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Author | Hou Yanting, Kong Yuexin, Editor | Rao Xiafei
Source: combustion dimension
Douban, which is at the top of the wave, is once again "on the news".
On December 13, Douban was named by CCTV.Previously, Douban caused controversy again due to the suspected phenomenon that the ratings of "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" and "Who Is the Murderer" were not broadcast first, and "Water Army" controlled the ratings.In this regard, CCTV said that the platform needs to use technical means to stop such bad network behaviors as online water army.
Douban, born in 2005, is older than Sina Weibo and one of the elders of the Internet.Every time something happens to Douban, the whole network will pay attention to it.
On December 2, the Office of Cyberspace Affairs announced that the Beijing Municipal Internet Information Office had imposed an administrative penalty of 1.5 million yuan on Douban according to law.On the same day, the news triggered a heated discussion among netizens and made a hot search on microblog.
On December 9, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported that 106 apps that had not been rectified as required were taken off the shelf, including Douban, Singbar and other apps. # Douban off the shelf # was again popular on Weibo.
As an interest website, Douban has been iterating for many years. From the early gathering place of Wenqing, to the "spiritual corner" of young people, and now to become a social platform with numerous users and diverse information, Douban is facing the difficulty of balancing user experience, content compliance and commercial realization.
Many contemporary writers who have already made some achievements were given the opportunity to become "beginners" because they wrote diaries in Douban.In 2010, Deng Anqing, the writer, wrote a piece of "Time in the Village" in Douban, which was recommended and commented by a large number of strangers, giving him great encouragement, which also made him stick to writing later. Now, he has published 9 works.
In addition to publishing novels, the writer Mao Lengzheng likes to write strange short stories on Douban. She said to Ran Caijing, "Douban is my own territory. I think it is more important for me to have such a territory to write things and keep the mood of 'I want to write'."
However, with the rapid development of mobile Internet, Douban is also experiencing the pain of users' retention and change.Many people find that douban is no longer the same as it used to be.
Zhang Chang, a post-90s writer, said to Ran Caijing that in the past, friends and neighbors would read in depth and discuss with the author when they wrote an article of 10000 or 20000 words in Douban. Now, people can no longer see what is behind the text. They often can express their emotions and positions by looking at a title. "Douban may be a microcosm of the whole network ecology."
Obviously, it is difficult for Douban to maintain its image as a "spiritual corner" and reach the peak of Internet development.The Internet has experienced growth and climax. Weibo, WeChat and Tiaoyin have captured the traffic of the whole network and quickly realized it, but Douban is still walking slowly.Ji Shisan, the founder and CEO of Guoke.com, told Fuel Finance that "the product module of Douban has its own vitality, and it has not needed to make a big move for more than 10 years. The product development has been relatively modest."
Douban wanted to upgrade and seize the tuyere, but it was not very successful.Zhang Chang believes that "there are still some people in the whole team of Douban who are passionate about spiritual and cultural products such as books and movies, so they do not focus on product logic and do not follow the more commercial logic. Once the tone of the platform has formed and users have gathered, it is actually a very difficult thing to transform to that aspect."
Once, Douban created an important moment in life for many users. Now, Douban is facing the test of "adulthood". How to keep up with the trend of the times while adhering to the original intention is a matter of concern for many users.
A place with echoes
"Douban changed my life." This is the common experience of director Lu Qingyi and writer Deng Anqing.
Four Springs, Lu Qingyi's debut, was released in January 2019. 219000 people watched it on Douban, with a score of 8.8, and won the Best Documentary Award of the 12th FIRST Youth Film Festival.The story of creating this documentary should start with the director's registration of douban.
Source of stills of "Four Springs"/screenshot of Doubanruan Finance
In January 2009, because of downloading a picture material, Lu Qingyi registered his Douban account, but later forgot.Until half a year later, Douban sent an email to let him re-enter the website."At the beginning, I entered the 'photography group', and later found the 'world classic short story reading group', which was discussing some novels that I had not read. It was like opening a door, I saw a completely different scene, which opened my eyes and was very surprised. At that time, I played every day."
"If there is no douban, there may be no film I made later."Lu Qingyi told Ran Caijing that around 2015, he saw an interview with Director Hou Xiaoxian in Douban. "Director Hou told film majors that if they want to make a film, they can do it. How can they know how to start without doing it?" This inspired him. "Previously, I made some family materials, and I think I can also edit a documentary."
