Wen | Wang Xin
Editor | asked
In the 2021 WeChat open class, Zhang Xiaolong spent two-thirds of his time talking about the video number, "Video expression should be a theme in the content field in the next 10 years." "In January this year, the WeChat open class Pro, the father of WeChat regrettably absent, but the content about the video number appeared first and ran through it.
From the top-level design to the product manager's tireless shout, the importance of the video number occupying the C position to WeChat is self-evident. Public data shows that from October 2020 to December 2021, the public account exchanged video accounts, and successively completed 17 small iterations, the traffic in the WeChat ecosystem achieved circulation cycle, and the reachability of the video number was enhanced, which was an opportunity for content entrepreneurs and businesses to monetize. According to the data of the Light Research Institute, at the end of 2021, the video number DAU (daily active users) has exceeded 500 million, surpassing Kuaishou's 323 million DAU and approaching Douyin's 640 million DAU.
Traffic is the key to Tencent's siege, and the new mobile Internet ticket of the video number begins with traffic, and the end is monetization. In the WeChat open class, lecturer Tao Jia said that at the end of 2021, the sales amount of video number live streaming with goods increased by more than 15 times compared with the overall sales amount at the beginning of the year, and the average unit price of buyers exceeded 200 yuan.
E-commerce is the most efficient way to monetize, in the trillion-dollar live streaming market segment, the small scale of the video number can undertake Taobao, jitter spillover commercial value, for merchants is also a new channel supplement.
At the end of last year, some creators found that the video number appeared short video product sharing function. In January this year, many merchants received invitations to "test run" for the product sharing function, and at the end of April, WeChat creators released articles, and the short video product sharing function was officially opened and landed.
Some merchants confirmed to "E-commerce Online" that at this stage, as long as they apply to WeChat, the platform can hang shopping links on the short video after review. However, an operator told us that content and goods need to find a balance, we already have a set of methodologies on Taobao Live and Douyin Kuaishou, but for video numbers, we have not precipitated a set of playing methods that can be reused. Many merchants are still in the wait-and-see stage for short video with goods.
If you go further back, whether it is the optimization of the product side, or the stars such as Xicheng Boys, Mayday, cui Jian and other stars who play a demonstration role in pulling the concert will move the concert online, the video number is doing one thing: to do a lot of traffic, make up for the e-commerce ecology, and make the content value as monetized as possible.
Tencent mentioned on the Q4 2021 Q4 earnings call that in 2022, the company will launch the testing and optimization of short video feed ads, believing that video numbers will provide important commercialization opportunities. Nowadays, short videos are opened to goods, and in the Douyin Kuaishou Endurance Competition with the same short video, Tencent has a posture of counterattack.
Video number with goods, from live broadcast to short video
The product sharing function of the video number is similar to the "little yellow car" function of Douyin and Kuaishou, the creator adds a link to the relevant products under the short video to carry the goods, and after the user clicks on the purchase to complete the transaction, the creator can get a certain percentage of the commission.
The official location of the product link indicated by the WeChat creator
WeChat officials said that creators who want to open the product sharing function need to meet three conditions:
1. The number of effective followers (fans) is 1000 or more
2. Complete real-name authentication
3. Continue to publish high-quality original works
Mimi told "E-commerce Online" that in January this year, the WeChat creator public account released the article "Video Number "Product Sharing Trial Run" officially launched" to open the product sharing function test, the difference is that at that time, the number of creators who needed to pay attention to was more than 10,000 people, "Now 1,000 fans are required, the threshold has been lowered a lot, and it feels like the official is encouraging everyone to do short video with goods." ”
"E-commerce Online" observed that creators need to complete three steps of "selecting products to publish works" for short video product sharing on video accounts. There is still room for optimization in the link of product selection, and WeChat creators have also summarized three ways, namely through creator center selection, adding products from small stores and adding product information to video window. After the selection is completed, select the product by "Link" under the release video, and you can add the product link to the short video to complete the listing.
The video number short video with goods can be traced back to January 2021, the beginning of the video number can be linked to the public account article, the creator will add a small program in the article that can purchase goods, which is a kind of "wild goods". Now the product sharing function, as long as you click the link below the video, you can directly jump to the product page for additional purchase and purchase operations, and the user's transaction path is greatly shortened.
The previous "hanging chain" also needs to be jumped
Video number through nearly two years of operation, has accumulated a large amount of traffic, before the video number to encourage creators to monetize traffic, successively launched live streaming with goods, content paid promotion, paid live broadcasting, creator advertiser mutual selection platform and other functions, so that the creators of the video number to complete the traffic creation to traffic realization of the closed loop, now traffic e-commerce is also expected.
At present, after the experience, it can be seen that WeChat is still relatively restrained in monetizing the video number, for example: WeChat creators officially said that it is best not to exceed 3 trailer content a day, but in fact, there is no special restriction on this, Mimi, who runs an online training business, told "E-commerce Online", at present, his background can hang up the product link in the short video at any time, and a white-label merchant he knows has released seven or eight trailer content a day.
For example, in the short videos recently released by many brand video numbers, there is no trailer content. "E-commerce Online" brushed more than 30 short videos in the video number, only a short video with a product sharing link appeared, and the creator Amway was also a white-label product. The short video of the video number has not attracted too much attention from merchants and brands.
More carry-on goods are still white-label goods
The video number is still in the early stages
Content operation MoGao confirmed to "E-commerce Online" that the short video of the video number has been tested for nearly five months, but it is still in the early stages of many merchants and creators.
