Ignition Dimension (ID: chaintruth) original
Produced by Burning Finance
Author | Kong Yuexin Feng Xiaoting
Edit | Rao Xiafei
After waiting for nearly two hours in a WeChat group that shared the invitation code, Su Su, a "high-intensity Internet surfer", finally grabbed an invitation code and successfully logged on to ByteDance's newly launched product "Zhi District".
Before logging into the recognition area, Su Su did not fully know what kind of application this was, but he saw someone doing promotion in the circle of friends, and he thought it was interesting and thought of using it. After successfully logging in, Su Su, who is also an 8-year-old user of Douban, smelled a hint of "Douban", "Can't say the same, just feel very familiar, especially the 'Discovery Area' entrance, and the 'Discovery Group' in Douban is very similar." ”
On the "difference" between the two applications, Su Su gave his own answer after half an hour of hands-on operation. "The interface of the district is very simple, but it is also simple plus a new product, and many functions have not yet been perfected. Through hands-on operation and shallow understanding, it is indeed clear that the openers of the knowledge area do not regard Douban as a benchmarking product, but for Douban users, this is indeed a Douban-like application. ”
For Zhi District, it is not set as a "content interest community APP", ByteDance's definition of "Zhi District" is a "smart reading tool product", and Zhi District's slogan is "defining your reading universe".
The knowledge area can also be shared with today's headline content, and the way to achieve it is also very "simple and rude".
In the zhi district platform, each user can create up to 3 zhi districts, the zhi district can be understood as "circle" or "group", the user creates the zhi district and becomes the "district chief", the district chief can configure the subscription source for the zhi district Bot, the district chief can generate recommended subscription sources by adding different topics of interest, and the recommended subscription sources are from the content creators of today's headlines.
Once the subscription list is selected, Bot will automatically update the content in the knowledge area, but the content area director collected by Bot does not have permission to delete it, and can only overwrite it by continuously sending new content.
However, as an ordinary user, you can still find the topic you are interested in through the "Discovery Area" and "Recommendation Interface" and join a certain "Knowledge Area". By querying the "Discovery Area" page with a relatively high number of member users, Burning Finance found that the number of "Bot's subscribers" in the basic mostly recognized areas was 0, and most of the content published by users in the knowledge area was mostly published by users.
"Like Douban, you have to join the 'recognition area' before you can post, and the entrance to publish custom content is also in the lower right corner, but the knowledge area is still too simple compared to Douban, only H1H2 title and insert pictures, but Douban can also add videos, publish votes, and associate books and videos in addition to inserting pictures." Su Su also said that although the slogan of the knowledge area is to "define your reading universe", but by hanging out, it is not difficult to find that most of the discussion content in the knowledge area is also a lot, "but it may also be that the current product has just been launched, many functions are not perfect, like the current user communication is only achieved through the comment function, and more social functions may appear in the future." ”
At the same time, Su Su also expressed her feelings to Burning Finance, since the Douban group has successively requested rectification, and recently announced that the private group will stop serving, the frequency of her login to Douban is also getting less and less, and she also found that many platforms carry circles or groups with similar functions to the Douban group. "Like Weibo, Zhihu, etc., I have experienced it."
But out of the use of habits, Su Su did not choose the next place to live like other team members, "Last year I also moved to DoDo with the wind, but after a period of time, I felt that the use experience was very poor and came back." The low degree of overlap between Douban users and other platform users is an important reason. ”
As we all know, the Douban group is the most dazzling label of Douban, and it is also the bottom card of Douban. After all, for a veteran Internet company, Douban, which can still be in a corner of the Wave of Internet changes, Douban can survive, in addition to relying on the original book and audio business, there is also a Douban group with high activity and strong user stickiness.
Today, the Douban group has also become a piece of fat that other platforms are eyeing. From the earliest circle of knowledge, headline circles, and Weibo accused of "unfair competition" by Douban, or the recognition area that is recently being tested, it is not excluded that there will be similar Douban products in the future.
However, for the current Douban, the biggest enemy is still himself, relying on books, audio and user bases, throughout the Internet, there is no product that can replace Douban. But for Douban users, Douban is getting farther and farther away from the image of "utopia" in the user's heart.
"Copy" Douban
The questioned interface is like "Douban", not only the "recognition area".
The "copying behavior" can be traced back to 2019, in February of that year, today's headlines officially announced their new feature "circle", and the role of the circle is that creators can directly build their own fan groups in the headline APP through the circle, so as to share and communicate with fans barrier-free. However, when Burning Finance wants to further understand the "circle" function of today's headlines, it is told that "during the circle upgrade, it is not supported to join" for the time being.
