Doing the video number, Weibo thought clearly
Author | Director
Edit | Yang Jing
"What do you think of the Weibo video number?"
In a conference room at the Weibo Building, sitting in front of the Hedgehog Commune (id: ciweigongshe) was Cao Zenghui, senior vice president of Weibo. In the nearly 2 hours of interviews, he has been talking and logical, but he asked this question twice, and his eyes were full of expectation.
Part of the video number plan Image source: Weibo
On July 10, Weibo officially announced the launch of the "Video Number" plan, which will fully upgrade Weibo video creators to "Weibo Video Number". In terms of product features, Weibo has equipped the "video community" with a first-level entrance in the main client, and recently launched a new app planet video, and more importantly, Weibo has launched a huge support plan for video creators.
The picture shows Cao Zenghui, senior vice president of Weibo Source: Weibo
"We want to send a signal to the market and creators, especially to give full play to the differentiated advantages of Weibo and the determination to do a good job in video content." Cao Zenghui told the Hedgehog Commune.
In the "official announcement", the goal of Weibo video number is as follows - "In the next year, Weibo will divide 500 million cash into Weibo video accounts, invest 1 billion precision advertising resources, and 30 billion top exposure resources... Create 10,000 million fan accounts! ”
Weibo entered the field of short video as early as 2013, from the second beat to the small coffee show, and then to the live broadcast of live products, Weibo was the "flag bearer" of the short video industry at the beginning, but after the emergence of Douyin and Kuaishou, these products began to fade. Because of this history, Cao Zenghui believes that Weibo's video number is not "newly opened", but "restarted".
Hedgehog Commune learned that the video number is one of Weibo's two major S-level projects in 2020, integrating various high-quality resources within Weibo. With this unprecedented creator support program, Weibo hopes to gain a larger share of the video consumer market along its own differentiated product advantages.
Whether this time can be successful, the time verification channel has been opened.
Hedgehog Commune found that under the updated Weibo homepage, the "signboard" of the "Video Creation Center" has been hung. The two words "release" are not only exceptionally large, but also with a gold background, full of purpose.
From the "Videos" entrance below the home page, go in, and the three small tabs of Recommendations, Popular, and Small Videos are arranged in turn. Long videos, short videos, everything. Hedgehog Commune also found that many video creators such as big v and golden v who have passed the video number certification have hung three big characters of "video number" on the homepage.
Some bloggers have hung up the "video number" badge Image source: Weibo
The video number took root on Weibo, and in this way, it was embedded in the form of Weibo app and presented to hundreds of millions of users.
Cao Zenghui said that instead of starting a new stove, insisting on embedding video publishing functions and consumption scenarios in the Weibo app, this is surprisingly consistent from top to bottom on Weibo. Although Weibo also launched the Planet Video app not long ago, it is mainly to assist creators to release videos and meet the heavy consumption needs of some users, such as 4K, screen projection, etc.
The threshold for wanting to become the owner of a Weibo video account is not high, as long as the creator successfully submits 1 ≥ of self-made video content, or ≥ 5 original small videos released in the past year, he is eligible to join the video number plan. Once successful, the logo of the video number hangs on the right side of the Creators Page.
If a user is good at graphics and text, and is not very good at playing videos, Weibo also provides special services such as video academy courses and video assistance subsidies, so that such authors also have the opportunity to achieve the transformation from graphics to videos.
The stage is set up, and then someone has to sing. Weibo took out real money for this.
In the video number, a special advertising sharing system "Gravity Plan" is set up. Weibo promises: it will provide 500 million cash shares for video number creators throughout the year; provide "accurate delivery + brand exposure + growth resources" to help them accumulate social assets.
These operational measures all point to the "grand ambition" behind the Weibo video number - "to create 10,000 million fan video numbers, focusing on vertical areas; support 100 video mcn institutions, with a monthly playback scale of 100 million; help 30 video mcn institutions, with an annual revenue of 100 million." ”
Cao Zenghui said that Weibo will give full play to the advantages of the platform to empower and monetize video creators, which will be the most important work for Weibo video numbers.
Under the heavy money, there must be those who respond.
Within a week of the official launch, about 500,000 creators have opened video accounts.
"Exceeded expectations".
For the results of the Weibo video number in the first week of launch, Cao Zenghui commented to the Hedgehog Commune.
At a time when various long and short video platforms are competing for users' attention, why can Weibo video numbers make video creators actively settle in, so that consumers are willing to spend more time consuming videos on Weibo?
Cao Zenghui was confident in this. In terms of pgc, he believes that Weibo has three major uniquenesses.
First, Weibo can help large numbers "go out of the circle", expand social assets, and build public influence.
He believes that Weibo is different from other platforms in its public nature. "Two people in different fields can gather on Weibo because of a public event to exchange views, which is Weibo's strength."
Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya, both of whom have achieved the level of tens of millions of fans on Weibo, have also opened a video number Source: Weibo
After the fire of other platforms, many big v will also come to Weibo to open an account and build a self-brand covering a wider circle.
"For example, Li Ziqi, in fact, a considerable part of her video playback is done on Weibo; Another example is Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya, they are not Weibo native Internet celebrities, after other platforms are on fire, they are now spending a lot of effort to operate Weibo accounts, build their own public influence, and achieve circle breaking. ”
The Weibo video number plan provides an opportunity for these non-Weibo native masters and Internet celebrities to provide opportunities - high-quality off-site accounts that meet the requirements of a certain number of fans can also apply for the opening of Weibo video accounts through declarations.
