Wen | Wang Yuexia
Editor| Gu Yan Lin Zeling
In the rapid development of the Internet, the elderly have always been left behind.
The social convenience and payment convenience brought by the mobile Internet have allowed many people to enjoy the technological dividend, but this technological convenience rarely covers the elderly group. While we lament that a mobile phone is enough to solve the convenience of daily needs, the elderly are deeply troubled by not being able to catch this Internet express.
If this kind of trouble was "quiet" before, the new crown epidemic has just become the microphone and amplifier of this trouble. When "mobile phones show health codes" become a hard indicator for various places, the elderly who can't play smart phones are the "trapped people" on the road to digitization of basic affairs.
The base of the "trapped" is still expanding. According to the data of the seventh national census, there are 264 million people over the age of 60, an increase of 5.44% and an increase of 2.51 percentage points compared with the data of the sixth national census. Public data shows that there are 157 million elderly people who have not "touched the net".
Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released a strong signal to promote the aging of Internet applications - in January, it announced the launch of a one-year "Special Action for Ageing and Barrier-free Transformation of Internet Applications" nationwide; in April, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "General Design Specification for Mobile Internet Applications (Apps) suitable for Aging", which made specific technical requirements for App transformation such as font size, color use, gesture control, verification code operation, etc.; in October, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology spoke again and said that it would evaluate relevant Apps within the year.
Under the advocacy and supervision, the aging mode of major mainstream apps has been launched one after another. WeChat launched the "care model", Taobao, Alipay, AutoNavi online "elder mode", Douyin, Today's Headlines, Meituan, Baidu, Kuaishou have also designed a big-character model for silver-haired people.
The threshold of the Internet is being lowered for the elderly.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="153" > requires not only font enlargement, but also functional simplification</h1>
The first step in the Internet"," bending over the elderly, is to change the interface design of mainstream applications.
Font enlargement is the most basic functional transformation of major mainstream software in the adaptation to aging version. Open the age-appropriate mode of the major Apps, you can find that the fonts are magnified to varying degrees, just like enlarging the font size of the phone by 2-3 times in the general settings.
However, the app's age-appropriate mode is not only simply enlarged, but also more personalized revisions. The difficulty of enlarging fonts in the basic settings of mobile phones that cannot be adapted to some modules in the application software has been solved in the app's age-appropriate mode.
For example, WeChat's care mode has enhanced the color, the "receipt, payment, wallet" module has changed from light green to dark green, and the click response area of the button has also increased accordingly; Taobao and Jingdong not only enlarge the font of the key information of the multi-level entrance, but also the module fonts such as the introduction, parameters, and evaluation of the product detail page are simultaneously enlarged, and the text of the key functional area is bolded.
WeChat care mode (left), standard mode (right)
Taobao Elder Edition (left), JD Elder Edition (right)
Although the information covered by font amplification in the current age-appropriate mode is not complete, such as the labels such as "store, customer service, collection, and add shopping cart" in the product detail page of the e-commerce software, and the module font of the function number chat page such as transaction logistics and mutual assistance messages is not synchronously enlarged, the font of the WeChat Mini Program page is still the standard version size, but these problems can be continuously optimized and improved.
Applications are taking this step, and it's a good start for seniors. For the application software itself, after the standard mode and the youth mode, the addition of the elder mode has also added a layer of user universal color.
However, the needs of UI page revision are still relatively shallow, fonts, colors, button areas are enlarged, and a magnifying glass can also provide similar functions. Providing deeper needs for the elderly is the core concept of application software in the appropriate aging.
Silver-haired people use application software, not only need font enlargement, but also need to simplify the function.
Nowadays, the built-in functions of various apps are becoming more and more complex, and many functional software is no longer satisfied with their own mainstream functions, and has developed a variety of games such as entertainment, planting fruit trees, and raising pets, weakening the sense of existence of mainstream functions, which is obviously not friendly enough for the elderly whose cognitive ability is gradually declining.
More importantly, some of the advertising information in the App is uneven, and there is no shortage of false information to induce users to click on the operation, which also touches the most sensitive nerve of the elderly to use the Internet: being scammed. In fact, there are not a few cases of the elderly being defrauded by telecommunications, which also creates psychological resistance for many elderly people to use the Internet to pay.
In order for the elderly to develop the habit of using apps, especially functional apps, it is imperative to simplify functions. Some mainstream apps have made initial attempts in this age-appropriate transformation.
Among them, Taobao, JD.com, Meituan, and Baidu have made relatively large changes in functional design.
The basic logic of the revision is to eliminate the superfluous functional entrance for the elderly and strengthen the display attributes of mainstream functions. For example, there are only three pages at the bottom of the Meituan Elder Edition: "Home, Order, and My"; opening the home page is a list of merchants, and the vertical demand modules such as "takeaway, food, hotel/homestay..." in the standard version are eliminated; the content of the "My" page is also very concise, and only key functions such as "personal information, account and security, and payment settings" are retained.
