Whether it is BAT, ByteDance and other Internet giants, or small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, for the to C products are more and more cautious, to C product success premise is a huge number of users, and the current mobile Internet form, to make a blockbuster to C products, it is very difficult, and the income is unclear.
Giants prefer to find opportunities in the blue ocean market, such as online office, cloud video conferencing, etc., Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, etc. are the giants' products that can still grow rapidly. Alibaba Group's fiscal second quarter 2022 financial report shows that the cloud computing business revenue increased by 33% year-on-year to 20.007 billion yuan. Tencent's third quarter 2021 financial report shows that the revenue of financial technology and enterprise services business was 43.3 billion yuan, an increase of 30% year-on-year.
Is To C still worth doing? On the one hand, the strong advantages of Internet giants such as BAT and ByteDance on the C-side, on the other hand, the fullness of the form of to C products such as short videos, online literature, digital music, and e-commerce, to C products do seem to lack imagination.
However, although the giants no longer devote their energy to C products, it does not mean that the to C market is unimaginative. According to CNNIC data, as of June 2021, the scale of China's Internet users reached 1.011 billion, and the Internet penetration rate reached 71.6%. With such a huge user base, it is obviously impossible to say that to C has no chance at all, but what can to C do? No one can guarantee it.
360 Online Youth Learning Community "Tomato Boy"
This is the third time in the past three years that 360 has tried to launch a class C product.
As early as June 10, 2020, 360 launched a grass community App "Light Selection" on the App Store, benchmarking Xiaohongshu, but unfortunately failed to remove it soon.
On June 19, 2021, 360 launched a community product called "Naughty Orange Travel" in the App Store, which focuses on the AI self-guided tour itinerary planning function. However, this product has not made any achievements for the time being. Qimai data shows that in the past 3 months, "Naughty Orange Travel" has not ranked in the App Store free list and the travel list, and its download volume in the 360 mobile assistant is only 102 times.
The performance of the 360 "light selection" and "naughty orange travel" did not discourage the three or six zeros.
According to Guo Jing's Internet circle observation, on December 9, 360 launched a teenager learning community product "Tomato Boy" on the App Store. According to its official website, "Tomato Boy is a content-based community for parents to focus on the experience of raising children and sharing children's good things." The Android version has also been launched at the same time.
According to my experience, "Tomato Boy" is more like a tool product, although it is nominally a community product. Users can choose their own grade, such as preschool, primary school, junior high school, etc., and in each grade, users can also choose common sense, common templates, literacy cards, handwritten newspapers, ancient poems, book lists and other categories of content, when the user clicks on the content details page posted by other users, you can download / print the relevant content, its App introduction said that the application supports 99% of the printers with WiFi function on the market. One of the aims of this app is to "print it out and reduce the amount of time kids spend playing with their phones."
From "Tomato Boy" and "Naughty Orange Travel", it is not difficult to find the path of three or six zero to C products, the user base is more vertical, and mixed with community attributes, but still has a tool-type base. Why is this path? I think they might look at it from a few angles:
1) Pure community products, such as Xiaohongshu, Dewu, Tiger Punch, etc., have very clear areas, and 360 does not want to compete directly with these products, and even "light selection" is different from Xiaohongshu.
2) Tool-based products can directly meet the needs of certain types of users, which is irreplaceable by pure community products.
3) Pure tool-based products are difficult to do the number of users, and the community is easier to expand.
4) Advantages of three-six-zero tool products.
This kind of three-six-zero does not want to compete with the existing products on the market, but also wants to make a certain differentiation, so there are "tomato teenagers" and "naughty orange travel" this kind of products that make users feel very strange, it looks like a tool, but it is mixed with the community.
The convergence of "Tomato Boy" and "Naughty Orange Travel" also lies in the fact that neither of them is supported by 360 resources, such as 360 mobile phone assistant and 360 search under 360's app store. This is the same as other Internet giants in the encounter when making innovative products, of course, each business line can do innovative products, but unless the product has a certain improvement, or is concerned by the boss, otherwise, it is no different from the entrepreneur to make a new App, but also from scratch.
Rush back to the C-end
The loudest sound of 360 on the user side was the "3Q war" with Tencent in 2010, which lasted for nearly 4 years before the boots landed.
In the PC era, 360 Security Guard and 360 Browser are the more successful to C products under 360. According to 360's 2014 financial report, in December 2014, the total number of monthly active users of Qihoo 360's PC-based products and services reached 509 million. The total number of smartphone users of Qihoo 360's major mobile security products reached 744 million. Qihoo 360 Secure Browser has 361 million monthly active users.
Launched in 2012, 360 Search also once occupied the second position in the domestic search engine market.
However, in the era of mobile Internet, the advantage of 360 on the PC side is no longer there, and it lacks mobile Internet products with enough users. According to the 2021 semi-annual report of 360, the revenue of Internet advertising and service business was 3.059 billion yuan, down 7.28% year-on-year; the revenue of Internet value-added business represented by games was 592 million yuan, an increase of 7.41% year-on-year.
360 Mobile Guard and 360 Speed Browser are not high in the Ranking of the App Store, and obviously, 360 is eager to return to the C side. "Light Selection", "Naughty Orange Travel", "Tomato Boy" are all new attempts of 360 in the mobile Internet.
However, "Light Selection", "Naughty Orange Travel", and "Tomato Boy" all face some problems:
First of all, relying only on the product itself, without marketing and other aspects behind the promotion, it is difficult for the product to become popular. The probability of mobile Internet wanting to make explosive apps is getting lower and lower, and the routine of "how to pull downloads without spending money" has long been impractical for the current mobile Internet, and there is also a certain luck component behind the explosive App. From the perspective of "naughty orange travel", three six zero did not think of investing too much money in a new product, "light selection" is fast up and down, once the company thinks that the new product has not improved, immediately remove the shelf.
Secondly, the tooling nature of the product is too strong, and it is difficult to make the user scale larger. "Tomato Boy" mainly provides young users with literacy cards, hand-copied newspapers, ancient poems, etc. to download and print, the premise also requires users to connect to the printer, this kind of tooly product, it is difficult to let more users use.
Finally, the profit model. The ultimate purpose of three-six-zero is definitely to rely on products to make money, and "naughty orange travel", "tomato teenager" and other tool-based products, if you want to rely on advertising to make money, you need a large number of users, and if you want to pay by tools, some users may not use it directly. Tool-based products have always had a common problem in terms of profit model. "Naughty Orange Travel" and "Tomato Boy" obviously did not consider the issue of profitability.
According to Guo Jing's Internet circle observation, whether it is the products of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, or the products of Internet giants such as BAT and ByteDance, the most important point at present is the hematopoietic ability, first, whether it can make money for the platform, second, whether it can be profitable, as long as there is a little unsatisfied, it is likely to be quickly shut down by the platform.
The launch of "light selection", "naughty orange travel", "tomato teenager" proves the vitality of three six zero, and the courage to try to re-"counterattack", but the C-end market opportunities of the mobile Internet are not many, and the current mobile Internet market has been very mature, from the development of the App to the operation of the line, to the mobile phone pre-installation, to the promotion and operation, all aspects are very complete, every detail there is a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises waiting to make money, three six zero if you want to low investment can make explosive C-end products, it is very difficult.
From the three or six zero, it is not difficult to see that the experience of the Internet industry can not be universal, the successful experience of the past may now fail, behind the extremely drastic changes in the Internet industry, does it also show that the industry still has vitality? Otherwise, how comfortable it is to "lie flat".