Introduction:

In the early morning of January 9 this year, wechat officially released mini programs. After the release of small programs, caused the attention of the industry, optimistic people or quite many. The first day online, some media said: “small program online, I have uninstalled the APP.” “Small programs will lead to a big revolution,” said another.

In the previous small program internal test, I also discussed with you in the wechat group development students, we are generally optimistic about the prospects of small program:

【Dev Club Discussion 】 Chat about wechat “small program”

But people have joys and sorrows, the moon waxes and wanes.

Good times did not last long, a few days later, the media said luo Fat ran away, do not play small programs. Those who uninstalled the app then quietly put it back.

Of course, there are many supporters who stand in different angles to see small programs, such as Chan and He CAI Tou.

He uses his “aunt calendar” and “golf scorecard” as examples to prove that the mini program has brought him more value than he expected. After 330 wechat open course mini program announced more capabilities not long ago, some media commented that “the success of mini program still needs a version”.

The following combined with the release of small procedures for more than three months of some development, to talk about some of my thinking about small procedures.

1. Coase’s Law and small programs

What exactly is a small program? What scenarios are better for applets? I’ve been thinking and deducting.

Recently, I was inspired by a chapter in Xue Zhaofeng’s economics class at Peking University. I would like to share it with you briefly.

This is a real case in history, the former trains are burning coal, burning coal will erupt Mars, this erupt Mars situation is not changed, all trains have this characteristic.

At that time, a train passed by a farmer who grew flax. The farmer had stacked 700 tons of flax beside the railroad tracks. The flax was the farmer’s, and so was the farmer’s field by the railroad tracks, and the flax was piled up in the field and didn’t bother anyone. But when the train passed by, it spewed sparks, and it burned 700 tons of flax.

Do you think the train company should compensate the farmers for their losses?

I think most people think the train company has to pay, right? After all, train companies hurt farmers.

But there was one man who didn’t feel that way. His name was Ronald. Coase, he thinks that all harm is mutual, that all harm is a struggle for some common resource. However, as long as the transaction cost is low enough, no matter who the owner of the resource is, it will eventually develop towards the lowest cost and resource optimization trend.

Let’s think about it. If the responsibility lies with the train company, the cost of avoiding this risk would be huge. He might have to modify the structure of the train so that it does not emit sparks. But this case took place in 1914, and such reinvention was impossible. He may have to build high walls along the railway to keep the sparks out of the fields, which would be costly. He may have to buy some of the farmer’s land along the railroad so that the farmer can’t stack the flax, which is also a huge cost.

All right, let’s put it another way, if the railroad company and the farmers are owned by the same group, then all you have to do is have the farmers pile the flax away from the railroad, leave enough space, and you can avoid accidents.

It’s the cheapest and most efficient way to do it.

As long as the transaction cost is low enough, whoever owns the resource will eventually develop towards the lowest cost and optimal resource. This is very important.

2. Mobike mini app

Coase’s Law reminds me of a case of small programs, Mobike.

At that time, miniprogram was testing the ability to scan a QR code, and Mobike participated in the test and launched the ability on Feb 24. By scanning the QR code on the bike through wechat, users can directly open the mobike mini program to unlock the bike.

There are two key factors contributing to this case, I don’t know if you have noticed. The first factor is that applets must come with more open technologies and strategies that allow all developers to use applets’ capabilities to “lower transaction costs.”

The second and most critical factor is that Mobike must think clearly that what it provides is not an app, but the friendliest and most comfortable cycling service.

Service is what matters.

I have not had direct contact with the Mobike team before, but I guess they must have gone through fierce competition internally to use this capability. This may affect mobike app downloads.

Sure enough, in the 330 wechat open class, Mr. Yang Yujie, the product manager of Mobike, confirmed my idea. At the beginning, they had undergone a very fierce internal debate.

But eventually, they realized that wechat couldn’t take away Mobike’s users, because what Mobike was offering was a complete bike service, which was their core.

As a result, resources eventually move towards the lowest cost and highest efficiency.

Mobike saw a 100% increase in weekly usage after the introduction of mini apps! With the new capabilities, daily registrations of Mobike’s miniprograms increased 30 times. In a little over a month since the new capabilities were introduced, the service has been used more than 50 million times.

Wechat, it’s wechat. But wechat can also be yours. As long as you think about one point:

[Return tools to service nature]

Let all the carrier, no longer just carrier, but a service. Let the service melt into life, the scene is segmented small enough, light enough.

Small programs are the best tools to help you reach and serve your users.

3. Talk about city services

Speaking of service, I have to introduce to you the product I am responsible for — wechat City service.

In 2014, when we sorted out various industries on wechat public platform, we found that public accounts and service accounts in government affairs accounted for 33.4%, far exceeding the overall market. At that time, the number of government official accounts was more than 40,000, and the latest data is 140,000.

