Text | Wang Yujuan

Editor | Yu Le

As an Internet fossil-level product with a history of 22 years, QQ still has 6 monthly active users. 100 million. This is undoubtedly an alternative in the Internet world where update and iteration speeds are sky-high. Many years after WeChat became a must-have national social networking software, QQ still has a considerable user base and has always occupied its own position.

QQ is an "old antique" born in the last century, but it will always belong to "this generation of young people". Baidu Index shows that the user groups of QQ that are more popular than WeChat are those under 19 years old and those between 20 and 29 years old.

The initial users of this social software were those born in the 1970s and 1980s, who were still very young at that time. This group of people "graduated" from QQ after entering the workplace, but the new generation of young people are still "enrolling" and using QQ as the first social software in their lives.

A user born in the millennium regards QQ as her pure land. People of the same age gather in QQ. They only have their true selves and no annoying jobs. QQ builds a curtain wall for them and the complex world of adults.

Ding Daoshi, a 40-year-old Internet observer, believes that people of all ages have an affinity for QQ. "After all, QQ has a 20-year user relationship chain, and we can't give it up anytime soon."

Li Zecheng, senior product manager and author of "Product Awakening," believes that QQ's current user base also includes sinking small and medium-sized enterprises. Bosses and employees of enterprises and traditional state-owned enterprises. Among these groups, QQ has digested the sinking and long-tail markets that office software such as Feishu and DingTalk have not touched.

In order to explore the people who still use QQ and the reasons behind it, we interviewed some heavy QQ users, senior product managers and Internet technology observers.

Before having mobile phones, students first had QQ

Li Chongfu only realized that WeChat has become mainstream after he was admitted to graduate school this year. Most teachers only use WeChat and few classmates. Then ask to add QQ friends.

He spent his middle school years in Xiamen. The computers equipped in his class deleted all newly downloaded software by default when shutting down, and QQ was pre-installed software, so he developed the habit of using QQ to transfer files. "Most middle schools in Xiamen still use computers like that."

In his observation, WeChat cannot be used without a mobile phone, and QQ has become the first social software used by many teenagers. His cousins ??who are in middle school at home almost only use QQ, and their activity is no less than what he used to do back then. "You must use your mobile phone to log in to WeChat using a computer. It is more convenient for middle school students to log in directly by entering the password using QQ."

His WeChat only added the owner of the takeaway shop and his internship colleagues, and the total *** 100 people. On QQ, there is a social network that he has used since childhood, and a group of classmates who have known each other for more than ten years. "We are no longer together, but we still interact and chat."

During interviews with young people, Ding Daoshi, the former director of Sutu Research Institute, also found that young people still I am more accustomed to using QQ to communicate with friends. WeChat is regarded as a product in work scenarios.

An Internet product manager who has been working in the industry for 7 years believes that QQ is not only based on acquaintance socialization, but also has a style of socializing with strangers. It is open and suitable for young students.

Students’ social relationships are not yet stable, let alone saturated. As socialites, students have more social possibilities. The number of people around them is stable and large day and night, and there is almost no possibility of recognizing second- and third-degree relationships.

QQ recommends "people you may know" to users. These people have some of the same friends as the user, and may also be in the same QQ group. In the personal information card, you can view their basic information, the number of mutual friends, and send invitations to add, which meets the students' needs for "column expansion". Some students directly posted "Extended Lists" on QQ space to talk about asking for friends, and their social enthusiasm overflowed the screen.

Young people like to explore and have more possibilities, and QQ’s fancy functions just meet their needs. Yao Shuo and his girlfriend maintained the habit of using QQ to communicate. When they were bored during the postgraduate entrance examination, the couple formed a QQ group with Xiaobing.

QQ Xiaobing is a QQ group robot jointly developed by Microsoft Xiaobing and Tencent QQ. "Relieving the pressure during the exam preparation period by teasing QQ Xiaobing." As soon as QQ released a new feature, his girlfriend was the first to come over and tell him that the two of them would try the new feature together. This has become a way for the two to enhance their relationship.

Adults with stable social relationships prefer the comfort zone, which is suitable for more closed WeChat. WeChat emphasizes to users the security and privacy of its products, which is related to its social responsibility, while QQ, whose product tone is light on social interaction, does not promise social responsibility. If we use a game as an example, QQ is the venue and equipment, while WeChat is not only the venue and equipment, but also referees and volunteers.

