Zhang Xiaolong comprehensively expounded the applet for the first time, and it is scheduled to go online on June 9, 65438+/kloc-0 (with the full text of the speech).

Good morning, friends! I'm Zhang Xiaolong.

Thank you very much for coming to Guangzhou early in the morning to participate in the WeChat open class. Last year, the open class was my first appearance. About this time last year, I announced that our small program was going online and was ready to invest in a new service form other than the official WeChat account.

This year, my colleague asked me if I would like to continue to take an open class this year and introduce some new developments of the applet mentioned last year. I actually thought about it for a long time. Finally, as a response to last year, I felt very excited. Maybe many friends know the history of WeChat. For our products, we rarely disclose a function or a product form to the outside world in advance. We usually do it first. Last year's small program, that is, the small program now, is a special one here, which we disclosed in advance.

1, a photo, reviewing the development of the applet in one year.

These days, when I was preparing the content of this speech, I also specially flipped through the photo album and found a particularly precious photo. This photo was taken about a year ago. A few colleagues and I were discussing a small program called the application number in a conference room.

There are a few words written on the photo, "application number, 20 16 1.9", and a few words written at the bottom, "launch date". Today is only a few days away from the launch date then. The person in this photo may feel strange, but I am familiar and kind. Special thanks to these people in the photo and the team behind them. Since we set the launch date, we made a report on what we must do for the first time, and then we will report the results of our efforts one year later. We were discussing the relationship between subscription number and service number. In fact, we have thought about it for a long time. Wechat should have a new form. It should not only stay in the subscription number or official account of Wechat. It should not only provide a subscription ability and a push ability, but should provide more new capabilities, more like the ability of an application. That night, I remember a young developer holding some interface demonstrations he developed and saying that we had some basic interfaces to do in development. In fact, this is a good inspiration. Since you can make such an interface, you can also make some complex interfaces, and realize the basic elements needed by the application through more complex interfaces. Following this line of thinking, we will no longer be entangled in how to expand the official WeChat account. To turn it into a more powerful official WeChat account, you can jump out of WeChat official account and make a new application form. This is the small program I will introduce to you later.

2. Look at the product concept of WeChat from the applet.

Explain it again, and then you can go.

Before the applet, I want to use this time last year to explain it, which was also in an open class. I put forward an idea at that time. Later, I found that many people said they didn't understand it after reading it, so I will spend a few minutes here to explain it again.

At that time, I said that a good software and a good tool should be used by users. Later, I found that many friends, including some people in the industry, would laugh at us, saying that WeChat has enough users and users are very sticky. You can say that, but for other products, everyone will think that how to stick users and how to keep users from leaving is their goal. I think there may be a big misunderstanding or misunderstanding when I leave after using it.

In my opinion, there is a very simple logic to infer such a result. I think any tool is to help users improve its efficiency and complete its tasks in the most efficient way. This is the purpose of the tool and the mission of the tool. Wechat is also a tool, so the purpose of Wechat is to help users complete its tasks in the most efficient way. What is the most effective method? It is to complete the task in the shortest time, that is, once the user has completed its task, he should do something else instead of staying in the product, which means running after using it.

Is WeChat a tool or a platform?

In a training we did for the company, a colleague asked me what the strategy of WeChat was. I only said one sentence. I said that WeChat is just a tool, and we should think about how to do this tool well. In the eyes of colleagues, WeChat is not only a tool, but also a platform. But I think WeChat is a tool, which is a very ambitious goal. I don't think tools are very low-level things. In fact, the process of human evolution from primitive man to intelligent man is because people can make tools. Most of the products we use are tools in essence, but there are good and bad tools. It is actually very difficult to make a very good tool, but if we want to make a platform, I don't know what we will do.

A good tool should have a strong attribute, which is to improve efficiency and leave as soon as it is used.

Is it restraint or self-suppression to make products?

