The article is from the public number: All-weather Technology (ID: iatwt) , author: Yaoxin Lu, from the title figure: Figure worm creativity.
If the applet is just careful in early 2019A little bit of embarrassment about commercialization; after one year, the WeChat Mini Program almost seemed to shout to the world: “I want to make money.”
“In 2020, the key goal of Mini Program is to help businesses build their own business closed loop.” (hereinafter referred to as “Remarks”> Open class) , this goal has been mentioned and reiterated repeatedly.
A large number of functions that serve “commercialization” have been disclosed: live broadcast components, search page operations, push messages, one item one code, one scan item, cover ads, transaction protection … and more.
In the public class, the mini program announced the transcript of 2019-more than 300 million daily active users, and the total transaction volume in the past year totaled 800 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 160%.
At the beginning of the applet, Zhang Xiaolong once described his concept of “use when you run out”; but after one year, he added that he wanted users to “return after leaving.” Nowadays, applets have listed “how to retain users” as one of the three priorities of the new year.
This WeChat internal business, which was once thought to be “slowly”, finally put aside “restraint” in the first month of 2020, carrying the huge traffic given by WeChat, revealing its presence Great commercial ambitions.
Zhang Xiaolong gave a lecture in the 2016 WeChat public class and proposed that “good products are used when you run out”
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1 Full Commercialization
In the 2020 target, applets are firmly tied to “commercialization.”
In the WeChat Open Class lecture, Deputy General Manager of WeChat Open PlatformDu Jiahui went straight to the topic shortly after the lecture. “This year, our goal is to help everyone build their own business closed loop,” he explained. Belongs to the business. “
With the introduction of “The fastest growing transaction volume is in the e-commerce and retail industry”, the ability of mini-programs to connect online and offline is gradually revealed-although 2 years ago, Zhang Xiaolong was still emphasizing that For e-commerce. ”
With the “business closed loop”, the new year’s goals of the applet are simple and rude: user addition, user retention, and commercial realization.
In the past, due to the relative concealment of applets, it was difficult for developers to criticize drainage; now, applets are becoming easier to find. According to reports, in addition to search and other methods, the applet will also actively increase the probability of being “discovered” based on the three elements of content, social relationships, and geographic location.
“Our focus this year will be on ad promotion and the construction of commercial transaction scenarios.” Du Jiahui said that in 2019, the applet will begin to try interstitial ads, video stickers and other forms. , And more custom ads for page display.
In terms of transaction scenarios, mini-programs will improve user shopping experience in three aspects: brand authentication, logistics tools and transaction guarantee. According to reports, at present, Mini Programs already have a variety of logistics solutions such as express delivery, instant delivery, and bulk mailing. Developers only need to access the open port to enable consumers to directly view the logistics information after shopping on the Mini Program , Improve the sense of security on receipt.
Transaction protection is a major change in e-commerce for small programs. New features that will be provided to merchants include: unified official identification, product search weighting, and unified order management and user dispute handling functions.
At the end of last year, WeChat quietly updated the scan and added the “recognition” function. It can scan items and provide links to small programs that sell related products. On January 9, WeChat stated that this wasApplets are one of a series of tools that businesses are providing to improve their operational capabilities.
The newly released “One Object One Code” function works in conjunction with “Identification”. The former is a mini QR code provided by WeChat, which can be affixed to physical products by merchants, and can be directly guided by consumers after scanning To its small program, and then transform.
WeChat team introduced that in the cooperation with Qiaqia Foods, 20% of the code scanning users will access the applet, and 4% completed the transaction conversion. At present, this function has accumulated more than 100 for Qaqia Foods. Million members.
For the popular e-commerce live streaming tapes, the applet will not be missed. Du Jiahui announced that WeChat will launch the official live broadcast component this year, but specific details have not been disclosed.
“We heard a lot of voices saying that WeChat review is too slow and penalties are too ruthless. We don’t want people to do business in this ecology,” said Du Jiahui. “So, we need to become more service conscious now. We are in The open community has set up an operation section to help developers understand operations and improve service quality. “
2 Has the applet changed?
Applets may never have been so “realistic”.
Until the last public class, the status of the applet was still no entry, no push messages, no app store, no sharing of friends circle, limited search-and today ’s emphasis on “acquisition, retention, monetization The three important points formed a significant contrast.
At that time, WeChat believed that the ideal state of mini-programs was for users to take the initiative to use them, instead of delaying their time and generating a lot of diversion brokers.
In Zhang Xiaolong’s “Four Hour Lecture” last year, he mentioned the idea of a small program. “If I just want to use a carrier such as a small program to do a traffic business, I don’t like it at all. It is usually not too long to just make yourself good and not make others good.”
As Zhang Xiaolong said, applets are a “looking slow” thing.
For a long time, this business has existed in a unique and distinctive state, more like the “ideal state” of Zhang Xiaolong and the WeChat team for product understanding.
Dating back to 4 years ago, appletsWhen the name “No.” appeared, the WeChat team’s expectation for it was: it exists in the form of a lightweight app that users can find when searching, but usually does not send content to users, does not emphasize traffic and user stickiness, and “is within reach” , Run out when you’re done. “
Even today, from the user ’s point of view, this is undoubtedly an ideal product: appear when you need it, and do n’t bother.