In addition, at the end of 2019, the Zhihu APP is testing the "circle" function, and the function was officially launched in January 2020. At that time, Zhihu also opened a first-level entrance for the "circle", the circle entrance replaced the original posting entrance to occupy the center of the navigation bar, in addition to opening the search and Q&A area at the same time, it can be said that the user can see the "circle" entrance everywhere.
According to the memories of Cha Cha, a loyal user of Douban, I know that many "circle" names were the same as the names of the Douban group, "after all, the platform traffic is tilted, so some creators will also want to copy or learn from those group names with high douban activity, and also want to become the next community with high activity." ”
If the circle "naming right" comes from content creators, it is not easy to say that the platform is "copied", but compared with Douban and today's headlines and the circle of Zhihu, it is not difficult to find that the interface of the three is actually similar.
Picture/Respectively, Douban, Today's Headlines, and Zhihu's group/circle interface
Source/Burn Finance Screenshot
Although the "circle" function of today's headlines cannot be added at present, from the content update of the original circle, it does not affect the normal use of the original circle users. And all kinds of signs are still showing that the focus of today's headlines has gradually shifted from "circles" to "groups".
Through inquiries, Burning Finance learned that the latest dynamic of today's headline "headline circle" account was in April 2021, and in September 2021, today's headlines published the article "Headline Group Opens Self-built | Recruit Team Leaders and Communicate with More Like-minded People", and after users join a group, the original "Screening Hall" entrance in the navigation bar of the user's home page is immediately replaced by the "Group" entrance.
At the same time, today's headline recruitment team leader has also been in progress.
On March 29, Douban issued an announcement that due to business adjustments, the private group will stop service. That night, a Douban user posted in the Douban Goose group that "many platforms have been digging group leaders recently", and attached a screenshot of the dialogue with a person who claimed to be "today's headline community operation".
The screenshot shows that the community operator said, "I heard that the Douban group is about to make a big move, the headline group is recruiting a group leader, and there is traffic support and activity funds when it enters." And in the chat with the Douban user, he further emphasized that "there is no threshold for the leader of douban." The life group, the goose group are coming, and the talent group has already come to the headlines to create a group."
In addition, on the same day, Weibo @ Super Talk Community released the "Super Talk Rising Star Plan", and the recruitment requirements were noted in the "Management Experience" that they had to have the identity of "Douban Group Leader", "Tieba Bar Master" and other related community administrators. The most intriguing thing is that Weibo's recruitment poster actually copied the name of the Douban group intact.
Excerpts from Douban pictures
Source/Weibo @Douban
It is also because the Weibo community has copied the name of the Douban group that the relationship between Douban and Weibo has suddenly become tense.
On March 30, Douban issued an indictment saying it would sue Weibo on the grounds of "unfair competition disputes." Weibo is required to immediately stop the infringing acts, including but not limited to deleting the infringing links and stopping the recruitment of the "Super Talk Rising Star Program".
"The defendant's (Weibo) behavior violated business ethics and infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of the plaintiff (Douban)." The indictment mentions that the "Super Talk Community" and the "Douban Group" are competitors with each other, but Weibo @ Super Talk Community recently used a number of Douban group names in the public recruitment management personnel content of the "Super Talk Rising Star Plan" released by the platform, and recruited people with Douban group management experience to the platform to establish a super talk community.
From the "rapid reaction" of Douban's unusual, onlookers must be able to guess one or two from it. Cha Cha also said bluntly that "everyone can see that Weibo is digging the corner of the Douban wall."
"Weibo is not the first platform to dig the foot of the wall, other platforms to dig the leader of the big group has long been there, from last year's Qinglang action, the Douban group has carried out many rectifications, and every time the rectification, love to talk about the bean friends to discuss the next place to move to which platform at the same time, more or less companions will follow other platforms to dig the team leader's message. But Weibo's 'Super Talk Rising Star Project' is really too blatant. ”
On the same night that Douban sued Weibo, a weibo @Weibo spokesperson issued a statement saying, "The supernova plan carried out by Weibo Super Talk is not aimed at a certain platform, it belongs to the normal business operation category, and there is no unfair competition or plagiarism at all." On the contrary, Weibo has issued several announcements before, strictly prohibiting users and MCN agencies from carrying undesirable content such as false confrontations from a certain platform. ”
However, in the same weibo that states that "since the birth of the Internet, openness and freedom have been its background", the comments section shows that "bloggers have opened a selection of comments".
So far, the dispute between Weibo and Douban has not continued to ferment on the Weibo platform. It's just that although Weibo claims that "there is no unfair competition and plagiarism at all", the blog post of "Super Talk Super Star Plan" can no longer be searched in the Weibo @ Super Talk community, and Burning Finance clicks in from the previous Weibo link, only showing "Due to the author's privacy settings, you do not have permission to view this Microblog".
"Beans are hard to get rich" is not easy to send
The platform for starting the Business Ofan "Group" is nothing more than aiming at the high-sticky community atmosphere of Douban. In addition to large factories such as Weibo and Today's Headlines, there are also more platforms that want to send "beans are difficult to make money".
