As the overseas social market turns from blue sea to red sea and incremental market gradually turns to stock market, is there any chance for social products to go overseas? How to get a deeper understanding of social products? This article is based on the speech delivered by Karen Ning, the principal of “Social Product Notes” in the online seminar “How social Products Detonate Overseas Target Market” hosted by Lianghu and Beleyun. She mainly shared the market analysis, opportunity analysis and product thinking of social products.

Current situation of social market in China

At present, the homogenization of social products is very serious. In terms of product functions and operation modes, the overseas market is no longer a blue sea, but a red sea as early as two years ago.

According to APP Annie’s latest “social list of Overseas Companies”, there are only a few companies making social products, including Mico in Akiko City, Hago and so on. In addition to these there are some relatively low-key, do well on three or four, the monthly flow in ten million level. Late-comers like YoYo, who moved from India to the Middle East, are doing very well and are almost at the head of the pack.Next up is the Dating APPs Download list.In terms of revenue, swiping left and swiping right, like Bumble and Tantan, is still the most mainstream. Tapple, Pairs and With are three of the best social software in Japan, which shows that Japan is a small country With high social demand. Penetrating the Japanese market is hard, but the potential is huge.Uplive, CuteU and Lamour are among the top three downloaded by APP Annie in China. In addition, Litmatch is now approaching 10 million days of life, called “Overseas Soul”, but I think it is more like the original Soul, and will definitely be updated in the future.

Go to sea social product opportunities

Back to the form of social products, we will find the same: 1V1 video, chat room, live show, left swipe right, soul matching/divination, marriage and love, in fact, marriage and love are relatively few. There aren’t many new product models, and it’s not easy to find one that’s phenomenal, at least not in the short term. Although it seems that the product is homogenized and the market is washed over and over again, I think there is always a chance in the social market, and there will not be a super-dominant company to monopolize the industry. There must be opportunities in social markets, both domestic and foreign. When we looked at the social market, we came up with these factors: boredom, loneliness, hormones. Each user needs different amounts of each of these factors, and some users may be lonely, bored, and hormonally weak. Users’ demand for social interaction is cyclical and matrix-like. Go back to the product, think about how to find the product, how to make the product. What we found is that ten years ago, when people were making products, they basically saw a product and immediately copied it, and quickly grabbed the market.

This model is called phenomenon-understanding-understanding, and it was reusable in the early days, but in today’s market environment it’s hard to be effective. I prefer the second model: phenomenon-understanding-refactoring.

Knowing its data, features, and channels is far from “understanding”. “Understanding” is mainly embodied in two aspects: one is the user model, understanding what the value of making the product is; The other is trading models, understanding how value is created and how value is distributed. When we make a product, first of all to ensure that the understanding of the user must be very thorough, user needs are not groundless. Boredom, loneliness and hormones are all part of the product’s needs, but the chemistry is different when they mix. So when we make products, we need to disassemble and restore the phenomenon. In fact, many social networking companies do not use research and line research departments. Companies that use research departments may draw conclusions based on simple telephone interviews, but the conclusions are only results, not conclusions. The conclusion needs to be verified in a subjective and objective way for a long time. It’s not the result that matters, it’s the conclusion. Don’t look at the results to do, also don’t be confused by the results and affect the decision of the product people.

UGC or PGC?

Let’s talk about some of the curves of the social industry as a whole.

There are two main directions for doing social networking: UGC and PGC.From Match to Matchmaking to Qzone (also an early social product) to YY, LiuJianfang, Bumble, Azar, Momo…… I see a phenomenon that UGC products will eventually rely on PGC. In UGC’s social products, female users are the core resources. Once their experience is not good, they will lose, which will lead to the loss of users of the whole platform. Therefore, many UGC products do not perform well in the future. For example, Momo introduced the PGC live broadcast function when the data was not good in 2016-2017. At present, the flow is mainly generated by live broadcast.UGC has a short life cycle, while PGC has a longer life cycle. Soul, Jome, and Yalla are all popular PGC products in recent years. Yalla’s user base is not very high, mainly supported by the rich in the Middle East. When Yalla went public in 2020, many voice room companies flocked to the Middle East, but the final survival rate was low. And this also shows that,The social industry is no longer a time for “refactoring,” it’s a time for “understanding.”When we make products, we need to understand more about the needs of market users and the market environment, and there are many considerations, rather than simply copying. I hope you can think more deeply when you make products. No matter what product, it must be in the market to meet the needs of users, from the user to find the direction of the product must be correct.

Understand the needs of social users and think about how to meet them. I hope you can make better products and go further overseas.