What kind of social software can have more weChat and QQ popularity at present? Recently, the app "Gel" developed by One Point Information reached the top of the free list of the App Store in Chinese mainland District, becoming the hottest social software at present.
What kind of magic does this social software with the concept of metaverse have?
The popularity surpasses WeChat and QQ
The virtual social app "Gel" topped the download list
According to the developer information of the App Store, on January 19, 2022, the first version of the gel app was officially launched, and according to the description of the gel in the app store, it was positioned as "a friendship apartment that belongs only to yourself and your best friends".
The official said in the introduction: "Here, there is no grouping, no shielding, no three days to see, you and your good friends can really be yourself together." ”
"How long have you not sent a circle of friends?" When was the last time you had a good chat with a friend? Why is it that the more people on my friends list, the harder it becomes to share status? Let's play gel with good friends, only allow 50 close friends to invite, and reconstruct your most intimate online space. ”
First-time users need to create their own avatar, which is similar to the more popular face pinching and dress-up games on the market today.
According to incomplete statistics, from clothing to face, there are more than 100 different options in gels, and a huge number of styles can meet the needs of most users for pinching their faces.
After creating their own image, users can set their own "mood, daily, rest, work" four types of states, for example, users can choose "lying to chase drama, online listening to songs, boring fishing, hard to move bricks" and a series of actions, each idea has a corresponding action scene displayed in the square homepage.
In terms of function, users can also open location sharing, share their positioning with friends, for unfamiliar friends, users can choose to protect privacy, only displayed in a certain area, near an office building, rather than more specific coordinates.
In addition, the gel also has a "now" function, users can share their daily dynamics in it, when they share content with friends, the page will be displayed in a waterfall manner, this function is similar to WeChat and the circle of friends.
Overall, the main functions in this gel APP include several first-level menus such as information flow, release, message and personal homepage, and the main gameplay is to pinch face change, publish instant dynamics and social chat.
Moving bricks,, and fish together in the metaverse
What is the magic of gel?
It is worth noting that as a social product of acquaintances, users can only add up to 50 friends to Gel.
From the perspective of positioning, Gel aims at a series of pain points such as the current social software "many friends, weak contact, and reduced desire to share", and is committed to building a social product based on virtual images.
However, a product that has been online for about 20 days can quickly become popular, and it is not enough to do the above, the key is to catch up with the concept of meta-universe and avatar.
Looking at many of the current social software, the friend images seen by users in the process of making friends are mostly presented in the form of blunt business cards, and the gel gives users no longer a business card-like introduction, but a virtual 3D character with a vivid image.
In the square, users can chase dramas, listen to songs, move bricks, exercise, play games, drink milk tea... These actions can be presented to the user and his friends in a near-real state through virtual characters.
The immersive chat dating experience brought by this virtual character is unmatched by any kind of social software. The pursuit of personalized expression and the aesthetics of young people are the reasons why gels can attract huge traffic in a short period of time.
However, in essence, the avatar seems to be difficult to be a subversive innovative function, when the user is tired of pinching the face and changing the "game", what should the gel do to retain the existing users?
Many users feedback after use, although the virtual characters at first brought a strong sense of freshness, but after a period of time, or gave up, one is able to chat on the gel of too few friends, the second is the function is relatively single, when the freshness is over, eventually have to return to WeChat.
When the user's freshness is no longer there, apps that silently disappear from the public eye abound, and the previous ZEPETO, Zenly, etc. are cases.
A little bit of information in the metaverse is a small step
According to the download page, the developer of Gel is Beijing Little Network Convergence Information Technology Company, that is, a development company of Little Information.
In November last year, Yiyi Information carried out a group strategy upgrade, renamed Cyber Elephant Group, in the group, the information flow information product Yiyi Information App will still be the company's main product in the short term, in addition to cultivating social, medium video and game three business lines, focusing on a number of new tracks including meta-universe, hoping to find a second growth point.
For a little information, changing the name to Cyber Elephant means that the company is transforming towards a younger approach. The launch and popularity of the gel also means that the company's strategic layout on the track of the meta-universe has gone a step further.
Not only a little information, from the second half of 2021, giants have laid out meta-universe business, Baidu released the first meta-universe product "Xi'an", and even the QQ show, which was once considered to be withdrawn from the historical stage, has also been upgraded to a 3D version of virtual characters, changing in the direction of meta-universe.
Admittedly, opening the door to the metaverse through virtual character socialization is a good idea, but there may be a long way to go before it really lands.