9-year-old WeChat, if summarized in one word, is “complex”.
In this ecosystem, there are 1.151 billion monthly active users, of which 1 million have 5,000 friends; the daily life of mini-programs has exceeded 300 million, creating 800 billion yuan of transaction value throughout the year; WeChat payment users exceeded 100 million; WeChat QR code The scale of the economy created by the open ecology has reached 8.58 trillion yuan, carrying the dreams and opportunities of countless developers and entrepreneurs … WeChat has become more and more powerful, and it has become heavier and more ecological. huge.
No matter how big the platform is, there is a sense of crisis. Zhang Xiaolong, senior executive vice president of Tencent and president of WeChat business group, said that WeChat is sincere. “As a basic tool or platform for information transmission, our inadvertent action may cause the flow of information to change.”
WeChat was born in 2011, just in time for the 10 years of rapid development of mobile Internet. Today, WeChat still maintains a 6% growth rate and is full of momentum. Since 2020, can WeChat continue to stand still?
On January 9, 2020, WeChat Open Class Pro, Zhang Xiaolong deliberately absent, and threw out his thinking with an opening video. He believes that attending the meeting is a waste of time, and hopes to show the organization of WeChat to the outside world more.
Just like this year’s slogan of the public class, Always Beta, WeChat has not been completed, and it can still be expected in the future.
Information Interconnection
Everything on WeChat revolves around the core element of “information”, starting with people and people, people and things now, and people and services in the future.
“Can people really control this kind of information interconnection? Or, is technology guiding or even controlling people’s lifestyles?” Zhang Xiaolong is worried about the huge impact of information interconnection.
Nicholas Carr, executive editor of Harvard Business Review, puts it in the book “Thin”: throughout the course of civilization, human beings have the best memory in the spoken period; in the written period, the ability to focus on in-depth reading is the best Good; in the Internet era, people are good at multitasking, but their energy is more dispersed, they ca n’t think deeply, and they become shallower.
Ten years after Nicholas wrote these words, mobile internet and artificial intelligence are exacerbating the occurrence of “shallowness.” “A lot of people are not willing to actively acquire information, but prefer to acquire it passively. Remember a few years ago, I said,” Push changes the world because users are more lazy. Including WeChat, it is also based on push. You Every message you receive is given a higher priority than the information you really want to get, “Zhang Xiaolong said.
The problem that WeChat is to solve is the breadth and quality of information. What will WeChat do in the future? Zhang Xiaolong raised 7 key issues: the transfer of privacy, the passive access to information, the expansion and complexity of social relationships, the rapid spread of information, the difficulty of information selection, the diversity of information, and the difficulty of searching.
These 7 points are almost all considered from the perspective of users. How to cross the information gap and how to break through the information cocoon room … Not only must we serve 1.1 billion users, but also create opportunities for partners. This is the value of WeChat ecology.
Applet changes
In the WeChat public class, small programs, corporate WeChat, mini-games, WeChat payment, WeChat AI, Sou Yisou, WeChat advertising, and smart ecology of various industries all appeared. We summarized the two major aspects of WeChat 2020, one is the small program, and the other is the enterprise WeChat.
Applets are not “small” and become bigger.
The first “big” is in business. 800 billion, this is the first time since the launch of the WeChat Mini Program, the annual transaction amount of the Mini Program is announced, and for the first time in the annual release, the establishment of a commercial closed loop is given priority.
In the third year, the mini-program ecology has become more healthy and the service quality has been gradually improved. Active mini-programs such as tools, self-employed businesses, living services, education, catering and other categories go hand in hand. 14%. As one of the categories of mini programs, mini games are celebrating their second anniversary. The business growth data of small games is also disclosed for the first time. In 2019, the total number of small game service users exceeded 1 billion, and the business scale of the entire platform increased by more than 35% compared with 2018.
The commercial “Spring” of WeChat Mini Program has arrived.
The development of business ecology is indispensable for traffic. This is also the first concern of developers and merchants. Du Jiahui, deputy general manager of WeChat Open Platform, focused on the three aspects of naturally adding users to small programs, actively drawing backflow, and better commercialization, focusing on explaining how to help businesses build a business closed loop.
