Why should wechat be an input method？
The original Long Zhiteng alphabet list is included in the topic # Wechat 8# Zhang Xiaolong 5# Wechat Input Method 2# sogou Input Method 2.
Most of the five experimental projects mentioned in Zhang Xiaolong’s public lecture have been presented in the update of WeChat version 8.0, such as moving expressions, states that can be added in real time, songs that can be shared visually, and simpler floating window display. The only thing missing is the WeChat input method that Zhang Xiaolong still thinks is "worth investing".
The WeChat input method, which is still in the research and development stage, has met with the eyes of peers: Zhang Xiaolong just pointed out that the existing input method products in the market have the disadvantages of monitoring users’ chat records, and sogou input method, which was acquired by Tencent, pointedly pointed out that it was "not optimistic" about the future of WeChat input method.
The solidified market structure has given sogou’s input method the courage to be so hard. According to a report of Mob Research Institute, at present, CR3 is over 90% in the field of input method segmentation, and sogou is far ahead with a share of 53.9%.
Besides the narrow potential market space, the commercialization of input method is not smooth. Li You (a pseudonym), an input method product manager who has been in the business for many years, told the alphabet list that at present, the commercial realization paths of various companies have chosen the To B business model for deep customization development of vehicles and hardware equipment.
"The main reason is that the user input method panel is so big, and the way to realize the To C advertising business is limited. Keyword triggering, association, voice eggs and other methods are too harmful to the user experience and the path is narrow, which leads to the long-term development of input method advertisements. " Li You further explained.
Commercialization has also become a common problem in the input method related reports of third-party research institutions like Mob Research Institute.
However, the national application status of WeChat has brought new possible solutions to the above two major problems.
Of all the input method usage scenarios, the one with the longest usage time and the highest frequency is chatting and socializing. As a giant in the social track, WeChat, with a daily user scale of 1.09 billion, is enough to expand the imagination of the input method. Furthermore, for WeChat, which emphasizes not disturbing users, the input method may also undertake the task of data entry in the future.
This is what Zhang Xiaolong talked about in the open class, besides protecting users’ privacy, the deeper consideration of WeChat’s personal input method is to optimize the chat experience through the input method, improve the efficiency of WeChat search, and increase the development and operation of public domain traffic within WeChat.
Taking sogou input method as an example, the lexicon of input method and keywords of search engine have been in constant relationship since its birth.
In 2005, Ma Zhankai, the "father of input method in sogou", redefined the input method by transferring the thesaurus of search engine to the thesaurus of input method.
In 2019, in an interview with Sina Technology, Wang Xiaochuan, Sogou CEO, further suggested that "the input method can give search a lot by recommending". Baidu is also doing the same thing. Li You revealed to the alphabet list: "Protecting the market share of Baidu search and seizing the upstream traffic of search is also an important reason for the current existence of Baidu input method."
According to the official introduction of WeChat, at present, there are more than 500 million monthly users of WeChat search, and there are two first-level portals including the homepage search box and the discovery page search, as well as multiple secondary portals in the chat page and the circle of friends page. In this year’s open class, WeChat Search was placed in a position alongside applets, WeChat payments and video numbers.
Based on the important position of search function, developing online input method has become a natural action of WeChat.
In the open class on January 19th, Zhang Xiaolong mentioned the original intention of WeChat as an input method: user privacy is part of the user experience, and WeChat makes its own input method. "At least in terms of security, we can do it well enough".
Zhang Xiaolong said that WeChat will not keep chat content. Wechat may be the most privacy-conscious product on the Internet in China, but it also brings a problem, that is, a large amount of data generated by nearly 1.1 billion users cannot be left in the WeChat system for further analysis and processing. If this part of the data can be retained, it may help WeChat to form another product barrier besides socialization.
