article from burning FINANCE (ID: rancaijing), of: Meng Yanuo, editor: fan Chang weeks. The picture from Visual China.

“Actually, I didn’t come to the scene intentionally.” Zhang Xiaolong was absent from the WeChat Open Class PRO site in 2020. This is the first time that he has been absent from WeChat Open Class PRO since 2016. This year, he continued to elaborate his understanding of propositions such as products and information in a dialogue manner. The length of the speech has also been shortened from 4 hours last year to 12 minutes . Zhang Xiaolong said in the video, “Speaking with products is what we should do.”

Zhang Xiaolong is not good at speaking and is very low-key. His first public speech was at a Tencent internal sharing conference in 2012. At that time, Zhang Xiaolong shared his thoughts and analysis on mobile Internet products in the past 15 years with an 8-hour classic speech. The actual record of Zhang Xiaolong’s speech was circulated madly at the time. This 178-page PPT was later regarded as the “Product Bible” in the industry. But he said he would not do similar public classes in the future.

However, the outside world has always been looking forward to sharing Zhang Xiaolong. In January 2016, an activity sharing link of “2016 WeChat Open Course PRO Edition” became popular in the circle of friends, and netizens reposted them, revealing their own stories with 2015 WeChat. This year, Zhang Xiaolong airborne WeChat Open Class PRO, shared WeChat products and values, and announced the news that WeChat Mini Program will soon meet you at the meeting.

At the end of 2016, WeChat Mini Program was publicly tested internally. Zhang Xiaolong once again appeared on the WeChat Open Course PRO site, and for the first time explained the product logic of the Mini Program. In 2017, Mini Program was officially launched. At the end of the year, a small program game called “jump and jump” with a DAU of over 100 million was again hotly debated by users.

In the WeChat public class scene in early 2018, Zhang Xiaolong demonstrated his ability to jump, reaching a maximum of more than 6000 points. In 2019, WeChat was founded eight years ago, and DAU exceeded 1 billion. He summarized the development of WeChat over the years with a 4-hour speech, and finally pointed out that WeChat began to face the next 8 years of challenges, mainly from the user level. .

null

In this year ’s WeChat Open Class PRO, Zhang Xiaolong put forward seven thoughts on the interconnection of information in a space speech, and also began to introspect, talked about two WeChat mistakes, and pointed out that the next step of WeChat will be in short content. Force, fascinating.

He mentioned that the WeChat team has come to the present, from the early “how to do” to the current “what to do”. In the early days, he focused more on each function of the product, thinking about how to do it perfectly. And now, he began to think about the impact of information and what should be tried.

This means that with the improvement of WeChat products, Zhang Xiaolong’s starting point of thinking has shifted. WeChat has evolved from a communication tool to a platform for providing content and services, and what to do in the future is no longer a specific functional level of thinking. What he needs is thinking of directions in a larger picture. To expand the design of WeChat’s future products, his starting point is more outward, to think more about the problems of people and information interaction, so as to add new directions and possibilities for WeChat products.

Lian Finance and Economics combined the content of Zhang Xiaolong’s public lectures over the years to sort out his thoughts on important issues. From it, we can both see the shift in his thinking focus, and through these considerations, we can better understand why WeChat is what it is now. This article is longer, but it is worth a closer taste.

Early, thinking about WeChat products

From being optimistic to proving himself, Zhang Xiaolong’s strength interpreted the meaning of the phrase “speak with products”.

1. “Everything is based on user value, and user value is first.”

Everything is based on user value. Putting user value first is the value of WeChat products mentioned by Zhang Xiaolong many times in his speech. He emphasized that being friends with users, being kind is more important than being smart, and respecting users and individuals. He believes that the underlying logic of the product is to mine requirements from users and serve them.

