Building an ecosystem and improving efficiency are the key words for the future competition of Super App, and this is the cornerstone of Super App’s evolution to the platform.

How long have you not downloaded the app? One month? Half a year? Still one year?

Regardless of whether you are willing to admit, the number of new apps has plummeted over the past two years.

Not only are innovative apps for all types of innovative companies decreasing, but BAT has long since stopped focusing on creating more apps, but instead focused on a few apps.

As we haven’t seen it for a long time, we’ve seen a screen in each of the early WeChat versions. This is a typical feature of the stock user era.

Search, social, and e-commerce have been the three major needs of netizens for nearly 20 years, and several super-apps have been born in China. When the user’s dividend disappeared, the once-clear borders began to become more and more blurred, and the era of close-knit began.

A typical phenomenon is that in the past two years, Baidu App, WeChat, and Alipay have all taken the “No. + Small Program” model as a strategic focus. At this time, the core of everyone’s competition is not innovation, but ecological competitiveness.

The evolution and confrontation of Baidu search

Compared to social and e-commerce, search is under pressure in the early days of the transition to mobile Internet. However, in the past two years, after the construction of the “No. + Small Program” ecology, Baidu search has obviously changed radically.

To some extent, the “number + applet” brought changes and evolution to Baidu search far more than the gain it brought to WeChat. This is not only the evolution of Baidu search in the era of artificial intelligence, but also one of the core barriers for Baidu to resist competition from external search players.

Starting with two changes to your search

As a deep user of search, recently, when using Baidu App, the most intuitive feeling of two changes.

First of all, after brushing the information flow for nearly an hour, I found that in the past, the text-based information flow began to appear in many smart small programs, such as Youku, Aiqiyi, Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Baidu. Know, Baidu Post Bar, etc.

It’s equivalent to opening a Baidu stream of information and using a brush to use a dozen apps. I believe that Baidu’s recent investment and strategic cooperation with companies like Zhihe and Zan believes that this trend will become more and moreobvious.

The evolution and confrontation of Baidu search

Another trending user may not be aware of it, but as a person in the industry, the change is still obvious.

That is, when users search for general needs, the results of smart apple programs appear more and more frequently.

For example, after I searched for a recent movie, ticket, or Japanese ticket, the search results showed various smart applet results in different locations according to the relevance of the user’s needs.

Everyone knows that the smart applet user experience is much better than the H5. At the same time, this also shows that the richness of smart small programs has improved a lot, and many long tail requirements can also see the results of smart small programs.

The evolution and confrontation of Baidu search

Behind these two changes, one of the most intuitive feelings is that Baidu began to vigorously build the “content + service” ecology, which is a clear distinction from the purely relying on search technology for content distribution and diversion. — The emergence of small programs, as well as a dramatic increase in video, the proportion of social content, proves that Baidu search is upgrading and evolving, whether it is for blocking headlines or self-evolution, is a positive signal.

Satisfied “Search just needed”

Search has always been a strategic high ground for the Internet and a user portal.

But in the mobile Internet era, user demand has become more diverse, and this has spawned millions of apps.

This creates two problems. On the one hand, the problem of information silos began to appear, resulting in users’ search needs not being fully satisfied; on the other hand, people’s memory is limited, and 3-5 of the millions of apps are most commonly used. The more apps you have, the lower your efficiency will become.

The evolution and confrontation of Baidu search

In this context, users are beginning to pursue more natural interactions, richer content, and deeper connections.

In the past, after searching for products in Baidu, after reading various introductions and comments, placing orders on platforms such as Taobao, Jingdong, and Vipshop will be a matter that can be accepted by users.

But now, users want WYSIWYG to complete a one-stop experience in an app.

So, we can see a trend, almost all super apps are moving towards the “number + small program” mode.

Among them, the search platform will have a natural advantage. Because the search just needs to be there all the time – just rich in content and service ecology, you can naturally connect all the needs and services, which is the premium and competitiveness of the super search platform.

This is actually the root cause of today’s headline search.

But the disadvantage of the headline is that although it has formed an overall layout from graphic to video, from question and answer to vertical, but with Baidu’s investment in knowing other high-quality content platforms, it faces The problem of information silos will become more and more serious.

Moreover, the headline is not likely to achieve the above goals through a fully self-built model. After all, if the headline can solve this problem with a self-built model, the Chinese Internet has become the headline of the Internet.

If you pay close attention to Baidu’s recent trends, you can see a completely different strategy from the headline.

