Ignition Dimension (ID: chaintruth) original
Produced by Burning Finance
Author 丨 Marshye
Edited by 丨 Cao Yang
At the beginning of 2022, a stranger social APP called "Gel" exploded overnight, and Generation Z frantically "poured in", making it once occupy the top spot in the list of app downloads.
Behind this is the new choice of the post-00s for the social field. When the post-00s enter the social field, in addition to retaining the WeChat and QQ commonly used by acquaintances for social interaction, those stranger social APPS that are popular enough, such as Momo, Tantan, Soul, etc., have long been "abandoned" by them.
Instead, in the post-00s mobile phone, almost everyone has a small number of stranger social apps.
"Soul I've long since stopped using." Zeng Qian, who is still a freshman in college, told Burning Finance that the contact and socialization in learning, life and socialization are Solved by WeChat or QQ, and the simple interest in making friends will choose stranger social products.
However, those unfamiliar social products that are well known to the public are not Zeng Qian's "love". "Momo and Detective are too old for me, Soul has used it, but it always feels a bit messy." After uninstalling Soul, Zeng Qian quickly became addicted to the niche stranger social app.
"You don't have to worry about being harassed, it's more of a fun themed chat room, and I can even learn Japanese on niche social apps with friends with the same interests!" After being downloaded by her friend Amway, Zeng Qian developed the habit of going online to a niche APP almost every day, "Everyone is anonymous, the atmosphere is very relaxed, and the people who enter the theme room are young people who are interested in this topic, so it is easy to talk about 'hi'.""
Like Zeng Qian, who is fascinated by niche social apps, is Yuan Lang, who was born in 2001. As a former loyal user of Soul, Yuan Lang could not stand Soul's changes and finally chose to leave. "In the past, Soul was more interested in making friends, but now only the group of people who are looking for boyfriends and girlfriends is left, but on many niche social apps, you can see real life sharing and make new friends with similar interests."
Like Zeng Qian and Yuan Lang, the number of young people who are obsessed with niche stranger social products is increasing. Burning Finance found on platforms such as Zhihu and Xiaohongshu that content sharing related to niche stranger social APP is emerging in an endless stream, and the spontaneous Amway and promotion of post-00s and post-95 users are promoting many niche stranger social APP to quickly "go out of the circle".
Photo/ Little Red Book Niche Social APP Sharing Post (Left)
Knowing niche high-quality social software questions (right)
Source/Burn Finance Screenshot
Ai Media Consulting statistics show that in recent years, the scale of stranger social users on the mainland has continued to grow, and it has approached 650 million people in 2020. Another set of survey data from the Mob Institute showed that more than 40 percent of respondents preferred to seek out strangers with common interests among online social interests in groups born between 1995 and 2010. This has also directly contributed to the increasing number of players on this track. According to the incomplete statistics of Tianyancha data, as of now, there are more than 1600 stranger social-related enterprises in the mainland, resulting in more than 660 financing incidents.
Kura, a senior investor, told Burning Finance that nowadays, whether it is a stranger social APP that focuses on love needs such as Momo, Tantan, and Soul, or a niche stranger social APP that cuts into interest in dating, it is actually competing for the post-00s. The diverse social needs of the new young people have promoted the continuous innovation of traditional apps such as Soul in various aspects such as product mechanisms and community functions, and have also brought fire to a number of unpopular stranger social APPS, such as claws, Dots and so on.
After the post-00s poured into strangers to socialize, their personalized needs of "not loving the public and loving the niche" are driving the changes in the stranger social industry. Of course, it will inevitably bring impact and pressure to veteran players such as Momo and Soul.
The post-00s do not love the public and love the niche
"Niche and unfamiliar social apps are really amazing." Yuan Lang told Burning Finance that he was asked by Amway about "what are the more niche and high-quality social software in 2021" by Amway called Dots.
