A person's cognitive level fundamentally depends on his understanding of various "concepts" and the "connections" between concepts. Peel off the shell and find the kernel.

Of course, this kind of cognition will not be static. With the upgrade of cognition, the way of making products will also change.

So before talking about social software, let’s talk about what social is.

My current understanding of social interaction is the exchange of value between people .

Based on this definition, social interaction should consist of three elements.

1. Human relationships

It can be simply divided into strangers, weak ties; strong ties, acquaintances, close friends.

2. What is the value

When it comes to value, it actually returns to the discussion of demand. There are many ways to segment requirements.

E.g:

Maslow Model - Physiological, Safety, Social, Respect, Self-actualization.

Kano Model - Basic, Expectation, Excited.

Here we talk about the more typical needs that most social products value. Personally, we summarize them into six dimensions: instrumentality, self-improvement, showing off, alleviating loneliness, lyricism, and hormones.

From front to back, it is a gradual transition from rational to emotional.

3. How to exchange

The way of exchange can be examined from three dimensions - the symmetry of value, the timeliness of communication, and the form of content.

For the first point, taking community products as an example, KOLs publish a piece of content to help ordinary users solve some problems, and ordinary users give back likes, comments, reposts, and attention, giving KOLs material and spiritual rewards— - This exchange is asymmetric.

As for the interest group, everyone has the same identity, and they communicate with each other in some form to give others emotional value, so the exchange form is symmetrical.

The timeliness of communication will not be discussed here. Instant communication products include instant messaging tools, games, live broadcasts, and group chats. Most content-oriented product interactions are not timely.

The third point, the form of content, can be pure content - text, voice, pictures, or some kind of activity - games, gatherings, or it can be as small as a kind of feedback - likes and thanks.

2. Social Product Graph

Let's take a look at the current iOS free list, intercept the top 40 of the social list, and these apps are also the top 500 of the total app list.

(The list data comes from - Qimai data)

At first glance dazzling, if you want to make a clue, you have to summarize it.

According to the understanding of social interaction in the first part of this article, we choose two dimensions: the intimacy of the relationship and the sensibility of the demand; and construct a two-dimensional four-quadrant map to include the main social product categories on the market.

Fill the product into the four-quadrant diagram, and you will get the following diagram:

(The products in the picture above have not been experienced one by one, so they may not be accurate. We will continue to update this picture after subsequent experience)

Overall, the main areas of current social products are as follows:

1) Socializing with acquaintances: Undoubtedly, it is firmly controlled by WeChat and QQ.

2) Socializing with strangers: It mainly focuses on emotional needs. The main products are dating and making friends with strangers, led by Momo and Tantan, and the other are various live broadcast platforms for hormone needs.

3) Thematic community: Various interest and knowledge communities, Douban, Tieba, Zhihu and other established community products have a solid status. The consumer social forum headed by Xiaohongshu has its vigorous vitality; and country email list communities like taptap and the rightmost young people are also on the fast track of rapid development.

4) Content + social networking: In recent years, Douyin has become a leader in this field due to the explosion. Singing, playing, and werewolf killing, such products that focus on interactive games between acquaintances, have also found their place.

5) Tools + social networking: Tool software has always faced the problem of high substitutability and difficult realization, so many tool software began to move towards social networking, which is represented by image social networking.

6) Long-tail products: There are still a large number of long-tail demand products in social products, mainly in the stranger + slow social field, such as Kehua, Shengxi, dehydration, etc., which are not well known to most people; Unique gameplay, but it is also in the early stage of the product, and the core product logic needs to be further verified.