The positioning of WeChat mini programs is changing

1 year ago in the WeChat open class, Zhang Xiaolong proposed to create an application account. After 8 months of research and development, the mini program (application account) began internal testing. If you observe the changes in the APIs, background functions, etc. provided by WeChat mini programs from the internal beta to the present, you will find that it seems that the WeChat team has done more in the past 2 months than in the previous 8 months. The WeChat team has more than 1,000 people, and there are at least 20 or 30 people involved in the mini program project. If this is a project of a startup company, obviously the one-year development cycle is too long. Moreover, the WeChat team has several years of experience in building public platforms. Such a platform, if purely developed, may be completed in one or two months. What is the reason why the app number that was originally highly anticipated by the outside world was released one year later?
My understanding is that the WeChat team is also deducing the positioning of the mini program. In the past year, especially the 8 months before the internal test, they may have overturned multiple versions.

1.1 Mini program to take over the service account
Although excellent service accounts such as China Merchants Bank, Day and Night Calendar, Assistant Laiye, and Yoli Spoken Language were born on the service account, it is undeniable that , the service account ecology is far less prosperous than the subscription account.
We can easily find that companies such as Yiyiyi, Ergeng, and Xinshixiang have obtained generous financing by operating subscription accounts. There are also many peripheral services in the field of subscription accounts, such as WeMedia, which provides subscription accounts The service company has been listed on the New Third Board; for example, New List, this company has gathered a lot of subscription account data.
For the three subscription accounts mentioned earlier, they only made subscription accounts in the early days and received investment. However, you rarely hear of many companies that "only" made service accounts and then did well and received investment.
Although we cannot judge whether a platform is prosperous enough based on the financing obtained by only a small part of its products, there is no doubt that the entire subscription account ecology has been exposed and the total amount of investment is several times more than that of service accounts. Magnitude.
If the subscription account is WeChat’s unintentional creation of a new entrepreneurial ecosystem, then the service account is obviously WeChat’s attempt to follow the route of the subscription account and connect things other than content to WeChat. , is service.
It is a pity that the development of service accounts is far less than that of subscription accounts, but from a strategic level, WeChat hopes to connect everything. If the service account does not solve the purpose of "WeChat connects everything", should there be one? New products to fulfill this mission?
I believe that this is one of the backgrounds for the birth of mini programs (application accounts). It will take over the service account and connect more services and scenarios.

1.2 Mini program that connects to new scenarios
Using the framework and API provided by the mini program, the program experience developed is better than HTML5, so when the internal testing started at the end of September, the industry There have been many debates, including whether mini programs will replace HTML5 and whether they will replace apps. These discussions are out of context.
If App will be replaced, it will definitely not be replaced by mini programs, but by WeChat, because we can already find more than 90% of commonly used services in WeChat, and there is no need to download an app at all.
Not long ago, Zhang Xiaolong posted this photo on his WeChat Moments:
As you can see in the photo, in the Android system, small programs can be "pinned" directly to the desktop, just like an app. If you look carefully at this picture, you will find that most of them are products of medium and large companies, such as Qunar, Maoyan, Ctrip, HNA, etc.
If we agree that the photos shared by Zhang Xiaolong represented WeChat’s expectations for mini programs at that time, then the positioning of mini programs at that time was to replace the native app, allowing users to instantly obtain services in WeChat.
However, in the WeChat open class, he gave the following two examples of small programs:
At a bus stop, you can know the arrival of the next bus by scanning the QR code on the bus stop sign. Station time
At the bus station, you can buy tickets by scanning the QR code at the bus station without queuing up. If we agree, Zhang Xiaolong’s speech represented WeChat’s expectations for mini programs at that time. So, at this time, the positioning of the mini program is actually to connect more offline scenes.
I believe that in the past year, both Zhang Xiaolong himself and the mini program team have been constantly thinking and deducing what needs the mini program should solve and what scenarios should be met. Judging from the latest information seen outside, it seems that mini programs hope to connect more offline.

1.3 Mini programs that not only replace service accounts but also connect to new scenarios
In fact, from a functional perspective, it is reasonable for mini programs to replace some low-frequency apps and service accounts with poor experience, regardless of From which perspective, it is good for developers and also good for WeChat.
On the other hand, there are still many unconnected scenarios offline. WeChat hopes to use mini programs to connect these scenarios. Strategically, it is also logical.
The outside world’s expectations for mini programs are constantly changing, and WeChat’s positioning of mini programs is also constantly being deduced. Judging from the information seen externally, WeChat seems to be more inclined to connect offline.
Why? Mini program wants to connect everything

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