Instant social networking: Can you burn after reading?

The core points of this article are:

• The strategic evolution of social products is critical

The evolution of Snapchat's product form reflects its strategic evolution view, and the evolving attitude and strategic pattern are the necessary structural supporting framework for long-term success in the process of entrepreneurship. The strategic goal of Snapchat is to build a comprehensive mobile-end ecosystem.

* After reading the burning is only a content self-digestion dimension of product mechanism

The product mechanism of content self digestion has some short-term and long-term user management utility, but it is not enough to constitute the long-term competition of social application of instantaneous scene.

·“ What you see is what you send "may be a pseudo demand

In the social conservative attribute of the Chinese human self-image positioning, the recipient of the transfer of sensory information carrier of the acceptance of the sensitivity of the decline; the asymmetry of information exchange is the objective obstruction of the mechanism of "seeing and sending".

The following is the first----instant scene social interaction based on specific information carrier form into mobile social

Instant Scene Social

Instant scene Social initial product form is derived from the so-called "Burn After reading" Social application Snapchat. Users can use such applications to send pictures based on instantaneous scenes, small video or real-time video calls with each other.

This type of application reconstructs two elements of time and scene in three dimensions compared to pre-existing communication or social products:

A the time of the information content is almost coincident with the time recorded by the information content itself (the time overlap of different products will vary);

b The disappearance time of the information content is almost coincident with the consuming time of the information content of the receiving user (the time coincidence degree of different products will vary);

c The content of the information itself consists of the physical scene in which the user itself is making the content (the content contains two elements of the physical scene and time).

Therefore, this kind of social product presents a unique product form. In a way, they do have a certain mimicry of the social scene in real life.

For these reasons, we've named this social product "instant-scene social products" here.

What we usually call the "read after Burn (self-destructing)" concept is only an important auxiliary function under the concept of instantaneous scene, so the so-called privacy protection can not be really realized in practice. We feel that it may be more objective and accurate to use the term "self-dissolution" to describe the existence of such a mechanism, but in order to take care of our vocabulary usage, we will continue to refer to "Burn After reading", if we do not emphasize it below.

The Snapchat of the United States is the undisputed pedigree of such applications. In addition, Facebook has also introduced Poke and Slingshot, which are very similar in product form to Snapchat. Other similar products abroad are the Mirage introduced by Taptalk, Instagram launched by the German start-up team and the bolt and minimalist social application yo development company.

At home, there was a similar product in the 2012 called Bubble Letters, but media reports say the development team has stopped running the product. Recent new products such as: Blink (see), Second view, Biu (Friends), seven and so on. In addition, there is a product called "clicks" can not be attributed to the instantaneous scene social category.

In the instant scene social arena, we had face-to-face communication with Blink CEO Schkeven. Schkeven himself has participated in the NetEase Science and technology at the end of November 2014 to hold the five crossing salon activities as a sharing guest.

Depending on the shape of the product, we split the instant scene social product into two categories: before you can preview and send it before you send it.

Before sending, preview means that the user can edit and preview the picture or video that is ready to be sent after the content is taken, and choose whether to continue sending.

No preview before sending means that once the user completes the content shooting action, the picture or video will be sent directly to the other party, the user does not have the opportunity to preview the picture or the content of the video, edit or give up sending.

Instant scenes to preview before sending social products: Snapchat, Blink (see)

The mechanism that can be previewed before sending weakens the instantaneous/real-time attributes of the relevant content, increasing the content's fun and richness attributes.

Basic situation:

A) Snapchat

Snapchat is a start-up project for Stanford student Evan Spigger (Evan Spiegel) and Bobby Melfi (Bobby Murphy), which was officially launched in September 2011.

-Financing

Snapchat rejected Facebook's 3 billion dollar takeover offer in December 2013. Some media reported that the current venture investment agencies to Snapchat valuation has reached 10 billion U.S. dollars. Other media said Snapchat could be listed at the end of 2015 with a 250-300 dollar market capitalisation (comparable to Twitter's market capitalisation).

-Partial operational data

The MAU data from the research firm comscore in June 2014 was 27 million; 95 users accounted for more than half of the total number of users; Each active user has an average of 14 applications open every day. Recently, the media said, Snapchat internal data show that the application of the Mau has reached 100 million people, users send a daily number of photos to more than 500 million.

B) Blink (quick look)

Blink is the Beijing Horizon Core Network Technology Co., Ltd. 's products, the CEO for Schkeven, the product on August 15, 2014 officially online.

-Financing

In August 2014 it was said to have received a 16 million dollar a round of funding from Sequoia, the innovation workshop, H Capital, Xiaoping and so on, with a valuation of nearly $110 million trillion.

