Flickr should learn from Instagram.

Now the phone is no longer the only tool used to call, send text messages, more used to surf the internet, watch TV, chat, even when the camera. I believe many people now like to use their own smartphones to take pictures, after taking photos, through a variety of social applications to share. Of course, in order to attract more eyeballs, it will be used in the application of the built-in image beautification function. Now that the welfare of the beauty-loving people has come, a lot of recent mobile apps that did not support the filter have begun to change their attitudes and have introduced an updated version of the built-in filter feature, which has been the most watched by Twitter, which has fallen out with Facebook, and Flickr, who has changed his mind because of his

However, while most of the Instagram's success is benefiting from the introduction of filter functionality, for companies such as Flickr, indulging in the search for filter functionality may give them a chance to really learn the secret of Instagram success.

Back in 2005, when Flickr was poised to become a social image-sharing app, Yahoo began to go downhill. Surprisingly, though, Flickr has been losing users, but the service has not been massively lost. At present, Flickr is still the most beloved Yahoo products, so when Meyer took office, the service was put back to the reorganization schedule.

Now it seems that if Meyer has made up his mind to reinvent Flickr, then Yahoo needs to immediately start redefining the nature of the app. As the two service relationships become tighter and deeper after Facebook's acquisition of Instagram, a growing number of users are beginning to worry about the former's policy issues or will eventually affect Instagram, and the much-maligned privacy policy may force existing users to abandon Instagram. If these predictions are successful, Flickr, which has set a good position for itself, will be the new hegemon for social-image-sharing, either to replace Instagram.

Wits？

While Yahoo still appreciates the service, there is no doubt that Flickr is slowly dying. So while Yahoo has overhauled and updated the service this month, Flickr seems to be out of its wits. In June 2011, Yahoo said the number of registered users was 51 million, and the company did not disclose any relevant data. Earlier this year, the company claimed that Flickr users had uploaded more than 8 million photos, but the data was much less than the 1 billion Instagram.

Of course, this result is less surprising, given that Flickr users upload photos via the web and Instagram is a shot.

The grace fades away, and the past is hard to return

The fact is, Flickr does not need to copy the Instagram filter function completely to itself, because it is a social image sharing application. In addition, Flickr has been unable to stop the rise of services such as Instagram and Snapchat as it is too late.

In addition, the web version of Flickr's stale UI design discourages many new users who want to join the network, because Flickr is more of a classified ad service Craigslist than the simple design of Facebook and Twitter.

The delicate balance between the new and the old

To attract new users, Flickr needs to create an understandable environment for beginners, and the company also needs to think of ways to retain loyal users. Of course, this is not easy. However, the latest iphone app reflects the direction of Flickr, as the new sharing and editing features can also be pleasing to both the old and former users.

Compared to a single purpose Instagram,flickr, which has a very versatile feature, from photos that can be viewed in EXIF format to community contacts and use of labels, Flickr can differentiate itself from other similar applications through special services. It is noteworthy that it is precisely because of the characteristics of simple and generous, Instagram to fame and noise. Just as Instagram can do something completely meticulous, Flickr desperately needs to find out what it can do and make it perfect.

Simplicity is beauty

In Wednesday, Flickr said in its official blog that Web sites would be redesigned, and that the site's problems could not be solved by "preliminary reconstruction". Many of the truly useful features of Flickr's web site over the past few years have been obliterated by a maze of nested menus, and one of Flickr's own designers has even criticized that "design flaws can accelerate the death of this service". The designer named Timoni West wrote:

Flickr is completely defeated by very basic factors. Many sites want users to be able to understand what was going on during that time, but for Flickr, the service was completely disrespectful of the user experience. In addition, when the user's social life is completely off track, this design not only hurts existing users, but also forces some potential groups that are beneficial to Flickr to stop. In the longer term, this bad experience will gradually leave Flickr out of position until it disappears.

It's not a zero-sum game.

When social networking sites are addicted to copying and imitating each other, they begin to risk losing their uniqueness and associating themselves with their opponents. So when Flickr starts to join the filter bandwagon, many people start thinking about whether to stay. But if you have already joined the Flickr community and are early in the photography business, you need to know that Instagram is just a community of photographers, and Flickr is the center of professional photographers.

Thanks to the rise of Instagram, the distinction between the two is increasingly blurred. However, if Flickr can take advantage of people's enthusiasm for the photography industry, we believe that the service will be able to bounce back again, and Yahoo will also rely on Flickr's strong growth to return.

Editor's note: 0 and game is also called zero-sum game, compared with Non-zero-sum game, it is a concept of game theory, which is a non-cooperative game, refers to the parties involved in the game, in the strict competition, one side of the income must mean the other side of the loss, the game each party's income and loss combined total is always "0". There is no possibility of cooperation between the two sides. It can also be said that their happiness is based on the pain of others, the two are exactly the same size, so both sides want to do everything possible to achieve "beggar-thy-neighbour." 0 and the result of the game is that one party eats the other party, the income of the other party is the loss of the other party, the interests of the whole society will not be increased by a point.