"Good products" watercress and "bad products" everyone

"Guide" This article is by the Tiger olfactory network author Luo (Love Technology network founder) himself published in the "Global Business classic" magazine. The "Good product bad product" of the current column will be cooperated with "Global Business Classics" by the tiger sniffing net. Luo himself analyzed a good product in his eyes: watercress, and his serious bad products: Renren.

These two products are also accompanied by the author of the growth of youth, how can there be moss now? Everyone can take care of it.

I remember the first time I contacted Watercress in 2006 years. I was just a young engineering student, and I spent most of my free time in the computer room when I had internet addiction. So in the busy campus life outside, always feel the lack of something in life. Until there is a bored rainy day, I was in the computer room, in the site found a seemingly rough site-watercress. Then it took me 10 minutes to feel like I was missing something.

At the same moment, there was no social network, hormonal socializing, these fashionable words. And my watercress friend for a long time only a literary girl. But I think the watercress is very good. Because the watercress completely solved my discovery movie, the book demand, then solved my loneliness. So I love it in my heart. And for obsessive-compulsive disorder + perfectionism I, can have such status of products in fact, not much.

Watercress in the next few years placid, it is difficult to detect a large version of the feature upgrade.

Color has always been its creator Yang Bo originally selected green yellowish elegant color, a large number of text-only links, borders, background, and a small picture. Be sure to find the changes, then the recommended movies, books and articles are more and more in line with my taste. The use of watercress will have an illusion that only Yang Bo a person in accordance with the habit of developing watercress, continue to maintain it remotely at Starbucks.

In fact, Watercress is already a company with more than 300 people earning nearly billion a month. 300 people in internet companies are no big deal, but the flow ranking of China TOP20 and still rising is an incredible achievement. Even more incredible is that watercress has the most loyal users. These users are willing to create content for watercress, maintain the atmosphere of watercress, protect the ecological environment of watercress. Externally, they spared no effort to allow more congenial people to join the online community.

All this achievement, not rely on a strong operation to promote, because watercress advocates the user from the operation and word of mouth, also not rely on advanced technology threshold, because watercress never preach they have superb technology, although it has the domestic top algorithmic engineer team, and the creation of the 2005 began with a rare domestic python. The popularity and growth of watercress has only one secret: a temperament has the quality of a good product personality.

So, watercress this product is good where? It is a difficult question to answer. In fact, the loyal users of watercress, especially some enthusiastic and interesting people have already had a lot of praise to the watercress. I have been asking myself over and over again these days: Why do you think the watercress is good? If there is a second product similar to watercress, would you give it up? Will the watercress be kept in such a good state? Now, I think of some answers.

A watercress is a strong atmosphere of a unique virtual society

In fact, it is more appropriate to say that watercress is a product group. From the initial reading, music, film, group, and city, to the beans, radio, nine, Alpha City, Reading, FM, things, as well as the upcoming travel, and then to mobile Internet 10 or so app group, they have no exception with watercress temperament, with a consistent watercress-style experience, useful, easy to use, interesting. This product group forms an eco-circle around watercress, you can think of the biosphere as a cultural encyclopedia, you can think of it as a community of interest, and you can think of it as a discovery and referral engine, or a choice engine or even a decision engine.

Like the social kaleidoscope, thousand people face, some people love to read and amuse themselves, some people like to travel, some people are keen to make friends. Watercress through different products to meet the needs of different people, these products may be permeated with each other, may also be unrelated to the fragmented. It satisfies the desires of different people and satisfies the various levels of Maslow's needs: physiology, safety, social intercourse, respect and self-realization. Watercress formed an atmosphere through the user. This atmosphere makes loneliness no longer lonely, let impetuous quiet, let cold enthusiasm, let boring interesting, let quiet active.

The watercress ecosystem was built by the user spontaneously. Content, order, update mechanism, UGC (user create content) This kind of words in the watercress in the introduction of the inside out, but the watercress since the beginning of the station to promote the user to participate in the WEB2.0 and UGC model samples. Watercress do, that is, in the user's perception of the situation, do a good job of basic support and atmosphere maintenance. Users feel, is their own organization and management of the content of the convenience, to participate in the decision content weight of the fun, become a star in the station's sense of achievement. Although there will be no material return, the star of the station outside the watercress no one knows, but they are still willing to their time, passion, talent dedicated to the watercress, and then more people into this circle.

