The to B war of short videos

Pictures and texts are beautiful appearances, while short videos are interesting souls.

Before the birth of short videos, picture and text feed streams represented the most advanced content productivity. With the birth of short videos, this name has changed.

In the era of mobile Internet, traditional text and picture formats can no longer meet the current user needs. Compared with pictures and texts, short videos are more figurative and easy to watch, and have more advantages than pictures and texts.

Today, short videos have swept the entire Internet, creating two giant products, Douyin and Kuaishou, on the C-end. However, the concentrated outbreak of C-end products has caused many people to ignore the application of short videos in the B-end field.

In fact, the short video to B war is also about to begin. This war is coming quickly and its potential energy is equally huge.

The pattern of "two superpowers and many strong countries" has been determined

The to C war of short videos is over

Starting from 2018, short videos ushered in the first year of explosive growth. Short videos have achieved geometric growth in terms of number of users, usage time, and scope.

According to the latest data from QuestMobile, as of June 2019, the overall MAU (monthly active users) of short videos reached 821 million.

There is no doubt that short videos have become the last growing gold mine in the mobile Internet. Internet giants are rushing into the short video field, and industry competition is becoming increasingly fierce.

As the industry competition comes to an end, short videos have now formed a "two super and many strong" pattern, and various short video apps have completed user education and accumulation.

Douyin and Kuaishou, which entered the market early, have consolidated their leading position by virtue of their first-mover advantage. Internet giants such as Tencent and Baidu, which entered the market later, have no hope of catching up with the former and are currently in the second tier.

According to data, the number of deduplicated users of ByteDance's three short video products is close to 590 million, Kuaishou has 340 million users, Tencent Weishi has also joined the 100 million club with about 105 million users, and Baidu's short video products have about 85 million users. The monthly active users of other short video products are obviously not on the same level as these ones.

Under the pattern of "two superpowers and many strong powers", it can be concluded that the to C war of short videos has ended at this stage.

The head effects of Tik Tok and Kuaishou are becoming increasingly obvious. There is no chance to create a popular short video app on the C-end. Even the giants find it difficult to break the current situation.

Take Tencent as an example. In order to win the short video war, Tencent has invested a lot of manpower, financial resources and material resources. In addition to restarting Weishi, Tencent launched a number of short video apps at the product level, but the results were not satisfactory. The only good news is that Tencent has made a strategic investment in Kuaishou, which has to some extent restrained Toutiao's products.

This is the case for Internet giants, not to mention startup teams with no money and no resources.

Another fact that cannot be ignored is that the user overlap between Douyin and Kuaishou is too high. In May this year, the user overlap between Douyin and Kuaishou reached 46.5%, and the proportion is still rising. "Tik Tok is sinking and Kuaishou is rising", the competition for the top players in the industry has entered a white-hot state, and other players have little hope of catching up.

In addition, although short videos are still maintaining an upward trend, the turning point has appeared. As China’s mobile Internet dividend disappears, the demographic dividend of short videos is also dissipating.

According to the 44th "Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet" released by CNNIC, as of June 2019, the scale of Internet users in my country has reached 854 million. The current total number of short video users has reached its ceiling, and the growth rate is also slowing down.

On the one hand, the pattern of "two supers and many strongs" is taking shape, and on the other hand, the short video dividend is disappearing. Douyin and Kuaishou have squeezed out the last wave of short video dividends. Based on the above two facts, it can be concluded that the short video to C war is over, and it has become a fantasy to create the next "Tik Tok" or "Kuaishou" on the C-end.

The battle of short video to C has ended, but it does not mean that short video has no chance. The war of short video to B is about to begin.

The trend of short videos is blowing from the C-end to the B-end

We can first draw some interesting observations from the following news:

1. Alibaba Group will spend 3 to 5 years to gradually transform the previous text and picture displays of the 1 billion SKUs of Taobao and Tmall into short video displays.

1. According to the 2018 China Mobile Social Recruitment Trend Report by Jingke, 41% of companies have or will soon introduce videos into the recruitment process; and 92% of companies believe that video resumes are relatively or very effective.

3. On Douyin and Kuaishou, more and more novel advertisements are presented in the form of short videos. Many netizens said that "I can't stop watching it, it has successfully attracted my interest in reading novels", and some even suggested filming it into a web drama.

