Small Universe APP product analysis report

1. Market Analysis (PEST)

1. Policy factors

1.1 Opportunity

The state supports the digital economyChina’s 14th Five-Year Plan emphasizes the development of digital cultural consumption and has introduced a series of policies to support the development of the digital cultural industry, such as the “14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Digital Cultural Industry”, which clearly positions the digital cultural industry as a strategic emerging industry. At the same time, with the improvement of residents’ income levels and the change of consumption concepts, people’s demand for digital cultural products and services is growing, and digital cultural consumption has become an important way for people to meet their spiritual and cultural needs. During the period from 2021 to 2024, the operating income of the digital cultural industry will continue to grow, with 3,962.3 billion yuan in 2021, 4,386 billion yuan in 2022, about 4,868.4 billion yuan in 2023, and about 5,257.9 billion yuan in 2024, and is expected to achieve an 8% growth in 2025. As a part of the digital economy, the market size and annual revenue of network audio have also shown a growing trend in recent years, and as of 2024, the market size of the sound economy industry has reached 200 million yuan. This fully reflects that the development of podcast apps is in line with policy trends and full of opportunities.

Table 1 – The annual operating income of China’s digital cultural industry from 2021 to 2024

Audio copyright protection has been strengthened: The state has promoted the revision of the Copyright Law to crack down on pirated audio content, fully protect the rights and interests of original podcast creators, and greatly enhance the creative enthusiasm of podcast creators.

1.2 Risks

• Stricter content supervision:Censorship of sensitive topics (such as current affairs, social events) may limit some content creation and require more resources to be invested in manual + AI moderation.

2. Economic factors

• Users’ willingness to pay has increased: With the development of the habit of paying for knowledge, users’ willingness to pay for high-quality podcast content has increased. 1% of users of the audio platform have had paid subscription experience, and 35.4% of users have chosen paid subscriptions, with an average annual payment amount of 174.3 yuan/person. With the development of the podcast industry, the proportion of users paying is on the rise.
• Favored by the advertising market: Brands have seen significant growth in podcast content, with nearly 100 brands cooperating with podcast platforms to launch nearly 1,000 programs in 2024. Podcast users are mainly employees and students in first-tier cities and new first-tier cities, and more than 80% of the core age group of listeners aged 18-40 have a bachelor’s degree or above, and the consumption potential is large.
• Creators’ economic income increases: The commercialization of podcasts has improved the economic situation of creators, and the per capita income of podcast creators has shown a gradual increase in 2021 – 2024.

3. Social factors

• The rhythm of life and the fragmented use of time: The pace of life in modern society is accelerating, and people’s time has become more fragmented. Podcast content is suitable for listening to fragmented scenarios such as commuting, exercising, doing housework, and going to bed, and can effectively fill these time gaps.

Table 2 – Proportion of time periods using the Small Universe APP

• Knowledge acquisition needs: In a highly competitive social environment, people are eager to continuously learn and improve themselves. Podcasts cover rich fields such as business finance, humanities and technology, providing in-depth content to meet users’ needs to gain knowledge and break the information gap in leisure.

Table 3 – Percentage of users listening to major content

• Emotional companionship needsThe rapid development of society has made people face more pressure and loneliness, and the dialogue, chat form and anchor voice of podcasts can give users a sense of companionship and intimacy, and become a source of emotional comfort.
• Social interaction and community building: Podcast apps build interactive communities between users, anchors, and users through comment areas, social media groups, etc.

4. Technical factors

• Streaming protocols ensure smooth playback：Real-Time Transmission Protocol (RTP), HLS, and DASH ensure smooth audio playback. RTP solves packet out-of-order, and HLS and DASH adaptively adjust the bit rate based on network bandwidth to ensure playback lag.
• Content distribution and network optimization：Edge computing transcodes and caches on servers close to the user, reducing device strain and load times.
• Personalized recommendation technology：Collaborative filtering and deep learning models combine to balance offline training and real-time recommendations to improve recommendation accuracy.
• The impact of emerging technologies：AI generates subtitles, translations, and content, reducing costs and enriching formats. 5G supports high-quality sound transmission and real-time interaction, enhancing user experience. VR/AR future or creating immersive and interactive podcast experiences.

 TwoProduct Overview:

1. Experience the environment

• Product model: Universe iOS 2.80.3
• Phone model: Apple XR
• Experience time: 2025/3/17

2. Product positioning

Find answers – share knowledge, experience, insights

What does a product manager need to do?
In the process of a product from scratch, it is not easy to do a good job in the role of product manager, in addition to the well-known writing requirements, writing requirements, writing requirements, there are many things to do. The product manager is not what you think, but will only ask you for trouble, make a request:

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At the heart of Minicosm is podcast content, where users gain knowledge, experience, and insights by listening to podcasts.