“This is the value that Tencent has been emphasizing, that is, everything is based on user value, and user value comes first.” (2016)

/ p>

“The essence of WeChat products is respect for users and individuals.” (2018)

“For example, we will see the word” you “in many products, but in WeChat we say that we cannot say” you “to users, but” you “. We do not need to use a very respectable Users should be called by their attitudes, but they should be called like friends, so it should be a very equal relationship. This is written into our product treaty. “(2018)

“In WeChat, we have always said that we are not allowed to harass users, and we are not allowed to push users what they don’t need.” (2016)

“If WeChat is a person, it must be your best friend, and you are willing to spend so much time on it. So how can I be willing to post an advertisement on your best friend’s face? The next time I see him, I have to watch the advertisement before I can open the advertisement to talk to him. “(2019)

null

Picture / Visual China

“I believe that all of you here are very smart people, because everyone will think of many, many ways to deceive users. Deceiving users is the easiest thing to do, because you only need to be smart. This is wrong. Because cheating users, although it is easy to get traffic and get user clicks, they will eventually drive them away. “(2016)

“Goodness is more important than cleverness. How to be good to users is more important than cleverness.” (2016)

“I think kindness is essentially a kind of ability. The kindness I said is not a kind of moral goodness, nor is it a kind of moral cleanliness. Only when we have a genuine rational kindness towards users Let users use our products longer. “(2019)

“When we were working on a public platform, we thought, what problems do we need to help people. Of course, it is through information access to replace the disadvantages of information asymmetry. This is the advantage of the Internet. So, We want to help those people and groups that really have good services to reach potential users and make it easier for customers to connect to them. “(2019)

2. WeChat is not restrained and does not promote feelings. WeChat strives to be productive based on trade-offs.品

Zhang Xiaolong mentioned in his speeches over the years that WeChat did not restrain himself or promote the so-called feelings. In many cases, he made reasonable choices. It is not easy to change the logo by following the principles, but it also changes some things, such as changing the UI. But from the underlying logic, WeChat has been insisting on providing users with valuable things.

“I remember a German product designer Rams (Ditt Rams) summarized ten principles of good design …

The reason why this is a good design principle is also because I think that many products in the industry do not pay attention to product design, or do not consider it as a goal that they are pursuing. It is just a function stacking or user value. Squeezed. “(2019)

“We held an internal meeting not long ago, and Tony, one of the founders of Tencent, said that the WeChat team actually maintained a very restrained mentality to do things. Many people also think that we are very restrained in WeChat products, but in fact I was a little surprised when I heard such a comment, because the word restraint never appeared in my head. If we ask ourselves to exercise restraint when doing something, what kind of behavior is that? This kind of self-suppression behavior, but I don’t think that when we make such a decision, we must self-suppression, or say that we cut off a lot of things we want to do, that is not a good state. “(2017) < / p>

“A lot of people will say that WeChat is very restrained and WeChat is very sentimental, but we have never said the word” feelings “internally, and we have never said that we want to restrain our desires because of doing a good thing It is not restraint, but to judge what kind of things should be done, what is right, what is right and wrong. This series of judgments is a rational process, rather than relying on a feeling that I am so sentimental. It seems that every version of WeChat does not change very much, but it contains a lot of choices. It is more of a kind of abandonment. We did a lot of things, but we did n’t feel good, so we abandoned it. ”(2018 )

“For example, it ’s almost the end of the year. Maybe every product will change itself to a festive logo and help you look back on the life of the past year to touch you. . “(2018)

“WeChat never does festival operations or logo changes. Many people will say that WeChat is very restrained. In fact, this is not the result of restraint. Essentially, WeChat has always followed a good design principle, making us not Will do a lot of things that affect the aesthetics of design. “(2019)

“Many are changing their startup pagesGo, WeChat will not change, and I believe it will not change in the future. “(2019)

null

“It is very interesting, because following the principles, we have to insist on changing a lot of things. This reminds me that the UI of WeChat 7.0 has made a particularly large adjustment, and many users have complained and feel very uncomfortable.” (2019)

“And many industry product managers I have observed will actually be misled by the company they work in after graduation. Because the company’s purpose is to realize the flow of traffic, everyone ’s KPI is how to generate the flow of money. Once it is around This goal, everyone’s work is no longer to make the best product, but to use all means to get traffic. This is not the principle we advocate, we are more advocated to use WeChat to make good products to share with users. ” (2019)

3. WeChat is a tool. If you run out of it, you will come back next time.

Almost every year in his speech, Zhang Xiaolong repeatedly emphasized two concepts, one is WeChat is a tool, and the other is “use when you run out.” He believes that good products should be used immediately and tools must be efficient. As long as the tools are good enough, users will come back next time.

