Behind more than ten social products for strangers, what are the key steps and success factors?

With the continuous development of the Internet, social networking has now changed its methods and has become the model of Internet social networking. There are also many social products for strangers on the market; there are also many types of social interactions for strangers, but this type of platform also has certain operational risks. ; The author of this article shared the key steps and success factors of the social platform for strangers, let’s take a look together.

Author: KC, product dog

As a bloody product manager, I have experienced some social products for strangers one after another. After using these social software products in depth, the author found that there is a unified logic and dilemma behind the social products for strangers.

Stranger social interaction can be called “hormonal social interaction”, which is a type of social behavior performed by both men and women with sexual attraction as the main driving force in order to get to know the opposite sex, find a partner, and make appointments for a run.

Of course, it is not ruled out that in some cases, people using stranger social products are just purely looking for someone to chat and pass the time.

The product managers of social products for strangers such as “soul” and “Tantan” also know this well. Therefore, in many key steps, they deliberately blur the opposite sex and use their imagination and expectations of the obscure beauty of the opposite sex to promote user interaction. Carry out more interactive behaviors to increase product activity.

After experiencing more than ten social products for strangers, the author found that the social circuit for strangers has three key steps, common difficulties and success factors; each product uses different gameplay according to its product positioning. , Stimulus points to promote the efficiency of these three key steps, and try to realize commercialization from them.

Three key steps

In fact, all social behaviors (online + offline) have three key steps. At each key step, how do different products “solve problems”?

1. The first step: matching target, information display

We meet new friends offline mostly through friend introductions or gatherings. In essence, this is a “target match based on friend recommendation”. After meeting new friends, the words and deeds of the new friends are their “information display”.

Similar to meeting new friends offline, social products for strangers show you the information of the opposite sex through various functions. This is an “algorithm based on LBS (location-based services) and user personal preferences. recommend”.

Typical functional forms are:

  • The left-slide and right-slide mode of “Love in Ivy”

  • The Square of “Soul”

  • “His fun”‘S nearby list

  • Speed ​​dating of “Jimu”

No matter what the functional form of the product is, it actually displays the user information of others through different gameplay and dimensions.

“Matching goals, displaying information” is the first step of the three key steps, and this step requires products:

  • Have a large user base: meet LBS restrictions and user personal preference requirements

  • Accurate algorithm matching mechanism: an algorithm mechanism similar to Toutiao, matching the right person to the user. However, many products currently only perform conditional screening without real algorithm recommendation

  • Encourage users to display more diverse and richer information: improve algorithm accuracy and matching success rate (such as “Qingtengzhilian” before successful matching, users need to complete their personal information and fill in “interests” Personal information can be obtained from Fun Bean)

2. The second step: Screen the target, determine the target

After the information is displayed, the choice is based on personal preference.

Because people are non-standard products, this step mainly depends on personal preference, whether you choose to like / super like, take the initiative to strike up a conversation / private chat.

In the social interaction of strangers, the mutual screening of men and women is to exchange and match different values ​​according to purpose and type. Men tend to show economic strength and work, and women show appearance and skills.

In this link, the product side can encourage users to display more diverse and richer information and optimize matching algorithms, which can improve the matching success rate in this step.

3. The third step: Interaction, further connection

After the two parties are successfully matched, the interactive link is reached. Depending on the purpose of the product, different products have the same settings in this step:

  • Difficulty mode: After the male and female match of “She Said” is successful, the girl first asks the boy 3 questions, the boy answers and the girl is satisfied before they can chat-this is based on the high positioning of “She Said” Quality dating platform, through multiple matches to improve the true matching success rate and interaction rate of both parties

  • Normal mode: “Tantant” can chat directly after matching, and the system will provide prompt words to guide users to break the ice

  • Simple mode: After a successful match of “Other Fun”, the system will take the initiative to speak on behalf of the user-this is based on “Other Fun” is a profit model based on the number of chat sentences, encouraging users to chat more

After breaking the ice, all stranger social products will inevitably encounter a problem: how to prevent users from transferring to WeChat?

  • Some products are commercialized through various privileges, live streaming, etc. before matching. For example, “She said” and “Love of Qingteng”, as long as the user needs to find someone, he can come back again

  • Some products encourage and guide users to stay in the software chat. For example, if you want to light up the “soulmate” icon in “Soul”, you need to chat in “Soul” for a long time; another example is “His Fun” will block keywords such as WeChat and contact information.

In short, social products for strangers are more of a connection between men and women, and it is impossible to completely prevent users from transferring to WeChat.

The author believes that it is a successful product model that only needs to be commercialized before users transfer to WeChat.

What are the success factors

In addition to the three key steps mentioned above, social products for strangers still have many determinants of success. Next, I will take them one by one.

1. Create a “high-competitive” product tonality, “play from high to low”

Like other social interactions (such as social acquaintances, workplace socials) and community products (Zhihu), the “high to low” style of play is easier to succeed. By shaping a “highly compelling” product positioning, users who use this product have a sense of superiority. And people yearn for beautiful things, so the public will “catch them” and eventually realize the expansion of the user scale.

The “high quality/high quality” of social products for strangers will emphasize the user’s age, appearance (height, weight, face value), education, hobbies, etc. according to different product positioning.