Cao Zenghui believes that "Weibo is still the only platform for domestic video authors to go out of the circle." "If you want to let a broader user group see and enter the public vision, Internet celebrities and celebrities often choose Weibo as a channel for voice and communication."
Weibo has now become an essential "brand infrastructure" and social asset for many big vs and public figures. One of the reasons behind this lies in weibo's algorithm.
"Many other platforms use recommendation algorithms to achieve information distribution, and the number of fans is not directly related to information reading." However, Weibo distributes information through social relationships and works with creators to maintain the preservation and appreciation of social assets. ”
Second, Weibo can help big v achieve diversification and realization.
Weibo has a variety of tools such as graphics, long and short videos, live broadcasts, etc., in addition to achieving advertising sharing, big v can also achieve monetization through various ways such as e-commerce and payment. This is the advantage of Microblog diversity.
For UGC, Cao Zenghui also believes that Weibo video numbers have their own charm.
The "Videos" and "Small Videos" sections in Weibo videos Image source: Weibo
At present, from the "Video" entrance at the bottom of the Weibo account homepage, there are recommended, popular, and small videos. "Users can see all kinds of content forms such as long videos and short videos here, and the in-depth information and hot content consumption needs can be met."
He said that the reason why the three words "small video" were specially taken out to form a label is that Weibo considers the direction of video content very clearly.
On the one hand, it matches the hot communication needs of Weibo as a social media, including hot spots and pan-entertainment content; on the other hand, it is social content, such as meeting the content needs of some large trumpets that need to send some interactive social interaction with fans.
"Short videos and small videos cover the overall strategy of Weibo video numbers, and they will also become part of the user experience of Weibo video accounts, so that everyone can feel the charm of Weibo video numbers." Cao Zenghui said.
At present, the "plus" video is far more than just Weibo. WeChat, Baidu, and Zhihu have all entered. In particular, WeChat, one of the "two micro-weChat", launched a WeChat video account in January 2020 and developed rapidly.
This time Weibo launched a video number, in the order of time, like a "follower". Cao Zenghui clarified, "The convergence from name to strategy is purely coincidental, and behind it may only be the consistency of the fields that everyone explores." ”
He said that weibo has been reviewing the video content in the Weibo app since the middle of 2019. "At that time, a video community was made within the product, and some original pgc authors were separated from this kind of content through the posting system of submissions, and the pgc authors were launched."
For ordinary users, the most intuitive change is the addition of a "video" entrance at the bottom of Weibo, and Weibo has made a transformation of the playback page so that when users watch videos, the experience can be more "immersive" and the interaction can be more convenient.
In the past year, such product design and transformation have effectively stimulated the video consumption time of Weibo users, and the interaction with bloggers and fans has become more frequent, which is conducive to the construction of Weibo video ecology. The data shows that in March 2020, the number of Weibo video plays and the number of users increased by more than 30% year-on-year.
People who know Weibo know that Weibo is actually an early community in China to contact videos. Around 2011, Weibo invested in the second beat and used the internal traffic of the client to support it. From the small coffee show that belongs to the same technology as the second beat, and then to the later live broadcast product, it has also received the full support of Weibo.
The current second beat official website Image source: second beat
These few steps, Weibo went very right.
Talking about this history, Cao Zenghui said, "Now everyone often talks about the second rise, at that time, there were two key points. One is the familiar vertical operation of Weibo, and the other is video. ”
However, after the rise of short video products such as Douyin and Kuaishou, the light of the second beat has dimmed a lot. In this regard, Cao Zenghui reflected on this.
"Most of the traffic of the second beat comes from Weibo, and the single-ended traffic is relatively limited, or it is necessary to firmly cultivate product experience and user consumption habits in Weibo." At that time, the second beat did not have a particularly strong content ecology, and there was no good distinction and classification for video content and user consumption needs. ”
After summarizing the previous experience, at present, Weibo is using video numbers to create a more prosperous content ecology, but also from the product design, improve the user experience, but also for video creators to provide more interaction and operation means.
For example, recently, Weibo has greatly optimized the function of the fan base, and also strengthened the interaction between graphics and text, "from the second half of 2019 to the present, the data growth rate of these products is very large." Cao Zenghui said.
With this experience, the Weibo video number from the establishment of the project to the implementation, Weibo up and down not only set it at the S level, but also came up with the best resources to support.
On the team, Cao Zenghui said that Weibo was previously a vertical operation team, not in accordance with the text, video and other presentation methods to distinguish, but after deciding to do the video number, Weibo selected elite soldiers from the product, operation and other groups, formed a special video team, responsible for planning the video product strategy and operation direction, and collaborated with other vertical content operation teams. At the same time, the company quickly came up with the best resources to tilt to the video number.
"How much confidence does Weibo have in the video number?"
In the face of the hedgehog commune's questions, Cao Zenghui did not answer positively. He said that Weibo's logic for video numbers is very smooth, and it can also be seen from the annual "kpi" of the clear video numbers in the announcement that Weibo knows what the direction of doing things is.
He said: "We do think clearly now, and then we must push forward the firmness that has been clearly thought out." ”