Why adding new features is not very effective for dramatically increasing users

ByAndrey Belenko

A variety of useful software such as various software and smartphone apple are full in the world, but it is difficult to get a large number of users instantly just because the service function has increased. The reason is described by Andrew Chen, an entrepreneur engaged in numerous startups such as Dropbox.

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It is natural that you want to increase the function as soon as something does not go well, by launching the service. Mr. Chen seems to have seen a lot of companies that have fallen into the cycle of "service start → failure → start new service". Trends in the average number of users of web services are as shown in the graph below.


"Vist" "Signup" "Onboard" "D1" "D7" "D30" on the horizontal axis of the graph represents the elapsed time and when it is combined with the number of users on the vertical axis "1000 people watch the site and the service contents "200% (200 people) out of viewers registered account" "Of the viewers, 80% (160 people) start using the service", "40% of users who registered accounts" 80 people) use the service the next day "" 20% (40 people) of the users who registered the account continue to use the service after one week "" 10% (20 people) out of the users who registered the account 1 Continue to use the service even after the month ".

Looking at the numerical values ​​of the graph, we can see that the number of users sharply declined with 1000 people who were interested in the service for the first time, only 20 people used the service until a month later I will. According to Mr. Chen, although services and messaging applications that have built up brands and successfully spread in word of mouth have gained users 2 to 3 times higher than graph figures, most other web services It seems that the number of users in the above is almost equal to the above figures.

Chen says about the reason why user acquisition failures are caused by "two mistakes that arise when developing new features." One is that "there are too few existing users using new functions despite the fact that new functions are targeted to existing users rather than new users" and the other is "when new features are added as one of optional functions It is displayed as if it is, and the impression given to the user is weak ".

In order to increase the number of users by adding new functions, it is necessary to firmly understand the user's life cycle. First of all,Tell many users any new features anywayIt is necessary. "In many cases, new functions are listed only on the top page in order to acquire new users, but in addition to that, new information is displayed on the user registration procedure and the login screen to prevent the leakage of existing users "Chen says.

In addition, it is necessary to gain insight into what the user should do to start using the service, for example, if it is a social network, it is the main function to follow and add friends, if it is a blog service It is important that you make a blog name and theme and make the first post.Minimize actions to be taken after user registrationBy doing so, it can lead to user acquisition.

Those who are planning to start offering services or who are planning to add new functions to the service being provided should aim to increase users with calm judgment without overestimating the functions under development, Mr. Chen commented.