When it comes to third-party app stores, it is reminiscent of Baidu’s $1.9 billion acquisition of 91 Assistant four years ago, which made 91 Assistant a legendary acquisition. However, after business integration with Baidu mobile Assistant, 91 Assistant did not continue its previous glory, but gradually faded out of the domestic application market. In the second half of 2015, Baidu’s mobile assistant ranked first with 1.439 billion launches per month on average in the Domestic app store market, while 91 Assistant only had about 277 million launches, analysys data showed.
And in October 2017, after four years of silence, 91 assistant returned to the sight of consumers again, but this time it is not the return of the king, but facing the storm of elimination. Baidu’s Fuzhou research and development center, set up as part of its acquisition of 91 Wireless, has ceased operations and employees have been asked to negotiate contracts, severance and compensation, according to media reports. However, Baidu said it did not eliminate the 91 assistant platform and related staff, but moved the relevant business from fuzhou RESEARCH and development center to Beijing. As the leading role in the establishment of fuzhou RESEARCH and development Center, the assistant has become the hot topic of this event.
The “white Apple” of the past, the “poison Apple” of today
As the only cross-terminal and cross-platform content distribution platform in the world at that time, 91 Assistant appeared in 2009 when smart phones just started. In the nascent mobile app market, assistant 91 has a head start. Data shows that 91 Assistant has surpassed 100 million users in less than three years after gaining an in-depth understanding of the needs of Chinese smartphone users. On May 6, 2013, 91 Assistant announced that the cumulative number of app downloads on its platform exceeded 10 billion, equivalent to the average of each Chinese person using 91 Assistant to download 8 software.
91 Assistant, which has the ability to uninstall the psoriasis software and support jailbreaking of IOS, can provide related application services for smartphone users. When smart phones were in the ascends of the domestic market, 91 Assistant once enjoyed the reputation of “the most awesome software download portal” and “white Apple”. In the fierce competition of 360 mobile assistant, Tencent App Treasure and other third-party applications, 91 Assistant was once regarded by Alibaba, Baidu, 360 and other Internet companies as fat meat in the field of third-party applications.
After business integration, 91 Assistant’s resources have been successfully diverted and merged into Baidu Mobile Assistant. On March 30, 2015, 91 Assistant and Baidu Mobile Assistant completed complete integration, and its Android version was officially upgraded and renamed as Baidu Mobile Assistant. However, after the merger of 91 Assistant and Baidu Mobile Assistant, the situation of the merged body in the third-party application market is not optimistic, and there are even many problems.
Problem one: The loss of users of 91 Assistant led to the rise of competitors. In the process of business integration between 91 Assistant and Baidu mobile assistant, many users will flow to other third-party app stores due to difficulty in adapting, and these lost users have become a powerful driving force for the rise of Tencent App Treasure and 360 Mobile Butler. According to iMedia, in the third quarter of 2017, the satisfaction of users in domestic third-party app stores was highest in 360 mobile Assistant (8.4 points), and that of App Treasure (8.1 points), while Baidu mobile Assistant (7.6 points) was the lowest. Baidu mobile assistant after 91 assistant, users in the application market can not be satisfied with the service, will lead to users flow to a higher degree of satisfaction platform.
The second problem is the threat brought by mobile phone app store entering the office. In the application market, baidu mobile Assistant after the merger is not only facing competition from other giants in third-party app stores, but also facing the impact of domestic mobile phone brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi. According to the “China App Store Market Share Monitoring Report for the second quarter of 2017” released by Analysys, among the top 10 active app stores in the second quarter of 2017, app stores of mobile terminal manufacturers accounted for 60%. Software developers at the same time in order to have better fault-tolerant rate in the software market, in the process of developing software software will be divided into IOS system and android system, to meet the demand of users with different terminal system, and the move will also 91 assistant across terminal advantage to weaken, even have no advantage in the application software market.
Problem number three: malware. In the application mall market, where competition tends to be white-hot, Baidu Assistant is bound to expand the B-end market and introduce more software developers to attract users in order to increase its competitive advantage in the market. But 2017 11 YueGong problems APP list released by the ministry, baidu mobile phone assistant impressively in the column, in really good software application platform can bring a lot of users, enhance the market competitiveness of platform, but the problem of APP can lead to a 91 helper and baidu mobile phone before the two platforms on the customer resources accumulated efforts fall short.
