's huge data system. In addition, Bullet Messenger is not a must-have, so it is not easy to enter the enterprise market.

Let's go back to WeChat. As we all know, WeChat has accumulated 1 billion users and has deeply cultivated user habits. Users have become extremely dependent on WeChat. If Bullet Messenger wants to pull teeth out of the tiger's mouth, apart from how to solve user habits, it is very unlikely that these 1 billion users will be willing to switch from WeChat to Bullet Messenger itself.

Luo is well aware of this and responded on Weibo: "I am not challenging WeChat. I am just targeting a niche market for people who care about communication efficiency."

After the craze, all that was left for Bullet Messenger was a flash in the pan

Whether it is entering the market from the consumer level or the enterprise level, it is not easy for Bullet Messenger and there are huge challenges. Momo was forced to switch to live streaming to find a way out; Tantan was acquired by Wulai, which are the best lessons learned.

In a sense, the social moat that Tencent has built over the years cannot be defeated by just any product.

Bullet Messenger is undoubtedly like an egg hitting a stone, as it does not have enough "deadly good features" to shake the big tree that has already penetrated deep into the heart of the earth. From the current perspective, the craze for Bullet Messenger is more about Luo Yonghao's personal ability to bring products, as well as a little bit of network effect.

On the other hand, it took only three months from the establishment of Bullet Messenger to the launch of its first software. The completion of Bullet Messenger is bound to appear too hasty. Its sudden popularity also prevented Bullet Messenger from quickly upgrading and optimizing the product, resulting in more bugs, which is not a good thing for Bullet Messenger.

Influenced by many factors, it is very likely that after this wave of popularity, if Bullet Messenger does not have any exciting features, it is likely to be a flash in the pan, leaving users with only a story.