Moving forward in the mist: Can the question and answer website be profitable?

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Author Introduction: First author Wu, senior Product manager, has been working in Sina, is now working in Joseph Network, the "Business question and answer" is a question and answer product (ask.fmate.com) facing the entrepreneur. The second author, Belle, a senior product manager, is now working for Joseph's network.

I am now doing a question and answer website project, the main target users are entrepreneurial people, so began to explore the question and answer class website profitability. Here are some of my thoughts, a kind of speculation, I hope to be able to communicate with colleagues.

1. As far as I know, at present, all the question and answer type website has no mature profit mode (my project is no exception)

This is an embarrassing fact, we have done a (future) competitor's investigation, extracts part of the content, such as the following table:

Note: All of the above are from our observation of the website and the public data of the network, such as the actual situation and observation is not welcome to point out.

2, Content-oriented web site through the understanding of cattle to obtain high-quality answers, relational Web sites through the form of questions and answers to expand relationships

Why do our users come to the site to ask (answer) questions?

Two goals: First, he wants to get useful answers, solve his own problems (or help those who need answers), and secondly, he wants to know more people in this way.

If a site provides users with the core value of the first, we call it content-oriented Web sites; if it's primarily the latter, we call it a relational site--if both values are available and 55 open, we're called rotten sites.

In other words, on a content-type Web site, content is popular because of high quality, with the creation of the content of the person's identity, status, gender, visibility relations are not; on the contrary, the core value of relational Web sites is interpersonal relationships, users more concerned about each other's identity, income level, intimacy and so on, and the quality of content is not high But not without request, or very low.

Therefore, a question and answer website, in the beginning of construction should be based on their own characteristics (strengths, weaknesses, core competitiveness, the resources available, etc.) to establish their own web site type, and then targeted product design, the formulation of operational strategies, and carry out the end.

3, no matter what kind of website, must face their own dilemma

The dilemma of the relational Web site is that the content scale is difficult to control. Those high popularity users because of the strong personal charm, create content regardless of the quality high and low will be welcomed by other users and frequent interaction. For the relationship of Web sites, "high popularity and low nutrition" content on the one hand to enhance the user relationship is very large, to help achieve the site's operating goals, but on the other hand, let their products too low-end.

For content-oriented Web sites, this aspect of the annoyance is much smaller: the answer is the quality of the lifeline, good content is passed, recommended, bad content will be clicked off. But correspondingly, strict quality requirements will reduce the user's active degree.

Both sites have to face their own dilemma, which must be considered at the beginning of product design. Do not think of being able to fuse two types of intermediate paths because they are inherently contradictory: the fundamental purpose of one side is to become a means to the other, and vice versa.

Making a distinctive product can cost you some users, and making a product without features will cost you all.

4, the question is, how do we profit

For the relationship of the question and answer website, can be borrowed from QQ, online games of this mature relationship-oriented product profit model. If people want to socialize, then the problem of face, image, reciprocity will become just need.

In this premise, virtual currency, virtual image, small gifts, space decoration, membership privileges and so will be very good to meet the needs of users. But to consider that we are after all a question and answer site, is not a real dating site, so for the packaging of virtual products also have to highlight the characteristics.

On the other hand, also need to consider why users want to expand their personal relationships, may be to make more friends, may be in order to bring convenience to their own career development, but also may be in order to love marriage, so in the product to further towards meeting the ultimate goal of the direction of design, in the process of achieving profitability.

For the knowledge-based question and answer website, I consider:

A, do not pay to read. Said the tall, this is not in line with the free spirit of the Internet; to be realistic, at least in the Chinese market, selling content is a dead end proven by countless martyrs.

B, do not easily try virtual images, interactive gifts of these things, because it will make your site to the relationship type. In this process of transformation, you will have a period of time in the content is not content, to have nothing to do with the profit of the embarrassing situation.

C, try the offline entity charging mode. We will try to cooperate with the coffee shops and bars organized by entrepreneurs, and hold lectures, salons and other activities regularly. The idea was inspired by the industry: on the one hand the record industry was squeezed by the Internet and the music festival blossomed across the country. The people who go to the festival are not going to listen to the music (the content), because the songs on the festival have been downloaded for free on the Internet; Therefore, content-oriented Web sites should also strive to explore the line to bring users to enjoy the service model.

D, this is aimed at our site itself: We are facing the founders of the site, we will continue to dig good entrepreneurial projects, entrepreneurial team, and introduced to our grasp of the investors resources, from a certain percentage of the service charge.

Related reading:

Why is the real person video voice entertainment site so lucrative?