Zhang Xiaolong is a first-class product manager, but the WeChat video number is recognized by the industry as his third-rate work, for this reason, Zhang Xiaolong in many public occasions for the video number to justify the name, but then sonorous and powerful speech, in the tepid video number background are slightly pale, and even many people in turn try to teach Zhang Xiaolong how to make products.
However, this kind of confusing behavior is likely to stop here, at 9 p.m. on December 17, Westlife Boy (Westlife) held an online concert of "Loved By The Mountains and Seas" on the WeChat video account, and repeatedly swiped the screen in the circle of friends and other social media, and people seemed to reacquaint themselves with the video number.
Statistics show that the live broadcast was viewed by 22.875 million people, the highest number of online users exceeded 1.4 million, and the number of likes exceeded 160 million. The phenomenon-level communication case has pushed the video number into the focus of heated discussion, and at this time, people found that Zhang Xiaolong originally stood in the "atmosphere", and the video number may really be able to help WeChat make up for the shortcomings of the content ecology.
WeChat video number, is Tencent's last hope for getting involved in short videos?
In January 2020, the WeChat video account officially opened the internal test. According to Zhang Xiaolong's speech at the WeChat open class pro, the video account continues the concept of "everyone can create" of the public account, and the media form has also shifted from graphics to the more popular short videos.
At that time, short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou were already the Red Sea after a large number of creators poured in, and the video number that was just born and sat on the huge traffic of WeChat was naturally regarded as the next "outlet" for short video creators.
Moreover, the business model feasibility of Douyin and Kuaishou has been fully verified by the market. In 2018, Douyin's information flow advertising revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan, and Kuaishou relied on live broadcasting and other forms of revenue of nearly 20 billion yuan.
The traceable business path makes the industry full of expectations for the development of video numbers, and everyone also regards video numbers as a signal that Tencent has begun to make real efforts in the field of short video.
In fact, in the face of short video products such as Douyin Kuaishou splitting user traffic, Tencent has "really exerted" itself many times in the field of short video. According to incomplete statistics, Tencent has launched 15 short video Apps such as Weishi, Flash Cafe, yoo video, etc., but most of them are "thunder and rain and small points", and finally failed.
Taking the most optimistic micro-view as an example, Tencent not only implanted it in a number of film and television variety shows, but also gave it the permission to send long videos in the circle of friends, but according to The Ai Media Polaris data, by September 2021, Microvision monthly active users will only be 68.06 million, in front of the monthly active 579 million vibrato and 437 million fast hands, there is no competitiveness at all.
It can be said that Tencent's willingness to break through in the field of short video is very strong, and now it is a matter of time before Weishi fails, and it has to use the last killer to build short video content into the WeChat ecology.
The video number is also run out of the "horse racing model" used by Tencent, and during the same period when the video number was launched, WeChat also launched an entrance called "selected video", which was placed in the first place in the ranks of the frequently read subscription numbers. However, after the actual measurement, the WeChat team found that the effect of the selected video was far worse than the video number, so after a period of time, the selected video was withdrawn, and the video number was focused on "betting".
Compared with the beginning of its birth, today's video number has undergone more than a dozen iterations and has undergone major changes. In addition to widely opening up user registration, it has also opened up the traffic of public accounts and mini programs, as well as launched live broadcasts, which basically meet the functions and permissions of a short video content platform.
In addition, in terms of the number of users, the video number has inadvertently reached the "sitting two and looking at one". Recently, Pan Yuefei, founder of the video number digital marketing platform Baizhun, said that the current DAU of the video number has reached 450 million, second only to Douyin.
Considering that WeChat has a DAU of nearly 1.1 billion, many institutions predict that the embedded video numbers are likely to surpass Douyin in the future and become the largest short video platform with users. But before that, the video number still has a long way to go.
The group's resources are tilted towards the video number, but the shortcomings cannot be ignored
It should be noted that the video number is a product that Zhang Xiaolong personally stands on the platform and has repeatedly justified its name, which means that the video number is not the product of Tencent's "hot head", it will get a lot of resource investment, and the social attributes of the video number are thick, and the imagination space is also larger.
Therefore, under the tilt of resources, the exposure rate of video numbers is getting higher and higher. In addition to finding the traces of the video number in the "Favorites" page and the circle of friends, we can also view the video number of friends in the user's personal homepage, and a separate display style is also designed for the video account in the content of the public account.
But even so, there are still many shortcomings in the video number.
First of all, unlike the centralized traffic of Douyin, the video number is decentralized as the background, which has the advantage of being able to convert most WeChat users into their own users, but there is no clear division and hierarchical audience group, resulting in unclear product positioning and insufficient stickiness and awareness of the video number.