This concept actually runs through every point of our products. Let me give you an example. We had an internal meeting not long ago. Tony, one of the founders of Tencent, said that in fact, the WeChat team maintained a very restrained attitude to do things. Many people also think that we are restrained in WeChat products, but I was a little surprised to hear such comments at that time, because the word restraint never appeared in my mind. If we ask ourselves to exercise restraint when doing something, what kind of behavior is it? That's an act of self-repression, but I don't think making such a decision should suppress myself or cut off many things I want to do. That's not a good state.

Reason is the most important factor.

On the contrary, when we make many decisions, we should judge what is the most reasonable. Rationality is the most important factor to consider. We will abandon many things that we wanted to do, but later found that we couldn't do well. This kind of abandonment is not because we are constrained, so we do less, but because we find that many things are not done well, or many decisions are wrong at the beginning, or many ideas are finally.

There are many similar points in WeChat, and we follow the concept of basic product experience to help us make decisions. As I said in the last open class, the public platform doesn't even have an entrance to recommend the content you should subscribe to. There are countless such places in our products. A small number of users may feel unable to meet their needs, but no product can meet everyone's needs. We have to make many choices, and we hope to make such choices more according to our own product concept.

3. Fully explain the applet for the first time

I just spent a few minutes reviewing the concept of a product that can be used up and left. Now let's cut into our topic. In fact, I came here today to share my understanding and thinking about small programs with you.

When you just looked at the photo, it was actually the state of the team on the day when the applet was launched. At that time, we didn't have a good name for the applet, nor did we regard the applet as a very complete definition. We just think that we should develop in this direction and provide a new form of service. It was a little different that I was willing to publish at that time, because I hoped that after we published it, we would give the team a greater sense of pressure. Because of us,

In the past year, we have had many collisions and reflections. In this process, the applet slowly found its own position and found its own form. However, because we only did the internal test of the applet before, we never explained to the outside world what the applet is and how to use it, so today I want to take this opportunity to fully explain how we view the applet.

I am particularly excited to tell the story of a small program at this time, because people who know my experience better may know that I actually spent many years writing programs. I consider myself a programmer, so I always think that time as a programmer is particularly precious, because when you make a program, you can enter a different world, and you use a programming language to construct a completely virtualized product in the virtual world. I believe many programmers will have a dream. Besides writing a program ourselves, it is an interesting question whether we can write a program that can run the program. Generally speaking, programs that can run programs usually refer to operating systems. I don't think we have the ability to make an operating system, but we will have the opportunity to make a program that can run programs to some extent, which will make a programmer very proud and excited. I am in a bad mood today.

Before I talk about applets, I want to review the development of PC. Experienced the earliest PC era to the Internet era, and now to the mobile Internet. I first used PCs like 80 and 86. I couldn't connect to the internet at that time, but the application at that time needed you to install it on floppy disks and CDs. It can only run by itself without any interaction with the outside world. Because there was no network, the application at that time was called a stand-alone program, just like a stand-alone game.

With the internet, we have entered the scope of an internet. On the Internet, we find that the definition of application has changed, but it is still the same as that of the stand-alone era in essence. It is presented in the form of programs and code carriers, except that each program has the ability to access the network, but I think there is a particularly great invention of the Internet, that is, the emergence of the www.web protocol. As a result, a large number of websites have appeared on the Internet, which can be accessed by anyone on the Internet. At that time, there was a situation where we could write a web-based application and provide services through the website. Everyone is very familiar with this history of the PC Internet era, because almost the tool we use most is the browser, and most of the services we visit actually come from the services provided by various websites in the browser.

