In recent years, the scale of the payment for knowledge industry has continued to expand. According to data from iiMedia Consulting, the market scale of the payment for knowledge industry in China has expanded rapidly since 2017, reaching 39.2 billion yuan in 2020 and is expected to reach 67.5 billion yuan by 2021.
Recently, Zhihu released a set of data showing that as of December 2020, the total number of questions on Zhihu has exceeded 44 million, and the total number of answers has exceeded 240 million. In the field of paid content, Zhihu has more than 2.5 million monthly active paying users, more than 3 million total content, and more than 3 billion annual visitors.
In 2020, the number of paid knowledge users ushered in a small climax, an increase of about 40% over the same period. On the one hand, affected by the epidemic, people cannot go to work and study normally, and the knowledge payment platform allows people to achieve the purpose of learning and growth without leaving home, and the user group can achieve rapid growth in a moment.
On the other hand, under the influence of the epidemic, many industries are facing huge challenges. Business closures and layoffs have occurred frequently, and employment pressure has increased. Therefore, people use fragmented time to learn various knowledge and skills online to enhance their self-worth. .
The knowledge payment industry has not developed for a long time, but it has formed a tens of billions of market scale, mainly due to the following factors:
First of all, Internet technology is mature, and people are accustomed to obtaining all kinds of information they need through the Internet, and are absorbing new cross-border knowledge all the time. Obtaining valuable and effective information has become a new pain point for users.
Secondly, people’s desire for knowledge has increased, and modern society has developed rapidly, and higher requirements have been placed on people’s knowledge reserves and personal skills, prompting people to have to improve themselves through learning to adapt to society;
Thirdly, now is an information explosion society, all kinds of information are flooded in people's lives, knowledge payment can help everyone to filter out the information they want from the massive information center.
In addition, with the popularization of mobile payment and the improvement of infrastructure facilities, new payment methods have been provided for knowledge payment.
According to statistics, in 2013, the transaction scale of third-party mobile payment in my country was only 1.2 trillion yuan. By 2018, the transaction scale of third-party mobile payment in my country reached 190.5 trillion yuan, which has increased by more than a hundredfold in 6 years. The popularity of it provides convenience for knowledge payment.
In recent years, payment for knowledge content has bred some mature types including Q&A, columns, platforms, reports, etc. The content forms are continuously enriched, and the range of users' choices is becoming wider and wider.
The rise of the payment for knowledge market provides everyone with a more cost-effective way to learn. Various payment platforms for knowledge are emerging one after another. An exclusive online education system is built to not only improve user experience, but also facilitate students to learn anytime, anywhere.
So, how should knowledge paying players build an online platform?
Work with third-party technical service providers, Makers, to build online education platforms such as WeChat official accounts, mini programs, APPs, PC online schools, etc., saving time and effort, and providing users with a variety of knowledge payment needs.
In order to deliver a better learning experience to users, teaching and learning are unified, allowing users to learn online and get an offline experience. Knowledge-paying players have appeared in training camp teaching with courses as the main body of learning, with homework, community, and activity operation supporting learning forms, so that everyone's learning becomes more efficient.
For knowledge-paying players, the training camp companion period of as little as 7 days and as long as 21 days can cultivate user stickiness, cultivate a group of loyal fans, and store traffic pools for further realization.
With the rapid development of the Internet, knowledge-paying players can also use coupons, invitation cards, group joining and other marketing methods to expand brand awareness, similar to the marketing methods that appear in the e-commerce field, and use social networking through tools such as interest-related distribution or group joining. The relationship chain is spread, which further promotes the development of the knowledge payment industry.
In addition to focusing on marketing and promotion, follow-up services must also keep up, because knowledge itself will change, follow-up updates and answers are also extremely important. In the service and interaction links, the maker craftsman provides functions such as community, evaluation, and Q&A, which can help students consolidate what they have learned in class and test the effect of learning.
At present, the development of the paid-for-knowledge market has broad prospects. Whether or not to grasp these new market opportunities to usher in explosive growth is not only a huge challenge for the current paid-for-knowledge practitioners, but also an opportunity to break through and become a leader in the industry.