The fire of virtual social networking comes and goes quickly

Virtual social platforms allow users to use virtual characters to socialize in the virtual world, which avoids the situation of interaction barriers in traditional social networking. For most young people who often advertise themselves as having "social phobia" today, the use of virtual identities for social settings is more appetizing. Therefore, the new form of virtual social networking is more easily accepted by young users.

In addition, the current capital market is blowing the wind of the metacosm, and virtual social networking is considered to be the "part part" of the future construction of the metacosmic world, which is also popular with capital.

In this context, many virtual social products emerge in an endless stream, such as Baidu's "Xi'ao", ByteDance's "Party Island", and a little information "Gel". Major manufacturers are waiting in the virtual social field, looking forward to their own virtual social products becoming the most anticipated blockbusters.

The illustrations are from Canva Paintable

Virtual social networking is on fire

With the continuous evolution of mobile networks, the public has new needs for user interaction, content interaction and other forms of social platforms, and virtual social platforms can meet the curiosity of young users for new forms of social networking to a certain extent. It is this fit between supply and demand that has allowed many virtual social products to blossom everywhere, and the competition for the virtual social field of major manufacturers is on the verge of erupting.

At the beginning of 2022, the gel APP exploded with a new model that combined acquaintance social networking and virtual 3D image, and the limelight even overshadowed mainstream social applications such as WeChat and QQ. According to Qimai data, after the first version of gel was launched on January 19, 2022, the number of downloads began to rise rapidly. On February 10, Gel topped the AppStore free social charts.

It can be said that Gel single-handedly showed the capital market the potential of virtual social networking. At the same time, it has also brought the long-dormant virtual social back to the public eye.

Previously, there have been many virtual social products on the market, such as Soul, ZEPETO and so on. But to this day, most of the virtual social products that were active earlier have gradually lost their voices in the change of times, and platforms with a slightly tenacious vitality like Soul have always been in the state of the virtual social track.

For a long time, phenomenal products like gels have been rare in the virtual social market. At this time, the sudden popularity of the gel has aroused the competitive morale of many big manufacturers in the virtual social market, and all kinds of virtual social software are "you sing me on the stage".

Xilang, which was launched at the end of last year, has been in a hurry to lay out the ecology, and is currently cooperating with enterprises such as Fengyuzhu and Lynk & Co to build a virtual ecology; in January this year, ByteDance began to test the island in a small area, and even Tencent, the big brother on the social track, also launched the virtual social function "Super QQ Show" on QQ. Big players are picking up the pace in an attempt to take over the virtual social market one step ahead.

It is certain that virtual social networking has caught fire in the face of many capitals. But then unexpectedly, the popularity of virtual social networking did not last long before it was hurriedly stepped on the brakes.

Virtual fire is difficult to refine real gold

The problem of insufficient months on the shelves of the gel is frequent, and the initiative is offline for rectification. In addition, the super QQ show launched by Tencent and byteDance's party island did not stir up much splash... It can be seen that the current virtual social market does not have a "can play" product, the main reason is still in the product itself experience and technology problems.

In terms of experience, the interactive content of most virtual social platforms is still relatively single, the attraction to users is limited, and it is difficult to meet the social needs of users for a long time. For example, Tencent's built-in super QQ show focuses on using mini games to enhance interaction with users, and ByteDance's "party island" mainly creates discussion scenes for users with common interests and strengthens users' sense of social participation.

Most importantly, this kind of interactive content does not play much role in enhancing the social attributes of the platform, but many users use the super QQ show and party island as a small game platform or a community platform. And these gameplay is not very irreplaceable, once the user tastes the early will eventually return to Social Platforms such as WeChat

In terms of technology, the virtual identity in the platform is often generated through 3D technology, AI image recognition technology, etc., and many virtual social applications such as gel and super QQ show are cartoon characters, which are rough compared with well-made virtual characters such as "Liu Yexi", which cannot meet the user's imagination of the virtual twin of the metaverse.

In essence, the virtual social platform is like a multi-integrated body, the game engine technology, cloud computing technology, interactive experience, interactive content and other aspects of the integration, to be precise, a high-quality virtual social platform should be a combination of deep technology and good experience.

However, in the current situation, there is still a lot of room for improvement in technology and experience of various virtual social platforms, which is not enough to be considered high-quality. As for the unexpected popularity of individual virtual social platforms, it is more of a gimmick to use the metaverse as a gimmick to shout out of the circle.

The time has not yet come

According to the current statement, the metacosmic world should be an ecosystem of multi-industry associations. However, the current metaverse is still in the conceptual stage, and the connection between various metaverse-related products and virtual social platforms has not yet been fully established.

In addition, according to the definition of Roblex, the "first share of the metaverse", the so-called "metaverse" needs to have eight characteristics: identity, friends, immersion, low latency, diversification, anytime, anywhere, economic system, and civilization. However, virtual social networking has obviously failed to meet the requirements of the metaverse in terms of diversity and low-latency communication.

Taking Baidu Xilang as an example, it has only made three virtual spaces: Feng Tang Art Exhibition, Sightseeing Station, and Baidu World Congress, in which users can only communicate with other users through voice. In addition, the newly popular gel also did not meet the requirements of the "meta-universe", and its removal announcement mentioned that the problem of stuttering has not been solved in the 3 weeks of listing, and many problems such as delay, flashback, and inability to enter do exist.

To be precise, virtual social networking is still outside the door of the metaverse, and the virtual social market that has been holding high the banner of "metaverse social" is still far from the real outbreak period. Therefore, it is conceivable that those virtual social products cloaked in the cloak of meta-universe will not harvest too good results for the time being, and the encounter of gel becoming popular for a short time and quickly falling cold is a big proof.

It can be seen that the temporary explosion of virtual social networking is most likely supported by the user's freshness of the metaverse, and when the user's freshness passes, the fire will soon fade. Therefore, the top priority of each virtual social platform is mainly to improve the retention rate of users and maintain the popularity of the platform.

More precipitation is needed

In summary, the wave of virtual social networking seems to be on fire, but it is not completely on fire, mainly because the technology and experience are not in place, and the debut of the meta-universe alone cannot retain users. If virtual social is to become a "long-termist", it must also rethink the product strategy from the user's point of view.

First of all, virtual social is currently too eager to prove the difference with traditional social products such as WeChat and QQ, and is bent on attracting users with new features such as character pinching and dress-ups, but in fact, the effect of such a form in enhancing user stickiness is not ideal. Therefore, virtual social networking should change the novelty of being more practical than practical in time, return to the essence of social, create real-time online, efficient social methods, and strengthen the practicality of products is the key to retaining users.

Secondly, from the user's feedback on the platform that has been launched, the current virtual social platform also needs to be deeply polished in terms of virtual image, online space, and communication delay. In addition, if you want to enter the "meta-universe", you also need to make some efforts in the expansion of the platform.

After all, the development of the metaverse, the most basic is to undertake its high real-time, high interaction and high immersion and other performance brought about by massive computing. In this regard, giants with good technical foundations such as Baidu are still in the exploration stage, and it is not easy for players such as Gel and Soul.

All in all, it is a fact that virtual social society currently lacks the momentum of development, and although virtual social society is actively moving closer to the metaverse, its true explosive potential may still be full of uncertainty until the metaverse really comes.

Text/Financial Reference, ID: Jrwaican