"Dots is my secret garden, in Weibo, WeChat, QQ I am facing acquaintances, to play a given role, but in Dots do not care about the eyes of elders, classmates, no one will think that I am in the second grade, temperament." 」
Lu Hui, who is also deeply addicted to Dots after 00, told Burning Finance, "Because I am too idle to find an APP to pass the time, I regard Dots as a circle of friends who can speak freely." ”
Dots founder Ge Jun told Burning Finance, "People's social needs are strong and weak, middle-aged groups through WeChat to maintain contact with friends, bosses belong to strong needs, while young groups have more love, fun, circle of friends, tree holes and other weak needs." ”
Ge Jun revealed that the first users of Dots launched in 2020 are college students, "Users will share trivial daily lives on Dots, and this sharing has formed a unique community atmosphere of Dots." ”
"At Dots, I met new people from all over the world, which I couldn't get in touch with in reality." In addition to Dots, Lu Hui also downloaded a number of stranger social products such as Space, Tree Hole, and Claw in her mobile phone.
Zeng Qian is one of the users of the claw. Zeng Qian was handed over by her friend Amway during the 2020 epidemic, "I can talk to friends with similar interests until three or four in the morning." Zeng Qian told Burning Finance that sometimes even if you don't want to talk, you will still open the APP to audit, "so that you can hear more chats from friends with similar interests." ”
Like Zeng Qian, Xu Hua, born in 1999, is also a claw downloaded during the epidemic. "I inadvertently browsed the Little Red Book and saw that someone recommended it for download." Xu Hua said that after downloading the handing claw, he was pleasantly surprised to find an English corner topic room here, "I like to practice speaking with new friends here." ”
Figure/Paw APP theme room interface (left)
Dots APP topic discussion interface (right)
Speak freely in Dots, discuss ancient poems in the theme room of the "Begonia Poetry Society", learn English in the English corner, even if one person does not dare to walk at night, you can also cheer each other up in groups of three or five in the chat room... Zhu Xiaohua, product manager of The Claw, told Burning Finance, "The post-95s and post-00s are at the age of having the strongest social needs, and they prefer to communicate with interesting people who are difficult to meet in reality and in the circle of friends." ”
Zhu Xiaohua added that in reality, many users may be unknown colleges and universities in a third-tier city, and it is more difficult to meet excellent professionals than first- and second-tier cities. But whether it is in the claw or other social products, it is a good meeting of their needs.
As Zhu Xiaohua said, high-quality dating environment has become one of the key factors for niche stranger social products to attract post-00s. In addition, the relatively broad attribute of "niche APP" also deeply attracts the post-00s. Burning Finance found that in the Huawei app store, the relatively "niche" Dots currently has only 110,000 downloads, with Shudong and SPACE downloads of 220,000 and 1.53 million respectively, while Momo, which is also a stranger social product, has downloaded up to 2.2 billion times, followed by Tantan and Soul with more than 1 billion downloads.
But "few people" just creates a purer user community.
Zeng Qian told Burning Finance, "The overall atmosphere of the handing claw is very clean, and everyone can freely express themselves and make friends." Yuan Lang also said, "Dots does not have a so-called blind date room, nor will it hit the list to send gifts, there are many new friends who have never met here, enjoying the small world of not being disturbed." ”
Stranger social product "smells"
In August 2011, Momo, a stranger social product based on geographical location, was born, and Momo, which has enjoyed the dividends of the Internet since birth, has achieved more than 100 million monthly active users (hereinafter referred to as "MAU") in only 4 years. Momo is followed by a probe for Tinder, a social software for strangers abroad. In November 2016, with more than 5 million daily active users and nearly 6 billion pairings, Tantan became the largest social platform in China after WeChat, QQ and Weibo.
It was also in this year that Soul, who was "light in appearance and heavy in soul", was born. Due to the differentiated characteristics of targeting young groups, matching without users uploading real photos, and exchanging interest topics, a large number of users have been quickly accumulated. According to the prospectus previously submitted by Soul, its average MAU in 2019 and 2020 was 11.5 million and 20.8 million, respectively, an increase of 80.7% year-on-year. As of March 2021, its average MAU has reached 33.2 million.
However, whether it is Momo, Tantan or Soul, what is closely related to its growing user volume is that it has successively fallen into the "about gun platform" and become a "pig killing disk" reputation adversity on the Internet.
On the black cat complaint platform, Burning Finance searched for "Tan Tan" and "Momo", and the number of complaints related to them was as high as 15,361 and 11,300 respectively, most of which involved "automatic deduction", "inducing consumption", and "Momo platform lured gifts on the grounds of blind dates". Searching for "Soul" on Douban, Burning Finance paid attention to keywords such as "liar" and "mess" in the first place of sharing.
