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Tencent quietly launched an e-commerce platform called "Xiaoe Pinpin" a few days ago. It has no APP or website and only exists in the WeChat applet. Xiaoepinpin, from its name, it is not difficult to tell that this is a social e-commerce platform that focuses on the purchase model. The positioning is similar to Pinduoduo.

Over the years, Tencent’s attempts in e-commerce have never stopped. From the earliest Paipai.com to the later QQ online shopping, QQ Mall, and Yixun.com, they have all failed repeatedly. Sometimes they have to Admit it, making products may really require genes. Tencent cannot do e-commerce, just like Alibaba cannot do social networking. It is fate.

If you can’t do it yourself, you have to invest in others. In recent years, Tencent has invested in e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Vipshop, Mogujie, and Pinduoduo. Among them, Pinduoduo has the best performance. It has grown rapidly with the traffic of WeChat to rival JD.com and Taobao.

Of course Tencent is happy with the rise of Pinduoduo, but a godson is still a godson after all. Seeing Pinduoduo achieve such results, it would be difficult for Tencent to say that it is not jealous at all, but apart from that In addition to jealousy, perhaps Tencent is more confused: QQ and WeChat have more than one billion monthly users, and they need money and people, so why can't they build an e-commerce product?

Although there is no e-commerce gene, social networking is what Tencent is good at, so social e-commerce may also work, so Tencent launched Xiaoe Pinpin as an attempt to return to the social battlefield.

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Is it the little goose fighting for its father, or the little goose fighting for its father?

Let’s get started and experience the product first. Open the mini program. The homepage only has two pages: “Home” and “My”, but it doesn’t look simple. There are four product carousels at the top. Scroll down. It is a product recommended on the homepage, and each product has a few words of user experience as sharing words.

This grass-growing model is a bit like Xiaohongshu. The interface is like a circle of friends for sharing products, and the shopping experience focusing on group shopping is like Pinduoduo. Combining these three points, we can speculate that what Tencent wants to create is a group-sharing community based on the WeChat ecosystem.

It is not difficult to see from the purchase settings and the full screen 9.9 products with free shipping that Xiaoe Pinpin plans to enter the sinking market. Attract users at low prices, and then use the order-sharing model to achieve fission. It is not unusual to rely on subsidies and group buying to seize the sinking market. Pinduoduo is like this, and Jingxi and Taobao special editions are also like this, and they have quickly achieved good results.

Subsidy + group purchase is a path that has been proven successful. Xiaoge will go through the process, will it work?

Xiaoe Pinpin is different from e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo. It is purely customized based on the WeChat mini program ecology. Mini programs do not need to be downloaded, and the customer acquisition cost is lower. WeChat’s huge user base is also Xiaoe Advantages of fighting.

However, the flaws and advantages are equally obvious. Mini programs are positioned as tools, and the core concept of design is to let people use them immediately. Mini programs cannot actively reach users under normal circumstances, so WeChat mini programs The key is the scene rather than the flow.

So does Xiaoe Pinpin have usage scenarios that users need?

No.

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There is no search box in the mini program, so users can only scroll down aimlessly and place an order when they see what they want to buy. What motivates me to continue browsing is that the platform keeps pushing me good-looking things, but what Xiaoe Pinpin pushes me are only children’s books about bathing tools and so on. Of course, we can’t blame the platform, which places great emphasis on algorithms, and algorithms require data.

I have been a Taobao user for 10 years. Taobao understands me and naturally recommends products that I would like to keep shopping for. Tencent is almost completely blank in e-commerce. No merchants and no data means no content. The current Xiaoe Pinpin is just a framework.

Then I tried to place an order and bought a 9.9 salted duck egg with free shipping. After using up the coupon for 4 yuan, I paid successfully according to the instructions. The page prompted me to invite a friend to join the order, but I was too lazy to invite. , returned to the product details and found that he could directly participate in the stranger's order, so he placed the order again and paid.

The salted duck eggs mailed in a 4-yuan wallet should be regarded as a bargain, but even if there is guidance on ordering, the corresponding scenarios and gameplay are very weak, and users have no motivation or reason to share.

Since I bought two orders, I decided to return one of the salted duck eggs and experience the refund process. After clicking "Apply for Refund", the common "Reason for Refund" - "Submit Refund" page does not appear, but jumps to the official customer service... This is very un-Tencent.

(I never thought that I would be lucky enough to talk to Tencent’s artificial customer service in my lifetime)

It’s hard to imagine that today in 2020, you still need to negotiate with customer service to get a refund for buying something on an e-commerce platform. Go Pinpin thinks that this refund process is anthropomorphic.

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Is there any chance of competing against Pinduoduo?

Although Tencent has never said that Xiaoe Pinpin should compete with Pinduoduo, judging from the product name and platform features, it is estimated that it will not be much different.

A big advantage of Pinduoduo is the use of WeChat’s private domain traffic, which Taobao cannot use.

So is there any way for Xiaoe Pinpin to induce sharing similar to bargaining like Pinduoduo does?

It’s more difficult. WeChat’s ecology has always been against induced sharing. WeChat’s own son “Weilidai” was forced to suspend offline because of induced sharing. A bowl of water must be balanced.

Even if Tencent does not hesitate to destroy the WeChat ecosystem and is determined to tilt traffic towards Xiaoe Pinpin, Xiaoe Pinpin will only engage in bargaining activities at most, while Pinduoduo’s gameplay has long been beyond planting trees and raising fish. Yes, it would be too heavy to transplant these contents into a small program.

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The slogan of Xiaoe Pinpin is "Nothing is happier than buying good things", but the current product homepage does not seem to be related to a good shopping experience.

Perhaps in the future, it can be connected with video accounts and public accounts to form a closed loop of content. The user saw the food blogger on the video account late at night. The link below directly links to Xiaoe Pinpin to place an order. After completing the purchase, it leads to one-click sharing, so that sharing the shopping experience can become the same as sharing articles on public accounts, and become a building of one's own personality. As part of the design, this is where WeChat’s huge user base can come in handy.

To break through in the e-commerce battlefield, Tencent needs to find its own differentiation. Now the whole of China knows that Pinduoduo is cheap, and it would be too expensive for Tencent to pursue the "cheap" point. Tencent's advantage is social networking, and it should think about how to allow users to share products as spontaneously as posting dinner on Moments. At this point, Pinduoduo's driving model is profit, while Xiaoe Pinpin's driving model should be a sense of recognition. right.

Tencent wants to create another Pinduoduo, but Xiaoe Pinpin has no chance of winning.

But if Tencent wants to build a social content e-commerce platform, Xiaoe Pinpin may not be able to do it. Who will give it a good father?

About the author

Text / Meiya

Personal WeChat ID: fromzyx