Presumably ever since Azera launched an app that attracts users to sign up as prospective owners, there has been a frenzy of apps in the automotive world. Whether it's a new car maker or a traditional automaker, the app has become as standard as a car key in almost every new car.

Only, although there are a lot of latecomers, but few of them have really made achievements and formed their own brand characteristics.

When we interviewed Lin Jie, vice president of Geely Automobile Group and general manager of Link Automobile Sales Co. on Nov. 22, during the media day at the Guangzhou Auto Show, Link APP was one of the things he highlighted to us.

Link has always been known for its distinctive features on the way up for Chinese brands. So, when this unique brand builds its APP, what will be different or worth learning from its thinking?

In Lin Jie's opinion, Link's emphasis on "Born Global, Open and Connected" and the slogan "Link, More Than a Car" is first reflected through the APP.

01. APP, a bridge between car companies and car owners

According to Lin Jie's introduction, the accumulated users of Link's APP have already amounted to 600,000 to 700,000, with a monthly activity of 76,000 people. Perhaps this figure is still far from the APP of many Internet products, but for an automobile brand, especially a brand-new brand with 230,000 cumulative owners, this figure is still meaningful.

More importantly, mere downloads are not the ultimate goal of automotive manufacturing companies, but how to connect car owners/potential car owners with automotive companies through the app, generating regular interactions, and then allowing users to recognize the brand and enhance brand loyalty, is what should be in the question.

Similar to the Azera APP and Wuling's LINGBANG APP, which are considered to be the model APPs for automobile companies, users can learn about new car purchasing and usage policies, book a test drive, or even order a car on the Link APP; they can also see the latest information about the Link, the car reports of various owners, and enroll in the official offline activities. Owners can also interconnect their cell phones with the car through the APP, check the status of the vehicle and control it remotely through their cell phones; book maintenance and repair services, and rate the services online.

Besides these regular contents, the peripheral goods in Link's APP mall are also unique, corresponding to Link's label of "trend" and "fashion". More popular with young people, co-branded apparel, conceptual literature and digital products dominate the mainstream.

According to Lin Jie, in recent months, the monthly sales of peripheral products on the Leader APP have been able to reach nearly 3 million yuan, and the annual sales have exceeded 20 million. Although this is not a separate business at the moment, this data also shows to some extent that the deep interaction and partnership between Link and users has been initially established.

In addition to these regular sections, in order to increase the user stickiness of the app, according to Lin Jie, Link also provides benefits to connect online and offline, so that more people can "play together".

"We have come up with a concept called 'Territory'. If you are a Link owner, have your own industry, and are willing to share this resource with Link owners, for example, if you open a cafe where all Link owners can enjoy discounts when they come here, you can apply to become a Link 'territory'."

In Lin Jie's view, this format is far more likely to inspire user participation than simply posting to a forum. As Link emphasizes in its slogan, "Born Global, Open and Connected," Lin Jie said that through this open format, they hope to allow owners to truly participate in Link's brand development, "so that Link will become a high-end, but not cold, warm brand in the minds of consumers. ".

02.APP, the car company's most powerful and effective database

And when it comes to getting owners involved in the development of the Link brand, Lin Jie previously mentioned an impressive example in an interview.

When the Link 01 was first introduced, many owners had expressed strong dissatisfaction with the car system. At that time, because Link was positioned as a global brand from the start, its in-car system, like many foreign brands, used an advanced Linux operating system and Nuance voice recognition technology from the United States.

Only, although the whole set of car system is evaluated as the most advanced car system in Europe, in China, there are few companies configuring the Linux operating system, resulting in not many APP suppliers and slow subsequent updates and upgrades.

And after getting this feedback, Link then switched to an Android operating system, and used KU Xunfei's voice recognition technology to optimize Chinese voice recognition and improve system openness.

This is actually just a small example of how Link adjusts its products based on user feedback. Thanks to the large number of car owners gathered through the APP, Link has been able to obtain real user feedback data in the most direct and effective way.

For example, according to Lin Jie, in a previous product satisfaction survey, in one day Link screened out 600 effective improvement suggestions from the APP owners' responses, about half of which have been fed back into product design and manufacturing. In the past, this was equivalent to the results of a professional survey company working for half a year, not counting the authenticity of the results.

Furthermore, today, through the Link App, one can check the favorable ratings of Link's various 4S stores, and even the favorable ratings of each salesperson. Based on this data, consumers can decide which 4S store to book an appointment with, or even which salesperson to contact for car purchasing and service matters. The car companies can also directly understand the service quality of the 4S stores through the car buying experience of real car owners.

Before the APP platform was born, consumer-related data was scattered across various terminals, and it was difficult for car companies to collect it all for big data analysis.

Previously, BMW Group Greater China President and CEO Gao Le has cited this example: "In the past, when the host factory docking users, new cars, used cars, finance, after-sales and other different departments to give users different "ID", but too many contacts, resulting in the cost of user communications High."

Today, through a platform like APP, data collection has become easier.

And, with the development of mobile Internet, more and more consumers have become accustomed to getting information from the Internet. Perhaps in the future, when a person wants to buy a car, the first thing that may come to mind is not to go to a 4S store, but to take out his cell phone and download the owner's APP to learn more information.

These are the reasons why more and more car companies are building APPs and opening digital service platforms.

Taking the luxury brands that have always been known for their services as an example, in mid-June, BMW officially listed its separately established Leader Digital Information Technology Company Limited, with the aim of promoting BMW's transformation into a "customer-centered" digital road. Mercedes-Benz also adjusted the operation and management structure of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales and Service Co., Ltd. at the end of 2018, creating an "online sales and data management" department; Audi also plans to set up the FAW Audi Mobile Travel Service (China) Co.

But unlike recent years, when luxury car sales have been on the rise, the digitalization of these companies hasn't advanced dramatically. According to our previous research, most of the news about these car companies' "digitization" has remained at their inception, and the pace of advancement doesn't seem to be as fast as we'd like it to be.

Previously, Yang Hongze, chairman of the board of directors of Auto Link World, drew a structure chart for Automotive News to show the difference between the organizational structure of Internet car company Azalea and that of traditional car companies: unlike traditional car companies that focus on the product, Azalea has built its organizational structure around the user, with the user as the core of all links.

Comparison of organizational structure between Internet car companies and traditional car companies

For traditional car companies, how to achieve collaboration among various departments from pre-sales to after-sales, and achieve data docking and unified external export not only requires the support of technology platforms, but also the optimization and adjustment of internal structure.

Using the mobile Internet to transform the sales and service process of automobiles, thus creating higher efficiency and better customer experience, for enterprises that often have 5 million or 10 million car owners, to complete this transformation, is indeed facing the problem of the ship is difficult to turn around.

And as a new brand, and a new brand obviously with the mobile Internet and automotive new four genes introduced, in the optimization and adjustment of the internal structure, Link may be more flexible. More importantly, since the accumulation of owners has just begun, it can allow its system and owner community to grow in tandem with the increase in owners.

Just on November 28th, Link's APP ushered in the official update of version 2.0 online. In line with the arrival of Link 01 PHEV/HEV and Link 02 PHEV, this version of Link APP adds more interesting and participatory content, such as fuel consumption contests and pure electric mileage contests.

In the future, with the increasing number of Link models and the growing number of Link owners, the functions and roles of the Link App will surely be further strengthened.

As Lin Jie said, "there is an opportunity for car companies to make APPs", and we hope that Link, a brand that was born out of the ordinary, will also bring more thinking to the industry in terms of user service and digitalization.