In the Internet industry, social networking has always been a battleground for giants. From QQ to Wechat, from Weibo Corp to Douyin, new social platforms are emerging and rising, and users are also extended from post-90s to post-00s. The changes in the social era also reflect the development trend of the Internet and changes in the way netizens socialize.

Recently, a topic called # the ten most popular social platforms in the world on the Internet has attracted everyone's attention.A video counts TOP 10, a global social platform from 2014 to 2019.

The video shows that some foreign social platforms such as Facebook Inc, YouTube, WhatsApp (communication app) and Tumblr (light blog site) have been members of TOP 10 from 2014 to 2019.

In China, in 2014, Tencent's social products accounted for almost half of the list, such asTencent Weibo Corp 、 QQ 、 Wechat 、 QzoneAre all on the list. However, with the development of the Internet over the past five years, the fate of these social platforms has experienced many ups and downs.

Top 10 most popular social platforms in the world in 2014

Top 10 most popular social platforms in the world in 2019

In 2019, when the once brilliant QQ and Qzone fell from No. 2 and No. 4 to No. 7 and No. 8 respectively, Tencent and Weibo Corp disappeared directly from the list, and Wechat, which was born later, became the fourth in the world. In addition to Tencent's products, emerging social platforms such as Sina Weibo Corp and Tik Tok also appear on the list.

As of January 2019, the top 10 most popular social platforms in the world were Facebook Inc, YouTube, WhatsApp, Wechat, Instagram, Tumblr, QQ, Qzone, Douyin and Sina Weibo Corp.

Among them, there are five domestic social products on the list, namely Wechat, QQ, Qzone, Douyin and Sina Weibo Corp. Why these social platforms are favored by netizens, you might as well take a look with Bang GE.

TOP 5: Sina Weibo Corp

Launch time: August 2009

Speaking of which, Twitter is actually the "ancestor of Weibo Corp" in the world. No matter whether it was the original meal or not, or the Weibo Corp products made by Tencent, Sohu.com Ltd, NetEase, Inc and Sina later, they are inextricably related to Twitter.

Now, Fanfu has long been shut down for some reason, Sohu.com Ltd and NetEase, Inc's Weibo Corp platform have come to naught, and Tencent and Weibo Corp went into hiding after their defeat in the Weibo Corp war in 2014. Only Sina Weibo Corp, since its launch in 2009, has cut through all the difficulties and has become one of the social giants in China.

Weibo Corp celebrated his 10th birthday in 2018. From a brand-new social form to the first position of public opinion flow in China and the most popular network platform, Weibo Corp has experienced a decade of ups and downs.

When Weibo Corp was just starting, Han Han, Yao Chen, Pan Shiyi, Li Kaifu and other early generation Big Vs moved in one after another. They frequently spoke on public domain topics on Weibo Corp, with tens of millions of fans.The number of retweets and comments of a single post Weibo Corp often reach hundreds of thousands.Great pressure of public opinion has been formed in several public events and debates on public topics.

Subsequently, elites with all kinds of voice began to settle in Weibo Corp, from political news to entertainment gossip, where many netizens exchanged face-to-face exchanges with Big V and showed their lives, according to the financial report of Sina Weibo Corp in February 2013.The number of registered users has exceeded 500 million.

The good times did not last long. A few years later, the rise of Wechat, coupled with Weibo Corp's own problems in positioning, flow realization, influence, attitude towards ordinary users, brand image and so on, caused many users to leave Weibo Corp and choose Wechat.

Just when Weibo Corp was about to disappear from the public's line of sight, BABA entered the game strongly to turn the tide.In 2014, BABA's capital injection allowed Weibo Corp to make great plans.

First of all, Weibo Corp began to subdivide the vertical fields such as fashion, beauty makeup, and tourism, attracting different user groups; and actively sinking from first-and second-tier cities to third-and fourth-tier cities, in order to attract this group of users, Weibo Corp gained a large number of exposure with the help of Reality Show programs of major satellite TV stations, supporting more small and medium-sized Vs and self-media.

In 2016, Weibo Corp launched a support program for video MCN (content creation organization). Against this background, Weibo Corp became popular with a large number of Internet celebrities in different fields.Such as papi Jiang, a short video blogger with 30 million followers, Zhang Dayi, the first online celebrity in e-commerce who went public this year, and Wang Sicong, who won 10 million retweets in a lucky draw for Weibo Corp.

