【Original #3】NetEase Cloud Music, a Player and a Music Community

       Tired of looking for your favorite music in the vast ocean of information? Want to share your personal feelings with other music lovers? Going to create your own playlists? Then NetEase Cloud Music is the place you should go. At that place, the music will find you.

NetEase Cloud Music, which was released in2013, is a Chinese platform which offers on-demand music-streaming service. Different from general music player apps, NetEase Cloud Music not only has main functions such as music playing, searching and downloading services, but also provides social services to its users. UntilJuly 2016, NetEase Cloud Music had more than 200 million users, with more than10 million songs, 1,500 signed singers, and more than 100 million playlistscreated by users. It also was selected as one of the "Rising StarBrands" by China's widely-read economic journal CBN Weekly in October,2016, because of its excellent performance of music service. And it is the onlymusic application which won that glory.

 Unlike other Chinese music applications, NetEase Cloud Music tries it best to create a music community where users can communicate with each other, rather than only provides general music services. By using NetEase Could Music, users can not only searching, listening, and downloading their favorite music, but also leaving comments, uploading lyric, adding tags, and sharing them to third-party social networking sites. By clicking different buttons, users can reply or “like” other people's comments, and comments which got most “like”s will be stay on the top of the comments area. By using this function, it is convenient for users to share detailed information and their personal feelings of certain music. Netease Cloud Music official holds regularly online thematic activities about music as well, such as interviews of bands and music creators, or introductions of different theme music. All of these features can guarantee the user's activity in Netease Cloud Music.

Personalization is also a major highlight of Netease Cloud Music. Every NetEase Cloud Music user can create multiple “personal playlists”, and was able to add his or her favorite songs to these playlists at any time. Users can also choose to share their personal playlists to the public. Once these personal playlists were shared, other users can also leave comments, share these playlists to third-party social media, or collect these playlists in their “Playlists Collection”, and was able to listen to these playlists at any time. 

By using a technology tool called acoustic fingerprint, which can bedefined as a condensed digital summary that used to identify an audio sampleor quickly locate similar items in an audio database, NetEase cloud music can analyze user's historical play records, then recommend similar music and playlists that they would like to them. Every day you log in NetEase cloud music, you will see “Daily Music Recommendation For You” and “Playlists You May Like” on your front page, which allows you to discover music that fit your taste more easily. Broadcast service is also offered by NetEase Cloud Music, which allows users to upload their personal broadcasts and share them to the public. Users can subscribe broadcasts they in favor of, and receive notifications as soon as these broadcasts updates. By using these functions, users of NetEase cloud music would not be worried about any problems of discovering music. On NetEase cloud music, you are not only searching for the music. Actually, the music comes to you.

As what Zhu Yiwen, the NetEase Cloud Music CEO, said in hisinterview, on NetEase Cloud Music, “userexperience should always come first”. NetEase Cloud Music is both a player and a music community, and users are the one who take control there. For the person who not only wants to find their favorite music, but also prefers to communicate with others, NetEase Cloud Music is the place to be.

【Reading Reaction #2】Zhihu, A Community for Helping Each Other

        Nowadays, people online prefer to get information from each other rather than gain them from traditional institutions. For online communities, sharing and communication are becoming more and more important than before. To pursue this groundswell, companies should try their best to understand and support their users. Zhihu, a Chinese question-and-answer website which may have similar functions as Quora, has already made it.

     Zhihu, which means “Do you know?” in Classical Chinese, was released to the public on January 26, 2011. Five years later, Zhihu already had 50 million registered users and the average daily active users amounted to 13 million. It had produced a total of 10 million questions, 34 million replies and 35 million approvals until May, 2016. In order to become attractive and successful, Zhihu pursues the groundswell by listening, energizing and supporting its users.

First of all, Zhihu uses different ways to get suggestions from its users for improvement. As what Liand Bernoff mentioned in their book about groundswell, companies should use the groundswell in order to better understand their customers. That was what Zhihu did. As a question-and-answer website, Zhihu has a function called “Personal Mail”, which allows users to send messages to each other on Zhihu.

And there is an official account called “Zhihu little steward” on its website. By sending personal mails to this official account, every user can ask questions and give suggestions to Zhihu officials. Zhihu also has its official account on Sina Weibo, a third party social networking site, which means it can get advises and reviews from third parties’ users as well. Zhihu also uses these official accounts to distribute questionnaires yearly in order to get comments from users. By getting feedback in different ways, Zhihu can seek customer insights and improve itself on time.
        What’s more, Zhihu also encourages users to participate more actively in community activities. According to Li and Bernoff’s book, companies should find their most enthusiastic customers and use the groundswell to supercharge them. Zhihu holds a monthly event called “Zhihu Round Table” which invites multiple experts to write answers to a carefully selected question. It also releases a weekly e-magazine called “Zhihu Weekly” to all the users.