When students use QQ, relatively strangers first add QQ, and after they become familiar with each other, they exchange phone numbers, and solidify them in a stronger social way. In simple student social interactions, contact depends almost entirely on likes and dislikes, which is completely different from the complex trade-offs of adults. It's hard to refuse when someone asks for WeChat, but without adding QQ, it's not difficult to find a reason to get around.

Teenagers can find private social scenes on QQ. They communicate with their favorite friends on QQ, maintain their own small circle, and isolate themselves from adult society, elder pressure, and even peer pressure. WeChat, on the other hand, “may be socializing for the sake of socializing” and is full of oppression.

Pan Luan, a senior observer in the Internet technology industry, believes that pure social interaction has never been the main desire of teenagers. When I was a child, I only did three things when I came home from school: doing homework, turning on the TV and playing on the computer, which correspond to the three core scenes of teenagers: education, entertainment and games.

In 2019, Li Chongfu started playing a strategy online game. Game groups must communicate with each other to win the final victory of the season. In order to prevent criminals from using game transfer fraud, the state stipulates that QR codes are not allowed in online games. Game groups choose QQ groups that can be established by searching the group number.

Until he graduated as an undergraduate, there were only three or four WeChat groups established for online games, and dozens of QQ groups were established. There are many multinational company bosses and overseas Chinese in the group, and many of them have become friends through chatting. Some people quit QQ because of games. "People who play a lot of games basically have to be on QQ."

Fan circles where teenagers gather are also more likely to use QQ groups to "support" (cheer for their idols). The singer Yao Shuochui, who was born in 1998, only has more than 1 million fans on Weibo and is not very famous. On the day the album was released, fans spontaneously formed a QQ group to raise funds to increase sales of the album, and raised 10,000 yuan in less than 10 minutes.

Most of the people in the group are still in middle school or have just entered college. They like the same idols. QQ is the default social software. Fans often chat in the group about music and daily life of students. "We understand each other very well and are very touched."

WeChat is the A side and QQ is the B side

After going to college, young people are forced to turn to WeChat. This is a socialization process that is difficult to avoid.

Yao Shuo had an obvious feeling of being coerced. He doesn’t really like WeChat and often calls WeChat rubbish, but he still has to use it. “For social networking, it must be the most convenient one with the most users.” When he graduated from college, the ratio of his WeChat to QQ usage time increased from 2:8 It became 4:6.

Li Zecheng believes that WeChat and QQ meet the different requirements of different users for social networking and communication. When designing WeChat, we intentionally avoided inheriting QQ’s design ideas and started from scratch. The argument that WeChat will replace or eliminate QQ cannot be established.

When Tencent built WeChat, QQ was still quite large. The purpose of starting a new business is to occupy the new social battlefield on the mobile terminal. Although QQ has a mobile version, it is compatible with PC functions and is easy to make heavy. Moreover, many professionals believe that QQ is not a software that should be used for daily work.

In the Internet industry, companies used to consider job seekers to leave their QQ email addresses as unprofessional and "as if this person was sick." From the perspective of mainstream and elites, QQ is not a serious product and is not suitable for serious scenarios.

As more job seekers choose to leave their mobile phones and WeChat, the importance of email is gradually declining, and job seekers no longer face ridicule for leaving their QQ email. Driven by QQ, QQ mailbox still has the highest daily activity among mailbox products.

Li Zecheng believes that QQ has had some functions for many years that WeChat has never surpassed.

For example, QQ allows multiple independent identities to exist, and it is common for a person to have multiple QQ accounts. If you do not use red envelopes, real-name authentication is not necessary. QQ can also enable multiple accounts to receive messages at the same time on the computer and mobile terminals. Adults can use this to show the B-side of life.

WeChat’s design has many restrictions on multiple identities and does not encourage small accounts. Users cannot log in to two WeChat accounts at the same time, and cannot receive messages at all while logged out.

With the help of QQ’s multi-identity storage, Li Zecheng achieved the isolation between work and life. He is still a daily active user of QQ and maintains 4 frequently used QQs. "QQ is online at any time."

The convenience of QQ group management is also praised by community operators. From 2013 to 2016, Li Zecheng was a stranger community on QQ. "One person can manage a group of 500 or 1,000 people, which is very convenient."

Logs and chat records can be saved. When group members come in and out and for what reasons, they are archived and can be easily retrieved. It is very convenient to check the chat history on the computer. QQ can pull up many windows. However, WeChat is based on mobile phone operation, and the search only has one screen. "Looking up chat records is really tiring."