But there is one thing in common: the first time you open the app, the users you see are very high-quality.

2. Those who win women win the world

E-commerce tells us that “women win the world”, which is especially suitable for social products for strangers.

Since ancient times, genes have determined that men prefer to take the initiative, while women choose among many suitors. If a social platform has many high-quality women, it is bound to attract an influx of men.

Therefore, almost all social products for strangers will initially invite many beautiful women as seed users, especially female college students at school (even Xiao Ma also pretended to be women in the early stages of QQ to chat with users). The advertisements and schematic diagrams of the product will use beautiful girls’ photos as promotional points.

In addition, some products will use other publicity points to deliberately weaken the point of “finding objects”, and more publicize making friends, post news, etc., in order to reduce the psychological burden of female users. For example, “She said” is not only to find someone, but also to make friends and expand contacts.

3. The number and efficiency of successful matching, the quality of matched users, and the experience of both men and women cannot be considered at the same time

Due to the influx of male users and the fact that men are more proactive, beautiful girls will be harassed.

For example, in “Soul”, when girls post photos in the square, send them to find someone/chat, there will be many boys comments/private chats, which leads to girls being overwhelmed and choosing to reply or indifferently replying; this in turn leads to boys getting Without the corresponding attention, it is more frequent to find the opposite sex interaction in the square or to lose it directly. Such repetition forms a vicious circle; therefore, in many social products for strangers, both men and women have a bad experience.

The logic of the square function of “Soul” is to push LBS-based KOLs for users, which can be simply understood as: intentionally push you all the moments when handsome guys and beauties in your city are posted (that is, the high-quality improved above) /高逼格); therefore, “Soul” pays more attention to “matched user quality” rather than “matching success quantity and efficiency” and “experience for both men and women”.

The author believes that in social products for strangers, the number and efficiency of successful matching, the quality of matched users, and the experience of both men and women are like an “impossible triangle”, and it is impossible to satisfy the three at the same time.

From the current product form, there is no product that can solve this contradiction well. Perhaps this contradiction is unsolvable.

4. Give female privileges and retain female users

From the “Soul” example above, we can see that in many social products for strangers, men will spread the net to interact with women, while women are relatively cautious; therefore, it is difficult to balance the experience of both men and women. In other words, it is a natural contradiction.

When the experience of both men and women is not good, both male and female users may be lost.

But it’s interesting: almost all products tend to retain female users and improve female user experience.

After all, “women win the world”!

In order to retain female users, different products adopt different methods according to different play styles:

  • Give female users certain privileges: for example, after the male and female match “she said”, the girl is allowed to ask 3 questions to the guy, and the guy answers and the girl is satisfied before chatting is allowed;

  • Free female user members: For example, “Tantan” is presented to active female user members;

  • Limit the number of private chats: For example, “Soul” limits the number of private chats, which can improve the experience of female users to a certain extent. If you still want to chat privately, you need to give a gift, which is a good way to commercialize.

5. Find a suitable commercial realization

It is inevitable that any product must be commercialized in the end. The idea of ​​monetizing stranger social products and tool software is similar, both paying for key functions or monetizing traffic:

  • Guide the opening of members on key steps: After opening the membership, there is no limit to the number of matches, you can super like, support advanced screening, show whether the other party likes you, etc.

  • Traffic monetization: Monetize traffic by guiding watching live broadcasts, participating in audio rooms, giving gifts, etc.

  • Use the guise of making friends to cheat money: “Taking” limits the number of free chats every day. If it exceeds this number, you will be charged. Female users can make money by chatting with men; therefore, girls are very active in “other fun”, and it is easy for men to pay for hormonal impulse.

On January 15, 2019, three social applications, “Multi-Flash”, “Toilet MT”, and “Chatbao” were launched on the same day; in recent years, countless social products have emerged, as well as countless products “Dead” soon after.

Everything is telling us: on the track of socializing with strangers, the most indispensable is opportunity, even if it is the chance of failure.

Stranger social interaction has always been a track with a high ceiling and low offline.

Strangers socially rely on LBS (a woman who is 500m away from you is completely different from the attractiveness of a woman who is 500km away from you), so its MVP model can be as small as a city; plus, those conditions are not so good Attractive users will be unattended, and the product is difficult to solve this status quo, resulting in a very serious long-tail effect of the crowd’s attention, which will inevitably lead to the loss of users to another product.

At the same time, there are no technical difficulties in the research and development of the current social products for strangers: the functions are easy to copy, so the function similarity is very high; the homogeneity of the products is serious, and there is no solid moat (the largest moat is the product positioning, Number and quality of users).

Therefore, no stranger social product can monopolize a large area or all users, which is why there will always be opportunities on the track of stranger socialization; but many products may be barely alive, but also It’s hard to get bigger.

Where is the future of social products for strangers? We will wait and see.

The above is the author’s understanding of the social circuit of strangers as a product manager, which only represents my personal thoughts. If you have any other understanding of the social circuit of strangers, welcome to commentDiscussing in the expression~

Finally, due to the limited scope of the author’s knowledge, there are still many omissions or errors in details. You are welcome to criticize and teach in the comment area, and you are also welcome to speak freely and express your views.