Earning opportunities based on WeChat groups

This article explores the commercial potential and limitations of WeChat groups as a community operation tool, and introduces some alternative products and market opportunities. The article points out that although WeChat groups are very popular in daily life and work, their functional limitations have prompted users to look for other tools to meet specific business needs. The author shares some successful cases and emphasizes the importance of payment functions. Reading this article, you will gain a new perspective on the commercialization of WeChat groups and be inspired by how to seize market opportunities through innovative tools.

Discovering a very hidden business, which is easily overlooked by many people under the monopoly of an oligopoly.

But after working on social tools for several years, I discovered that even such an obvious demand can actually make money.

Today I want to share with you a business scenario, that is - [ Group] .

1. Everyone has a group

In everyone's perception, there seem to be only WeChat groups, enterprise WeChat groups, and QQ groups.

Everyone has a few of these groups on their phone, especially after entering society, when there are even more work groups, owner groups, group buying groups, and gossip groups.

In addition, some users may also have DingTalk groups and Douyin fan groups.

2. Business scenarios of groups

The office attributes of the DingTalk group are too strong, and usually people don’t want to open it at all.

On WeChat, people still find many opportunities to make money.

For example, group buying groups, agent groups, membership groups, group buying and flash sale groups, information groups, etc. Therefore, from the perspective of commercial monetization, the value of WeChat groups is very high.

3. Benefits of using groups

So why do people use groups? This is the basis of product demand and monetization.

a. Gathering

WeChat groups are essentially the online virtualization of offline venues. In the past, people needed to find a coffee bar or a conference venue to get together, but now they can just create a group.

b. Integration

Another benefit of the group is that it enables efficient docking, bringing together all people with common business needs to achieve sharing and connection of information and personnel.

4. WeChat Group Restrictions

But why do people still need to look for other group tools when we already have WeChat groups, QQ, etc.?

The core reason is that whether it is WeChat group, QQ group, or Douyin group, there are many shortcomings.

a. Few functions

Some people’s WeChat groups are for sharing resources, so they require a fee, but WeChat groups currently do not support this.

WeChat groups can conduct entry review, but content review and protection cannot be done.

Once a user joins a group, all the information in the group can be easily shared.

b. Strict restrictions

In WeChat groups, the content posted and transaction behaviors are all monitored.

Therefore, many contents cannot be posted, and sometimes sending red envelopes or receiving money will also be restricted, etc.

Of course, in addition to this, there are many functional requirements that cannot be met for the time being, causing many users to look for other alternative products.

5. Users have real needs

Based on my observations over the past year or so, many people simply want a group that integrates all the useful features.

a. Groups can charge fees

b. The group can restrict a person from speaking

c. Groups can supervise content

d. Groups can set speaking time

e. The group has its own file library

f. Groups can have group business cards

g. Groups can have points

There are dozens or even hundreds of such demands. Each person has different needs in different industries.

This is also a WeChat group or QQ group, it is difficult to meet the needs of everyone.

6. Replacement product documentation, H5, etc.

Therefore, some people seek external tools to use as alternative products.

For example, some people will use cloud documents to meet some content sharing needs, some people will use Baidu Netdisk as a material sharing solution, and some will even look for some paid H5 tools.

Then combine it with WeChat groups and QQ groups. For example, some common melon-eating groups use H5 group creation tools because of the sensitivity of the content.

In addition, there are some small tools similar to the previous communities, bulletin boards, and forums, which make up for the scenarios where WeChat groups are not easy to use.

7. Market and industry cases

Don’t think that this market is very niche. In fact, there are many companies that earn 100 or 200 million yuan a year. Let me give you a few examples.

a. Because WeChat groups and QQ groups are inconvenient in group file management, many people use Baidu Netdisk, Quark Netdisk and the like. You may think that everyone only uses these, but there are many niche netdisks that charge annual fees of 399 or 499 and easily make over 10 million in revenue.

b. Because WeChat groups and QQ groups do not have payment and audit functions and are relatively simple, and content storage is extremely inconvenient, social group and circle tools such as Fenchuan APP have emerged.

c. For example, when managing group members, it is impossible to effectively manage the information, needs and incentives of group members to interact within the group, so someone created a points system based on WeChat groups.

d. We also use WeChat groups. It is very troublesome to synchronize multiple groups. Each piece of content requires synchronization by multiple groups. So someone made a tool for synchronizing voice and text among groups.

Some of the above tools may involve violations, but at a certain period of time, many of them made money.

There are still many tools, and it has continued to this day, making it a fairly stable business.

8. The biggest problem is payment

I personally believe that there is still a huge market surrounding the pain points of products such as WeChat groups and QQ groups, as well as the scenario-based needs of some users.

For example, there are resource sharing groups, where purchase and sales information of various products are posted in the group every day.

Some information is time-sensitive, some information is false, and so on.

Then a tool or group application template is needed to meet the needs of such business scenarios, such as displaying group member identities, information validity period, false information identification, etc.

But no matter what kind of tool you make, forum, database, member business card or network disk, the biggest limitation is payment.

Once your ability to receive payments is restricted by WeChat, no matter how good the tool is, you have to close it.

Therefore, in terms of payment collection, if there is a stable product solution, there will also be a good market.

Author: Shili Village

Source: WeChat public account: "Shili Village (ID: shilipxl)"