First of all, in terms of customer acquisition, in 2020, the focus will be on mini-program search efforts. Based on the search capabilities that have been launched in 2019, we will continue to strengthen the display of mini-program page content and brand search services, and further reduce the use of local search capabilities. Exposure path for program search results.
In addition, the applet will be further enhanced in terms of “discovery” based on content, social relationships, and geographic location.
Content-based logic, based on the products, content, and services in the applet, and recommendations based on user interests and preferences, so as to meet the needs of quick browsing, screening of valuable information in the applet, and then open the use of related applets; through social relationships The method allows users to find more small programs that are used by friends, so as to achieve a faster spreading effect; continue to strengthen the discovery of nearby small programs, and through the display of rich services, products and other information and the introduction of evaluation, to better surface nearby high-quality businesses To help users tap for quality offline services.
Zhang Xiaolong mentioned in his speech that the ecology of applets is not rich enough, and he hopes that search can enter into each applet, so that a large number of applets can support various long tail search needs.
Searching to enter the applet, specifically refers to: let users directly connect to services, content and goods, not necessarily by searching for the name of the applet. For example, when scanning a code, if you scan a certain object, it will accurately match the same clothes sold online. In this way, the connected scene is more direct and more in line with user habits.
Secondly, in terms of retention, the applet’s ability to “subscribe to messages” comes online, focusing on how to help developers drive users back, and solve some of the message scenarios that strongly meet demand.
Thirdly, in terms of monetization, WeChat will continue to output new advertising capabilities. Through cover ads and custom advertising components, we will continue to increase the small program monetization capabilities. It is worth mentioning that in terms of transaction monetization, WeChat will soon launch the official live broadcast component to help small program e-commerce developers solve problems and pain points such as expensive traffic and large development volume that cannot quickly land the small program’s live broadcast ability, and help merchants quickly realize watching Buy to create a closed loop of live trading.
The second “big” is reflected in the development of small programs. Can applets run on other terminals without WeChat?
For example, jumping on a treadmill; when you check the refrigerator inventory, use the fresh online shopping applet on the display screen; hotel smart fixed phone uses the peripheral service applet to order a takeaway and order a movie ticket; even take a mirror Can use applets.
The answer is: Yes! On January 9, the WeChat Mini Program hardware framework was officially opened. By adapting their own applets to smart devices, applet developers can get more offline scenarios; merchants have more choices, not only limited to the inherent device software providers, merchants can use SaaS software based on applets Service providers, get more variety of services; while ordinary users use WeChat mini programs on different terminals, which is equivalent to “new bottles and old wine”, without learning costs.
This ability brings more imagination to applets-using applets on different hardware devices can help users search for applets corresponding to services more efficiently, and can communicate with the operation of WeChat on mobile phones. You can share the applet with your WeChat friends, and you can bring the coupon to your mobile phone, which truly realizes the convenience of the applet “Use it when you come, use it when you run out”.
“In order to meet some of the needs of users in WeChat, whether it is group, social, public account reading, offline code scanning, all such scenarios have the opportunity to help digitalization and industrialization. Mini-programs have emerged at the historic moment, from the beginning The vision of the development of the present, to the future vision, has not changed. “WeChat mini-program product team leader told reporters.
Enterprise WeChat “wormhole”
During the rapid development of WeChat, the application scenario innovation under traffic realization has been growing savagely. With 1.1 billion user traffic, WeChat is a huge treasure for merchants.
But for WeChat, which is based on products, user experience is fundamental. The needs of merchants really exist, and the consumer needs of customers really exist. How to balance the experience after the two are blended?
WeChat offers corporate WeChat.
Enterprise WeChat is a to B IM application. The main function is to manage the internal link of the enterprise and improve the operation efficiency. In this area, corporate WeChat has many competitors. However, the greater imagination of corporate WeChat lies in getting through WeChat.
Like “wormholes”, they connect two spaces.
Regarding the opening of the WeChat link, the WeChat team has conducted a grayscale test for nearly a year. In October 2018, the company’s WeChat officially communicated with the WeChat ecosystem for internal testing. At present, it has 1 million corporate employees and serves 60 million WeChat users.