Unlike other UGC communities, watercress people are born equal and always equal. Users can score people and things, such as music, movies and books. However, the user itself has no ratings, no ratings, and no plus v. Watercress will not set up opinion leaders, no experts, no representative users. Although doing this is simple: according to user activity or the number of times the comments are liked, on the home page to show the "watercress talent" such as the usual operating tactics. But, watercress does not. Everyone is equal, even if you do not create any content. For watercress, for its 78 content to create users and new users today, there is no difference.

In this free, democratic, simple and equal virtual society, to make friends with the city activities brought about by the potential opportunities, like-minded to gain the respect, the sense of identity brought about by the achievement of the realization of content creation, Maslow All levels of demand is fully satisfied, It is impossible for Doubaner to be satisfied in the real world and in any other community.

b The temperance of watercress is the lack of this society and other products

This is a materialistic society. The choices we face are growing. Whether it's the selection of items or the choice of self action. But man is lost. The choice of phobias and sequelae is growing.

Watercress from the "discovery" to solve our problem of choice flooding. Through your friends ' recommendations, you can help you choose a more suitable "object" or narrow your selection through what you used to do in the watercress. Music, movies and books are all things. Last year watercress generalized this "thing" to all things, such as a color TV set, an app.

We will be from the watercress "things" this one product cut, see how watercress is to "control", it can be said self-control.

Waited eight years to "find something." The origin of watercress is to help people make the most effective choice, even to meet like-minded, but also to make a better choice. If you must put labels on watercress, not social networking sites, but a community based decision engine, discovery, referral, social is to help users make decisions. From music, reading and film into about eight years later, Watercress finally decided, it is time to build this system applied to all things, return to Yang Bo beginner "Find different things, and suitable for themselves."

Watercress uses a seemingly simple decision logic. Start with you, evaluate and mark a thing (x, in X, Think x, like, useful). These tags help you manage the records of movies, books, music, and will be recorded in watercress, become the watercress algorithm depends on the data and display to other users of the data, and then affect others decision-making, but also affect the next watercress to your recommendations and search results. The more feedback you give to it, the more useful it will give you feedback. The connection between you is becoming more and more intense in this process.

The "things" in watercress are no different from the essence of watercress reading, film and music. But why did the watercress endure so many years before the launch? To know, in the watercress to do "things" before, the Shanzhai, both do vertical such as food found beans fruit net, application found cool Ann, there are also around the business such as watercress, such as specialized in watercress movie online to see some websites. Watercress think that they are not ready, even in the face of these shanzhai followers, can restrain their own panic or worry, it is not easy.

Product features never follow suit. After 8 years of development, watercress has undergone several upgrades in the background, but from the "things" this product interface look, basically no major changes. The current industry popular metro, waterfall flow, automatic loading next page, such as "popular" style, in the watercress can not find. Almost all the search boxes in the industry are already proud to join the voice microphone, all the sites are in the micro-letter two-dimensional code label, the watercress still unmoved. Even watercress and Yang Bo their own microblog, in the Douban station can not find links.

The benefit is that the user's habit of training is not due to the new version of the abrupt and painful, in the use of products in the process of frustration in the watercress has never existed. A negative example can look at the QQ4.1 version of the Spit slot is indeed quite a lot.

Some people will have doubts, watercress if nothing change, can keep up with the pace of user needs? Instead, watercress knows what the user really needs. A large part of this is the same as the nature of demand 8 years ago. Instead of spending your energy on some fancy gimmicks, why not concentrate on doing what you should do? for example, optimization of algorithms. Watercress did do the same. At the same time, Watercress's interface is also improving, but only the smooth evolution of the user is not even aware of. The recent revision of the big version has almost remained the same.

Watercress clearly knows who you are, what users need, and what they don't need. Which is the floating clouds which is still dull after leaving the "real material". Not impetuous not to follow the follow is its constant characteristics. Do not follow the popular, but the watercress has been kept in vogue.

A self-operating strategy that has never been changed. Watercress advocates the user from the operation. It claims to have no editorial writers, no special articles, or even official classifications. For content, watercress advocates the creation of users. The "Find something" channel is no exception.

Product promotion watercress advocating word of mouth socialization of the way of communication. Note that this social communication method is different from the current micro-blogging. Before Twitter, watercress was already a beneficiary of social transmission. In the watercress has the mass flow and the user, this route has not changed. You can not find any of the promotional traces of its own products in the watercress, most quietly add a hyperlink on the homepage. Other websites commonly used large banner even pop up or pay for a conference, watercress will not.

