After decades of development, the Internet has become closer to the public's life and improved the public's quality of life.
Since 2011, the mainland Internet has entered a stage of rapid development, and vertical development is the main trend in this stage.
The result is that more and more users' needs are becoming more accurate and specific, and they are moving towards a high degree of differentiation.
At the same time, many vertical social Internet companies have sprung up. So, what exactly is a vertical social Internet enterprise? What is the profit model of such companies? The author of this article will introduce it in detail for you.
Definition and classification of vertical social Internet enterprises
Vertical social networking is relatively comprehensive social, which refers to the subject's social field is single specific, and strives to carry out a large number of activities in this field and is in a leading position, which is characterized by the pursuit of small and fine.
Vertical social Internet enterprises refer to the entire business activities of Internet enterprises are exclusively in a limited field, and at the same time only dock with users in this field, providing them with products and services that strictly meet their needs.
This is to attract a large number of customers by sending some professional and authoritative signals in the market, and then have a large amount of traffic to make profits.
Since vertical social Internet companies involve all walks of life and have many types, it is not easy to find a classification standard that can cover all enterprises.
At the same time, the views of scholars in the industry are also different, and some scholars are divided according to different social media, such as pictures, videos and text.
There are also some scholars who distinguish according to the circle of the field, such as the photography circle, the automobile circle, and the animation circle.
At the same time, there are also scholars who divide according to daily life areas, such as shopping, tourism, business and so on.
Characteristics of vertical social Internet enterprises
(1) It can bring the same user experience as traditional social networking
Motivation to confide, entertainment motivation and praise motivation are the three basic motivations that people usually have in the social process.
The products and services provided by vertical social Internet enterprises have the same functions as traditional social networking.
For example, real-time chat communication can be carried out on the products and services provided by enterprises, regardless of region and time, this huge interactive platform provides users with a large number of contact and communication opportunities.
In addition, users can further communicate with relevant enthusiasts in their areas of interest and enhance their entertainment and leisure experience.
On the one hand, it can express its emotions, and on the other hand, it can be recognized and praised by relevant people in the field.
(2) Aggregate users for a clear purpose
The products and services provided by vertical social Internet enterprises have more obvious functionality than traditional social networking.
It relies on unique features to attract surrounding users while saving higher user retention and activity rates to profit.
For example, singing a functional vertical social product with singing voice as the medium, small love with the theme of interactive communication between couples, and Momo with the main purpose of anonymous dating by strangers.
It is not difficult to see that these products occupy a field in a unique way, and largely attract users in demand in related fields.
If the enterprise can firmly grasp the needs of users and constantly update them to meet the needs of users, then the future expectations of enterprises are high.
In other words, vertical social products have more potential for development than comprehensive social networking.
(3) Have a more relaxed and free communication space
Demand determines supply, and vertical social Internet enterprises are also developing with the continuous changes in the economy and society.
Nowadays, many people have a lot of worries and worries in the face of many environmental factors such as family and society, and some people do not know how to release their feelings in the face of these worries.
If they have nowhere to release these feelings, they will explode over time and eventually have a bad effect on the surroundings.
Compared with the traditional acquaintance communication circle, vertical social users have a relatively unfamiliar communication circle, where users can express their emotions through their favorite ways, such as text, voice, video and pictures.
At the same time, communicating with others in your own area of interest will make your mood more pleasant, and you will also have a sense of mutual identity and confirm your self-worth.
On the one hand, this social environment dominated by non-acquaintances makes users relatively relaxed, and can communicate more easily and naturally.
However, on the other hand, because the form is not limited, the behavior of some users may be radical and have some adverse effects, so it is also necessary to supervise these social environments in laws and regulations.
(4) It can deepen the understanding in the user field
Different fields have different characteristics. Users choose areas with a certain feature because they are good at, like, and love it, and it will make them shine and satisfy their achievements in some way.
Friends who like to take photos can upload various photos taken by themselves in the oasis, and they can also see beautiful photos taken by others in the public square; At the same time, users can also communicate about the content of the photo and constantly explore the beautiful things in the world.
There are many more such things, and they use this way to express their attitude towards life.
Here, they can discuss and communicate with users with the same hobbies, collide ideas and views, consult and teach, improve their awareness and satisfaction in a certain direction, and ultimately deepen their cognition.
The profit model of vertical social Internet enterprises
The Internet has grown from only computers to today's massive mobile terminals, bringing an explosion in the number of online social users.
This huge user scale provides a broad platform space for the development of many vertical social Internet enterprises, each of which is committed to cultivating and maximizing the value of users and seeking a new model suitable for its own sustainable development.
The vertical social Internet industry has also changed from a profit method that initially played the role of "intermediary" to a user-centered profit method.
In general, advertising embedded profit mode, value-added service profit method, entrance profit mode and business profit mode are the main profit forms of vertical social Internet enterprises.
(1) Advertising embedding monetization method
Advertising embedded profit method is the most traditional profit method for vertical social Internet enterprises, and it is also a more common profit method.
This is a prerequisite for profit with a large user scale, and the investment in advertising will bring more sufficient and diversified market exposure to advertisers, which will bring huge potential benefits to advertisers.
Advertising embedded profit methods also have new forms of monetization in the current information and communication developed society: interstitial advertising, banner advertising, text advertising, email advertising.
The huge number of Internet users represents a potentially large number of clicks, so the role of advertising embedded in monetization to bring profits to enterprises will become more and more obvious.
(2) Value-added service profit method
Value-added services refer to functional services provided by vertical social Internet enterprises beyond basic services, and are paid services that create additional satisfaction for users.
Vertical social Internet enterprises in the mainland first rely on providing free services to develop, by providing some basic functional services to attract and obtain the goodwill of users, so as to further develop more users.
After decades of development, the value-added services of enterprises have also increased, the most common is membership services.
After the user experiences various basic services, in order to make users have a better experience, enterprises will push some customized but charged special services to users.
For example, QQ Music members, iQiyi Video members, etc. are typical representatives of the membership charging model.
This approach relies on the competitiveness and attractiveness of the services provided by the business itself to generate revenue.
(3) Entrance profit method
The entrance profit method refers to a way for vertical social Internet enterprises to collect fees from the party receiving the service by providing a compliant link that can directly reach the outside world.
This method is also the same as the advertising monetization method, based on a large number of users and premised.
The benefits it brings are that on the one hand, it can not only meet the needs of the enterprise's own users and maximize the value of users, but also make up for the disadvantages of vertical social Internet enterprises in a single field.
Provide users with diversified services, so as to attract more users and improve user stickiness.
At present, many companies' products and services on the market will add additional service entrances from other companies.
For example, the combination of Taobao and Tmall Interoperability, Didi and Gaode and WeChat have attracted many merchant mini programs, and the combination of these different enterprises has brought potential profit sources.
(4) Business profit methods
In China, traffic from social network users has reached staggering levels.
According to the China Internet Information Center (CNNIC), as of June 2021, China's internet penetration rate was 71.6%, with more than 1 billion internet users, an increase of 1.2% over December 2020.
At the same time, 872 million Internet users paid in China, accounting for 86.3% of the total number of Internet users. There are 812 million online shopping users in China, accounting for 80.3% of the total number of online shopping users.
It can be seen that the user base of Chinese netizens is very large, and the proportion of consumers is high, and they have strong spending power.
How to turn these huge flows into cash flows is what every vertical social Internet company pursues.
Now many physical enterprises have launched their own online exploration road, and constantly launched many new forms such as online shopping malls, in order to seize the Internet economic traffic.