The "Mazar War" that was raging a while ago has a new plot. After the "cage fight" appointment was stopped by Musk's mother in time, Musk once again opened his mouth to Zuckerberg on July 9th. This time not only scolded Xiao Zha as a bastard, but also publicly compared him? ! ! This time Musk's crazy remarks made netizens call him either crazy or his account was stolen.
"Melon-eating people" from all walks of the Internet are delighted to hear and see the gangsters fighting like a child's play, and they wave their flags and shout! So many people have forgotten that this farce started with a business war: at the beginning of the "Mazar War", the young Zuckerberg took the lead and swung a left hook-Threads, which caught the old horse by surprise.
Threads is nicknamed "Twitter Killer" by netizens. The number of users of the app exceeded 30 million in just one day after its launch. Among them, there are many celebrities from all walks of life who have fled from Twitter. Public opinion generally believes that this is the most serious crisis that Twitter has encountered in the 17 years since its launch.
Immediately afterwards, Musk also made a right uppercut, and a lawyer's letter challenged Xiao Zha, saying that Meta company "illegally misappropriated Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property rights." Although Meta company responded quickly, denying that there are former employees of Twitter among its team members. But such a response does not seem to be strong. Threads is similar to Twitter in terms of function and UI design, and stated in related publicity that Threads "has a good operation" and called it an absolute success for Twitter in the current "chaos". good substitute.
In the first round of the social platform battle, Xiao Zha launched a fierce offensive against Lao Ma. How will Musk organize an effective counterattack quickly in addition to slapping his mouth after taking a stuffy punch?
Will it be the "non-secret weapon" App X — App of Everything?
Super App or Twitter's counterattack
Going back to last year, before the acquisition of Twitter, Musk made a bold statement that he would create a super app (Super App) that he called "App X" with all-inclusive functions. In his vision, the super "App X” is like a multi-functional Swiss Army Knife, capable of taking care of the daily life of users, including: social networking, shopping, taxi, payment and so on. He hopes that this app can become the first platform in the United States that integrates food, clothing, housing, and transportation. The acquisition of Twitter seems to have given him the possibility to transform and realize this super app.
Musk said frankly that this was inspired by WeChat's business model. WeChat has always been regarded as a representative of "super application", as an all-in-one platform that meets various needs of users, including instant messaging, social networking, payment and so on. At the Twitter all-staff meeting in June last year, Musk said that "we don't have an application as good as WeChat, so my idea is why not learn from WeChat." Musk also wrote on Twitter that "purchasing Twitter is an accelerator to create App X, which is a super App (Everything App)."
Since his tenure at Twitter, Musk has accelerated the pace of development of the super "App X". Compared with WeChat, in addition to social functions, payment and e-commerce will also be launched. Obtaining a regulatory license is an important first step in realizing payment services, and payment has also become the first step in Twitter's transformation into a super "App X". In addition to the necessity of business, this move has a sense of fate. You know, Musk started from the payment industry. In 1999, he invested 12 million US dollars and co-founded X.com with former Intuit CEO Bill Harris, and this company was the predecessor of PayPal.
Twitter has begun applying for federal and state regulatory licenses, the Financial Times reported in January. At the same time, Twitter is developing an electronic payment function internally, and will integrate other financial services in the future to achieve the ultimate goal of a super app.
But outside of Asia's "super app" giants, there is little precedent for messaging apps implementing payment services, with neither WhatsApp nor Telegram offering similar services. Can Twitter under the leadership of Lao Ma succeed?
Adding the ability to pay is only the first small step towards "super". The challenge lies in how to involve "everything": digital services for basic necessities, food, housing, and transportation, and business scenarios in various industries. In the WeChat world, everything = small programs. Does Lao Ma also want to develop a Twitter version of the applet technology and create a "Twitter applet" universe?
"Super App" technology has achieved universalization
In fact, Musk is not the only supporter of the "Super App" technology concept in Europe and the United States. Super-app ambitions have been a staple of American corporate management's cool PowerPoint presentations for years, and even Wal-Mart has considered a super-app plan.
Super applications are also mentioned in the top ten strategic technology trends that enterprises need to explore in 2023 released by the global authoritative consulting organization Gartner. And predicts that by 2027, more than 50% of the world's population will become daily active users of multiple super apps.
