The arrival of the mobile social era

Tencent Science and Technology Liang Fan Xiaodong November 27 reported once in the campus popular Renren can also in the mobile social explosion era to regain youth? The veteran social networking site has missed the perfect moment for change, but the new Renren mobile client has just shown that the company's helm, Chen, doesn't want to give up. Chen yesterday in person for Renren new mobile phone application platform, and stressed that the future will be "focus" on the Renren business and young groups. The new Renren Mobile client has increased the current popular mobile social elements such as live chat and groups, and has made a comprehensive transformation of the products for the mobile end, echoing the Chen's August announcement this year that Renren is transforming its social networking Services (SNS) into Social communication services (SMS). The anxiety of traditional social networking sites and communities is evident as a large number of users have shifted to more popular social applications such as micro-letters over the past two years. In addition to Renren, happy net in recent years also fell into the trough, and to the game developer transformation; Tianya in the mobile end of the development of the "palm of the Tianya" layout; The news is that Baidu will soon announce its mobile end of the new strategy. It's hard to say whether these traditional social networking sites and communities ' new mobile journey will work. Wei, an Internet watcher, argues that mobile socializing does not have a vertical concept, and that users can find applications to address demand on a mobile social platform without having to look for a new social network for that need alone. But the space for mobile social innovation does not seem to be disappearing. In the United States, for example, after Twitter, WhatsApp and Snapchat, and more "traditional" Facebook after the enhanced mobile products and liquidity, the share price has rebounded. Viewed from this perspective, traditional social networking sites need not be overly pessimistic. The question goes back to the origin, the mobile social age, whether can use product innovation to impress the user appears more important. Changes in user demand lead to industrial upgrading everyone loves socializing. They prefer to pursue new social platforms and gradually become dependent, then complain, and finally find new alternatives. This seems to be a summary of many of the traditional PC era hit social platform development stories. However, Renren, net, such a group of people born since the SNS boom period of enterprises, like their predecessors BBS, in the face of the decline of the PC end users, but also face the mobile internet new influx of challenges, and even those who have become some martyrs. "The fundamental reason that traditional social platforms are not so popular is not the mobile Internet," Forrest analyst Wang Xiaofung told Tencent Technology, "the need for users to get information has changed." "That is to say, whether it is Renren, happy net, or Tianya, Baidu Bar, they encountered a common problem is that people use social tools changed, mobile internet waves flow too fast, and they do not keep up with the trend of mobility, but their users are interacting, interacting, access to information, And even the way of life has changed. At present, users are more inclined to get information through faster and simpler ways, while moving instantCommunication products and microblogging products provide such functionality. "The trend has been more pronounced this year, as the overall PC-side traffic is falling, and the traditional social platform must gradually shift to the handset side," he said. An internet practitioner has made such an exclamation. In Renren's view, it would have had the opportunity to develop into a similar platform like Tencent QQ space, so that its advantages can be maintained to the mobile end. In the 2009, Renren began to open its platform, although it has been criticized for its poor design on API interface, chaotic audit process, and lack of effective complaint channels, but it has been the first to share revenue, making it a gathering of many developers. But at the end of 2010 and early 2011, Renren closed This open channel in the hope of gaining benefits through its own development. This allows developers to find new platforms for survival, at a time when Tencent's QQ space and various microblogging openings offer new choices for these developers. When everyone again realizes the importance of ecology, it is impossible for the developer to return to everyone. Because of this, Renren is facing the problem of not enriching the ecological chain around itself, and facing the crisis that the student group as a mainstream user has flowed to other emerging social platforms as a result of graduation. This is not a single phenomenon. In overseas markets, Facebook faces the same problem, the impact of mobile instant Messaging: The former has grown into a full-featured "platform", built on the PC side and not adapted to the development of mobile Internet. While Facebook has eased some anxiety by buying Instagram, mainstream users seem to be buying it. Analysts said that the short-term product is not the industry mainstream is not important, the key is to be able to guide the trend, and this is valuable, because the loss of the youth user groups is the most frightening. The mobile end pays more attention to the circle design However, this does not mean that social platforms such as Renren do not have the potential to develop at the mobile end, but that they are experiencing a brief low ebb. An Internet watcher told Tencent technology that the third chance to move from PC to Mobile is open. From the mobile end of the social needs of the emergence of information redundancy problem is very serious, users do not have time to organize it, which provides a space for the birth of new applications. Snapchat launched the "after the burn" function to meet the needs of users, so it is hot in the current. This reflects the trend of a mobile end, and users will choose to operate a simpler application. Snapchat also drew attention to the observation that it was founded by two Stanford college students, indicating that the mainstream users of mobile internet had begun to determine the shape of the product they wanted. Facebook's rush to buy Snapchat is a judgment on the way forward. In this respect, Wang Xiaofung says the right strategy for social platforms to develop on the mobile side is to develop truly innovative products that Chinese companies lack. "The best outcome is that old products retain loyal users, new productsAbsorb new users, to undertake the loss of old products users. "A domestic social platform product mobility leader told Tencent technology." That is to say, the need to start a new business on the mobile side, using the past ideas and practices is not. For now, the demand for social platforms is changing under the mobile Internet. Li, a Analysys international analyst, argues that, unlike the traditional user aggregation based on interest, the mobile end emphasizes social networking, and the way in which strangers become acquaintances increases the stickiness of the user's use of the product. Most of the social platforms on the PC end are human-minimal, and their networks are directly connected to one another, and there is no other level two structure on top of the network. For a user, his "buddy" is flattened, which means that any UGC that is generated will be pushed to all his friends because there is no "buddy rating system". But on the mobile side, because the user's use is fragmented, so users can send messages and interact with friends at any time, which causes users to send content to delete or Send object classification needs, and this kind of small demand in the original flat structure is ultimately impossible to achieve, Therefore can satisfy the user this kind of demand the product will be recognized by the user. Is there an opportunity for social platforms such as Renren to integrate the pieces of these disparate needs together?