Tencent Biography 1998-2016: Evolution of Chinese Internet Companies

Chapter 17 Youth: Self-reform of Mobile QQ

Action inertia is a common syndrome.There is no constant formula for success, and inertia is the biggest enemy of business growth.

——Donald Sal (American management scientist), "Success Never Falls: Rebirth of the Fittest"

young!young!young!

——Tang Daosheng
“Not Complementary, Potentially Disruptive”

Under the wave of mobile, Tencent is not only under the pressure of external competitors, but also has to face its own transformation.And of all changes, self-revolution is the most difficult one.

On May 2013, 5, the mobile phone QQ8 version was launched, and then encountered crazy complaints from users.Only 4.0 days after it went online, it received more than 4 complaints.All dissatisfaction points to an adjustment in the new version: canceling the online and offline status display.In fact, this new version puts whether friends are online into a deeper entry, and for most users, this change is unacceptable.

Under the pressure of public opinion, the product director of mobile QQ responded on the Zhihu community: 65% of QQ messages are sent by mobile phones every day.And because the cognition that the avatar does not light up means that it is offline will hinder the motivation to leave a message. Therefore, the original intention of the whole adjustment is to make QQ have the cognition that it can communicate at any time, just like text messages, which are very reliable. Don't think about whether the other party has turned on the phone.

Subsequently, the QQ product team promised to launch an optimized version within two weeks. On May 5, the Android optimized version was launched, and the iOS optimized version was submitted for review simultaneously.In the optimized version, offline and online are marked, 17 days earlier than the promised date.

"This revision of QQ has received a lot of complaints, mainly because the pace of downplaying the online status is a bit hasty, and a proper correction is needed. This is a valuable 'trial and error'." Yin Yu, vice president of Tencent At the specially organized media communication meeting, he frankly expressed the determination of QQ to try to transform itself through in-depth mobileization.

In fact, what many people may not understand is that this is the first major version after the mobile QQ department and PC QQ department were merged into the social network business group. In this version, nearly a hundred function points have been optimized.Yin Yu lamented afterwards that only one of the nearly a hundred optimization points was complained about, indicating that there are still many optimization points that were successful.

In addition to the pressure from WeChat, QQ itself is also under pressure from users.According to Tencent's internal monitoring data at the time, 75% of Internet users used QQ through the mobile Internet, and 150 million people moved from PCs to mobile phones every day, and there would be a round of migration outbreaks every summer and Spring Festival.At that time, 2% of the daily C60C messages were sent from mobile phones, and this figure was 2013% during the Spring Festival in 70.

As the person in charge of the social network business group, Tang Daosheng also said at the time that QQ has reached a critical moment and must embrace the mobile Internet in an all-round way. "QQ is about to enter its 15th year, with 8.5 million active users, but the Internet has entered the second half of competition. The mobile Internet is not a supplement to the PC side, but may be a subversion. If QQ does not transform itself and adapt to the characteristics of 'anytime, anywhere', will be abandoned by users.”

"Nearly 90% of QQ users are post-[-]s"

One is WeChat, which was born on the mobile Internet, and the other is QQ, which needs a difficult transformation from PC to mobile Internet. Is there a chance to go hand in hand?This proposition has been hanging in the air for the past few years.

Hong Bo, a senior IT commentator, believes that mobile QQ and WeChat are actually different and can be developed in a differentiated way. QQ is cross-platform and cross-terminal, and tends to be more entertainment-oriented; while WeChat is only tailored for mobile terminals, carrying many things that Tencent has tried but failed in the past, such as O2O products such as group buying.The two products can take completely different paths.

The episode of the mobile QQ4.0 version did not affect Yin Yu's layout of the overall QQ mobile. QQ adopts the strategy of "running in small steps, trial and error and iteration". While optimizing the mobile experience, it successively launched QQ mobile phones Tour, QQ reading, interest group, QQ wallet, QQ red envelope and other new functions.

2014年4月11日晚上9点11分，腾讯旗下QQ同时在线账户突破2亿，其中通过手机QQ、QQ for Pad等移动端登录的账户超过七成。

Compared with data, what is even more fortunate is that QQ has found its own differentiated route and young style of play in the mobile Internet era.