At the same time, Weibo Corp also ushered in the era of fan economy. In the past two years, Lu Han and Zhao Liying have twice brought Weibo Corp down because of too many visitors, especially Weibo Corp fans of stars such as he Jiong and Xie Na.Breaking through the 100 million mark can be called the "top traffic" of Weibo Corp.。

Weibo Corp announced his financial results for 2018 in March 2019. Weibo Corp's monthly active users reached 462 million in December 2018.

However, in the heyday, the crisis coexisted. After breaking through the encirclement and suppression of Wechat, the scenic Weibo Corp met Douyin at the corner.Among the 2019 most popular social platforms released this time, Weibo Corp finally lagged behind Douyin by one place.

TOP 4: Tik Tok

Launch time: September 2016

Douyin, can be said to be a rising star in the field of Internet social communication, its brilliance and rising speed are startling. Douyin even beat Weibo Corp to rank ninth in the TOP 10 list released this time.The 3-year-old Douyin had no stage fright in the face of 10-year-old Weibo Corp.

After only six months on the market, the number of users of this short video software has exceeded 100 million, and the number of videos played every day has exceeded 1 billion. In addition:

As of June 12, 2018, the number of daily active users in China has exceeded 150 million.

On July 16, 2018, the number of global monthly active users exceeded 500 million.

In June 2018, Douyin overseas version of Tik Tok covers more than 150 countries around the world. It has become the most popular short video App in Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Germany and other countries.

Ranking of iPhone app downloads in the first quarter of 2018

Compared with other social platforms, Douyin's road to popularity is more "legendary", which can be said to be a combination of weather, location, people and both, specifically the chemical reactions triggered by short video + social networking + user location + content.

First of all, the help of the short video tuyere. With the fragmentation of users' time, ten-second short videos have become a popular new way to relax. Short videos are becoming more and more popular in 2017, with the market size reaching 5.73 billion, an increase of 183.9% over the same period last year.

A strong social attribute. Douyin video has social attributes such as following, collecting, sharing, leaving messages, forwarding and so on, which accords with the current trend of socialization of the Internet in China, and also provides a way for its rapid spread.

The flow of Douyin users and data

For young users, become the fashion label of young groups. Compared with similar short video App, Douyin is aimed at younger users, targeting the post-90s and post-00s generation of Internet aborigines, who are now the main force of Internet traffic.

In 2017, Douyin official said, "85% of Douyin users are under the age of 24, and the main talent and users are basically post-95 or even post-00."

According to the latest official figures from Douyin (as of August 2018), 83% of Douyin users are under the age of 35. The proportion of people under 24 years old, 25-30 years old and 31-35 years old is similar.

Source: Ari Index, as of May 2019

Therefore, the main user group of Douyin has risen from young users under 24 to 25-35 years old. The influence of Douyin is spreading from young people to become a more popular App for all.

Users produce and upload content, and the era of plain people online celebrities is coming. With hundreds of millions of Internet users in China, Douyin has achieved the diversity and huge amount of content, coupled with byte-jumping algorithm recommendations, Douyin has attracted a large number of fans in every vertical field.

On the other hand, the popularity of Douyin videos has also aroused the creative enthusiasm of ordinary users. Content creation groups and content consumer groups flow and spread each other, forming a huge number of Douyin users. Douyin, which has 500m monthly active users, is still expanding rapidly.

In November 2018, Douyin officially announced that its DAU exceeded 200 million. At the revenue level, it focuses on the forecast of the equity investment fund Xinyi Capital team in the field of TMT.Douyin's revenue will reach 20 billion in 2018.. In addition, in 2019, the most powerful byte-beating money engine will probably be changed from Jinri Toutiao to Douyin.

TOP 3:QQ space

Launch time: June 2005

Qzone used to be popular all over the country, north and south.

Although Qzone fell to eighth place in this list, the social platform, which has been born for 14 years, still has nearly 500m monthly active users.

As one of the oldest social products, Qzone was once the earliest spiritual home of the Internet in China.The diary and talk released in those years, the filled yellow diamond, the well-decorated space home page, the lively space message board…… As long as someone mentions it, it can always evoke a big wave of memories.

