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张小龙为什么执念微信输入法?

Why is Xiaolong Zhang obsessed with the WeChat input method?

鹿鳴財經 ·  Jun 19, 2021 14:18

Do you have the feeling that there is always a pair of invisible eyes staring at you, trying to manipulate you.

Maybe it's not your delusion.

On January 19th, Wechat Night arrived as promised. In this moment of public attention, after publishing his imagination for the video number, Zhang Xiaolong made a U-turn and talked about the topic of user privacy.

He said he often receives complaints from many users questioning the security of Wechat. Because every time you talk about something in Wechat, you can immediately see the relevant ads when you open other APP.

"Wechat is not the only one dealing with your information. After making such a meaningful remark, Zhang Xiaolong immediately said that Wechat will launch its own input method.

As soon as this remark came out, the third-party input method was immediately pushed to the forefront of the storm. What is even more frightening to ponder is that thirty years later, the seemingly absurd plot in Truman's World has already been staged in reality.

Who's monitoring our lives? The input method may be one of the hidden cameras.

Three months later, Wechat launched the internal test of "Wechat Keyboard" on a small scale, and users who are qualified for the internal test can view and open it in the "I-Settings-plug-in" center. Unlike other input methods, a privacy protection mode is built into the Wechat keyboard. However, from the subsequent online feedback, the response is relatively mediocre.

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You know, all along, because the input method is a word-of-mouth product with slow effect, low return and high risk, the major APP and mobile phone manufacturers have given up self-research and chose to use mature third-party input methods instead.

So, what on earth made Zhang Xiaolong decide to launch Wechat's own input method?

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A cluster of chaotic images

The Chinese have long been inseparable from the Internet.

According to the 47th Statistical report on the Development of Internet Networks in China, by December 2020, the average Internet user in China spent as much as 26.2 hours a week on the Internet.

As McLuhan said, "the medium is information". After a long time on the Internet, mobile phones have grown into an extended organ of human beings. this electronic screen carries almost all our work, leisure and life, making people as clean as being illuminated by a spotlight.

Prior to this, many netizens found that when they finished chatting, opening Taobao may immediately recommend the corresponding products, and some netizens even recommended the urn to him when they hit a cursing sentence on the front foot.

Although this sounds like an ironic own joke, when you think about it, you can't help but shudder-our phones are most likely "bugged".

When people start to crusade against those traffic APP, they just ignore another possibility, which is the input method as the source of information input.

On May 1, 2021, the Internet Information Office issued a report on the illegal collection and use of personal information in 33 App, including input methods. Among the 33 APP involved in illegal collection of user information, 15 APP were input methods, including Sogou, iFLYTEK, Baidu, Inc. and other input methods.

图片Picture source: official website of the Internet Information Office

After receiving the notification, Apple Inc APP Store has been removed from the shelves of Sogou, iFLYTEK and QQ Input, and several mobile app markets have been unable to download the three apps. So far, QQ Input can not be found in XIAOMI's store, and iFlytek Input's feedback is still "the app is being optimized internally, and downloads are not available for the time being."

Some media have investigated before that there are many problems with the user agreement in the input method. Take Sogou as an example, the input method, which was originally used only as a typing tool for people, will require users to open a variety of permissions, including location information, microphone, address book, camera and so on.

图片Image source: network

Although the user agreement in the input method states that it will use this information to provide users with downloaded content and optimize cloud thesaurus, voice input and other better experience. But when it comes to exactly how to use the data,A number of input method software have mentioned in the user agreement that they will use it for data analysis in order to provide business promotion and operation services, and even share this information with joint operators.

图片Image source: network

In view of this, it is not surprising that in the process of typing and chatting, the input method will recommend personalized advertisements according to associative words. After some netizens once entered "no money", the loan advertisement immediately jumped out of the input box, directly destroying the user's experience.

All these are accomplished by covert "exclusive thesaurus" and associative words. In the long run, there is no guarantee that there will be no personal sensitive information, such as password, mobile phone number, ID card number and so on.

So the question is, why do input methods over-collect users' privacy?

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A gatekeeper who steals himself.

In a nutshell, the profit model of the input method is the same as that of most Internet platforms, gathering users by providing free services on the one hand and selling traffic on the other.

The difference is that, as a tool software and a portal connecting users and APP, input method itself is difficult to form an ecology, and the flow of control is much larger than that of ordinary APP.

