The Impact Of Social Functions On Profitability Of Non-social Mobile Applications

Currently there is a trend in APP designing that different categories of functions are integrated together in a single APP.Many APPs whose core functions are not social interactions(non-social Apps)are beginning to adopt social functions,for example Alipay has an instant messenger now.In 2018,the social e-commerce company Ping Duo Duo,who has only established for 3 years showed profit for the first time and are now preparing for an IPO.It is common knowledge that Ping Duo Duo is struggling with a notorious fame for fake and shoddy goods.But it is also undoubtable that social functions play a very important role in its path to profit.According to the China Internet Development Statistics Report,the number of unicorn corporations in China ranks second all over the world,but the number of corporations who have issued A shares are rare.Under the above circumstances,studying the influence of adding social functions on profitability of non-social APPs and how to improve the profitability of non-social APPs by adding social functions conveys great importance and necessity.This article adopt both qualitative and quantitative approaches via 16 interviews lasting 62 mins on average and 158 questionnaires.It investigates the influence of adding social functions on profitability of non-social APPs as well as how to improve the profitability of non-social APPs by adding social functions.There are three major research questions.The first one is whether adding social functions promotes profit gaining and the second one is how adding social functions promotes profit gaining.The two questions are answered with qualitative approaches.Research question three that how to promote profit gaining by adding social functions is answered with quantitative approaches.It focuses on user base and user stickiness which are two key factors in the theoretical model that is developed by the qualitative part.The innovative contribution of this article lies in the following three aspects: firstly it develops a theoretical model centered around user base and user stickiness that stating how adding social functions promotes profit gaining;secondly it studies the old question of profitability from a new angle of adding social functions to non-social APPs;thirdly it notes and pays attention to a new phenomenon of integrating functions of different categories into one single APP.