Analysis of competitors of Xigua Video, Tik Tok, and Kuaishou!

01 Market Analysis

1.1 Market Definition

There is no unified and standardized standard for the length of short videos. In this article, short videos generally refer to video content that is less than 15 minutes long and is suitable for watching on the go and in fragmented time and is pushed frequently.

According to the length, short videos can usually be divided into ultra-short videos (short videos within 1 minute, sometimes also called "small videos") and short videos (short videos within 15 minutes). Any market that provides short video-related services is the short video market.

Compared with other video formats such as online videos and live broadcasts, short videos are more in line with the trend of mobility and socialization, have richer application scenarios, fast transmission speed, short content, and fewer viewing time restrictions.

Fragmentation, lightweight, socialization and nativeness have become the four main characteristics of short videos.

1.2 Development Trend

After experiencing the embryonic stage and growth stage, the short video industry entered a period of explosive growth in 2018, showing the following characteristics:

1.2.1 The number of users has grown explosively, and the duration of use has increased significantly

According to QuestMobile data, the number of Internet users reached 505 million in 2018, doubling from the same period last year.

In terms of user usage time, watching short videos has become the main form of online entertainment for users, with the average daily usage time exceeding 60 minutes, accounting for 8.8% of the total mobile Internet usage time, while this figure was only 2% in 2017.

The usage time is approaching that of online video, making it the third largest application on the Internet.

Data source: QuestMobile

1.2.2 The dividend era is coming to an end, and the industry is gradually saying goodbye to barbaric growth

Compared with the explosive growth in previous years, the user growth of short videos will gradually enter a stable period in the next few years. The user dividend will gradually disappear, the growth rate of user scale will slow down, and the battle for users will gradually shift from the incremental market to the stock market. Deepening the vertical market, improving video quality, perfecting the business model and accelerating the commercialization process will become the main focus of major short video platforms.

1.2.3 User stickiness continues to increase, and competition between platforms remains fierce

The "China Mobile Internet 2019 Spring Report" officially released by QuestMobile on May 8 pointed out: In March 2019, the average monthly usage time of the domestic short video industry was 22 hours, compared with 17.6 hours in the same period last year, with a significant increase; and the average number of short video apps opened by users per month increased from 1.5 last year to 1.7 at present.

A comprehensive analysis of the two sets of data shows that short video apps currently have great user stickiness, but the differentiation between major applications is not very obvious, users are still hesitating between multiple apps, and competition between platforms is still fierce.

1.2.4 The competition and cooperation trend of the industry chain is obvious, and the commercialization process of the platform is accelerating

After several years of development, the construction of the short video industry chain has been basically completed. A complete industrial ecosystem including industry regulatory departments (the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the executive department of the Cultural Bureau), content producers (UGC, PGC and PUGC), video publishing platforms (mobile short video apps, content distribution platforms, traditional video platforms), advertisers, technical support platforms and users has been initially established, laying a good foundation for the healthy development of the short video industry.

1.3 Competition Landscape

It is not difficult to find out from the above two charts:

1. In the short video industry, Douyin and Kuaishou both have more than 200 million monthly active users, becoming the industry leaders and far ahead of other competitors, forming the first echelon of the industry; Xigua Video has more than 60 million monthly active users, becoming the leader of the second echelon of the short video industry;
2. Although the user base of Haokan Video and Bobo Video is relatively low, their growth rate is rapid and their upward momentum is obvious. The market position of video platforms such as Meipai has declined, indicating that industry competition is becoming increasingly fierce and the market structure is still uncertain;

According to the length of video playback, the short video industry can be divided into two categories: one is short video platforms represented by Douyin and Kuaishou, which mainly publish ultra-short video programs with a playback time of less than 1 minute; the other is the full-ecological short video platform represented by Xigua and Haokan, which publishes content covering ultra-short videos, short videos and long videos of more than 30 minutes.

1.4 Competitors

In the short video industry, Douyin and Kuaishou can be called miraculous existences.