Photo/ Black Cat Complaint Detective Search Results (Left)
Douban group's complaint about Soul (right)
Zeng Qian told Burning Finance that because she had not used Momo and Tantan, it was not good to comment, but she had really experienced Soul. "It's very repulsive, mainly because the experience is so poor." Zeng Qian bluntly said that she landed in Soul for the first time three years ago, and she was simply and directly asked by strangers, "How old are you?" "Where are the people?" "Do you want to play on an appointment?" The three consecutive questions were scared away. "My first feeling was that I was offended, so I immediately uninstalled Soul and never used it again."
Also uninstalled Soul is Yuan Lang, but unlike Zeng Qian, Yuan Lang was once An "old fan" of Soul. From 2017 to the end of 2021, Yuan Lang intuitively felt the process of Soul from an exquisite sharing platform to a "not simply" chat crowd gathering place. "I downloaded it because I liked the founder Soul Tam jun. But slowly, with the increase in the number of registrations and the increase in the number of advertisements, the atmosphere of Soul suddenly changed, and it had nothing to do with 'simple'. ”
At the end of 2021, Yuan Lang completely uninstalled Soul.
Burning Finance found that the opposite trend of the word-of-mouth decline of Momo, Tantan and Soul in the post-00 group is that there are more than 10,000 posts on social platforms such as Xiaohongshu that share niche unfamiliar social products, including many products such as claws, Dots, and tree holes mentioned in the article.
"The claw may be won in a relatively simple way." Zhu Xiaohua told Burning Finance that after market research, they found that the current market is basically a one-to-one social model, so they began to think about the new scene of multi-person social networking.
"Gen Z is the group with the strongest social needs of strangers, and they have diverse social needs, including dating, falling in love, eliminating loneliness, passing the time, and so on." Zhu Xiaohua said frankly that the social products of veteran strangers such as Momo and Soul have more to meet the love needs of users, but they have not met the diverse demands of this group of young people. Based on this, there is still a big gap in social demand in the market.
Zhu Xiaohua added, "In reality, strangers socialize from the beginning of common interests and constantly generate topics, not simple and rude left and right slides. We decided to go back to the normal social scene and tap into people's social needs outside of the sexes. ”
"From Momo to Soul, stranger socialization seems to be only a simple hormone attraction, these apps are more just different names, the essence may not be different." Investor Kula added, but if a stranger social product can really solve the social needs of the post-00s, help young people build effective relationships, and solve the problem of "loneliness" or "loneliness", who can guarantee that the next Twitter will not be born?
Niche is trapped in commercialization
Despite being sought after by Gen Z, at present, niche stranger social products are still trapped in the status quo of applause and non-selling.
Kura said bluntly that although there have been "moments of scenery" such as claws and clubhouses, and capital is very confident that it hopes to promote the generational replacement of the entire stranger social products through the multi-person social networking favored by the post-00s, these products are short-lived.
"The fundamental problem is profitability." Kura said that the small and beautiful multi-person interest social app seems to be difficult to avoid the loss of users caused by excessive commercialization and the profit crisis brought about by insufficient commercialization.
As Kula said, commercialization is inevitable, whether it's a stranger social product or something else. However, excessive commercialization also directly causes poor user experience until it is lost.
Ge Jun told Burning Finance that "love" and "circle of friends" are the main needs of stranger social products, although both will face user retention challenges, but it presents a completely different situation.
Ge Jun analysis said that products that focus on love needs are difficult to solve the problem of "going into a pair and walking a pair", and often the higher the efficiency of the product, the faster the loss of users. However, if the efficiency of "cheng" is very low, it does not meet the user's expectations. This is why Soul sets up charging points (such as gift delivery) before users churn, while limiting certain key needs of users (such as matching chats). "In order to extend the user life cycle and reduce the user experience, it is also Soul's helpless move."
However, stranger social products based on "circle of friends talk", the user retention effect is much better. Zhu Xiaohua told Burning Finance, "There are many users who become friends through the chat room, at first I was worried that users would leave the platform after adding WeChat, but later found that many users will continue to chat in the theme room even if they add WeChat and meet offline." ”
The sense of ease and broad dating space brought by online anonymous dating have become the core competitive advantages of stranger social products with "circle of friends talking" as the main function.
