Mini programs have enormous potential to explore and improve user retention, which is the key to development

WeChat Mini Program, abbreviated as Mini Program, is an application that can be used directly without downloading. Mini programs have excellent features such as no installation, no registration, low development costs, and strong compatibility. Moreover, with WeChat as the entry point, mini programs have a large user base and do not require more promotion and drainage methods. Therefore, they have been well received by the market since their launch. On January 9, 2017, the mini program was officially launched, with its application quantity and user scale growing rapidly, and its industry coverage expanding continuously.

With the gradual opening of QR code, group chat, search and other functions, as well as the increasingly perfect promotion function of mini programs, coupled with the opening of H5 jump, video entrance and other features, the convenience of enterprise entry is becoming more and more prominent, which has led to the continuous expansion of the industry coverage of mini programs and the influx of developers. At present, mini programs have covered over 200 segmented industries, more than 1 million developers, and over 2300 third-party platforms; The user base has reached over 400 million, serving over 100 billion people and creating over 500 billion commercial value. The social impact of mini programs is constantly increasing.

According to the report, mini programs cover a wide range of scenarios, including mini games, smart retail, e-commerce, lifestyle services, government affairs, and people's livelihoods. In the 2018 Top 100 Mini Programs list, there were 42 gaming products, making it the category with the largest proportion; The number of life service and e-commerce products is 21 and 12 respectively. Since the opening of the mini game entrance in December 2017, the number of mini games has grown rapidly, becoming the fastest-growing and largest product category in terms of market share.

Compared to mobile app client games, mini games do not require downloading, are ready to use, and do not require registration, making them more convenient; Compared to H5 games, mini games have more convenient access points, stronger functions, and simpler development. Mini games are more suitable for the development of casual games. The retention rate of "Jump" mini games is 65% for the next day, 60% for the third day, and 52% for the seventh day, which can be comparable to APP games and has a significant advantage over H5 games with a retention rate of about 20%.

In the field of e-commerce, Pinduoduo is a representative of mini program e-commerce products. Pinduoduo has rapidly emerged as a social e-commerce model based on mini programs. In 2017, Pinduoduo's GMV exceeded 100 billion yuan, and its peak daily order volume exceeded that of JD.com. In 2018, the accumulated active user base of Pinduoduo mini program exceeded 230 million people. The huge benefits brought by Pinduoduo mini programs have attracted e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Vipshop to actively expand into the field of mini programs, and have also experienced rapid development. From the development trend of mini games and e-commerce, it can be seen that mini programs have enormous potential for exploration.

Mini programs have outstanding advantages in performance, and their open features, traffic, and scenarios are constantly increasing, attracting developers and users to grow rapidly. The number of WeChat users in China has exceeded 900 million, and the huge user base has laid a solid traffic foundation for the development of mini programs. However, the development concept of mini programs is to use them as they come and go, and the average user base and retention rate of a single mini program are still relatively low. In the future, the application of big data analysis and precision marketing to attract users to repeat consumption, improve user retention rate and payment conversion rate will be the key areas for the development of mini programs.