Few people can tell exactly how short videos became so popular. Is it the mass entertainment nature of short videos? Or do short videos, like live streaming, capture users with enough time? Even Kuaishou, China’s earliest short video platform, does not have a perfect answer to this question.
But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that short videos are popular and addictive even more than live streaming. According to QuestMobile, the average short-video App user spent 65.8 minutes a day in December 2017. Compared with the daily usage of most live streaming apps, which is less than an hour, short videos have won the day.
In the context of the fading demographic dividend of the Internet, the “favored child” such as short video may seem out of place, but it is valuable for capital seeking to increase in value. Now, douyin, Kuaishou, Tudou, weishi people bombing, has made short video completely reduced to a giant show.
Show to show, can’t be less belligerent. Whether it is Tencent reviving Weishi regardless of the cost, or Douyin Quick hand’s close combat, the giants who spent a lot of money in the early stage finally drew in many users, and even created a unique circle culture, such as Douyou, Laotie and so on.
But let’s face it, short videos might not have been as big as they are if it wasn’t for the big money. It is almost certain that the tremendous influence created by the comprehensive short video platform in the hands of the giants has laid the soil gene of China’s short video ecology. In short, the giant spends money to educate the market, and the market responds reasonably, if not more than expected.
However, under the draught of short video, there is no so-called “monopoly” effect, because we can still see many types of vertical platforms independent of giants, such as Mobile, LIKE short video, Mizi Media, etc. However, to say that the giant does not want to do big and BAT does not want to make money is the same, both against objective facts, but no one will believe. And the data can’t lie. Watermelon, Kuaishou and Douyin have more than 100 million monthly live users, and the numbers are still growing.
So, in this age of short video, short video is a big business? What are the opportunities for small and medium-sized platforms to break through? If there is an opportunity for smaller platforms to break out, what is it?
The heyday of short video has implications
While it is true that short videos have been used by many of the world’s most powerful men, there are also concerns about the future of the battlefield.
First, flow only theory
The rise of the headlines is short video to the kuaishou a Xiama Wei, also sounded the alarm to Tencent. Since the escalation of the war from all sides, the competition about the day to live the month to live emerges in endlessly, the giants spend money to hit out of the short video flow data is very gorgeous. The problem is that traffic thinking isn’t a panacea.
On the one hand, the viscosity of the flow is unstable. For both content creators and ordinary users, after being attracted by cash and subsidies, the phenomenon of flow migration where there is subsidy will go. On the other hand, there are limitations in releasing the value of traffic. Throwing money to attract traffic is a shortcut. However, under such fast food strategic thinking, not every single user has made due contributions to the short video platform, in other words, the efficiency of money is not ideal.
However small and medium players rarely exist this trouble. One is that they tend to be cautious in how efficiently they capture traffic, and the other is that they tend to be strategic and step-by-step. The further the development of short video, the stability of traffic will be more and more important, so the intensive cultivation of small and medium-sized players in traffic is also a kind of investment in the value of future traffic.
Two, the content of vulgarization, similarity
The case of Kuaishou Douyin touching the content red line is still vivid in my mind. Like live broadcast, short video also has an established bottom line, that is, vulgarization. In this regard, short video platforms have to face the problem of the lack of early warning mechanism for content production. When the platform is too big and does not realize the control of content production, such problems will inevitably occur. Openness and tolerance also become a breeding ground for vulgar content.
Another is the drawback of homogenization, which is commonly said to be the same content, substitutability and replicability. Microvision and Douyin once went head-to-head over content issues, but the fundamental problem is that short video content production does not have their own unique secret recipe. Before the vast majority of users do not become excellent content producers, the original intention of entertainment production leads to many UGC and PGC clash.
Fortunately, the content of mainstream short videos is generally healthy. Moreover, by controlling the production mechanism of short video content, vulgar and similar content can be completely avoided, which is not only a warning for players who enter the game later, but also an opportunity to break through.
Three, the lack of moat
In Buffett’s mind, corporate moat includes low-cost production model, brand power and so on. In today’s Internet industry, the moat of an enterprise is a high base of users, diversified product matrix, and strong capital strength. So for the giants, no matter how far they had to go, there was plenty of food to go around.
But where is the moat of short video today? Take the giants. Is flow a moat? Only continuous subsidies, I’m afraid; Is endless content a moat? I’m afraid we have to get rid of the ineffective and low-quality content to understand. And what this means is that the short video from the tuyere potential to now this two or three years, the moat is not clear enough, traffic and activity to the giants on the shiny coat, but as a consumer product, short video obviously need honing in mode, content and other aspects, is likely to have strong wide moat for a long time.
Predictably, it is precisely because of the lack of the moat that new players in order to fight their way out of the entrance will inevitably pay attention to the construction of the moat. At present, the development of short video is still very strong, which will undoubtedly increase the power of the moat advantage in the competition field, and will also become a shot in the arm for new players.
The man who broke through the giants
It is not only short video that has potential for development, but also live broadcasting that has the trap of “unprofitable model”, and sharing economy that has the trap of “fake demand”. However, it does not mean that there is no room for operation in these fields. And when it comes to short videos, nothing speaks louder than the heyday.
Opportunities only come to those who are well prepared, and it is no myth to break through the ranks of the titans. Just as there are momo and Tantan in addition to wechat, there are Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu in addition to JINGdong taobao. So how do the short video industry’s brave warriors plan their way out of the storm?