在一段记录2004年的视频中，30岁出头的马化腾向1949年生人的张瑞敏推销QQ被拒时，马化腾就介绍说QQ90%的用户都是30岁以下的年轻人。

This video is reminiscent of the fact that QQ was first developed from young people, and as it won the contest with MSN in the later period, QQ gradually absorbed the users of its former opponents and became a product for users of all ages.The emergence and development of WeChat has brought new changes to the composition of QQ's user base. Tencent's financial report for the second quarter of 2016 shows that the number of QQ monthly active accounts reached 8.99 million, and the number of smart terminal monthly active accounts also reached 6.67 million.At the same time, the highest number of simultaneous online accounts of QQ reached 2.47 million.Among all QQ users, nearly 90% are post-90s users.Among QQ members, post-[-]s also account for nearly [-]%.

QQ Zone has also become a gathering place for young people. Going to school, graduating, partying, getting married, having children... Various memorable moments of the young generation are shared and preserved through photos on social networks.Photo album has always been one of the most popular functions of Qzone.As of October 2016, the peak number of daily uploads of QZone albums exceeded 10 million, and the total number of photos exceeded 6.6 trillion.

Space launched the "parent-child photo album", which has become a small site for QQ "little users".There is such a father who took more than 8 photos of his daughter from birth to 7 years old, and uploaded them to the parent-child album of QQ space. First, it is convenient for collection, and second, it is convenient for grandparents, uncles and aunts from afar to browse and pay attention to child's growth.Day after day, this IT dad became interested in taking pictures of his daughter, so he resigned and switched careers to open a children's photography studio.

Wechat's diversion of Internet users has made QQ's user characteristics appear again: young.

Faced with such a huge number of young users, it is not easy for QQ to catch them.In the Chinese Internet circles, Ma Huateng is not the only one who said that he does not understand what young people are thinking and is worried about it.

As the first person in charge of the BG (Business Groups) to which QQ belongs, Tang Daosheng takes the lead in understanding and learning from young people. During the time when "A Thousand Bone of Flowers" was on the air, Tang Daosheng followed up and watched several episodes. No matter how busy he was, he had to follow the drama. Make it more interesting for you."

On a youthful tone, QQ seems to have regained the feeling it had when it was founded. In 2015, QQ's personalization team launched the "Apollo Project", a villain image that appears at the bottom of the chat box, which can customize the image, change the shape, and interact with friends. ".Like the QQ show that was born in the "Avatar Project" back then, the centimeter show also has rich youthful gameplay and a complete business model. It launched an exclusive mall where you can choose costumes, actions and characters, and launched a growth system, 10 yuan for a small diamond monthly subscription.

从2016年7月10日到8月24日，46天内，通过用户邀请制进行公测的厘米秀，就拥有了1亿用户。

From the perspective of the QQ personalization team, Centimeter Show is not just a QQ show on mobile phones, but a brand-new way of chatting that young people like.Based on the mobile phone QQ, a brand-new interaction between young users will be generated.The centimeter show appears through the image of a "centimeter man", who can do various actions and has rich costumes.Compared with words and expressions, a complete "centimeter person" is more expressive, and has the sense of sight of chatting with real people face to face.Compared with the QQ show, it is more expansive, and can show the side of the heart that transcends reality in an exaggerated and funny way.

These cool ways of playing allow young QQ users to find the online projection of their self-image, and their personal style is more obvious, while the post-95s and post-00s like "cute" and "cheap", which are vividly displayed in the "centimeter people".For them, this brand new chat mode can express what they want to express.

New QQ play method [-]: Entertaining and socializing
Based on the development direction of youth, QQ formulated two strategies in 2016: entertainment-based social networking and scene-based communication.

"The core of QQ entertainment social ecology lies in young people. Young people are the driving force of entertainment social ecology. As content consumers, young people are also communicators and even producers." Yin Yu said that QQ has many attributes, the most important of which is The two of them can also be said to be the genes of QQ, namely the entertainment gene and the youth gene. QQ has always pursued a rich and youthful experience, and pursued the performance of individuality. All things are liked by young people. This is the reason why QQ can continue to be young after long-term development.From QQ's product form and user portraits, QQ's new positioning is to provide entertainment content to young users, that is, entertainment and social networking.

