Beijing, April 15 (Reporter Huang Angjin) Since the beginning of this year, the social software Soul has been exposed to the emergence of "pig killing plates" many times; previously, Soul partners were arrested for maliciously reporting opponents for "setting up a bureau".
As one of the top players in the stranger social software track, Soul's successive "overturns" may be related to industry management chaos and competitive anxiety. In this regard, why does Soul break the dilemma and guard the "Soul Social" signboard?
"Users can find peers with similar interests by completing 30 seconds of 'soul identification'", different from the head player Momo, the video of the probe, the way of making friends, Soul's positioning is "soul social", avoiding "face value dating", and paying more attention to the three views, personality, hobbies and other internal social networking.
Founded in 2016, Soul has completed three rounds of financing, including Yuansheng Capital, Wuyuan Capital, Jianming Capital, etc.
The platform "pig killing disk" appeared frequently, and users who were banned and "accidentally injured" were complained
What is a "pig killing plate"? It refers to a new type of online fraud method such as criminals looking for potential victims through online social platforms, and after being lifted and gaining the trust of the other party many times, under the banner of "taking the other party to make money", luring potential victims to participate in online gambling investment, or attracting victims to continue to invest with small investments, and finally defrauding victims of large amounts of money.
This kind of deception is not uncommon on social platforms. On March 25, according to media reports, a woman in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, met a netizen who claimed to be able to make money with her on Soul, and was later cheated by this netizen for 610,000 yuan. On April 8, according to the Economic Voice of the Central Radio and Television Corporation, "Daily 315", consumer Ms. Chen and a friend of the Soul platform added WeChat to each other, and through the introduction of this friend, through a "gambling site" to "make money", after recharging the last large amount of funds, Ms. Chen found that she could not withdraw cash, and "friends" also blocked it on WeChat. In addition, Ms. Feng of Chengdu was also cheated of 150,000 yuan after using The Soul software for 3 months due to similar experiences.
In fact, Soul has also tried a lot in the fight against online fraud. It is understood that in addition to issuing anti-fraud guidelines to users through site notifications and official WeChat tweets, introducing fraud techniques and coping methods, Soul has also set up strong reminders in the system to guide users to increase their vigilance against online fraud. In addition, Soul adopts the "machine + manual" dual review mechanism, login IP abnormalities, frequent changes in account basic information, frequent diversion of chat objects to other platforms, etc., will be marked and early warning by the system, and will be suspended after manual review intervention. In the chat, involving sensitive words will also face penalties for banning violations.
However, the above series of anti-fraud measures seem to have "accidentally injured" many innocent users while it is difficult to catch "fish that slipped through the net". The central broadcasting network reporter learned from the black cat complaint platform that there were more than 1,300 complaints involving "Soul", and more than 300 complaints related to "Soul suspension". Among them, many netizens complained about being banned for no reason: "I have been using Soul for several years, and I have never had any violations, why do I say that I have abnormal behavior and cannot log in." "The account cannot be registered, just registered to show the illegal suspension, I confirm that there was no violation of any previous violations"...
(Screenshot from Black Cat Complaint Platform)
On the one hand, the shadow of fraud lingers, on the other hand, it is the complaints of users who are "mistakenly injured", how to guard the pure land of the "soul social" side, still need Toul to continue to explore.
The partner was arrested for maliciously "pitting" the opponent and was sentenced to 3.3 million yuan in damages
The news that Soul partners maliciously reported the arrest of competitor App Uki has caused heated discussion.
According to previous media reports, in October 2019, In order to crack down on competitors, Li Mou, a partner of Soul Company, instructed his subordinate and employee Fan Mou to collect illegal content on the competitive Uki App platform and collect it through "fishing": If you can't find illegal content on the other party's platform, you will use your registered (Uki) account to publish illegal content on the other party's platform, and then take screenshots and report it to the relevant departments. According to Uki, this malicious report led to Uki being removed from the shelves for three months, and the company's growth was almost stagnant and the business was seriously endangered.
In March 2020, criminal suspects Li mou and Fan mou were arrested with the approval of the Putuo District People's Procuratorate on suspicion of damaging commercial reputation and commodity reputation. In December of the same year, the Shanghai Putuo District People's Court announced a first-instance judgment on the case, in which Li was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for one year, and fined 50,000 yuan; Fan was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for one year, and fined 30,000 yuan; and Li and Fan would compensate Uki for a total of 3.3 million yuan.
In addition, Uki said that after the first-instance judgment was announced, Soul issued a statement saying that the malicious report was the personal work of the employee, which disregarded the facts and shirked responsibility.
The case has attracted much attention, perhaps not only because such malicious competition cases that touch the legal red line are rare in the industry, but also because this extreme behavior highlights the competitive anxiety of strangers in the social field.