First, from the giant beyond the reach of the cut
There may be a paradox here. Do giants have weaknesses? Fortunately, TMD’s breakthrough from BAT provides a solution to the problem. The weakness of the giant lies in that “it is difficult to focus on doing everything well with huge business”. Based on this weakness, we see the first springboard of breakout people — the differentiation play of subdivision thinking. We respectively from music, maternal and child these two more popular content areas to interpret.
In the field of music, take movement as an example. It was born in short video at the end of 2017 and has completed its pre-A round of financing. In order to further improve the content value of short music videos, the movement of short music videos from the music field adopts the free interactive play of multi-grid music video tracks. In short, short video is composed of multiple grids, and the content in each grid can be independently produced. From the perspective of music KOL, the advantage of this method is that it can fit the band form seamlessly. It can produce a short video by multiple people at the same time, or it can produce a short video by copying multiple people themselves.
The production of multi-lattice fission video is a technical activity, so it also increases the versatility and stability of video production from technology. For example, moving time can achieve audio and video synchronization processing, even if the composite compression of multiple videos will not appear lag and delay; The video clip function allows users to edit and calibrate each segment of video before uploading it. So these technologies are convenient and sophisticated, but they also give users more autonomy in producing short videos.
In order to break through the limitation of single production mode of short video, MOVtimes has also developed the ability of “second creation” for users. For example, users can take the existing multi-bar short music video as the basic creation material, replace one bar with themselves, and perform an interesting aerial duet with other players. In the current trend of short video fun, such content fission method to a large extent to meet the creative desire of users, but also create more high-quality content for the platform.
Look at the maternal and child sector, take Michi media as an example. Its short video MCN platform, which is targeted at maternal and child, family and pan-female fields, also has two key words. One is the plate nature of the content. At present, The content section of Miqi Media in the direction of maternal and infant includes short popular science videos, parent-child games and maternal and infant pregnancy, which is also the content production strategy adopted for each stage of maternal and infant. Second, ecological linkage. Miqi media through maternal and child cut into women, family and other fields. As maternal and infant still have great room for growth, and both population and consumption power are on the rise, such ecological layout can be regarded as an expansion of thinking in a segmented field.
From the point of view of Movic and Miqi Media, it is feasible to take the road of differentiation from the segmented areas beyond the reach of the giants, but we still need to pay attention to two points: one is whether there are high sticky users in the segmented areas, and the other is whether there is enough room for improvement in the segmented areas.
Second, start with innovative social gameplay
Here, take LIKE short video and motion as an example. The “LIKE” short video is a great example of a successful app that has been downloaded over 27 million times in 202 countries. In terms of gameplay, LIKE positions itself as “magic video selfie device”. Users can use various special effects when shooting short videos. For example, the recently launched super power special effects adopt bone tracking, classification technology and augmented reality technology. Based on such technological flow, LIKE short videos successfully drive users’ social desire with the novelty of content. For example, users will use the same “magic” to PK.
The direction of social activity is to make short video content have stronger social attributes. Generally, short videos interact with fans through the content itself and drive the demand for social interaction. However, there is often a situation that the window cannot be broken, which weakens the social behavior and highlights the one-sided disadvantages.
But the content of the moving time fission play to social interaction with the relationship between the chain structure, the first layer is the user in the second creation with native content authors to form social relationships, the second layer is the content of the users in the spread of their production, through the challenge, to join and replace play make short video content creation with the two-way interactive, so as to get rid of the “social” passivity embarrassed.
Under these two social paths, when users have the desire to create high-quality native short videos, they are bound to become the fans of native creators first, and then play the role of new creators. This process allows users with a strong creative appetite within the mobile community to socialize more frequently and more effectively and concretely based on what resonates with music content.
Whether it is the “technology flow” idea LIKE short video or the “multi-grid” and “fission” gameplay, both of them activate the deep and diversified social attributes of short video through content innovation. In fact, this is the current many short video platforms, and even some giants are not good at, or ignored. Besides, according to the diverse tastes of short video users, interesting gameplay is always a point that can be deeply cultivated, fun things will never go cold, and users will maintain a high degree of social activity.
Short video diversification demand gradually show, break out the bright road ahead
The short video industry is surrounded by giants, but it is not without room to flex its muscles. From the perspective of follower times, Miqi Media and LIKE short videos, their current model and development status have already illustrated certain problems. Throughout the glorious history of the Internet, giants may have held sway, but the seeds of innovation have always germinated in various soils.
The good news for smaller platforms is that they are adding to their moat blueprint with this attempt at differentiation. We do see different needs of users, just as we do music and baby and baby. It can be said that the continuous clarity of users’ demand for short video segmentation makes it possible for these platforms to break out of the siege.
The breakout of these small and medium-sized platforms also tells us, in a certain sense, that the giants are not terrible gatekeepers. They may be ferocious in appearance, but it is themselves who really decide the way out. Besides, the soil of short video is still expanding outwards, and small and medium-sized platforms still have the opportunity to own their own soil and water.
From this point of view, we can imagine the future path of these escapees. On the one hand, starting from the market environment, the continuous release of short video dividends gives them a certain amount of free play space, even if the Development of Buddhism, they can also get some flow dividends; On the other hand, starting from the platform itself, it may be a long way to achieve perfection in the segmentation field, but it is not impossible to make a breakthrough and become a unicorn in this field, which is also the best result.
While the ultimate outcome of the short video landscape may still be a long way off, the point is that these breakout players are already contributing to the short video ecosystem, making it more colorful than highly similar in the behemoth-packed arena. We also hope that they will break the cocoon and make contributions to the diversity of short video in the age of short video full of worries.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110