The development of mobile news clients in 2015 has matured, with particular competition for user resources. However, the share of the three main players in the mobile news client market varies significantly, and the internet media client, headed by “news” and “headlines today”, has become a major player, based on average download data from the client in 2014 and the first quarter of 2015. Two
This is mainly due to the fact that internet media clients are mostly created by branded portals, have access to a wealth of internet resources and have a deep sense of how to apply their rich internet dissemination experience to mobile terminals. Consistency information clients, on the other hand, dominate information production, using ugc and aac information production models, i. E. User production of content and algorithmic content. The combination of the two modes of production is better able to achieve precision content transfer and attract user attention。
By contrast, traditional media appear to be somewhat “innate”: they start late and have a weak online user base, while the development potential of their mobile terminals has yet to be realized, owing to a lack of technical experience and traditional dissemination thinking。
In 2015, the pattern of multi-level rivalries was gradually stabilized, with differentials within the various levels. The development of differentiation has become an important way for different mobile news clients to access the attention of users and is one of the channels for increasing visibility. The difference is particularly marked by the development of mobile news clients in internet-based media, represented by the four portals, namely, internet access, news alerts, and search for foxes。
(ii) service development in all its dimensions
Building on the evolution of differentiation, mobile news clients have begun to deepen the functionality of their clients and actively explore and build social communication platforms to provide a full range of services to users, as well as media platforms and multi-faceted outreach, leading to deep internal and external development of mobile news clients。
Mobile news clients actively explore and develop in-depth information delivery, news content presentation, functional menus and humanized services。
Currently, the mobile news client uses information subscriptions and personalizations. Users can subscribe to content or local news of interest to them, achieve precision and reduce reading costs. In addition, the back-office will be customized for dissemination based on user viewing of data。
In order to enable users to access information efficiently and in a short period of time, users of mobile news clients are informed of news events, even if they do not ask for details, by combining summary maps with bold headings and by using a guide. In addition, mobile clients fully exploit the advantages of the internet by using mobile video and audio to spread information across screens and by combining audio and video with extended user sensory experience. For example, in the “9/3” parade, the news campaign created a home-made 3d virtual studio and innovative live broadcast technology。
In addition to the diversity of news messages, major mobile news clients are constantly upgrading their multifunctional menus, which allow users to enter the relevant sections directly and quickly. For example, the daily people's journal focuses on the relevant information on government matters by setting up a menu of `government', in conjunction with its own positioning。
At this stage, mobile news clients have gone beyond simple news dissemination and are constantly using habits and preferences to target users and innovative port services. For example, major ports have diversified their interactions with users in the form of posts, comments, praises and the development of life services and community platforms. At the same time, humanization services are an important means, such as setting up off-line transmissions, providing access to information in an off-grid environment, and offering a more friendly night mode depending on the user's use of peak hours。
At the same time, mobile news clients are focusing on outreach, multi-platform sharing, creating mobile media branding and joint development。
(iii) changing thinking to create a new ecology for the media
According to the fast track institute, the penetration of news clients among smartphone users reached 64. 5 per cent in the third quarter of 2015. Of these, 74. 7 per cent of users start mobile news clients for an average of more than two minutes, and users are increasingly dependent on mobile news clients. As a result, mobile news clients have become the main source of information for users。
The underlying cause is the shift in operational thinking, whereby operators are no longer limited to the removal of content, but rather develop internet thinking to the full, with users at the centre, innovations from mobile technology, research and development models, etc., and the development of user habits and user adhesion。
In socialized communication patterns, users gradually penetrate every link of the mobile communication chain and the industrial chain, as a result of which high levels of user stickiness become the competitive nature of mobile news clients. In the process of accessing users through mobile ports, internet thinking has evolved into that of service users。
In the new media ecology, mobile news clients focus on user-serving thinking, with a wide and deep mass of information content, making full use of big data analysis for precision delivery, and building a community-based platform for all service users, integrating content, data, platforms, users, innovative production, dissemination, feedback and business models, driving new ecological formations of social, mobile and digital media, changing the traditional media ecosystem and serving as a tool for shaping the new ecosystem of the media。
Development dilemma for mobile news clients
(i) lack of identity and homogenization bureau
In 2015, while many mobile news clients have been innovative in many ways, it is not difficult to discern the homogenization of mobile news clients at this stage。
The first is the phenomenon of interface homogenization. Unlike microblogging and twitter, mobile news clients have an independent operating platform that allows them to design their pages according to their own location and features. However, most mobile news clients, such as the “web-eyed news” “fox search news” “people's daily”, have adopted top-level subscriptions to content, bottom-line functional menus, medium-formulation models, with a high level of homogenization of page design, which reduces the visibility of media brands at mobile ports. Then the top “show” was slightly innovative on the interface, eliminating the top and bottom column settings and moving the plate directly to the left and right。
The second is the homogenization of information content. Since the emergence of mobile news clients, news reproduction, reproduction and copying have prevailed, leading to a high level of homogenization of information. In the age of mobile internet, mass information brings a wealth of information resources to mobile news clients, filtering and excavating valuable information across a wide range of messages and highlighting media brands as essential to the safety of mobile news clients。
Once again, the transfer mode homogenization. At this stage, most mobile news clients use personalized subscriptions or information delivery based on user habits. The homogenization of the delivery mode allows users to meet their information needs regardless of which client port they select, making it difficult for mobile news clients to achieve a genuine personalization of delivery, creating a unique competitive advantage。
The two main reasons for homogenization are the fact that mobile news clients have their own technology applications and that their development has the potential for “crash shirts”; and that mobile news client markets are highly competitive, followed by technological innovations by a mobile news client and subsequent imitations and emulations by others, leading to a convergence in the style, interface setting, content, etc. Of mobile news clients。
