2014, anonymous social life and death

When it comes to what is the hottest social product of the past 2014 years, it is undoubtedly the "secret" of the big anonymous social products. They have no bottom line without the moral integrity of the material, viral marketing methods, rapid accumulation of a large number of users. To make people aware of the huge potential in the vertical area of anonymous social networking. Unfortunately, in the wake of a burst of user growth, the user's growth rate and retention rates have fallen sharply due to problems such as weak stickiness of users of anonymous social products and too much negative news.

From the sercet-of a stranger's tree hole to the secret of a friend at the Spit-and then to the anonymous group chat based on an acquaintance system launched by major IM software, the introduction of each product has attracted a lot of users, which makes the major VC confidence, that these achievements are enough to explain the anonymity of social activities. But actually? America's Sercet long dead, and its Chinese brothers "secret" is not. Due to the lack of grasp of the content of the negative UCG, on May 8, 2014, the "secret" was forced by the Apple store, after 12 days renamed as "no secret" comeback, but not long after the product form problems and again off the shelf.

Finally, there is no secret choice to work with the "Friends of the Secret" to appear again in the Apple Store. It is 15 of January, The secret is also updated to the 3.0 version, in the form of products made a great change, new features have been added to "nearby people" and "secret discovery" blocks, and a "anonymous" feature was launched, the first attempt to "anonymous" communication, and the first step towards "anonymity".

These changes prove a judgment: the pure anonymity function does not support a complete product, it can only as a bright spot function for the product add luster.

Divide the current social software into two broad categories:

The first category is wide-area social platforms, strong social networking with acquaintances, such as Facebook, micro-letters, and weak social relationships with strangers, such as Mo and Weibo;

The second is a vertical social platform, such as social interaction on the basis of a stranger's relationship, watercress, knowledge, innovative socializing in interactive form, Snapchat, secret, social networking for the specific, blued, Lala Gardens, etc.

However, it is difficult to use anonymous social networking, strangers social or strong relationship, weak relationship to explain this product is hot, because it is your mobile phone address book strong relationship chain imported, but there is no way to know the people behind the release of each message is who, There is no way to get that familiar, intimate pleasure from traditional acquaintances. So I think of it as a social product geek, and the geek who can't explain the rules is the inevitable result of the expansion of the social product chain and the return of human nature.

All social Products escape the doom of the chain of relationships. From foreign Facebook to everyone in the country, to the current global popularity of micro-blogging and micro-letters, as you have more and more friends, the level of friends more and more complex, parents, bosses, colleagues, brothers and sisters are flocking to your social relations chain, whenever you want to publish a message, The psychological pressure you're going to get is getting bigger. Your social experience feels awful, and the thrill of expression is getting lost. At this point, you will find that young users fleeing a huge social platform, the main young blink can quickly jump red in just 50 days and get 100 million of the valuation is the truth.

In fact, human beings have a desire to express in their bones, when a certain expression of desire by the social constraints and restrictions, the heart is uneasy and painful. This is the same movie plot that we often see: painful people go to church and tell their inner voice to the pastor, and TA is the real thing.

In fact, we look at the domestic popular network subculture in recent years, from the "Letter Chun-Hung branch" of the irony and senior black to the Internet users of the force of homosexuality and cock silk culture rise, and then to "tyrants we Make Friends," "about it?" "And so the bare expression of money desires and sexual desires, we find that digital citizens are becoming more and more concerned about and expressing their inner needs, even though the way we see them is not the same."

Therefore, with the development and influence of the whole subculture, we will see that on the anonymous social product, people begin to release the truest self, complain about the work, dissatisfaction with the organization, desire for sex and money, etc.

The value of anonymity lies not in the reckless but in equality, truth and security.

Anonymity is not an end, but a method.

When social networking is increasingly pervasive in our lives, it brings with it the challenges of identity, image, face, security, and even our own character, and we begin to choose to disguise or evade. The mainstream social platform, represented by Weibo, friends and Renren, inadvertently becomes a fetter and pressure that leads to "no one understands me", and anonymity is the way to remove preparedness and shackles and promote more sincere communication and interaction.

Anonymous social direct strike human nature-curiosity and prying desire for the unknown, as long as mankind does not stop this curiosity, so anonymous society for human beings has always been a need to meet the pain point, but also the source of the birth of new products. But now the market is just grabbing the form and not capturing the nature of anonymous socializing, which is first a healthy social relationship and then anonymous.

The essence of social intercourse is to exchange information, to promote feelings, to build relationships, to enrich ourselves, and to be a positive energy lifestyle.

So anonymity can help us better realize the value of socializing, not just the negative and pornographic ones that are currently on the market. Instead, it should create an atmosphere of equality, fairness and security to help people find more resonance and release stress.

But in several apps in the country, I am sorry to see the fire is full of all kinds of explosive materials and full of negative energy vent, which is certainly with the quality of the user has a certain relationship, but fundamentally or because the product did not lead to users, let them create some more interesting to correct the energy content.

It seems to me that the ultimate meaning of anonymous socializing is connecting the most authentic self to the person.

Anonymous socializing should not be the main function of a product, but as a bright spot function;

The content of anonymous socializing should be directed toward brightness, health, rather than a burst of tree hole;

The future of anonymous socializing should be to build healthy user relationships and turn them online, rather than a negative energy cluster hiding behind the phone.