After the "things" on the line, watercress carefully, to maintain the greatest restraint. Despite the self-confidence of their own products, but the watercress still do not want users to rush. This is the best product status, confident, but not content. Never think of yourself as a perfect product. Saw too much to make a point of the product of the complacent, but also saw too many of their own not confident blind version of the disorderly operation of the product.

In the internal content operation and the promotion of external operations, watercress is worth learning restraint.

C truly user-centric products

Yes, it's true. The most indispensable thing about China's internet is the flicker. How many products play the banner of the user as the center, claiming that they have achieved the ultimate product experience, and even through the shape of the Star product manager to promote their own products for the king, their own user-centric.

In fact, the products that rape users are everywhere. Some are product managers blind to understand, some product managers self-righteous toss users, more is the product manager know is wrong, but because of corporate strategy, commercial objectives and other business objectives, and then rape user experience. They will prepare a set of seemingly correct logic, such as this bad use is to subvert is to do better in the future, such as commercial profits have income to be able to do a better product. In fact, I know only one point: the principle of user-centric, by their own hypnotic type of understanding or forgetting.

But the watercress did. In addition to the smooth problem feedback channels, watercress products can hardly find any abrupt commercial traces. Take "I like things" for example, a lot of outsiders see this is the watercress currently particularly imaginative business. For example, add a display ad, put a thing into the content of the implant or purchase links, and even someone has to help the watercress think directly to do the shopping mall. But watercress did not do so. In fact, this way is not appropriate, the user found that the choice of goods is not fair, contrary to the beginner of watercress. Everything to be useful, useful, the object is the user. What watercress wants to do is to help the user choose, not force the user to select or induce the user to choose. Therefore, the watercress now gives people the feeling is still clean.

Watercress does not exclude commercialization, just have their own insistence. They have their own definition of the commercial bottom line. At present, it appears that the user of the commercial level of watercress is agreed. Watercress in the process of treading on thin ice, afraid of destroying the watercress atmosphere, hurt the user. The annual income is nearly billion, many of which come from book purchase and brand display advertising, interactive advertising. But who can advertise in watercress, in what form, all is watercress to decide. If the Advertiser and watercress temperament does not match, watercress will be incomparably arrogant dour no. For the impact of the user to use the watercress experience of the dynamic map, flash and even pop-up and other rich media advertising, has been resisting. A page of advertising can not be more than one, this is the moderation of watercress. If you make a change, it will increase the income of watercress.

More valuable is the watercress around the user, but not flattering users. The user's demand is multifarious, the watercress cannot 100% satisfy. Watercress and the user is a two-way choice. It does not expect all users to be satisfied, it only want to be selected by it is really belong to the watercress user satisfaction, do not like to vote away with their feet. This kind of two-way selection also ensures loyalty.

Where is the future of D watercress?

Watercress to protect the user experience, control the number and content of advertising to reduce revenue. Refusing to follow suit so there is no bubble, its route is always clear. Then the industry may be concerned about the future of watercress where? Will investors tolerate such a product being kept clean?

Perhaps watercress to their own moderation is about to get a return. The original revenue model is still there and will be stronger as users and traffic grow. Watercress reading and watercress FM is due to the trend of the legitimate, users for good content and service payment habits of training, usher in opportunities. If there is a digital content ecosystem like Amazon or itunes store in China, I think the core of this ecology is probably watercress.

Watercress low-key operation of "find like" things left a lot of imagination space. Any item can be easily found on this channel, surprise users and help users make decisions, which will solve the user pain points. And the profit model is guessing outside. There are display ads, click on the purchase of ads, content sponsorship, app distribution, or even watercress their own way to open the mall. Whatever it is, in time, "Find what you Like" will be another important source of income for watercress.

Watercress has been financed by a tricycle. If the investor has no patience, may again put on the watercress purchase event. How to docking capital and avoid being controlled by capital is a sharp problem that enterprises must face. I don't want to see watercress being acquired. I do not want to see a tangle of watercress, is in the state of today's independent, free, clean, democratic watercress. I believe that, with the restraint of watercress and Yang Bo of the fixed force, watercress must be with a watercress user ushered in the spring of watercress! At that time, watercress or today's watercress.

In the university era with my most Internet products, in addition to the watercress there are people (Renren, the same below).

With the acquisition of thousands of Oak, the school renamed, to the United States listed, everyone was invested in the master and "product Big Crazy" Chen led a step by step the fall, and eventually become almost abandoned social black hole. Some netizens jokingly, Chen will change the net name for everyone at the same time, also will "China's Facebook" into "China's Must die." Frankly speaking, I have feelings for the campus. It witnessed my college years, recorded the "Seduce Sister paper" traces, sent a lot of boring time. But if it wasn't for this article, I almost forgot about it.