Foreign Internet giants have begun to flock to super app technology, but is super app technology only owned by giants? the answer is negative. Internet technology is often 5 to 7 years ahead of enterprise applications, and now this technology is entering the world of enterprise software, and any enterprise in any industry can own it.
A technology called "small program container" is the core of building a super app, and it has been fully popularized and commercialized. In principle, the technical implementation of a super app revolves around a content carrier, which is composed of three technologies: the content carrier is usually some form of "light application" - the easiest for readers to understand, of course, is the small program, the Digital scenes appear in the form of small programs. There is a good chance that Musk will develop something similar in the process of transforming Twitter into what he calls App X. Anyway, this is called a small program in China, and in the standard being formulated by W3C, it is called Mini-App. Let's just follow the habit that everyone can easily understand, and call this "light application" a small program.
Around the applet, a super app needs to implement "safety sandbox" + "runtime" on the device side, responsible for downloading the applet from the Internet, closing it in a safe isolation environment, and then explaining the content of running the applet; "Mirror" (that is, code package) is published in the small program application store in the cloud, for super App users to dynamically download to the device to run on demand when they use a certain business scenario or service – on demand Ready to use and disposable. The Mini Program App Store is responsible for the release management of the "four-state integration" (development, testing, grayscale, and production) of the mini program's cloud image.
What does it mean for an enterprise to have its own super app? It is a super-rich business scenario, a super-diversified cooperation ecology, a super-number of content developers, and a super-agile operating capability. Compared with traditional, closed, and chimney-like Apps, Super Apps are actually technical means to help companies break through traditional boundaries, establish safe and open strategies, and exchange digital resources with partners. It truly enables an enterprise to have a platform-based business model. Accelerate digital transformation, enhance your online connection to the world, and create your own network effects.
Super App is not an App -- Be A "world" platform
Super App + applet, this is not a patent of the Internet big platform. For traditional enterprises, there are at least three reasons for considering building their own super app:
First of all, the world has been suffering from app stores for a long time. Obviously it is purely a business decision-making behavior within the enterprise. To release a certain function or service to its own App to reach its own customer service market, this release has to go through irrelevant third parties (App stores) approve. Imagine that you are a bank, and now you plan to update a certain credit card service function in your "digital credit card" app. Your IT has completed development and testing, and your credit card owner department has made an acceptance. Your compliance , risk control, and legal departments are interlocked and approved through the internal OA system. Now the process has reached Apple, Google... Waiting in line for review, and finally the process returns to IT. The server side cooperates and officially opens the gate. Your credit card service function has a dime relationship with Apple and Google? But sorry, they have the final say in your approval process.
If an enterprise can control the granularity of the technical implementation of business content, control the release through its own "service store" and "business content store", and keep the "host" app stable, then Apple and Google don't have to worry about your app. Every update will not bring security holes or other risky behaviors.
Second, to become a "world platform", enterprises should have such a "mind" and strategies. Although you may not have world-class traffic if you are not Tencent or Twitter, this does not prevent you from becoming a platform in the business world in your own market segment. My partners become my ecology, even if that "world" only exists in one vertical field. And this is digital transformation. Talking about so many "digital transformation" concepts, it is better to first land a technology platform as a carrier, talk is cheap, show me the code. When you have a super app and hundreds of small programs in your own business world, your business has been digitally transformed.
Third, adopting super apps is the most effective cloudization strategy. The content of you and your partners is moved to the cloud as small programs, and the device side is only the entrance to load, run and securely control the content of these small programs. In a small mobile phone, the "size" limits the productivity of enterprise IT - it is impossible to squeeze too large a team for too many engineers to develop and produce at the same time, and move everything to the cloud, where the space is infinite, and the enterprise No longer limited by "size", on the cloud, you can expand your technical team without an upper limit, develop in parallel, do not know each other and do not disturb each other, and provide you with unlimited content. How did the millions of small programs on the big Internet platform come about? Parallel development, rapid iteration, low-cost trial and error, unlimited supply of content scenarios, such a technical architecture, is it worth learning from enterprises?
Be the "World Platform" in your own market segment and industrial universe. The development of technology has made it all within your fingertips. Maybe when Musk is still talking about "App of Everything", your super app is already ripe. Wow fell to the ground.