However, Lu Qingyi has never learned anything about film production before,"When I decided to cut a documentary, I began to search for all kinds of film knowledge in Douban, such as watching film reviews on good film pages. Some people would recommend professional film books in the reviews, and others would leave their own public accounts. I followed the plan and built up my own film thinking bit by bit."
"Douban is my school."Lu Qingyi said that if he didn't go to Douban now, he would be equivalent to not going online. "Weibo has an account, but it has not logged in for half a year."
Deng Anqing had similar experiences with Lu Qingyi.
"On May 3, 2009, in a small Internet cafe, with the help of my friends, I registered my Douban.com account." Deng Anqing told Fuel Finance exactly this date, "because it is too important for me. I didn't expect that this' Douban 'would bring such a big change to my future life, which can be said to be a complete change. It was just a small act at that time.”
In junior high school, Deng Anqing had published his first novel in a magazine.At that time, he wrote on the book, and the readers were his classmates and friends. They would write comments on the book when they circulated.Later, Sina Blog appeared, and Deng Anqing also tried to post articles on it, but the scope of reading was limited to familiar people.
At the beginning of playing Douban, Deng Anqing paid attention to the "City Noter", a scholar of anthropology and architecture.
"Many of his fans came to see my articles. For the first time, I was recognized by so many strange readers, and more and more people paid attention to me. This inspired me to write a series of articles at one time." In 2010, Deng Anqing wrote dozens of articles in Douban for more than a year, and gained the first batch of ordinary readers.
One day, an editor of a publishing house contacted Deng Anqing on Douban and asked him if he wanted to publish the article.It was published three months later, and my life changed. "
Deng Anqing told Ran Caijing that the first two books were both collections of douban diaries, and later began to write systematically.Up to now, Deng Anqing has published nine literary books, including Kingdom on Paper, Soft Distance, Candy in the Mountains, and some of his works have been translated into English, Italian, Spanish, Danish and other languages.
Deng Anqing pointed out that "there are many publishers and magazine editors on Douban. Before 2016, a large number of writers were discovered from Douban, not through the traditional literary system. They wrote diaries in Douban, and then were photographed by editors, obtaining publishing opportunities."
Zhang Chang also had a similar experience. She wrote a diary in Douban and received a lot of attention. She communicated with the editor of the publishing house. In October this year, she published the first collection of short stories, Our Ordinary Life.She told Ran Caijing, "I have seen their popular articles on Douban, such as Chen Chuncheng, Wang Zhanhei and Ban Yu, when many young writers have not yet come into public view."
Zhang Chang sighed, "Four or five years ago, many friends and neighbors would read carefully and point out the advantages or problems in the works with a sincere attitude, which greatly inspired the creators. This is a very valuable point for me at the beginning of Douban,It's a place that resonates. "
This kind of echo and change between friends and neighbors does not only happen to literary and artistic creators.
As one of the famous shops selling Yunnan green plum on Taobao, the online shop of la vie en rose started from "purchasing" Yunnan mushrooms for Youlin Douban.
In the summer of 2017, la vie en rose was still an employee of a state-owned enterprise. One day, she accidentally flashed a friend's radio, saying that a friend wanted to buy mushrooms while traveling in Yunnan. Do you have any local people to help.She forwarded the broadcast, saying that the market was very close to her company, and she could help buy mushrooms.As a result, a large number of people replied on Douban, and she worked hard for a few days as the agent for buying mushrooms.
Later, la vie en rose was asked if he could make fried chicken fir.Because there were too many people asking, she tried to make 37 bottles in the evening after work, thinking that if she couldn't sell them, she would give them to relatives.As a result, it was sold out within ten seconds after it was put on the shelves, and there were still people placing orders.To be on the safe side, la vie en rose registered a food business license and sold more than 1000 bottles of fried chicken fir.Then, encouraged by her family, she opened a Taobao store and resigned in 2019 to run the store full-time.
"Apart from sharing some food notes in Douban, I don't do much promotion at ordinary times. So two years before the store was opened, Douban friends and neighbors basically came to me to buy products, and now most of the customers are recommended by friends and neighbors." la vie en rose told Fuel Finance.
No longer the original watercress
However, after more than ten years of development, douban is not the same as it was then.Douban has changed, which is the common view of many senior users of Douban.
The original Douban, like the former Slogan "our spiritual corner", most Douban users think that the description is very appropriate.In the past, there were not many users of douban, but the relationship between friends and neighbors was close, and there was a very comfortable and harmonious atmosphere.