Meituan Elder Edition (left) and Standard Edition (right)
Taobao and Jingdong's changes on the function pages are similar to those of Meituan. It is worth mentioning that Taobao has added a category recommendation column to the search box page, dividing several categories of recommendations such as "fresh food, grain food supplements, medicine and health care" that the elderly are interested in, and the bottom of the page also strengthens the voice function of "press and hold the speech to search" with orange bold font.
The elder version of Taobao (left), JD.com (right) "My" page
Baidu, which has a deep accumulation in the field of intelligent voice, has also designed some personalized functions for the elderly from the perspective of voice. On the treasure chest page in the Baidu big-character app, the elderly can use voice to search for content, and the "companion radio station" section is also set up at the first-level entrance, so that the elderly can listen to the news.
It is worth noting that Baidu's age-friendly model is an independent App created for the elderly alone, and Taobao, JD.com, Meituan, and Baidu are transformed on the basis of their own Apps. These are two different forms of application software aging transformation, and there is no advantage or disadvantage in content design, and there will be differences in software maintenance and user experience.
Simplifying the operation interface and developing and designing some functions to meet the needs of the elderly is a key step in breaking the high wall between the elderly and the Internet. This also represents the transformation of application software from focusing on page design to focusing on content, and behind the transformation is the deep mining awareness of the needs of the elderly by major manufacturers.
The real aging products should be the products of deep mining of the needs of the elderly. When the Internet starts from the needs of the elderly to design aging products, it can be called the progress of the Internet in the process of aging, and the gap between the elderly and the Internet will gradually become shallower.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="152" > vertical class of aging software, with large demand but difficult to realize</h1>
The low fit of the elderly's Internet demand is a dilemma reflected in the aging transformation of the Internet.
Looking at the application software in the mobile phone mall, the total number of apps focusing on meeting the needs of the elderly is very small, and some of them are affiliated apps for pension institutions or intelligent pension products, and there is no relatively mainstream App in the fields of social, video, content information and other segments, filling the information gap of the elderly in the Internet world.
This may reflect that the Internet is less in need of older people. In contrast, the elderly need the Internet even more.
According to the recent "Research on internet aging in the post-epidemic era" released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the proportion of elderly people who believe that "life is inseparable from the Internet" has increased from 57.5% in 2017 to 96% of the elderly in a sample survey of 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country.
It is precisely because of this that the ageing revision of major mainstream apps is particularly urgent and necessary.
The paradox is that for Internet companies, the elderly can create fewer economic benefits. The elderly's demand for the Internet is generally concentrated in free content, such as browsing news, social chat, and watching videos are still the three main activities of the elderly on the Internet, accounting for 91.6%, 82.5%, and 84.3% of the population, respectively.
Although the proportion of the elderly binding bank cards to make online payments is also rising, more concentrated on necessary matters such as bank transactions and living expenses, and transactions such as e-commerce shopping and payment for audio and video content are still not high. For vertical apps that focus on content provision, it seems like fertile ground, but it is actually dry land.
The elderly are not good at using the Internet, are wary of opening online payments, and have not yet developed Internet consumption habits, etc., these different factors actually point to a result: the silver economy is difficult to "realize" in the Internet field, and there are very few elderly people who are willing to spend money on the Internet. "Need" is less, and "supply" is naturally not much.
The silver economy is a very large market, but its current demand in the online field is relatively limited, which has become an unavoidable pain point for apps focusing on the needs of the elderly.
Jelly beans, beauty articles, and small rice cakes are in the bottleneck of "difficult to realize". They are all popular apps among elderly users, Jelly Bean is an online square dance App; Meiban was an early graphic creation tool, and later transformed into a middle-aged and elderly content community; Xiaoyi Cake mainly produces audio photo albums.
They have a large group of elderly users. Relevant data show that as of October 2019, the cumulative registered users of meiban exceeded 120 million, of which more than 65% were middle-aged and elderly users; in July 2019, the number of middle-aged and elderly users of small rice cakes reached 110 million, accounting for more than 80%; in 2020, the number of middle-aged and elderly users of jelly beans exceeded 200 million.
The total number of users with more than 100 million yuan has also opened the door to the capital market. All three seeded players have received multiple rounds of funding, rising from $10 million to $10 million.
With the help of capital, they continue to cultivate the elderly group, but they have not found an engine for product profitability. There are two main sources of profit: video course sales and advertising revenue. Jelly Bean will also sell some square dance costumes and utensils online, and has also explored e-commerce models to try to broaden the boundaries of profitability.
Because the elderly's awareness of payment is not strong, advertising is still their current mainstream profit channel, but it is difficult for advertising revenue to produce a snowball effect, and it is necessary to grasp the delivery scale, otherwise it will reduce the user experience. In addition, the advertising business will also be subject to the policies of the relevant departments due to its sensitive nature.