“We think a good product is one that runs out. I use it when I run out. In fact, we think that any product is just a tool. For a tool, a good tool should be the most efficient. Complete the purpose of the user and leave as soon as possible. “(2016)

“I think that any tool is to help users improve its efficiency and use the most efficient method to complete its tasks. This is the purpose of the tool, the mission of the tool. WeChat is also a tool, so the purpose of WeChat It also helps the user to complete its task in the most efficient way. To complete the task in the shortest time, that is, once the user has completed its task, it should do something else instead of staying in the product. This The meaning is to run away when you run out. “(2017)

“I said WeChat is a tool before, and I still think so, WeChat is a tool. Our goal is to be the best tool on the Internet. As a bestTools, I think it is often necessary to make a choice. When you make a decision, you think it is right to do so, but that might be the best way to do it. We often do things right and wrong and maximize the benefits. Will make such a choice. “(2018)

“Last year, I mentioned ‘run out when you run out’, and I find that you have a lot of misunderstandings about this word. Everyone will say that because everyone can’t do without WeChat, they will say ‘run out when you run out.’ Last year, I probably didn’t explain this very clearly. In fact, I only said the first half of the sentence and left when you run out, but there are actually the second half of the sentence, and I will return when I leave. “(2018)

“The essence of running out is that any tool is to help users complete a task. The higher the efficiency, the better. It is not contradictory to run away and return to the user. In fact, only when a user is in a The tool is very pleasant and efficient, and he will come back to use the tool next time. “(2018)

“A user’s time per day is limited, which is secondary. The most important thing is that the mission of technology should be to help humans improve efficiency. For example, as a good communication tool, it must be efficient. So WeChat has no The reason for sending status is that the most efficient way is to leave immediately after sending. You don’t need to care whether this message is sent, whether it is sent successfully, whether the other party has received it, or even whether the network has a problem. “(2019 )

“WeChat has always adhered to the bottom line. We must make a good tool that can accompany people for many years. From the user’s perspective, this tool is like an old friend of him.” (2019)

“What was the dream of WeChat just said? From the perspective of individual users, it wants to be everyone ’s best friend. Although it is a tool, it is a tool-type friend. From the platform, we I hope to build a market that allows creators to reflect value. “(2019)

4. The decentralized world is far more than a brain-driven system

Zhang Xiaolong mentioned that the platform built by WeChat is for talented people to use the platform to reach users. It is a “decentralized” tool. Whether it is a WeChat public account or a small program, it is to build infrastructure and create a platform and ecology that can create value.

“In the non-Internet era, valuable people or a team, even if they do a very valuable thing, it is difficult to reach users. But this situation should not occur in the current era. So Everyone has a strong desire. Since there are very many users, we should provide a platform so that all talented people can use this platform to reach his use.Households. “(2016)

“So from the goal of the public platform, we want to make more creative things come out of this platform, rather than saying that this platform is a place to do traffic, everyone can be in this place Diversion is not like this. “(2016)

null

“From a platform perspective, we are more hopeful that our platform will provide unlimited possibilities for third parties to develop, rather than saying that we will talk about a lot of cooperation back, even this cooperation for users Is worthless. “(2016)

“A lot of people do n’t understand why applets need to be decentralized. If they do n’t decentralize, Tencent itself monopolizes the first few applets, then there is nothing for external developers. It looks like Tencent can Short-term profit, but this ecology is gone. “(2019)

“The concept of ‘decentralization’. As a tool with platform attributes, WeChat will definitely have some platform content, such as subscription numbers, applets, etc. At this time we need to have an attitude that we are How to deal with such platform content. “(2018)

“In a ‘decentralized’ world, each independent individual has his own thinking and has his own brain. We think that the robustness of such a system may far exceed that of only one brain. To drive the system. “(2018)

“WeChat may provide very, very many services. These services are provided by different companies. WeChat is just a place to provide services, and WeChat does not provide a particularly centralized traffic to these services. It’s up to the user to discover it. “(2018)

“We will not specifically support the application of a certain field in a platform. We hope to make a platform sufficiently abstract, but instead allow different industries to gain some better and innovative space.” Year)

