Ice Fire Double Day! What are the opportunities for mobile Internet?

The 2012 mobile Internet market can be said to be "ice fire double Day" completely.

Google's official data show that in the 4 months from March 2012 to June, Android device activation increased from 300 million to 400 million and grew by as much as 33%; Apple's official data show that from April 2012 to June, iOS device activation also increased from 360 million to 410 million, with a growth rate of 12%. In the Chinese market alone, the data provided by the AU show that in the second quarter of 2012, the number of startup Android apps grew more than in previous years, 159%;ios device activity increased by 42%, and the number of startup iOS apps grew by 112%. This series of figures shows that the number of mobile internet users and terminals is growing rapidly in the 2012.

But on the other hand, the mobile Internet entrepreneurship is increasingly difficult: homogenization of competition, promotion costs rise, profit model is not clear, investors ' money also burned almost ...

But mobile internet has always been a huge treasure, attracting countless people willing to explore. So now, how to survive the winter, successful survival is every entrepreneur, investors are thinking of the problem. In this article I will list several 2012 mobile internet entrepreneurship key points for discussion, content only for the cause of thinking, not conclusions.

Where is the entrepreneurial opportunity?

In the early stages of the shuffle, the Giants began to wantonly in various ways. On the one hand, Tencent is the representative of the giant is carrying out a comprehensive software layout. Tencent has launched dozens of apps covering various platforms, covering social networking, browsing, subscriptions, input, synchronization, security, music, gaming, reading and other fields to compete directly with a large number of entrepreneurs with a strong capital, channel and talent advantage. On the other hand, Baidu, Alibaba, Qihoo 360, Shanda and other companies began competing to launch their own customized operating system of mobile phones, to seize the portal of mobile Internet ...

Small companies have no chance of winning if they compete for channels, money and talent. Therefore, in the general area where giants stop, it is extremely difficult to take the direct competition with the Giants. In this environment, entrepreneurs may need to consider "vertical" and "industry" in the direction of innovation, and more to tap into niche markets that have not yet been discovered or are not interested in the Giants. In games, Solomo, O2O, mobile dealers, children's education can be directly from the consumer's hands to collect money in the field have the opportunity, in the whole industry, the real income on the basis of rapid rise, mobile advertising, development tools, various outsourcing and other surrounding industries will also usher in the corresponding prosperity, associated with the venture capital, incubators, finance, Law, media, human resources and other fields will be pulled, the mobility of various enterprises also need to "industry" application of the promotion. In these directions, there is no real synthesis, occupy the absolute advantage of products, if you can make good products plus appropriate distribution channels, entrepreneurs still have the opportunity.

At the same time, "Hardware" is also a choice of direction. With the popularity of smartphones in China's two or three-line cities, the market segment of the smartphone is also beginning to take shape, for different sex, level, age consumer's handset needs the matching software and the system customization, therefore this level on the entrepreneur and the manufacturer's soft hard integration cooperation also has the certain opportunity, of course, including the tablet, the wisdom Can television and other fields.

Native app or Web app?

Remember that 2011 years, the concept of Web app is great, accompanied by many of Adobe Flash player's bad news, a time HTML5 by some people held the commanding heights. But in the near future, Flash products (the first game) began to explode completely. Relying on the layout of powerful technologies such as Adobe AIR, Stage, and so on, mobile devices are starting to emerge with a large number of high-quality flash games. But HTML5 from the clouds back to the brutal reality: HTML5 mobile game in the field of early explorers moblyng collapse, Mark Zuckerburg personally admitted that Facebook's HTML5 strategy is a mistake, the Chrome Web The game performance in the store is not very ideal ... Due to poor performance, the standard has not been determined, and the lack of web app distribution and profit channels, resulting in the HTML5 camp did not appear to take the shot of success stories. Perhaps as one developer once said: "HTML5 is the future trend, but not the current advantage." ”

There is no doubt that each technical solution has its own advantages and disadvantages, it must be based on a flexible choice of the actual situation. For example, for many traditional content-oriented web sites with few interactions, HTML5 has basically been able to cover all requirements. However, in the current web app Limited browser or front-end technology is not standardized, developers can consider the combination of applications, for performance, experience, equipment characteristics, local data management, such as HTML5 of the part of the native to do, The part of HTML5 expressiveness can be achieved by HTML5.

In general, developers should be able to master and lay out a variety of technologies in advance, not in a tree hanged.

Best Profit model?

No matter what, success is not anytime, "live" is the most important topic at present. With investment plummeting, entrepreneurs need to think more about profitability earlier. In fact, the current mobile internet has a series of profit model for developers to choose:

Pay-per-download. Download payment for a one-time payment for access to app usage.

In-app Purchasing. In-app purchases, which are usually the function of some applications, the promotion of game classes and virtual goods, are now the easiest way to get high incomes on the mainland.

Subscriptions. Subscriptions, which are typically paid monthly for apps, are often used by reading apps such as Programmer magazine.

