In addition to WeChat public account searches, how much room for imagination is there?

  A small move by WeChat may allow search engines to return to center stage in the mobile era.

On June 9, Sogou Search released a big move, announcing that it would officially access WeChat public account data. This is the first time that WeChat has been able to achieve comprehensive and authoritative display since its opening of the platform. According to the introduction, users can browse the WeChat public accounts and all articles related to the search terms on the search results page.

This change is not just for official accounts. All functions of WeChat may be affected in the future. Mobile Internet may even return to the search era, but the protagonist this time will no longer be Baidu .

Trembling public account

After its launch in 2012, the WeChat public platform became a closed space, forming a closed loop between subscribers and subscription accounts. It was difficult for users who were not in a subscription relationship to know the content of the subscription accounts. When WeChat began to set an upper limit on the number of WeChat friends, it triggered a strong backlash from public accounts.

Now it seems that everything was premeditated. After the launch of Sogou WeChat search, even if you don’t follow the subscription account, you can still get the content you want through keyword search. Currently, Sogou WeChat search has two keywords: comprehensive aggregation and search subscription. This means that WeChat can allow public accounts to search by category and organize fragmented information.

From the Sogou WeChat search page, we can see that users can currently find a relatively comprehensive range of related accounts and articles (including historical articles) through Sogou WeChat search. The current order of accounts is from certified accounts to non-certified accounts, and the order of searching articles also starts from certified accounts. The retrieval and subscription function is currently unique to the PC side: each searched account has a QR code next to it, which is convenient for users to subscribe; from the mobile side, after opening the article, the author's name is displayed as a hyperlink font #It looks like it can jump#, but it is not possible to jump yet.

The profit model of Sogou WeChat search is not yet known, but for a search engine, the main income naturally comes from paid ranking and advertising. Currently, Sogou WeChat search and WeChat are independent of each other, but I believe this separation will not last too long. In the future, search will inevitably be embedded in the WeChat system, and then there will be greater room for imagination.

Tencent’s e-commerce dream

Search and e-commerce have a natural fit. Shortly before the launch of WeChat Search, WeChat just launched the regular version of the WeChat e-commerce system: WeChat Stores.

From the current introduction, the basis of WeChat Store is WeChat payment. Merchants can sell goods in the form of WeChat Store through public accounts, realizing functions including store opening, product listing, shelf management, customer relationship maintenance, rights protection, etc. When users follow the public account with WeChat Store function, they can see the categories of goods sold.

"After the WeChat Store function is launched, merchants can start the e-commerce model even if they do not have any technical development capabilities." A relevant person in charge of WeChat introduced that after the WeChat Store goes online, "novice" merchants do not need to have technical capabilities to classify and display goods in different areas, and some merchants with development capabilities can also develop their own store systems through API interfaces, and manage product data and other content more conveniently through relevant interface permissions, thereby having more functions.

After opening up official accounts, the next area in which WeChat is most likely to open up searches is WeChat Stores and JD.com . In this area, there is greater room for imagination in search.

Helpless Weibo

After the birth of WeChat Store, Alibaba's Weibo also announced that Weibo Pay, which had been brewing for nearly half a year, would be open to the entire site at the end of June. Weibo Pay is a mobile payment product jointly created by Weibo and Alipay . Merchants and users can complete payment transactions on the Weibo platform without jumping. In addition to merchants, individual Weibo users are also allowed to sell things and conduct second-hand transactions on Weibo.

But even with Alibaba's support, Sina Weibo's e-commerce path will not be smoother than WeChat's. There are three reasons: First, Weibo's active users are not as good as WeChat's. According to the financial report, as of the end of the first quarter of this year, Weibo's monthly active users reached 143.8 million, while WeChat's monthly active users were 396 million. From a sensory perspective, the activity of individual Weibo users has dropped significantly from the peak in 2011 and 2012; second, people who sell things on Weibo have obviously moved to WeChat's circle of friends. If you really want to use Alibaba's resources, you might as well open a store on Taobao; third, WeChat can follow up on all the marketing methods that Weibo e-commerce can use.

What's more, as a social media platform, excessive commercialization of Weibo will eventually affect its credibility, which will be tantamount to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs for its future development.

Before the emergence of WeChat, the author once proposed the concept of Weibo impacting Baidu, that is, if Weibo can provide high-quality information sources (mainly from major websites and media public accounts), the on-site search can replace some of Baidu's functions.

Obviously, Weibo has not done this, but WeChat is doing it. A typical example is the news clients of major portals. Almost every portal promotes high-quality content on WeChat public accounts, which means that the portals open all content to WeChat search, and it is proactive.

Search becomes the entrance again?

After just defeating Microsoft's Xiaobing, WeChat launched its own search engine, which inevitably makes people smell a hint of conspiracy theory.

On May 29, Microsoft China released an artificial intelligence robot called "Microsoft XiaoIce". "XiaoIce" can realize two functions: chat and intelligent search. "XiaoIce" will automatically find relevant information from Bing search and feedback it in the form of chat. In fact, "XiaoIce" is actually another form of mobile search engine. Microsoft also said that the technology behind "XiaoIce" comes from Bing search.

Obviously, this has aroused WeChat's strong vigilance. It would be better to take over the mobile search market by itself than to hand it over to others.

In the past two years, Tencent has established a complete life service system through a large number of acquisitions and investments. In the PC era, Baidu connected all other websites through search, but on the mobile side, APP occupies a more important position, but it does not mean that search is not important. If enough information sources and user stickiness can be generated in a search engine, users will pay more attention to search when surfing the Internet in the future.

You can search for websites, restaurants, songs, travel routes on Baidu...all the scenarios you can imagine can now be realized on WeChat, and it is more portable and convenient.

In the next few years, WeChat may be able to connect to the physical world through search again. Sogou's public account search is just the first step. But at least for now, everything is still in imagination. Do you still remember the self-media search launched by 360?

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.