At present, there is no other product that can shake the position of WeChat in the social field. However, high-viscosity products such as Tik Tok are complementing the communication between people based on content through efficient content dissemination. Under the challenge of the above-mentioned products to continuously strengthen the chat function, WeChat’s social relationship chain based on acquaintances faces the risk of being gradually eroded. Socialization can produce content (WeChat public platform). Who says that content must not produce socialization?
zhang xiaolong
Input method is one of the efficient portals and functions to help analyze user behavior. If WeChat introduces the input method, the accumulated personal database will not only optimize the chat experience, but also, more importantly, have a deeper understanding of what users want to talk about. The optimization and perfection of these data will become the second line of defense for WeChat to defend against the attacks of Tik Tok and other products on the basic disk of instant messaging.
In addition to defense, WeChat input method can also be put into attack.
On the way to optimize the chat experience, the expression pack of the vanguard troops played a key role. According to Zhang Xiaolong, "Expression is a basic element of expression."
In the update of WeChat 8.0, the emoticon effect is the most touching user experience. However, this kind of moving expression interaction has already been launched in some input method products, such as AR expressions. The reason why it has not attracted the public’s attention is that there is no national product like WeChat, which acts as a carrier for the use of this function. For input method companies, this function can only be used to show off their skills.
Bringing users’ attention to input methods through expressions and constantly improving the experience optimization of input methods in subtle functions will become a tipping point for WeChat input method to break the existing input method market structure.
After all, no one knows their users better than WeChat, and no user will refuse a better chat experience.
According to the survey report of Analysys "China Third Party Input Method Market Special Analysis 2019", in addition to AR expression, many important functions of input method in application layer and technical layer, such as text and picture scanning, real-time translation, voice recognition, image search, etc., have been realized in WeChat.
Integrating existing functions and quickly launching a self-owned input method product, there is no technical threshold for WeChat, and integrating a unified and independent input method will be more in line with the WeChat product values that emphasize "simplicity".
If "people’s life will become more and more online in the future" as predicted by Zhang Xiaolong, it is obviously unable to meet the needs of convenient and fast communication between people just as the expression of the original basis in communication.
Through AI technology, the input method becomes more and more intelligent, and then understanding the user’s expression habits becomes an important link to improve the user’s online communication experience using WeChat.
According to the report of Mob Research Institute, the functions developed based on AI have obvious advantages in the proportion of users’ important excitement and expectation functions of input method.
Li You also holds the same view that "AI input method is an increasingly obvious trend."
If the WeChat input method can be combined with the personal status of WeChat version 8.0 to carry out more detailed optimization logic, it is not difficult to realize intelligent dialogue in some States.
The intelligent dialogue that empowers AI is fundamentally different from the automatic reply in the QQ era. The landing form of more targeted intelligent reply will be more similar to the intelligent customer service of platform products.
The above ideas may be realized in the next version of WeChat. Because in the field of third-party input methods, "there are many functions including intelligent reply, intelligent writing and AI assistant, and now Baidu input method and sogou input method are already available." Li You told the alphabet list.
Analysts from Mob Research Institute mentioned that vertically customized third-party input methods for different professional identities can not only optimize product functions, but also bring better user experience, which is also an opportunity for latecomers in this field to expand the market.
After the machine learning ability is continuously improved by WeChat input method, it will gradually become a reality to let users present the information they need while typing according to the intelligent analysis of chat scenarios.
At the same time, the WeChat input method will also play the role of adapting and interconnecting different scenes, helping WeChat to further develop commercialization and attract businesses to settle in.
This is also a commercial path that is being verified. When Wang Xiaochuan was interviewed by CBN in 2018, he talked about the future imagination of sogou’s input method. He once mentioned that "Next, sogou’s input method needs to connect information, connect services and connect goods." He gave an example. When the user talks about "where to eat at noon" through the input method, the input method will directly help the user list the candidate catering services.
In the past two years, WeChat has continuously increased its search business, and plans to launch the action of input method, so that the outside world can see the urgency of WeChat accelerating the internal ecology and completing the conversion of public domain traffic.
