The WeChat public class in 2021 announced that WeChat Souyisou (hereinafter referred to as WeChat Search) has reached 500 million monthly active users, and users have gradually developed the habit of searching through WeChat.
"The traffic entrance of the PC Internet is in the search box, and the traffic entrance of the mobile Internet may be in the QR code." Zhang Xiaolong said this in the WeChat open class at the end of 2014. At that time, Sogou search was only connected to the WeChat public account data for half a year. Sogou WeChat search It not only provides public account content retrieval, but also supports functions such as subscription to public accounts and collection of articles.
Search, WeChat's self-game
The in-depth cooperation between the two parties lasted for only more than two years. In March 2017, Sogou WeChat search’s subscription public account, keywords, and collection of articles functions went offline. This time node also happened to be just after the WeChat applet was released.
Search, WeChat's self-game
(Source: New List)
A WeChat product manager once revealed to Tech Planet that when the Mini Program was first launched, Zhang Xiaolong believed that the traffic from search would account for nearly half. Interestingly, before the release of the applet, Zhang Xiaolong introduced that the applet can be searched, but it will try to limit the search ability to avoid being abused. Zhang Xiaolong hopes that Mini Programs are used in a way that users touch.
QR code, social recommendation (chat box), and search are the most important ways to reach the Mini Program, and it is also the premise for the Mini Program to realize "use and go". However, the most efficient way of disseminating small programs is actually social sharing. In the early days of the launch of small programs, various mini-games, Pinduoduo “bargaining”, WeChat reading and other forms of fission quickly created one growth myth after another, but also extremely Greatly damages the user experience.
In mid-2018, less than 100 days after the official launch of the mini game, the peak daily activity of the WeChat mini game "Pirates is Coming" reached the order of 20 million, and the monthly turnover exceeded 100 million, while Pinduoduo has surpassed 300 million users by 5. Yiyi is also inseparable from the social fission effect of WeChat mini-programs.
Search, WeChat's self-game
(Small game sharing is rampant)
Since then, WeChat has restricted the social sharing of small programs and stepped up its crackdown on illegally induced sharing. However, to limit social sharing, it is necessary to give mini programs a more benign way of reaching that conforms to the concept of WeChat. This is an important background for WeChat search to be strengthened.
Just imagine, after a small program is separated from the social communication environment, the only way to reach new users is QR code and search, but obviously QR code is more dependent on online and offline traffic distribution.
I mentioned in "Baidu is flat": the traffic of social and search is large enough, and it will not be too concentrated. For WeChat, search is an important tool for decentralization, so it is inconvenient to leave it to Sogou, an “outsider”, even though Sogou was subsequently wholly-owned by Tencent, although Sogou is still searched by WeChat search web pages. supporter.
Zhang Junlin pointed out in "This Is Search Engine" that search is a relatively effective way to solve information overload at present. Until there is no more effective alternative solution, search engine, as the entrance of Internet websites and applications, and its important position at the commanding heights of the industry only will be gradually strengthened.
He believes that the phenomenon that some Internet companies block search engine companies’ crawlers, such as Facebook blocking Google and Taobao blocking Baidu, is a competition between vertical search and general search, but not a competition between search applications and non-search applications. Facebook and Taobao still have to rely country email list on search. to provide users with satisfactory service.
This is also true in WeChat search, and because WeChat covers more and more social, content, goods, services, etc., WeChat search has rich general search capabilities, and even surpasses general general search engines in terms of connection capabilities. This is determined by the prosperous WeChat ecosystem.
Souyisou is People Rank, which attaches the value of "people" to the ranking results by desensitizing and protecting user privacy. WeChat Souyisou is a part of the WeChat ecosystem and is not an independent search engine, but in the future, WeChat Souyisou will create a general search through open connections to better meet users' needs for "off-site" content and services.