4. Online travel platform Mafengwo has begun to expand into the short video field, looking for new content monetization models.

Through the above cases, we can see a trend - more and more platforms or industries choose to turn their products into short videos or turn short videos into products that serve users.

With the development of short videos today, video has become an indispensable force in media communication. While short video products on the C-end are already saturated, there is still huge room for imagination for short videos on the B-end, especially for platforms or industries with a high degree of videoizability. Companies such as e-commerce, advertising companies, novels, and fast-moving consumer goods brands all need to turn their products into short videos.

Why are B-side companies paying more and more attention to short videos? In Hua Ge’s opinion, there are several reasons.

1. Short videos have high traffic value and low customer acquisition cost

With fast transmission speed, good conversion effect and high user stickiness, short videos have strong marketing value. In the current situation where capital flow, goods flow and logistics systems are very complete, short videos mean the largest traffic. With strong branding ability, grass-planting ability and product-bringing ability, short videos can exert tremendous energy.

2. Short videos can better showcase the company

Compared with voice and text, short videos have lower production costs, dissemination costs and browsing costs. In addition, short videos can show users more content elements. Companies can use short videos to showcase their products to users faster and more accurately. In addition, short videos are more likely to spread in a fission-like manner and are a more powerful form of propaganda.

3. Short videos have high data operation value

Video data has extremely high operational value and is also the basis for business operations. Which video can attract users more and which video can make users watch from beginning to end. These data reflect users' preference for content and their focus, which can facilitate companies to integrate and adjust content. By combining data such as region and user portrait, they can better trigger user purchasing behavior.

4. Short videos deepen bilateral relations

The entertainment value of short videos is more conducive to establishing bilateral relationships with users. By outputting video content and combining it with operations, we can not only increase users' interest in the company, but also enhance their sense of belonging to the company.

The trend of short videos has already spread from the C-end to the B-end, and all future cooperation on the B-end will move towards short videos. Industries such as novels, advertising companies, and e-commerce already have mature short video operation systems.

However, most industries or platforms are currently in the early stages of the short video field.

Big speculation on short video B-side in the next five years

Brother Hua once expressed the view in the article "Yes, short videos will become the underlying standard configuration of the top 500 apps": Today, short videos are no longer a competition between a few giants, but a basic form of content that can penetrate into any field, any industry, and any app.

With the rise of short videos, more B-side companies will incorporate short videos into their product systems in the future and use short videos to maximize their brand value.

Nowadays, short videos are a kind of infrastructure. What new trends will there be in short videos on the B-side in the next five years? Here are Hua Ge’s guesses:

1. The rise of short video bases

In the future, more and more short video bases will emerge, forming a complete short video production process from creativity to shooting to finished product production. Especially for e-commerce platforms, short videos have become standard. Alibaba executives once revealed in an interview that Taobao’s video rate had reached 42% in August this year. At present, Taobao has established a short video shooting base. In the next five years, JD.com, Pinduoduo and other companies will also establish their own short video bases or connect to corresponding short video platforms.

2. Video-based reconstruction industry

Technology leads to revolution, and revolution drives change. Short videos provide unlimited possibilities for every industry, and future industrial development cannot be separated from the video link. Including the promotion of film and television dramas, the transformation of advertising and marketing models, and the form of novel promotion are all changing under the influence of short videos.

Taking novels as an example, novels are now breaking the traditional picture and text model and are more likely to acquire customers through video. In Hua Ge's opinion, the degree of videoization of novels will be further deepened in the future. For example, the catalog of novels will also become the direction of videoization.

3. Short video content is moving towards vertical segmentation

As B-side enterprises become more video-based, short videos will also become more vertical and refined in the future. By creating their own short video products, companies can make the content of their short video products more detailed. Educational short videos, travel short videos, e-commerce short videos, etc., this will become a symbol of the short video industry.

Postscript: In Hua Ge’s opinion, the sign of the end of the short video C-end war is the listing of Kuaishou and ByteDance (including TikTok).

With no opportunities on the C-end, the short video to B war is on the verge of breaking out. For B-side enterprises, the faster they enter the market, the lower the cost of trial and error will be.

For a company, it is undoubtedly more regrettable if it does not dare to try and miss the track.

Author: Hua Ge

Source: Party A Finance (ID: jiafangcaijing2019)