The laws of war hidden behind social networks

Do not speak first, look at the picture:

This is a few of the social networks I have picked up "Dau than Mau" (Day active Users divided by the monthly active users), the date is different, but all try to find the latest data, we do not have to see. This number is closer to 1, indicating the more frequent users use the application. A closer look at the properties of these applications can be summed up in a few features:

The higher the frequency of demand itself, the higher the frequency of usage. This does not explain.

The more mobile device users, the higher the frequency of use. This does not explain.

The more acquaintances chain, the higher the frequency of usage. Explain: Half of Instagram's social relationships are real friends. It is said that Momo users actually have quite a lot of friends are mobile phone address Book friends, and every day, 80% of the news is two-way attention of friends hair (you underestimate it?) ）。

The above summary is basically nonsense, because we basically already know, here I want to discuss is actually behind the law of war.

Okay, I'm starting to start.

Law of War One: social graph similar, demand type is not mutually exclusive ==> high-frequency hit low-frequency

I've answered one question in my mind, "are Facebook social networking sites affected by new social tools such as micro-letters?"

My basic point is this: if WhatsApp is doing something like a micro-trust, it poses a huge threat to Facebook. The logic is as follows:

"Hair friend Circle" core experience is "after the hair immediately have friends praise or reply." WhatsApp's "permanent online + High frequency use" attribute gives it a strategic advantage over Facebook, and if you do something like a friend, users can get more feedback on their friends faster than Facebook.

The core experience of "seeing a circle of friends" is "the freshness, true and interesting content of a lot of friends." Based on the 1th, WhatsApp friend Circle will have more friends hair content, and more fresh, and because the landlord online probability is higher, after the message more easily and "landlord" form interaction.

The two core experiences of the circle of friends are highly dependent on user density and usage frequency, 1th and 2nd promote each other and form a virtuous circle.

Soon after, Facebook bought WhatsApp at a terrible price of 19 billion dollars. In fact, WhatsApp in the United States permeability is not particularly high (and there has been no online friend circle function, this I really think), otherwise very likely not to sell, and FB a good fight.

This first rule can be summed up as "high-frequency demand can bring the user density to pull low-frequency demand."

The law of War Two: social graph similarity, frequency similar ==> original is king

All of them should remember the SNS war staged in 2008. First Cheng Happy net use acquaintance social games (as well as MSN Newsletter record) like the rocket to become the urban white-collar "to go to work will brush" website. At the same time, Chen a boat's thousand Oak Group acquired the network (after renamed Renren), in the campus market to send chicken legs, in the white-collar market with false happy net of the expansion, and a sudden melt more than 400 million dollars.

In the face of fierce competition, happy net continued to develop fun social games, and developed a magical "reprint" function, a time menacing, occupy a large number of users. Renren began to carry or adhere to the main UGC, and later decided to follow up. News of "reprint" and various social games is gradually taking over the user's main feed (user information flow).

Although it appears that users are using the time and PV number is increasing, but slowly the user behavior has changed: send a picture of the status also no one praise and no one left a message, because the friends of the feed inside the reprint and the news of social games flooded the user original content.

Then a magical website "Sina Weibo" with the advent of smartphones. Their attention to celebrities and friends released fresh information flow and instant social interaction experience, quickly pk off happy net and Renren is full of reprint information flow. A time micro Bo red through the half of the sky, go to a restaurant to open micro bo "mutual powder", eat food to buy beautiful clothes are also first to Sina Weibo to give friends a report. At that time, Sina Weibo momentum of the surging, Tencent smashed heavily and unlimited traffic support "Tencent Weibo", or carry it.

Later, as the microblogging feed was occupied by public accounts and scripts (and even robots), activity dropped dramatically.

Some may say that the decline in microblogging activity is due to the substitution effect of the micro-trust circle, and I agree, but I would like to say two points.

1 Weibo social map and micro-letter is not the same, in fact, there is a unique value, in fact, should not be replaced so quickly (Twitter than it live much better), is its own feed aging too quickly to allow competitors to have the opportunity;

2 Micro-letter friends also in the feed in the introduction of a large number of public accounts and reprint, in fact, wounding 1000 800 (by their own can "unlimited blood" high-frequency communication function), perhaps the passage of times, it will also have to boomerang. Among teenagers in the United States, Instagram is already higher than Facebook, one reason is that there is too much clutter in Facebook feeds.

This second rule can be summed up as: The user's original content of the interaction needs more "basic", more "universal", more irreplaceable, and reprint and social games in fact dilute the user based on the original content of the interaction, reducing the density of real social behavior, so that competitors have the opportunity.

The Law of War Three: social graph similar UGC Community ==> content production costs lower the better

Observe the changes in social networks, but also found a phenomenon, the lower the cost of content production site more users, the more frequent use. Give two examples:

1) Photo Exchange

The United States had a popular photo-delivery site called Flickr, the flow has been falling. Flickr gathered a lot of photographers with advanced photographic equipment to take good photos, but Instagram let ordinary people with mobile phones can be taken out of a good picture, not only can be complacent, and friends to point a praise, if pressed dau or use the length, Instagram is one order of magnitude higher than flickr. Instagram actually did a lot of work to reduce the cost of content production:

A) with a box (easy to frame);

b provide some filters to make the photos appear to be forced;

c The phone can be photographed, ready to shoot. And a more exotic company, Pinterest, continuous photos are saved, the user directly from other sites grilled pictures from the "nail" to their own wall, on the "production" of the content, but also really someone would like to see, but it is not a true SNS is actually questionable, here will not start chatting.

2 Blogs and Weibo (Twitter)

After the microblog came out, the people who wrote the blog dropped sharply. An important reason is that the threshold of writing blog is too high, can write High-quality blog is actually not many people, but also to write a long time, so basically can only browse the Internet Reds blog (celebrities may not write a good blog). When Weibo comes out, not only can people write microblogs, but also their friends can write tweets that interest them.

This third rule can be summed up as: by reducing the cost of content production can improve the density of user relations, and thus promote content production and user activity.

Summary: Frequency and density

In fact, behind these laws are "density".

Add a definition of the concept of "density": the frequency of usage is actually the density of the time dimension, and the user permeability represents the density of the user relationship dimension. The core experience of SNS is the interaction between users, and the high density of user relationship and the frequency of usage can bring a better social interaction experience.

Finally, make a few suggestions to entrepreneurs by convention:

1 Social class entrepreneurs, please pay attention to your own dau/mau, constantly thinking about the need for rigid enough, there is no protection of the user original content of the initiative, high-quality content production costs can continue to reduce the proportion of acquaintances can continue to improve? (Incidentally, if you plan to use the Address Book to introduce acquaintances in the future, then start with the user's mobile phone number, to engage in mobile phone number, mobile phone number ...) ）

2 Many tool-type applications developers want to transfer to the community, it's a good idea to think about whether your users have real social needs, and then calculate their effective user density from different dimensions of social relationships and usage frequencies, and don't bet on this if the demand is not strong or the density is not enough.

Finally the long-winded finished, welcome to throw bricks.

The author is Hubert to the Blue Lake Capital. Blue Lake Capital is a new generation of research-driven venture capital funds dedicated to finding potential entrepreneurs and helping them build great businesses, leading industry changes and changing people's lives.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)