Among them, Kuaishou’s slogan is: See every kind of life. A grassroots short video community targeting third- and fourth-tier cities, with a decentralized and hands-off approach to operations. Before the rise of TikTok, it had long been the leader in the short video industry. By the end of May 2019, its daily active users exceeded 200 million.

Tik Tok - record a beautiful life. A dark horse in the short video industry, it was launched in September 2016. In less than three years, relying on Toutiao's powerful information flow recommendation algorithm technology and its excellent operational methods, as of May 2019, its daily active users exceeded 300 million, making it the number one in the short video industry. Product Positioning: A music short video community focusing on young people.

Compared with the two giants in the industry, Xigua Video, which focuses on "giving you fresh and interesting things", has a user base that is more than one ten-thousandth smaller, and this gap is showing signs of further widening.

At this point, it seems biased if we compare it with Douyin and Kuaishou. But is it really so?

First of all, from the perspective of content positioning, Douyin and Kuaishou both focus on ultra-short videos of less than 1 minute. They have sufficient vertical depth but lack richness. In terms of content positioning, Xigua focuses on short videos of less than 15 minutes, covering the entire video ecosystem including short videos, ultra-short videos and long videos. A broader market layout will inevitably require that watermelon's pace of progress should be more steady.

Secondly, the rapid rise of Douyin and Kuaishou, in addition to subjective factors such as their precise market positioning and excellent operational methods, is also due to the successful timing of the concentrated outbreak of demand in the ultra-short video market.

However, as the user age structure and regional distribution become more balanced, the diversified demand for video content will become increasingly prominent, and the limitations of ultra-short videos of less than 1 minute in terms of capacity and subject matter are obvious. The recent coincidence of Tik Tok and Kuaishou in expanding the length of videos is a good example.

Once they leave their home turf and attack other people's territories, will Douyin and Kuaishou still perform as well as before? Once the battle starts, the advantages of Xigua Video's full content ecological layout will quickly be recognized by the market.

The author has always believed that Douyin and Kuaishou are more like two light cavalry in the short video industry, and it is expected that they will leave in a dustbin; while Xigua Video is more like an armored vehicle, and it should move forward steadily. Since Xigua Video has shouldered a greater mission since its inception, the market should give it more patience and trust.

02 Industry Chain Analysis

Xigua Video is a business model that aggregates and publishes short videos, accumulates user traffic, attracts advertisers to place ads, and ultimately realizes traffic monetization through advertising revenue, live broadcast rewards, and e-commerce sales sharing.

Users, creators (broadcasters), advertisers, and platforms constitute the four participants in the industrial chain. The following are analyzed separately:

2.1 Users

Users are both consumers of short videos and marketing targets for advertisers. User scale, composition, and loyalty determine the rise and fall and success or failure of each short video platform.

2.1.1 User structure tends to be balanced, and short videos deeply penetrate into people's lives

From the perspective of age structure, short video users are still mainly young people, but the trend of gradually expanding to the middle-aged and elderly groups is already very obvious: users aged 20 to 50 account for nearly 75% of the total, which is roughly equivalent to the proportion of users aged 24-35 a year ago. The age distribution of users is more balanced.

From the perspective of geographical distribution, short video users have already penetrated deeply into third- and fourth-tier cities, where the distribution of users has reached 51%. It can be said that young people in small towns are leading a new trend in short video content.

Among the top 10 provinces in terms of short video users, there is a trend of spreading from the coast to the inland.

Data source: Kasi Data

The user structure of short videos is becoming increasingly perfect and closer to the portrait of Chinese netizens, which shows that short videos have deeply penetrated into the daily lives of the general public; the increasingly dispersed and balanced user structure has put forward higher requirements for the richness and diversity of short video content.

2.1.2 A large number of users are prone to loneliness and anxiety, which leads to more concentrated viewing motivation

According to CSM's "2018-2019 Short Video User Value Research Report", nearly half of short video users often feel anxious and lonely. Among these people, users aged 20-39 account for 55.2%, which is highly related to the high work pressure and heavy family burden of people in this age group.