By pushing through the clouds of strategy, management and the environment, I think the deterioration of the product is the real reason why everyone is so dismal.

Wang away, everyone loses his soul

Wang is the founder and soul of the net. After graduating from Tsinghua Radio, Wang was awarded a full scholarship to the University of the United States, where he was highly honored as the first Chinese scholar of computer science PhD from MIT. While studying for a Ph. D., he embarked on his home flight and started an Internet venture. After trying out a lot of social networking sites, it was finally chosen to segment the campus community. Facebook, the leader of social networking, is also a community of friends in the Harvard School that originated in student dormitories. But Wang is not as lucky as Zuckerberg, who did not turn his network into a national social empire.

In 2006, when I was a college student, the school net had no wages. As users surge, the need for server and bandwidth expansion is not enough. This is not a Wang, but a social network at the time of a very single profit model: Display ads. The early stage of the network in the advertising market has no bargaining power, and Wang because of social networking sites in the field of many businesses, users, social networking sites and products have their own understanding and pursuit, in the Wang product view, commercial interests will not completely overwhelm product quality and user experience of long-term benefits.

The net originally has the special product temperament. Some geeks, custom features, strict content quality control, less harassment, friends more interaction. The disadvantage is that the Web site responds more and more slowly to late traffic overload. Too-personalized templates make the Web page style a variety of pages and even malicious script.

Wang to 2 million U.S. dollars at the sale of the net, solve the problem of employee wages, but failed to solve the product problems. The Nets have lost the soul, become Chen one boat capital game of a pawn.

Chen Yi, everyone is enslaved by capital

Chen is the capital master. Chinaren, MOP, donews, net, soft silver investment, art dragon, only goods will and other capital operations, no one does not show that Chen is a capital master. To be more blunt, Chen is a master of speculators who specializes in buying low and selling high. Capital and products are often contradictory. This is the reason why Chen do bad products. It's not a good reason to say that he has no energy, or no Zhangxiaolong product, because it is a team that builds the product. The central reason is that policymakers who do not understand the product or do not want to understand are lost in the face of capital desires.

According to Renren Pioneer Project Windmill Network CEO Chen Xiao (micro bo) peak revealed, Chen often said, "I give you guide 1 million people in the past, this product can get up?", the background is that everyone's share price fell from 20 U.S. dollars to 3 U.S. dollars, Chen a boat for short as soon as possible to achieve results impatient. Therefore, he has no long-term investment in entrepreneurial patience, can be shut off at any time, and then follow suit to do other popular products, especially the capital market popular group buying, video and so on.

Chen Yi Zhou in the lure of capital and oppression, simply can not be competent product leader role, but also affect the product team, and then affect the product. Demand for product profitability indicators too fast, too drastic and brutal "import user" mode of operation, serious overdraft products in the future and harm users. Entrepreneurial products, Chen a boat to buy a back than his internal entrepreneurship to do a more secure. Acquisitions are immediate, and entrepreneurship is the result of continued investment in the uncertain. This is the reason why everyone does not make a similar product with micro-bo, micro-trust.

Each good product behind have an excellent product team, has a leader role to give product life, grinding product temperament and determine product direction. We usually call it the product manager. An excellent product manager is a good coordinator, integrating resources to achieve product goals; It is also a good balance to balance the contradictions in the product lifecycle, such as the contradictions between business needs and user needs, long-term strategic interests and short-term capital interests. is also a good controller, control the desire of products, control the quality of products, control the shape of products, even through the product control users.

Obviously, Chen's boat failed to take on the role. Chen with Renren, went to the abyss of capital slavery.

Students leave the field, everyone becomes lonely

After the Chen took over the school net, the Great Leap forward to carry out the upgrading of the school net, made some achievements. For example, the net was once more stable, but only for a while. The big revision makes the campus net style fresher, limits the user custom function safeguard style to be consistent, and strengthens the user privacy management. During Wang's departure from the campus network and the creation of the intranet, the school also announced support for high schools and white-collar workers. In order to expand the user base from university students to all people, the 2009 network officially renamed Renren.

Renaming did not bring a twist. 2009 is the year Sina Weibo was founded. In the same year QQ space to achieve strong growth, the year-end active account number of year-on-year growth of 158.6% to 387.8 million, become China's largest social network. In the same period, Renren registered only 120 million users.