The parent WeChat, 1.2 billion users are theoretically the traffic of video numbers, and in the outlet of live e-commerce, video numbers can also undertake the spillover needs of Taobao e-commerce platforms and short video platforms.
However, at the same time, there are still many problems with video numbers, which cannot meet the needs of merchants and creators.
First, the traffic algorithm of the video number is different from that of Jitter. Compared with Jitter, the social attributes of the video number are stronger, and many of the recommended videos received by users are "friends have liked", and there is also a "friend liked" section in the video number, which is convenient for users to form social interaction. At present, the video number still appears more in the circle of friends, group messages and public account associations, and it is found that the real first-level entrance of the video number on the page has been ignored. Video number traffic is enough, but more is based on social scenarios, and does not cultivate consumers' shopping mentality;
Second, the function of short video with goods has not yet been completed. The "e-commerce online" experience found that if you add the goods to the shopping bag and then exit, you can't find the shopping bag on the other pages of the video number, you can only re-enter the short video and click on the link below to find it, and the shopping bags of each store are not interoperable, and if you want to order the goods of different stores, you can only place separate orders. The channel of video number with goods is also limited, limited to Tencent's ecology, and has not opened up a more abundant supply of goods. Under some short videos with goods, there are also buyers who complain about the difficulty of returning goods, poor after-sales service and the problem of no customer service.
The "Shopping Bag" feature cannot be found on the main page of the video number
Mo Gao's company is mainly engaged in clothing, before trying the video number of the short video with goods, but the effect of the goods is not good, only one-tenth of the short video or even lower, "the same product, in the short video platform a day there are more than a hundred orders, but the video number a week is also six, seven single." The short video of our video number is more related to the live broadcast room, which diverts the audience to the past, and the possibility of the video number user completing consumption in the live broadcast room will be higher. ”
Mo Gao told "E-commerce Online" that the profits in the video number are more players who have established their own private domains before, "We previously guided fans to pay attention to the public account on other platforms, and the video number was only up after the traffic was associated with the public account, and the live streaming effect was also good." If a player does not have private domain traffic, it is more difficult to bring goods on the video number. ”
Some brands also told "E-commerce Online" that they did not hang product sharing links in the short video number, but more often used short videos to divert users to private domains or live broadcast rooms. For example, the video number of Watsons service assistant, there is no product sharing link in the short video, more or to guide users to like to achieve traffic fission, or to divert users to private domains such as mini programs, daily goods or rely on live broadcasting.
The short video of Watsons video number does not have a link to the goods
Mo Gao told us that this year WeChat has successively launched some traffic support policies for short videos with goods, but whether it can get traffic support, or look at the data, which may also be the reason why some merchants wait and see, "Relevant data will affect the traffic distribution, when not with goods, you may only watch the broadcast rate, stay time these content indicators, but with the goods will also look at the data with goods." This is actually a double-edged sword, although it may get official traffic support, but the effect of the video with goods is not good, and it will also affect the next traffic. The short video of the video number is still in the early stages, no one is willing to sacrifice their own traffic to explore the way, everyone is basically still waiting, and they feel that it is better to concentrate on content and live streaming with goods. ”
Tencent's video ambitions
Before there were two short video platforms to do content e-commerce successful experience, Tencent through the video number to do content e-commerce, naturally is expected.
Relying on the video number of the WeChat ecology, it has advantages that cannot be ignored. At the WeChat open class PRO on January 6 this year, the person in charge of the video number said, "The video number is the best carrier of the form of video and live streaming, and is an atomized content component." "In different use cases, multiple components in WeChat can meet different needs through combination, such as the binding of video number and WeChat payment, which realizes the paid live broadcast function of video number."
Previously, the Little Goose Spelling, incubated by Tencent's platform and content business group, combined Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu, and made content e-commerce through graphic grass. The little goose spelling has been shut down, and Tencent's shift to a more efficient video number for content e-commerce layout seems to have become the most feasible step to realize the e-commerce dream.
On the other hand, the video number will also be a growth point for Tencent's advertising revenue.
In Tencent's latest financial report, in the Q4 quarter of 2021, online advertising revenue fell by 13% year-on-year to 25.1 billion yuan. Among them, social advertising revenue fell by 10% to 18.3 billion yuan, and media advertising revenue fell by 25% to 3.2 billion yuan. Behind the advertisement is the traffic business, advertisers will focus on the short video platform that kills time, and Tencent's advertising type interspersed in WeChat is still based on graphics, as a video number that competes with the same latitude as Jitter, naturally does not want to give up the advertising share.
The advertisements in the circle of friends and public account articles are still mainly graphics and texts
The video number launches a short video with goods at this time, which may also be hoped to let users gradually get used to short video ads through the short video belt goods of the merchants, and test the water for the launch of information flow ads later.
In addition to information flow advertising, the video number has more possibilities for monetization, and this year's cui jian's online concert proves this: 500,000 people made reservations, watched more than 46 million people, and liked more than 120 million, and the exclusive brand title of the concert, Jihu Automobile, successfully went out of the circle and became a screen-brushing brand marketing event. In the report of Baizhun Data, a relevant supplier revealed that "the concert has just arrived halfway, and nearly 10 brand customers have come to inquire about the price plan."
However, the video number has not yet been launched on the information flow advertising, through cui Jian concert out of the circle of the polar fox is only the first successful attempt, the future commercialization of the video number, but also need more practical data to confirm. But it is undeniable that in the Internet era where traffic is king, the most feasible way for Tencent to realize the e-commerce dream that has been unfinished may be the video number, but social traffic is not equal to e-commerce traffic, and whether Tencent's e-commerce dream can be realized through the video number where content is king still needs more time to verify.