The APP factory has a collective fire, and there is no product myth on the Internet?

Source | Tech Planet

Wen | Chen Qiaohui

How long have you not downloaded a new app?

Half a year, one year, or even longer? Those Internet manufacturers who have created APP myths seem to have entered the dormant period -there have been four years of phenomenal apps. Since Douyin, the myth of mobile Internet APP products seems to be over.

Many product managers miss the spring in early 2019 -Luo Yonghao, who continues to start a business, Wang Xin, who has gained freedom, and Zhang Nan, who has gained freedom, and Zhang Nan, who has gained free to launch their respective social products, bullet SMS, toilet MT, and multi -flash "carriage" decisive battle. WeChat. Although the two major instant social tools have been held in QQ and WeChat, Tencent still launched 7 social products in 2020.

After the time in the second half of 2021, there are fewer and fewer new products. Tech Star Statistics found that there are only three new apps launched from June last year since June last year. Compared with the presence of the 7 social apps in a while, the gap is not small. Although the bytes known as the APP factory have been launched on 8 APPs, the number is also decreasing compared to the past. Even the most frequent December of the new app launched in previous years, and last year, I did not see a new product.

From July 2021 to June 2022, the main Internet manufacturer

Each of the large manufacturers of mobile Internet dividends are an app for 100 million users, which is also the foundation of their commercial building. In the past many years, Da Factory also hopes to develop more super apps. Today, the APP factories have slowed the pace of building products.

The APP factory is "Buddha"?

The large manufacturers pressed the suspension button for the product "new".

Taking the byte beating as an "APP factory" as an example, the TECH planet found that from 2018 to 2020, the number of byte beating to the outside world has shown an increase in the year -on -year. New products. In the past three years, the byte business has expanded. The game business has set up the game business "Democratic Year", the launch of the educational business "vigorous education", and the development of the housing trading platform "Happiness", etc., the new business has driven the development and new product of new products.

By the second half of 2021, the number of products on -line products began to decline. From July 2020 to June 2022, within two years, a total of 19 products were launched, of which 11 new products were launched from July 2020 to June 2021, accounting for 58%. From July 2021 The number of new products in June 2022 accounted for 42%, with a total of 8 new products.

Not only bytes, but also Internet manufacturers such as Tencent, Kuaishou, and Ali have also declined in the number of new products. Although the two major instant social tools have been held in QQ and WeChat, Tencent still launched 7 social products in 2020. However, there are only three new apps launched by Tencent since June last year.

Chen Shan, the product manager of Tencent, deeply feels that it is not easy to make products today. Chen Shan told the TECH Planet that in the past, it was possible to come out in the past two months, but the current situation is that the project is either cut directly or progress is slow. Testing at the beginning of the year has not yet been officially launched, and it only takes about 2 months from test to launching new products.

"There may be more than a dozen new products in Tencent in Tencent, and there are still a few that can be officially launched. Some of them stop in the internal horse racing. Except for postproofing, the delayed project team can only be optimized. After all, there are not so many positions inside. To accept them ", Chen Shan added.

Li Xin, an byte -by -line product operation, told Tech Planet that the group was developing a new social product last year, but in less than a month, the project was cut. The specific reasons were unclear. The manager has left. Tech Planet learned from an industry person that a large factory planned to launch a brand new social product last year, called "Jinglian" or "well dialect", but it was later.

Baidu product manager Sheng Qiang told Tech Planet: "Today, everyone is unwilling to take risks to make new products and deploy new tracks. This trend may continue for a while. In fact, making new products is for users in their own companies to pools. Refined, but the path of making new products is too long. First of all, whether the user's "quantity" can get up is a question mark, and then run the commercialization as soon as possible. "

"In addition, the investment in making products is very high. Take our team as an example. The monthly cost of 30 people has reached a million levels, and the cost is mainly from labor costs. . To what extent can the DAU of a product reaches the money to earn money? In addition, the market is not good now, exploring new tracks, making new products is not the best choice nowadays. At present, there are few members of their team members. Half of them, three of them have been optimized by people with high vocational titles, and have not yet found a suitable job. "Sheng Qiang added.

Internet companies are no longer pursuing expansion and high growth as in the past, and the current environment is not the same as before: even if it is not profitable, as long as the user is still growing, GMV is still growing, you can integrate enough funds, burn money to exchange for money, and exchange for money. increase.

Now, the large manufacturers have begun to shrink business, layoffs, reduce costs and increase efficiency, and look forward to becoming a large company that can make money in this way. For example, iQiyi has achieved the first quarter profit in the history of long video in this way. For layoffs and reducing employee benefits, it saved 100 million in a quarter. The big manufacturers hope to improve the ability of profit, and have enough cash on the account to cope with the uncertain environment. In exploring the new track, it has become a "Buddhist department" in invested a lot of cost research and development.

Concentrate the firepower and consolidate the main super app

After the enthusiasm for the investment in innovative products, the large manufacturers began to concentrate their strengths, consolidate their main products, and create a super app.

Ali employee Xu Zheng is very fortunate that he has not been optimized. However, his role has changed, and he is no longer a product manager, but instead to do the operation of the Amoy. According to Xu Zheng, after the new project he had participated in was cut, the person who could stay was basically arranged to a mature business team. Only this kind of business would recruit people. The thinking of products now has changed from innovation to stability, so product people should do more refined operations from stable products.