Brush Recommendations—Discover the bigger world

Through recommendation algorithms, Xiaoyu helps users broaden their horizons and explore unknown territories (such as new cultures, new perspectives, new stories).

Chase hot spots – understand hot spots in seconds and eat melons rationally

Xiaoyu’s hot topics or popular podcast columns help users quickly understand hot events.

It can be seen that the main sectors of Xiaoyu are: podcast listening, content recommendations, and hot topics。

• Podcast Listening: Core functionality for high-quality audio content playback experience.
• Content Recommendations: Helps users discover quality podcasts through algorithms and editorial selection.
• Hot topics: Focus on hot events and provide in-depth interpretation and rational discussion.

To sum up, the Xiaoyu app clearly focuses on the vertical field of “podcasts”, providing users who love high-quality audio content with a platform that focuses on podcast listening and community interaction, and helps users discover and enjoy valuable podcast content through accurate content recommendations and immersive listening experiences.

At the same time, the logo design of Xiaoyu successfully conveys the brand’s core values through simple graphics and dark blue tones: explore the universe of high-quality content and enjoy an immersive podcast experience.

3. Product iteration

Stage 0: Podcast Content Community Building (2020-2021)

At this stage, its core goal is to attract podcast creators to settle in and accumulate user groups, creating a podcast communication space with a unique atmosphere.

1. Focus on content construction:It is committed to bringing together a variety of high-quality podcast programs, covering culture, technology, life, entertainment and other diverse fields to meet the interests and needs of different users. With a simple and easy-to-use interface design, it is easy for users to discover, subscribe and listen to podcasts, and attract users to retain with content as the core.
2. Community atmosphere creation:Pay attention to interactive communication between users, provide basic social functions such as comments, likes, and sharing, encourage users to discuss podcast content they are interested in, and gradually form a good community atmosphere and enhance user stickiness.

Phase 1: Functional Expansion and Branding (2021-2023)

After accumulating a certain user base and content resources, Xiaoyu App has entered the stage of functional expansion and brand building, enriching product functions, improving user experience, and strengthening brand image.

1) Feature-rich upgrades:

• Launched desktop widgets to facilitate users to quickly operate on mobile desktops.
• Added dark mode to meet users’ visual needs in different scenarios.
• Online vocal enhancement 0 function to improve audio listening effect.
• A new program classification page has been added, and the classification has been refined to 17.

2) Brand image building:

• Develop features for Universe Studio and podcast business cards to enhance the platform’s attractiveness and support for creators.
• Launch distinctive content topics, focus on hot topics and niche areas of interest, and improve the depth and breadth of content.
• Open appreciation functions and paid sections to support anchors in content creation and monetization.

Stage 2: Commercialization Exploration and Ecological Improvement (2023-present)

With the expansion of user scale and the improvement of brand influence, Xiaoyu App has entered the stage of commercial exploration and ecological improvement, tapping commercial value and building a more complete podcast ecosystem.

1) Commercialization model expansion:

• Cooperate with brands to carry out advertising business, through accurate user portraits and content recommendations, to achieve the matching of advertising and user interests,
• Reasonably place advertisements in the content, such as inserting advertisements at the beginning, middle or end of the program.

2) Community ecological construction:

• Continue to optimize community interaction functions, and launch special functions such as language comments and highlight time points.
• Three new lists, “Hottest List”, “Edge List” and “Rising Star List”, have been added to provide users with diversified content recommendations.

ThreeUser portraits

1. User characteristics

The main users of the mini-universe are: creators and ordinary users.

Creators: professional media people or content creators, experts and scholars in various fields, self-media creators, ordinary enthusiasts, celebrities, entrepreneurs, etc.

Ordinary users: mainly young Kochi groups living in economically developed areas, with self-improvement needs, high requirements for content quality, and strong consumption power.

1.1 Creator User Characteristics

1) Basic attributes

age: Most of the creators are young people aged 22 to 35, which accounts for 9%, and they are willing to try new forms and have a strong desire to share.

Gender:There is currently no publicly available accurate data on the gender ratio of small universe app creators, but overall users are gender-balanced. Women often focus on emotion, life, cultural and artistic creation, while men mostly produce content in the fields of science and technology, sports, finance and economics.

regional: Mainly from domestic first-tier cities (4%) and new first-tier cities (25.1%), and overseas accounted for 6.5%. These regions are rich in resources, diverse cultures, and obtain a variety of materials.