For mobile news clients, highlighting their own differences and uniqueness is the key to highlighting their overlap in the context of homogenizing competition。
(ii) weakening of the “close” and strengthening of online public opinion
In the era of microtransmission, information has shown an “explosive growth” that has weakened people in cyberspace, allowing high frequency (hf) hits to adjust to the speed at which mass information is updated and in seconds, and to become subject to the “eye effect”。
In order to gain access to user attention, many mobile news clients started to play “paint the edge”. On the one hand, the choice of low-class news content to meet the psychological needs of the user in order to be curious; on the other hand, the use of vague means to provide news to the user, such as the use of exaggerated or misreadable titles to attract the user, has gradually become a serious area of proliferation of “title parties”。
In the past, the traditional media played a leading role in shaping public opinion. The current micro-dissemination tool, represented by the “twilight end”, gives the population more voice and the web-based public opinion arena is emerging. However, authoritative traditional media, which do not yet have a large market share in the news client market, traditional official opinion media are still isolated from online public opinion, and mainstream opinion is difficult to speak in cyberspace. The mobile client ugc, the user production model, also provides an opportunity to deliberately create negative information, publish false information, etc。
It is therefore urgent to strengthen the regulation and purification of the web environment。
(iii) operational difficultiesProfit modeIt's hard to break new ground
Currently, the mobile news client profit model is mostly a continuation of the old thinking of the traditional portal, largely based on advertising. The few forms of advertising include the opening of screens, the opening of the bottom window, the promotion of the press at the bottom of the text, and the advertising of software. Unlike the pc port, mobile screens limit the number of advertisements that can be displayed to meet commercial demand, while excessive ad insertions reduce user experience. How to maximize the conversion rate of advertising on limited screens is one of the dilemmas of mobile news clients。
In addition, owing to the premature domestic payment environment, users have access to information free of charge, such as microblogging, twitter and other means, and it is therefore difficult to learn from foreign subscription models in domestic news client markets。
At this stage, a number of mobile news clients are beginning to try to develop the electrician model, such as net news, which creates a “centre shopping town” where users obtain points, exchange them, and develop the o2o model。
While mobile news clients explore profit models from multiple angles, it should be noted that moving beyond traditional solid business thinking and seeking innovative profit models remains a development bottleneck。
Trends in mobile news clients
(i) segregation, verticalization
Mobile news clients developed at a rapid pace in 2015 and gradually entered a stabilization period. The number of users of different mobile news clients varies greatly, and the situation of a few large numbers of users has become difficult to change, and the focus of the future is on fragmentation and verticalization。
“the impact of the internet on the traditional media industry derives from changes in user rights resulting from internet-based digitization”. The analysis of the characteristics and preferences of different user groups is carried out through the in-depth excavation of user data, the understanding and satisfaction of user-specific information needs, and the integration of pgc (professional production of content) production models, the professionalization of content of mobile news clients, the provision of professional advice to different user groups, the accurate dissemination of information and the addition of user stickiness. One of the directions of mobile news clients is the refinement of the user's vertical depth, specialized content delivery and personalized service delivery。
(ii) scenery
The greatest feature of mobile news clients, unlike traditional media or the pc, lies in their entry scene. The emergence of mobile smart devices has freed users from previously solid scenes and enriched them. According to the china new media report 2015, 60. 1 per cent of users will choose to browse mobile news clients during rest or leisure time, 43. 8 per cent will use them in bed, and 28. 3 per cent will use the scene while waiting or travelling by transport. The development of mobile internet has led to more liberal access to information by users. Mobile news clients should foster scenario thinking。
Experience is the primary factor to be taken into account in landscape thinking. An entry point based on the user's browsing habits, which provides personalized experience and meets the user's individual needs, is particularly important to sustain the continuous development of mobile news clients。
The building of an entry scene should also be designed separately on the basis of different information reception scenarios, giving users different information reception logic. When users with the same characteristics and information needs come together, they trigger the birth of communities and increase the adhesiveness of reception. On the mobile news client side, the adhesiveness of reception will further develop into user habits, which constitutes maximization of the value of the scene。
(iii) platformization
The largest feature of mobile news clients is platformization. At this stage, a number of news clients are no longer limited to information synthesizing platforms, but are beginning to provide a range of entertainment, life and other services to users and to create value-added service platforms. For example, the web-enabled news created a “service side” in its functional menu, providing job information, second-hand cargo information, etc., based on different levels of individual needs, starting to penetrate user life. In addition, the news client is developing an electrician platform for commercialization. For example, cybernews creates incentive mechanisms that give incentives to users for gold coins, tag grades, etc., and the corresponding points can be used to exchange goods in commercial cities。
In the future, as the user experience increases further, mobile news clients will move towards a three-dimensional platform that integrates news information, local information and life services, while combining offline activities to provide differentiated services to users to meet different needs。
(iv) socialization
The communications environment of social interaction has given mobile news client orientation, i. E. Socialization. The socialization of mobile news clients takes place in three areas: production, presentation and communication。
In the production of news content, many mobile news clients use user production models and social networking directly expands the ugc information source. In addition to their own access to sources of information through non-social channels, interaction among users is accelerating the flow of information and the generation of information sources. Mobile news clients are themselves a social platform based on news messages that enhance communication among users in the presentation of news content, using, for example, postings or interactive live broadcasts. At the same time, through sharing and reproducing mechanisms, social platforms such as twitter and twitter can be used to expand the reach of news messages, increase their visibility in cyberspace and achieve multi-platform connectivity。
Socialization will become an important function in the future development of mobile news clients, as it greatly enhances the production of news content, user communication and communication efficiency。
(v) normativeization
