Author: Stella L (stella@footprint.network)

With the expansion of Web3 projects globally, many projects are starting to think about how to overcome the rise bottleneck brought by cultural differences. The social fission model that has been successful in the Asian market has frequently encountered setbacks in the European and American markets. Behind this phenomenon reflects more complex cultural differences and user psychology.

Pinduoduo mode: The successful code of social fission in Asia

The success of Pinduoduo has taken the marketing method of "social fission" to its peak in the Asian market. From its establishment in 2015 to 2020, Pinduoduo has achieved an astonishing rise in the number of active buyers, reaching 788 million annually (according to Pinduoduo's financial report), making it the second largest e-commerce platform in China.

For one thing, it is built upon the deep-rooted collectivist culture in Asia. Here, interpersonal networks are intricate, and people have a strong sense of group identity. Sharing promotional information not only doesn't bring social pressure, but it is also seen as a way to maintain relationships. This cultural foundation provides a natural soil for social fission.

Secondly, the highly digitized social environment in Asia plays an essential role. The integration of a well-developed mobile payment system and frequent use of social media has given rise to a mature digital social culture. People are accustomed to sharing various aspects of their lives on social platforms, including consumer experiences and shopping discounts.

More importantly, Pinduoduo has a precise grasp of the user's psychology. They have successfully transformed the behavior of "saving money" into a social topic, dropping the marketing traces through carefully designed gamification mechanisms, and cleverly utilizing the power of the community to create a strong sense of participation. This approach not only encourages spontaneous user participation but also maintains long-term engagement.

It is worth noting that the success of Pinduoduo relies not only on the social fission mechanism itself, but more importantly, on the understanding of the Depth of local user behavior patterns. They perfectly combine the seemingly contradictory concepts of "saving money" and "social", creating a unique "social+business" model. This accurate understanding of the local user mentality provides important insights for us to consider how to promote social fission in other markets.

This successful model was then tried in the Southeast Asian market. Several local social e-commerce platforms adopted similar mechanisms, demonstrating strong vitality in markets such as Vietnam and Thailand, fully illustrating the high compatibility of this model with Asian culture.

European and American markets: fertile ground for social fission or barren land?

As the overseas version of Pinduoduo, Temu cleverly transformed the social fission model when entering the US market. Its 'Referral Bonus' plan has simple rules but significant effects: users can invite 5 new users to register through platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook, and receive a $20 cash reward, with higher rewards for more invitations. Although this mechanism cannot fully replicate Pinduoduo's 'slash price' model due to local legal restrictions, it still successfully triggered viral transmission.

The data has confirmed the effectiveness of this strategy: in the first month of 2023, Temu occupied the top spot in the US iOS free download list for 28 consecutive days. At the end of 2023, its monthly active users (MAU) were second only to Amazon, achieving approximately $16 billion GMV within a year, surpassing SHEIN, which has been cultivating the market for a longer time.

What's worth following is that even successful cases like Temu have gone through multiple adjustments to their social fission strategy. From the initial five-person invitation to earn $20, to later adjusting it to a seven-person invitation to receive the same reward, this flexible strategy adjustment demonstrates continuous observation and response to market feedback. This iterative optimization approach provides important practical reference for Web3 projects.

But this may be one of the few successful cases of social fission in Europe and America. Several failures in the past decade are worth pondering. Facebook once launched the "Refer-a-Friend" program, but eventually had to adjust its strategy due to user aversion to this "spam-like" invitation. The case of Groupon is even more cautionary. The former group-buying giant had a Market Cap of up to 16 billion USD at its IPO in 2011, but its model of excessive reliance on high discounts and social pressure ultimately led to user loss, with a Market Cap of only about 320 million USD as of November 2024. This cliff-like decline highlights the vulnerability of the social marketing model that relies solely on discount-driven strategies in the European and American markets. Snapchat's referral program also encountered bottlenecks. Although the platform is extremely popular among young users, its social fission plan was ineffective due to user concerns about privacy and fatigue from continuous marketing messages.

These cases reveal the particularity of the European and American markets: strong awareness of user privacy, high vigilance towards commercial promotion, and the traditional individualism makes users unwilling to be labeled as "marketers". More importantly, these markets have a low tolerance for marketing methods, and users tend to make decisions based on personal judgment rather than social pressure.

However, recent data shows that the European and American markets are not completely averse to social virality. Taking Telegram as an example, the number of users has exceeded 950 million, with over 10 million paid users, many of whom come from Europe and Russia. By 2024, acquiring customers in the Telegram ecosystem has become a significant trend for Web3 projects. This indicates that European and American users also have a willingness to accept innovative forms of social interaction.

The European and American markets do have huge opportunities. First, there is the advantage of user base, and the large number of active users on social media provides ample rise space for projects. These users have a high degree of digital acceptance and are accustomed to switching freely between multiple platforms, providing a good communication channel for social fission.

