Mini Programs are on the rise: Will they be the next wave to kill the App Store?

Last week, with the arrival of New Year's Day 2018, the first batch of post-90s generation officially bid farewell to their youth and collectively entered the ranks of adults. In response, netizens expressed their feelings and posted photos of themselves when they were 18 years old on their Moments, reminiscing about the youth that is about to grow old and will eventually be missed.

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At the same time, WeChat Mini Programs also celebrated their coming of age. On December 28, 2017, WeChat was updated and a new category of Mini Programs was added - mini games, which triggered a nationwide "jump".

Jump Jump applet (Source: pic)

The journey of WeChat Mini Programs is full of hidden dangers and dangerous shoals.

On January 11, 2016, at the WeChat Open Class, Zhang Xiaolong announced that WeChat would develop an "application account". As soon as the news came out, everyone in the industry was eager to try it out. After all, they had missed the bonus period of WeChat public accounts that year and sighed with regret. No one wanted to miss such a good opportunity again.

On September 22, 2016, after waiting for 8 months, WeChat's "Application Number" was internally tested, but the name was changed to "Mini Program". It can be seen that in order to maintain the unity of the content ecology, WeChat wants to name these major functional points with the "Number" generation. Then why did the good "Application Number" become a "Mini Program"?

Zhang Xiaolong and Ma Huateng have a conversation in their circle of friends (Photo from the Internet)

From a screenshot of a conversation between Zhang Xiaolong and Ma Huateng circulating on the Internet, we can see that it was Apple that disagreed with this term.

WeChat mini-programs are so intimidating that even Apple is scared?

WeChat OS (Source: kuchan)

In fact, from WeChat’s long-standing layout, WeChat Pay, WeChat public accounts, and “application accounts”, it is not difficult to see WeChat’s ambition - WeChat OS.

The App Store is a thing of the past

Of course, whether it is WeChat Pay or WeChat official account, you can understand it as the establishment of WeChat content ecology or a confrontation with competitors.

However, when it comes to mini programs, WeChat’s ambition to challenge Apple’s App Store and build WeChat OS is obvious to everyone.

App Store (Image source: appleapple)

In 2007, after the release of iPhone, it brought a series of revolutions to the mobile phone industry, including large screen, multi-touch, humanized user experience... and of course, the most important thing is the App Store.

The emergence of the App Store has severely slammed the entrance to the desktop Internet era - search engines - on the beach, distributing the traffic previously controlled by search engines to various apps. At the same time, it has provided an excellent platform and space for software developers, and has achieved mutual benefit and symbiosis with developers.

However, it is just like an ancient empire, which was prosperous at the beginning, but after the country stabilized, various problems began to appear. If you think about it carefully, the App Store has been around for nearly ten years. Compared with the once glorious history of desktop Internet, the App Store seems to have reached its twilight years. Just like its distinct advantages, the shortcomings of the App Store cannot be ignored.

App Store’s “solidified” rankings (Source: feng)

For example, the "class solidification" of the App Store. If you glance at the App Store's popular list every day, you will find an interesting problem. Popular applications and games are firmly occupied by "big companies", and it is difficult for new software or games to make breakthroughs.

There is also the development cost. For mature companies, the cost of App development is naturally not a problem, but for a startup company, it is extremely difficult to develop a mature and easy-to-use App, not to mention the long-term stable maintenance and updates required in the later stages.

At this time, compared with the demanding and heavy App Store, the advantages of WeChat mini programs are obvious.

WeChat applet (Image source: jiayiok)

First of all, the development cost of WeChat mini-programs is very low, and only a few lines of code are needed to adapt to both iOS and Android devices.

Moreover, WeChat Mini Programs can be used without downloading, so the cost of use is very low. Because of its simplicity, WeChat Mini Programs can be opened much faster than ordinary mobile apps.

It can be found that the stubborn problems on the App Store were miraculously cured on the WeChat mini program.

Of course, WeChat mini programs are not without their shortcomings.

