Before writing today's article, I would like to ask you a question: How long have we not seen a new social app?
Yes, since WeChat, we have not seen a new national social app, even Lao Luo's bullet text message, almost three years ago.
Here, I only see one reality, that is, in the social APP piece, we have not seen the existence of innovation for a long time.
Now, it is hard to see the emergence of a gel APP, but less than a month after its birth, it ushered in a flood of suspicion and accusations, do we really not tolerate any innovation in social software?
Before talking about the gel APP, we must first establish a consensus, that is:
Monopoly is the natural enemy of innovation, competition is the source of innovation; no competition, no innovation.
When the industry moves towards monopoly, innovation disappears
Basic economic common sense will tell us that no matter what it is, no matter what field it is, it is always a stage of full competition at the beginning, and after competition, it is bound to be eliminated, and eventually a situation in which one or two giants monopolize the industry is formed, which will inevitably bring about a result, that is, innovation stagnation.
The reason is simple: when the giants have enough means to make profits from wealth, and when there is no pressure to compete, the pursuit of innovation no longer becomes fanatical. There are too many examples of this.
QQ and WeChat in the social field, Taobao in the field of online shopping, Didi in the field of smart travel, Zhihu in the field of Q&A... There are too many such examples, when they determine the leadership position in the industry, so the surprises brought to users are less and less, more and more routine actions.
This can only explain the fact that when the monopoly is formed, there is nothing to innovate, and users no longer feel surprised, but become a plaything under the control of giants.
It can be said that monopoly is the natural enemy of innovation, and free competition is the natural source of innovation.
Innovation can only exist in a fully competitive environment
For any mature business system, competition is an inevitable situation, only full competition, and then with the corresponding legal protection, such as patent protection, such as business reputation, can promote the continuous display of innovation.
Compared with large companies, small and medium-sized companies are obviously more motivated to innovate, because they want to pursue more profits and have a larger market share, all of which are inseparable from a growing user base. In order to win more users, it is inevitable to target the needs of users, to try to dig up the content behind the needs, and then present it in an innovative way, only in this way can users be surprised and let users stay.
From this point of view, there is the pressure of external market competition, the internal motivation to fight for users, and then supplemented by a fully competitive atmosphere, so naturalness has the power of innovation, bringing users is a steady stream of surprises.
QQ meets people's needs for social networking, Taobao meets people's demand for online shopping, Kuaishou Douyin meets people's demand for entertainment, autoNavi maps meets people's demand for search travel...
Obviously, if you want innovation to exist and be sustained, you can't do without two conditions, one is to continuously tap and meet the needs of users; the other is to be fully free in a competitive environment.
If we can recognize these two conditions, then we can understand why the gel app is so popular, it is an innovative product that meets the needs of users.
Gel APP: Meet users' new needs for social networking
Before talking about this topic, we may wish to think about what WeChat means to us. Is it information that overwhelms you and doesn't want to see but has to look at it, or is it a place where too many strangers and stakeholders intertwine?
To put it bluntly, how many of the 5,000 WeChat friends are users really willing to talk about, and how many are the types that users are really willing to play together?
Psychologists believe that a person can call friends in a lifetime, up to 50 in the range, while there are only 20 familiar friends and between 5 and 10 close friends.
Based on such a theory, the Gel APP sets each user to invite up to 50 friends to settle in, in order to truly ensure the quality of friends, return to the essence of online social networking, that is, intimate communication and interaction in the social scene of acquaintances, so that each other is more pleasant, that is, most people yearn for no shielding, no grouping, no three days to see, so that everyone can be the most authentic self in front of friends.
For this purpose, the Gel APP sets a series of actions, such as 570 kinds of elements under the friend dressup, such as 26 states of rich ideas, each state has a corresponding scene, and for example, the friend square can display interactive status, you can also share the map with friends, so as to have a wealth of playability.
After experiencing the different ways of playing the Gel APP, I have to admit that this is a social APP with unlimited surprise possibilities, which can bring people back to the essence of online social networking, that is, intimate online friendship.
The Future of the Gel App: Is it the Darkest Hour or the Bright Future?
I have to admit that the Gel APP has a gratifying growth momentum because of the innovative satisfaction of people's social needs, and it ranks first in the download ranking of the APP Store, becoming the most concerned new APP in recent times.
However, this also responds to an old saying, Mu Xiu yu lin, and the wind will destroy it, since yesterday, this APP ushered in a wave of doubts, and the biggest doubts include leaking privacy and security, etc., which in the current environment, undoubtedly poked at the pain points of countless netizens, so that they can not be indifferent, at least worry about it, doubts also have, so involuntarily was brought into the game, emotionally experienced wave after wave of reversal.
In fact, as long as it is in the mobile Internet this track of friends know that the current mobile Internet bowl of rice is not delicious, because the giants have taken away the big head, leaving only a little broth for the little brothers to drink, for the giants, both to maintain their competitive advantage, but also to let the weak competitors survive, is the most ideal market state, so at least to avoid the "monopoly market" notoriety.
Especially after Ali was fined a huge amount by the relevant departments because of monopoly, the current giants are more reluctant to be said to have a monopoly, but this does not mean that they give up the pursuit of monopoly, their bottom line is very clear, can survive in innovation, but can not threaten their position because of innovation, this is the natural consensus of giants.
In such a situation, the Gel APP has been ranked first on the APP Store download list for several consecutive days, which has made the giants smell the threat, they are not allowed to have such a threat, even if it is only a sign, so the Gel APP began to usher in a tidal wave of bad reviews.
In the face of such bad comments, I don't know what the next step of the Gel APP will be, whether it will be shelved and no longer develop and updated, or whether it will be acquired by the giants and put into their camp. But I know, I don't want to see the gel APP just disappear like this, I hope they can exist in such a posture for a longer time, the reason why there is such hope, there is only one reason, three years later, the Chinese social field APP does not have any fresh blood, nor has it brought any surprises to users, take WeChat, after the launch of the video number in 2020, there have been two years without bringing major innovation to users...
It can be said that Chinese users in the field of acquaintance social networking, eager to innovate for too long, and now the emergence of the gel APP, just to meet the needs of users, but this is obviously not what the giant wants to see, so do their best to smear its reputation, in order to influence the user's perception and impression.
This is the norm I see under the current mobile Internet, but any hint of innovation and competition will make the giants fidgety like a big enemy, trying to smear it, and then erase its existence. I guess that's not something that should exist in a normal era of commercialization, and it's not something that most users would like to see.
Without innovation and competition, where will the vitality of the entire industry come from, how can the needs of users be met, where will the progress of the whole society come from, and how will the progress of the times drive forward? Is the lack of competition really the future we want to see?
My attitude is very clear, for the defects and problems of a new APP, we can point out that the attitude can be very severe, but it must be objective and neutral, can not carry their own emotions, but can not with the purpose of suppressing smear, to treat an APP, we can not let people who are interested in innovation chill, otherwise how can innovation continue?
In any case, as a new APP, the Gel APP is facing a darkest moment because of various smears and scandals, and whether this darkest moment ends quickly or exists for a long time will determine the survival of the innovative factors in our current era.
I would like to say what I have in mind above.