“We want applets to be a larger platform based on decentralization.” (2018)

“Applets have no entry in WeChat, which is similar to some of the previously mentionedThe product concept is related. In WeChat we have been advocating a decentralized structure, so you can’t see until now that there will be an entry for a subscription number in WeChat, which has a classification, sorting or recommendation. Existence, this has been the case since the first step of the public account. “(2017)

5. Our original intention is not to be a platform for disseminating content, but to be a platform for providing services

Zhang Xiaolong mentioned that although the WeChat public account has provided a platform for many media by mistake, it was originally intended to be a platform for providing services. Therefore, WeChat is also constantly exploring and expanding the platform’s functions. After the subscription number, WeChat service number and application number (predecessor of the applet) were successively launched. In the era of the mobile Internet, when users began to move from PC to mobile, WeChat tried to develop a new service carrying form, namely, small programs. At the beginning of the launch, WeChat introduced the mini program to the hearts of the people through a “jump and hop” mini game. Zhang Xiaolong believes that the small program is only a form of carrying services, and it is the true meaning of creative people to reflect the value.

“From the very first day of its birth, the goal of the public platform is to make something of real value play its value.” (2016)

“Our original intention is not to make a platform that only disseminates content. We have always said that we are going to be a platform that provides services, so we even split out a service number specifically, but the service number is still not Meet our requirements, saying that the service number can mainly provide services in it, and all service numbers are still based on a request, which is not what we want to see. Now we will develop a new form called the application number. “(2016 )

“We can try to make more APPs have a lighter form, but a form that is better to use exists. This is a new form of public account we are discussing, called applications No, here is just a little bit of spoiler in advance. “(2016)

“At that time, we were discussing the relationship between the subscription number and the service number. In fact, we were thinking for a long time that WeChat should have a new form. It should not just stay in the subscription number or the public number. , A push capability, but should provide more new capabilities, this new capability is more like an application capability. “(2017)

“When we are making small programs, our purpose is not to say that from the perspective of developers, we need to change the existing mode of the application. On the contrary, we definitely want to meet a specific demand. This demand should be It ’s real, not that we just want to change the way the app exists. ”(2017)

null

“I think all applications should be a ubiquitous state that can be accessed at any time, so when the applet was under test, I wrote a paragraph saying what is a applet? Small The program is an application that can be used without downloading and installing. It realizes the dream at your fingertips. The user can open the application by scanning or searching. It also realizes the concept of running out of use. Users do not need to install too Multi-application, applications are available everywhere, but there is no need to install and uninstall. “(2017)

“I think mini-games are also a kind of mini-programs. The biggest difference with past apps is that they are more convenient and faster to use than previous apps.” (2018)

“It wasn’t until the launch of a jump that a game user understood what a small program is. I admit that for many ordinary users, he doesn’t really care about what a small program is, what a game or a small game is, But I’m particularly glad that we told him through an example like hopping, he doesn’t care what an applet is, or what a mini-game, for him he can reach immediately and use it. “(2018 Year)

“The driving force of mini-games is that it should be a platform for creativity. And let the people who generate ideas embody the value. The so-called creative platform is a game is a carrier or a mini-game is a carrier, it can carry all kinds of Kind of creative. “(2019)

6. WeChat is a lifestyle

Zhang Xiaolong emphasized that WeChat is a lifestyle, not a kind. Provide not only content, but also services. WeChat has been integrated into everyone’s lives through group chat, circle of friends, red envelopes, public accounts, applets, etc., and has become a way of life for everyone.