On the 14th, a Weibo Corp triggered netizens' collective nostalgia for Qzone.

Qzone, born in 2005On the one hand, it has accumulated a strong user base based on QQ; on the other hand, it lacks competitors in the same industry.With its preconceived advantages and timeliness of network development, it brings a continuous sense of novelty to the younger generation and attracts a large number of young users.

There is also a very important point is its space development of various applications, so that many users the most unforgettable, the deepest impression is the 2009 national-level application "QQ Farm".

2009年，QQ Farm, embedded in Qzone, led a trend of "stealing food" throughout the network, which became a popular game between men and women, old and young at that time.This game has created the pinnacle of the national online game, and even brought Qzone to a new height.

QQ Farm of a netizen

According to the data released by Tencent at that timeQQ Farm's monthly active users reached 320 million, and the number of registered accounts accounted for 2. 3% of China's population at that time.

The scenery is only for a while. Qzone himself is highly dependent on QQ, while in the outside world, the new mobile social networking style of Wechat + moments has become popular, and Qzone's user growth has been suppressed. As users grow older, Qzone's user stickiness is also decreasing.

But even so, this product, which has accompanied a generation through its youth, still has a large user base and high activity.

In the first quarter consolidated results released by Tencent in May 2018Qzone has 562 million monthly active users.In the case of Renren Inc and all kinds of blogs gradually declining, Qzone can still maintain such tenacious vitality, which has something to do with the recovery of QQ.

TOP 2:QQ

Launch time: February 1999

QQ, born in 1999, is now 20 years old. From the second in the world in 2014 to the seventh in the world in 2019, the past, present and future of QQ is a history of China Mobile Limited's social changes.

QQ from the debut on the stage of history, the rapid growth into a social overlord, and then was overtaken by Wechat, and now, once again coruscate the young vitality. This ancient social product, with the continuous change of the times, has gathered a group of new young people.In the process of the development of the Internet, every node has left its own figure.

Going back to 20 years ago, the "copycat" version of ICQ created by Tencent was born and was named OICQ. As the earliest generation of instant messaging products in China's Internet era, QQ has created achievements beyond the reach of later generations since its birth.

In 2000, OICQ changed its name to QQ because it was sued by ICO Company for infringement. At this time, users can already set nicknames and avatars, and then the rise of non-mainstream and killing Matt has become a unique cultural label of that era.

But at this time, the chat interface of QQ is still very simple, and messages should be sent one by one and checked one by one. However, this was already a great progress at that time. The immature QQ connects many strangers from all over the world.Knocking and coughing in the system have also become memories of many people.

Since 2002, QQ has been growing rapidly, with the number of registered users surging by 100 million a year. At the same time, its interface and functions are also constantly improved and enriched, adding video chat, QQ group, QQ Show and other functions, these functions are still in use today.

The QQ group extends social needs further, and users find more like-minded circles beyond acquaintances.

The emergence of QQ Show meets the personalized needs of many "junior high school sophomore".

……

In April 2004, the number of QQ registered users reached another historical peak, breaking through the 300 million mark. On June 16 of the same year, Tencent became the first Chinese Internet company to list on the Hong Kong main board.

In 2005, QQ greatly enriched the entertainment functions of users and launchedQQ Pet, QQ Music, QQ Video Show and so on. With the popularity of PC, more and more people begin to sign up for QQ. It can be said that the growth rate of QQ has basically maintained the same pace as the growth of China's PC market.

Until the advent of the era of mobile social networking, the era of exclusive QQ is gone.

In 2011, Tencent launched another mobile-based social product-Wechat. Compared with the bloated and cumbersome QQ, the lightweight and simple Wechat meets the social needs of more adults, so that many users have to abandon QQ for Wechat.

In the first half of 2017, QQ reached a major inflection point. QQ monthly active users fell 1.9% in the first quarter of 2017, and continued to decline in the second quarter, which is the first time in the history of QQ that QQ has entered the decline channel. QQ, which once ruled the PC era for nearly 20 years, has finally ushered in decline.

In the face of the attack of his brothers, QQ is also actively saving himself. In 2017, when a large number of users flocked to Wechat, QQ bet all on young people.Most of the former post-80s and post-90s users have been lost, and QQ has set its sights on the post-00s generation.

