Our reporter Xie Ruolin

　　Recently, a social app focusing on avatars, "Jelly", was born and quickly became popular, becoming the first social app to surpass WeChat in the AppStore download rankings since 2019.

　　Subsequently, the news that "Jelly App violates the user's WeChat, QQ account and other privacy information" came out.

On the evening of February 11, Beijing Dianshu Entertainment Technology Co., Ltd., a development platform for the Jelly App, responded that the news was untrue, "it is an organized and planned slander by competitors against the 'Jelly' App, and the company has collected relevant evidence and called the police. ."

　　Who are the "competitors" involved?

On February 13, the reporter asked Jelly App for verification, but as of press time, no reply was received.

At the same time, the above brief statement has also triggered discussions in the industry. The "metaverse social" track is not yet mature, but the business war is about to break out?

　　Top AppStore

　　Is the jelly app a virtual fire?

　　On January 19, the gel app was launched, and five version updates have been completed in less than a month.

On February 11, Jelly App ranked first among all free apps in AppStore China, followed by WeChat.

As of February 13, the software has continued to dominate the list for three days.

The software, formerly known as "Side App", is a content community product launched in 2019 that focuses on local life.

　　According to Qimai data estimates, as of February 12, the number of iPhone device downloads since the launch of Jelly App is estimated to be 1.85 million, and the cumulative download volume in the past three days is 1.22 million. The download peak was February 11, and the single-day download volume reached 43.5 ten thousand.

Compared with WeChat, the average daily download volume of iPhone devices in the past month was 298,000, and the cumulative download volume in the past three days was 1,013,300.

　　On February 12, a reporter from "Securities Daily" downloaded the gel app experience and opened the app with the initial setting of "Pinch Face", which aroused the reporter's interest. "add friend.

After all settings are completed, the homepage will display the current status of friends in a virtual 3D image. For example, reporters are "moving bricks", while friends are "moving" in circles.

　　An early user, Mr. Gong, told reporters that at the end of January, he was invited by a friend to enter the Jelly App. After setting the avatar, he did not play it further, mainly because there were few functions to choose from in the initial stage of the product.

And its focus is also on whether the "character image" is interesting, not a regular chat function.

　　So, can this app, which is regarded as a rookie of "metaverse social", set off a new social trend?

　　Bao Ran, head of the Digital Culture Working Group of the Interactive Media Standards Promotion Committee of the China Communications Standards Association, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that from the perspective of operation mode, the current domestic social tracks are mainly divided into acquaintances and strangers. Almost all of them have been tried (Internet platforms) for one round. The mainstream social software has formed a strong user stickiness and relationship precipitation. It is difficult for new products to break through because the cost of user acquisition is too high.

　　In the opinion of Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research, compared with other social products, the Jelly App is highly targeted. It extracts the heavy social relations of WeChat in a lighter form, and applies elements such as virtual images and two-dimensional elements to target audiences. Clearly, there is a chance to break through to a certain extent.

"However, judging from the current results, the number of users of the Gel App on the iOS platform is good, but the Android platform is relatively flat, and it will take time to observe."

　　WeChat sits firmly on the social "first brother"

　　The Metaverse Track is emerging

　　According to the report of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, from 2018 to 2020, the number of users of China's mobile social platforms increased from 770 million to 890 million, and is expected to reach 956 million in 2021.

From the perspective of mobile social user product usage requirements, acquaintance communication is the main user requirement, accounting for 62.2%; secondly, acquaintance with friends, accounting for 33.9%; 31.9% of users use mobile social platforms because of the good quality of community content .

　　Zhang Yi said that in terms of social platforms for acquaintances, WeChat and QQ are the absolute leaders.

　　QQ was launched on February 10, 1999. Initially, Tencent’s founding team set the limit for QQ users to 100,000.

In the second quarter of 2016, the monthly active users of QQ reached a historical peak of 899 million, and then entered a downward channel.

As of the end of the third quarter of 2021, the monthly active users of QQ mobile terminals were only 570 million.

　　In 2011, WeChat went online and rose rapidly under the blessing of QQ diversion. As of the end of the third quarter of 2021, the monthly active accounts of WeChat and WECHAT reached 1.26 billion, becoming the "first brother" in domestic social networking.

　　A brokerage industry analyst who focuses on TMT told reporters, "WeChat red envelopes, mini programs, health treasures and other functions have successfully promoted WeChat to a national-level application, and its main functions extend from initial communication to payment, reading, shopping, etc. , With these functions, WeChat firmly occupies the top spot in acquaintance social networking, and other social products are difficult to shake its position, and can only be divided into segments with equal interests, regions, industries, and functions."

　　There are also many problems in the increasingly bloated WeChat, "First, more and more friends who like and make friends, but few daily contacts; second, some users use Moments as a one-to-many channel to spread their opinions; third Third, the stickiness of young WeChat users is not high, and they are mainly used for communication.” Zhang Yi believes that young people need an innovative and breakthrough social platform.

　　On February 10, 2022, the QQ team launched the Super QQ Show service, that is, the 3D version of the QQ Show, which supports AI face pinching, DIY expressions, and avatar interaction.

　　In fact, many products on the market have been labeled "Metaverse Social". In addition to rookie gel, there are Soul, Zepeto, etc., most of which are based on virtual 3D images as user settings.

　　The huge growth space of the future social track will be around the "metaverse social" level, but in Bao Ran's view, "this mode is currently limited by hardware terminal conditions, and the immersive experience of VR and other devices is not mature, so' Metaverse social 'has not yet reached the stage of development." (Securities Daily)