However, once the number of users of these products rises and breaks away from the "niche" label, it will inevitably bring about changes in the community atmosphere, and the original loyal users will also be lost, which is one of the main reasons why niche stranger social products are uncertain in commercial exploration.
Zhu Xiaohua told Burning Finance, "The hand claw has been very slow in commercialization, and even when it was suspended in 2021, a membership system had not been established. "Due to the limited profit space, the claw does not even have the budget to do market promotion, and can only rely on the word of mouth of the young group to spread."
Ge Jun told Burning Finance that the current user retention of Dots has reached 70% the next day and 30% of the weekly retention, which is at a high level compared with similar social apps, but Dots has not done any commercialization so far. "If app wants to survive, commercialization cannot be avoided. The 'good' platform from the user's point of view is not necessarily a platform that can survive for a long time, and the APP needs to strike a balance between the user and the commercialization, which is the rational judgment of the long-term responsibility of the user. ”
A senior investor told Burning Finance that in the social field, the social market for acquaintances has been divided by WeChat and QQ, but there are still opportunities for strangers to be interested in social networking, but the general founding stage of social products is difficult to monetize, and the lack of monetization channels also hinders the long-term development of stranger social products.
Kura told Burning Finance, "Now the investment market's attention to stranger social networking is indeed declining, and the overall trend of the social industry is not favorable." However, from 2020 to 2021, many social products focusing on new scenarios have won the favor of capital. For example, the "Changeable Detective" who mainly plays the script to kill social networking has received 30 million yuan in financing, and the "Mask Technology" that focuses on werewolf killing friends has received five rounds of financing since 2014 and has become a reserve army for listing."
Kula further added, "Capital is looking at whether multi-interest social products like Claw and Dots can create a viable profit model, but it is too early to assert that multi-person interest social networking will become a new force for stranger social networking in the future." ”
Zhu Xiaohua also said, "Social networking itself is closely related to the entire mobile Internet environment, the current entire mobile Internet has no new technology, and it is difficult to rely solely on business model innovation to have big opportunities." ”
In fact, profitability has always been a peak in front of all social products, and the head product is no exception. In order to seek further performance growth, In 2019, Soul launched virtual commodity trading, followed by the launch of new e-commerce transactions in Q1 2021; since 2018, Momo has gradually shifted to live-based scenario-based social networking in order to improve user retention; in 2020, Tantan is also exploring the new integration of entertainment games and social networking.
Ge Jun said, "For multi-person interest social APP, you can try the user paid chat system, meet the user's desire to talk while achieving profitability, and transform the social platform into a service trading platform, which is nothing more than a new idea." ”
Perhaps the future social product will not become the small and beautiful "Garden of Eden" in the hearts of the post-00s, but it must have the ability to make itself hematopoietic in order to meet the needs of users in a longer term.
Runjia, who also likes strangers to socialize, is in stark contrast to the post-00s social APP that prefers niche strangers.
Runjia told Burning Finance that when choosing a stranger social APP, he will first download the products that are hot on the market or are well known to the public. "Momo and Soul are both products I'm currently using. Although I will also try to dig up some niche, new apps, but the use of time will not be too long, basically play a few days to uninstall. Runjia said that the reason for uninstalling is actually very simple, and it will feel that there are too few users on these niche apps and a lot of fun is missing.
Runjia and the above-mentioned post-00s have completely different needs for stranger social interaction, which may just intuitively reflect the development and change of stranger social products.
Resources:
"In the past ten years, "Stranger Social" has raised nearly 30 billion yuan, and the rise of scenario-based social networking" is the rise, source: Qichacha Data Research Institute.
Stranger Social APP: Has Not Evolved, Source: One Entertainment Observation.
"Strangers social ten years of ups and downs: a brother is old, the little brother is difficult", source, financial stories.
*The caption and some of the illustrations in the text are from Visual China.
*Zeng Qian, Yuan Lang, Xu Hua, Runjia, Lu Hui, and Kula are pseudonyms.
*Disclaimer: In no event shall the information herein or the opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice to any person.