Renren's name is right, but it's too late. It realized that the real competitor is not happy net, but QQ and mobile side microblogging, suddenly started renaming strategy and supporting the campus outside the strategy, but still failed to reverse. Incredibly, Chen in 2008 years that the SNS battle has ended, the Thousand oak wins. It is this arrogance that has deprived renren of the opportunity to be in the future, ignoring a formidable competitor of invisibility.

Any excellent product starting point is to solve the user's pain point, the essential needs. SNS is to solve the user's social and the need to get rid of loneliness. But Renren is making users more lonely.

After the students left school, many people leave Renren, and many junior and two students have chosen other social tools such as microblogs before leaving school. It's simple, where there are friends, where there is social. and the enrollment rate and activity of freshmen before entering school are also declining. Because Weibo can already find elder sister and realize the so-called social.

has been unable to go to school, is everyone's biggest pain. Although they did a lot of work.

Expel the students and everyone dig their own grave

Already retained users are being "evicted" by everyone.

Renren is under heavy pressure to overdraw his future. In the eyes of users crazy message push, crazy game invitations, crazy mandatory attention, crazy page ads, are turning everyone into a gaming platform, notification platform, spam platform, crazy everyone has forgotten their beginner: social networks, to help people better communicate and share life.

Users logged in everyone found that they are forced to pay attention to everyone's glutinous rice net of the public homepage, so, a large number of group purchase advertising flow. This is what Chen called "Guide user". Never empty message notification requests (mainly game invitations or automatically generated notifications), so I feel obsessive, I think one more second everyone is a pain. Everybody knows that it is everyone to increase user activity and promote click Effect regardless of user experience design.

Everyone's content sharing is also moving towards low quality and homogeneity. Chicken Soup for the soul, the constellation of things, cold jokes, 46-level examination treasure and other information occupy the mainstream. As a former heavy user, I can see the latest buddy photos on everyone's home page uploaded three years ago. I can not see any friend status updates (may have micro-blog sync over), full screen are marketing accounts, zombie friends, fake public homepage flooded. No original, less interaction, less circulation, more harassment, Renren has become a low quality, second-hand, non-mainstream information aggregation. Everyone to the interest community, content mining services and other aspects of the transformation of the dream shattered.

As for product innovation, everyone is on Facebook, Twitter, Sina Weibo and other products. The time axis, the Pinterest, the check-in and so on all sorts of functions mix together, but the loading speed has let me trance is in the handset uses Renren. As for the real people mobile phone clients, I have no intention to do any attempt.

All this is the expulsion of his old users and the shutting out of new users. In the last six months everyone's Alexa traffic rankings have landed from TOP19 to 25.

Everyone in the bad situation, in the eyes of the future, seriously overdraft their core resources: users. Users are the last straw for everyone.

Developers leave the field, everyone is narcissistic

Any Internet product will have to think about openness when the number of users reaches billion.

To share their own users and resources to third parties, to form a thriving platform ecological circle, that is, the user needs in their own platform to be convenient and diversified to be satisfied, but also with third-party developers to form a set of harmonious mode of cooperation. In this process, the developer must embrace the attitude of openness, cooperation and service, it is possible to achieve with developers, users, advertisers and many other wins-win.

Social Networking International honors Facebook opened the API in 2007 years. In more than a year, 20多万位 developers have gathered 45,899 applications. These developers and apps have greatly increased the appeal of Facebook. And the domestic top students QQ in 360 after the challenge to achieve a real opening, formed around the penguin Ecological circle.

Renren launched the open platform in 2008 years, but now it has become an open platform for developers to stay away. This is not because everyone's users and traffic decline, but everyone open platform for many years of accumulated defects finally tasted bitter fruit. Developer Zuoqun even wrote "Please give up Renren open platform, it's not worth every minute you put into it." This resonates a lot in the developer community. Unfriendly API design and rough documentation, audited bureaucracy, and poor service awareness all make developers suffer. Obsessed with the pursuit of short-term interests and a strong style, Renren has developed a bad habit of seeing good third party applications on their own. This is the biggest fear of developers. Many developers choose to stay away from everyone and no longer deliver their goods to the door.

Renren is entertaining at a closed angle.

A social networking product that has the opportunity to become a Chinese Facebook, under the leadership of a capital master, has been tossed into the embattled of the present. In the feeling of weakness, app brush list by Apple group down, inside bucket layoffs, wireless users, such as the number of Fangweising news. Perhaps all this is just a ship in the precarious appearance of the ship we see some of the cracks.