QQ also supports content collaboration and the transmission and storage of large files, making calls and meetings very convenient. Therefore, many small and medium-sized enterprises and traditional state-owned enterprises use QQ as office software. QQ has digested most of the sinking and long-tail markets that office software such as Feishu and DingTalk have not touched.

QQ’s fancy design is also within the acceptance range of some adults. Li Zecheng does not think it is a problem. The PC version of QQ is a full-blooded version with complete functions. The mobile social module is more user-friendly. He only uses social networking, and manually disables the rest, leaving none of his early interest tribes and later QQ highlights. "What we use now is basically the same as what we used 20 years ago, except that the interface looks better."

In the final analysis, users themselves still make the decision on social communication software. The essence of the experience is the quality of the relationship chain and the level of cognition. . Whether it causes harassment depends on who is sending the message and how often it is sent. The impact of the content itself is limited. "If a product gives users no autonomy and they are forced to accept information every day, then users will definitely not stay with it for a long time." Li Zecheng explained.

There are also young people making the same choice. Li Chongfu doesn't often use QQ's new features. If there are group fights every day and he feels harassed, just quit. If a friend asks him to hack him every day, block him.

When traveling on QQ’s public domain traffic, users use the same set of identities. Douyin is also a unique ID software. If users want to add a person in Douyin live broadcast room, they can directly check the homepage. Unless the host specifically blocks it, public domain traffic can basically be exchanged unimpeded.

WeChat was originally designed as a mobile communication product, and WeChat users do not want unexpected interruptions. Therefore, WeChat is very strict in terms of permission control and only allows users to search through bound mobile phone numbers, QQ numbers or WeChat IDs. If privacy settings are turned on, it is almost impossible for the other party to initiate communication directly.

QQ is an environment where acquaintances, semi-strangers and strangers are combined, which is more conducive to social interaction. People can conveniently release the pressure of adult social life here and take a breather overnight.

The existence of some stranger environments has been verified to have a boosting effect on social products. QQ’s early chat rooms encouraged users to come out of their rooms and communicate directly. In the early start-up period of WeChat, the density of the relationship chain was not enough. WeChat also used stranger social methods such as "Shake" to help product expansion.

Early mobile QQ message page

Private and open

In the spectrum of social software, if one side of QQ is WeChat, then the other side is Momo and other stranger social software.

When Tang Yan founded Momo in 2011, his original intention was to "restore the best part of the QQ open social network in the early years." At that time, QQ was the default social software, and mobile products found people based on their location. A new entrepreneurial opportunity.

Pan Luan believes that Momo is indeed doing better than QQ in its early years.

A typical scenario when he first used QQ when he was a teenager was to search and add friends, select gender, city, age and whether to have a camera. After chatting for a long time, he asked if he could see his photos or videos. Most of the time, one of the friends would die in the light. Momo initially disclosed all the above information and randomly matched based on geographical location, "avoiding unnecessary testing."

Tang Yan's original intention reminded Yao Shuo of the drift bottle in QQ space, which was the most popular thing about QQ in his mind. An open community. The drift bottle is a bit similar to the current NetEase Cloud Music. It writes down the thoughts that primary school students have nowhere to express. "It's all a bunch of very childish words." Those words are brought to strangers along the drift bottle, and there is no danger of their thoughts being leaked. .

Since the birth of QQ in 1999, people's social habits and demand for social products have changed dramatically over the past 20 years.

Early online socializing with strangers was very emotional. The first online novel read by many people born in the 1970s was "First Intimate Contact" by Ruffian Cai, which was often read more than ten years ago. Online dating news.

Later these things were broken and turned into the pursuit of efficiency. From the initial selection of region, age, gender and presence or absence of cameras to adding QQ friends to chat, to Momo recommending strangers based on geographical location, to Tantan being a nearby and mutually recognized encounter, to last year's video that emphasized real-time experience. Social networking, "In the pursuit of efficiency, everyone's attempts are becoming more and more specific, the social path is becoming shorter and shorter, and users are becoming more and more purposeful." Pan Luan said.

Today's social interaction with strangers has entered a direct period, that is, the user's purpose is simpler, they are all here to date or find a partner, leaving out the "love" part. The key to social products has become to stratify users and improve matching efficiency. When you first introduce photos, education, and work, and then start chatting, the focus becomes quick gratification.

Yao Shuo is a silent person on WeChat, which is his more social side. When posting to Moments, you have to consider whether the content will cause discomfort to others. “You have to take care of others, and it’s troublesome to block them one by one.”