At the Tencent Partners Conference in 2016, Yin Yu interpreted entertainment and social media as: On the one hand, QQ continuously improves the layout of entertainment content and serves as a content carrier through the layout of film and television, animation, games, and literature; on the other hand, , through functions such as groups, interest groups, live broadcasts, QQ hotspots, daily traces and other functions on QQ, entertainment content can create influence through social networking and serve as a good social amplifier.This will attract more content partners to join, forming a virtuous circle.This is also an attempt to deeply integrate Tencent's two major businesses, digital content and social networking, on one QQ platform.

Yin Yu revealed that currently under the QQ system, there are four live broadcast products, including Space Live, NOW Live, Fantasia and Penguin E-sports, which carry different types of live video content. The short video functions of QQ Jiji and Space are two platforms that carry asynchronous videos.For the display of entertainment content, video is undoubtedly the best form.

As a mature social network platform, Qzone naturally did not miss the upsurge in the social field of live broadcasting.The original relationship chain of the platform determines the essential difference between it and other platforms-let live broadcasting become a function of recording and sharing the highlights of life, and every space netizen is the "anchor" of their circle of friends.When you come across a small and fresh street corner in Thailand, you can open the space live broadcast to let your friends and family experience the same Siam style with you, and this meaningful dynamic record will also be permanently stored in your QQ space .This kind of live broadcast between intimate relationships is not only a way of socializing, but also a way of entertainment.

"How much can you sacrifice for your dreams? Is it pride, love, or freedom?" This is a late night in 2007. Yao Jieying, who had just graduated and was unaccompanied in Beijing for three months, wrote on Qzone diary.At that time, she was full of confusion about the future. She would never have imagined that 3 years later, the short video program "Unscrupulous Academy" founded by her would gain 9 million fans on QQ Zone in just 3 months and have more than 100 million fans. 6 million video views.

In fact, in the era of fragmented video, such stories are constantly being staged.

Zhang Dou and Zhang Hua, who were studying in the United States, turned their American classmates into well-known Internet celebrities in China by mistake.The short video program they made casually - "What do you think of the old beauty", let American students comment on Chinese-style food, celebrities, news hotspots, etc. "Pig ears taste like farts from ants!" "I never thought I would fall in love with a frog!" There is also the No.1 delicacy "preserved egg" that American students can't accept, and the hilarious reactions of American students, let Young Chinese see China through the eyes of their American peers.In the past two years, their videos have been played more than hundreds of millions of times on Qzone and other platforms, and they have even received venture capital for this.

In 2016, the QQ team announced the "EQ Plan" (Entertainment Quotient Plan) based on entertainment and social networking. Tencent QQ plans to invest 3 billion yuan in the next three years to support more than a thousand partners and establish an entertainment and social ecosystem.After Yin Yu announced the social layout of QQ Entertainment, some financial media quoted Citibank’s analysis that Tencent Group integrated digital content into the QQ platform to provide users with diversified content. The "EQ Plan" is a direction that requires continuous efforts to ensure that QQ and other social platforms have more attractive entertainment content and help maintain user loyalty.Citibank believes that although the establishment of such an ecological platform may not immediately increase the group's revenue, it believes that Tencent can gradually commercialize it in the long run, enrich social content, and allow users to interact more in its digital entertainment field, whether it is games , Movies, live broadcasts, or e-sports, etc., are expected to be converted into higher traffic, thereby increasing the number of potential advertisers, and the number of members and income can also be increased.

In addition to the layout of QQ's entertainment ecology, its own entertainment spirit is also more obvious.In the American blockbuster "Independence Day 2016: Comeback" released in June 6, the hero and heroine used QQ as a communication tool between the earth and the moon. After being interrupted by alien interference, the system also appeared a sentence "Thank you you for using QQ".This implantation that caused laughter in the theater made everyone truly feel that QQ has gambled everything on the road of entertainment.

Neil Postman described it in the book "Entertaining to Death": All public discourse is increasingly appearing in the form of entertainment and has become a cultural spirit.All cultural content has become a vassal of entertainment willingly and without complaint, even silently. The result is that we have become a species that entertains to death.

If Neil Postman's prediction comes true, then QQ, which has captured the Internet users in the new era, may once again create miracles on the wave of mobile Internet.