Each issue of the magazine will have a special theme, which contains all the popular questions of the particular subject. And the answers which got most approvals will be edited and included in this magazine. By joining in these activities, users can not only get more information, but also show themselves and become well-known in this community.  Users whose answers have been edited to Zhihu Weekly will also get certain payments.

         Besides, as a question-and-answer website, Zhihu pays much attention to methods which can help users to support each other. All the questions in Zhihu are created, answered, edited and organized by the community of its users. If a user feels that there is something wrong with the description of a question, he or she can change it at any time, while other users can view the historical edition of this question.

Zhihu also has a voting mechanism as same as Quora. Users can vote for the answers which they think to be useful, and answers which got most approvals would stay at the top above all the answers.

By using the function called “Focus”, users can follow questions and other users they are interested in. The “Discover” function allows users to find the most popular questions containing the trending answers on the website. Users can also use the “Topic” function to collect recent contents from the topics that they follow.

Zhihu also designed a mobile app called “DuDu Daily” to allow users to personalize and recommend their favorite contents on Zhihu. By using this app, users can design a personalized magazine for themselves. All the methods Zhihu uses will help users to communicate and support with each other better.

     With the development of information technology, compared to the past, online users tend to get things they need from each other now. As a website aims to let users share, communicate and support each other, Zhihu understands the importance of listening, energizing and supporting users. By using different strategies, Zhihu knows how to pursue the groundswell and fit users’ needs. That is also why Zhihu became attractive and successful.

Hitchhikers' Guide To Zhihu (Chinese Ver.)

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【Original #2】Douban: Designed for Sharing

Do you want to share your opinions of the latest movie? Would you like to discuss your favorite songs with others? Are you going to upload your original reviews about the newest novels? Then you are welcome to Douban, a social networking site designed for sharing.

Douban, aChinese website which mainly serviced for college students and white-collar urbanites,was founded in March, 2005. In 2012, Douban had over 100 million users. As a socialnetworking site, Douban offered "lifestyle and culture", which allowed its users to share reviews of books, movies, television programs, animations, games and music. By sharing information and experience to each other, Douban encourages its users to communicate with others more.

On the one hand, Douban allows its users to share different kinds of information to each other. Like most Web 2.0 sites, the contents of Douban are mainly posted by its users. Users can upload detail information of music, books, movies, games, apps and so on. By clicking different buttons, Douban users can collect their favorite entries, leave comments, score entries by giving stars, and share this information to other social media sites. In September 17, 2013, Douban added anew function called “Douban Things”. By sharing information and leaving comments of users experience about different products, this function can help users to find their favorite goods. Based on the analysis of users' collections of movies, books and music, Douban will offer other similar recommendations to its users by using its unique algorithm. Douban will also give a list called " Things Douban guesses you will like", in order to recommend music, books or movies which users may get interested in. In September 2013, Doubanhad 16.7 million book entries, 320 million movie reviews, 1.06 million musicentries, 27,000 independent musicians and 380,000 groups of various interest. 

On the other hand, Douban also offers opportunities to encourage users to interact with each other. After the user provides a certain amount of collection information, Douban may use its algorithm to find other users who have the same taste, which allows users to find other people who have similar interests, join different theme groups and communicate with

others. Users who live in the same area can use the function called “Douban Location” to exchange second-hand things such as books and CDs. This function also allows users to find detail information and register for public activities hold in their cities such as public concerts or book salons. By using “Douban Location”, users live nearby can join offline activities together as soon as possible.

As a social networking site, Douban not only allows its users to share information and opinions online, but also encourage them to communicate more offline. This is Douban, a website design for sharing. If you are a person who cannot wait to post your reviews about books, share your comments of movies or recommend your favorite songs, then wherever you are, Douban is the place to be.

"Douban: My Inner Place", a short video about Douban.

【Reading Reaction #1】Sina Weibo: Who Pursues the Groumdswell Attracts More Users

As the information technology develops rapidly, people can draw more strength form individuals than before. Instead of getting things they need from companies, people nowadays prefer to get them from each other by the help of advanced technologies. This social trend can be called as the groundswell. Sina Weibo, a social media which followed the groundswell, has proved its value.

Sina Weibo is a social networking site which mainly provides Chinese microblogging service for its users, and “weibo” means “microblog” in Chinese. It was launched by Sina Corporation in August, 2009, and its users increased to 140 million by the end of the first quarter of 2011. By the third quarter of 2015, Sina Weibo has 222 million subscribers and 100 million daily users. What made Sina Weibo become so attractive? The answer is that it uses appropriate strategy to pursue the groundswell.