“Everyone knows WeChat has a slogan: WeChat is a way of life. Why is it one rather than one? When a colleague asked me back then, I didn’t actually explain it clearly, but I knew that if it was ‘a kind’ If it is, it is a common phrase, it can not play the role of a slogan, nor can it be remembered. It must be a way of life, which belongs to WeChat, it is a unique word. In fact, WeChat did not cover that. Multi-lifeIn all respects, even WeChat Pay has not. But looking back now, it really represents a way of life. “(2019)

null

“If it is not positioned as a way of life, if it is only positioned as a communication tool, it will be too one-sided, or our future will not have so much imagination. So now I think of it, it was brave It was proposed as a way of life. Now we see that WeChat is integrated into everyone’s life from many aspects, group chat, circle of friends, red envelopes, public accounts, applets, etc. I think WeChat has realized the dream of lifestyle. “(2019)

“In the very early version of WeChat, we released the public platform. This is also an innovation of WeChat. At that time, the main thinking was that WeChat would replace SMS, so the market demand in the era of SMS is that many services must pass SMS to reach users, we replaced it, and we have to provide the ability to cover this demand. “(2019)

7. Commercialization should be a natural success and mutual benefit and win-win situation

WeChat’s commercialization has been very cautious. Zhang Xiaolong mentioned many times that commercialization should be a natural and mutually beneficial thing. When a platform can benefit humanity, it is valuable and vital.

“We find that many people are more anxious to commercialize WeChat than us, and don’t know why. But we do think that the commercialization of a good product is not inconsistent with the user’s value and user experience. Good commercialization Should not be harassing the user, and only reach the part of the user he needs to reach. “(2016)

“From WeChat, we hope WeChat can be well commercialized, but it is not a commercialization based on harassment and traffic monetization.” (2016)

“When a platform is only pursuing the maximization of its own commercial interests, I think it is short-sighted and not long-lasting. When a platform can benefit people, it is vital.” (2019)

Thinking about information interconnection now

Zhang Xiaolong said that as a basic information transmission tool or platform, WeChat, as long as an inadvertent action, may cause the flow of information to change.

The development of the Internet has exposed people to massive amounts of information. This time, he put forward his own thinking from the seven dimensions of “transfer of privacy, passive access to information, expansion and complexity of social relationships, rapid information dissemination, difficulty in selecting information, diversity of information, and difficulty in searching”. . In fact, Zhang Xiaolong has been thinking about these seven dimensions. From his public speeches in the previous four years, he can see some clues.

In the past, he was thinking more about how to design the product, but now he starts from the problem of information interconnection and finds what problems WeChat will solve next. Thinking more about the philosophy of information means that the design of WeChat is going to enter the deep water area and consider what to do in the future.

1. Transfer of privacy

The more developed the technology, the less personal privacy. Users can use their personal information in exchange for the services of the platform. While gaining convenience, they are also narrowing their own privacy. In terms of protecting privacy, Zhang Xiaolong mentioned that the reason WeChat has a lot of rules and is constantly changing is due to respect for users. In addition, the WeChat platform does not retain the user ’s chat history, which protects the user ’s privacy from the root. When trying to socialize with strangers, the “People nearby” function is also very careful.

“Respecting users is to treat users as friends, and we must provide users with proud services and respect users’ privacy.” (2018)

“We do n’t look at the user ’s chat history. From the first version of WeChat, its system was designed this way.

From a security point of view, it is actually best to not save all chat records. Since then, we have always insisted that our system design does not retain user chat records. “(2018)

“Of course, we will not have any other acts that violate the privacy of users, including that we never send any harassing information to users.” (2018)

“While people are gaining convenience, they are also unknowingly narrowing their privacy little by little. For example, precision advertising and user privacy are actually contradictory. As a platform, because we have a lot of Data, what should be used and what should not be used, is actually a question we have been thinking about. “(2020)

2. Passive information acquisition

Zhang Xiaolong thinks, veryMany people are unwilling to actively acquire information. Compared to active search, most of them are passively acquired based on the recommendation of a platform or a friend. What kind of information you get determines what kind of person you are, what kind of thoughts you have, and what kind of world you are in. To create a better world for these users, WeChat is trying to improve social and machine recommendations.