But on the other hand, for applet entrepreneurs, the above features bring infinite trouble. Yu Xiaoge, who was the former editor-in-chief of “Fashion Bazaar”, encountered the other party’s question when he was planning to raise funds in the initial stage of the small program’s entrepreneurship: What kind of method should be used to achieve user retention?
The applet has become a product that entrepreneurs love and hate. Like the public account of that year, the emergence of mini-programs is sought after by numerous entrepreneurs, and investors often make a firm judgment that “mini-programs are a vent”; on the other hand, those who are almost “restrained” by mini-programs Features, in all aspects, limit the growth opportunities of entrepreneurs, and even lose their money.
Some entrepreneurs have spawned many highly disseminated small programs, but have been banned overnight because of shared marketing, so they have to switch back to the App to start a business. There are also screenshots of entrepreneurs crying, a small program that has a million days to live, but the advertising income is only one. More than 10,000 yuan, excluding server and CDN recharge expenses, it is almost impossible to make ends meet.
WeChat adheres to its principles, but its competitors are getting faster and faster.
In 2018, Zhang Xiaolong emphasized that “small programs are not prepared for e-commerce”. In 2018, Baidu smart applets, Alipay applets, and today’s headline applets were released one after another. Regardless of their competitiveness, this market is no longer a blue ocean. .
Compromising with reality seems to be the only option.
In fact, in last year’s public class, Zhang Xiaolong has begun to discuss the issue of “more realistic” applets.
In his focus on miniprogram work in 2019, he mentioned that the search function of the miniprogram should be enhanced, and he also proposed to add a comprehensive evaluation system. “When you want to buy a local souvenir, you don’t know which one It ’s credible, but if you find that your friend has bought it in the local souvenir and has a good evaluation, then you will be very relieved. ”— Now it seems that this is like some of the“ mini-program transaction protection ”introduced today. Predecessor of functionality.
It’s just the degree of change at that time, maybe not as obvious as it is today.
After all, in last year ’s public class, Zhang Xiaolong mentioned the issue of enhancing the stickiness of applets and users.”It will think of a way”, “but it may not be such a rude way of pushing information as everyone thinks”; and in the public class in 2020, the applet introduced the “message subscription” function.
3 Tencent’s Hope
Almost all of the products that initially emphasized user experience have never gone back to the path of high commercialization.
The more successful the product experience is, the more it will help commercialize it later.
For small programs, the national application of WeChat has provided traffic guarantee for its commercialization.
In 2019, with the initial addition of search, evaluation, monetization and other contents of the mini program, its daily active users exceeded 300 million, the number of mini programs per capita increased by 98%, the traffic master advertising revenue increased by 53%, and the medium and long-term The proportion of revenue earned by tail applet through official advertising capabilities has increased from 56% to 75%.
Of course, there is a transaction value of more than 800 billion yuan in 2019. The data disclosed by WeChat in the previous year still “created 500 billion yuan in commercial value.”
China Everbright Securities’ analysis of Tencent’s third quarter 2019 financial report shows that the commercialization ability of applets has gradually improved, becoming a highlight of its quarterly results.
ReportSaid that the improvement of the performance of applet commercialization is reflected in three aspects: first, increased support for applet service providers and program owners, and the average daily transactions of small and medium-tailed applets more than doubled year-on-year; and second, Advertising performance has continued to improve. Third, the number of small and medium program users on Double 11 has reached 100 million, and the total number of weekly users ’retail access channels has nearly doubled.
In the past, the Mini Program team said, “We don’t care about money, we only care about ecology, we only care about ecological rationality, and we care more about how much money developers can make.”
However, in the eyes of industry people, in the WeChat ecosystem, small programs have assumed the role of commercial realization. “Because WeChat has to consider the public nature of the product and the user experience, the commercialization of WeChat must be restrained, but the commercialization of applets is not so sensitive. The WeChat applets have been gradually commercialized since their launch. Now the user habits have been formed and the product types have also It is very diverse, and it is necessary to accelerate commercialization. “Li Songlin, an analyst at Ai Media Information, once said.
For Tencent Group, WeChat as a whole is also undertaking more important commercialization tasks. In Tencent’s third quarter financial report, the share of game revenue that had previously been the pillar of revenue continued to decline. Tencent’s revenue structure has shifted from the game “dominant” model to various business “multiple blossoms”, which is becoming a trend.
One step closer, the commercialization of applets means more than revenue.
Since the birth of this product that seems to be an “overhead” App, the industry has been talking about it. Is the existence of applets a super-giant overhead iOS and Android, creating an operating system of its own? And if the small program can be successfully commercialized, it also means that WeChat has found a successful monetization path in this “like operating system”.
Based on the bright future of the commercialization of applets, Everbright Securities in its analysis of Tencent’s third quarterly report stated that if the PC era, the Windows operating system succeeded Microsoft, and the mobile Internet era iOS succeeded Apple, then, “In the In the age of the Internet of Things, WeChat, as the operating system of digital social resources, brings market value space to Tencent worthy of in-depth consideration.
These all undoubtedly explain why applets are accelerating commercialization, and everything looks promising. I just do n’t know, is this small program still not the product that Zhang Xiaolong expected when it was released in the winter of 2016?
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