Two decades after QQ and Wechat dominate the social circuit, a new tipping point seems to have come.

Looking back at the social market in 2019, new products continue to be launched. Up to now, new and old giants such as BABA, Byte Jump, Baidu, Inc., JD.com, NetEase, Inc, and Sohu.com Ltd have entered the bureau one after another. Yingke's acquisition of 85 million US dollars has aroused heated discussion, and Soul with the label of "soul" has come to the fore.

Some experts told Sina Technology thatThe post-00s group is on the rise, its needs for social networks are different, this main group is not necessarily keen on Wechat, and Wechat's position is not "unbreakable."

In the second half of this year, Tencent launched six or seven social products one after another, and the recently launched "Friends" also began to brush the screen on a small scale.

Behind frequent layoutsThe giant may have some "anxiety" on the social track-it may incubate new super products at a time when social demand is evolving.

The situation of heroes competing with each other has opened again, and whether Tencent can continue to dominate remains to be tested.

What is the significance of social "combinatorial boxing"?

At present, the social software surfaced by Tencent is mainly related to cat call, echo, ringing wind, light chat, Youji, friends and so on.They were all launched in the second half of this year, and some of the products are still in the testing stage.

Maohu focuses on video chat and real-time mask matching; echo focuses on voice chat, heart-to-heart friendship, fast pairing and passionate group warfare; Xiangfeng is positioned as a short music video social platform for young people to share an interesting life, claiming that it is not wrong to chase stars, listen to songs and interact with friends; lightly talk about target users in single groups, positioning high-quality dating software, "first-line famous colleges and universities, real-person certification and audit" There are main records of daily trivia and real life, allowing users to communicate under a common topic; friends are the latest ones, mainly promoting real-name social networking and intelligent matching, claiming to be brand new and wholeheartedly create the most real social circle, find real friends, and meet the right person.

It can be said that each of the above products has its own characteristics. As the largest player in the social field, Tencent already owns two national-level apps, Wechat and QQ, with more than 1.15 billion monthly active users and the latter about 730 million monthly active users. If BABA, byte beat and so on enter the social network, hoping to get a piece of the market, Tencent himself continues to shoot, and for what?

The answer should be seen from two angles: defense on the one hand and attack on the other.

Looking back on this year's social product news, at the beginning of the year, byte Jump, Fast Technology and Fast broadcast founder Wang Xin launched three social products: multi-flash, Liaotianbao and toilet MT respectively; in June, Sohu.com Ltd announced the launch of Fox Friends; in September, JD.com tested pears in math, BABA restarted internal tests like me. In November, Baidu, Inc. launched a location-based handset, and NetEase, Inc went online to focus on the sound waves of "speech chat", probing to test "flash chat" in some areas, so that users can "cover their faces" to chat.

Although no product can shake the social foundation of Wechat and QQ at the moment, the concerted action of these giants is bound to attract the attention of Tencent. Tencent's series of new social products were launched in the second half of this year.

In the opinion of Zhang Shule, a critic of the Internet industry, Tencent's current new applications are mainly trial and error and defensive products. On the one hand, try and error more social games to explore new postures in the post-Wechat era; on the other hand, under the general trend that various platforms are constantly trying out social applications, with similar or similar social products, relying on their own large social user base, carry out strategic defense against other products to ensure that they do not pose a potential threat to Wechat and QQ.

Post-00s generation is no longer keen on Wechat?

Products change with the times and user groups.QQ dominates the era of desktop Internet, Wechat breaks out in the era of mobile Internet, and when 5G network is rolled out, a new era of the Internet of everything follows. meanwhile,With the rise of post-00s groups, the demand for social networks will also be different from that of the previous generation.

According to the 43rd Statistical report on the Development of China's Internet released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), as of December 2018,The usage rate of Wechat moments was 83.4%, down 3.9% from the end of 2017.According to the research results of Aurora Mobile Limited and big data, in February this year,14.6% of users browse on moments more frequently.

Zhang Yi, chief analyst at Ai Media Consulting, analyzed to Sina Technology that the post-70s generation played the most important role in promoting the first generation of social products such as QQ, while the rise of Wechat in the mobile Internet era is closely related to the post-85s and post-90s generation."when it comes to the post-00 stage, they are not necessarily very keen on Wechat.". In Zhang Yi's view, byte beating and BABA assemble and plan a variety of social products, which are actually oriented to the layout of post-00 and even post-10 generation.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of people born after 2000 is about 160 million. Now, this group is selling the door of adults one after another. They are the aborigines of the Internet age, they are more sensitive to the touch of the Internet, at the same time, their living conditions are relatively rich, and their consumption habits and values are different from each other earlier.