Table 4 – Age distribution of creators

 Table 5 – Geographical distribution of creators

2) Education and occupation

Degree: Bachelor’s degree or above accounted for 5%, undergraduate 50.5%, and master’s degree or above 40.0%.

Occupation:

• Professional media personnel: With their experience in editing, editing and production, they produce in-depth content.
• Experts and scholars: Experts in various fields use their professional knowledge to share professional insights on science and technology, economics, law, etc., and improve the professionalism of content.
• Self-media creators: With the help of existing influence, expand communication channels in the small universe and share life, interests and other content.
• Ordinary enthusiasts: Engage audiences with real perspectives because of their love and desire to create.
• Star Entrepreneurs: Celebrities share their lives, and entrepreneurs share business experiences.

3) Creative motivation

1. Self-expression: Use the platform to share views and experiences, and seek resonance.
2. Knowledge transfer: Professionals want to spread knowledge and help others grow.
3. Interest socialization: Create based on common hobbies and meet like-minded people.
4. Commercial brand: Self-media and entrepreneurs use this to build personal brands and obtain business opportunities, and enterprises are also used to promote their brands.

4) Content preferences

1. Education:It covers literature, history, art interpretation, and language learning sharing.
2. Technology Information:Pay attention to cutting-edge scientific and technological trends and application cases, and popularize scientific and technological knowledge.
3. Life and leisure:It involves the sharing of life experience such as food, travel, and health preservation.
4. Workplace entrepreneurship: Share experiences such as workplace promotion and entrepreneurial history to provide reference for professionals and entrepreneurs.
5. Emotional Psychology:Discuss emotional relationships, mental health, and achieve personal growth.

1.2 User characteristics

1) Basic attributes

age: Mainly young people aged 20-35, especially the post-90s and post-00s, who are highly receptive to new things and have a strong demand for high-quality content.

gender: Among the users of the Universe app, 46.9% are male and 53.1% are female, and the overall gender comparison is average, with slightly more women than men.

regional: Mainly concentrated in first-tier and new first-tier cities, where users have a high demand for cultural consumption and a fast pace of life, which is suitable for listening to podcasts in fragmented time.

2) Education and occupation

Degree: In the distribution of education of users of the Small Universe App, bachelor’s degree or above accounts for a relatively high proportion. Specifically, 50.5% are bachelor’s degrees, 40.0% are master’s degrees or above, 6.1% are junior colleges, and 3.4% are high school and below.

occupation: Internet practitioners, students, freelancers, cultural and creative practitioners, and practitioners in traditional industries

3) Behavioral characteristics

(1) Usage scenarios:

• Commuting scenarios: subway, bus, queuing and other fragmented time.
• Home scenes: doing housework, dressing up, relaxing before going to bed, etc.
• Learning Scenarios: Seeking knowledge or inspiration through podcasts.

(2) Interactive behavior:

• Actively participate in commenting, liking, and sharing, forming a lightweight community interaction.
• Have a strong willingness to share quality content, especially on social media.

4) User stratification

1. Deep users: High frequency use, subscription to multiple podcasts, active participation in community interaction, high requirements for content quality.
2. Listen to the user: Mid-frequency use, mainly relying on recommended content, preferring light-hearted and entertaining podcasts.
3. Novice users: Low-frequency use, has not yet formed a fixed listening habit, and needs to be guided and recommended.

Table 6 – Proportion of tiered users of the Small Universe APP

FiveContent preferences

1. Internet practitioners: fast-paced work and high requirements for efficiency and practicality. Interested in technology, business, and workplace content.
2. Student: Relatively abundant time and high acceptance of new things. Interested in learning, emotional, and entertainment content.
3. Freelancers: Flexible working hours but high requirements for self-improvement. Interested in psychology, lifestyle, and creative content.
4. Cultural and creative practitioners: have a strong interest in culture, art, and design content. Focus on content quality and uniqueness.
5. Practitioners in traditional industries: The work rhythm is relatively fixed, and the demand for practical content is high. Interested in industry trends and career development content.

2. User needs

2.1 Creator user needs

2.2 User needs

FourProduct analysis

1. Product features:

There are three main functional areas of the microverse: Discovery, Subscription, and Personal. The product function structure diagram is shown in the figure below:

It can be seen that in general, the entrance to the functional area of the small universe app is relatively shallow and easy to obtain.