“In WeChat, we have considered the difference between machine recommendation and one’s social recommendation. The circle of friends is actually similar to social recommendation. You will see a lot of articles in the circle of friends every day. Your friend actually played a role The function of the recommender makes you do not need to rely on the recommendation of the system. If our system does it, it may not be done well by your friends, because the system will not recommend you things you have not touched, the system will only strengthen the things you have touched Information, and continue to learn your history, continue to recommend your history. “(2017)

“I don’t want the machine recommendation to be what the user wants to see. If this is the case, the user is superstitious about health products, and we will push the article on health products. From a KPI perspective, this is the easiest way to complete KPIs. But If we recommend new knowledge to the user, the user will leave. Because inertia is a characteristic shared by people. No one is willing to take the initiative to learn new knowledge to hurt the brain. The social system evolved by humans is actually a kind of error correction A complex system of functions. If you go astray, someone will pull you back. “(2019)

null

“I have always believed that getting information through social recommendations is most humane. Because in reality, we actually accept new information, not the information we actively go to the library or go online. Most of the time I got it from people around me. “(2019)

“Many of our later products have the shadow of the mailbox stage, such as subscription numbers and circle of friends. Because in the reading space, we have tried various social forms, based on social reading, friends recommend articles, and You can comment below. “(2019)

“What you see, or what you read, determines what kind of person you are and what kind of thoughts. The Internet makes information readily available. But what kind of information is obtained from the ocean of information Very challenging question.

In fact, many people are not willing to take the initiative to obtain information, but prefer passive acquisition instead. I remember a few years ago, I said, “Push changes the world, because users are more lazy.” Including WeChat is also push-based. Every message you receive is given a higher priority than the information you are actually getting. “(2020)

3. The expansion and complexity of social relations

Zhang Xiaolong advocates that WeChat should not add too many friends, so that it will not be too disturbed when obtaining information. Earlier, he thought that users with more than 5,000 friends could not provide privileges, because this was only a small number of people’s product needs. The appearance of the circle of friends has helped everyone create a new social place, and socialize without leaving home. He believes that users are more established in the circle of friends. From pictures and text to video sharing, WeChat is constantly breaking its own limits. But while breaking through, he also has his own anxiety and reflection.

“Over the years, this group of people has grown up or their environment has changed a lot. I think many users’ thinking or social methods have not changed over the years. Our online social is just A mapping of offline social. “(2019)

“Since ancient times, you have been afraid of being rejected by the community, so you have to brag, you have to talk about something very exaggerated and reflect your importance. So the circle of friends is a place to express yourself.” Year)

“Sending a circle of friends is actually the process of bringing your own people to all friends and putting them in the heads of all friends. Every circle of friends you send is carefully selected and designed, and it must be for you It ’s good to have people. “(2019)

“Everyone has to send some exaggerated travel photos in the circle of friends, etc. In fact, it is a continuation of this habit, but this is so. Worry is excluded, so everyone will choose some very exaggerated things in the circle of friends On the circle of friends.

But it also has some negative effects. If you send a few more travel photos, everyone will think that you often travel outside. If you send some overtime, it may be considered that you are working overtime all day. But this may not be the case. This is just a one-person promotion. Although it is useful, it will go too far, and it is difficult for you to express your true situation. “(2019)

null

“The circle of friends is social, so how can a person escape social, even if you send less stuff, you will go to see him, and then interact with likes and comments. It is also a social behavior.” Year)

“Why does the circle of friends encourage the sending of photos instead of the text? The operation of text is a bit more tortuous. I have explained this before. Because I think that for most people, it is difficult to write a text. One thing, especially this text, is to express your own personality. But sending a photo will be much easier. “(2019)

“While the circle of friends is indeed socially efficient, it can be stressful in terms of self-expression.” (2019)

“We don’t have a tool to record the true state of our day. So this is why we do video dynamics. It was called moment video.” (2019)

“We hope that the video development here is the opposite of the circle of friends. The promotion here is real, not beautiful. So if you pay attention, you do n’t call the button” Done “, Not called “publishing”, not publishing, but “just like that.” (2019)

“For the outside world, we actually hope that the platform will have some fair and just rules to treat users, so basically everyone will see that WeChat will provide some privileges here. Tell us if I can have more than 5,000 friends. I said this is impossible because there are no more than 5,000 people in the system. My point is that the whitelist is a flaw in the system.

