The growing grey area of mobile communication applications: relying on viral marketing

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Tencent Science and Technology Jin Yu May 5 report

Last February, a LSA app, like a virus outbreak, quickly became popular. The app allows users to send anonymous information to their contacts or nearby people.

The name of the application is very similar to the secret of private social application software. But, with the user's good reputation and the attention of many media, in the user group growth, the latter than LSA one months earlier, and as the cottage application of the LSA was dipped in the light.

Just as desperate as the growth of the user base was, LSA began forcing his early users to send invitations to all their contacts and to have their friends download and install their own apps.

However, when the LSA download reached 2000 times, the problem arose, and LSA caused a blockage of mobile networks in addition to annoying spam. LSA began to send invitations to 2382 such numbers, causing local telecommunications operators to enter the asynchronous transmission mode (asynchronous transmits MODE.ATM) port in the Address book, as well as the accompanying information, Encountered a typical distributed denial of service attack (DDoS).

AdaptiveMobile, an unwitting LSA user, has sent more than 30,000 invitation messages to invalid numbers in the address book in just two days, according to the Irish mobile security provider, which studies mobile spam information.

LSA finally fixed the loophole, and its developers declined to comment. While this is an extreme case of spam, some people believe that the problem is partly due to growth.

As Facebook's 19 billion dollar acquisition of mobile real-time communications software company WhatsApp, a large amount of new money into the mobile communications market, so much more pressure on those who are still on the edge of the communications industry applications, so that they seek to expand at all costs.

In the area of application development, this growth process is a controversial gray area called substituting Hacking (note: A way to gain user growth through technology), and social network path, RapGenius, and glide have all used the technology. Glide, an Android user of video information applications, complains that, to some extent, it is almost impossible to prevent applications from sending invitations to everyone in their address book.

AdaptiveMobile Gao Tiaka Sol Madit (Cathal McDaid), a mobile security provider in Ireland, believes that mobile communications are the worst performing type of aggressive mobile marketing. He said that between September 2013 and 2014 March, the number of forced invitation messages from 12 of popular mobile applications had increased by 850%, a big part of which was that these applications "became priceless for a moment".

Recently, Google has put an ultimatum to Android application developers on junk-information marketing, demanding that they stop the marketing approach by April 16. According to AdaptiveMobile's survey, just a week after Google's deadline, Glide's daily application of inviting messages reduced the number of invitations sent to 30%,android Instant messaging applications by 60%, while anonymous communication applications Meow decreased by 91%.

The results are encouraging, but Madit believes that communication applications will continue to be opportunistic and inflate with artificial means. While most of the top communications platforms, such as line, WhatsApp and micro-letters, are more disciplined, small communications applications are eager to join the lucrative industry.

Mobile applications grew fastest last year, according to Flurry, a mobile industry analyst and advertising firm. Not long ago, Japan's e-commerce giant Lotte 900 million U.S. dollars to buy mobile messaging applications Viber, and Alibaba 215 million dollar investment in social applications Tango trading, but also let the platform market value of more than 1 billion U.S. dollars. No wonder venture capitalists are putting more pressure on start-ups to attract users. For such a high valuation, a staggering number of users is critical, even if it is just a registered user.

Madit says there is another mobile app hidden deep in the grey area of application development, smug Messenger. In order for the user to send a friend invitation, the application will provide users with prizes in the game or even Amazon gift cards. This is really a brilliant revenue tool, but Madit that "this is unsolicited and is an artificial growth." Some apps also work on the user interface, and it's hard to delete invitations. It all depends on interesting social engineering. ”

Madit also cites another example: Tango, a mobile communications platform with 200 million registered downloads, asks users if they want to invite friends to join, as long as they use the application to take photos. There is another communication application, it will immediately check the user's all friends, after a while to cancel.

Madit that this approach has a clear psychological effect. In his view, in the substituting hacking strategy, the upstart communication application is more and more creative, preferring the "window-breaking effect", and in imitation of the old road.

Ironically, WhatsApp did not use artificial growth strategies during its development. For example, in 2009, WhatsApp became famous as one of the free communications apps of the day, and in order to keep the user growing steadily, WhatsApp took the first year of free, followed by an annual 0.99 cents policy.

"We want to make sure that we are able to absorb users to join our network and provide them with the quality of service they deserve," WhatsApp co-founder Jane Qom said in an interview with Forbes Koum in December 2013. Compared to receiving 100 emails, we chose 10, and we were able to ensure that all of them were answered. In the long run, this artificial cyber repression is actually rewarding, because the quality of service and support we offer make people happier. Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, said, "We have chosen a slower path than the ' fast-growing ' standard mode of thinking." Blaine Akton ”

Today, mobile apps are a winner-take-all market, which occupies most of the revenue at the top of the market, so it's hard to emulate WhatsApp's early development strategy. "It's like the music market, where only a few bands can be top groups and all the money is in their pockets," says Ilkka Teppo, a Finnish application developer Ilka Teber. He said that the refusal to disclose the "number of active users" from most communications platforms shows how difficult it is for people to use their services on a regular basis.

The true value of the

Communication applications is not so much in the number of registered users, because many people are downloaded but never used, but rather the amount of so-called "user retention", the frequency with which people open and use a service. At least for now, this figure is not man-made.