Breaking through the bottleneck of a single profit model and exploring pillar profitable business is the primary problem of vertical aging apps at present.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="150" > technology is suitable for aging hardware, and has not run out of an industry leader</h1>
The monetization problem of vertical aging Apps is that its online model is too heavy, the product content is too focused on life and entertainment, and the willingness of the elderly to pay is not strong.
Silver-haired people are not generally low-consumption desire groups, but they are more inclined to physical material level consumption, and spiritual consumption will eventually precipitate to the line.
In fact, the old people's money bags are not tightly covered, and they are also a group that is easy to fall into the consumption trap. Health care product sales are the hardest hit areas for the elderly to be deceived, and health care product sales organizations often use offline publicity mode to occupy the consumption mind of the elderly, which also confirms from the side that the elderly are more inclined to physical consumption.
In the "2021 China Science and Technology Aging Product Research Report" of Yiou Think Tank, aging products are divided into three dimensions: life entertainment, daily care and health management.
The Internet ageing products mentioned above are basically covered in the dimension of life and entertainment, and meet the social needs and spiritual life of the elderly. The aging products covered in the two dimensions of daily care and health management focus more on physical products, such as behavior monitoring equipment, smart nursing beds, intelligent electric wheelchairs, chronic disease management equipment, life management systems and rehabilitation equipment.
If life and entertainment solve the spiritual needs of the elderly, then daily care and health management mainly solves the basic needs of the elderly, and generally speaking, the latter is more necessary for the elderly.
Such a type of demand is often more complex, and puts forward higher requirements for the personalization and intelligence of product functions, so that emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things and cloud computing have more room for aging products.
At the same time, a detail that cannot be ignored is that the main consumer group of ageing equipment is often not the elderly themselves, but their children, who have a higher degree of favor for the scientific and technological sense and convenience of intelligent aging products than the elderly. This also means that compared with the aging needs of Internet software, the market demand for technology aging products is broader and the realization rate is higher.
Yiou think tank predicts that the market size of China's science and technology aging products will be about 374.3 billion yuan in 2021, and the market size is expected to reach 991.4 billion yuan by 2030, with a compound growth rate of 12%.
There will be no shortage of entrants in the vast blue ocean. What is the current pattern of China's science and technology aging industry?
Yiou Think Tank believes that from the perspective of the industrial chain, the industrial chain of scientific and technological aging in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and other places has been formed, and there are many participants in each link of the industrial chain such as technology layer, basic layer, application layer, channel and scene. A number of listed companies have laid out the smart pension industry, and the top investment institutions represented by Changling Capital and Gaoling Venture Capital have invested tens of millions of yuan in the primary market.
The aging of science and technology is no longer limited to a single product, and has formed a supporting platform for related products and a pension service system.
However, at present, China's science and technology aging product market is still in the early stage of development, the market is relatively scattered, and the industrial concentration needs to be improved. Specifically, there are problems such as mixed merchants, high brand dispersion, low product integration, inaccurate brand positioning, and too much segmentation of the entry point of cut product demand.
For example, a technology company only focuses on the production of smart pill boxes for the elderly to take medicine, which has intelligent functions such as reminding them to take medicines, reducing resistance, and supervising relatives and friends. The problem is also that such a segmented demand product can only be linked with other functional products to make its function greater, and only a few scattered intelligent equipment cannot provide a relatively complete service system for the elderly.
This has also led to a multi-party competition pattern in the 100-billion-level market, and has not yet run out of an industry leader.
Xia Xiuqi, an analyst at Yiou Think Tank, believes that the core reason is that at present, no company really runs through its own business model, and it is difficult to penetrate and break through one by one in the face of complex elderly demand products, so some head companies have not independently set up a business unit to simply focus on the needs of the elderly for research and development.
"Another important factor is that the ecology of science and technology aging is too large, the products are complex and subdivided, there is currently no systematic research and development of product companies, and the product technology produced by each enterprise is different, it is difficult to be compatible, and it is difficult for all kinds of products to form a linkage." Huang Zhuoning, an analyst at Yiou Think Tank, said.
If you want to build a systematic system of technological aging products, you need to overcome technical barriers, break the high wall between different technologies, and realize the common sharing of technology. This poses a lot of challenges for companies, but once the path is opened, the prospects are also very imaginative.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="151" > written at the end</h1>
From enlarging App fonts, launching applications for the elderly, to tailoring products for the needs of the elderly, whether it is Internet software for the elderly or technology products for the elderly, the core concept of its carrier is the same: that is, how to make the elderly also become the beneficiaries of technology.
Technology that brings unlimited convenience to the lives of young people should not be a "stumbling block" to the normal life of the elderly.
While welcoming the rapid change of technology, we must also give it responsibility, goodwill and temperature, and the silver-haired people should not be part of the group that looks at the Wall from the Internet and emerging technologies.