(Figure from CFP)
Industry analysis: to break through the profit dilemma, it is necessary to diversify the market portfolio
At present, there are many players in the domestic stranger social circuit. From the perspective of market pattern, Momo and probe probe department have a significant effect, and industry data shows that as of June 2019, it is far ahead in installed capacity, ranking first and second, followed by Soul, Uki, and Jimu; in terms of daily retention rate, Momo also has certain advantages, but Jimu is based on vertical segmentation of user groups such as hip-hop, skateboarding, and quadratic elements, which is better.
Different from the popularization of social instant messaging tools such as WeChat and QQ, stranger social platforms, as another track in the social field, have spawned niche products in more segmented fields by the diversified "dating" needs of users. Taking Soul as an example, unlike the "face value social" with the nature of "dating" on Momo and Tantan platforms, Soul focuses on inner socialization based on the positioning of "soul socialization" and is committed to resolving the "loneliness" of young people in today's society.
Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Civil Affairs show that it is expected that by 2021, the number of young people living alone in China will rise to 92 million. However, the vast market and rigid demand do not seem to be enough to bring eye-catching data to the product. Low user retention is a problem that Soul continues to solve.
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told the Central Broadcasting Network reporter, "In fact, the current problems of stranger social networking are similar to most traditional social platforms, that is, the dilemma of profitability, most platforms rely on traffic monetization, as well as advertising services and other business income." ”
It has become the industry consensus that the profit model of stranger social software needs to be broken. Take Momo, which has been listed in the Stranger Social Track, for example, its financial report shows that Momo's total net income in the fourth quarter of 2020 was 3.7952 billion yuan (US$581.6 million). Among them, the revenue of live broadcast services was 2.3279 billion yuan (US$356.8 million), and the total revenue of value-added services (mainly including virtual gift revenue and membership subscription income) was 1.4013 billion yuan (US$214.8 million), accounting for 98% of the revenue of the two businesses.
It is understood that Soul's income mainly comes from value-added services, paid skins, gift income and advertising revenue, and the basic structure is similar to Momo.
Ma Jihua, founder of Darui Consulting and an analyst of telecommunications and Internet, said in an interview with the Central Broadcasting Network reporter, "From the current point of view, these popular stranger social software are not designed with communication as a function, so it is mainly to build a small circle, which determines that it is difficult to rely on diversion to develop value-added business models, and can only achieve revenue through the paid function in the application." ”
Jiang Han believes that the core of breaking through the profit dilemma lies in how to turn the profit composition of stranger social platforms into a diversified market combination.
In addition, regulation is also a test that the industry needs to face head-on. In April 2019, the Cyberspace Administration of China launched a special rectification of niche instant messaging tools, and the first batch of 9 illegal apps such as "Neighbor" and "Chat" were cleaned up and shut down. The relevant person in charge of the State Internet Information Office has said that the use of instant messaging tools has a low threshold, many users, fast dissemination, strong concealment, and great difficulty in management, making it an organizational platform for illegal and criminal activities, seriously threatening public safety, harming the legitimate rights and interests of netizens, and causing great harm to society, so it must be dealt with strictly according to law and cleaned up in an all-round way.
Ma Jihua pointed out that the early stage of the development of stranger social software is basically relying on hormonal driving force, and they are good at gray operation, so it is very difficult to supervise, but it should still draw a red line, carry out strict supervision, and cannot make it crazy. "In this way, the development of stranger social software will slow down, and the increase in users and activity will be greatly affected." He said.
Jiang Han said that the rectification of the Cyberspace Administration of China is of great significance to regulating the market, and it also shows that the supervision of relevant departments has kept pace with the times and put forward higher requirements and stricter standards for the market. Therefore, for the participants in the social market, all parties need to be more cautious and really improve their own management level, otherwise under the vigorous promotion of supervision, it is likely to cause a relatively large risk event due to its own poor management.
The "2019 Stranger Social Industry Insights" released by Mob Research Institute also pointed out that the policy impact determines the life and death of products, and compliance is the inevitable development direction of stranger social products.
In Ma Jihua's view, with the continuous advancement of speed and fee reduction, as well as the popularity of 5G and gigabit optical fiber broadband, network speed is becoming less and less of a problem, social to video, audio is inevitable, the emerging stranger social software is also adapted to this trend, are exploring. He pointed out, "Personally, I believe that stranger social software should be based on improving user stickiness, providing a better experience, not blindly grabbing customers, pulling customers, in addition to audio and video social functions, it is also necessary to explore the connection between people and things in the era of the Internet of Everything, and enhance the participation level of artificial intelligence." ”