Especially in 2021, which can be called the "water reverse" of Douban, Douban was punished 21 times, with a cumulative fine of nearly 10 million yuan. Following the closure and ban of several influential Douban groups in September last year, Douban was fined 1.5 million yuan for repeatedly appearing information prohibited by laws and regulations, and at the same time, the Douban group also suspended the "reply" function. "Douban is in danger" has become the "sword of Damocles" hanging over the heads of every heavy user.
In order to retain their "happy hometown", a large number of group users had to start a huge "migration" movement, and a number of large-flow groups such as the Douban Goose Group and the Talent Group began to relocate to other platforms.
"At that time, some people in the Douban Goose group used group email, tried DoDo, and built a QQ group; the interest life group even found someone to make a forum... In short, several large groups are almost all 'eighteen martial arts with their own magic powers'. Douban ten years of user Tang Yuan helplessly said, "The Douban group could not reply at that time, always leave me a place to read and eat melons and fish, and communicate with everyone." ”
Behind the large-scale "moving" of users is the strong user stickiness under the function of the Douban group, which is also the urgent need of other Internet giants.
"For example, Weibo's super talk and topics have always been dominated by entertainment stars and news hot searches, and content with a very long tail effect like the Douban group is very much needed by Weibo; in the same way, today's headlines under byte, users on the APP are nothing more than watching news brush videos, but with the group function, it is possible to improve the attractiveness of users to actively open the APP." Zhao Hongmin, a content creator and technology Internet analyst, said.
In Zhao Hongmin's view, Internet social networking has entered the deep water area, there is no blue ocean market, each family is competing for each other's stock users, and the group function with strong topic pertinence and clear user classification has become a "winning magic weapon" to improve user stickiness and retention rate. In this case, the recognition area will not be the last Douban-like application.
However, the Internet platform that competes to develop the function of the group has not yet achieved results comparable to the Douban group. Even DoDo, which was ridiculed last year as wanting to make "beans and make money", was directly "punched in the face" because of factors such as chaotic functional partitioning and poor operational capabilities.
During the period, most of the Douban users who "ran away" returned to Douban after the Douban group function was restored.
"Other platforms can't keep people, one is that the time is too short, there is no cultivation of user stickiness, and many people don't even adapt/get used to the interface and functions of the new APP, so they go back." Second, the 'riot operation' of some platforms is very bad, especially DoDo, which uses Douban users to drain traffic while infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of Douban users. At that time, not only were screenshots sent to platforms such as B station to invade the privacy of others, but also APP development programmers made inappropriate remarks, and finally several large groups such as the Douban Goose group were blocked, in short, it was very unfriendly to female users. Tang Yuan thought.
Source/Burn Finance Screenshot @ Douban
In addition, although the Douban group frequently broke out controversial topics, this also reflects the strong appeal of the Douban group and the strong originality of UGC, which is highly original and highly disseminated content, which is also needed by other social platforms such as Weibo and ByteDance.
Now that the major platforms have once again "grabbed the beach" group function, it is still unknown whether it can successfully drain the flow.
For example, after the launch of the District APP on April 6, although the membership of each "district" on that day increased rapidly to 100 people, and even some modules have reached more than 1,000 people, most of the content is still handled or "water stickers", and whether the UGC content moat can be done is still unknown.
When the Weibo digging Douban team leader was operating, many Douban users also left messages in the comment area, "The core of the Douban group is not the team leader, but high-quality users, and then rely on their high-quality topics to attract more users to retain." "The group leader in the Douban group is only the role of maintaining order, not the opinion leader, and even the group leader of multiple large groups such as makeup group and spelling group has been overturned by users for improper speech."
Therefore, "if the Internet manufacturer wants to make an APP that replaces the function of the Douban community, the migration cost of users is very high, and no user will easily say goodbye to the content created by their own UGC for many years." Zhao Hongmin said.
However, everything is not absolute, in recent years, Douban has been punished by the relevant departments as many as 20 times because of poor operation, and even many times it is still a top punishment, which has also given other social giants a rare window period. If other platforms can pour more professional teams and resources, it is also possible to grab some of the market share of Douban. ”
Douban "no one can replace", users "homeless"
In fact, not only is there no "alternative" to the group function, but Douban's book and video is also a solid backing for this "slow company" to gather high-viscosity users in the process of rapid development of the Internet.
On the major platforms of the Internet, every three to five users will ask: "Chinese the Internet range, in addition to Douban, is there any good book and video recording APP?" The answer was surprisingly unanimous—"No." ”
Although all the users of Douban add up to the entire Chinese social market, the proportion is not large; and in the book and video, just look at a certain section, there are some platforms that can "compete" with it, such as WeChat Reading, NetEase Cloud Music, Weibo Movie, etc., the competitiveness of these platforms is not smaller than Douban. "But what is rare is that Douban can do the three sections of books, film and television, and music at the same time." Zhao Hongmin said.
