Metaverse social software, the "jelly" that young people are playing, didn't last more than 3 days?

Jelly is popular among young people.

Young people who are active on social platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and WeChat groups are busy showing off their outfits, status, and leaving their IDs, just to add more jelly friends.

Product managers and operation practitioners have also started discussing this acquaintance social APP and analyzing its selling points and functions. Because it has 3D virtual images, online space and social functions, it is also regarded as a metaverse social concept APP.

On February 11, less than a month after Jelly was officially launched, it surpassed WeChat and QQ and topped the AppStore free list.

Jelly User Home

Image source: Jelly

It has become popular, but it is not easy to take the top spot.

Many users started complaining about Jelly just a few days after downloading it, saying that it fails to provide even the most basic product experience, and that problems such as lag, crashes, and message delays have not been solved, and they are planning to abandon it.

Questions followed. Jelly was first accused of violating user privacy, and then was accused by multiple users and brands that the outfits of the virtual characters in the APP were suspected of plagiarism. Jelly, who claimed to have been "hacked", was busy responding.

However, putting aside these doubts, many practitioners commented after experiencing the gel that "it always feels like some of the hit products in the past." Some people said that some of the functions had been seen on the acquaintance map social software Spot before, and others thought that it was like a combination of the 3D avatar social application ZEPETO and the real-time positioning application Zenly.

Under the concept of the metaverse, the hottest evolution direction in the post-mobile Internet era is the "metaverse". In the current chaotic period, both hardware and software are very busy. Some people try to seize the market during the transition period of new and old hardware products, and some people want to survive in the melee of acquaintance social products.

Since the second half of 2021, from Tianxiaxiu's Rainbow Universe, Baidu's Xirang, to the startup company's Huanhuan Planet... Regardless of whether these apps claim to be metaverses, they are regarded by the outside world as social apps with the concept of metaverse because they have features such as virtual images, social relationships, and online spaces. The same is true for Jelly, which appeared in 2022.

However, these apps have just become popular, and most of them are still in the very early stages and cannot escape the "monthly curse". As a new favorite of young people, how long can the vitality of jelly last? The answer is probably not optimistic.

On the evening of February 13, the third day after topping the AppStore free list, Jelly brought bad news: the APP was proactively removed from the shelves and the entry of new users was suspended. The announcement stated that it would focus on improving the existing user experience.

Jelly, how did it go viral?

How does jelly attract young people?

Internet designer Su Xin became curious about this question not long after the Jelly product was launched, and soon became a Jelly user at the invitation of a friend.

As soon as he opened the app, he was attracted by the trendy design. "The splash screen animation is cool, the costumes of the virtual characters are quite trendy, and the friend list is very novel, a bit like collecting blind boxes."

Of course, what impressed him most was that the avatar design was very consistent with his own aesthetic taste, which was also mentioned by many Jelly users.

Entering the Jelly APP, the first step is to create a trendy virtual 3D image for yourself by "pinching your face". Because they like Jelly's virtual image's outfits, many young people have specially recorded their Jelly's outfits for a week on social platforms.

Avatar Dress Up

Image source: Jelly

Virtual images, to some extent, reflect the style and attitude of young people. Some young people have changed their WeChat profile pictures to Jelly profile pictures, and left their IDs and added friends on multiple platforms. A Jelly user told Shenran that he commented on a Douyin video saying "I want to add Jelly friends", and soon there were 500 replies, "all leaving their IDs."

"Young people are tired and still need 'new things' to stimulate them." Su Xin believes that compared with other virtual social apps for young people, Jelly is more attentive in some production details, such as clothing, animation, and friend display cabinets. A user who was also impressed by the details mentioned, "When walking on the map during the day, the virtual image also has a shadow."

What else can young people do with gel, besides pinching their faces and changing their clothes?

Jelly is positioned as an "online apartment for close friends", emphasizing being yourself, inviting good friends and real friends to join, and the upper limit of the friend list is 50 people. The positioning of socializing among acquaintances allows young people to dare to show their status casually and authentically on this APP.

Su Xin mainly uses Jelly to invite friends and "poke". In his opinion, poke is like the "@" on Weibo or the "pat" on WeChat.

Zhou Xing, 25, saw many users discussing Jelly on TikTok on February 11, so he followed the trend and downloaded it. The next day, he happened to have a hotpot party with a few friends, so they added Jelly as their friend in advance.

During this hotpot party, he experienced the core functions of Jelly, such as adding friends, setting status, location sharing, and the "Now" function similar to the Moments.

