WeChat doesn’t need more lapdogs who only know how to praise

On December 19, some WeChat public accounts allowed comments to be posted. As a result, in many people’s Moments and WeChat groups, some people were seen cheering and making impassioned speeches: “WeChat is awesome. Public account articles can now be commented on. Look at how well they have made their products. I can’t help but admire them!”

In fact, it has always been like this. Whenever WeChat releases a new feature, a large group of people will actively praise it. There are two main reasons for this situation. One is that WeChat is the most popular application with the most users, and every move will trigger heated discussions.

Another reason is due to psychology. There is a social identity principle in psychology. To put it simply, a professor at a medical university said that a steamed bun with hair cannot be eaten, and eating it will cause cancer! Everyone said that the university professor is awesome, and this conclusion is 100% correct. If a farmer said that a steamed bun with hair cannot be eaten, and eating too much will kill people! Everyone said that a farmer is talking nonsense, what do you know?

When WeChat was at its peak, WeChat and its product managers were all "medical university professors". Any changes they made to their products would be considered correct and would be sought after by many brainless people. Even if they were wrong, they would be considered absolutely correct and unquestionable!

Then, let’s look at some changes in WeChat public accounts. There is nothing special about WeChat public account subscription accounts. They are mainly convenient for ordinary people to write and publish articles. This is no different from the forums that existed 20 years ago and the blogs that existed 10 years ago. However, it was previously impossible to see the number of views of articles in WeChat public accounts, and users could not participate in comments. Why did WeChat design it this way?

No one went into the details of the reason. Most people assumed that WeChat's "authority" was unquestionable and that this design must have very scientific considerations. But when WeChat allowed users to see the number of views, it caused an uproar. Countless people praised it, saying that this function of seeing the number of views was really awesome and was created to combat marketing accounts, because marketing accounts used to falsify data and report it to customers.

But let's think about it the other way around. Why can we see the number of readers on WeChat public accounts only after two years of launch, when forums 15 years ago and blogs 10 years ago could all be viewed? Isn't this a kind of correction? Similarly, WeChat public accounts did not allow comments on articles, but now they are starting to allow comments. This has also attracted a lot of praise.

I am not a product manager, but as an ordinary person, I can deeply feel the impact of reading numbers and comments on an author. It is a kind of motivation, a correction, and a form of interaction and communication. However, WeChat, the first social tool, has blocked the way for self-media people to interact with readers, which is obviously unreasonable. If you don't find a solution just for the sake of privacy, malicious marketing, and malicious comments, it is laziness and not worthy of praise.

WeChat has been constantly improving. For example, WeChat's "wallet" was originally called "My Bank Card". I once said that such a name was unreasonable. I also predicted that WeChat's payment function would inevitably have a fund deposit function, which is the current "change". I also predicted that WeChat payment would eventually become a universal tool and must be independent. When WeChat launched "My Bank Card", some media people exclaimed that the tool to subvert Alipay has come. WeChat payment has no fund deposit, and Alipay is Ali's private treasury.

Then, after the launch of WeChat "Wallet", a large number of people exclaimed that WeChat can transfer money, a feeling of invincibility. In fact, it is strange that a payment tool cannot transfer money. This is a necessary process for WeChat payment!

Some people are even more weird and boring. They have shown great interest in the moon and man on WeChat’s splash screen. They even magnified the image 50 times and used the longitude and latitude to measure the position of the man to infer WeChat’s grand goal. I really bow down to such a genius! If WeChat didn’t have the moon and man, would it not have the number of users it has today? Is there a necessary connection between the two?

From ancient times to the present, there has never been a shortage of slaves and "lapdogs" who are attached to the powerful. Internet products have never been completed overnight. They have always been optimized and improved with the participation of users, continuous suggestions, and continuous improvement. I once compared Internet products to the purest and most loving crowdfunding projects, because it has nothing to do with money, and every user is polishing the product for himself.

Neither WeChat nor Zhang Xiaolong need these flattering voices. What they need are people who can provide valuable suggestions for the continuous optimization of the product, and also people who can pour cold water on them. Iron must be tempered, and it is cold at the top. WeChat’s current development is in the right direction, but the thinking is limited to WeChat itself, and it is unable to jump out of this inherent thinking, which will lead to the taboo of sitting in a well and looking at the sky. There is a hexagram in the "Book of Changes" called "The arrogant dragon will regret", which is exactly the hexagram that must be deeply understood after the current WeChat "flying dragon in the sky", remember! Remember!

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.