• “Individual”It is the most diverse of the three functional areas, which focus on displaying information and functions related to the user’s personal information. The user’s profile is presented here, and you can edit your avatar, nickname, etc.; “My Listening History” records the programs that users have played in the past; “My Collection” records the programs collected; In terms of payment, you can recharge and view paid content; In addition, it may also include setting options, such as adjusting playback settings, cache settings, notification settings, etc., to meet the personalized needs of users.
• DiscoverPages are the first interface that users see when they open an app, and they carry a lot of important information. There is usually a search bar at the top, making it easy for users to quickly find their favorite podcasts. The following presents various high-quality podcast content in the form of recommended streams, recommended for you/editor’s selection/classification/three lists/in-depth topics.
• SubscriptionsThe ribbon is very easy to set up, and this function area is a gathering place for users’ personalized content. The latest episode update status will be displayed next to each subscription program, and users can play the latest episode with one click. At the same time, this area allows users to set stars for subscription programs.

2. Product usage process

• Home “Discover” browsing process

• Personal browsing flow

• Subscribe to the flow of the browsing

3. Typical features

(1) “Discover” section – graphics + audio

The “Discover” section is the default page to enter the Xiaoyu app, and it is also the most used section by users

• Accurate and intelligent recommendation: Based on the user’s detailed listening behavior data, the recommendation stream on the homepage accurately pushes podcasts that meet diverse interests, which can be played.

• Featured recommendations, field classifications, lists and special planning: the “Discover” page displays the editor’s selected recommendations, which can be played; realizes domain classification, which is convenient for users to quickly find relevant content; display popular lists, check public favorites, and perform playback operations; Keep up with the current hot topics, exclusively plan in-depth topics, and can be played.

(2) “Subscription” section – graphic + audio

• Subscribed podcast update episode display and playback operations.
• Manage your podcast subscriptions and add stars.

4. business model

The official business model of the small universe app mainly relies on the following aspects

• platform technical service fee

Creator sharing: As the platform party, Xiaoyu takes a certain percentage of the creator’s income (such as tips, paid content, advertising cooperation, etc.).

Payment channel fees: Through the payment system within the platform (such as tipping, paid subscriptions), Xiaoyu may charge handling fees.

• Advertising revenue

Platform advertising: Display branded ads or in-feed ads within the app, charging advertisers based on impressions or clicks.

Program advertising sharing: The platform helps creators connect with advertisers and take a certain percentage of the service fee from them.

• Membership subscription service

Platform membership: Xiaoyu may launch platform-level membership services, and users can enjoy ad-free, exclusive content, or priority access to new features after paying to become a member.

Membership Revenue Sharing: If the membership service includes exclusive content from the creator, the platform may share the membership revenue with the creator.

• Data & Value-Added Services

Data analysis services: Provide creators or brands with detailed user behavior data and analysis reports to help optimize content or ad delivery, and may charge a service fee.

• Technical solutions

Tool Pricing: Provides creators with advanced authoring tools or data analysis tools on a subscription basis or pay-as-you-go fees.

API openness: Open platform APIs to third-party developers or enterprises, charging interface usage fees or technical service fees.

• Offline events and brand collaborations

Event Hosting: The platform hosts offline events and makes money through tickets, sponsor cooperation, etc.

Brand co-branding: Collaborate with brands to launch co-branded activities or products to obtain cooperation income.

• IP operation and licensing

Platform IP development: Develop high-quality content on the platform into IP, license derivatives such as film and television, publishing, etc., and obtain licensing fees.

Cross-Platform Collaboration: Collaborate with other media platforms to distribute content and earn a share.

FiveExisting product dilemmas and solutions

SixUser interface design improvements

• Add a classification lower bar to solve the redundant feature of finding and make it easier for listeners to find.
• Add the lower bar of the listening area to improve the social interaction of the community and introduce selected introductions of graphics and short videos to increase user stickiness and attract users.
• Merchandise on the podcast creator’s personal page to increase commercial charges.

Sevensummary

As a product focusing on podcast content, Xiaoyu App has shown great development potential in the context of the gradual rise of audio content consumption. Its vertical positioning and community-based operation model have formed a differentiated advantage in the competition of comprehensive audio platforms such as Himalaya and Lychee FM. At present, the user scale of Xiaoyu is growing steadily and the content ecology is gradually enriching, but it is also facing challenges such as user growth bottlenecks, single commercialization models and content homogenization.

In the future, Xiaoyu can break through the current predicament and occupy a more important position in the podcast market by optimizing the content ecosystem, exploring diversified commercialization paths, and improving user experience.