How to make money: Exploring the Profit model of mobile internet

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"Guide" the profit model of mobile Internet products is an issue that internet companies have been exploring for a long time, how to deal with the characteristics of mobile Internet products, not to profit at the expense of valuable user experience is a question worth thinking.

LinkedIn launched its first mobile advertising campaign, and its profit model is becoming clearer. The profit model of mobile Internet products is an issue that internet companies have been exploring for a long time, so it is worth thinking about how to make profit at the expense of the valuable user experience to the characteristics of mobile internet products. In the face of several common profit patterns now in sight, do mobile internet companies really have no other choice?

Those mainstream profit models

At present, mobile Internet products mainstream profit model can be divided into three categories: advertising, IAP, Freemium. These three kinds of profit models have their own characteristics, and they are also different in the charge crowd and the charging strategy.

Advertising

The profit model of embedded ads in the application can be said to be the most popular mode of profit for mobile internet products, some of the applications we see and most of the games use this profit model. The pattern of embedded ads in the application is relatively easy to operate, as long as the banner is placed in a fixed position (usually top or bottom) of the application interface. At the same time, different applications also provide different ways to advertise. There is a paid download to the advertising version of the application to pay for a part of the users of hate ads, but also a more moderate by way of donations in order to win the user sympathy based on the provision of advertising services. The encyclopedia's IPhone client is a classic example of how to donate to the advertising way.

The disadvantages of applying inline ads are obvious. The quality of embedded advertising is uneven; most ads have no connection to the application itself; the embedded ads occupy the user's visual space and affect the user experience; The profit effect is not as good as expected. Although the shortcomings are obvious, there are still a large number of mobile internet companies using advertising this profit model, in the inability to find a better profit model for their products, embedded advertising can only be counted as a stopgap, not long-term maintenance.

IAP (In-app Purchase)

IAP (in-app purchase) patterns are more common in mobile gaming, offering the purchase of gold coins or other consumable items that are needed to be spent in the game. Other applications have also tried to use IAP's profit model, and the Repix of the app Store application recommendation is a very typical application of the IAP profit model. Repix initially contains a very limited number of filter brushes for the user to experience, while more filter brush packs are set to form an internal-purchase unlock. The basic idea of the internal purchase mode is to open the most basic function to the user in the application. Once the user to the application of the function of interest or formed a preliminary use habits, the application within the purchase can provide users with advanced features or additional features of the Unlock service. IAP mode to the user's initial experience dependence is very strong, if the opening of the basic skills can be very good to attract users or give users a better use of experience, it is difficult to let users further for this application to spend more money.

Compared with other types of applications, mobile games use IAP mode is more common, and the effect is relatively better. The game is relatively easy to make specific user groups (that is, for specific game types of players) to produce a certain stickiness, but also more convenient to use the psychological and character of the game players soft rib, and then set the appropriate price of the purchase, the effect will be significantly better than other types of applications. And the application of tools can not grasp the basic needs of users well, it is difficult to achieve the expected results, and even users will be criticized. The IAP model can bring some benefits to mobile internet companies, but this kind of income is not stable and the effect is not satisfactory.

Freemium

The so-called Freemium model, which means a portion of the free service to attract users, and then through the provision of value-added services, some of the free users into paid users. Freemium mode is most common in many different kinds of internet products, such as network disk, mail client, network album, Cloud Notepad and network telephone. This pattern is a bit very obvious, free service can give users the best experience, even free users can use most of the functions of the application, when some free users produced enough stickiness, a higher demand for users will naturally change to pay users to enjoy value-added services. The biggest difference between Freemium mode and IAP is the idea. IAP tries to force users to pay by restricting the functionality and additional properties of larger portions. Users have a feeling of kidnapping when they use this type of application, while Freemium follows the "28 law", where 80% of users are free, and only 20% or fewer high-end users will become paid users. Through a longer use process, some users will naturally change to a paying user on the basis of no pressure or compulsion, and spend money to buy value-added services. So the application of this model has a process of user accumulation in the early stage, in which there are few paid users. When the amount of user accumulation to a certain extent, the use of habits are basically formed, at this time the pay user will start to grow. But only a small percentage of paid users to the company's income can make up for the initial phase of the provision of free services brought about by the upfront expenses.