They were full of freshness when they first joined Jelly. Before going on a date, they started to synchronize their status and plans with each other on Jelly. They would also change their status according to the actual situation, sleeping, watching TV series, playing games, and doing hard work. Just by looking at the virtual image, they could see what everyone was doing. The WeChat group they used to communicate in the past was left aside.

When they went out in the afternoon, Zhou Xing and several friends turned on the real-time positioning function for each other. The real-time location sharing on Jelly is jokingly called a "check-up tool" by many users, and is more suitable for socializing with acquaintances.

"Through the Jelly Map, I can guess who might be late." Zhou Xing said that while eating hotpot, he also posted a photo of the hotpot party on Jelly, just like posting on WeChat Moments.

Zhou Xing shared the hot pot party dynamics on Jelly

Image source: Jelly

One user commented: "It is much more interesting to move offline life and thoughts online and see what friends are doing than just posting to Moments."

In addition to the vivid style that gives young people a sense of freshness, many Internet operation practitioners have stated that the popularity of jelly is also related to the popular concept of the metaverse.

In the guise of virtual social interaction,

Is it essentially an upgraded version of the “dress-up experience game”?

Although jelly has become a little popular among young people, it is not new.

Let’s start with the concept of metaverse social networking, which is what users think of first. Although the official introduction of Jelly APP does not define itself as a metaverse social software, the functions of creating online space for users, allowing users to create virtual images, and real-time online interaction are almost the same in the metaverse social concept products launched in the past six months.

The concept of metaverse defined by Roblox, the "first stock in the metaverse", requires eight key features, namely identity, social interaction, immersive experience, low-latency communication, diversity, anywhere, economic system and civilization.

A truly mature metaverse social app has not yet appeared. However, some of the latest metaverse concept products are labeled as "metaverse", and some are defined by the outside world as "metaverse products", but they all involve some of the eight key elements, especially 3D virtual images have become standard.

Rainbow Universe and Xirang, which are advertised as social apps for the metaverse, have put more thought into satisfying the specific elements of the metaverse. Before the official launch of Rainbow Universe, it relied on the "hunger marketing" of only releasing 350,000 houses, attracting a large number of players to buy and sell houses in the early stage of internal testing. Xirang also has a VR version, which allows users to attend meetings, go shopping, communicate, and visit exhibitions in virtual space.

Huanhuan Planet and Super QQ Show, which are regarded by the outside world as metaverse social concept products, have a stronger experience in virtual space. In Su Xin's opinion, the upgraded version of QQ Show has 3D virtual images and Super QQ Show that can dress up QQ Nest, which has more advantages in packaging and production.

Huanhuan Planet focuses more on voice social networking. After entering Huanhuan Planet, users can create a virtual image and enter the square from the small space. When approaching other users in the square, the system will automatically open real-time voice and text pop-up windows, and users can chat together. When they move away, the conversation will automatically close. Moreover, after entering specific places such as cafes, the functions of specific occasions can be triggered.

The official position of the recently launched Party Island by ByteDance is not related to the Metaverse, but it is also regarded as a Metaverse social product by the outside world because of its features such as virtual images and online space. A user who got an invitation code to participate in the internal testing of Party Island told Shenran that its main theme is "activity", which is to find friends to complete certain things together.

However, compared with the above products, Jelly, a new product produced by Yidian Zixun, a subsidiary of Cyber ​​Elephant Group, is aimed directly at social networking among acquaintances. It is based on real map social networking and has an upper limit of 50 friends. The core gameplay is "virtual image + map social networking".

However, many users feel familiar with these features. Some users said they had seen them before on the Spot software, while others said it was like a combination of ZEPETO and Zenly.

Zhou Wenjing, an investor at Chunni Capital who focuses on social networking, believes that Jelly is not very original as a social product. She said, "Jelly is just a mature team that has gathered some mature gameplay."

The gamified social experience of "face pinching", "dressing up" and life simulations is the "core" of the jellies.

Many users were attracted by Jelly's painting style, but after creating the characters, they "don't know what to play next." Some users also complained that "it has the form but lacks the functions that can be experienced repeatedly."

Several Internet product practitioners told Shenran that Jelly currently lacks irreplaceable functions. Internet operations manager Zhang Fengxin said, "All acquaintance social products face the problem of high migration costs." There are many acquaintance social products on the market, but few can really allow users to migrate from WeChat and QQ.

How long will the jellies in the Metaverse packaging remain popular?

A group of young people have lost their interest in the novelty of jelly and are planning to uninstall it.