Social software for strangers is another extreme. Friends in reality are isolated, the pressure of acquaintances and society disappears here, and true thoughts and emotions are exposed frankly. Many people let themselves go, and the content is full of sex and violence.

Between WeChat and Momo, QQ is in the ambiguous zone of privacy and openness. This attribute gives it a larger user base and a longer product life cycle.

Crisis and Experiment

However, QQ is not without its crises.

Ding Daoshi believes that QQ relies on historical accumulation, and on the surface it occupies the second place in the social track in terms of user volume. But its comprehensive capabilities are hard to match the rapid development of Kuaishou and Douyin.

QQ gives people a younger stereotype. After recharging a QQ membership, when you open the dialog box for chatting with friends, you will first enter the animation of the QQ Centimeter Show. "You can only type after the special effects are over, which is very disturbing to me." This childish design made Yao Shuo "intolerable."

In Yao Shuo's view, the many functions of QQ membership are mainly to satisfy users' desire to show off and compare. Middle school and high school students prefer the functions under QQ membership, because people in this age group are self-centered and always think that they are awesome. "Membership is a double-edged sword. It gives many privileges and is more convenient to use, but it encourages excessive comparison and a sense of privilege that society should not have."

In the ten years since WeChat became Tencent's leading actress, the content and entertainment relationship have In-depth consumption scenarios - public accounts and video accounts are gradually improving, and WeChat payment has become a national-level function. The peak user penetration rate in QQ’s history cannot be compared with today’s WeChat.

The advantages in work collaboration have also been surpassed by Feishu and DingTalk, which specialize in the office field. Li Zecheng, who started his business using QQ in his early years, now has his team switch to Feishu. Feishu pays more attention to the needs of the team. If the team is a group of smart, self-motivated and collaborative people, "then you are absolutely right to use Feishu."

Ding Daoshi analyzed that in the long run , QQ’s comprehensive influence will be further reduced. But it does not affect the importance of QQ to Tencent.

QQ is Tencent’s experimental field. "If you need to try out any new features, first launch them on QQ to see how users respond, and then decide whether to push forward." Li Zecheng said.

For the exploration of some new functions, QQ users are more receptive, while WeChat users are more likely to regard them as an intrusion. For example, "everyone hates the "take a photo" function of double-clicking on a WeChat avatar," Yao Shuo said.

QQ is more responsible for improving user retention and experience. Li Zecheng believes that Tencent’s appointment of game business leader Yao Xiaoguang to take charge of QQ is intended to further explore entertainment and gaming. Some new experiments, including the metaverse, will probably start with QQ first.

WeChat represents Tencent’s corporate image, and its product manager Zhang Xiaolong also prefers conservative and steady designs. Having been on the top of the national social networking apps for many years, WeChat’s idol baggage is heavy, and the impact of launching new features is too broad and inappropriate.

QQ never holds press conferences to talk about design concepts, rarely makes overly high-profile actions, and does not take on too many social responsibilities. "The worst case scenario is that if a feature is not popular, it will be withdrawn. Anyway, it is already great." Madam, it doesn’t matter if you put on a little heavy makeup or act a little outrageous.” Li Zecheng thought.

QQ has a window for short videos and a live broadcast function. Users can complete content consumption in QQ without worrying about being discovered by acquaintances. "It's just that it hasn't been implemented yet, and the quality of consumption cannot be guaranteed."

As a product that many users open every day when they unlock their phones, the traffic pool is the greatest value of QQ. With only QQ as a product, the profit potential is relatively limited. It is more about linking it with various independently developed products to explore commercialization. In addition to the product itself, a series of incubated products, such as QQ Music and QQ Reading, also have many ways to make money.

Li Zezheng is not optimistic about QQ’s innovation space. The Internet industry has become an elite industry, and QQ's existing team is relatively aging. "The young people who squeeze into Tencent through school recruitment every year may be more in line with standardized needs and more elite, but their awareness of innovation is a question mark."

But the product itself is a dead thing, and how to use it depends on The people who designed it and the people who use it. When innovation is weak, big products still have a chance as long as they make partial innovations without hindering users, breaking laws or regulations, or damaging the product ecology.

The Chinese market is large enough, the country’s population is large enough, the culture is inclusive enough, and the stratification is diverse enough. There will always be some scenarios that are not covered by big products. As long as a social software can provide a suitable small environment for some users in the broad market, it can continue to seek room for survival.