The data shows that users with loneliness and anxiety are more inclined to virtual social interaction than those without loneliness and anxiety, and those short video users who like virtual social interaction are also more likely to suffer from loneliness and anxiety. This shows that such people often use virtual social interactions to connect with society and thus alleviate loneliness anxiety. Therefore, they like videos that can relieve their stress and anxiety.

Among the top five motivations for users to watch short videos, the first two are relaxation and obtaining information and increasing knowledge. Moreover, 55.4% of users believe that “de-stressing and relaxing” videos are more likely to impress them and trigger sharing.

Data source: CSM

2.1.3 Content preferences tend to be diversified, and experience satisfaction needs to be improved

Short video users have a wide range of preferences, and the top three types of content they like are: humor, life skills, and social records. Among the top 10 categories, 6 have a like rate of over 30%, indicating that if the platform can provide a richer variety of videos, it will help meet the mid- and long-tail needs of users.

As the terminal of the industrial chain, users are the objects that all participants want to serve, and the user's good experience is not only related to their preferences, but also closely related to the quality of the content.

Currently, users’ overall evaluation of short videos is not high (just passing). Among them, less than 50% of the respondents gave positive comments on the short videos’ “timely updates”, “novel and interesting”, and “richness”, while the comments on the short videos’ “depth” and “truth” were even lower.

After its wild growth, the short video industry has also changed from the original competition for traffic to competition for content value.

Compared with YouTube, which has 1.9 billion monthly active users, major domestic short video platforms still have huge room to explore the value of content. Only by better pleasing users through user experience can we go further in the fierce competition in the future.

Data source: CSM

2.2 Creators

In the huge creative group of short videos, the composition is quite complex, ranging from UGC to PUGC to PGC. With the continuous differentiation of the creator group and the continuous intensification of competition, the role of MCN as an intermediary service provider has emerged and is playing an increasingly important role.

2.2.1 The transformation from UGC to PUGC

For video creators, different creators have different purposes for shooting.

Among them, the largest group is UGC creators, who are not only content consumers but also content producers. The original intention of shooting is mostly driven by internal factors.

The data shows that "personal hobbies" and "recording life" are the two major motivations for users to participate in content production, accounting for 60.9% and 60.8% respectively.

This may result in the content being unable to resonate with others due to personalization; from the perspective of video professionalism, they are difficult to attract users due to problems such as strong traces of imitation, serious content homogeneity, and rough video workmanship.

However, the huge number of UGC creators will inevitably produce a funnel effect. There will always be some high-quality content and excellent authors that stand out and slowly become UGC with professional creative capabilities - that is, PUGC.

From amateurs to internet celebrities, there are at least three differences between videos created by UGC and PUGC:

1. Amount of information: In just a few minutes of the video, the amount of information is effectively and reasonably accumulated to increase users' knowledge. For example, food writer Wang Gang’s videos are hardcore and have content;
2. Stylization: Regardless of the content of the video, the creator’s distinctive style is of great help in building a personal brand. It's not just about the creator's personality and attitude, it's also about the shooting techniques and style. For example, the video positioning of Fairy Yeast Fashion and Urban helps to better reach the target users;
3. Continuity: Stable updates can better improve playback volume, increase the number of subscribers, etc. It is also more likely to be favored by advertisers.

In the highly competitive short video market, there are very few creators who can make a profit, and more of them are facing the situation of making ends meet.

According to data from Toutiao Algorithm Center, less than one-third of creators have reached profitability, while as many as 47.9% of creators have failed to achieve profitability.

The main source of income for creators comes from advertising sales, but nearly 60% of creators/teams do not have marketers. This phenomenon has led to the dilemma of PUGC's difficulty in commercial monetization. The entry of MCN can create commercial value for the short video team to a great extent.