Source of Our Spiritual Corner/screenshot of Doubanfen Finance
As one of the founders of the Douban Goose Group and a former administrator who has been in charge of the Goose Group for 8 years, Liu Wuma still remembers vividly, "I remember many activities published on Douban at that time were quite fun, such as # an unforgettable childhood photo, # a package flipping activity, and some offline exhibition activities.On one holiday, we also organized our friends and neighbors in Beijing to climb Fragrant Hill together. The most profound memory is that there are many people. "
In Ji Shisan's opinion, the original douban group was somewhat similar to the function of today's WeChat group, where people can communicate and have the opportunity to participate in offline activities and become friends. Even his first investor was connected through douban.
"In 2009, people still had no idea about Internet investment. At that time, my investor sent me a 'bean mail' (private letter) invitation, and then we met offline to talk about the first investment." Liu Wuma also told Fuel Finance that some of his work was introduced by friends he knew at the beginning.
The resonance in spirit and concept has made many people settle in as Douban users, and also draw their own close friends;Strange neighbors will also become friends in the exchange and collision of Douban.La vie en rose got to know many friends in douban, "I once mailed a winter woolen hat to a strange team member because of an activity initiated by the group, and then we sent postcards to each other for communication, which lasted for two or three years."
However, as one of the Internet communities, Douban is bound to change with the times.With the popularization of smart phones and the massive growth of mobile Internet users, the habits of Internet users have been reshaped, and the Internet environment has also undergone tremendous changes.
"With mobile phones, reading has become fragmented, and people are not interested in reading long articles. With the rise of WeChat public accounts, a large number of authors have lost, and Douban no longer has the original creative ecology." Deng Anqing said that most of his friends and readers are on Douban, but Douban has no longer been regarded as a creative publishing platform.
Lu Qingyi found that, with the influx of a large number of new users of Douban, the pure environment of literary and artistic discussion has been lost. "In the past, some netizens would give me their opinions and help me a lot. Now, people don't like to discuss, quarrel, stand in line, and share emotionally, which is no different from microblog and (WeChat) circle of friends."
Zhang Chang also had the same experience. "In the past, douban was relatively closed, and people here were curious about the world, but this curiosity was not enough to become a driving force to change events." She pointed out that during the epidemic, douban became one of the channels to release information for help. Many people recorded the epidemic here, but also paid attention to social news trends, "and began to express a variety of strong views.”
"After more and more content and voice, the review mechanism of Douban has become more strict, and gradually the content tends to be more similar, but it has been completely different from the original." Because the review cycle of publishing diary has become longer, many creators no longer regard Douban as the first launch platform.Zhang Chang believes that Douban failed to retain these writers, and now it is hard to see the kind of serious "creation" diary.
In addition to the book, video and audio sections, the sense of fragmentation of the Douban team is becoming more and more serious.Liu Wuma recalled, "Most of the early Douban groups were interest groups. People would find people with similar hobbies, and their home pages would be" lively "after paying attention to each other.However, when the group members become more and more, the group is no longer a "private product" of several people. It is more like a platform that needs to be operated to maintain, otherwise it will face less active group members and eventually become silent;Or after the development and expansion, it may be stopped due to poor operation supervision. "
After the rapid expansion of the Douban Goose Group and the arrival of the traffic age, Liu Wuma felt that he had "taken a second job all year round" and his management had become "like walking on thin ice".A large number of fans, entertainers, public relations, water soldiers, etc. are mixed in the daily application for membership, which requires manual review by the administrator;In addition, it is also important for them to keep an eye on whether someone has posted "illegal" posts/content."Because I can't delete others' posts for no reason, I always take a screenshot as evidence before deleting posts, and send emails or private messages to the sender."
In addition to the change in the group atmosphere, Liu Wuma's deepest feeling is that Douban's attitude towards users has changed."In the early days, Douban was very protective of its users, but now something happens that makes people feel helpless. Especially when Douban is facing increasing pressure, I often see on the home page, or hear from friends around me, that more and more people are banned and permanently banned. Some people, I don't even know why they are banned."
Missed "business opportunities"
Despite being a veteran of the Internet, Douban is still a "small factory". There have been some "upgrades" and missed some opportunities.Not only experienced users have sighed, but many Internet users will also express regret for some outlets that Douban missed.
Ji Shisan believes that the product iteration changes most in the years before the founding of Douban, and the changes are relatively small in these years.During this period, although Douban also made many attempts, it was a pity that it was not very successful.