Taking the book section as an example, as a former administrator of the Douban Goose Group and also a book editor, Liu Wu code said, "The presentation of Douban books, although it will not give a lot of exposure and conversion to no book, but it can help us to sort out our own information, especially our company publishes a lot of books every year, probably hundreds of books, Douban is equivalent to my archive library, after I collect it in the bean column, I can directly send it to the partner, bibliographic information, user evaluation, and various data at a glance." ”
And Douban movies are a rare and more authoritative and objective film and television work scoring platform in China. Ah Bei himself once explained in the article "Eight Questions on Douban Movie Ratings" in 2015 that the Douban program will convert the user's score from one to five stars to zero to ten points, adding up and dividing by the total number of ratings, it will get the Douban score. The user's scoring weight and the change of algorithm programs are also trying to prevent the occurrence of malicious scoring and other phenomena as much as possible.
In addition, Abei revealed that the business of Douban movies does not include "high ratings", and therefore, Douban is the most fair and objective rating platform in China in the minds of many fans. Platforms such as Maoyan and Taobao, which undertake production and distribution business, do not have the credibility of Douban at the scoring level.
"Every time before watching a movie, I habitually open Douban to see the ratings, and if the ratings are particularly low, then I won't spend money on the movie in the theater." As for the rating of Cat's Eye and Taobao tickets, there is no need to refer to it at all. Douban senior users and so on said.
Because of this, although there are not a few competitors in Douban, none of them can replace them. Analysys Qianfan data shows that in 2021, the average number of monthly active users of Douban APP is about 12 million, and the average number of daily active users is about 3 million. "From the perspective of the absolute value of Douban users, the volume of Douban is not large today, but in the influence of books and videos and the creation of group topics, Douban will be more involved." Ji Thirteen, founder and CEO of Fruit Shell Network, said.
Because of this, niche Douban, like platforms such as Weibo and Toutiao, will be subject to strict supervision. On March 15, the Cyberspace Administration of Beijing sent a work supervision team to Douban to supervise rectification.
"After more and more content and sounds, Douban's review mechanism has also become stricter, and gradually the content has become more homogeneous, but it has been completely different from the original." Because the review cycle of the release diary has become longer, many creators no longer use Douban as a launch platform. Post-90s writer Zhang Chang believes that Douban failed to retain this group of writers, and it is now difficult to see the diary that is seriously "created".
"In the case of Douban facing increasing pressure, I often see on the homepage, or hear from friends around me, that there are more and more bean friends who are banned and permanently banned." Some people, I don't even know why, were banned. Willow said.
Qi Qi, a senior user of Douban Book, told Burning Finance, "Now my daily sharing is often deleted for no reason, and the statement is also very troublesome, and one day I may not be able to bear to leave Douban." ”
At the same time, the Douban group is also facing increasingly stringent supervision, which has hit the enthusiasm of some Douban users for the platform to a certain extent. The former leader of the Douban Emma Garden group was faced with the situation that the new group was constantly blocked, and had no choice but to "move" the group to DoDo.
"Douban's decentralized design is a scarce 'resource' on today's Internet. Do not rely on big data to guess what you like, nor according to the user name gas weight recommendation, everyone's top post can be seen, sometimes brush real-time will get a lot of new materials, after all, if you come late, the post may be gone, you can also see everyone archaeology digging grave, it is very fun, the early tianya is also like this, unfortunately 'paste'. However, Douban began to change the timeline order of posts after it was clear, resulting in whether the posts could be seen or not. Tang Yuan regretted this.
In Zhao Hongmin's view, there are often extreme views on Douban, and even prohibited content, as a content operation platform, Douban has an unshirkable responsibility. If Douban cannot completely change this operational thinking, the future of Douban is not optimistic.
Not long ago, Douban announced the shutdown of the private group, which made many users, including Tang Yuan, worry about the future of the group and Douban. "If there is a suitable platform in the future, maybe I will try to 'move'. But to put it bluntly, now which platform is the same, no matter which product, there are all kinds of shortcomings, we still do not have a real 'home'. ”
Resources:
"Douban's Critical Moment", source: AI Finance and Economics
"Douban Demolition, Private White", Source: Entertainment Hard Candy
"Weibo, headlines are "copying Douban", is it feasible? Source: Chopped Pepper TMT
*The caption and some of the illustrations in the text are from Visual China.
* In the text, Su Su, Cha Cha, Tang Yuan, etc., Qi Qi is a pseudonym, and Ji Thirteen and Liu Wu Code are douban user names.
*Disclaimer: In no event shall the information herein or the opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice to any person.