For example, although everyone can often see the exposure of the video number in the WeChat ecology, and often use the video number to watch the video, many people do not realize that they are actually the user of the video number. Take this West City Boys online concert as an example, the number of participating users is very large, but mainly thanks to the circle of friends brush screen, the focus of discussion is not on the video number.
Secondly, the lack of content innovation is the biggest problem facing video numbers. As mentioned above, the video number adopts a decentralized distribution model, which makes many creators who are accustomed to relying on algorithmic distribution such as Douyin uncomfortable, and the video number does not have too many support plans for creators, and the income of creators cannot be guaranteed. This also leads to the fact that at present, the video number has not come out of several heads of creators.
And due to the low attractiveness to creators, it also leads to the lack of high-quality content on the video number, many users directly carry the content they publish on other platforms, at the same time, due to the difference in the size of the video on each platform, the content that is moved over does not feel very good on the video number. What's more, they also directly stole other people's works and posted them on their own video accounts, because the platform did not have severe penalties.
In addition, in terms of content creativity, the video number is not as rich as vibrato. For example, after shooting content, Douyin can also embellish the video through filters, effects, pendants and other functions, and although the video number provides an exclusive creative tool "second cut", it requires users to jump from WeChat to another App to complete, which increases the burden of content creation to a certain extent.
In addition to the above reasons, there is also a great sense of separation between the video number and WeChat.
Due to reasons such as user diversion difficulties, there are also precedents of app failures such as Weishi, and we can understand why video numbers are built into the WeChat ecosystem. However, short video content is more inclined to "immersion", for example, Vibrato is "a brush can not stop", but the main function of WeChat is chat, focusing on the handling of fragmented information, the two use experiences will contradict each other.
All in all, today's video number is still not a fully mature product, even if the industry has high hopes for it, but at the moment when competitors such as Douyin Kuaishou are soaring, there may not be much time left for video numbers.
Is it possible for the video number to become a "short video leader"?
In game theory, there is a sailing model, that is, a large ship with absolute advantage, regardless of the wind direction and external environment, only need to follow the operation of the small boat behind, you can ensure your 100% winning rate. This is placed in the layout of the video number in the field of short video, which also fits perfectly.
Admittedly, the video number still has many shortcomings today, but it is backed by WeChat and has many advantages that many other platforms dream of: a huge user base, high-frequency user behavior, high-quality private domain resources, and unique "strong social relationships". If the video number can grasp these attributes, it is likely to go ahead.
In particular, the online concert of the West City Boys has greatly introduced the video number into the user's field of vision. If the video number can be inspired by this, it is likely to find a clearer direction of development.
In the view of "Songguo Finance", with the support of WeChat ecology, the video number may have the following directions.
1. Develop the field of high-quality vertical categories
The music field can be regarded as one of the vertical areas that the video number focuses on creating, and the video number is completely different from the communication method of other short video platforms, which is completely based on the social recommendation mechanism. Open the video number, the top line is that the content is liked by friends, and the follow-up and recommended content must be ranked behind.
For example, in the past two years, Jay Chou and Andy Lau have broadcast live on Kuaishou and Douyin respectively, with more than 100 million users participating and extraordinary popularity. However, its transmission method mainly relied on the popularity of live broadcasting at that time and the follow-up UGC secondary creation content to expand to the whole network.
The West City Boys Concert is a fission-type transmission completed through WeChat's circle of friends sharing, likes and recommendations and other mechanisms. This kind of communication based on the social level can be said to be a case of "viral marketing", so in the field of boutique vertical, the advantages of video numbers are very obvious.
2. Deeply cultivate the field of live broadcasting
In fact, the video number already has all the functions of a live broadcasting platform. After the user opens the video number, he can open the live broadcast function separately, and the "live broadcast" function has opened an entrance of the same level as the video number in WeChat, highlighting its importance.
In addition to individual users, news media and businesses have also entered the game, leveraging video numbers to carry out fine private domain operations to empower brands to break the circle.
It is understood that the video number is gradually opening up with the public account and the enterprise number, and the grayscale test of the "shopping cart" function has been opened, which means that the use of video numbers to live stream goods is ushering in an explosive period.
It is worth mentioning that below the video number text, you can also directly place links, directly with the goods micro-store, community through, in the traffic disguise of the path is shorter, compared to douyin, in the business to provide users with more positive support, and after the increase in users, naturally can feed back to the platform itself.
epilogue:
It is undeniable that after having a super community of WeChat, the development potential of video accounts is huge. However, Tencent's financial report has never disclosed the DAU and user duration of the video number, in addition to some problems with itself, which may also be inseparable from the restraint of the WeChat team itself. But at present, the Internet dividend is gradually decreasing, the video number does not advance is equal to the retreat, only one West Side boy, can not save the video number, leaving it time is really not much.