Text/Big Entertainer
This year, TikTok is literally ubiquitous.
According to Cloudflare Inc., a cloud infrastructure company that tracks Internet traffic, the short-form video platform, known for relying on algorithmic recommendations, became the world's most visited Internet site in 2021, surpassing Google, a search engine that has dominated the list for many years.
Cloudflare said TikTok topped the list of the world's most visited websites for the first time in February. August this year's popularity grew, and for the rest of the year, it generally maintained its top spot.
Image source: blog.cloudflare
This continued popularity among users has also made TikTok's commercialization strategy more aggressive.
In addition to the attempt to start referring to the path of Douyin for live streaming and e-commerce stores, TikTok has also recently been exposed to have begun to wade into game live broadcasting and even takeaway business.
In terms of the growth rate of user volume, TikTok as a latecomer obviously has great potential, but at the same time, in the face of the international market that has become giants in the field of search to social advertising to e-commerce and live broadcasting, TikTok's four-sided enemy seems to have brought a dangerous signal, can the strategy of using short video platforms to sell "everything" really succeed?
Stepping out of the mobile, TikTok wants to rely on live game streaming to maintain growth
In June this year, TikTok preemptively launched the PC side and subsequent TV large-screen version, compared to watching short videos on the computer desktop and TV, "live broadcast" is actually the main function.
In fact, the reason why TikTok does this is not difficult to imagine, on the one hand, it needs to conform to the behavior habits of European and American users, and at the same time, it also finds new growth points through multi-terminal coverage. On the other hand, through live broadcasting to monetize to achieve commercialization, after all, only user growth and no reasonable commercialization strategy, then the growing number of users will only become a sweet burden, constantly bringing losses to ByteDance.
For U.S. users, in the earliest days , "live online" was almost the same as "live game."
Twitch is the earliest live broadcasting platform in the United States, launched in 2011, and For a long time Twitch has been positioned as a game live broadcasting platform, after the epidemic in 2020, Just Chatting and other life-oriented live channels began to be more accepted by users.
Twitch March duration list, Just Chatting ranked first
However, unlike many domestic Internet users who are completely mobile Internet natives, the viewing habits of European and American users are more stuck on the PC side. According to Leftronic's data this year, only 35% of Twitch's traffic sources in 2021 will still come from mobile.
Therefore, if you want to continue to attract the attention of users after the growth of mobile terminals gradually enters a period of flatness, it is almost necessary to move to desktop and TV. Obviously, TikTok not only wants to make the PC side into an enlarged version of the APP, but also recently, its exclusive game live broadcast application has also begun to show its true appearance.
According to TechCrunch, TikTok is testing a new desktop streaming app called TikTok Live Studio, which lets users stream live from games and other desktop apps. TikTok officials said that the app is currently being tested by a small number of users in the European and American markets.
If the platform is officially released, TikTok Live Studio could mark an interesting change in TikTok's live streaming strategy.
Instead of focusing on locking users into mobile devices, it has expanded TikTok Live's focus to live-streaming games, allowing it to compete with companies like Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook Gaming that have actively taken market share.
Media person Zach Bussey, who shared a screenshot of TikTok Live Studio on Twitter, said the app is still in a fairly primitive state. In-app supports landscape and portrait streaming, and you can get live streaming from games, personal apps, mobile devices, and cameras.
Zach Bussey shared a screenshot of TikTok Live Studio on Twitter
Previously, some users would use third-party software, such as Streamlabs, to stream live from desktop devices to TikTok, but the feature was quite limited, limited to the live stream users themselves inviting viewers to watch. There are also tutorials that use third-party services such as Loola.tv as a workaround to connect TikTok with live streaming programs such as OBS, but these methods obviously have to be discounted in the experience of use.
While it's unclear when TikTok will expand its testing of Live Studio to more users, if it comes up with an official version, tabletop game live streaming could bring more variety to the platform's catalog of live content.
And TikTok's action, but also to verify a thing, European and American users are more and more "adapted" to live broadcasting, no longer limited to games, itself in the game live broadcast has no advantage at all TikTok, may also be able to rely on more diversified content in the live broadcast business to expand, especially the development of vibrato in full swing live e-commerce.
The online shopping behavior of European and American users occurs more on the website side, and from the perspective of TikTok's vigorous layout of the content on the PC side, it is also conducive to the subsequent penetration of e-commerce business. Not only the game live broadcast and e-commerce business, TikTok even began to involve in the takeaway business, and its realization path is also through the internet celebrities on the short video.
Internet celebrity recipes are all the rage, which makes TikTok start the idea of takeaway
The rise of TikTok has also begun to gradually penetrate from online to offline life. Users in Europe and the U.S. use TikTok for much more than just fun short videos — its recipes are so popular that TikTok decided to start making its own takeaways and a complete food supply chain.