Evernote, as the most typical case for successful application of Freemium model, set a good example for Internet companies. Users are free to use most of the features of Evernote, but cloud space expansion and advanced value-added features such as password protection for mobile devices need to be paid for. The proportion of Evernote paid subscribers is not high, but a single month's income has been a big deal for many internet companies. Freemium mode is widely regarded as a good profit model for Internet companies, and it is also the most suitable for mobile internet.

How can you make money?

Due to the characteristics of mobile Internet, the profit model of mobile internet has been limited. In the face of a handful of profitable models, do internet companies really have no other choice? Here are two ideas, though not necessarily suitable for all types of mobile Internet products, but if it can trigger our thinking, perhaps we can get some inspiration from it.

For a long time, most of the revenue from mobile-end products comes from users, which means that users need to pay for some of their services. And if you change your mind, let the user get some rather than lose some, and get income from other sources, it will make it easier for users to accept, and Internet companies can also profit from it.

Let the user get rather than lose

"Micro-errand" is the front-end time on the line of a crowdsourcing task docking platform APP, internet companies and other brand enterprises, the enterprise provides the service task through the form of crowdsourcing in the app to the user, and registered users by completing the tasks provided in the app to receive rates.

The use of this application in the form of crowdsourcing, in fact, by allowing users to complete the task to get a certain amount of reward, and the company's revenue from the cooperation with the brand enterprises. One advantage of this form is that the user can get a reward for using his or her own fragmented time to complete the task. From the point of view of user psychology, it is always easier for users to accept than lose, although also pay a certain amount of labor, but because the use of fragmented time to complete the task, but also have the task of reward as a continuous incentive, most of the users involved in it will not feel pressure. From the perspective of Internet companies, the conversion of the profit object from the user into a cooperative brand enterprise, but also to the user needs to pay the cost to the lowest possible level, but also to a certain extent enhance the user loyalty.

Crowdsourcing forms are diverse, including the simplest questionnaires that belong to the public package category. But the use of crowdsourcing form has certain limitations, not suitable for all mobile internet products, but included in the idea is worthy of our thinking: let users get rather than lost while still can profit from, can minimize the user pay money when the psychological pressure, but also to a certain extent improve the user loyalty. To change the angle, to achieve the purpose of profit while allowing users to get something, why not?

Take advantage of the user's creativity and wisdom

Also do not ask the user for money, but the use of the Internet is very easy to obtain resources-group wisdom, to create value and even profit, but also to explore the profit model in one Direction. Because of the characteristics of Internet information dissemination, swarm intelligence is a kind of resource which is very easy to obtain. In the promotion of mutual assistance and sharing of the environment, the user's creativity and wisdom can be maximized to use.

For example, the website and Youku launched the original funny video contest is to take advantage of the user's creativity and wisdom of a good way. In fact, events like this are very much on the Internet, but we are often limited by some inherent ideas. Only real money from the user's pocket is worth it? The value created by the vast user's creativity and wisdom is much greater than the money in their pockets.

Think in another way, asking users to share an idea or contribute a little personal wisdom is far easier than trying to get the user to take money out of their pockets because, psychologically, it is much less expensive to pay a virtual thing like creativity or intelligence than to pay for real things, including money. It is a question to think about how to convert this virtual value into entity value by some means, but it is obvious that many internet companies have taken the first step.

Conclusion

The above two kinds of ideas to apply to the actual Internet products, there are many problems to consider, and this idea is not suitable for all Internet products. But it needs to be clear that there is still a lot of room for us to think about, and there are plenty of potential profit models to explore. and products similar to the profit model is also a step-by-step from the green to mature.