Half a year later, the truth about mini programs

“WeChat has been going crazy lately.”

Starting from the end of July, Zhao Jiuzhou, the founder of Huosu Mobile, a third-party service provider for mini programs, was excited and nervous about the recent pace of WeChat.

Zhao Jiuzhou discovered that starting from June and July, "WeChat basically released a wave of new features every two or three days." And in just 10 days from July 25 to August 5, the mini program opened up social instant discounts, group mini program entrances, support for store mini program jump association, and association with up to 50 public accounts four times.

WeChat's pace has become more radical, but this "madness" seems to have no longer caused a huge wave, and people who were as excited as Zhao Jiuzhou seem to have disappeared from the mainstream vision. But half a year ago or even longer, the situation was completely different. At that time, every new move of the mini program would be interpreted as WeChat's "big move" and occupy the headlines of technology media.

(According to Baidu Index, Mini Programs have experienced a roller coaster ride in terms of public opinion)

The reason for this contrast is that mini programs were once taken for granted as the starting line that WeChat has redrawn for entrepreneurs. Today, when traffic has disappeared, this temptation has attracted a group of mobile Internet entrepreneurs to flock to it, but soon, it was also this group of "traffic players" who withdrew the most.

Obviously, at least at this stage, decentralized mini-programs are not only not honey prepared for them, but have even become embarrassing chicken ribs.

However, it is like being in different dimensions of the same world. Compared with the online battlefield that was hot at first and then cold, the offline situation that Zhang Xiaolong and WeChat most want to leverage is completely the opposite, and is even becoming increasingly hot along with the "madness" of WeChat.

The changes that Zhao Jiuzhou feels are obvious. In the past few months, "more and more merchants and customers want to know what mini programs can do." On August 12, at a mini program research report release held by Aladdin, a mini program statistics platform, the venue originally scheduled to accommodate 600 people received more than 1,000 registrations. According to Aladdin staff, a large part of the registrants came from offline traditional retail. Earlier in June, at a mini program special open class held by WeChat, the audience was also crowded with practitioners from non-Internet industries.

Some people have even "made a fortune in silence." An entrepreneur engaged in fresh food e-commerce told Geek Park that in the offline stores that the company is about to open, "the development and promotion of mini programs should be prioritized at the top" because he found that "several peers have done well in their mini programs, which have greatly boosted the store's sales."

From the official opening on January 9 to now, in the eight-month gap, public opinion and player identities have changed several times. "Offline and online are completely two different ways of playing, and the process of technology radiating to traditional business is always slow," said Shi Wenlu, founder of Aladdin.

Half sea water, half flame. In the arena where mini programs are launched, the online sea water has temporarily cooled down, but the offline flame has finally been ignited.

Imaginary opportunities and real opportunities

Most developers are aware that the mini program really started to take off on March 27 this year: after it was officially launched on January 29, the mini program has undergone a total of 23 iterations and capability openings, 22 of which occurred after March 27.

The pace of the WeChat team is becoming more efficient and aggressive, but the previously enthusiastic pure online developers are not necessarily that excited. Even in several offline events promoted by WeChat officials, online developers who were once invited as guests no longer appear on the list of speakers. At a WeChat open class on the theme of new retail, several online developers who attended the meeting expressed their anxiety or desire to give up to Geek Park. They have realized that it is too unlikely to expect mini programs to "recreate" a new demand and quickly become a hit.

The main reason, of course, is that the expected traffic dividend did not appear. In the mini program ecosystem, there is no way to talk about a new round of online traffic boom.

According to the "Mini Program Research Report" released by Aladdin, among the top 10 mini programs ranked so far, except for the tool-type mini program "Xiao Nian Gao Audio Film Collection", all other mini programs on the list are extensions of existing mature APP services.

(Comparison of the top 10 mini programs and apps in Q2 2017, based on data released by Aladdin)

This large-scale "escape" once put the mini program in an awkward situation: in the first few months, not only was there no movement offline, but online developers also began to leave in disappointment - the mini program almost became a joke.

However, this embarrassment seemed to have finally turned around in May.

May 10th was the day when WeChat launched the "Nearby Mini Programs" feature. WeChat also added the "card and coupon delivery" capability to the mini program, allowing users to receive merchant membership cards, vouchers or purchase coupons in the store mini program - this step seems to have become a key breakthrough point for the large-scale launch of offline mini programs.

The seemingly vague opportunity finally arrived. The feeling of merchants on the front line was particularly clear: "We launched our own mini program very early, but WeChat's attitude was always vague before." Liu Jin, product technology director of iFreshBee, once said at a WeChat open class in June.

Aixianfeng’s mini program has been updated 10 times so far, but before that, Aixianfeng’s technical team thought WeChat’s attitude was a bit “ambiguous”. Although the mini program has opened up many interfaces and capabilities, the team has not figured out how to connect with the scene. “It was not until May that we finally felt that, OK, this function is finally related to Aixianfeng’s scene.”

