The trend of Douyin e-commerce bringing goods to monetize!

The short video industry will reach 1 billion daily active users in 2020, Douyin President Zhang Nan predicted in August this year. As far as current data is concerned, the total daily active users of the two major platforms, Douyin and Kuaishou, have just exceeded 500 million. In an era where traffic is king, the surplus of 500 million daily active users means that the battle for short video traffic will continue.

So in this smokeless battlefield of commercial monetization, will Douyin's short video e-commerce monetization continue as in 2018, with e-commerce revenue still accounting for a very small proportion of Douyin's nearly 20 billion revenue? But Kuaishou’s e-commerce monetization is nearly 10 times that of Douyin?

Cracks have appeared in the stable situation of the short video market

In June this year, Kuaishou founder Su Hua issued an internal letter, announcing that Kuaishou must change and break the goal of 300 million DAU by the end of the year. This is also the "Buddhist" Kuaishou, which sets KPI goals and calls on all employees to enter a combat state. This relatively wolfish corporate culture was encouraged, causing fluctuations in the stable short video market.

Following closely, Douyin also began to talk about accessibility and authenticity at its first creator conference , which means that Douyin also needs to penetrate the lower-tier markets, enter second- and third-tier cities, compete for the short video user market, and increase user growth. This move by TikTok has triggered a battle for users between the two platforms, and cracks have appeared directly in the volatile market.

In fact, in May this year, the user overlap between Douyin and Kuaishou reached 46.5%, and the scale of overlapping users between the two is still increasing. At the beginning of 2018, the overlap rate of Kuaishou was only 14.6%, and that of Douyin was 27.4%. This data shows that Douyin users are sinking, while Kuaishou is also attacking the first- and second-tier markets. Both platforms are attacking the red ocean of the short video market in markets that are unfamiliar to both sides.

Current short video e-commerce market

Douyin e-commerce monetization is difficult

There is a saying that is widely circulated: If you want to sweep the screen and create a hit, look for Douyin; if you want conversions and private domain, look for Kuaishou. Compared with the powerful Douyin, Kuaishou’s e-commerce monetization has always been favored by influencers.

l Historical Origin – Product Positioning

Kuaishou entered the short video market early, and its product positioning is decentralized. Everyone is equal on the platform, and no one will be treated specially. Even celebrities and top influencers have to carefully manage their accounts in order to get traffic support.

Douyin is a latecomer. If it wants to win this short video competition, it must target Kuaishou’s weaknesses. Therefore, Douyin chose a centralized decision-making method similar to Weibo, and provides greater support to celebrities and leading institutions.

Kuaishou's self-operated model for influencers has closely connected the relationship between KOLs and fans; whereas Douyin is a platform with strong operations, and the intimacy between influencers and fans is relatively low, so Kuaishou's e-commerce monetization conversion rate is higher than Douyin's.

l Platform Algorithm – Decentralization vs. Strong Centralization

Kuaishou’s traffic adopts a decentralized approach, with weak platform operations but strong social and attention. It advocates that the head effect should not be too serious, so that it can not take away most of the benefits. In this way, the content of the mid-level and long-tail creations can be distributed, so that the entire platform can see a variety of videos, and the content richness is far higher than that of Douyin. All creators’ videos will be recommended, allowing every Kuaishou user to find like-minded followers while recording their lives.

However, Douyin is highly centralized, and the main distribution formula for traffic recommendation is traffic pool + superimposed recommendation + heat weighting . When Douyin releases a video, the first step is to enter the initial traffic pool and be distributed to the same tagged users and 10% of followers. The formula is initial traffic pool = tagged users + followers. This centralized distribution logic is too strictly controlled, and only carefully designed and sophisticated content will be recommended, resulting in no deep connection between users and content creators.

l Platform position – personnel composition

The Kuaishou expert base was initially formed by the migration of YY. Its hosts are humorous, interactive, and have strong sales capabilities. Kuaishou mainly targets second- and third-tier cities. Its users, i.e. buyers, have relatively low purchasing power, serious information asymmetry, limited income, and relatively few shopping channels. They require products with higher cost-performance ratios and focus more on whether the products themselves can bring long-term benefits to themselves or their families. Therefore, once they are conquered by the personal charm of a host, their following will also be higher.

