about.me--Online business Card website simple design in the survival of the road

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[Core hints] what is the meaning of the product? It can survive and develop better when it comes to providing better services or changing the world.

About.me's minimalist design has made personal business cards fresh. But does this mean product success?

Can a product survive, and what is the profit model? This brutal topic has been around since the birth of the product. For most startups, the time to think is limited, and it's very rare for a slow company like watercress to give yourself enough time to think. About.me let us have a new understanding of business cards, then where will its future go?

The author communicates with the About.me team by mail, and they about.me this definition: About.me is a platform for displaying personal information online. Users can customize the display page, which includes: personal profiles, contact information, personal social networking links, in addition, through the modification of personal photos, font color and other features to fully display personal characteristics. (Note: The About.me team to the author's questions did not reply in detail, slightly general)

Brutal reality

Social and no Play

In the Web2.0 era, the social nature of the product became a popular topic, social, social, and social, even for gourmet applications. Even if some seemingly no social needs of the application, at least to add a QQ landing, micro-Bo share the function to be reconciled, lest not catch up with the wave of social waves. In addition to people like Renren, such pure social networking sites as Sina Weibo, many other applications of the "social" function is pure chicken, for about.me, can add social links as part of the business card display, but expect users to stay in the time and Facebook and is not realistic, for a business card, The presentation is more important than the serious social networking of Linkedin, where the content of the about.me is scarce, and the design of a fake business card restricts the structure of a personal page that is not as informative as a resume-like page. Users cannot understand your detailed resume through this "impressive business card", as you can see from the article "Why Boring LinkedIn Works", the emphasis on practical LinkedIn has given a lot of attention to this seemingly depressing social web site.

No Shadow Charges

On how to charge, About.me seems to have not found the right way. Registration is free, the way premium services are paid is now more prevalent, and there is no mention of more functional expansion or other value-added services in the About.me team's email response. Just as Tony Conrad think, two years about.me not much change, AOL snubbed the product, in the right to regain control, about.me then back to the entrepreneurial State, is not yet think of a good profit model or still in the user accumulation state, this, only About.me knows.

The way to survive

Transfer of the media

With the development of the Internet, paper media has turned to the trend of electronic media, personal business cards will follow the trend of change.

The impact of E-books on the traditional publishing industry is self-evident, and its advantages are obvious. For business cards, the more the cards are collected, the more the drawbacks of the storage are reflected, because of small size, it is often forgotten in a piece of clothing pocket, and, in addition, paper business card retrieval is also a problem, to find the corresponding from hundreds of business cards, in addition, the change in the position of the business card information to shorten the shelf life. If About.me will expand his own direction to the concept of Business card collection box, the above problems can be solved, the digital business card storage, real-time information changes to save, load tags to facilitate the search, as well as the Global keyword searches instead of artificial business card page. After linking the relevant social networks, you can deepen your understanding of the business card exchange.

The characteristics of the Avatar business card

About.me has provided HD avatar for the background of the business card printing service, so that their business cards can easily be remembered by each other.

Imagine: If you attend a meeting, met 20 new potential partners, all exchanged business cards, after the event, the next morning to register the business card information exchanged yesterday, but suddenly remember that Zhang three is the face of a mole, or doe comb a big tou. Although the design of different styles of business cards, but in the crowd-intensive meetings, we often do not have time to the business card and exchange one by one, after a few greetings, handing out business cards, received each other's business card, turned to the next. If a few days later we remember the last meeting, Zhang always interested in their own projects, said that there will be a chance to contact, took out a business card, found three Mr. Zhang, who hangs the title of president, but who is the Zhang you want to find?

The development of offline application

About.me has launched the IPhone client, continuing the web version of the function, into the mobile end, its mode of operation should be like Bump and Hello (Evernote application, Chinese celebrity pulse) learning, in addition to the display of business cards, and contacts within the contact person to get through, Replace the traditional business card exchange by typing in the phone or rocking it.

If you are attending a meeting of hundreds of people, the organizers suggest that you shake your cell phone for a business card exchange, in a few seconds, your phone has a built-in electronic Business card for all the people in the field, with a uniform format, and even before we can meet, with the avatar and the corresponding tags, plus the accompanying social networking links, we'll soon have a few more old friends , and the address Book, directly in the Address Book can give new acquaintance to send messages, mail, call, the need for real existence.

Conclusion

Designers and geeks, such as the love of the taste of the crowd may become about.me Angel users, but whether it can guide the trend of network business card will need more time, for the production cost is low, there is a short time to explode the possibility of the Internet industry, this is not no chance.

Regardless of the product at this stage of the audience how much, as well as the future development, we still have to return to the root of the product: what is the meaning of the product?

To be able to provide better services or to bring about "changing the world" at the same time to survive and have a better development, both idealistic and must face the reality, this is probably the current generation of internet people, and the impetus to move us forward.