The ADD Advertising Research Alliance conducted a survey of this group and released a report on App exposure behavior of new potential people in China from 2018 to 2019, which shows thatThis "new potential energy group" is highly dependent on social interaction, and social applications have become the category with the highest penetration rate in this group. However, compared with previous generations, post-00s social interaction tends to be more entertaining.At the same time, they have a strong sense of autonomy, and the purpose of making friends is not just a casual acquaintance, but a desire to find like-minded partners or a platform to gain identity.

In addition, the development of 5G will also bring the social track to a new stage. Wang Zhiqin, vice president of the China Academy of Information and Communications, has pointed out that 3G and 4G have opened the era of mobile Internet. 5G has expanded from mobile Internet to mobile animal networking, and its service object has expanded from human-to-human communication to human-to-thing, and thing-to-thing communication. it will be deeply integrated with all fields of economy and society, leading to profound changes in the way of production and life.

How will the social scene of the Internet of everything change? Zhang Yi takes falling in love as an example: boys have feelings for girls and their heart beats faster. In the current Wechat and QQ, people can only express this state through words, but the other person can not judge whether this situation is true or not. But when the 5G era comes, sensors can capture all kinds of information, and users can send "emotional transmission" directly through social products to each other, such as a rapid heartbeat and a rise in blood pressure.

From the point of view of user groups and technological development, now is the time for change.

The new popular style is still made by Tencent?

Wechat not only made Zhang Xiaolong a god, but also let Tencent gain a firm foothold in the mobile Internet era. There is no doubt that there is a great attraction to reproduce such a product. However, among the products mentioned above, there is no one that can attract the wide attention of ordinary users.

Tencent's recently launched "friend" has been hotly debated in the media in the past few days. Its slogan is moving, the color is fresh, and the product name and four-leaf clover logo also remind some users of the previous friend network. However, the actual experience shows that the function of this product is not perfect. Netizen Yu Yu summed up her feelings: "it's boring." I can't even find my own company. One of the main functions of friends is "meet". Users can set the matching purpose and gender to "meet the right TA". However, in order to use this feature, you must first complete the company certification. There was a media test before and encountered a problem similar to Yu Yu.

In addition, at present, friends in App can only send text and emoji expressions to their friends. Nowadays, emojis have become an important expression tool and sharing pictures has become a routine operation.Intuitively, there is something wrong with this product, while Tencent's other new social products are also lack of innovation.

Zhang Yi's analysisFor Tencent, this is the stage of running with social products. If you don't run with you, the next stick will be hard to catch.In his view, new social software like Wechat and QQ has reached a tipping point, but it is not certain when it will break out. Although it is difficult to have software to completely replace the function of Wechat, Zhang Yi believes that the position of Wechat is not unbreakable from the need of pure chat.

In terms of the future development of social products, Zhang Shule has a slightly different view. He is not optimistic about the pure chat model, and believes that in the overall social field, there may no longer be a common form of popular social apps. But,"Social products with strong vertical functional colors may gradually dig out depth and stickiness. "Zhang Shule, for example, "Momo Inc, for example, is trying to use the new city information flow to open more offline scenes and game scenes for strangers to socialize, walking the nail of the office OA style, and gradually doing the social form of the deep office field." "

Social networking is ubiquitous, and many platforms are gradually strengthening their social functions. They will become rivals to new entrants, highlighting another possibility in the social field. In addition to the above obvious examples, Mai Mai launched the professional speech company circle for the company's certified employees, and Zhihu Inc. quietly incubated the circle, allowing users with the same interests to enter different small groups to communicate more easily, all of which are worth noting.

From the current market pattern, as a "way of life", Wechat has been deeply integrated into life. It is not only a chat tool, but also a reading tool, a game platform and a means of payment. In the third quarter of this year, Tencent's financial technology and corporate services became the most eye-catching segment of the business, with revenue growing by 36% compared with the same period last year, which is closely related to WeChat Pay. In recent days, "Wechat has been defaulted as a regular office software" has been uploaded into Weibo Corp's popular search.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, Wechat will become larger as an ecology, and this ecology is almost irreplaceable. From the point of view of chatting, making friends and expressing themselves, users do need new applications to meet their needs.

Tencent's own launch of a series of new social products must also be considered in this regard. What it wants to reconstruct is not just a piece of "friend" software, but to reconstruct complex social relationships, circling users who may leave its social network into their new App again. But will the new popular style products still be made by Tencent? It's hard to tell.

The future is coming quietly, and now it is a vague gesture.