Whisper Chinese version whispers just on line, talking to its CEO

Absrtact: Editor's note: Whisper Chinese version whispers just online, a total of 20 members of the landing team, a few days ago 36 Krypton to its CEO Michael Heyward a Skype interview, the 60 million-dollar financing of the mobile end of the anonymous social product representative, the visit

Editor's note: Whisper Chinese version of the "Whisper" has just been online, a total of 20 members of the team, a few days ago, 36 Krypton to its CEO Michael Heyward a Skype interview, for the 60 million U.S. dollars to raise the mobile end of the anonymous social product representatives of strangers, This interview mainly on its social concept, media attributes, mobile advertising business model, the strategy in China a little discussion, brick please pat.

36 Krypton: What inspired you to whisper at the earliest?

M: To recap, in fact, the original Internet is anonymous by default, there is no so-called social layer (social layer). It turned out to be the Internet with identity, where users would share a circle of friends or Facebook for every article they read, and that's why people later wanted to be able to get rid of their footprints on the internet. For example, Snapchat, Whisper, and even the Enterprise Tiger Text (the last company) is the trend.

36 Krypton: Where does the creative communication model come from?

M: It's an unprecedented moment in history where people have the next smart device in their pockets, and theoretically you can connect with the other billions of people in the world. I think that all innovative communication and interaction are unlocked because of real-time features, and besides, geographical location and camera function are also important, which sounds very common, but the impact is enormous. Take Instagram for example, remember when I was in junior high school, if a party did not invite me, may feel very bad, but will be good. Not now, even if not invited, I can be in Instagram 24 hours to see its dynamics. This is close to a skylight that sees your life, and the penetration of social networks is a major reason for whisper, where people need to share something that makes them feel vulnerable.

36 Krypton: Whisper is doing listicle like BuzzFeed, is it going to develop into a media?

There are many usage scenarios on m:whisper that we have not foreseen, because many users will be here to discuss what they don't normally discuss. Someone said, "Hey, I've just been a mom, but sometimes I feel like I'm not a good mother." One of the college students said, "I've never had a girlfriend in my age, and I feel like this." "So Whisper has the ability to tell stories that are often difficult to see elsewhere." The flow of information, such as Facebook and the circle of friends, has been carefully screened, mostly on the daily basis of working and watching movies. We are now discovering the ability to tell stories through whisper, to let people know that you are not alone.

Anonymity is a powerful tool, but like a hammer, it can help build houses, build parks, and kill people. We want users to use anonymity to protect themselves, instead of wearing masks to hurt others. Whisper does not allow users to use the real name on the platform, we hope that this is a positive product, hoping to discover the good side of the user's heart.

36 Krypton: Does Whisper have a mechanism to handle the spread of negative energy on this platform?

M: In addition to the algorithm, we have a large number of manual audit staff to check the content, if the user to the real name published content is not pass, sexual harassment, sexual cues, bloody violence, intimidation of other people's content is not allowed to spread on the platform. Technical means and manual adjustment two dimensions bar.

Like BuzzFeed, Whisper also has its own editorial team, which is responsible for finding, sorting, and selecting interesting content whisper whispers. They are working with more than 70 media, such as buzzfeed,mashable, to deliver interesting content to their partners. In order to do a good job, it even from Gawker dug to focus on the "viral content" Neetzan Zimmerman.

Note: This is a bit embarrassing, because the disclosure of user privacy to the United States Department of Defense, with whisper cooperation with the longest BuzzFeed has suspended its partnership.

36 Krypton: Does the editorial team play the role of a general media editor?

M: In a different way, we're more like a Media Lab, and the core is discovering trends on whisper and interpreting them. For example, a story we posted to BuzzFeed about American military bases--which base discussed most of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)? As a result, Texas is the worst. And, "which university students love to open the big lie?" "And so on.

Based on data monitoring and editorial team planning, the result is whisper trending story columns, are similar to BuzzFeed listicle.

36 Krypton: How can you use this data in addition to trending story,whisper?

M: We use data to enhance the user experience. Different regions, the city's user groups are interested in content types are often not the same, we can adjust the priority of the flow of information, through geographical location and interest map to identify the value of trend is very large. For example, McDonald's employees may be happier than their Burger King employees.

36 Krypton: Will these data be part of your business model, Whisper has been doing for a while, feeling it's time to discuss business models, and I found one of your specialties on your LinkedIn home page monetization ...

M:aha,you teach something about myself.

Although no focus in the profit model, but has been doing experiments in this area, and MTV, Universal Pictures Advertising cooperation effect is good. We also have a beta of the advertising products, when the user mentioned a keyword, whisper can recommend a photo of the occasional background. For example, a user says, "Every morning I wake up confident." "Nike's images may be recommended, but these images are not simple logos, they will be very emotional, Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant and other athletes are likely to appear in the form of native advertising."