On the one hand, Baidu has introduced content such as Youku, Xiaohongshu, Weibo, etc. through smart watch and other products through good-looking videos, national small videos, and self-built content. Knowing, Kai Shu tells stories, has praises, etc., enriches the search ecology and provides users with the most abundant content and services on the whole network. These can be understood as Baidu’s strategy to start from “self-employed” to open.

Imagine that users brush microblogging on Baidu App, brushing good videos, chasing dramas, and even including star support. A lot of content that was not found or heard in the past is now available, which is a good complement for users.

On the other hand, users can also directly search for the car home, Xiaohongshu, Air China on the Baidu App, use their small programs, without jumping, you can complete what you need directly in an app. All services.

These all mean that the problem of information silos is being broken, those that could not be met before.”Search just needed” began to be met.

Transition and upgrade from content to service

In the past, we checked the violation on the mobile phone, we need to download an app, and then enter your own vehicle information query.

Now, users search for keywords in Baidu App that can be found in violation of the rules for a few days, not only can get the answer in the first article, but also can directly query by checking the illegal smart program. This is a typical upgrade from content to service.

The evolution and confrontation of Baidu search

The upgrade from content to service seems to be a bit far apart, but in essence it is the content of the search, which is to meet the user’s search needs.

In the PC era, search is to get more information and learn more about the site.

In the post-PC era, search became the sum of user behavior characteristics – the longer a user stays in the Internet world, the closer his behavior is to the real world, and naturally, the real world needs will be precipitated. For example, buy a car, such as booking a ticket, such as brushing the video to pass the time, or see what concerts have been held recently.

However, the traditional search represented by the search box can only satisfy a small part of the scene of “actively acquiring information”.

The form of content feeding satisfies another scene of obtaining information. But these are not all of the Internet.

For the Super App, when the user’s needs develop to a certain stage, the service needs to be filled. If it cannot be filled, it will be filled by other apps.

Therefore, in the era of information and app overload, one of the core values ​​of Super App is to form an internal, logically self-consistent, and co-prosperous ecosystem.

In fact, the extension from content to service is almost the same. Baidu launched a light application a few years ago. The direct number is also good. The logic is so, but the idea is too advanced, plus the mobile Internet. Not popular, so he returned.

From this perspective, Baidu search’s evolution of the “number + small program” mode, in essence, is a return to the content-to-service concept.

From the last decade to the next decade

In the past few years, Baidu defeated Sogou, 360. But on the mobile side, Baidu faces a new challenger, headline.

I said in the previous article that after the headline has precipitated a lot of content, it is equivalent to building an ecology, so you will definitely choose to do your own search.

This naturally extends a valuable discussion, why does search evolve to the present ecology?

Regardless of the headline or Baidu, I believe that it is difficult to make a 100% correct answer to this question.

In essence, search is a form of information distribution, and it is never outdated. Look at Google’s revenue and scale, but on the other hand, search is constantly evolving and evolving. It has a lot to do with changes in people’s needs.

In the case of Baidu, in the past, the search for xx website, the pop-up is the website URL. After a few years, the pop-up is the download of the app, now it is a small program.

is not a platform change, but the needs of users are constantly changing. For the current search platform, there are two trends that are very obvious.

On the one hand, the birth of the Super App – these apps not only have hundreds of millions of daily users, but also a wealth of user needs.

Playing an inappropriate analogy is like a core city that absorbs the surrounding cities and forms an urban agglomeration that drives the development of the entire industry and region, such as Shenzhen and Dawan District, such as San Francisco. Silicon Valley.

On the other hand, it is the help of small programs. In fact, I think the most important point is why more and more people choose small programs, and why more and more companies choose to open small programs.

As mentioned earlier, it is because of the user’s complex needs, the contradiction between limited memory and the number of apps installed.

Therefore, for developers, there should be an ability to gain insight into this trend. If the opportunity of the first 10 years is to develop the App as a giant or a unicorn, then the next 10 years of opportunity is to choose a The platform became the builder of his ecology.

Last

Byte hopping is considered an App factory. A few months ago, the byte beats launched a product with the most star treatment in history.

But according to the Economic Observer report, the current flashing data is almost negligible: some people sampled a multi-flash usage in a community of millions of people, no one used it; another social product Flying chatIt has also dropped to around 40,000.

Behind the status quo of “multi-flash” is the shift in user demand. Instead of requiring unlimited apps, they are beginning to pursue more natural interactions, richer content and deeper connections, hoping to efficiently complete all the requirements within an app.

This also means that building an ecosystem and improving efficiency are the key words for the future competition of Super App, and this is the cornerstone of Super App’s evolution to the platform.