In order to cater to young people, QQ has been laying out a "rejuvenation strategy", adding a variety of colorful features and designs to satisfy users, such as centimeter show, changing bubble, interest tribe, expansion function and so on. In terms of content, QQ launched QQ viewpoints, which combine short videos and information streams. In November, Tencent officially said that the number of daily active users of QQ viewpoints had exceeded 100m.

In the third quarter of 2018, the number of monthly active users of the QQ platform aged 21 and under increased by 16% compared with the same period last year.With a common online memory, the post-80s and post-90s left the continent of QQ, and their successors began to sow their time.

And those young people who left QQ witnessed the birth of another national social software.

TOP 1: Wechat (WeChat)

Launch time: January 2011

If you want to say who is the "social king" in China today, it must be Wechat. In this list of global social platforms, Wechat is even more powerful, from seventh to fourth, and now it is only eight years after Wechat was born.

According to the financial results released by Tencent on the 15th, the combined number of monthly active user accounts of Wechat and WeChat reached 1.112 billion in the first quarter of 2019, making it a truly "national" app and an indispensable tool in modern life.

After 433 days of launch, the number of users reached 100 million; two years after launch, the number of users exceeded 300 million. Before Wechat, there had never been a product that grew at such a terrible rate. Compared to all previous PC Internet products, this is unique.

How popular is Wechat? In 2018, every day.45 billion timesMessages are sent among Wechat users every day.410 million timesThe audio call was successful, which was shared during the 2019 Spring Festival.8.23亿People send and receive WeChat red packet. Zhang Xiaolong, the "father of Wechat" previously joked: every day 500m people complain about Wechat and 100m people teach me how to make products.

Wechat has grown into a huge social empire in just a few years, which has experienced several important nodes.

Photo source: travelers think carefully

Voice function is the first tipping point of Wechat.In May 2011, Wechat launched version 2.0 with the addition of voice message function, which was quickly sought after by users, and the number of users began to grow explosively: the number of users increased rapidly from 5 million to 15 million, and the growth rate was getting faster and faster.

The social function of strangers that is successful at one stroke.Wechat launched the Shake and message in a bottle function in version 3.0, which allows users to connect to another user thousands of miles away by shaking gestures. Since its launch, the feature has been very popular with users-more than 100m times a day.

People nearby connect Wechat users with similar geographical locations, in the same way as Shake, but also to open up social links with strangers. After Wechat's people nearby and message in a bottle and Shake were released, the number of users soared and left their domestic counterparts far behind, establishing a giant position in the domestic mobile communications App.

Popular moments function so far.After Wechat launched the WeChat moments function in version 4.0, many users began to abandon Weibo Corp and switch to Wechat. Within 10 months, the number of Wechat users increased from 100m + to 300m +.

"beat" Weibo Corp's official account.Wechat official account was officially launched on August 23, 2012, and was named as "official platform", "media platform", Wechat official account, and finally defined as "public platform". With the launch of the official account, Wechat completely beat Weibo Corp, increasing the number of users from 300m + to 400m + and, most importantly, introducing the enterprise to Wechat.

Red packets link tens of thousands of wallets.Wechat added the "red packet function" to its version 6.1 released in January 2015, and began a war of throwing money around the Spring Festival in the same year (2014).

During the 2015 Spring Festival, the interactive link of "Wechat shaking red envelopes" in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala pushed WeChat red packet to the best part.Starting from the red packet, the stable relationship between people and people, between people and enterprises, and between enterprises and enterprises began to be established.

These are just the tip of the iceberg behind Wechat's imperial success. On the whole, Wechat's success is inseparable from these four words: connect everything. This is no longer a simple social empire, but a virtuous closed cycle of the ecosystem.

Wechat from the beginning is not a simple instant messaging tool, but a way of life, Wechat has undoubtedly been the most popular social software in China. But looking internationally, the world's top two instant messaging software are from Europe and the United States, are WhatsAPP and Facebook Inc, in the sea, Wechat has a long way to go.

Write at the end

Throughout these domestic social platforms on the list, they range from 0 to 1, from prosperity to decline, from obscurity to response, mixed with many factors such as social environment, users, strategy and so on. Change in an instant, seize the tuyere, or turn around in time, then you are likely to be the next social giant. But what can't be changed is that the social products that are on the list or have been on the list eventually become the common Internet memory of a generation.

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