Douban is most likely to be commercialized. It is generally considered as a Douban movie.According to the late LatePost report, the former staff of Douban said that the film team had rushed the market share of film tickets to the second place in the market with a team size of 2 or 30 people at that time, "the cat's eyes were trampled by them".But Abe quickly shut down the business.
Although they missed the tuyere, many people, including Ji Shisan, understood Abe's approach.In his opinion, it is difficult for Douban to grasp this commercialization opportunity
Lu Qingyi also believes that it is too difficult to commercialize Douban movies
However, compared with deploying "heavy troops" in a certain field and doing a commercial content in a vertical field, Abe may prefer to copy offline urban life online.Ji Shisan said, "It's just like the Alpha City developed by Douban at the beginning - a 'online city' with a new concept."
However, the product with advanced concept was not accepted by users in time.La vie en rose has experienced Alfa City. She thinks that Alfa City will give users a very real neighborhood experience, which can build deeper emotional connections outside of books, videos, radio, and groups, which are not available in social media today."At that time, Alpha City was online for a long time, and some friends and neighbors and I didn't understand what it was. Later, when we gradually understood its functions, experienced fun and became fascinated with it, the product was disabled."
Ji Shisan recalled that when the infrastructure was not complete, "it was too forward-looking. Although it was like a virtual world, it was essentially a PC product. The technical conditions at that time were not convenient for users to operate or use." This also led to Alpha City becoming one of the many disabled products of Douban.
Another gradually declining product of douban is douban FM.At that time, Zhang Chang often used Douban FM, such as reading, sports and other scenes, and there were hundreds of music marked with hearts. "But later, when I clicked in, many of the music had no copyright, so the use was not so smooth, and gradually no one used it."
Douban FM homepage source/screenshot of fuel finance
She still remembered that two or three years ago, the product manager of Douban FM contacted her and some long-term users, drew a group, conducted user surveys, and said that they wanted to improve, "but I don't know why, and I didn't see them improve later."
In fact, in 2010 and 2011, Douban FM often sued Kugou, Kuwo and Xiami because of copyright issues. The advertising revenue was not good, and it could not support the copyright fee of 10 million yuan. This product could not win the market competition in the end.
In recent years, Internet platforms have been swarming with e-commerce businesses, and Douban has also been involved, but it is still unsatisfactory. Users feel embarrassed to "generate power for love".
The douban market (bean products) sold around douban has been complained about by users more than once as "ugly" and impractical, often accompanied by a large number of complaints out of the circle.Even some old users want to support Douban and spend money on it, but they don't know what to buy.
Liu Wuma said that he would only look at the douban calendar.La vie en rose also said that she had only bought something like a laptop, and that she had no way to start with other douban. She had no chance to support douban. "There are too few types around, and there is really nothing I want to buy or use.Before Douban, there were canvas bags and water cups that everyone wanted to buy, but they were all free gifts. The gifts were better than the sales... "
In the opinion of la vie en rose, douban market seems not to be paid much attention to, especially before there was no entrance to douban market on the home page of douban. "I and some friends and neighbors usually go to the market when something happened to douban, such as being fined. Can we buy something to support it? Otherwise, I can't remember to search and browse."
The latest official group buying group of Douban, "Douxiaopu", was also complained by users.Sciencecat, a popular science blogger in psychology, told Huo Caijing that the previous mode of Dou Xiaopu was to enter the group and reply to comments before purchasing more goods. "Recently, the group reply function was disabled, so this mode was canceled. Why is this?" She believed that Douban's desire to make money was not a problem, but it was not smart enough to master the ability to make money, and no one could blame others for losses,"I will not buy things that I am not interested in in order to support Douban."
However, despite no great commercial achievements, in Ji Shisan's opinion, Douban is still the most influential product in the eyes of a generation of Internet users.Until now, whenever there is "wind and grass", Douban still causes many people to discuss, proving that its influence is still there.
"Douban can't measure its success completely by DAU or whether it is listed or not. From another dimension, it has existed for more than ten years. At present, there are tens of millions of daily activities in the whole network of App and PC terminals. The user quality is also very high, and early investors have also received good returns."
"As a product written by Abe alone in Douban Hutong in the early years, I think it has been very successful." Ji Shisan affirmed.
reference material:
Abe is not the boss, Douban is not the company. Source: LatePost later
*The title comes from Visual China.Mao Lengnan, la vie en rose, Liu Wuya and Sciencecat are the user names of douban
(Statement: This article only represents the author's view, not Sina.com's position.)