According to Liu Jin, iFreshBee currently positions its mini program as a "tool for attracting new customers offline, retaining customers online, and promoting transactions." Starting from May 25, all iFreshBee stores in Beijing were connected to the nearby mini program, which encouraged users to scan the code offline and "intentionally launched some promotional strategies" by copying and transplanting the discounts and discounts previously available in the APP to the iFreshBee mini program.

The traffic effect was immediately reflected in the data. According to Liu Jin, from May 25 to June 3, the number of registered users and transaction orders reflected on the mini program increased 10 times.

Data from the Aladdin statistics platform also shows that among users who access the McDonald’s Mini Program through the “Nearby Mini Program”, new users account for as high as 94%. Among all new users of the McDonald’s Mini Program, users who enter through the “Nearby Mini Program” entrance account for 23%.

In addition to acquiring customers, the launch of vouchers and discounted payment capabilities in the mini program also touches on the most sensitive areas of offline merchants: the amount of money received and the payment period - things related to money are also the most sensitive to first-line accounts.

"A purely online developer may create a product but not earn a penny in a month. This is a familiar pattern for Internet entrepreneurs, but it is different for offline merchants. Some have to settle accounts every day," said Zhao Jiuzhou.

Since the WeChat payment function was integrated at the earliest and was continuously optimized in the following months, a group of merchants who came to test the waters found that when consumers entered the mini program and purchased coupons, discount cards and other products, the income could be directly deposited into their own WeChat payment accounts. On third-party platforms such as Dianping and Meituan, the payment cycle can be as short as one week and as long as three weeks.

Attempts come from all walks of life. According to Geek Park reporters, some catering brands have already accepted takeout orders through mini-programs created by third-party companies to bypass the high commissions charged by food delivery platforms, and Dada Logistics has been used for delivery. "Our customers are only concentrated in a few communities, and the commission of food delivery platforms has risen to 20%, but the marketing effect is not as good as expected." The head of a small restaurant in Beijing explained to Geek Park the reason for using mini-programs.

Although it has not yet formed a tidal wave, a hole has been torn in the offline scene that Mini Programs want to conquer. The water in this pool is no longer calm.

Ignite offline traffic

The offline war is about the competition for scenes, and both WeChat and Tencent behind it are determined to win.

According to a developer who has been in close communication with the WeChat team, one of the key strategies for mini programs in the future is e-commerce, and the other is offline new retail. Before this, both were considered to be relatively weak links in WeChat's capabilities.

However, the core of the growth of the e-commerce ecosystem is ultimately the traffic game, which WeChat is very familiar with. For WeChat, offline business is the real hard nut to crack.

The spontaneous attempts of some scattered small and medium-sized merchants are not enough to have a strong radiation effect. "The most important thing for the WeChat team is to find and sort out a group of benchmark cases. Only when large merchants start to try can more changes in the industry occur." said the above developer.

Therefore, companies such as Aixianfeng and Wanda that appeared in the WeChat Open Class have become excellent cases that mini programs want to actively launch. In order to make these cases come to fruition as soon as possible, the WeChat team will generally be deeply involved in the development of mini programs of these companies.

Despite the aggressive pace, Zhang Xiaolong seems to have shown enough patience. According to a mini-program developer who is working with the WeChat team, the mini-program team has not set KPIs. Zhang Xiaolong hopes that the team and partners will explore together based on scenarios.

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"For example, for a relatively large offline merchant like Wanda, the mini program team will do in-depth docking with the other party's technical department to provide customized services, and sometimes even move to work together. Because the larger the company, the more complicated the information department and the data and decision-making processes involved behind it are." A mini program entrepreneur who knows the details of the cooperation between the two parties revealed to Geek Park. Previously, Wang Haining, the new media director of Wanda Internet Technology Group, revealed that in addition to the Wanda Feifan mini program, Wanda has also developed a set of mini program templates with the help of the WeChat team, which will soon be provided to more business center applications.

However, compared with Alipay, which has the iron army gene, offline has always been considered a shortcoming that WeChat wants to make up. Alipay has accumulated a lot of tragic experience in street fights, while in the impression of more people, WeChat's style has always been "highbrow".

In fact, after several rounds of competition, the gap between the two in the offline payment field is narrowing. According to iResearch statistics, in the mobile payment market in Q1 2017, Alipay's market share was 54%, and Tenpay (WeChat Pay, QQ Pay)'s market share has reached 40%. In fact, WeChat Pay's market share in offline QR code payment business has exceeded half, temporarily leading.

The key to promoting mini programs to offline merchants is to allow merchants to cross a threshold and understand what role the mini programs can play in the existing business structure.

After communicating and investigating with a large number of potential customers, Zhao Jiuzhou found that whether it was a large brand merchant or a small merchant, their doubts about "what the mini program can do" were mainly concentrated on two points: "First, can the payment be completed, and second, can they know who is the consumer."