Xu Zheng revealed that after coming to Taobao, what he does every day is to do user research and analysis, and then feedback to the team, which is relatively easy. After all, there is no situation that the innovation team has worked overtime to rush to make new products. Xu Zheng also said that since he came to Taobao, Taobao tested more and more new features. Many small business teams are developing and developing these new functions. Recently, for a new feature, a group of newcomers came to their team.

Increasing more functions to the original core APP will be a trend.

Li Hongwei, the product manager of Douyin, said that he has also been transferred from the new project he wants to come to the operating post of Douyin's content, and there are still a few people who have similar experiences.

Li Hongwei said: "The current company's mature business is the top priority. After all, the mature business is the big revenue, and the profit margin is the optimal solution. There may be a turnaround. "

Tech planet found that Douyin has been testing new functions and business in the past six months, such as testing novel channels, testing e -commerce first entrances, and launching courier services "Yin Zun Da". And service, now, Douyin is transforming from a short video product with a single attribute to a comprehensive product with service attributes to create a super app.

The fast -handed hand, which is also a short video APP, has rarely launched new apps since last year, and gradually "transform" around the fast -handed app, such as increasing the applet ecology and building a takeaway ecology.

In addition to Douyin and Kuaishou, the same is true of Tencent and Ant Group. Their main products are no longer limited to the original features, and they continue to add new features. For example, the Alipay of Ant Group also increases the "life" function, similar to Xiaohongshu, and users can share their daily life in them. WeChat is also becoming more and more "heavy", and users can complete most of their living services via WeChat.

"With the interconnection and the intensification of the internal volume, everyone's main products have inevitably competition in some areas. In order to maintain their respective products or even enhance their competitiveness, and in order to retain users, it is better to explore new businesses. The resources and manpower are invested in mature main products. After all, the main product is the core of the company. "Li Hongwei said.

Create a super app and become the main task of the factory. At the moment when the new user sees the top, the large factory hopes to use a super app to retain the user more time.

New direction: Yuan universe, or go to sea?

In the past 20 years, commercial buildings with a market value of 100 billion or even trillion -dollar market value have risen in the Internet field. They have galloped their lives in various industries, affecting hundreds of millions of people's lives. Thousands of times.

They seized the most important waves of dividends in these 20 years, but now the dividend of the mobile Internet has basically disappeared, and the large manufacturers need to find the next new direction.

Tech planet found that the Yuan universe and digital collections became new tracks for each family. Recently, Kuaishou combined with the thin box Mints launched the theme digital collection of "Magnetic Engine Red Man Museum". This is the first time that short video communities have released digital collections. Before Kuaishou, Ali launched the digital collection APP "whale probe", Tencent launched the digital collection "phantom nuclear", hungry to launch the "delicious treasure hall", Bilibili also launched digital collections for sale, bytes are the bytes, but the bytes are the bytes. Launched the digital fashion APP "boiling".

The large factory poured into the digital collection track, mainly to seize the current outlet, and digital collections have become an important part of the digital economy. On the "2022, please answer the" 2022, please answer the "Big Coffee online dialogue column, Gu Feiyong, general manager of the Netease Planet Blockchain Business Department, introduced that after the door of art digital collections is opened, there will be a lot of market opportunities. "Digital collection is better than the original physical collection (compared to the original physical collection (compared to). It has better expressiveness and feelings. I think it is not just a hot spot for everyone to speculate. It will end in one or two months. Big market. "

In addition, although large factories can't make new APPs in China, overseas markets still have broad prospects and have a huge temptation to Internet factories.

Not long ago, Tencent's overseas game distribution brand Level Infinite announced that it will launch "Honor of Kings" to players around the world by the end of this year. This is the first time Tencent has exported domestic culture products to overseas. The main thing is that the domestic game market tends to be saturated. According to Tencent's first quarter financial report this year, its local market game revenue decreased by 1%to RMB 33 billion. The development of overseas markets will help Tencent to get wider in the game business in the game business. Interest growth space.除腾讯外，Tech星球发现，近年来国内互联网大厂开始加码海外市场，例如，字节在近半年时间，在海外不断加快新产品的输出，推出了如PixSoul、Fizzotoon等产品，涵盖了动漫、 Novels, e -commerce and other businesses. Baidu and Netease have strengthened game business in Japan and South Korea. Ali is an e -commerce business overseas and through its Tudoo to create new APPs for overseas users.

From the data, Ali Financial Report shows that overseas consumers increased by 64 million year -on -year in 2022. Tencent's financial report shows that the overseas game revenue of the game business increased by 31%in 2021. In other large manufacturers' financial reports, most of the overseas businesses and markets are mostly. The scene of "flourishing".

However, the development of overseas markets is not smooth sailing. Taking e -commerce as an example, foreign business infrastructure, such as logistics and mobile payment, are not perfect. However, it is undeniable that compared with domestic, overseas markets are indeed a blue ocean, or new super apps will be born.

(Note: In the text, Chen Zheng, Li Hongwei, Li Xin, Chen Shan, and Sheng Qiang are all pseudonyms.)

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