In fact, since last year, one simple and easy recipe after another has become popular on TikTok and has caused many users to punch in the recipe. In response to this phenomenon, in a CNN report titled "How TikTok Teaches a Generation to Make Food", it was pointed out that "TikTok's success in the food field is due to the continuous growth of food bloggers over the past 20 years, and the interest and knowledge of the general public, especially the middle class that has expectations for food culture." ”
In January of this year, "Baked Feta Pasta" became popular on TikTok. According to Google Trends data, between January and February, search interest in "feta cheese" and "pasta with grilled cheese" in the U.S. reached an all-time high, with search indexes much higher than before.
"Feta Cheese" Search Index
This means that the influence of food videos in TikTok is universal and extensive, in fact, this also benefits from the form of video content, which has a more direct and real effect on the display of food or recipes than graphics.
In the Internet era, if you want to get a reference of "what to eat today", it is embodied in the "food recommendation", "restaurant planting", and "recipe sharing" on various platforms.
TikTok is now experimenting with this, starting with popular recipe content and providing users with takeaway food that is consistent with the video content.
TikTok announced a partnership with virtual dining concept company Virtual Dining Concepts and online food delivery platform Grubhub to launch a takeaway-only TikTok Kitchen nationwide starting in March next year.
The menu will be based on TikTok's hottest food and beverage trends, including "pasta with grilled cheese", which Google ranked as the most searched for 2021, and dishes such as Smash Burger.
In terms of food production, TikTok Kitchen's takeaway will be produced by marah Carey, YouTube influencer MrBeast, Guy Fieri and other physical restaurants, other restaurants can also apply to cooperate with TikTok Kitchen, and Virtual Dining Concepts will provide staff training, recipes, packaging, materials and other help.
In addition, Robert Earl, co-founder of Virtual Dining Concepts, revealed that "we plan to launch about 300 TikTok restaurants across the United States, and expect to have more than 1,000 stores by the end of 2022", and that "the menu will change quarterly, and if a dish starts to catch on, it may be included in this menu".
Image source: Network
It is not difficult to see that from the operation of catering brands, menus and production, and then to distribution, TikTok Kitchen has built a fairly complete supply chain.
In addition, TikTok also said that it will use the profits of TikTok Kitchen to cook recipes and other content creators, and support promising culinary talents on the platform. It's just that it's one thing to let users cook their own meals, it's another thing to have them order food from a short video platform, and it remains to be seen how effective it will be.
TikTok's four-sided attack is not unrelated to the rapid expansion of its platform capabilities, and a notable trend is whether people turn to TikTok for their daily search behavior, just as they start using Amazon to search for items they want to buy online. In other words, will a new generation of young users switch completely from Google's search engine — widely seen as a monopoly platform — to TikTok altogether.
This is not just about live game broadcasting or takeaway business, the impact on the advertising industry may be more profound.
How far is it to be the next super advertiser TikTok wants?
According to a recent report by analytics firm App Annie, "TikTok has disrupted the streaming and social ecosystem. "The data shows that in the US and UK, users spend more time on TikTok than on YouTube on average.
When a platform can gain such influence and occupy user time, they certainly want to be able to sell their users anything that generates a commercial return, whether it's short videos, live streaming content, influencer takeaways, or the most profitable ads.
TikTok previously said the number of companies running ads on its platform increased by 500% in 2020 and is currently working with "thousands" of advertisers. The surge in brand activity has boosted TikTok's sales significantly. According to the Wall Street Journal, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, has seen revenue growth of more than 100 percent in its most recent fiscal year, and profits have soared 93 percent to more than $19 billion.
TikTok brand advertising product system
On TikTok, brand advertising is presented in a variety of ways. You can create your own ads, spread them across users' timelines, or appear on users' pages for an additional fee. Brands are also able to sponsor the label, using the various visual effects techniques offered by TikTok. Multiple brands have their own accounts to publish products, recruit employees, amplify offline advertising, or simply provide interesting content. There are also many brands that work directly with content creators, who are naturally good at combining entertainment content and consumer products.
TikTok is actively nurturing the community through the TikTok Creators Fund, paying subsidies to users who have at least 10,000 followers and more than 100,000 views a month.
If TikTok is now more popular than Google or Facebook, its potential advertising revenue will be unlimited, according to eMarketer, the two tech giants currently account for 53% of the global digital advertising market, and for TikTok, there is nothing more conducive to its revenue growth than occupying a million-dollar advertising business.
A New York Times report earlier this month highlighted how brand marketers are reaching younger generations with TikTok. Of course, the ad spend of these brands may still have a long way to go before it can really increase conversion rates.
The brand label challenge will be more popular on TikTok
The other side of the coin is that the regulatory issues against TikTok cannot be ignored.
According to the Wall Street Journal series, bad content about teenagers remains a big problem with TikTok. And geopolitical factors will continue to be considered, and there is still no definite number on how U.S. regulators will handle a non-homegrown super platform.
Once both governments and consumers realize that TikTok has become dominant in many areas, it is likely that TikTok will have to face more than just crowd competition, which is likely to be one of the most significant tech events of 2022.