This is also a pain point faced by many industries, including retail and catering. Most physical business practitioners, including Wang Haining, interpret the key pain point of the industry as the inefficiency caused by insufficient informatization and data. "When consumers go shopping in stores, it's like they are in a love relationship with the store, but it's unrequited love," Wang Haining described, "We have no way to grasp the user's consumption trajectory."

The essence of offline business is customer flow. For the large number of scattered offline merchants, it doesn’t matter whether the mini program mentioned by Zhang Xiaolong is the “revival of the web” or whether it will disturb users. What matters is whether it can help merchants improve efficiency, promote transactions and even repeat purchases.

Mini programs alone cannot solve this problem, but it now seems that WeChat hopes that mini programs will become part of a complete solution.

WeChat’s strengths are of course social. With its powerful social relationship chain and daily active users, it has used enterprise accounts, public accounts and other systems, as well as WeChat payment, card wallet and other functions to bring precise marketing effects and membership operation methods to offline merchants. If mini programs are made the forefront of this closed-loop system, then this set of services will undoubtedly have a unified consumer entrance.

Merchants who once relied on WeChat’s social relationship chain to achieve precision marketing have already tasted the “sweetness”, which has become an important reason why they are willing to continue trying mini programs.

According to Anna Wu, O2O digital marketing director of Ajisen Ramen, after connecting to WeChat Pay last year, Ajisen Ramen's online membership has quickly accumulated to 4 million. At the launch event of WeChat Cashless Day in August, Anna Wu also revealed that Ajisen Ramen's mini program is already under development, and hopes to integrate member deposits, member ordering, and points mall, which were previously scattered in card wallets, official accounts, and other systems, into the mini program, a "light APP". "We hope to use tools such as mini programs and official accounts to deposit consumer-related big data into our own CRM system and do better marketing."

In another WeChat open class for the clothing industry, mini programs were also promoted as part of the "main process of building a retail model" for clothing companies. According to Jason, head of the WeChat Industry Cooperation Department, mini programs can be built into a portal for offline + online payment, membership marketing and shopping guides, and behind them are backend systems such as portal management, supply chain support and visual report support provided by WeChat Enterprise.

"Putting mini programs, enterprise accounts, service accounts and other things together, they become a solution, a bit like a light CRM or even ERP system." Zhao Jiuzhou, who keenly observed the changes in WeChat's caliber, followed WeChat's pace and quickly adjusted the company's strategy. The mini program templates he developed and sold to the offline retail industry also come with a management backend, so users can place orders directly, and merchants can complete the unified processing of shipments and after-sales.

In general, the biggest reason for attracting offline merchants to try is whether the mini program can become the next button to improve efficiency.

You can misunderstand, but don't underestimate it

Compared with eight months ago, WeChat seems to have finally found the right ideas and words for the offline journey of mini programs.

However, compared with Internet products that can achieve from 0 to 1 in a short period of time, the process of launching mini programs offline is generally slow. At least from the data feedback from third-party platforms, the number of merchants willing to try and access mini programs has not yet seen explosive growth. According to Leng Mian, assistant to Youzan CEO, since Youzan released its mini program development solution this year, most of the customers willing to pay to try it are e-commerce customers.

"These businesses were exposed to the Internet earlier, and are relatively more receptive and sensitive to new things," Lengmian told Geek Park. "Also, the capacity of the mini program itself is only 2Mb, so we can't expect it to be big and comprehensive for the time being. Now the general strategy of developers is to have it first and then improve it."

More changes may be brewing. A programmer in charge of mini-program development at a startup told Geek Park that in addition to the previously open search, group sharing, and public account-related portals, it can be clearly seen in the developer code package and tool pool that many technical interfaces are ready. "For example, the functions of sharing mini-programs to timelines and converting H5 to mini-programs have all been completed and should be open soon." When these portals are opened is entirely decided by Zhang Xiaolong.

WeChat is also using its existing energy to maximize the launch and popularize the frequency of use of mini programs on the user side.

When WeChat launched the "8.8 Cashless Day" event, it also launched a mini program called Cashless Life. WeChat designed a function to view local stores in this mini program and encouraged consumers to collect the incentive money released by the brand on August 8. According to Aladdin's statistics, the number of users of the Cashless Day mini program has reached tens of millions in just a few days.

This may be a critical and delicate time point. The online traffic brought by the mini program has not yet achieved a large-scale explosion, but its value has been demonstrated in another way offline without being observed by Internet entrepreneurs. Although WeChat is still keeping its mystery, there is no doubt that the mini program backed by WeChat is not as "useless" as imagined. In fact, when it is combined with offline commercial service systems such as WeChat Pay, it will become "not to be underestimated."

However, as Cheng Hao, founder of Chaoxi Calendar, once said to Geek Park, "The success of mini programs depends on whether the products grown on this soil can create and solve user needs."

Now it seems that this soil has finally overcome its bumpy and deserted early days and is ready to radiate greater energy.