The report selected six platforms in the first tier: Kuaishou, Miaopai, Watermelon video, Huoshan Video, Meipai and Douyin. Watermelon, Huoshan and Douyin are all listed on Toutiao’s top three platforms. One platform that’s easy to catch your eye on is the quick hand short video.
In the comparison of Baidu’s search index, kuaishou’s search index of 100,000 level is still remarkable compared to the search index of Toutiao’s three platforms, which is hovering at 30,000 and showing an upward trend. And in the comparison of the search trend curve, Kuaishou is also floating above the five platforms, wechat index Kuaishou leads even more. In terms of brand volume comparison, Kuaishou takes the first place in wechat volume, while Miaopai takes all the three major volume of news media, brand volume and Internet users volume. Naturally, Kuaishou also has more clutter than any other platform, and only ranks fourth in the proportion of non-negative news.
Obviously, whether from this data report sheet or the consistent impression left by Kuaishou in the media, the image of this platform has become more vivid, and wechat is a hotbed for kuaishou users to grow.
Live fast hands and fierce market
2016 is the first year of short videos. Founded in March 2011, Kuaishou started as a mobile application for making and sharing GIF images. At the end of 2012, it began to transform from a tool to a community platform for short videos, and gave itself an accurate positioning — “recording and sharing life”. Therefore, caught up with the draught of short video, Kuaishou also ushered in a big outbreak in 2016.
From mid-2015 to February 2016, the number of Kuaishou users soared from 100 million to 300 million. In January 2017, it hit 150 million MAU and 50 million DAU. By May, Kuaishou had more than 500 million registered users. At the end of November 2017, Kuaishou had more than 100 million daily active users and 700 million registered users… Over the past two years, the financing of hundreds of millions of yuan has repeatedly made this controversial name frequently appear on the hot search, and the creator who has been incubated from the quick hand has earned a lot of money and all his fame and fortune…
In fact, the short video industry has been a sea of blood in the past two years. From live broadcast to short video, the competition for traffic is increasingly fierce, and the word “content” has been elevated to an unprecedented height. And can come out in this sea of blood, no one is weaker than who, the strength of the consortium behind is surprising. This is the power of capital.
Kuaishou, however, is undoubtedly the best in the first echelon. Due to its positioning close to life, Kuaishou has a high user penetration rate and a deep sink in the second and third-tier cities, which makes kuaishou, an extremely down-to-earth platform, become the new favorite of grassroots netizens. Other platforms are not to be outdone. Miaopai enjoys high popularity with the help of weibo, while Douyin enjoys an exclusive advantage with its young audience. In 2018, the struggle between the major short video platforms has come to an end. The volume of sound no longer holds the absolute right to speak, but the refined content begins to survive and rise against the trend.
High-quality content has been pushing the industry forward, and the lack of mobile short video traffic is the next challenge facing these platforms. As mobile traffic runs out, no amount of headspace can save the industry from rebirth. Iresearch data show that in the second half of 2017, short video users are obviously close to the head platform, but from September to November, the monthly total effective time growth of short video platform has a slowing trend, and the sequential growth of the number of independent devices on all major platforms tends to be stable, staying at about 20%, and even one or two companies have a negative growth.
Although the outside world is concerned about the streaming industry, which has been diverted by short videos, it is not clear who is taking away whose traffic. And in the face of user novelty fade, the major short video head platform is also time to consider a bit longer term.
Kuaishou internal algorithm and external pressure
For the entire short video industry, 2017 is not the end of competition, naturally 2018 will not meet the industry in the short term, and for Kuaishou, according to the current market, this is still not a very friendly 2018.
In terms of the external living environment of Kuaishou, the pressure of Kuaishou comes from two aspects: live broadcasting and other platforms.
In the first aspect, the streaming of live video to the short video industry. A few months ago, major we-media had been obsessed with the fact that short videos stole the limelight of live broadcasting, as if live broadcasting was in a slump only under the strong attack of short videos. As a matter of fact, live broadcast and short video, as brand-new mobile terminal interactive media, are inseparable. And although Kuaishou dabbled in live broadcasting, but this is not an advantage for the deepening of the live broadcasting industry. Moreover, this is the plight of the entire short video industry, Kuaishou does not need to fight alone.