Huang Tieming, Vice President of Tencent WeChat Business Group, said: “In the digital age, information efficiency is an important variable for enterprise production efficiency. WeChat should help enterprises. We need efficiency internally and from management to make information flow efficient, secure, and controllable. Connect 1.1 billion consumers and make services start with trust and become professional. ”
The official WeChat version 3.0 was officially released. In addition to upgrading the “efficiency tool” of the company’s internal office, it also released three internal capabilities of customer contact, customer group and customer circle.
Regarding the positioning of enterprise WeChat, Zhang Xiaolong once said in a WeChat public class a year ago: “About enterprise WeChat, if it is positioned as a communication tool within a company, its scene and meaning will be much smaller. When it is external, it will generate greater value. ”
Zhang Xiaolong pointed out that the subsequent new changes in corporate WeChat are based on a new concept: I hope that every employee of the company will become a window for corporate services. People are services and they are certified services.
The essence of enterprise WeChat 3.0 is here: people as a service.
First of all, corporate employees can directly add customers as WeChat friends through corporate WeChat, and use the identity of the enterprise to resolve trust issues. At the same time, the company can precipitate users and conduct unified operations and management. Second, corporate members can publish content to the customer’s circle of friends, providing a more efficient secondary reach tool for corporate services. Finally, corporate WeChat can pull friends on WeChat to a maximum of 100 people.
When it comes to the circle of friends and pull groups of business behavior, I have to mention a popular word in the WeChat ecosystem in 2019: private domain traffic. Private domain traffic is a kind of community marketing in the WeChat ecosystem. There are many successful cases, but they are more simple and rude adding powder, pulling groups, and advertising.
The WeChat team obviously didn’t like the word, and rumors about clearing private domain traffic were rampant in mid-2019. WeChat officials also voiced that as of the first half of 2019, a total of millions of explicit use of external accounts had been temporarily or permanently restricted.
In the eyes of the WeChat team, the user experience is the most important. Lu Qingwei, general manager of corporate WeChat industry development, believes: “We have not understood the term private domain traffic. We should not treat customers as traffic. We should brush in traffic and serve existing users. All customers are precious.”
Through corporate WeChat, enterprises can manage private domain traffic and refine operations in compliance. As a platform builder, WeChat emphasizes two words: professional and temperature. “For customers, every company employee added as a contact is a professional friend. The two sides maintain a long-term and stable relationship. The company employees provide accompanying services to customers without disturbing customers.” The company’s WeChat team said .
Rainbow Store is one of the earliest crab-eating companies in the WeChat ecosystem, from the era of public accounts to today’s corporate WeChat. Tianhong has 40,000 shopping guides who have added customer WeChat through corporate WeChat, and used tags to record and manage customer information, proactively provide customers with the preferential activities they are interested in, and the coupon cancellation rate sent has increased from 6% to 71%, accumulating precipitation 3 million customers and more than 1 billion yuan in sales.
WeChat has a lot of money, and the circle of friends is also a first-level entrance.
Sending a circle of friends is very attractive for companies. According to the WeChat team’s disclosure, the management function of the company’s WeChat circle of friends will be more comprehensive. The company can manage the settings of employees’ circle of customers. For employees and designated customers, ensure the professionalism and standardization of the content; you can also view all the content that employees have posted and the situation of customer interactions, and continue to optimize and improve results.
Will the company’s WeChat send circle of friends affect the social advertisements that customers place in the circle of friends? Will there be conflict? For advertisers, this is a topic of particular concern.
The WeChat team explained that social advertising may reach a wider range of new users, and the customer circle of customers sent by the enterprise WeChat is more a secondary service, which is an old customer who has already served. In short, the two don’t conflict. Corporate WeChat circle of friends can choose to block, social advertising is not.
Enterprise WeChat was established three years ago, with more than 2.5 million users, covering more than 50 industries. After the release of Enterprise WeChat 3.0, the future development direction has surfaced: internally, Enterprise WeChat is an efficiency tool; externally, it is an open source tool. When the two are connected, it is a unique “wormhole.”
