For this news, Although Tencent did not directly reply, but from Tencent announced the creation of a new Penguin account, and will invest 10 billion yuan in text messages, short video creators can be seen that Tencent is about to put power in short video, and Weishi is Tencent into the short video field lead the way.
Sure enough, shortly after Tencent announced that micro will access Tencent’s Wang card. With Tencent’s support, can micro-vision really come back from the dead?
From brilliant to decline, microvision of the past life
In fact, microvision has had its day. In 2013, Tencent launched Weishi, positioning it as a community for sharing 8-second short videos. At that time, short videos were not popular, but Weishi was still in the top 5 free App Store with downloads. But it didn’t last long. After two tepid years, The company announced it was shutting down its app in 2017. There are several main reasons for the cooling of microvisual heat.
On one hand, micro as a strategic error in product logic. At that time, the Internet industry happened to be in the period of traffic accumulation. As a giant in the field of Internet social networking, Tencent was accustomed to developing products that accumulated traffic. Tencent positioned Weosv as an 8-second short video social platform based on traffic, however, this product logic was one of the reasons for weosv’s decline.
Although tencent micro will regard as short video version of the weibo, think it can record the daily life of people, but based on 8 seconds of time limit, the micro visual could not tell a story, also cannot bear too much feelings, especially for advertisers and web celebrity star account for the bulk of the flow, the awkward time both reach the purpose of the product promotion, to interact with fans won’t work. As a result, “daddy funders” are reluctant to advertise on Wechat, and online celebrities migrate to other platforms, taking their traffic with them.
Second, from its birth to the later stage of development, microvision’s content functions remain unchanged, which is not attractive to users who pursue new things. It is not fun, not good to use, and the product experience is poor. According to the analysis of users, Microvision does not understand the needs of users, and the updating speed of beauty, filters, subtitles, stickers and other functions is slow and not new. Although the video length has been extended later, it still cannot meet other needs of users. When other products that can meet more needs of users mushroomed, the traffic in the short video market began to shift to these products, and Microvision was gradually abandoned by the market.
Three, Tencent to micro strategic abandon. As an Internet giant, Tencent has a huge system, and it is this huge system that makes Wechat less attention of Tencent. And as the traffic of Microvision gradually decreases and the task of realizing profit is difficult to complete, Tencent has gradually put Microvision in an increasingly marginalized position when laying out its strategy. Especially after losing the powerful backing of Tencent Microblog, wechat began to launch the small video function, which made Wechat in an awkward position in Tencent’s system.
Short video changes the red sea, Tencent re-enter the game
The development of The Times is always unpredictable. After Tencent chose to shut down Weosv, the short video industry became more and more prosperous, and Weosv, which missed the opportunity, encountered more difficulties in its subsequent march.
As the way people get information becomes more fragmented, the short video pie is getting bigger and bigger. According to the 2017-2018 Research Report on China’s Short video Industry Trends and User Behavior released by IMedia Consulting, the number of short video users in China reached 242 million by the end of 2017 and is expected to reach 353 million in 2018. This also means that social traffic is shifting to the short video market, and the competition for stock in the social market has forced Tencent to enter the short video industry.
In addition, the development of short video has entered a mature period, the market is about to usher in dividends, under the temptation of the market began to pour into a group of “wolves”, Tencent is no exception. Ma Huateng, CEO of Tencent, said in an interview, “The proportion of games in Tencent’s profit is declining, and is now below 50%, while social and performance advertising will become a big growth point for Tencent in the future. Therefore, Tencent will actively explore social platforms such as short video and live broadcast.”
Tencent, which is exploring the short video industry, chose Kuaishou as the target of support. However, after leading a $350 million investment in Kuaishou, Tencent and Kuaishou did not conduct further cooperation. According to a report by TechCrunch, sources familiar with the matter said that Kuaishou is preparing for a public listing, and that it is highly likely to develop independently in the future.
In this case, Tencent began to use the old general, increase subsidies, and the new version of the re-launched Micro vision, in addition to extending the video length and adding new elements in the original filter, subtitles, micro Vision also added a variety of functions such as original blockbusters, music show MV, lip-synching. In Tencent’s various moves, micro can really achieve rebirth?
Labor pains are frequent, and the road to rebirth is hard
If the current state of the short video industry is anything to go by, it will be difficult for Microvision to recover from the ashes.
