After Yu Yongfu became the "parent", Amap became a "personal youth"

March 13 (Reporter Zhang Zhichang) Today, when Yu Yongfu officially took over as President of AutoNavi Group from General Manager of AutoNavi Mobile Internet Business Unit, AutoNavi Map also completed another new upgrade of its "Happy Navigation" - the "Laughter Edition" of AutoNavi Map was officially released.

As an important mentor in the transformation of AutoNavi Map from a "traditional uncle" to a "young man with personality", it is a pity that Yu Yongfu did not appear at the launch conference of the "Laughter Edition" of AutoNavi Map.

Yu Yongfu takes over AutoNavi Group and his status as a "parent" is solidified

Perhaps many people are not surprised by Yu Yongfu's appointment.

Although AutoNavi Maps has been focusing on map navigation for 12 years, it really began to enter the public eye the moment it was acquired by Alibaba; and it became the strongest competitor of Baidu Maps the day Yu Yongfu stood on the podium as the head of AutoNavi.

In the early days of the "Yu Yongfu era" of AutoNavi Maps, the outside world's expectations for the future development of AutoNavi Maps were precisely its actively expanding O2O strategy at the time. Especially with Alibaba as its backing, AutoNavi's vision of opening the door to the O2O market seemed to be easily achievable. But after Yu Yongfu took over the AutoNavi Maps business, he proposed a plan to return to basics by "removing O2O and commercialization," and said that AutoNavi Maps would not implement a commercialization strategy in the next three years.

Yu Yongfu explained at the time, "Maps should return to their basics, and AutoNavi should make the best map navigation product. Functional extensions on maps should be based on user needs, not commercial purposes."

Therefore, Yu Yongfu began to lead Amap to develop in the direction of LBS, hoping to improve the user experience of Amap in Internet map products with more accurate map navigation and more convenient voice navigation. And the facts have proved the correctness of Yu Yongfu's decision.

Unlike other Internet companies that are eager to transform into commercialization, AutoNavi seems to focus more on user accumulation, user stickiness, and the satisfaction of basic user needs. The transformation to commercialization may bring considerable income to the company and its products in the early stage, but as the development of existing users in the product is exhausted, how to ensure that the product has sufficient long-term user appeal is the most important issue that the company should think about.

Focusing on "Happy Navigation", Amap becomes "Youth with Individuality"

On the road to Internetization of Amap, Internetization of map navigation products is the foundation, and accurately identifying user needs with Internet thinking is the main condition for the success of its products. Therefore, after promoting the voice navigation function, Amap has started its perfect combination with entertainment.

"Hand in hand" with Zhiling was the first step for AutoNavi to try entertainment. This "short marriage" with Yu Yongfu instantly pushed AutoNavi Map into the map navigation market. Coupled with the product strategy of "If you dare to use it, I dare to compensate", AutoNavi began to rank among the top in the map navigation industry.

Of course, the so-called "happy navigation" still has to start with the cooperation with the crosstalk artist Guo Degang. It is understood that Guo Degang is the partner personally selected by Yu Yongfu. In connection with the basic user needs of map navigation, AutoNavi Maps has launched a map navigation journey with the theme of "happiness".

Data shows that since the introduction of Guo Degang's voice navigation on December 18, 2014, the product activity of AutoNavi Map has continued to rise; among them, the rate of new users has increased by 230%, and the number of daily active users has increased by 36%. Its recent highest ranking on the App Store list has been No. 2.

The introduction of the concept of "Happy Navigation" can be said to be the beginning of the road to "personalization" of Amap products. After personalization has gradually become the core demand of mobile Internet users, Amap, which has transformed into a mobile Internet, also needs to be more and more personalized to meet the increasingly diversified basic needs of users.

With the official launch of the Laughing Edition of Amap today, the enhancement of the voice navigation module and the incorporation of Guo Degang's teasing language have made the professional Amap voice navigation more precise, intelligent, user-friendly and entertaining.

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.