-Partial operational data

It is said that as of late November 2014, the number of registered users has nearly 350,000.

Two product form Description:

A) Snapchat

Snapchat current product configuration description is as follows:

The first screen is the shooting interface (the top left corner is the flash switch; the top right corner is the flip button of the inside and outside lens; The bottom left-hand corner is the chat list button; The bottom right corner is the buddy list button; The bottom two buttons are the filming button).

In the first screen click on the Filming button, the application completes the photo action, the generated photos will not be sent directly, the user can set up the photos just generated to see the time (1-10s), add text content, voice content, graffiti, select the filter after choosing whether to send. At the same time, users can also choose whether to save content locally before sending;

In the first screen long press the filming button, the application to open video action, the user can record a certain length of small video. The generated video is not sent directly, the user can edit the content of the video text and graffiti and whether to join the live voice before choosing whether to send.

When the user clicks the Send button, the "Send To" list appears, and the user can choose to send the content to my Story or/and other contact friends.

Products Link: https://www.snapchat.com/

Snapchat users need to hold their hands on the screen when they receive a picture from another user, and if they let go before the set time is over, the picture will disappear without opening again.

B) Blink (quick look)

Blink Current Product configuration description is as follows:

The first screen for the shooting interface (bottom left corner is a small button inside and outside the lens flip, the right from top to bottom "menu", "Mass" and friends list avatar).

Click on the "menu", the interface appears three icons corresponding to the "Add and search Buddy module", "in the existing friends to introduce each other module" and "User account and Function settings module."

Click on "Mass", the choice of the message sent to a few friends at the same time.

Click on the first screen of a particular friend of the Avatar, the application of complete photo action, the generated photos will not be sent directly out, users can just generate the photos add text content, voice content, graffiti Select whether to send;

In the first screen long according to the image of a particular friend, the application to open video action, the user can record the length of 1-16 seconds between the small video. The generated video is not sent directly, the user can edit the content of the video text and graffiti before choosing whether to send.

If the user chooses to discard the send, the corresponding photo or video will not be retained.

Blink does not limit the viewing time of the picture, the video can be viewed in a loop, but the user will not be able to watch it again after exiting the image or video interface received.

Blink allows users to set up in the user account and Function settings module to choose whether to add the captured content to the album, and the user can save their own content locally.

Products Link: http://blinnnk.com/

From the Blink product form, although users have only one chance to open the picture or video they receive, the user can always watch what they receive without leaving the Open interface. In addition, users can interact with each other on the same picture or video over and over again. Therefore, the blink after the reading of the burning property is very very weak.

Initial product positioning and satisfying user needs: Shared life scenes without psychological burden

Snapchat from the beginning to now has undergone a lot of changes in product form, and its product positioning and meet the needs of users are also evolving. Snapchat on the line initially want to do is a user sharing photos of the tool class application, after the addition of the burn function, this product gradually became an instant scene social application.

Snapchat to meet the needs of the user's surface from the convenience of Peer-to-peer image sharing into a scruple to send real-time photos to companions.

Blink product form on the comprehensive embodiment of Snapchat, Taptalk and other products shadow. For example, after shooting can be edited is the practice of Snapchat, the user's head arrangement in the shooting interface as a shot trigger button is Taptalk practice (note: Taptalk's idea is "what you see is hair", stressing the convenience of point-to-point shooting and after shooting without a preview of the immediate delivery).

Blink's slogan is: "With vivid picture and text message, pass life intravenous drip." "Blink want to meet the needs of the user surface in Schkeven words," I hope users will be the daily life of those meaningless scenes and nonsense moved to the line.

Product Development Strategy: Strategic Evolution View vs Lean Iteration

In fact, Snapchat's product form does not stay in the impression that most people "Burn after reading." Let's take a look at the new features (chronological, incomplete) that Snapchat has added to the product in the last 2 years (2013-1014):

-October 2013-mystory (My Story)-users can add photos to my Story, and the Pictures/videos will be displayed in my Story for 24 hours. In these 24 hours, the user's friends can be viewed at any time. These pictures/videos are played in chronological order. In other words, "my Story" actually constitutes a 24-hour circle of friend feeds.

-December 2013-replay (again)-users have a chance to see the Pictures/videos sent by their friends once a day. This point has been from the side of the view that burning itself is not Snapchat's core appeal.

-May 2014-Text IM function and real-time video chat-users can choose to use IM function for text chat on Snapchat, im Chat window is closed, chat content disappears, but users can intercept screen at any time during the chat process. When interacting with each other in the IM interface, Users can send real-time video unilaterally, if the other side also hold down the IM interface in the lower right corner of the real-time video send button, the two sides can realize two-way real-time video chat, in the process of chatting inside and outside the lens can be switched at any time.