Please restrain yourself from playing mini games on WeChat Moments

In WeChat Moments, screen-sweeping incidents caused by mobile game products have evolved from the mainstream WeChat games released by Tencent in mid-2013 to the emergence of third-party products such as "Crazy Guess the Picture" and "Crazy Guess the Song", and then to "Surround the Nervous Cat" and "Everyone's Looking for Jaycee Chan" in the middle of this year. The themes of screen-sweeping games have evolved from last year's rigorous mobile game products, to game-like applications, and then to completely viral and bizarre H5 mini-games. Screen-sweeping games are becoming increasingly lightweight.

This illustrates a rule: the more it is integrated with hot topics and the lighter the product size, the faster it runs and the stronger the dissemination effect. Obviously, pure H5 mobile web games are more conducive to viral dissemination in the circle of friends than native APP games.

From the data point of view, we have seen the terrifying effect after the explosion of WeChat Moments. The daily IP of a mobile web game can exceed 10 million, and the number of participating users is very large. In terms of the data traffic generated, a page presentation product developed by a friend of the author was also circulated wildly in WeChat Moments, and the traffic reached 1,000G in just a few hours...

WeChat Moments provides a breeding ground for rapidly and exponentially expanding a product’s user base, but what does this mean for Tencent, the company that operates WeChat?

According to feedback from people close to Zhang Xiaolong, the "Father of WeChat", gamelook said that Zhang Xiaolong himself "feels a little dissatisfied" with the recent frequent appearance of viral mini-games rampant in WeChat Moments.

Obviously, Zhang Xiaolong's dissatisfaction is based on the operators of the WeChat platform. However, for game developers, it is of course beneficial to have a user environment where they can quickly become famous and potentially earn income. There are some contradictions between the platform and the developers.

Why is Zhang Xiaolong dissatisfied? The main reason is that the rampant spread of the virus has, to some extent, harmed the user experience of the Moments, and there are many uncontrollable factors in the spread of the virus. Currently, WeChat has no means to regulate the spread of the virus.

When a user sees "Everyone is Looking for Jaycee Chan" on WeChat Moments for the first time, his first reaction may be to try it out. However, after joining, "Everyone is Looking for Jaycee Chan" appears continuously on WeChat Moments, or even for several days in a row. For a user whose curiosity has decreased, this overwhelming spread has, in a sense, interfered with the social experience of WeChat Moments. Viral transmission does not care about the feelings of "passive users", and WeChat does not provide users with the corresponding function to close content.

From the perspective of user experience, it is better to loosen up than to block. However, in terms of content entry, WeChat has not yet provided a unified entry for H5 page games. The traffic effect brought about by the spread of this virus is completely beyond Tencent's control. Of course, it is unrealistic for Tencent to completely ban viral games in the circle of friends. However, how to make this effect beneficial to Tencent itself while maintaining the normal social experience of WeChat is a problem that Tencent needs to consider.

It’s not that WeChat has no way to regulate viral spread. For example, in the past, Tencent significantly reduced the exposure of viral game information among friends on QQ Space. After a user shared the information, the number of friends who could see the shared information was greatly reduced. This forced game manufacturers who originally used viral spread as an important means to acquire users to finally have to buy more advertisements. As a result, a number of low-ARPU social game products were eliminated, but the social quality of QQ Space was maintained.

As for WeChat, once a similar "valve" on WeChat is tightened, the spread of this kind of viral game will be greatly reduced. This depends on the extent of the interference of the viral game on the circle of friends. If a large number of independent developers or small game platforms regard WeChat H5 small games as a profitable direction, and there are unnecessary repetitive screen swiping in the circle of friends every day, then gamelook believes that this valve will be activated sooner or later.

The success of "Surround the Nervous Cat" and "Everyone Looking for Jaycee Chan" has indeed made the industry realize the value of H5 games parasitizing on the circle of friends, but if this coincidence is taken as a necessity and taken to the extreme with a strong purpose, perhaps the final result will not be as good as everyone imagined. Gamelook also hopes that WeChat can give the uncertain H5 mini-games a "certain future" that can be accepted by the platform.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.