QQ New Play II: Scenario-based Communication
Scenario-based communication is another big strategy of QQ.In important vertical fields such as education, games, office, and entertainment, QQ has been deployed.

In the office field, using QQ to transfer files should be the most frequently used action.In the past, PC QQ emphasized uploading files online, and the speed of the same local area network was very fast.However, in the mobile phone scenario, the network environment is very complicated.The signal was constantly switching between the carrier network and Wi-Fi, and the strength was spotty.However, it is necessary to ensure that users can transfer files smoothly and successfully regardless of whether they are online or not.Therefore, when the mobile phone is online, the entire transfer process is changed to offline transfer to ensure that the success rate of file transfer is still at a high level.In addition, cross-terminal transmission between multiple terminals has also become a new core scene, so the QQ data line function was launched to replace the physical data line, and files and photos can be transferred between mobile phones and PCs.

An interesting story is that colleagues who made a bet on the two products of mobile phone file transfer and data line file transfer at that time felt that their scene would be even bigger in a year, and if they lost, they would treat the other party to two meals.One year later, the data line has become a function point with tens of millions of users, which is much faster than the traditional file transfer function.It is said that the data line colleague tasted the free Manchurian feast.

There are also audio and video that face similar problems.

In the PC era, it was standard to have a camera on the computer screen. People used to video with their families in front of the computer or make friends through video, and seldom used the computer to make phone calls.But in the era of mobile Internet, the operating cost of voice and video on mobile phones is much lower than that of computers, and they can communicate anytime and anywhere, so the scene of PC video quickly disappeared.

Faced with this situation, mobile QQ quickly adjusted the focus of functions, raised the voice call to the same important position as video, and moved the call quality closer to the traditional phone. cell phone.

QQ also has a natural scene, that is education.Although QQ has not launched product functions for the education field during the development of QQ for more than ten years, the class groups of many schools are established on QQ.And an accidental opportunity also opened the door for QQ to enter the field of education.

At the end of 2013, Beijing issued the "Beijing Heavy Air Pollution Emergency Plan", which requires that primary and secondary schools and kindergartens be closed during the red warning of heavy air pollution.The Beijing Municipal Education Commission then put forward the call for "suspending classes and not stopping learning" under the red warning weather.In order to cope with the possible suspension of classes, Beijing Jingshan School actively contacted the QQ team and conducted a QQ group distance teaching test on a large scale in 16 classes of primary school, junior high school, and high school.This emergency teaching method in response to special circumstances has received widespread attention from the society.There was no lag in the remote video teaching process, and the teachers obviously felt that the classroom interaction had become more active.

Inspired by Jingshan School, the QQ product team launched an online education platform——Tencent Classroom based on QQ platform resources. By introducing the model of third-party educational institutions, it provides vocational training, language learning, animation design, and study abroad courses.

In order to complete the layout on the learning path of young users, QQ also launched "QQ Home School·Teacher-Student Group" and "Penguin Tutoring" for K12 education, and launched "QQ Smart Campus" for higher education; Design the "homework" function to provide teachers with a third-party question bank to complete the teaching management and daily communication of parents, students, and teachers outside the classroom.

QQ for young users naturally did not give up the important scene of education.In the field of education, QQ has actively participated in K12 primary and secondary education, higher education, and vocational education. Education uses an open platform to introduce high-quality educational resources to provide young learners with convenient and high-quality online education.Penguin Tutoring enables students from all over the country to watch live lectures and videos of well-known national teachers online, meeting the needs of places with underdeveloped educational resources and solving the phenomenon of uneven distribution of educational resources in China.

Through the exploration of school management and student life through QQ Smart Campus, Tencent regards communication capabilities and payment capabilities as the basic capabilities and core technologies of the entire campus.Students can complete tuition payment, campus card recharge, book borrowing and other operations on the campus account to optimize the campus management experience.

The strategic deployment of scenario-based communication has taken QQ one step further on the road of communication. For users in these scenarios, QQ has become the first choice.

Whether it is the direction of rejuvenation, entertainment and social strategy, or the style of scene-based communication, the way QQ plays in the mobile Internet era is gradually clear, and the relationship with WeChat is also clearer.By improving the ecology of the two major social platforms, Tencent's overall layout of walking on two legs has become possible.

(End of this chapter)