Freemium. Free download, providing value-added pay services, in Evernote and other tools such as common applications.

Commissioned applications. Provide outsourced services.

In-app advertising. App display advertising mode and the traditional Internet advertising mode is very close to being used by developers, but the effect is decreasing.

Product slide-up. Implantable advertising, such as a certain item in a game, is a brand of drink.

Purchase intermediation. In order to get the traffic or other resources from the third party app to be divided, but also in the mainland often evolve into resources, flow swaps.

Per-unit royalties. Usually with the terminal manufacturer and the major platforms, such as manufacturers for mobile phone pre-installed pay.

Distribution exclusivity Deals. For the exclusive application store Hair application, the previous period of time Rovio "Amazing Alex" through the application of the release of the transfer appears to have adopted this model.

In a June 2012 VisionMobile survey of 1500 global entrepreneurs, Pay-per-download is the most frequently used profit model. A total of 34% of entrepreneurs chose this approach, a slight decline compared with 2011. followed by In-app advertising, accounting for 33%. From this year onwards, the In-app purchasing model began to hot, has become one of the return of high returns.

But entrepreneurs need to understand that there is no best model, only the most appropriate model. Selection criteria often depend on their product model, size and target market. In mainland China, for example, it is hard for gaming users to pay for an unknown game download, so In-app Purchasing is popular this year. For some financial tools, users are willing to pay to choose high-quality products to ensure their own security and privacy. At the same time, for the same product, in different stages of the "profit model" can also be transformed, "Angry Birds" is the best example, in the long-term occupy the front row of app toll list, with the launch of new products and game life cycle, the birds have fallen from the list, but found a more robust surplus Profit mode: Its peripheral products and licensing fees for its rich return, of course, in the mainland this model may be the cottage to make people vomit blood.

Ecological system dilemma

Good products also need to rely on good distribution channels and sound market, can be 2012 years of China Mobile Internet ecosystem is devastated, most developers are more or less facing the Mystery bureau. For Chinese developers, Shanzhai is still a constant topic, and beyond that, new problems follow.

The App Store once helped Apple build the best mobile ecosystem. But 2012 years of evidence suggest that the ecosystem appears to be eroding. The problem of the brush list is becoming more and more serious, in March 2012, the App Store used technology update to prevent the brush list, but also default to the previous brush list serious companies do not investigate. Sure enough, Apple's "not as" attitude so that the new algorithm only 2 months, a new wave of brush list began to get worse. Some developers think that Apple should be like Google Play "make can be wrong to kill 1000, not let a" attitude, but suppose so, there must be no good opponents pay to help you "brush list", so that you want to cry without tears.

Similarly, in Android's third-party market, the brush list is also rampant. As a result, many domestic developers and media have begun to expose and condemn these products. But from the market level, this impact will not ripple to consumers, if the brush list of risk and cost is very small, coupled with some investors "money to earn, how to earn are earned" indulgence attitude, then there will be more people desperate.

In addition, the APP store audit cycle is often long and irregular to follow; Go to the opponent's products under the brush difference evaluation; programmers directly with others game installation package to crack decompile add their own advertising account, put channels to steal advertising traffic ... Not only should developers pay attention to storms and reefs, but also to attack other ships, how long will it take for the mobile internet ecosystem to unravel?

On September 17, 2012, however, the App Store had a 7-hour "lock list" phenomenon (the entire list was locked, the rankings were almost fixed, and occasionally one or two of them fluctuated only because some limits were limited to app expiration, from the free Apps list). This situation is the same as the 7-hour lock list of March 20, 2012 (the first 2 days before the last round of ranking algorithms changed completely). Therefore, some people predict the ranking algorithm will be again big adjustment, hoping to bring some positive and effective changes.

Heading overseas?

Although some applications in China have achieved good results, but for the time being, the mainland is after all the low willingness to pay the market, and there are all the above mentioned the harsh competitive environment, in this situation, go "internationalization" strategy seems to be a good choice. In fact, many of the star teams of China Mobile's internet are now moving overseas, focusing overseas and even "coming from overseas" like the Dolphin browser.

Successful people are enviable, but the road to success is not what they see. As a general term, the overseas market is actually subdivided into many different markets: European and American markets, Japan market, Korea market, Latin America market, Southeast Asia Market ... Each market relies on language, culture, channel characteristics, market mechanisms and other regional characteristics of the establishment of barriers, if not find the right method, may not only find the treasure, but hit badly beaten. Simply take the Japanese market as an example, although its ARPU value is very high, the Japanese market's user tastes are very different from those of other countries, mainly from the card game, and Japanese users of the art of painting Wind, the details of the demand is very high (for example, compared to other Asian markets, European and American style products may be more popular).

In addition, not all products are suitable for overseas. Many products have the Chinese market in the beginning of the gene, leaving this link with other local products competition, it is likely not acclimatized. In some of the developers I interviewed recently, they talked about the technical advantages of the Chinese team when they talked about overseas markets, which seems to be the quality of every team that wants to survive in a foreign country.