“In the past, there was a word academically called Dunbar number, which means that a person has a maximum of 150 friends. But in WeChat, it was clearly broken. People’s ability to maintain friends and the era before the mobile Internet In comparison, it suddenly increased a lot. Before we limited one person to a maximum of 5,000 friends, and now there are nearly one million people who are close to 5,000 friends. Although they are not true friends, they also prompt us to expand the number of friends. (2020)

4. The rapid spread of information

Zhang Xiaolong believes, “It may be difficult for us to use technical means as a criterion for determining the quality of content, but as a platform for information transmission, there are many ways, such as using more participants and powerful mechanisms to helpHelp the platform make arbitration. “(2020)

Since the first public speech, he has mentioned the importance of supporting originality many times. Originality is of some value and is an indispensable core link in the entire ecological environment. However, in reality, not all traffic will be inclined to high-quality content. He is also constantly exploring how to use high-tech to screen high-quality content and use powerful mechanisms to help the platform make problem arbitration.

“We have spent a lot of time on originality as a very serious matter. Regarding the protection of copyright and content, the originality has been greatly developed in the past year.” (2016) p>

“We think that original articles are more in line with the value we need, and more in line with the value of users. Therefore, in order to support the original, the advertising banner in the original article is also particularly favorable for the advertising division, because the original traffic will not Especially big. “(2016)

“In our new revision, appreciation will be for the author, not for a public account, so everyone can imagine that in the future, you will see that the author is an independent column, For each author, we will see his introduction and see articles that have been published in his history. One author can submit to different numbers, so the author will be restructured by us more seriously. “(2018) < / p>

“Recently we have seen that, from a collegial perspective, cracking down on manuscripts is that bad money drives out good money, and it also reduces the quality of content. So it ’s the public about how to encourage more quality content. The next step of the platform is to face particularly large content. We may also try some forms of content, such as displaying these contents in video. “(2019)

5. Difficulties in information selection

Everyone’s public account is limited, and there is a big blind spot in the cognitive scope. Zhang Xiaolong has thought about this issue many times, and introduced functions such as “look at it” and “looking at”, and adopted an acquaintance recommended content system, which not only deepened social interaction but also widened the width of user perception.

“Because the number of times of access to the circle of friends is particularly high, on average, a user enters the circle of friends about 30 or 40 times a day. This is an iterative process. We hope that users will not swipe the screen quickly every time they come in, but What he sees is what he wants to see. We would like the information in WeChat to be as small as possible, so small that it can only meet your most basic needs, so you can understand why WeChat has such rules. ”(2016 Year)

“Why do we block some inducement sharing, because the so-called inducement sharing is that you share it, you get benefits, but your friendsThere is no benefit. Your friend has to endure something you sent. This is also our basic principle. “(2016)

“The circle of friends is essentially a social environment. It is a place to strengthen your personality. Reading is only an auxiliary by-product of the circle of friends.” (2019)

“In the earliest public class, I shared a piece of data. At the time, 70% and 80% of the public account reads were from the retweets of the circle of friends. Only 20% and 30% were from subscription numbers. Why do I think it is special? OK? In fact, it complies with the law of 28. 20% of people choose information, 80% of people benefit, and 20% of people choose to read articles. (2019)

“The subscription number is just a collection of subscriptions for everyone. Our idea is that we should improve the efficiency of a user’s reading of everything that is subscribed to, how can we find it and find the key points for what the user subscribes to. This is what we want What to do, but in the end it becomes everyone’s thought that the subscription number itself needs to make a so-called information flow. This is very strange. These are two things. “(2018)

“In the subscription number, we are constantly updating. But there is always a contradiction here. We pushed an article. At this time, if he sees this push but does not have time to read these articles, then He can only continue to eliminate the red dot and then exit. “(2019)

“Public platforms are indeed one of the areas that are best used by the media. Although not for everyone, we really want to serve you very well, so we have actually made some very large public accounts recently. Changes, including the revision of the public account, also includes a ‘good-looking’ in it. “(2019)

“We should open a circle of reading in addition to the circle of friends, and a place to read articles not for sharing friends’ lives. This is a look. For a look, there are two One is good-looking, the other is featured. The former is social recommendation and the latter is machine recommendation. “(2019)

6. Diversity of information

Products in the mobile era, what you see is what you get. The mobile phone has become the mainstream instead of the PC, but the WeChat public account’s article editing function is based on the PC. In the past two years, to encourage more people to create content, WeChat launched the public account assistant APP, but the effect Poor, Changwen’s threshold is still too high. Back to the beginning, the appearance of the WeChat public account was originally used to replace text messages, connect merchants and users, and send messages in batches. He reflected in the VCR that the creation of short content will be the nextComing point.

