Whisper founder Michael: Anonymous socializing is better for Chinese

From the start of the first half of the fire, the domestic anonymous social field surging, the current market, including the number of anonymous social networking app has more than 20 applications. As the main archetype of China's anonymous social-learning imitation, the anonymous social originator of strangers, Whisper, is already on the mainland, with Chinese names whispering (Beta), and it can be predicted that anonymous social competition will intensify and become white-hot. Whisper, which was founded only two years ago, completed a new round of $36 million trillion in March 2014, valued at more than 200 million dollars. The investors include the speed of light, Sequoia, Tencent, Shasta, Thrive bentures. Whisper has accumulated 60 million dollars in financing. Whisper CEO Michael Haiword (Michael Heyward) recently visited China, South Seven as the only personal media invited to participate in the interview, and Whisper (Whisper) team for anonymous social, Sino-US internet differences and other in-depth interviews. Why Whisper enter China now? Whisper's founder, &ceo Maik Haiword, did not go to college and started his own work directly after graduating from high school. In 2010, he joined friend Brad Brooks founder of the read-burn SMS company Tigertext, where Mike realized that anonymous social impact on people. In 2012, 24-Year-old Mike and Brad created Whisper. After its inception, Whisper quickly became popular among young people. By the end of 2013, the only two-year Whisper month Page view was nearly 3 billion, and each user spent an average of 20 minutes a day on the site, viewing 8 to 10 times a day. Whisper (Whisper) has chosen to enter China at this time, Michael Haiword said three reasons: first, China's domestic anonymous social market has been cultivated, forming a big trend; second, China is mostly only one child, which is very different from the United States, American families generally have 2-3 children, children, they will naturally discuss things with their brothers and sisters, but in China, there is no such opportunity, there are few ways to say something inside; third, the Chinese character than the United States introverted, communication is not so direct, more depressed; Synthesizing these three points, in Michael's view, Anonymous socializing is more suitable for Chinese people, is a kind of just need, the market prospect is very big. At the same time, the core of the personnel are gradually in place. At present, there are more than 20 whisper in China, when they enter China, they do not adopt the common joint building team of foreign companies or the practice of digging people from corresponding companies, Instead, it takes the highest cost and the most effective approach: the Wang from Princeton University's Zheng and Cornell University. Both were born in China, studied in the United States, and worked in the Whisper (Whisper) US headquarters, before being stationed in China, on the Chinese market and relatedA full study. U.S. headquarters is highly licensed to Chinese companies. In financial, material and human resources are given a high degree of flexibility and trust, the team can do on the market, direction and other decisions. The Chinese version of the Whisper is not the same as the previous version of the United States, but with the essence of whisper, in-depth customization of a suitable Chinese products. The Whisper team is not worried about the problem of imitation and plagiarism of domestic product plants. On the contrary, team members think plagiarism is the best tribute, "even if someone plagiarized, copying is only the UI and front-end, visual effects, but behind this thing is not copied." Whisper as the originator of anonymous social applications, founded and operated in the United States for more than two years, has accumulated tens of millions of users, deep operation of the foundation of accumulated experience, can effectively help them to adjust and optimize a variety of operational strategies, this is not achievable overnight. At the same time, independent research and development of Whisper comprehensive background analysis and processing system, rapid and efficient identification processing of various information sources. This is one of their core competencies. With the rise of China's entrepreneurial projects, many entrepreneurs want to enter the United States, Michael Haiword to this proposal is to solve the problem of product and innovation. First, from the product and design point of view, American users experience a lot of things, and American users have a short attention span compared to Chinese users because they have a lot of applications, and when they design, entrepreneurs have to take into account that Americans are short on attention time, in which case the entrepreneur must try to find the best. But in China, not to say that the best products will eventually win, such as Alibaba and Amazon, from the product point of view may Alibaba did not Amazon good, but eventually Alibaba in the operation of the victory, but in the United States, may be more important products, so that if Chinese entrepreneurs want to open up the U.S. market, The focus is on the product. Products need constant innovation, from another product point of view, the need to provide what the U.S. users do not have, if the same products into the United States, the great probability is not a competitive American entrepreneurs, if the provision of a number of differentiated things, it is not just into the United States, but a universal thing. The provision of a homogeneous product, simply like through some marketing means to occupy the market, this may be feasible in China, but in the United States in such a fierce competition, it is basically impossible. Stranger Anonymous socializing more in line with human needs than other applications, whisper without registration, directly from the system to generate accounts, greatly reducing the user access to the operating costs. The form of a secret is richer. While sharing secrets, users can add their own ideas: users can shoot or select a background image from an album, or they can search for an interesting picture themselves. In the background picture to enter the secret you want to share, the font can be adjusted according to their own needs. Whisper also has a social function to use. The application provides a confidential geographical location for the user, in addition to being able toLooking at the hottest, most recent sharing information, you can also view the shared content of nearby "users." You can also letters users who are interested. In the original content sharing based on social elements, the user precipitation. In the Whisper team's view, it is challenging to abandon the related chain of acquaintances, such as contacts, to make social products. Because there is no prior relationship chain support, completely rely on the content is much more difficult. But there is a big downside to anonymous socializing among acquaintances who rely on a chain of relationships, which is that when users post a secret, they see friends and friends of friends, albeit anonymously. However, because of the scene of working together, the personal characteristics of language expression and other traceable factors, the user's desire for expression will be greatly restricted. The authenticity and depth of user expression will have limitations, there are many practical scruples and limitations. But in a completely unfamiliar platform, there is no such problem, in the anonymous society of strangers, can relax expression, whisper provide a youth hostel or train the same environment, in this put your heart to the stranger to speak out, and find the true resonance. "The need for anonymous social networking is not really a new requirement, it has existed long before the Internet, and it has been in the bottom of one's deepest needs, whether it's a housewife or a college student," Whisper said. Of course, the content is very different, whisper to do is to meet the needs of various users. Whether it's Facebook, Twitter or Instagram above, the user show is the most glamorous side, such as tourism, community activities, food, receive gifts and so on, the basic is the user intentionally or unintentionally a packaging, many times not to show who I am, but I hope others see who I am ”。 