Starting with a popular camera, what other steps does Faceu plan to take if it wants to become a social networking app for acquaintances?

"Lianmeng is more like a game, you don't have to show your face, while Face has a higher threshold for use, it requires users to show their face, and that's why Faceu is more fun. If Faceu can produce very high-quality content based on human faces, it can be used for social networking."

In recent interviews, Guo Lie, who created two popular social products, Faceu and Faceu, emphasized one point: Faceu will not just be a temporary hit, but can become a long-term social product. The new feature "Meet Cute Friends" launched by Faceu yesterday is another step forward.

Before this, Faceu's gameplay can be said to be a combination of Snow and Snapchat, with a focus on tool attributes. The biggest feature of the product is that unlike previous sticker tools, users are not required to take photos first and then add stickers and props later; instead, stickers and props with dynamic effects can be superimposed on the face in real time, and the style is positioned in the cute style preferred by Asians.

One of Faceu’s development ideas is to become a good tool first and then engage in social interaction.

"In the United States, there are very few photo editing tools ranked from first to fifth on the photography rankings, but in China, BeautyCam, Meitu XiuXiu, Chao Zipai... ranked from first to fifth are all photo editing tools. So if you want to do photo and video social networking in China, you must make good tools to make users willing to create content on them." Guo Lie told 36Kr, "We worked on the Faceu product for a total of one year, of which nine months were spent on IM and beauty effects, and only added stickers later. If dynamic stickers made us popular, then filters and beauty effects will be the reasons for users to continue using it."

From the product performance point of view, the previous version of Faceu has relatively few attempts in social aspects, mainly reflected in the built-in IM section. Users can choose to add friends on the App and share photos and short videos in a Snapchat-like way. We guess the reason for doing so is to encourage users to be more bold in producing such special effects photos and video content with strong privacy.

After the launch of the "Meet Cute Friends" function, the social attributes of Faceu became even more obvious.

Specifically, "Meet Cute Friends" is like adding a LBS stranger dating function similar to Nearby People and Shake in Faceu. The gameplay is similar to Tinder, where users can swipe right to browse photos and videos of the opposite sex, and if two people like each other, they can start further communication. The special thing is that, like Faceu's camera function, "Meet Cute Friends" does not support uploading photos from the album, but can only be taken on the spot; in addition to photos, it also supports the recording of dynamic short videos.

According to Guo Lie's idea, after using tools to reach a hot spot and attract huge traffic, the cold start problem of social networking will be solved. "We ultimately want to do acquaintance social networking. Now the relationship chain on WeChat is too bloated, and many young people are restricted in posting things. This problem will be more serious in 2015 and 2016. There is an opportunity to do vertical social networking for young people." Guo Lie said, "On the other hand, I think pictures and videos will be the mainstream way of social networking in the future, especially videos, which restore the most realistic face-to-face dialogue between two people, and users naturally have the habit of using Faceu to generate pictures and video content, so we are very suitable to do this."

However, Guo Lie also thinks that it is difficult to immediately start socializing with acquaintances and completely migrate users' network to Faceu. He thinks that this is "a long way to go". The main purpose of launching the stranger dating function is to gradually cultivate users' habit of using Faceu for socializing. "Not many strangers really become friends, but at least this way users can get familiar with the tool. If users find that their friends are all using Faceu to make friends, their relationship chain may naturally transfer to Faceu."

Next, Faceu hopes to improve user retention and stickiness through media content, and ultimately complete the transfer of social behavior. In this regard, their plan is to open a short video media section for students, the mainstream user group of cameras. The content will be based on students' interests and hobbies. Celebrities, games, the second dimension or sports may all be the direction of video production; the production method will mainly be PGC in the early stage.

In summary, Faceu's development strategy can be summarized as "using tools to encourage content generation, strangers making friends to improve usage habits, media content to increase user stickiness, and ultimately creating a vertical young people's acquaintance social product."

However, in my opinion, there are still several issues worth discussing whether this path can be taken. First of all, this form of stranger friendship based on "looking at faces" often encounters the bottleneck of "lack of topics, and the two people can't chat after pressing "like". Beautiful girls are often scarce resources. Boys are likely to abandon the product after many attempts to chat up without response. Then Faceu may become a highly centralized product like Meipai. Although Faceu allows users to shoot short video content, which conveys more personal information to a certain extent, it is still unknown whether it can increase the success rate of breaking the ice between two people and whether stranger friendship can be played.

On the other hand, unlike Guo Lie, I think that from SMS to WeChat, text is the main form of communication in basic communication. Especially in social networking among acquaintances, the threshold and cost of text communication are much lower than video at this stage. To achieve social networking among acquaintances, can Faceu give users enough reasons to migrate in terms of scenarios and content? Welcome to tell me your thoughts: [email protected].