According to the cmnet Autumn Report of QuestMobile2020, the product form of "short video+live broadcast" in headline department and Aauto Quicker department has obvious effect of seizing users’ time, while Tencent department has declined.
With the improvement of information processing efficiency brought by content distribution, the headline system is eroding the market share of Tencent users’ usage time. For this reason, WeChat has successively launched functions such as take a look, hot square, video number, live broadcast, etc. to counter the headline products, and even blocked Tik Tok’s sharing links to stop the headline attacks.
Wechat is obsessed with the search function in the PC era in the era of mobile internet. On the one hand, it conforms to the decentralized product form of Wechat, on the other hand, it can be seen that Wechat hopes to establish a traffic distribution system suitable for itself.
Zhang Xiaolong said that "connection" and "simplicity" are the two words that best represent WeChat.
"The connection is beautiful. Because the operation of the world depends on the connection of everything. For products, making connections means doing the underlying facilities of services, because the results that can be evolved based on connections are the most abundant. "
For Zhang Xiaolong, who has always emphasized "small but beautiful", optimizing search efficiency and helping users find the information they need in the first time is a kind of "small but beautiful" with decentralized connection, and it is also a practice of his product concept of "use up and leave".
As a text expression portal, the input method allows WeChat to connect the search association with the content in WeChat by analyzing the frequency of keywords appearing among users.
In an interview with the new list, the WeChat team revealed, "Based on the big data analysis of WeChat, the WeChat index can help you see the popularity of keywords in WeChat. The popularity is limited to the comprehensive analysis of WeChat search, WeChat official account articles and articles publicly forwarded by friends."
However, on the one hand, the content production of long pictures and texts lags behind the user’s demand for fresh information, on the other hand, it relies too much on the data connection between acquaintances, which is not conducive to the efficient dissemination of information. This is also an important reason why WeChat can’t become a public opinion square like Weibo.
This situation can be improved by using the input method function to complete the data accumulation triggered by keywords. The keywords updated in real time can help the WeChat official to operate and recommend on the topic, so that the public domain traffic in WeChat can be deeply developed, and help the WeChat content such as video number, live broadcast and graphic to enhance the ecological optimization experience.
This kind of "hot search reservation" can also make WeChat run ahead of users’ needs in information dissemination. In the 8.0 version of WeChat, the function of inserting topics was introduced in the personal status settings.
According to the incomplete statistics of the alphabetical list, at present, the topic entries in WeChat products include "# topic" in personal status, "# topic" search in chat dialog box, # topic addition in WeChat WeChat official account, live broadcast and video number, "# topic" addition when posting and commenting on friends circle, and topics of taking a look at the top and WeChat index, etc.
These product designs can also be understood as an attitude that WeChat officials encourage users to participate in topic discussions. The real-time keyword update of input method may be a powerful complement to this function.
As for the content production and dissemination, Zhang Xiaolong understood the future trend as the form of live broadcast.
It remains to be seen whether the future of WeChat can be as envisioned by Zhang Xiaolong, but live broadcast will definitely bring more content risks. In order to reduce the content risk and audit cost, it may be another consideration behind the introduction of WeChat input method to put the audit link on the intelligent supervision of keywords of input method and speech recognition.
References:
"WeChat team Q&A: How did the WeChat index come from? What if someone brushes the data? "-new list
Wechat Search 2020-Wechat Search Assistant
"Wechat Search Appears in the 2021 WeChat Open Class PRO, please keep the highlights"-Wechat Search Assistant
Zhang Xiaolong: Ten Years’ Product Thinking of WeChat —— WeChat Open Class
"sogou Wang Xiaochuan: I hope to win 2%-3% of Baidu’s search share every year, but also use AI to change these two things"-CBN
"China Third-Party Input Method Market Special Analysis 2019"-Analysys
Insight into the third-party input method industry in China in 2020 ——Mob Research Institute
Original title: "Why should WeChat be an input method? 》