It is worth noting that the competition level between Web3 projects in the current European and American markets is relatively low, and there is still room for optimization in user acquisition costs. The market has a relatively high acceptance of innovative marketing models, providing a rare opportunity window for redefining social fission.

Dilemma: Why is traditional social networking difficult to replicate?

At the cultural level, the deep-rooted individualism tradition in Western society contrasts sharply with the collectivism in Asia. Western users generally have a strong sense of personal boundaries, naturally remain cautious of marketing information, and attach great importance to personal privacy protection. This cultural characteristic often makes traditional social fission methods difficult to be effective.

Social pressure is particularly evident in the European and American markets. Users are generally concerned that commercial promotional activities will affect real social relationships and are unwilling to be labeled as "marketers." This psychological burden severely restricts the natural spread of social fission.

The construction of the trust mechanism faces greater challenges in the European and American markets. Cryptocurrency-related projects generally have low trust levels in these regions, and users maintain a cautious attitude towards emerging technologies. Establishing trust requires a longer process and more effort. At the same time, European and American users have higher requirements for marketing methods. Direct profit inducement often has poor effects, and a more refined way of conveying value is needed.

Breakthrough: Redefining the Social Virality of the European and American Markets

To achieve a breakthrough in the European and American markets, the top priority is to achieve strategic transformation. The traditional 'pressure marketing' model needs to be transformed into a 'value sharing' model. This means that when designing the rise strategy, more emphasis should be placed on personal benefits rather than community pressure, emphasizing the user's autonomy, and focusing on building a positive sharing motivation. When users feel the real value and can decide whether to share it independently, the spread effect is often better.

Gamification design also requires localization transformation. To cater to the psychological characteristics of European and American users, the interactive mechanism should pay more attention to personal experience, drop obvious marketing traces, and provide personalized ways of participation for users. This transformation should not only consider the functional level, but also delve into the user's psychological level. The new rise paradigm should explore the optimal user incentive mechanism within the boundaries allowed by the rules, and find a balance point that can effectively split and will not make users resentful.

For Web3 projects, social fission also has a unique advantage: the automated reward distribution mechanism implemented through Smart Contracts can ensure the fairness and transparency of the entire process. This not only reduces users' doubts about marketing activities, but also establishes trust through the inherent verifiability of blockchain technology. For example, projects can put the invitation records and reward distribution process on the chain, allowing every participant to verify the fairness of the activity.

When implementing, attention should be paid to the following key points:

• Transparency: Clear display of rules and reward mechanisms, building trust.
• Autonomy: Give users full choice and avoid being mandatory.
• Value Orientation: Emphasize personal benefits rather than social pressure. In the Web3 field, 'benefits' can be defined as Waitlist Allowlist qualifications, points, Tokens, or Non-fungible Tokens, combined with industry characteristics.
• Privacy Protection: Strictly adhere to local regulations and respect user privacy preferences. Social fission activities in the Web3 field can make good use of blockchain technology to protect sensitive information such as WalletAddress of participants.

At the tool level, technological innovation will play a key role. The emergence of no-code tools has significantly lowered the barriers to entry, enabling the operations team to quickly adjust strategies. The powerful data analysis capabilities provide support for decision optimization, helping projects better grasp user needs. At the same time, native product integration, simplified participation processes, and transparent reward mechanisms will all be important factors in improving user experience.

In addition, in addition to social fission, other marketing methods can also be used to achieve multiple results. The success of Temu does not solely rely on social fission. It has also invested heavily in social media placements and traditional advertisements (such as the Super Bowl). Overall, the average American user has been exposed to Temu advertisements 60-70 times on various platforms. While most Web3 projects may not have the huge advertising budget of Temu, they can combine industry characteristics, use KOL or Influencer social media content dissemination, and combine social fission to achieve better results.

Future: Web3 project social rise new paradigm

With the global development of Web3 projects, how to achieve effective user growth in different cultural contexts will become a key issue. In the European and American markets, social fission is not impossible to achieve, but it requires deeper localization transformation and innovation. Especially in the Web3 field, with the development of a new generation of social protocols and Decentralization identity solutions, social fission may usher in new opportunities. These technological innovations can not only better protect user privacy, but also provide more diversified ways of value transmission for social fission. The project party needs to continuously follow these technological developments and integrate them into the design of the growth strategy.

With the right tools and strategies, combined with a deep understanding of the local users' psychology, Web3 projects can definitely find a social rise new paradigm that suits the European and American markets. In this process, flexibility, transparency, and user experience will be key factors for success.

In this globalized Web3 rise competition, the real winners are not simply imitators who replicate successful experiences, but pioneers who can adapt and innovate. Only by truly understanding and respecting market differences can one seize the initiative in the wave of globalization.