On the other hand, is from toutiao, Weibo, Tencent’s giant squeeze. Kuaishou is hardly able to cope with the three matrix of Toutiao, especially Douyin, which is positioned in the fashionable music field and has risen rapidly in a short period of time, putting great pressure on Kuaishou. In addition to Toutiao’s emphasis on short videos, Tencent and Ali have not missed this draught, Ali launched the big Fish program to directly support content creators; Tencent also did not bet on Kuaishou alone, but chose to promote its own platforms, such as NOW Live, to build its own short video matrix.
In this way, even Tencent are doing their own short video, Kuaishou can say that there is no weight to take out. But the pressure is not only there, there are a lot of kuaishou internal problems can not be ignored.
First, the public’s impression and label of Kuaishou. Tagging people or companies is one of the hallmarks of our time, and Kuaishou has fallen victim to this behavior, similar to Momo, which recently entered livestreaming. Even those who did not use fast hands had a slightly bad impression of fast hands through the mouth of others. In fact, the industry has never been lack of discussion about the phenomenon of “Kuaishou low-quality content is popular but users do not reduce”, but if you think about it, you will know that this is related to kuaishou’s positioning. Kuaishou, which reflects the “reality” and is close to life, lacks filters and is more like a mirror of the real daily life of people in lower life levels. The users who can infiltrate into it enjoy it, while the users who reject it cannot integrate into it. The continuous rise of Kuaishou users indicates that a complete closed loop has been formed here.
Second, kuaishou negative reports emerge in endlessly, the algorithm destroyed a lifetime. Even in the latest data of short videos mentioned above, kuaishou’s negative news has not stopped. On the one hand, these contents reflect the chaos in the whole short video and live broadcast circle, and on the other hand, it also shows that Kuaishou’s ability to combat the chaos content needs to be improved. If these negative scandals are allowed to fester, the damage to Kuaishou may be irreparable. In addition, compared with the protective umbrella that B and other content platforms have begun to provide for minors, the information cocoon rooms constructed for users by content platforms such as Toutiao and Kuaishou under the algorithm mechanism need to be banned.
Third, kuaishou information flow advertising income is limited, low profitability. Restricted by the above mentioned overall content level of Kuaishou, the average value of Kuaishou users has led to no improvement in its information flow advertising revenue. Although the number of users is as high as 700 million, the profit is still in the initial stage. Before that, what really made Kuaishou realize business was the live broadcasting business. For an old short video platform, Kuaishou needs a stronger profit model to support it.
In kuaofang’s circle, the users who can penetrate in are intoxicated with this, and the carnival sound of a group is bigger than the individual. And in order not to be a one-hit wonder and end the myth of 700 million users, Kuaishou needs to find more breakthroughs.
How does Kuaishou continue the next myth?
According to the current market reputation and the inertial cognition of Kuaishou, kuaishou constantly refresh the negative news in the major media pages actually has already sounded kuaishou lonely horn. But kuaishou was able to make it through 2017 under the shelter of the short video market. However, for the post-00s generation, which will come on stage in 2018, Kuaishou is undoubtedly a formidable presence. In 2018, Kuaishou will face unprecedented challenges, and how to continue the next myth, Kuaishou needs to find the answer as soon as possible.
For kuaishou’s seemingly solid vicious closed loop at present, the most direct way to break this closed loop is to cancel the algorithm recommendation mechanism and break the collective carnival feast in certain scenes of Kuaishou. The algorithm is the initiator of kuaishou users’ immersion. Only by breaking the algorithm barrier can the users inside come out and the users outside go in. And if kuaishou passively wait for the cold wave after the short video tuyere subside, it must be a winter that comes faster than expected.
The positioning of Kuaishou close to real life is not the source of all evil, but the advantage of kuaishou personalization. In this era of content flooding, homogenization is the key to lower the competitiveness of enterprises, and Kuaishou should make positive guidance to its accurate and unique positioning, so as to enlarge the value of personalized products and build safe enterprise barriers.
In the face of external pressure, in addition to internal adjustment, the most powerful weapon for Kuaishou is to respond to all changes with the same, break through the market with its own personalized content, and clarify positive positioning and value again. On this basis, Kuaishou needs to improve its profit model as soon as possible and build a profit loop with the help of high-quality content output, so as to make preparations in advance for Kuaishou’s live broadcast and more business development in the future.
In general, the rise of Kuaishou for the first time is a myth, and now kuaishou is in urgent need of adjustment both from external pressure and internal environment. To have the courage to break the wrist, to have the strength to face the external competition. Under the barrier built by the algorithm and 700 million users, it is actually a misreading and deviation of Kuaishou’s positioning. With “record the world, record you”, Kuaishou could have gone a longer way.
Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110