Imo and Bigo are now YY's entry ticket into IM market

Today, Imo is now YY's entry ticket into IM market, which has 211.9 billion monthly users in the second quarter of this year. Seven years ago, YY missed the opportunity of voice communication. At that time, YY voice was a big one with 400 million registered users. QQ had restarted QQ TALK for defense. But in the end, the rise of WeChat, which can be free of voice, kills the possibility of YY voice.

YY is obsessed with social products. This is because the logic behind the development of the Internet is that high-dimensional (high-retention) products like QQ and WeChat can last forever, while low-dimensional (low-retention) products have a life cycle. very short. However, Imo can learn to follow the path of WeChat, but also need to explore.

In July and August 2014, YY launched the "Micro Club" Android version and iOS version. Micro-Conference is an instant messaging product that can send voice, SMS, video, pictures and text. Although similar to WeChat, it is more of a benchmark imo and WhatsApp. At the end of March of the following year, YY announced the spin-off of the Micro-Conference business and injected it into Bigo Technology Pte. Limited (BIGO) through a connected transaction. BIGO was incorporated in Singapore in 2014 and can be understood as a subsidiary of YY established to develop overseas social products.

However, the micro-will that wants to avoid the WeChat competition is still awkward. In desperation, BIGO went to live broadcast product Bigo Live, a YY overseas version. Bigo Live was launched in March 2016. Unlike YY, it is located in YY+Huya+Momo, which is a combination of live entertainment, live games and social live broadcasts. Two years later, its registered users broke through the 200 million mark. BIGO Vice President James said in a 36-person interview that the product's pan-entertainment content, small granularity, grouped network relationship chain, and relationship chain precipitation are the exploration from the community to the society.

After the live broadcast, BIGO has a global scale, a team, a diverse content and market capabilities, so I started to acquire imo in the summer of 2017. In August 2017, BIGO hatched the short video product Likee. BIGO product matrix formation, whether it is to do live broadcast, short video or acquisition of communication products, is actually around the goal of social. For YY, the acquisition of BIGO allows it to get tickets to the IM market again. By the second quarter of this year, imo mobile terminal reached 211.9 million monthly, accounting for nearly half of YY's global life of 433.5 million. From micro-conference to imo, this is not a company strategy that YY can plan from the beginning, but it is step by step in reality, but now it seems more like a natural thing.

For YY, the slowdown in the live broadcast industry and the impact of short videos have already had a big impact on it. In the fourth quarter of 2018, YY net revenue was 4.641 billion yuan, up 28.0% year-on-year; net profit was 684 million yuan, down 8% year-on-year. YY needs new business to boost revenue, and more needs social to increase resistance. In addition, although Bigo Live is already the leader in the live broadcast products, but with reference to the development of YY in China, users will encounter bottlenecks in user growth when the user dividend disappears. Looking forward, the YY voice, which was once in the limelight, has slowly declined. Overall, BIGO and YY have always been obsessed with socializing, which is determined by their situation.

The content product users are bigger and the company is insecure. The only thing that can pass the cycle is social products. James believes that from QQ to WeChat, Tencent has become increasingly powerful because it has taken the deepest and highest-profile users from the beginning. It has seized the highest step in Internet products and is the commanding height of the Internet. “The higher the level of retention, the lower the level of retention, so the higher the level, the lower the dimension. This is the eternal topic of the Internet.” YY Voice was once a challenger to Tencent, who had considered the $150 million acquisition of the former and failed. At that time, in order to fight against YY voice QQ, QQ TALK was restarted. But in the end Tencent ended the war that had never begun with a higher-dimensional socialization.

History repeats itself again. Bytedance has become a new challenger for Tencent, and Tencent has considered investment/acquisition for it, still unsuccessful. In order to prevent the rise of the vibrato, Tencent restarted the microvision. In addition, WeChat video is also launched, open micro-view video sharing in the circle of friends, allowing fast video sharing to watch a video. Tencent once again launched a high-dimensional war against low-dimensionality, but the results are still to be determined.

Bytedance are naturally anxious. In the first half of this year, it has released acquaintance video social products, flashing and IM, interest community products flying talk, mostly from low latitude, weak competition barriers, but the two products are not prominent. Judging from the case of YY voice, whether the Bytedance can reverse the battle with the vibrato, the key is to have the protection of the big network of the social relationship chain.

Compared with short videos and live broadcasts, it is clear that adding short videos and live broadcasts to social products will be more lethal. After several years of exploration, YY hopes to embark on a similar path to WeChat through imo, and can crush low-dimensional products through high-dimensional products.