According to the latest data from Prida Consulting, the number of third-party mobile phone input method users in China reached 756 million in 2020, an increase of 2.9% over the same period last year, accounting for 76.44% of the total network users, while the mobile phone penetration rate was as high as 78.9%.

With such a large amount of traffic and such sensitive information, what if the gatekeeper steals himself? In fact, it is precisely the single cashout channel and fragile revenue structure that compels input methods to make up their minds about data.

图片Picture Source: head Leopard Research Institute

As the third-party input method of tool attribute software, it inherits content providers, advertisers and users. The main revenue methods include paid services for C-end and B-end, and advertising marketing. Seemingly rich ways of realization, but the only thing that can really make a profit is advertising marketing.

From the point of view of C-end users, the road of payment is obviously difficult to get through. In the early stage of the development of the market, the major input method enterprises use the free mode to rob users, coupled with the low technical content of the input method itself, users' willingness to pay is not strong, or even quite contradictory. In 2017, it was rumored that Sogou's input method planned to launch an ad-free membership service of 9.90 yuan per month, but it came to nothing.

Although there is still user-paid space for customized content such as skin and fonts, in today's fierce competition, everyone is free, and the input method that is not free is a dead end.

There are also great difficulties in the realization of enterprise services on the B side. Mob Research Institute shows that at present, the dividend of mobile Internet traffic in China has been exhausted, the third-party input method market has entered the battle of the stock market, and the pre-installed software battlefield of mobile phone manufacturers has become a must.

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Picture Source: Mob Research Institute

Some netizens revealed that previously, major input methods had paid mobile phone manufacturers in order to pre-install mobile phones, and then Sogou proposed to share the traffic and fees generated by the advertising space of his browser and input method to mobile phone manufacturers. Manufacturers accepted the proposal, but since then input method advertising has become more rampant.

Insiders engaged in network development said that any input method with cloud thesaurus function needs to collect user data, but whether the information will be sold to a third-party company depends on the specific protocol and the consciousness of the input method company, the Beijing News reported.

It is worth noting that, in addition to cloud thesaurus and cloud association, the input method also obtains the user's information through the permissions of the device, storage, location, address book, and microphone. In this way, the input method can know that the user's preferences, age, and even identity and other personal information can be obtained more comprehensively, and then intelligent advertising recommendations can be made through a third-party SDK.

However, for the efficient input method tool itself, it is obvious that unrestrained advertising will only dampen the user experience, and based on the strong traffic of the input method itself, it will be diverted to the search engine to form coordination and realize cash. it might be a good idea.

This point has long been thought of by Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan, and has been verified on the PC side. Financial data show that in the first quarter of 2021, Sogou's search and search-related ads accounted for about 90% of the total revenue, of which bidding ads accounted for more than 80%.

In fact, this idea also holds true on mobile phones. But according to Southern Weekly, a former employee of Sogou's input method revealed that the "three-stage rocket" is the strategy of the PC era. In the actual work, it is felt that this transmission route is not as smooth as the ideal, and the commercialization path of the input method is not clear enough, on the contrary, the operation and maintenance costs are high.

This can be seen from Sogou's financial report data. Sogou's 2020 financial report shows that total revenue in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was $1.124 billion, $1.172 billion and $925 million, respectively, of which search and search-related advertising service revenue accounted for about 90% of the total revenue. Affected by the epidemic, total revenue and search-related advertising service revenue both fell by about 1/5 in 2020 compared with the same period last year.

At the same time, in the past three years, the revenue and cost were $693 million, $738 million and $734 million, respectively, slowing down from 51.6% to-0.54% year-on-year; net profit was $99 million, $89 million and-$108 million, respectively. Costs fell in 2020, but losses widened. No wonder the outside world is worried about Sogou's heavy reliance on advertising revenue.

In addition, Sogou's financial report does not list the revenue generated by the input method separately, but from the revenue business of search and search-related advertising services, it accounts for most of the revenue of the auction-based pay-per-click service, that is, when users click on the promotion link, the company charges advertisers a fee per click, and the number of customers has increased from 139000 to 183000 from 2018 to 2020. Growth slowed from 25.9% to 4.5%.

At the same time, the ARPA (average revenue per ad) of auction-based pay-per-click services fell from $6168 to $3971, respectively, while advertisers' growth slowed while APRA continued to decline. The side shows that the advertising business of Sogou input method is actually not optimistic.