A normal person, there will be a variety of emotions, but in the relationship between the social platform of acquaintances, there are many emotions can not be expressed freely. But after entering the social platform of strangers does not exist this problem, the user freely sway their emotions, let all kinds of emotions get incisively and vividly play. However, when users freely sway their emotions, the proliferation of negative or offensive information becomes the focus of surveillance. For malicious attacks, do not conform to the laws of graphics and text, bloody violence, such as information, whisper a powerful background system analysis and processing, for real-time release of the text content to filter, if you see the information is questionable, and so on, the system will automatically put these content to be audited part of the provisional release. The image is also audited for processing. The system, which has been tested by tens users in the United States, is a very mature system. The system began to build when it first started its business. Anonymity is a double-edged sword, users can use it to talk about regulating themselves, but also may use the characteristics of anonymity to hurt others, but the latter is not whisper see, the Platform for effective intervention from the beginning to ensure that the entire platform phaseYes, clean. At the same time, Whisper has a dedicated team to filter and intervene in a timely manner to deal with outdated content. Whisper set up a full-time editorial team, appointing Nitzing Zimmerman (Neetzan Zimmerman) as Whisper Editor-in-Chief, and the team collates the interesting content of Whisper. They work with Mashable and many other media to provide interesting content. The user is not a unique phenomenon in China whether it is domestic entrepreneurs, or investors, the media, for the emerging users are full of intense curiosity and doubt. In Michael's view, the phenomenon is not only unique to China, this is actually a problem of globalization. Now in the United States, the mobile Internet is relatively new industry, in the United States is also the development soon, 90 before and after the user is one of the earliest access to this group of users, they are living in the information and networking generation. Michael For example, this is like the 60 's, when the phone just came out of the era, the older generation rarely use the phone, because he is not accustomed to, but the next generation of the growth of the people naturally began to use. The 90 's before the birth of users, because the Internet in that era does not rise, in the use of habits, thinking patterns and so will have great differences. Even in the United States, it faces the same problem as 9 users. In Michael's view, the cultural background and development stages of the Chinese-American culture and the differences between the company's genes have a direct impact on the different development models of the Internet and the US internet. Take social applications, for example, WhatsApp and WeChat (micro-letter) is the most typical case WhatsApp in the development process has been very restrained, just around the social and chat functions, advertising and other popular elements are not, and WeChat has become more and more, including chat, electricity quotient, games , shopping, recharge everything. This is a closely related to the consumption structure of different countries, for example, 15 ago, in the United States there have been such cases, selling TV and VCD is bound, but the business is bleak, did not sell, because the United States consumers will feel that the TV is not good, VCD is not good, we all think that the bad things are packaged together to sell, This is a consumption habit and culture in the United States. In terms of product characteristics and company genetics, to form a product closure like micro-letters, there is only one possibility, that is, when doing these things, most of them should do well, but one of the core modules has to be done particularly well, such as micro-mail, chat is very good, it can be in the existing resources and things to do derivative functions, such as electric dealers. But WhatsApp certainly does not have this kind of strength to do, can achieve the company may only Google, or Facebook, or Apple, so, WhatsApp in the beginning has not been able to enter so many areas, because if it tries to do, also certainly does not do well, it does not have this strength, Back to Google, Facebook, ApplE To do this, you must pour the company's strength to do, so the risk is very large, Apple is also trying to form this closed loop, paid and healthy, but it wants to be like a micro-letter, and if it thinks it's risky, it's not willing to do it, so it makes it possible for companies like Tencent to do it. , other companies are either unable to do it or are incapable of doing so. At the end of the interview, Michael Haiword sent me a deck of Poker, which was edited by Whisper user-generated content excerpts, one of which he particularly liked: I danced with two men at my wedding, one man I married, the other man I wanted to marry. South Seven interview other questions (South Seven, referred to as South, Michael, referred to as M): South: Just talked about the huge difference between the users, because the user of this difference, you do different emphasis on the product? M: No, although the user's age is somewhat different, but in fact, in terms of human nature, talk is no age, is the fundamental needs of people. South: In the era of PC Internet, such as Google, Tencent and other giant companies, in the mobile internet era, the user's distinction will be more refined, do you think it is possible to generate such a Big Mac company? M: Now the mobile end presents a very fragmented situation, any one market segmentation has this phenomenon, mobile internet companies compete, there may be several relatively large companies. Now the momentum is that users and industries are increasingly subdivided, which is actually an increasingly unstoppable momentum, these so-called big companies, more and more difficult in a certain area, all the small areas have the opportunity to get ahead. It's hard to find a Big Mac company back there. Li: China's internet entrepreneurship at a peak, there are many technology media, but in fact these media survival is very difficult, in the United States, the survival of the technology media is a what kind of situation? How do you make money? M: Technology media in the United States is also very miserable, and now there are few. It has a very interesting value, the audience group is small, but these people have a lot of influence, it has such a characteristic, so if the technology media want to make money, you just create such an ecosystem, such as many companies of various meetings, such as incubators, such as some things, including recruitment, or various activities , these are within such an ecosystem, we should use the technology media as the core to bring it together.