Strangers' Socialization: It is not only a "wind vent", but also a "volcano crater"
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Social interaction with strangers is a low-frequency just need, and it is already indispensable.
In the future, with the continuous innovation of 5G + AI technology, social product scenarios will be richer and more novel, which is expected to reshape the user's social behavior chain, and the trend will continue.
Some people are in the hustle and bustle every day, but they are helpless in their hearts.
For contemporary young people, social interaction seems to be a big headache.
"Fear of social interaction and loneliness" has become a true portrayal of some people.
IiMedia Consulting data shows that in recent years, the scale of social users of strangers in my country has continued to grow, reaching 488 million in 2016 and approaching 650 million in 2020.
Loneliness has spawned a "lonely business", and the loneliness in the world of acquaintances that has nowhere to go has spawned a market of hundreds of billions of dollars in socializing with strangers.
Data show that there are currently more than 1,300 companies engaged in social-related businesses with strangers in my country.
Among them, nearly 40% of stranger social-related companies were established within 5 years.
From the perspective of industry distribution, stranger social-related companies are mainly distributed in the software and information technology service industry, as well as the technology promotion and application service industry, accounting for 29% and 42% respectively.
Industrial profit model still needs to be constructed
Unfamiliar socialism sprouted from the United States in 1995 and prevailed in China at the beginning of the millennium. With the mobile Internet wave entering a stage of rapid development, smart phones have become popular on a large scale, and unfamiliar socialism has entered a blowout.
For 20 years, it seems to have been in the vortex, and it has been flying above the tuyere.
Statistics show that the single population in my country has reached 246 million, accounting for about 18% of the total population. It has entered the fourth wave of singles, and the territory of social interaction with strangers has gradually expanded.
According to the "Post-95 Social Concepts and Social Relations Survey Report", over 80% of the surveyed users use social software as an important way to expand their network of contacts. Among them, 25.2% of users say they use social software frequently, and 58% of users choose to use social networking. Software to find a mate.
During the interview, the reporter found that value-added services such as advertising, membership, and virtual goods are the most widely adopted means of revenue on social platforms for strangers at this stage.
The construction of other ancillary functions has also become the key. After retaining users, you can speed up the pace of commercialization, and use some businesses that can quickly generate income to stabilize the development of the platform.
For example, Momo uses live broadcast as the second curve of its own development after its users are relatively stable.
And Soul is also based on social networking, and gradually opened up virtual commodity transactions, e-commerce transactions and other businesses.
At the moment, Soul still needs to explore a reliable and platform-compliant profit model, so that "soul socialization" will not become a castle in the sky.
As a top social product, Momo has multiple monetization methods in multiple links. Mature models that have been verified include scene-based social networking, paid membership, and virtual gifts.
Among them, the scene-based social interaction based on live broadcast is sought after because it can precipitate the relationship chain and increase the retention rate.
Tantan is the largest social platform for strangers born in 1995. Its co-founder Wang Yu believes that entertainment games and social interactions are now more deeply integrated, and social gamification has promoted the entertainment of social scenes, creating for users through small games and voice interaction. The rich and closed entertainment scenes are more in line with the new social needs of the post-95s and post-00s.
Professor Pu Yongjian from the School of Economics of Chongqing University said frankly that Momo, Tantan, and Sou seem to have formed a "three-legged" trend in the social network of strangers, and the entry of more and more Internet companies has made the industry gradually trending. At the Red Sea Market.
Although the field is full of infinite possibilities, it is true that paid content such as paid private text chat, paid voice, and one-on-one video becomes the main profitable business, and it needs to be explored and tried.
What is the favor of capital?
Social interaction is an essential need of human beings. For human beings, social interaction with acquaintances is a basic social behavior, and social interaction with strangers is a high-level need.
According to incomplete statistics from Tianyancha, up to now, more than 350 social-related companies involving strangers in my country have generated more than 600 financing incidents.
Among them, more than 80% of financing incidents occurred in 2014~2018, and the total financing amounted to 30 billion yuan.