Even the market leader is like this, not to mention other input method enterprises, which leads to the formation of a vicious circle. In order to expand revenue, it is necessary to receive more advertisements, encourage more users to click, and improve the rate of return of each advertisement, so it is necessary to improve the accuracy of advertising push, then it is bound to invade more users' privacy.

However, the input method, which obviously makes money from user information, is inexplicably invisible when people question the existence of APP "eavesdropping" users.

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Is the platform really "monitoring" users?

In all kinds of APP, such as Douyin, Wechat, Taobao and so on, every time users browse, search and chat will generate all kinds of information. The daily active users of these APP are tens or even hundreds of millions. The longer users stay in the application, the more data will be generated.

How many data interactions does a networked person produce every day?

According to data released by IDC, the answer is 1426.And these thousands of messages mean that they may be stolen all the time.

After users exchange or browse information on platform A, and then switch to platform B, this behavior of relevant information will make users feel that their privacy is offended, thus denouncing the two platforms of AB.

But what they ignore is that the input method that hunts this information is very likely to be the input method that constantly follows the user's actions.After all, the major Internet companies are still competitive, and they are not so generous about the sharing of users' core information.

A netizen once complained on Zhihu Inc. that after a conversation with his girlfriend on Wechat, he was sure that under the premise that he had not searched for data cable-related content anywhere else, he opened the salted fish but was immediately recommended as an Apple Inc rechargeable cord, which coincided with the message of "more than ten yuan" in the chat record.

From his point of view, he has to wonder whether Sogou's input method leaked the information in the chat transcript. After all, Wechat and Taobao belong to two old rivals, Tencent and BABA, and the possibility of sharing information is quite low.

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Image source: network

In this way, the input method seems to be taking advantage of users' trust in them, crawling the information of these Internet platforms, and then pushing personalized advertisements to users. However, because most users can only realize An and B as the information presentation platform, they ignore the "tool person" input method hiding in the dark corner.

This is why Zhang Xiaolong wants to launch an input method that belongs exclusively to Wechat, in order to protect user information. He claims to create an input method that never collects user data.

In fact, exclusive keyboards have long been used in some scenarios. When users log in to the mobile bank, they will basically be forcibly switched to a disordered password keypad. Similarly, when users enter WeChat Pay and Alipay payments, they will also be replaced with a proprietary keyboard to prevent private information from being stolen.

At present, exclusive keyboards basically only exist in scenes related to money transactions, but as the country and citizens attach importance to personal privacy protection, the platform is also taking various protection measures. In the future, it may become a trend for various platforms to develop their own keyboards.

In March this year, Huawei registered a trademark called "Xiaoyi input method" and was accused of developing its own input method. Just recently, Xiaoyi input method has been exposed, the English name is Celia Keyboard, the overall style is relatively simple, there are four kinds of skin to choose from.

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图片Image source: network

In a conference call in April this year, BABA CEO Zhang Yong said that he would, as always, work closely with regulators to ensure full compliance in data use and collection, and that a lot of resources had been invested.

In the past two years, as all kinds of APP require more and more users to authorize information, in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of citizens and organizations and safeguard national sovereignty, on June 10, at the 29th meeting of the standing Committee of the 13th National people's Congress, the data Security Law (hereinafter referred to as the "Digital Security Law") was examined and adopted and will enter into force on September 1st.

According to the Digital Security Law, according to the degree of importance,The data shall be protected by classification and classification.In addition, any organization or individual should collect and use data in a legal and legitimate manner.Institutions engaged in data transaction intermediary services shall require the data provider to indicate the source of the dataIn carrying out data processing activities and the research and development of new data technologies, it should be conducive to promoting economic and social development and in line with social morality and ethics.

In recent days, many Internet companies have stepped up their efforts to protect data security after the passage of the Digital Security Law. On June 15, Huawei launched the application security incentive program to improve the security of the application market. In addition, Tencent, DiDi Global Inc. and other companies have set up special data security teams.

Now 5G has gradually entered the public view, the picture of the Internet of everything is slowly emerging, and the interactive data of users in the future will explode exponentially.Data is not only a huge intangible asset, but also a double-edged sword that infringes upon national security and personal privacy.

It is also in such an environment that the status of input method as the originating station of information input becomes very important.It is urgent to strengthen the data supervision of the mainstream input method, and do not let it become a "wealth password" to steal personal privacy.

Edit / elisa

The translation is provided by third-party software.


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