4. The next stop of the mobile Internet: within reach.

A few years ago, we began to enter the mobile internet, and the use of computers and scenes have changed. In the era of PC Internet, many people, especially the previous generation, can't use computers because of the input method. However, in the era of mobile Internet, the number of users of the whole Internet has been greatly improved through mobile phones. I think smart phone is a very powerful and great innovation, because its function is actually stronger than that of PC at that time, but it can be used by everyone, so that everyone can surf the Internet through mobile phones. At this time, people's access to network services is actually more from a PC-side application to a web page form. Beer box wine box

Here I want to look forward to what will happen after the mobile Internet. That is, what kind of equipment will you use to use the network again, or in what way will you access the network service? I think this may be hard to imagine. Personally, I think that some scenes will come to my mind, that is, after smart phones, devices similar to glasses may become mainstream. When glasses become very smart, the whole PC or computer system may be hidden in a pair of glasses, and its screen may be bigger than our current mobile phone, even bigger than PC. Maybe ten years later. Ten years later, this technology may be able to put a very, very large screen into the retina. We can see a very large and complete screen through glasses, and we wear such glasses everywhere every day. Let's think about what kind of system such glasses are. When I think of the scene ten years later, I will think that the application of the system behind the glasses at that time should be different from the present. What do I expect from it? What I hope more is that I don't need to install some applications in my glasses, because that is unnatural and inconvenient. I hope that where my glasses can see, the related applications can go. For example, if I see a light in the room, I want to turn it off or on. When I see this lamp through such smart glasses, I hope there will be a virtual switch above the lamp. I can even control such a switch with my glasses. What's that switch? It is actually an application that appears on real objects. When I saw this lamp, its switch application automatically appeared. Similarly, you can imagine many, many scenes. When you walk to the park gate, there may be an application form for park tickets at the park gate. In other words, when you see something that can be seen by any eye, the information behind objects and applications will automatically appear. You can control the startup and running of such an application through glasses or other means.

In such a process, you will find that we imagine that in such a virtual future smart glasses, you will find that the application is already a completely different form, which is different from the application form in the current mobile phone. It is a real form of what you see is what you get. What I'm talking about is different from what we saw in the drawing or UI in the PC era, but everything we saw contains its information, including correct information.

This is my hope for the future application form. I think all applications should be ubiquitous, but they can be accessed at any time, so when the applet is in internal testing, I wrote a paragraph. What is an applet? Applets are applications that can be used without downloading and installing. It realized the dream within reach. Users can open the application by scanning or searching, and it also realizes the concept of leaving after use. Users don't need to install too many applications. Applications are available everywhere, but they don't need to be installed or uninstalled.

I just mentioned a scene ten years later, which actually reflects a difference between the era of smart glasses and the era of mobile phones. Of course, I'm not sure whether the future will be the era of smart glasses. I'm just a product I imagined temporarily, but this difference will bring different application forms, just like smart phones actually bring great morphological differences compared with PC era. This form is not only reflected in the fact that the mobile phone is a more centralized and mobile computer. There is such a difference in form, but in essence, as I wrote many years ago, mobile phones are an extension of human limbs, while PCs are not, and PCs are fixed. Just like I only have two hands, the mobile phone is my third hand, or an extension of my hand, because it can help me reach the bigger world. PC can also help us enter a larger virtual world, but the mobile phone follows your hand, so it becomes your outstretched hand. The difference between it and PC is that we can feel what we can touch around our hands, which is why the application forms in mobile phones are much richer than those in PCs, just like you can shake it in WeChat, but you can't shake it in the PC era. In the era of mobile phones, we can perceive the surroundings by scanning the QR code. In the PC era, you can't scan a QR code with a PC. This is the real meaning, that is, the real meaning that mobile phones are different from PCs.

I think there will be this difference in the future era of smart glasses. Glasses will let us really get what you see, and what you see can get what's behind. This is a more advanced way than we touch something with our hands to get the information behind it now.

5. Features of the applet: no need to install, easy to reach, leave after use, no need to uninstall.

From this definition, we can see what an applet is:

First, applets do not need to be installed. I think this is a huge breakthrough for existing applications. Anyone who has used windows knows that it has one of the most commonly used applications, such as program management. Everyone should spend a lot of energy in it to see which programs take up much space, which programs should be uninstalled, which programs may have problems, and so on. In smart phones, people's management of this has become lighter and easier, so many people who are not familiar with computers can use mobile phones, but there is still a process. All applications need to be downloaded and installed before they can be used. This is a very complicated process. The first feature of the applet is that it can be used directly without downloading, so it is the most basic feature of the applet.