It is worth noting that this year, there have been more than ten financings for strangers social-related companies, with an amount exceeding 2 billion yuan.
As early as June 2019, Sohu CEO Zhang Chaoyang announced the launch of the social product "Fox Friends", which claimed to be "a social platform where loneliness can be defeated by chat and can be happily eaten melons".
In June last year, JD.com launched "Panxi", and in July Netease Cloud Music launched "Xin Yu". In the past three years, the amount of financing for social projects related to strangers in live broadcast reached 4.6 billion yuan, and the competition has become fierce. Alibaba, 58.com, Tencent, etc. Big factories have entered the capital behind the game one after another.
Many new entrants are aiming at the vertical social field to seize the subdivision track and build social portals to seek new growth points for traffic.
As a major track in the social field, stranger social interaction is fierce.
Since the rise of LBS technology, social software for strangers has developed rapidly, and scene-based social networking has accelerated the commercialization of the industry.
In an interview, Wang Li, the founder of Yoban Travel App, said that there are currently more than 5,000 partners traveling together through Yoban Travel APP, and more than 100 couples have successfully got together. They communicated through online chat. , Can make the distance between strangers become very close, when a certain sense of trust is established, choosing to travel together is the way most people are more willing to accept, and this is also a newer way of socializing for young people.
From 2020 to 2021, the scene-based stranger socialization of subdivided tracks has gradually emerged. From the perspective of financing, "Mask Technology", which focuses on online interactive entertainment scene services such as Werewolf, has received hundreds of millions of strategic investments.
It is worth noting that since 2014, Mask Technology has received five rounds of financing, and it is very likely to be listed as a reserve force.
At the same time, the "Big Change Detective", which focuses on online voice social networking such as script killing, also received 30 million yuan in financing.
Where is the Way to Strictly Manage Heavy Punishments
Low user quality, opaque information, online chatting, offline dating is difficult, and the cost of dating time is high. These are the pain points that are currently not solved by social platforms for strangers.
Social interaction with strangers is both a "vent" and a "crater."
Soul was regarded as a clear stream of online dating at the beginning of its birth. With its unique positioning and gameplay of "sound social, soul matching", it has captured many young users.
However, in the social realm of strangers danced by demons, Soul is ultimately unable to get rid of the "curse" of the industry.
Although Soul founder Zhang Lu said in an interview with reporters that there are still many points that can be tapped in the platform's monetization, but it is not a priority at this stage.
But Ms. Fang, an old Soul user in Chongqing, said on August 1 that Soul frequently pushed her suspected “induced recharge” messages, including “someone visits your homepage” “someone secretly follows you” and so on.
After going in out of curiosity, she found that these were all charged items.
In fact, not only Soul, but almost all social platforms for strangers are facing the same monetization bottleneck. Even the track’s big brother Momo has gone through a long period of exploration before running through the live monetization model.
Under the influence of market and policy factors, it is a high probability event that some strangers' social closure or transformation, which in turn triggers the reshuffle of the entire industry.
Analysts at iiMedia Consulting believe that the platform frequently touches the bottom line of supervision in the name of social interaction, which is not conducive to the sustainable development of the platform.
In the future, government supervision and legal supervision will be stricter, which will force stranger social platforms to further strengthen self-supervision and purify the network environment.
Among the 26 apps ordered to be rectified by the Cyberspace Administration of China, there are many social products such as Soul, Zhiya, and Yuwan, and even NetEase Cloud Music, which is transforming socially, has not been spared.
Of course, this is also an opportunity. The products that have broken through the siege can finally escape the stigma of being stigmatized.
"Strangers' social interaction, as an irreversible process of the times, is low-frequency rigid demand and is already indispensable. In the future, more people will accept and try this new way of socializing." Chief researcher of Chongqing Jingyu Provincial Development and Planning Research Institute Mo Yuanming said that in the future, with the continuous innovation of 5G + AI technology, social product scenarios will be richer and more novel, which is expected to reshape the user's social behavior chain, and the trend will continue.
Li Guo