36 Krypton: If users use the same diagram will not cause the content of the homogeneity of it?

M: We don't worry, the Fortune 500 consumer brands spend a lot of resources on advertising every year, although users with brand backgrounds may form a long tail, but they don't pose a problem for these big companies.

It's a bit like Twitter's advertising product is based on hashtag topic promotion. For example, McDonald's #i ' m loving it, the user every time this hashtag, McDonald's pay money. In fact, the combination of UGC content and promotional content creates a new content. Another advantage of this kind of advertising is that you are buying an active discussion, not a passive promotion.

And it can change the way people think about a brand. For example, we all think that Taylor Swift only a little girl will listen, but on the whisper you will find that this is not the case-"I am afraid of too much action every time I exercise. I'm a big men of 25. This kind of confession will happen on the whisper.

36 Krypton: Mobile ads do not have too many precedents to refer to, Whisper will not sacrifice some new play, the original advertisement can change the old advertising mode of factors?

M: In fact, Mobile-first ads are still hovering in infancy, the current mobile advertising big players are mobile end of the app to promote the Facebook, the previous advertising mode is based on the PC side. But now we are facing the mobile screen, with the UGC, people begin to seriously rethink the next 10-15 ads as wondering.

However, we have not thought clearly, Instagram, Whisper and Snapchat are doing some interesting little experiments.

36 Krypton: Why come to China, this market is very different, can be very difficult?

M: On the one hand, there is a group of naturally growing users already using Whisper. Moreover, I have observed that China is the only one-child country in the world, and this situation has allowed a generation of only children to grow up as independent individuals with social responsibilities, but many problems that could have been solved in the family were stacked on the same person. They need to release themselves.

Another point of view is that the meaning of Whisper is to connect the lonely parts of people's lives.

Here M refers to the concept of a excess inventory, and he feels that just as Uber and Airbnb share solutions to the problems of car and housing surplus, Whisper also applies the concept that when someone is upset about homosexuality, Others may also face the same problem in another space, and they can share it in Whisper. That's why they call themselves Airbnb for loneliness.

36 Krypton: In China's strategy, strategy, how to compete with China's "whisper"?

M: With our current global scale, we can iterate over the product quickly and quickly. Whisper more attention to the user experience, the key to the platform is to give users security, otherwise the community will lose trust, we pay more attention to user privacy-because Whisper does not crawl the user's address book.

Tried the "Whisper": The UI and the foreign version of the two-column postcard stream is very different, changed to a similar Instagram information flow, of course, is still graphic mixed row, however, comments viewing way easier to use, users do not have to point to a whisper, just slide to the right to view the next.

Note: It does not crawl the user address Book, previously mentioned whisper leaked user privacy, this is roughly the case, Whisper has an internal mapping tool that can be used to filter and search for user GPS data, and it can even pinpoint users who have sent messages within a 500-meter radius. The technology allows Whisper to monitor news developments from locations such as the Pentagon and national security agencies, while also tracking the movement of individual users ' positions without effort. Even if the user turns off the positioning feature when the message is posted, whisper also searches for and confirms the user's location information through IP positioning technology. Personally, this may be related to whisper many military users.

Besides Whisper, what's your favorite social product?

M:wechat. (why?!) Many products in the United States are just a core experience to do fine, and micro-letter is like a Swiss Army knife, innovative to incredible, users can do anything inside, and Uber can only be Uber, film ticket application can only buy movie tickets. Micro-letters break these limits, and what users need to do, this is a user-centred platform.

36 Krypton: Why don't American users like this product?

M: No, not really. To achieve the effect of the Swiss Army Knife, a company has to do a lot of things at the same time, and there are few companies in the United States with such resources, and Google does try to string its own products, but it does not have a centralized product for users on the consumer side, and the platform is very fragmented. Social, gaming, paying, offline ... For the time being, no American it giant can put so many things into one product.

36 Krypton: One final question, what is the difference between Hollywood and Silicon Valley startups?

M: A new generation of social products Snapchat, Tinder, Whisper born in Los Angeles Hollywood is not a coincidence.
Cloud products such as the AWS (Amazon Web Service) offer the same technical starting-point for entrepreneurs wherever they are. But the real handset-side product is to touch the depths of the user's heart, providing "feel" the level of experience. The stickers is not readily accepted by the Silicon Valley, but Hollywood and the film entertainment industry spend billions of dollars each year to make people laugh, how to cry, Hollywood's forte is to let everyone have "feelings", Whisper is a let people through the "feeling" "emotion" to find a sympathetic stranger products.