Second, there is a word in this definition called within reach. This word reminds me of a book I read a long time ago. Bill Gates of Microsoft wrote a book called Information at Your fingertips. In fact, I admire Bill Gates for writing such a book when the Internet just appeared. At that time, he thought that the Internet would bring a great change to everyone, that is, information was readily available. Every time I think of his book, I am actually very proud, because many years later, we realized that information is readily available in another way. By within reach, I mean that when we touch the surrounding environment with our smart phones, we can get information directly through our mobile phones, that is, the information around us. The way we get it may not be as smart as the future glasses age, but we can interact with the surrounding environment through some basic sensors around the mobile phone, such as its scanning ability.

So "within reach" here means that we see a lamp and we want to control it. Maybe we just need to scan it with our smartphone, and then the application to control the lights will start. In my mobile phone, I can use it directly. In a scene like a museum, users can get the information behind the current object at their fingertips by scanning the QR code in front of some different contents.

The third point is to leave after using it. I began to spend a lot of time explaining what it meant to leave after using it. For the tasks to be completed around you, you need to leave after use. For example, when we go to a restaurant, we may want to queue up or order food. We don't need to download the application of this restaurant. We just need to scan its QR code in the restaurant and start the small program of this restaurant. We can queue up or order food in the applet immediately. When I finish these things, I don't have to uninstall this application after dinner. We just pretend that it doesn't exist, which is a state of real escape.

The fourth point of the applet is that it does not need to be uninstalled. You have visited its service, and you don't need a program manager to manage it here. We don't need the uninstall process.

What I hope you can see from these four points is that the applet looks like a program, but it appears in a completely different form from the past app, and it has a more flexible application organization.

Now everyone can understand a concept, and you may know that applets are a more flexible and accessible form than all our existing apps.

6. Why do we need applets?

You may wonder why we need such things as applets. When we do small programs, in fact, our purpose is not to change the existing mode of the application from the perspective of developers. On the contrary, we must meet a specific demand, which should be real, not that we just want to change the way the app exists.

What is this demand? We just reviewed the changes of PC in recent years. In the era of personal PC without internet, it is actually very difficult for enterprises to provide services through PCs without internet. At that time, I remember that an enterprise made a program in a PC, which was the earliest form of software, but such software was rare, because most enterprises could not provide their own services in the form of software in the PC era. This situation didn't change until the Internet appeared. The emergence of the Internet enables all enterprises to set up their own websites and put their services online through the websites, so that anyone who can access the Internet can access them. Therefore, in the era of PC Internet, it is not more applications that change the world, but more websites appear. In this context, many great Internet companies have been born.

Soon, with the advent of the mobile Internet era, companies that used to provide services through websites began to choose to provide services through mobile apps. Indeed, most enterprises have made such an attempt. Everyone made a mobile phone application, and then recommended users to download their applications. However, the status quo is not what these companies imagined. In the era of mobile phones, users have gained a more convenient way of using and a more lazy way of using. More and more users are only willing to use a few apps every day instead of downloading or using many, many apps. This is very different from the PC Internet era. In the PC era, it is very fast to visit a web page after you turn on your computer. You can jump from one webpage to another. Everyone spends more and more time on the browser in front of the PC every day, but in the era of smart phones, including everyone present, the frequency of opening the browser will actually be lower and lower. Maybe one day you will visit 20 websites. Now you don't open 20 apps in your mobile phone every day, or download the apps of a company in order to access its services. People don't do that. In the era of mobile Internet, many enterprises will find that in the era of smart phones, it is not as convenient as in the PC era to solve all problems and put all services online through one website, which is why when the official WeChat account comes out, many enterprises find that the official WeChat account may be a better way to provide services to users through smart phones.