2.2.2 MCN - middlemen in the short video industry

MCN is an imported product "borrowed" from the YouTube industry chain, which is equivalent to an internet celebrity agency.

At first, short video platforms mostly directly supported content creators and took a rejecting attitude towards MCN. As more and more content creators emerge, the content operation capabilities of a single platform cannot support more celebrities, nor can it expand content production capabilities, and the value of MCN is highlighted.

Analysys International predicts that the number of domestic short video MCN organizations will reach about 3,300 in 2018, and is expected to reach 4,700 in 2019.

As competition in the short video market becomes increasingly fierce, people have begun to realize that owning the MCN means owning the top internet celebrity IP. Amid the smoke of war, major platforms, in addition to competing for content creators, have also begun to scramble for high-quality MCNs.

The existence of MCN can help video creators manage their life cycle more scientifically and open up more commercial monetization paths for them.

For the platform, cooperation with MCN can greatly improve the content value and operational efficiency of the platform. Excellent MCN will bring more creators to join the platform.

For advertisers, MCN allows them to reach their KOL partners more conveniently and achieve more efficient and controllable marketing process management.

However, as more and more players enter the market, top resources are becoming increasingly scarce, and non-top content is becoming increasingly difficult to spread. MCN does not have much control over top KOLs, and it is common for them to switch to other organizations.

Non-head content faces many challenges such as difficulty in increasing fans, difficulty in becoming a hit, homogeneity, over-reliance on advertising, and difficulty in commercial monetization. The pressure from both platforms and advertisers on MCNs makes their survival increasingly difficult.

2.2.3 PGC - the backbone of the short video industry

The value of PGC content lies in its unique resources, such as exclusive series programs created using IP.

If UGC is responsible for the breadth of content and contributes to the platform's traffic, then PUGC and PGC are responsible for the depth of content and highlighting the value of the video.

Only in this way can a closed loop of UGC-PUGC/PGC-UGC be formed: use a large amount of UGC to incubate mid-level PUGC and top Internet celebrities, and then work with PGC that have settled in the platform to shoot high-quality content to attract more UGC.

The business purposes of PGCs also vary. The primary purpose of some business accounts joining the platform is to drive offline revenue through online short video promotion.

For example, in wedding photography, beautiful photos and funny highlights of wedding models can be edited into short videos to reach users, thereby better cooperating with offline wedding marketing.

The commercial value of PGC, which is mainly aimed at commercial monetization, varies in different industries. Among all industries, the entertainment and gaming industries performed best, and they have the following in common:

1. Both industries belong to the pan-entertainment industry, meeting the core demands of short video users for entertainment and leisure;
2. Both of them naturally have the content production gene, and can output content by reprocessing existing content, and the cost of updating and management is relatively low;
3. With a huge mass base, the entertainment category has a large number of fans and supporters, and games also have a large player base.

It is based on this consideration that Xigua Video puts movies, TV shows and games ahead of other channels.

2.3 Advertisers

The truth is, no one likes watching ads. People only like to see things that interest them, and sometimes that happens to be an advertisement.

This famous saying in the advertising industry is becoming a reality in the short video industry, which is why the short video industry is becoming more and more popular among advertisers.

2.3.1 Advertising and Marketing

As mobile network technology matures and develops, users' media habits will shift more profoundly toward mobile videos. In particular, short videos, which are in line with the trend of fragmentation and content, will become the main carrier for users to receive various types of information.

Data shows that the short video advertising market size is expected to exceed 20 billion in 2019 and exceed 50 billion by 2022.

For advertisers, how to reach the audience more effectively at a limited cost is an unchanging theme. The emergence of more and more advertising and marketing methods is actually to convey brand information to the audience more effectively.