Therefore, there is a high degree of correlation between the live-streaming hosts and the buyers, and the stickiness is relatively high. A single word “old iron” from a Kuaishou anchor will generate monetization behavior, and the stickiness between fans and KOLs forms the “old iron economy”. The strong user stickiness has created the Kuaishou e-commerce myth. Internet celebrity Simba sold goods worth 130 million yuan during his wedding live broadcast, and gained 2.41 million followers.

The Tik Tok talent camp has developed from handsome guys, magical music and enchanting dances, focusing on celebrities and top talents. Most of the initial users of Douyin are from first-tier cities, and people in first-tier cities are good at showing their individuality and uniqueness. Most of these users are young people with high self-awareness and strong independence. Moreover, information here is highly inflated and developed, and information asymmetry is very weak, which means that only the things you like will be recommended to you on Douyin. Of course, after being recommended, you may also jump to other platforms to buy things. Therefore, the close relationship between influencers and their fans will not be very high.

l Platform content – ​​exquisite and simple

Tik Tok prefers refined content. Tik Tok initially focused on youth and fashion, with a label of cool and trendy. Traffic was concentrated at the top, and the Matthew effect was obvious. Tik Tok's traffic distribution increased the chances of hits and explosion of fans. High-quality content creators may become popular in a very short time. From a cycle perspective, the hit cycle is within 24 hours to 7 days. For example, #韩美娟, one of the few successful Kuaishou users who switched to Douyin, gained tens of millions of followers in a month, and #PROYA Bubble Mask, which was a hit in July.

However, Douyin pays too much attention to the exquisiteness of video content, but selectively ignores whether the scene presentation is real. As a result, some advertisements have exaggerated propaganda, exaggerated functions, are flooded with counterfeit products, after-sales service cannot be guaranteed, and consumer interests cannot be guaranteed, which also leads to low e-commerce monetization capabilities in the period.

If Douyin influencer e-commerce operations are in a vertical field and have a unified style, the behavioral data in the initial traffic pool must be relatively good. The chance of being recommended in the secondary traffic pool will be greater, and the account will become a top influencer, and the content or monetization will be more popular. For example, #Cinderella's Tailor Shop, which is currently ranked No. 1 on the weekly fashion rankings, uses the main plot of making clothes or plot twists to sell its products, or buries the products in the storyline or cleverly implants them in the actors, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in it, discover their own interests, and then make purchases. However, this has a high operating threshold for influencers, and there are few influencers who can monetize, which will also reduce the total proportion of Douyin's e-commerce monetization.

Kuaishou prefers simple content. Kuaishou avoids celebrity orientation in its operations, does not operate internet celebrities, and emphasizes weak operations. Kuaishou emphasizes strong sociality and strong interest, and most of the scenes on Kuaishou are native. It pays more attention to the authenticity of video content and sellers’ on-site recommendations, which makes it easier for buyers to be interested in products and have a stronger sense of trust. Therefore, its powerful private domain traffic value has always been widely favored, and its high e-commerce conversion rate has also become an industry consensus. In addition, its upcoming content upgrading and commercialization will further enhance its subsequent e-commerce monetization capabilities.

Future trends of short video e-commerce

Before the market cracks

There is a very clear boundary between Douyin and Kuaishou. As the founder of an MCN said: "The Kuaishou model focuses on participation. It pays attention to the user's participation opportunities, and the video recommendations are dispersed and sinking, so that ordinary users' videos can be seen; the Douyin model focuses on viewing. It pays attention to the user's viewing experience, and the video recommendations are concentrated, focusing on a few top broadcasters with a large fan base."