Therefore, the emergence of official WeChat accounts is particularly gratifying, because even in the era of PC Internet, these restaurants can't put their services online for others to visit. But at the same time, we must also see the defects of the official WeChat account. The official account of WeChat is based on the relationship between subscription and push. For a restaurant, it focuses more on how to collect more customer lists, and its driving force lies in how to push messages to people who come to the restaurant every day and send some promotional information. The official account of WeChat has become the role of customer relationship management or message push here. This role is very different from the role of providing services through a website in the PC era. A website can't push messages to users, so it won't harass users, but people who want to get services can access it easily. It can be seen from here that in the era of mobile internet, for most enterprises, there is a lack of an effective carrier, which is even less convenient than the era of PC internet.

7. Positioning of applet: Experience is better than website, and it is more convenient than downloading app.

We think that such a carrier is a place with strong demand and blank market, so we always want to know where it exists when we conceive small programs. If so many companies want to make their services online, if they find themselves constantly trying different paths, making apps, websites and official WeChat accounts, but none of them have done it thoroughly, it means they have an opportunity. I remember the last time I went to Shenzhen airport, I paid attention to the billboards on both sides of Shenzhen airport and found a very interesting phenomenon. I wonder if anyone here has noticed that every billboard in Shenzhen Airport has a QR code. Most, 80% of billboards, this QR code is the QR code of WeChat official account. This is very interesting, because we look back at the PC Internet era, when billboards were usually printed on their own websites. I was very happy to see it at Shenzhen airport last time, because the QR code of WeChat official account became the standard of billboards, replacing the previous website. But what makes me a little unhappy is that when I see this advertisement and want to know about its service, I need to subscribe to this official WeChat account, become its "subscriber" and receive its push messages. In the past, billboards were posted on their own websites, allowing users to go to their own websites to see what services they had. This is very different.

I don't think billboards should be labeled with subscription numbers. It should be marked with a link to display the service immediately. The link of this display service should be similar to a small program, because the person who sees this advertisement does not mean that I want to subscribe to your official WeChat account and receive your push, but that I want to experience your service, or that I want to know the information behind this advertisement immediately. I think such a mission should be realized by small programs. Behind every message, including billboards, I should scan it and get its information immediately, or start a small program immediately, just like we visited a website before, except that we changed the way of inputting the URL to scanning the QR code.

From the user's point of view, this way is what users need. I especially want to explain that the applet is very close to the service of a website of PC Internet in the past PC Internet era. The service of the website is actually very different from the subscription form of the official WeChat account. This is a real direct service. Let's think about it. If we think of applets as a website in the PC era, I believe it will help us better understand what applets are.

20 12 On May 23rd, I posted a message in my circle of friends that the entrance of PC Internet was in the search bar, and the entrance of mobile Internet was in the QR code. At that time, the official WeChat account had not been released yet, and we were just conceiving something similar to the official WeChat account, which actually reflected the huge difference between the PC era and the smartphone era. In the PC era, we get services through websites. Indeed, we had to find this website first, so the search box was particularly important at that time. However, in the era of smart phones, if we want to obtain services, it is more offline-related and offline-related services. In fact, according to the current implementation of mobile phone technology, scanning QR code may be the easiest way to get in touch with the surrounding areas and get services. Therefore, the importance of QR code in WeChat has always been high. From adding friends to subscribing to the official WeChat account, it is a basic entrance in WeChat. Sweeping is also a very, very basic function in WeChat. Sweeping has even become the basic way for WeChat to reach the surrounding area.

Just now, we reviewed the era from PC to Internet to smart phone, and the way enterprises provide services. We see that applets correspond to the website services of the Internet in the past, but we hope that they will not be as primitive as the websites in the past in smart phones, and that they will appear with a better experience, so we define such a thing as applets. In essence, we want users to get services faster in smart phones, but his experience is much better than that of websites, and his trouble is much better than downloading an APP. It is not as troublesome as downloading an APP. This is the positioning of the applet.

That's all for my speech today. Thank you very much, thank you!