 

On the one hand, by offering different functions, Sina Weibo allows its users to better interact with each other. As a social networking site, Sina Weibo knows that its most important function is connecting. As what Charlene and Josh mentioned in theirbook “Groundswell: Winning in A World Transformed by Social Technologies”, a qualified social networking site should provide service such as profile maintainability and friendly interaction to its members, which may encourages its users to connect with each other more often. This is what Sina Weibo did. Users of Sina Weibo can create their personal profiles when they first register this site, and these profiles can be edited at any time. By checking others’ profiles, it is easy to find people who associated with you or strangers who have same interests with you. Their posts will appear on your “Home Page” of your Sina Weibo as soon as you clicked their “Focus” button. Sina Weibo also allows its users to upload different materials such as text messages, audios, music, saved pictures, emoji, GIFs, links, websites and short videos, which can help them to express their opinions and experience more vividly. Users can even add their own comments when quoting and sharing others’ posts. Sina Weibo also offers hashtag service to its users. While submitting their posts, users can create a hashtag to emphasize the topic of their posts. By searching posts with hashtags, users can find out information and opinions which have strong connections to current hot topics and live events easily. All these services Sina Weibo provides can make their users to communicate with others better and more convenient.

On the other hand, Sina Weibo also tries its best to improve its service in order to fits the users’ needs. Sina Weibo has an official custom service micro-blog account on its site called “Sina Custom Service”. It usually posts the latest improvement and introduces new functions of Sina Weibo on its home page. Users can also send their questions to this official account and get useful answers as soon as possible by using the “personal message” function. In February 2016, after collected several feedbacks, Sina Weibo removed its 140-character limit and allowed users to post up to 2000 characters in length. This new improvement really surprised lots of users and received the user's welcome immediately, which meant that they can add more contents in their posts. By listening to its customers and using innovation strategies on time, Sina Weibo attracts more users step by step.

As time passing by, people can get more information from each other, and the power of online users should not be ignored. Sina Weibo figured this out immediately and used strategies on time, which made it became more attractive. In this era, social media who pursues the groundswell may attract more users. Sina Weibo is a good example.

【Original #1】Every Chinese loves WeChat

When Americans want to share pictures, send messages, or make video calls with their close friends, they may use Facebook, Messenger, or Skype. However, when you ask Chinese what kinds of apps they use to do the same things above, they may answer that they only need WeChat. WeChat, a free instant messaging application developed by Tencent company, may become one of the most popular apps in China.

WeChat, which is usually called as “Wei Xin” in Chinese, was first released in January, 2011. Just one year later, the number of WeChat users increased to 200 million. In March 2016, WeChat had about 700 million Monthly Active Users and 90% of them were Chinese (BI Intelligence). Why makes WeChat so successful? The answer may be simple. The strategies of differentiation and innovation WeChat used made it more convenient and attractive.

First of all, WeChat is a messaging app which has lots of different functions: advertising, E-commerce, digital content, online-to-offline services and finance (The Economist). By scanning the WeChat QR codes, customers can add other people to their contact list. Users can share different ways of instant messages, including text messages, voice messages, emoji, stickers, and even files with both individuals and friends in a group chat by using WeChat. Other things such as live and previously saved pictures, namecards of other users, coupons, current GPS location and Red Packets with money can be sent on WeChat as well. Video chatting is also available on WeChat, which means Chinese international students who are studying abroad can have a face-to-face chatting with their friend and relatives who stay in China at any time. WeChat customers can share their personal experience by using the function called Moments, and get response by other members in their “Friend Zone”. People can also play some online games on WeChat and share their scores on Moments, which is the same function as Facebook.

Another useful function WeChat has is a digital wallet service called WeChat Pay. Users can connect their debit or credit card to their own WeChat payment account, and then set a personal code to active this function when they want to pay bills online or transfer money to each other. This function allows Chinese users to send Red Packets, which can be formally called as “Lucky Money”, to each other during Spring Festival. In China, people believe that if you give others a small amount of money with red packets and special wishes, it will bring good fortune to both the sender and the receiver. To send a Red Packet, you just need to click the “red packet” button on the menu, and then fill in the number of Red Packets and how much money you want to send, attached with your special greetings. After that, input the PIN code of your WeChat payment account and choose the receivers. Then you are all set. After receiving in a Red Packet within your chat, just tap it and see what is inside, the money will transfer to your WeChat payment account as soon as you open it. During the holiday period of 2016, about 3.2 billion Red Packets were sent by WeChat users (Fast Company).

Compared to other apps, WeChat combined different functions together, which made its customers more convenient to communicate with others. More important is that customers can download WeChat for free from online app stores. Free and easy-to-use became the most advantage of WeChat. That is the main reason why more and more Chinese choose to use WeChat and its organization profits from it.