1. Native advertising: Brands invite PGC/PUGC content creators with certain content creation capabilities and user influence to produce short video content with native content around the core marketing appeal of the product, realizing the native advertising model where content is advertising.
2. Short video interactive promotion: Short video marketing is usually an online operation activity jointly initiated by brands and platforms. For brand owners, short video interactive marketing solves the two major problems of creativity and interaction. It regards users as the core creators of marketing content and inspires a large amount of personalized and creative UGC content. By deeply involving users, we can achieve the transition from communication to interaction, making the brand image deeply rooted in people's hearts.
3. Brand communication: Compared with traditional APP advertising formats, such as opening screens, patches, information flows, etc., brands’ entry into short video platforms meets the brand’s needs for deeper commercial expression. In addition to direct content marketing, short video platforms are more important in providing brand owners with a humane and personalized interactive channel with fans and audiences, so that they can more accurately grasp what the target audience sees and thinks. Therefore, short videos have become an important brand operation channel after social media such as WeChat and Weibo.

2.3.2 Video + e-commerce

Online influencers promoting products and big Vs recommending products can be said to be the most direct and effective e-commerce monetization model.

Data shows that the age distribution of user groups on e-commerce and short video platforms is very similar; and the similarity of users can greatly improve the effectiveness of short video marketing information in conveying to target users. E-commerce needs traffic and short videos are eager to monetize, so the two are a perfect match.

As an immature business model, major giants are exploring their own ways out.

From 2018 to the present, short video platforms have been increasingly deepening their layout in e-commerce. Douyin launched an e-commerce mini-program, Xigua Video launched Xigua Store, and Kuaishou used live streaming to help influencers sell goods and facilitate monetization.

It is not difficult to see from this that short video platforms that cooperate with e-commerce are not just willing to act as middlemen, but want to create their own closed business loop.

2.4 Platform

As the center and hub of the industrial chain, the short video platform connects users, creators and advertisers at the same time. The platform's ability to attract the above three parties determines the success or failure of the entire industrial chain. The size of the platform's attraction depends on whether it can create value for all participants.

2.4.1 Platform and Users

Users are the final consumers of the industrial chain and are also the objects of joint marketing by all participants. It is crucial for the platform to build user stickiness and loyalty, and continuously improving user experience will always be the platform's focus.

Improving user experience mainly comes from two aspects: one is to strengthen the supply of high-value videos, and the other is to help users obtain high-quality content more conveniently. The former is mainly completed by the creators, which we will discuss later. Here we will focus on how the platform improves the user experience.

From the perspective of traffic, the current traffic distribution mechanisms of short videos are mainly divided into two categories. One category relies on users’ active attention and sharing to achieve traffic aggregation and distribution, and the other category pushes traffic based on algorithms to judge users’ preferences.

Under the relationship chain of active attention, the interaction between users and KOLs, and between users, is emphasized, content is easier to accumulate, and the value of KOLs themselves is relatively prominent;

In the intelligent recommendation model where the platform controls the power of traffic distribution, users pay more attention to the content itself rather than the content producer. The content sedimentation properties are poor, and the value of the platform is relatively prominent. The two different traffic distribution mechanisms directly affect the value distribution of the industrial chain on different platforms.

Xigua Video effectively utilizes the algorithm models and data accumulated by Toutiao over the years to continuously improve the accuracy of user portraits and perfect distribution models, striving to recommend more accurate video content to users.

While focusing on recommendation distribution, strengthening relationship distribution has also become another way for Xigua Video to optimize user experience. Efforts are made to strengthen the relationship chain of attention, such as pinning the authors followed on the top of the recommendation page, supporting authors to publish personal updates, etc. These are all efforts made by Xigua to strengthen the relationship chain.

On Xigua, the head effect of funny content is very concentrated, which is inseparable from the users' aesthetic tendencies. We have to admit that compared with the value that is most valued in developed countries in Europe and the United States, the aesthetic taste of domestic users is still in a relatively concentrated state. They prefer funny, film and television entertainment videos, which has also led to the "flooding" of such videos. Cultivating a rich content community is closely related to improving user aesthetics.

2.4.2 Platform and Creators

Under the current fierce competitive landscape, the platform's assistance to creators can be divided into three categories. Technical support, financial subsidies, and a broad platform.

