Post-app era: The double test of app stores

Baidu plans to buy 91 wireless news for 1.9 billion dollars, perhaps overestimating the value of the App Store. For the Jifeng market, Android Market, application sinks, pea pods and other Third-party mobile phone application market, the future of the road may be more difficult. Is by Baidu sky-high purchase 91 of the Thunder grabs, or continue to work hard to find a way out?　　Become a problem for these "markets" to consider. July 16 Baidu announced plans to wholly-owned acquisition network Mirs 91 Wireless services, the two days have been fully fermented in the industry.　　Many think that Baidu's 1.9 billion dollar bid is "too expensive", as an application distribution channel with piracy risk, 91 wireless may not be worth the price. However, each flower into the eyes, Baidu naturally has its 91 wireless logic and reasons. For example, Baidu's own many applications are eager to "landing", as well as the trading behind the game and human relations.　　Robin Li is willing to buy at this price, but he can only judge by himself. But for other app stores, 91 is not much of a reference. "Baidu acquisition 91 after the basic pattern has been set, the industry's top three have been Tencent, Baidu, 360 control."　　"The rest of the sellers and potential buyers do not have the conditions to replicate such a large deal," analysts from the Internet investment Circle. At the same time, after 91 is included in the bat map, other competitors will face a double test.　　First of all, Baidu integration after 91 will undoubtedly be more powerful, this will squeeze the survival of other platforms space. Second, the value of the application store as a distribution channel is facing challenges. Mobile internet has been in development for many years, except the game in most areas of the app's seating has been basically settled. In addition, with the emergence of "super app" such as micro-letters, simple application distribution may not the "entrance" of mobile internet. The "post-app age" puzzle. In the 2012, China's smartphone users used the habit of using a special statistic, the data show: 2012 China's smartphone users, 46.4% of people commonly used in the number of 6-10, commonly used in 5 of the following accounted for 19.6%.　　Total 66% of users are commonly used within 10.　　In addition, China's smartphone users commonly used in mobile phones in the number of applications accounted for only 17.2% of the total use of mobile phones, a major reason for the low usage rate is that users are often "exhausted" in the face of many application options, fragmentation time is limited, can only focus on a few applications. Such a reality would give the app store a lot of value as a distribution channel.　　Because users often use only a few, the quality of the new application is also uneven, for users, the cost of trial and error is very high, already very few people will spend a lot of time to the App Store looking for a variety of apps to experience. UC excellent as chairman and CEO Yu will be the future of this trend summed up as the "post-app era." This will be two challenges for all companies that want to start a business through app application (including an application-based distribution channel)。 One is the application of the app form to break out of the opportunities are fewer and less. "We see China's top 20 applications, in fact, only two types." The first category is the application of giants. The second category is most of the companies that have been in business for more than five years.　　"Yu believes that the real app in the past few years to break through, become a" big Player "basically did not appear. As a result, entering the post-app era, entrepreneurs and investors are less enthusiastic about applying alone (except for mobile games).　　And the performance of the brush list and other behavior worsened the overall environment of the application store, affecting the user experience, so the need for simple application promotion is not as hot as the previous two years. The second is the emergence of the so-called "Super app". such as micro-letter and other strong mobile phone applications, are moving towards a "full service platform" direction.　　They are the real mobile internet portals. For example, Southern Airlines, China Merchants Bank, etc., have their own services in the form of "public account" through the micro-letter to provide users.　　For ordinary users, no longer need to download the Southern Airlines, China Merchants Bank app client, you can do most of the service on the phone. Zhang, the chief executive of the media consultancy, believes that the two-time development based on micro-trust is now much more popular than the development of a single app, "because it leads users faster and the cost of promotion is lower."　　"Yu also judged that the future trend of super app will become more and more obvious." However, the pea-Pod co-founder, Wang Junyu, disagrees, and he has his own opinion, "If users really ' only use a few apps ', I think it's not just a good day for the App Store, it's the end of the entire mobile internet." "What he sees is that domestic Android users, especially high-end users, are moving away from using only the necessary apps to start experimenting with richer, fresher apps and games," says Wang Junyu. "Android is still a vibrant ecosystem, and users still maintain a strong thirst for new and good quality applications."　　"What should the App store do?" Although in the long run, the value of the application store as a distribution channel is disputed.　　However, as Tencent, Baidu, 360 focus on the layout of the field, the third party application market still has its strategic significance. Zhang that, Baidu Heavy purchase 91 actually also sent a signal to the industry, that is the application store in the end what should do?　　In Zhang's view, the core of 91 to sell a good price is not the current distribution of its Android market, but the "mobile helper" piece. The logic is that, even if you don't need to download new apps every day, you need to manage your phone and manage your apps all the time.　　Including its comprehensive evaluation of how it needs not to upgrade and so on. In fact, third-party application markets have begun to downplay the concept of downloading and distributing, instead highlighting the management of handsets. For example, pea pods in overseas markets is the main push is this function, because the overseas market Google's official Google Play store advantages obvious. "What we do abroad is pure tools,For example, the management function of PC client, we only do this piece in English.　　"Wang Junyu said. In the domestic market, the application of "identification" and "management" is also very important. In China because of policy reasons, Google play has not yet landed in the country, so the domestic flooded with a variety of third Fang Andro market. It is difficult to have a platform to cover all users.　　In the different download channels, the quality of the application is uneven, even with a lot of pirated or malicious applications.　　Still take the pea pod as an example, its domestic push of a core function is "Application wash white", that is to help users in many of the numerous applications, to find a genuine application without malicious plug-ins. Zhang believes that another reason for Baidu's hefty acquisition of 91 is that its business model has been freed from the mere application of distribution. "Traditional mobile phone distribution, the way to make money is to promote the promotion of advertising ranking model."　　Zhang that these are actually money. And 91 of the real money is the game of combined transport. 91 is now one of the 5 major channels for domestic hand travel. Zhang said, other Tencent, UC, 360, when the music. From this point of view, other application stores in the future to seek better independent development, but also must find a better mode of change.