WeChat Mini Program Entry

For example, the entrance to WeChat Mini Program is very deep (Android can put it on the desktop, but iOS cannot); WeChat Mini Program has fewer permissions than App, and it is difficult to obtain user information; once using WeChat Mini Program, it is equivalent to handing over all of your business information to Tencent, which is also taboo for many companies.

It is precisely these shortcomings that have caused WeChat mini-programs to always be a "concept stock".

Games ignited the popularity of WeChat mini-programs

Just like that, Mini Programs went through a year in a lukewarm state. Just when people thought that Mini Programs would continue to live in obscurity, WeChat brought us a major update to Mini Programs at the end of 2017 - Mini Games.

Jump (Source: sohu)

For a time, people in the streets and alleys were playing "Jump Jump", and WeChat once again captured people's hearts with games.

In contrast to the joyful game among the crowd, this incident may reflect more of Zhang Xiaolong's hesitation and helplessness - unlike the steady and cautious approach in improving the WeChat public platform, the changes in the mini program are more like a compromise with reality.

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Zhang Xiaolong

In early 2017, Zhang Xiaolong proudly painted a picture of the mini program for the audience at the WeChat Open Class - no entrance, no subscription, no push messages, no games, limited search, independent of official accounts, and the most popular application scenario is offline QR code scanning.

However, in the following year, due to the less than ideal development of mini programs and the industry's doubts about WeChat mini programs, these restrictions were broken one by one.

However, there is no construction without destruction. As these rules and regulations were gradually broken, WeChat mini programs finally made a splash in early 2018.

However, what is popular in WeChat Mini Programs now is just the games, or even the “Jump Jump” function. So how will WeChat Mini Programs develop in the future?

Mini Program "System Level" Entry

Let’s first look at the two major advantages of WeChat Mini Programs: platform traffic and entry. These two advantages are the key factors that make software service providers willing to settle down in WeChat Mini Programs.

Jump Jump Ranking

"Jump Jump" is a typical example. If this app was put on the App Store, no one would be interested in it (in fact, "Jump Jump" is suspected of "plagiarizing" "Happy Bottle Jump". Although "Happy Bottle Jump" was not a niche game in the App Store before, it was still dwarfed by its popularity after being built into WeChat). However, on WeChat, due to the addition of social rankings and the grasp of people's vanity and competitive psychology, this game became a hit.

Brain King

There is also the recently popular "Brain King", which is a puzzle quiz game. Unlike stand-alone quiz games, it can automatically match WeChat users for PK, and friends can also invite each other to play, which undoubtedly increases the fun and playability of the game.

Pinduoduo sweeps WeChat groups

In addition, Pinduoduo, an e-commerce upstart that suddenly emerged this year and can compete with JD.com and Taobao, took advantage of the popularity of mini-programs and the social advantages of WeChat to make people willing to forward and group buy its low-priced products when the e-commerce industry was monopolized by the two giants. It quickly swept major WeChat groups and became an e-commerce force that cannot be ignored.

It can be seen that as long as software service providers can find the right way, they can completely ignite the dry wood of WeChat Mini Programs and then ignite a raging fire. Although WeChat Mini Programs are not capable of dealing with large software and large games, they have unlimited potential when it comes to low-frequency, single-function applications and small games that require interaction.

Looking further ahead, if one day in the future mobile phones are suddenly replaced by another device, then when the giants are fighting to make software rules, the impact on some small and medium-sized software will undoubtedly be huge. Which team can guarantee that they will not lose?

At this time, the advantages of WeChat Mini Programs are very prominent. The issue of standing in line only needs WeChat to consider (with WeChat's capabilities, it can ensure that every team benefits equally), and you only need to work on the WeChat Mini Programs.

In general, although WeChat Mini Programs are still in their infancy, in-depth analysis will reveal that WeChat Mini Programs have enormous potential. In the future, there will definitely be software that is completely based on WeChat. At that time, the end of Apple's App Store will truly come.