First, the market pattern of short video industry has been stable, and it is not easy for Wechat to break through the barrier circle of kuaishou, Douyin and other giants. After Tencent closed Down Weishi, the short video industry ushered in a year of explosive growth, in this year, kuaishou, Meipai, Douyin and other users grew rapidly. According to data, as of February 2018, Kuaishou ranked first in the short video industry with 114 million DAUs, followed by Douyin and Huoshan. Surrounded by these giants, the content flow of the short video market has been basically divided up, and the user stratification and user loyalty to software in the short video field is also one of the main reasons that Microvision is difficult to cross the barrier of several short video giants.
Second, although Tencent has changed the content model of Weishi, it is based on Douyin’s model, which is not attractive to the market. Both the “high energy dance room” of motion-sensing dance and the follow and beat mode of learning while watching are similar to douyin’s gameplay. Tencent is targeting Douyin partly because it is unwilling to become a tool for douyin to steer the flow. The layout of short video field is Tencent’s short board, closing the micro vision is equivalent to giving away their own turf. Earlier, the industry wind yunhui actual investigation found that Tencent’s two social forces wechat and QQ, douyin can be seen everywhere.
On the other hand are tiktok’s high-consumer users. In terms of the user groups of Kuaishou and Douyin, most of kuaishou’s users are from second-tier cities and below, and their highest education level is lower than high school, while Douyin’s users are mainly from first-tier and second-tier cities, and more than 60% of them have a bachelor’s degree. Obviously, in terms of consumption power, douyin’s user group has higher consumption power than Kuaishou’s user group. Mastering the high-spending group means the possibility of more business models in the future.
However, Tencent obviously ignores one of the most important reasons. In the short video trend, both Kuaishou and Douyin can become phenomenally successful applications mainly because of their unexpected victories in content and functions. Moreover, it is not easy for Wechat to catch up with Douyin, which has formed a closed loop in content.
Third, as the state intensifies the supervision of content distribution platforms, the content industry is subject to more restrictions. With the development of the Internet, the government has been exerting more and more control over Internet platforms, and the short video industry has been identified as one of the key objects of control by the government. Around Qingming festival, kuaishou, a phenomenological product in short videos, was named by CCTV, and the APP was also removed from the download store. The main reason is that there is too much bad information on the platform, which is easy to cause bad influence. But in reality, content platforms are hardly perfect in their control of content.
In addition, the return of microvision still belongs to the same. Before the decline of Micro video, Tencent attracted Internet celebrities by spending huge sums of money to enter, and now it still uses the original way when it comes back. From this point, Tencent lacks certain innovation in the short video industry, and it is difficult to create a new micro video.
With the help of Tencent’s various resources, rebirth is still expected?
In such an unfavorable form, only by making good use of our advantages and striving to adapt to the development trend of the industry for reform and innovation can we expect to achieve rebirth from the ashes.
The best way is to use Tencent this mountain. The first is the channel, relying on wechat, QQ these two weapons, the user drainage to micro-vision. As a giant in the social networking industry, Tencent has a huge user base, which is dominated by the post-1990 and post-2000 generations. While the audience of short video is mainly young people, therefore, micro-vision has a natural advantage in the channel. Tencent’s social software can be used as a sharing channel to deliver high-quality content to QQ zone and circle of friends, so as to expand its influence and divert traffic from social networking sites to itself.
Secondly, in terms of content mode, Tencent collects user data, finds out users’ needs through algorithms, and creates new content with the help of Tencent content resources according to users’ needs. In the process of using QQ and wechat, users will generate corresponding data. Tencent can collect these data, and then use scientific algorithms to find out what young people like and apply them to the content creation of Micro Vision. For example, AR sticker gameplay can be provided for users by combining the IP of king of Glory, PubG, or two-dimensional Foxdemon Matchmaker, which are popular games among young people.
Finally, strengthen the construction of the industrial chain to create a healthy content ecosystem. In addition to the construction of channels and content innovation, more attention should be paid to the development of the upstream of the industrial chain, especially to the original content authors. This requires microvision to develop relevant preferential systems or measures to attract or retain more content original authors. Of course, the construction of the middle and lower reaches is also essential, and a healthy content ecosystem is the key to the sustainable development of Microvision.
From the popularity of short videos, it is not difficult to see that this industry will occupy a certain weight in the entertainment and social field in the future. Tencent in the clear development trend of The Times after the choice to enter the short video industry is a relatively correct approach. However, for its use of micro-vision of the veteran we all hold a skeptical attitude, after all, micro-vision once failure is still vividly remembered. Although the returning microvision has changed somewhat, with the change of market environment, if the microvision does not change in essence, then the returning microvision may be another bubble.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110