After the development of the times

With the advent of the 5G era, the Internet era will enter a period of rapid development. The information asymmetry gap between first-tier and second- and third-tier cities will gradually narrow. Moreover, the rise of those born after 1995 and 2000 may subvert the short video market. When the user overlap between Douyin and Kuaishou reaches 80%, the concept of user sinking may become a thing of the past. The centralized and decentralized models will be integrated, the presentation of short videos may become more diversified, and the e-commerce monetization form may become simpler.

Douyin e-commerce monetization channels are more ecological and recyclable

Douyin’s slogan is “Record a Beautiful Life”. Douyin itself is a social platform, and its future development will definitely be based on the main theme of “people-oriented”.

As ordinary users, we spend time on Douyin for leisure and entertainment, to enjoy a sense of pleasure, or to gain valuable things and relax mentally. The TikTok platform also hopes that more users will become active on the platform. On the one hand, it hopes that influencers will provide better products and better videos; on the other hand, it hopes that everyone will watch more and increase the time users spend on the platform. For Douyin e-commerce experts, as video creators, they spend energy on operating their accounts in order to gain more fans and then realize commercial benefits.

This creates a commercial monetization paradox. For ordinary users, when we are watching a video, we are immersed in it. Suddenly, an advertising video pops up, whether it is a hard advertisement or a soft advertisement. In fact, this sense of pleasure is passively broken, and the user experience is not very good. This has a counter-effect on the traffic of the entire Douyin information flow ecology. But for creative talents, only by consuming this part of traffic, commercializing videos, and posting advertisements on Douyin to sell goods, can they survive in the market.

Therefore, the battle for users between Douyin and Kuaishou will actually evolve into resolving the traffic conflicts between users and creators in commercial monetization, and balancing the ecological relationship between advertising and user experience. With the increase in MCN agencies and the growing number of top influencers, this contradiction will become more and more prominent. Therefore , whichever platform (or the MCN organization or top influencer within the platform) solves this contradiction, the remaining 500 million traffic or the future short video market will account for the vast majority and become the leader in short videos.

Douyin short video e-commerce, which is in this battlefield, cannot stand alone. It must provide more high-quality and meaningful videos to the platform and users, so that users can consume happily and independently, and be responsible for the entire consumption process. Realizing video monetization and realizing the value of creators are the directions that Douyin short video e-commerce practitioners should focus on.

Easter egg: 4 skills you must master to sell goods on Douyin

1. Highlight the product directly

The core selling points should not exceed three, and they should be concise, easy to understand, and highlight the unique selling points. Taking the July internet celebrity mask #PROYA Bubble Mask# as an example, the featured selling points during the launch phase were: #Foaming when face is dirty + cheap, #Moisturizing + cheap, #Bubbles when face is dirty + three-layer cleansing, #Marine Essence + Moisturizing + Safe, etc., creating monthly sales of 60 million and the brand was further promoted.

2. Model screening

A model suitable for product stage launch. The early test models for the bubble mask were waist-level experts, the mid-term test models were head + waist-level experts, and the later test models were stars + head-level experts. Choose appropriate models to promote products at different stages to achieve a profit-maximizing marketing strategy that combines brand and effect.

3. Video structure

The golden 6-second principle: the first 6 seconds of a short video are critical, determining whether users will be attracted by the video and continue to watch your video, and then generate likes, comments, reposts, or even purchases.

There are three combinations of content in the golden six seconds: 1) Pain point + product: price + brand; 2) Pain point + effect: cost-effectiveness + usage effect; 3) Effect + product: usage effect + product experience

4. Shooting method

3 steps: imitation + adaptation + transcendence. In addition to the different products, the shooting angle, lighting, scenery and other aspects are imitated, and then adapted according to their own products to surpass the popular products.

Author: Qi Muzi

Source: Qimuzi (wang939290)