“Mobile phones are extensions of human limbs. PCs are not. PCs are fixed. You can shake them in WeChat, but you ca n’t shake your computer in the PC era. The dimensional code senses the surroundings. In the PC era, you cannot scan a two-dimensional code with a PC. This is the real meaning, that is, the real meaning of a mobile phone is different from that of a PC. “(2017)

“A book I read a long time ago was written by Microsoft’s Bill Gates called” Information at your fingertips. “At that time, he thought that the Internet would bring a great change to everyone, that information was at his fingertips. Whenever I think of his book, I’m actually very proud, because we have made information available in another way many years later.

Users can scan the QR code in front of some different content to get the information behind the current object, which is all within reach. “(2017)

“WeChat was born for mobile phones, but the public account release background is in the PC, which is a strange thing.” (2018)

“A lot of people have proposed that the public account can only write long texts. I think this is related to the fact that our early public account did not have a separate app, because if it is an APP in a mobile phone, we may have been a long time ago. I will think that we should encourage users to use mobile phones to create, instead of writing long articles on the computer, we will also think if there is any other way to make us produce some short content in the system, this is our The next step in the public account system is to think about it. “(2018)

null

“So for high-quality content, the platform can do a lot more. Last year we wanted to release an app to make a change so that more people can participate in writing articles. In other words, an ordinary person He can also write public account articles in it. But we did not do this later, and did not bring more people through an APP. But I think our direction is still to make the platform attract More people to create articles. “(2019)

“Looking back, we had two small mistakes that year, one was the public platform. For a long time, there was only the PC web version, which limited the content creationAuthor’s scope. Another is, and more importantly, the original idea of ​​the public platform was to replace text messaging as a mass sending tool based on connecting brands and subscribers, and effectively avoid spam text messages.

The content of the group is not the point. It should be all kinds of content, such as text, pictures, videos, etc. But we accidentally made it an article as a carrier of content, so that other forms of short content were not presented, which made us short of short content.

In contrast to the public account, we lack a carrier that everyone can create. Because everyone can’t be required to write articles every day. Therefore, just as we said in the open class, the short content of WeChat has always been our direction. If it goes well, we may see you in the near future. “(2020)

7. Search difficulties

In the era of the mobile Internet, although users have shifted their focus to mobile phones, they still rely on the search services or apps on the Web in the past when searching for information. The search service of WeChat, in essence, wants to provide users with a more portable experience, but it is limited by the thinness of the content. According to Zhang Xiaolong, WeChat search is a layout with a long tail effect, but the content richness must be solved first Especially the issue of content richness in applets.

“In the PC era, we obtained services through the website. Indeed, we must first find this website, so the search box was particularly important at the time, but in the era of smart phones, if we want to obtain services, it is more about offline. , In fact, the services related to offline are actually the easiest way to scan the QR code to connect with the surroundings and get services. ”(2017)

“For online we have been promoting a thing. Everyone also sees that there is a big difference between this year’s WeChat and last year’s WeChat. There is a ‘search and search’ function inside. But it doesn’t matter, we are also very patient. We hope that this function will be better and better, and more people will use it more slowly. Searching contains a very important task, which is to find small programs. Data or search services provided by applets. “(2018)

“In fact, search has always been a major source of traffic for applets, and applets are very different from APPs. APPs are information islands that cannot exchange information with each other. But applets can be used by The system has retrieved it in a unified way and can directly search the contents of the applet. “(2019)

“Compared with the Web Internet, mobile Internet apps are more fragmented,Information is difficult to get through and search. When we make applets, we have a dream. We hope that search can enter the inside of every applet, so that a large number of applets can support various long-tail search needs. “(2020)

Above, Zhang Xiaolong’s thinking upgrade from the past “product design” to the current “information interconnection” means he is thinking more deeply about the future direction of WeChat. This time, he did not attend a live video lecture this year, giving him clues to thinking. Next year, we still expect him to have some breakthroughs in thinking, which will bring to WeChat, China’s mobile Internet, users, and those who are striving to change the world.