Stranger social software becoming the same, Soul “soul” selling point has been less than in the past
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “glycopyrrolate exchange shares” (ID: ipopress), Author: Ivan.
Author|Yi Fan
Source | Gelonghui new stock
Provide professional information in the field of IPO, and pay attention to the new shares of Gelonghui
Recently, the popularity of Clubhouse has once again attracted the attention of the capital market to the social concept of strangers.
Domestic related concept software includes Momo, Tantan, Soul, etc. Momo was listed on Nasdaq in the United States as early as 2014, and Tantan, a subsidiary of the company, has also rumored that it will spin off and list in the future.
Recently, there is market news that Soul will raise US$200 million at a valuation of US$1 billion, and plans to go public on the US stock market. So the company’s users behind the rumors of Soul’s listing are low in user stickiness, and the problem of eagerly realizing traffic is worth pondering.
Soul’s “soul” advantage
In 2016, Soul was officially launched in China. As a social software featuring anonymous voice chat, Soul’s product features are clearly different from those of the same type (Momo, Tantan). According to the feedback of senior users of Soul, users will answer a series of questions after entering the Soul App, and then the system will recommend users with the same hobbies on the main page of the app based on the information filled in for matching. Throughout the use process, the user chooses to match the user for text or voice chat in the context of anonymity and no other person’s portrait, which is also known as “soul communication.”
Looking back at the feedback of Momo and Tantan, users will more selectively match according to the other’s appearance, and the matching success rate of users is relatively low. In contrast, the “soul communication” advocated by Soul can cover more different types of users and trigger more chats between users. According to relevant data from Mob Research Institute, the installed capacity of Soul App in 2019 increased from 3.87 million in 2018 to 12.87 million. It can be seen that the early selling point of Soul’s “soul matching” also attracted many users to download software.
So in recent years, the capital market has also observed the uniqueness of Soul on the social circuit of strangers. From 2017 to 2018, Soul successively completed the A and B rounds of financing led by Wuyuan Capital, Yuansheng Capital and other institutions (specifically The amount was not disclosed). In 2019, the company completed a new round of Series C financing. According to relevant statistics, Soul received 60 million US dollars in financing led by private investors. Overall, the current shareholders of Soul include DST Global, 5Y Capital, Jiyuan Capitalthis. Soul’s IPO financial advisors include Morgan Stanley, CICC, Jefferies and Bank of America. It can be seen that various high-quality capitals recognize the selling point of Soul’s “soul communication”.
Image source: Internet
In contrast to the rapid development of live broadcast services and value-added services in the stranger social industry in recent years, major social platforms have also begun to deploy this type of business. The rise of the live broadcast service with social attributes will undoubtedly have an impact on Soul, which was the main player in anonymous voice social networking in the early days. This also prompted Soul to launch live broadcast services and growth services to adapt to changes in market demand.
Soul’s “soul” fades out
At present, as a well-known social platform for strangers in China, Momo ranks first in the industry in terms of software installed capacity, and the launch of new services on its platform has also become the industry’s vane. According to Momo’s 2019 financial report, the company’s online live broadcast revenue from 2017 to 2019 was 8.8863 million yuan, 13.4084 million yuan, and 17.0151 million yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 24.18%. The revenue from value-added services from 2017 to 2019 was RMB 7.42999 million, RMB 10.7095 million, and RMB 12.4481 million, respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 18.77%. However, as the main traffic monetization channel for the original social functions, advertising business revenue in 2019 decreased from 514,300 yuan in 2017 to 331,800 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 35.47%. It can be seen that live broadcast services and value-added services have gradually become the main traffic monetization channels in the social industry for strangers.
Data source: Momo’s 2019 financial report, compiled by Gelonghui
In addition, in recent years, soul has also noticed changes in the industry’s main traffic monetization channels, and the company has gradually developed live broadcast services and increased services. For example, Soul has added voice matching, group chat parties, video matching, werewolf killing, and love bell functions. at the same time, Soul also launched value-added services such as virtual currency sales (1 virtual currency = 1 yuan) and paid membership “super star people” services. Among them, Soul’s new voice matching and video matching have a limit on the number of times of use, and users must purchase virtual coins to increase the number of times of use.
In addition, Soul’s group chat party, werewolf killing, and love bell have a virtual gift function. Users can use virtual currency to purchase virtual gifts to reward users. At the same time, after users subscribe to the paid membership “Super Stars”, users can enjoy the functions of chat record preservation, soul matching acceleration, matching user information update notifications, video posts and super cute face pinching props. In general, Soul launched group chat party, werewolf killing, and love bell functions to adapt to the rise of the audio live broadcast industry while maintaining the market competitiveness of its products. In addition, the launch of Soul virtual currency and paid membership “Super Stars” also shows that the company wants to speed up the realization of traffic.
Image source: Internet
In this way, the introduction of new social functions and growth services is the only way for strangers’ social software. After all, the flow of traffic can be realized to maintain the company’s long-term development. However, the introduction of these new features also sighed senior Soul users: “Soul’s original soul communication is no longer a soul, and each new function gradually conceals the uniqueness of the original soul matching function.”
Overall, with the development of the stranger industry, the anchor business and value-added services have gradually become the main development directions of each platform in the future. In order to adapt to the development of the industry, Soul has also increased the layout of this type of business, but this also made the company neglect to make further innovations in the original “soul matching” function. According to relevant market statistics, Soul’s retention rate for the next month is only 16.17%, which is lower than Tantan’s 42.47%. It can be seen that Soul products are not attractive enough and lack the motivation for user retention, which also leads to the main reason for the low user stickiness.
Soul’s “soul” puzzle
Behind the rapid development of the stranger social industry, some platforms have also made serious violations to increase the number of users.
According to relevant analysis of Mob Research Institute, some social platforms for strangers try to increase the number of users by publishing vulgar pornography. However, relevant government departments attached great importance to the incident and began to strengthen relevant supervision.
Looking back at this matter of concern to the government,