On the 91 assistant with baidu mobile assistant had been merged before 91 aides had as a specialist in rogue, “psoriasis” software platform and won the praise of users, but after integration development not only less, also sets the name of “malicious APP”, it makes a lot of looking for the baidu to $1.9 billion to buy 91 assistant for questioning.
After the graft, 91 assistant feedback Baidu many applications
Baidu mobile assistant in the merger of 91 assistant, the application mall market in the performance of the fatigue is really unsatisfactory. But it would be too presumptuous to say that the merger of 91 assistants did not bring results for Baidu. After the integration of the 91 assistant business, Baidu’s mobile assistant in the field of software downloads is also changing.
On the one hand, after the merger of Baidu mobile assistant and 91 assistant, the frequency of user use has increased substantially. According to Analysys, In the second half of 2015, Baidu’s mobile Assistant ranked first with 1.439 billion launches per month on average in China’s app store market. Baidu’s two app stores were launched on average more than 1.2 billion times than Tencent’s Appbao, which ranked second with 506 million launches per month.
On the other hand, in terms of market size, the merger with 91 Assistant has increased the market users of Baidu’s mobile assistant. The advantage of 91 assistant’s in-depth reach to mobile phone users and tablet users just makes up for baidu’s deficiency in the mobile terminal market, and the number of Users of Baidu’s mobile assistant has been expanded. Baidu’s mobile Assistant ranked second in app distribution with about 115 million active users in 2017, behind Tencent’s App Bao, according to Analysys. In addition, the use of 91 assistant in the field of distributed application superiority, baidu can more direct understanding of the third party applications download user habits and data, portraits depicting full user, and use of these advantages better feedback baidu’s mobile phone map of baidu, baidu, baidu post bar, and even iQIYI etc all kinds of mobile application products.
In addition, Baidu’s purchase of 91 Assistant is also aimed at preventing it from falling into the hands of Internet giants such as Tencent, Alibaba and 360. In terms of product competition, 360 and Tencent already have independent app stores, and the market influence of 360 mobile assistant and Tencent App Bao will grow significantly with the increase of their users. If the 91 assistant in the application side of the fat meat to give up, for other high-user groups of enterprises is bound to be added to the tiger, baidu mobile assistant to occupy a place in the application market will be more difficult.
In this view, Baidu’s acquisition of 91 Assistant four years ago at a high price of $1.9 billion was based on the market value of 91 Assistant in mobile terminals, and the acquisition could not only prevent 91 Assistant from monopolizing the application market at that time, but also provide certain guarantee for the promotion of Baidu mobile assistant in the market.
User experience remains key after the traffic dividend from third-party apps fades
Whether or not it is true that Baidu Fuzhou center has eliminated 91 Assistant’s position in the third-party app market has plunged. Some people may say that 91 Assistant has actually completed the real merger with Baidu mobile assistant, but the result of the merger is “1+1<2”, which is inseparable from the rise of the mobile terminal market. After smartphone app store has become the general trend, the flow dividend of third-party app store is gradually fading. How Baidu mobile assistant can continue to survive in such a market has become the primary problem at present.
In the third-party application market, both Alibaba and Tencent in the domestic market and Amazon and Google in the foreign market have huge user groups as product export ports. In this view, If Baidu mobile assistant wants to regain its former glory in the third-party application market, Baidu needs to enrich its application channels to expand the user market.
From the perspective of the current third-party market, no matter Tencent App Treasure and 360 mobile assistant in China, or Amazon and Google Mall in foreign countries, these platforms with relatively high market scale in the third-party application market have application channels to expand the user market. If the user wants to download an application through wechat, the pop-up window will provide Tencent App Treasure high-speed download channel; Wechat mini program makes traditional application software more portable, making wechat a new third-party application distribution portal in the era of light application… As an Internet giant, baidu will find it easier to expand its mobile assistant application market by providing products that meet users’ needs.
As the technology flow of Baidu, there is no output carrier of absolute advantage in application products, Baidu mobile assistant is in a precarious situation in the third-party application market. In the future, technology output is needed to make up for the shortcomings of its application products and improve the innovation of superior application products, so as to make a comeback in the application field.
In addition, after its superior output application products are improved, Baidu mobile Assistant also needs to return to user experience, strengthen the management of mobile application software in the mall, and avoid the emergence of software that may harm the interests of its user groups.
To sum up, in an age of growing mobile application products, application software assistant in provide convenience for the user at the same time, also need to maintain the use rights and interests of users, on the contrary, the third party application platform after the user rights are invaded problems, continuously fleeing users will lose market competitiveness, make platform application in newborn strength rise in the market to be eliminated.
Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110