More and more governments and related units are providing public livelihood services to citizens through wechat.

So in November 2014, we launched wechat City Service, a service entrance “hidden” in wechat wallet, but not just an entrance. We provide a variety of capabilities and specifications to enhance the experience and quality of access to public services.

It now operates in 362 prefecture-level cities and provides more than 800 public services.

4. Ministries and commissions are leading the trend

Speaking of public services, something interesting is happening in the area of small programs. In the past, in the wechat public number, provide service number, most of the provincial and municipal units.

But to the era of small programs, the ministry level units, but take the lead in the trend ah!

I don’t know if you noticed the CCTV news on March 8, When Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would soon launch a wechat version of 12308.

Just 15 days later, 12308 went live, a mini-program that will provide security alerts, online customer service and one-click help to the more than 120 million people who travel abroad each year.

I think Foreign Minister Wang Yi is quite satisfied with this small procedure.

In addition to 12308, a wave of ministerial-level mini-programs have been launched, including the State Administration for Industry and Commerce’s 12315 program, the Ministry of Agriculture’s National Farmers’ Skills Training program, and of course, more ministerial-level mini-programs are on their way.

In addition to ministerial-level mini-programs, more than 800 public services that have been launched on wechat city are also being “mini-programs”.

5. Applets and H5

“I have already had public number +H5, why do small program even?”

I think this is a problem for a lot of developers.

Recently there is a play very popular, called “in the name of the People” do not know whether you have seen? There is a dialogue by Secretary Dakon that I particularly like.

This conversation between Secretary Da Kang and Sun Liancheng, head of Guangming District, goes like this:

Is priceless! I told you more than once! Things involving the interests of the masses are not trivial! Fix it as soon as you can, don’t put it off! You drag it around, you drag it out!

One line in the dialogue was particularly important, and Secretary Dachan had given important instructions:

Can solve solve as soon as possible! Want is a quick!

Let’s take a look at the classic public number +H5 way, the user needs to pay attention to, and then to the first level menu, the second level menu, and then to the service.

Small program, in one step.

Small programs, Says Longo, are “within reach and out of reach.” So much attention has been paid to “use it and go”, but the important thing is that “it’s within reach”.

Shortening the service path is one of the greatest capabilities that applets can give developers.

Recall secretary Dakang’s important instructions: can solve, solve as soon as possible!

You say you provide me with convenient services, but also let the people around for what? So I would like to make a call to all government departments and units that provide government services and public services to improve people’s livelihood

To serve the people, please use small procedures. (Smiling face)

6. Wechat social traffic

I talked about getting tools back to being services, about applets shortening service paths. What else? Anything else?

Let’s not forget that the mini program is in wechat, which has more than 800 million active users.

One developer said, what about 800 million users? Wechat has no centralized entrance and no recommendation. No matter how many users there are, it has nothing to do with me.

I think he’s right. He’s right.

If you do nothing, it really doesn’t matter to you, but if you get to the heart of it, wechat’s social traffic is amazing.

There is such a small program, its name is called “flower help Lord knowledge flower”.

It is used when you are walking in the park with your child and your child asks: Daddy, what kind of flowers are these? You look at it and you have no idea! At this point, you can gracefully open this little app, upload a photo of the flower, and in about a second, it will tell you what the flower is. The experience is very light and there doesn’t seem to be anything special about it.

But this small program, in just 15 days, the number of users has grown 80 times, accumulated more than 200,000 users.

When I read these figures, I was really surprised. Why is there such a big increase? I asked the developers if you were doing any promotion. He said no! But one possibility is that the peak season of spring outing begins at the end of March, when more and more people will go out to enjoy flowers.

This factor was important because the scenario that suited his mini-program was released.

But does that explain his rapid growth? I didn’t think it was enough, so I dug a little deeper and found two interesting numbers. Since the launch of the app, its share rate has stabilized at 20%, which is one in five users sharing it. The second number is 63.5% of the open times of small programs per day, which are in group chat and single chat. It makes good use of the social flow of wechat.

By this time, the mystery was solved.

  • First, Huabang has excellent experience in recognizing flowers. Its database has more than 10,000 kinds of flowers and plants, and its overall recognition accuracy rate is 96.1%. It is a small program, very light.

  • Second, he has a very suitable scenario, users spring outing, the demand for identifying flowers surge.

  • Third, and very important. Wechat’s natural social traffic has brought him exponential growth.

(The above data has been communicated with the developer and confirmed to be public)

7. Summary at the end of the article

In conclusion, I’d like to summarize a few thoughts about applets in one sentence:

“Return to the essence of service and provide the best service experience. Let users through small procedures, with the shortest path to obtain services. Finally, wechat’s social traffic will help you grow by surprise.”

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