in is currently the largest picture social APP in China. It was officially launched in June 2014. In two years, it has more than 70 million users, of which 90% are women. Users upload more than 7 million pictures every day. pictures, and viewed 160 million pictures. From version 1.0 to 2.8.5, it has gone through multiple iterations such as tags-stickers-topics-chat-social, etc. It has also experienced the trial and elimination of some functions, and has precipitated a relatively mature picture community.

in can be summarized as a picture + label + sticker + social APP

Target users: young women born in the 1990s

User characteristics: Posting pictures must be beautified and willing Show off your life and yourself, like to take photos, be passionate about food, look forward to traveling, be keen on gossiping about celebrities, love to play, and be interested in new things...

User needs: beautify pictures, have a suitable platform to post and view pictures Recreation and making friends through hobbies

Market advantage

The product is launched early and wins in the blue ocean. In April 2012, Instagram, the largest foreign photo social application, was acquired by Facebook for US$1 billion. Subsequently, its valuation continued to rise. The success of Instagram also inspired business opportunities for in founders Kuroba and Shimizu. At that time, domestic picture social APPs were still in a relatively blue ocean period. No product of any company could dominate the market, and the potential for users to be tapped was still very large. As one of the earlier domestic picture social APPs, Inlaid Seize the opportunity firmly and seize the market opportunity.

Accurate positioning and targeting female user groups. The main user group of in is young women born in the 1990s. Compared with Nice, which positions users as trendy people, women born in the 1990s are a more clear group. These people have certain spending power, have a strong need for pictures, and love to share photos, etc. Characteristics make them the most important users of in.

Product advantages

Diverse ways to play. The main forms of UGC include ordinary pictures, short in-films, and picture stories. However, each UGC form has a wide variety of stickers, filters, cropping and other beautification solutions, giving users more diversified choices to satisfy their needs. Users are constantly refreshed.

Card-style interaction, high product recognition. The pictures in the friends module use large picture card-style interaction, which is quite different from common picture apps. By asking some friends around me, I learned that the card-style browsing method that left the deepest impression on them was that this can bring Give users the feeling of flipping through a magazine.

Label branding. in places the brand label above the location and text, which can also stimulate users' desire to put brand labels on it. It also lists the brand categories in great detail to facilitate user selection.

Celebrities and celebrities are here to attract fans and users. Celebrities are natural self-media. Stars joining in will definitely attract fans to become users of in and increase the number of users of the product. Experts are usually users who have high knowledge in a certain field and constantly produce works. These users attract fans with their appearance or talents and improve user retention rates.

Market disadvantages

The impact of short video and live broadcast industry. Last year and this year respectively, short videos and live video began to develop rapidly. The great upgrade of mobile phone hardware, the great increase of network traffic, and the great reduction of UGC cost have given more and more people the opportunity to become Internet celebrities. It has also caused some users who were originally active in picture social networking to switch to the short video and live broadcast industry.

Product homogeneity is serious. There are currently many types of photo social apps, such as Lofter, Instagram, Nice, etc. The competition in the photo market is fierce, and Nice and in are highly similar.

Product disadvantages

Few features. The product mainly provides users with entertainment in the form of recommended content. The product lacks features that can clearly distinguish it from other similar applications.

The community activity is low, there is little communication between users, and the cost is high.

Currently, users in in can communicate with each other through comments, but it is found that the number of comments on popular pictures is often very few, and it is necessary to add friends for deeper communication, which also greatly increases the resistance to communication between users.

The classification is rough and the number is small, and there is no personalized recommendation. The recommended module includes the latest, hottest, trendy, goddess, gameplay, travel, animation, sports, funny, and beautiful men. You need to enter the secondary page to view slightly more detailed topics. Users cannot independently choose the recommended content they want.

Product function level

Strengthen the research and development of UGC format. At present, the only ordinary pictures, short in-films, and stories cannot meet the fresh needs of young women born in the 90s. You can refer to fun activities such as FaceU spitting out rainbows, Snow face changing, and Children's Day with daily P-pictures. The form allows users to participate rather than the long-term UGC production method. In addition, it is necessary to constantly design new filters, stickers and other beautification decorations to continuously meet users' needs for freshness, which can increase users' frequency of use, increase user stickiness, mobilize users' UGC activity, and enhance the overall A lively atmosphere in the community.

Refine recommendation categories and add personalized recommendation functions. Utilize the relevant information that has been grasped about user interests and associated users to analyze user portraits, so as to recommend "guess you like" content to users, hit the target more accurately, and make users feel that in understands them better; users can based on their own interests Hobby selection recommended content, such as adding a category editing function, users can make personalized choices on the category order, number of categories, etc.; more precise subdivision of large category recommendations, such as sports can be divided into basketball, football, fitness, cycling, etc. Small categories, users can subscribe according to their interests.

Add scene shopping function. Utilizing existing electronic tag technology, for some well-known and frequently used brand tags, users can selectively enter the purchase page of related products after clicking on the tag when browsing pictures. Completing shopping in the pastime is similar to the real shopping scene. Different from e-commerce companies such as Taobao and Tmall, it gives users a real, reliable and safe feeling.

Product operation level

Cooperate with brand owners to hold events and create hot spots. Beauty and jewelry brands have a high reputation among women. By cooperating with these brands, resources can be exchanged. Partners can increase their visibility among the in user group, thus bringing more user traffic, and more total consumption value if the conversion rate is certain; in can promote and activate the entire community through activities. It plays a role in improving user retention rate, and using cooperative channel resources to promote activities, which plays a certain role in attracting new users and increasing in visibility.

Use machine learning and manual review to strengthen content screening. "Content is king" is a basic feature of the community. High-quality content precipitates the tone of the community. When a stable tone is what most users expect, then users will have a sense of belonging in the community and become loyal users of the community. This will improve user retention in the entire community. played a vital role.

Invite more celebrities and young talents to settle in. You can have an in-depth understanding of the areas that women care about, such as cute pets, fitness, travel, beauty, etc., and invite KOLs in these fields to settle in; of course, you cannot miss the opportunity to invite young talents who can impress female users.

Profit model

Scenario-based shopping, e-commerce shopping guide. Use brand tags to add the function of clicking directly into the shopping channel for products mentioned in discussions or related products, making the scenario closer to purchasing behavior. Establish a cooperative relationship with merchants by going back to the product purchase page, and achieve cooperation in the form of CPC, CPS, purchase conversion rate and other profit divisions, thereby achieving a win-win situation.

Build your own brand.

Currently, we have our own products for photo album printing. In addition, we can model the interests and hobbies of community users based on user data, and obtain some of the products that users are most concerned about, thereby establishing our own brands (or brand cooperation); we can also model the products that post-90s women are interested in. Priority will be given to beauty products, fitness products, etc., and the influence of in among female groups will be used to promote the development of community e-commerce.

Based on user interest modeling, targeted advertising. A more accurate portrait of user interests can be obtained from a series of user data such as user browsing history and followed friends, which can better attract advertisers to set up traffic portals in in. Only when negotiating with partners can the competitive advantages of in be better reflected. Bringing greater profit margins to in.

6. Summary

At present, in has become the largest picture social app in China and has completed the process of user accumulation. From the perspective of product development and market share, in has good development. In the future, while constantly trying new functions, we should focus on exploring the tonality of the product and how to maximize the satisfaction of producers' desire for voyeurism and consumers' sense of showing off and recognition.