Su Xin has already used the Jelly less frequently. “After getting familiar with its functions, the frequency of opening the Jelly has dropped by at least half compared to the first few days of downloading it.” Zhou Xing and several of his friends decided to uninstall the Jelly after using it intensively for two days because they felt it consumed too much battery.

Jelly, which was launched not long ago, has already discouraged a wave of users due to its many imperfect basic functions such as lag, crashes, and excessive battery consumption.

The user side is also questioning the product. After topping the free list of the Apple App Store, Jelly was questioned for "leaking user privacy" and using user WeChat and QQ numbers. In response to this question, the official statement denied it and said that the police had been notified. The Jelly product manager also posted a long article on Weibo to explain.

The characters and styles that were considered remarkable were also questioned by many parties as "virtual outfit plagiarism". A blogger said that the outfits in the jelly were exactly the same as those in his past notes. There was also an accessories brand that said that it saw a flower bag in the jelly that was very similar to a crossbody bag created by its brand last year.

Jelly was accused of plagiarism

Image source: Xiaohongshu, Weibo

Social product practitioners are well aware that high download volumes in the early stages are not very meaningful, as user retention is ultimately what matters. However, due to poor product experience, increasing doubts, and a negative impact on word of mouth, Jelly faces considerable challenges in retaining users.

In response to the recent increase in users and online rumors of violations of user privacy, Jelly released an announcement on the evening of February 13, saying that in recent days, Jelly has been subjected to continuous and organized attacks, malicious rumors on major platforms, and negative reviews by internet trolls in the app store, and that it has taken legal action.

Jelly also admitted in the announcement that during the three weeks since it was launched on the shelves, the lag problem has not been solved ("it was so stuck that even the code came out"), and many problems such as delays, crashes, and inability to enter did exist. In order to focus on improving the existing user experience, it proactively removed the app from the App Store and suspended the entry of new users.

Many practitioners said that once users uninstalled the app, it would be twice as difficult to get them to download it again. They all thought it was unlikely that the jelly would continue to be popular.

"It's not easy for any new social product to become popular nowadays," Zhang Fengxin said. At present, many users have a good first impression of Jelly. For an old information company like Cyber ​​Elephant, it is very rare to make a product that abandons its original experience.

But he also emphasized that from the perspective of a "check-up tool", Jelly must be targeted at acquaintances, and the 3D engine can interact with friends in a more concrete and full way. But Jelly's interactivity is not enough. Because what acquaintances really need is a more real-time and online communication method that is free from the limitations of text, voice, and video, that is, what needs to be improved is "social efficiency". At present, Jelly does not meet this standard.

Zhou Wenjing said that social networking among acquaintances has always been more difficult than social networking among strangers. Social networking among strangers can be compatible with each other, for example, users may use Momo, Tantan, and Soul at the same time. However, there are basically only 1-2 social networking products among acquaintances in each hardware product stage. "The vast majority of people are still focused on WeChat or QQ."

But that doesn't mean that the jelly girls who do acquaintance social networking have no chance. In her opinion, acquaintance social networking can only really develop in the stage of hardware replacement. We are currently in the era of transition from mobile phone hardware to VR and AR hardware, and the new round of acquaintance social networking products has just started. When the new hardware is truly popularized, the situation of new products in the field of acquaintance social networking "dominating the world" will be basically formed. It will be too late to enter the market at that time.

"The timing of launching Jelly was right, and the approach of capturing a certain group of people was right." Zhou Wenjing believes that a long-lasting social networking product among acquaintances must have touched the core needs of a certain group of people. Only when it has a market share among this group and forms a network effect can it gradually expand its influence.

Since its launch, Jelly has captured a wave of young people born in the 1990s and 2000s, but it is still a bit far from the standard of "achieving a high market share among a specific population."

The popularity of the previously launched metaverse social concept products has declined. After Hongyu tightened the control of second-hand transactions of virtual houses, many users switched to other platforms. As for Baidu's Xirang, Su Xin believes that "it failed to capture the hearts of young people in terms of packaging and design aesthetics."

Will jelly be a flash in the pan and follow their old path?

Under the concept of the Metaverse, the breakthrough of the next generation of acquaintance social products has already emerged, and they must be more gamified, virtualized, and online. In this context, the answer to the question does not seem to be that important. In 2022, there will be more social products for the "Metaverse" era, and Jelly and them may all belong to the exploration of the chaotic period.

The title image comes from @啫璃App. At the request of the interviewees, Su Xin and Zhou Xinghe are pseudonyms in this article.

Original by Shenrancaijing

Author | Wang Min