To build a text-based AI product, what product features should you prioritize that can significantly enhance user engagement and satisfaction? This case study delves into Quotev, a website that enables users to create quizzes, surveys, polls, exchange ideas, and co-write novels, to explore user habits and behaviors within this niche. By examining Quotev, I aim to uncover valuable insights for developing product features and crafting effective go-to-market strategies. Before diving into the specifics of Quotev, let's first explore the broader macro trends shaping the novel writing and content industries.
Key Takeaways:
- Foster niche communities through features such as quizzes, surveys, and social engagement tools can lead to sustained organic growth and user loyalty.
- Rely on user referrals and social sharing, rather than paid advertisements, can be a powerful strategy. Quotev's growth highlights the effectiveness of UGC and organic engagement in attracting and retaining users.
- Provide users to space to find other active users and voluntary community support, which are more likely to maintain user satisfaction and loyalty. Despite the poor management of Quotev, the product brand is overtaken by the positive environment user created organically.
- Enhance personal engagement, provide users the authority to create and manage private subgroups while others can contribute by providing feedbacks.
- 5 essential features that current text based communities would be interested in.
Global UGC Trends
The web novel industry is rapidly emerging as one of the fastest-growing sectors within the creative industries. It serves as a cornerstone for the entertainment and video on-demand (VOD) industries, fueling content creation across multiple platforms. Companies like Netflix have capitalized on this trend through successful localization strategies, funding local storytelling, and offering multilingual options to penetrate diverse creative cultural markets. The demand for popular online novels with substantial followings is on the rise.
In South Korea, a pioneer in global market penetration, content revenue reached $114 billion in 2022, marking a 9.4% growth rate, according to official Korea Creative Content Agency. Meanwhile, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reports that China, the world's second-largest entertainment market after the United States, is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5-10% over the next few years. These trends highlight the immense potential and lucrative opportunities within the global content market.
Among the most successful English-speaking novel writing and sharing platforms, each boasts unique founding reasons and diverse revenue streams. For insights into these platforms' expenses and profits, you can review the financial statements of Archive of Our Own (AO3). Amidst the rapidly growing niche communities, one small website has stood the test of time for over 22 years: Quotev. Despite its complete lack of customer service and interest in connecting with its users, Quotev has managed to build a user base organically and retain highly engaged loyal users for over a decade. Let's explore Quotev's features and go-to-market strategy within this competitive environment.
Quotev's GTM Strategies
Quotev, originally known as Quizazz, is a straightforward platform that aims to help people curate social discussions; it allows users to create quizzes, surveys, co-write novels, and share their writings. Without relying on ads or marketing campaigns, Quotev experienced remarkable organic growth, peaking at 3 million users in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite making several controversial feature changes over the years, the platform has maintained a dedicated user base. Let's explore Quotev’s customer relationship management (CRM) pipeline and the key features that have driven its pure organic growth.
- Utilize social engagement tools, quizzes and surveys, to capture a niche community.
- Provide users with spaces and group chats for socializing and collaboration.
- Organize content through tagging and ratings.
- Offer customizable group formats: private and public.
The unique aspect of Quotev lies in its reliance on user referrals through engagement with quizzes. The platform has no formal go-to-market strategies, instead it depends on users voluntarily sharing quizzes and surveys on social media. Once new users arrive, they remain engaged through various social features. Group chats enable users to connect with active members, find like-minded individuals, and form subgroups for further exchanges. These subgroups, often limited to 2-6 participants, facilitate private 1v1 interactions. Content generated by users is publicly accessible and can receive feedback from peers, a feature highly valued by those seeking advice and collaboration. Despite Quotev's notable disinterest in communicating with its user base, the platform thrives on positive collaborative experiences. The anonymous admin has a nearly two-decade-long reputation for not responding to user requests even once. This is an extreme example of the resilience of a social platform built upon user interaction. By empowering a niche community to create and manage their own content, platforms can grow organically and sustainably through social connections and referrals.
Social Engagement Alternatives
You might think that the tactic of using quiz tools was only effective in the 2000s; however, quizzes and surveys remain powerful traffic generators for many websites, with some platforms relying solely on them for revenue. Here are some top-performing survey and quiz platforms. Based on advertising research, a key lesson learned is that paid advertisements are not always effective for business growth. Instead, platforms like Kahoot and Mentimeter have successfully captured different domains by focusing on social engagement, game-based learning, and educational presentations, respectively. In contrast, other platforms have struggled to capture a niche audience.
Product Feature Suggestions Based on User Feedback
For reasons unknown, Quotev removed the group chat feature and several other popular product features. Although Quotev may not have the largest user base, it boasts one of the highest-quality communities, with some users having been active for over 10 years. Following the removal announcement, a petition garnered over 7,000 signatures from dedicated users eager to engage in product discussions and share feedback.
In response to these changes, a new platform called Iwaku emerged, offering a systematic approach to user-regulated subgroups. Iwaku introduced several interesting features, including user resumes (displaying interests and preferences), subgroup advertising and sign-ups, and special one-on-one prefixes. For more details, you can refer to Iwaku’s help articles. Essentially, Iwaku provides an additional hierarchical layer similar to Discord, allowing users to manage, engage, and promote their subgroups freely.
In summary of my user research with Quotev focus group, user-generated-content (UGC) platforms require the following product features to be successful.
- Enhanced Archiving and Download Options: Users expressed a strong need for reliable and easy-to-use options to collect, organize, and archive their social engagements. This could include bulk downloading of group messages and direct messages in various formats (e.g., PDF, text files) to preserve years of creative work and memories.
- Multiple Participant Messaging: Since direct messages (DMs) on Quotev do not support multiple participants, users would benefit from a feature that allows for group messaging. This would enable more efficient collaboration and communication among co-authors.
- Advanced Organization and Labeling Tools: Users are often engaged in multiple subgroups for years. Features such as customizable folders, tags, and labels could help users categorize and quickly access their different projects and discussions.
- Integration with External Platforms: Integrating with platforms like Discord for real-time chat, or cloud services like Google Drive for easy backup and storage, would enhance user convenience and connectivity. This can also be used for user verification.
- Improved Notification System: Users managing multiple active subgroups need a more robust notification system. Features like customizable notifications, summary digests, and priority markers would help users stay on top of their activities without feeling overwhelmed.