In terms of technology, Xigua has launched a large number of shooting teaching videos for junior creators, helping vlog contestants with process-based video teaching from topic selection to post-editing.

In terms of funding, Xigua has launched a large number of subsidies and support programs in recent years. Xigua has signed contracts with almost all major MCN platforms in China. The "Xigua Production" and "3+X" plans use a huge amount of 2 billion yuan to subsidize creation and enhance content;

On the one hand, the platform's share ratio will be increased so that celebrities can receive a share of the revenue at least six times higher than their daily traffic after their videos are watched by fans, and the celebrities' monetization channels will be broadened through e-commerce and live streaming.

Creator conferences are also held at the same time, such as the Xigua PLAY Honor Ceremony held on August 21. The platform brings together creators of different types to allow them to communicate and share their experiences.

In addition, the platform itself also provides data services for videos, using big data to better help creators meet user needs.

2.4.3 Platforms and Advertisers

Advertisers play the role of breadwinners for all parties in the entire industry chain. Whether or not a short video platform can help advertisers achieve their business goals is the key to building a closed business loop for each short video platform.

At a commercial promotion conference, Toutiao proposed a concept: advertising is content, ensuring that advertisements can also become interesting content in short videos from three levels.

Advertising is content, which is translated as native advertising, including three levels:

1. First of all, the content is native. Short video marketing has the ability and necessity to directly produce advertisements into short video content. It allows users to achieve advertisers' business goals while watching video programs, with high user acceptance and good commercial effects.
2. The second is the original form. Blur the boundary between advertising and content, and technically realize “advertising is content”. By simulating the user's reading environment, the advertisement is hidden in the user's appreciation experience and is not easily recognized by the user at the first time.
3. Finally, there is intent native. What is the most effective advertising communication? In a nutshell: find the right person and say the right words. Through massive data support and powerful data analysis, Xigua Video finds the most effective channels to directly reach users and provides users with the content they need through precise distribution.

03 Core Business Analysis

The competition in the domestic short video field is so fierce that it is no exaggeration to describe it as brutal. Each leading company has distinctive characteristics and unique skills.

In the meantime, Xigua Video seems to be an alternative: it does not have the massive number of loyal fans of Kuaishou, nor the magic of Douyin, and of course it does not have the community style of Bilibili.

So, how did Xigua Video, a product that looks unsexy and even rustic, successfully break through and quickly become one of the top three in the short video industry in less than two years since it was split and operated in June 2017?

The author believes that the core secret behind the rapid rise of Xigua Video is: relying on Toutiao's advanced machine distribution mechanism, a large advertising client base, and a number of subsidy policies to support creators, it has quickly built a complete business closed loop of "user content consumption - platform advertising monetization - creator content sharing."

A successful business model must be based on an advanced business model. The core business model of Xigua Video can be simply summarized in one sentence: Xigua Video aggregates and publishes short videos, accumulates user traffic, and attracts advertisers to place advertisements. In this model, users, platforms, and creators together form a complete closed loop of the core business. Monthly active users, ARPU value, playback volume and consumption conversion rate have become key indicators.

From the user's perspective, the platform's revenue is equal to the product of monthly active users and ARPU value. Monthly active users are related to both the product experience of retained users and the number of new users. User scale and product experience directly determine whether users stay or leave.

For real users, value experience determines their usage stickiness and loyalty. The user's value experience includes the value obtained from watching videos and the convenience of obtaining high-value videos.

The consumption conversion rate refers to the ratio of users participating in live broadcast rewards and video e-commerce consumption, which mainly depends on two indicators: the intrinsic value of the video and the influence of the creator.

The ARPU value is the average revenue that the platform obtains from each user through advertising sales, e-commerce sharing, etc. Because only when users have a good viewing experience on Xigua will the exposure of advertisements and the possibility of consumption increase.

From the creators' perspective, the income they can get from the platform is the share of advertising display, live broadcast rewards and e-commerce sales. Of course, some authors can directly obtain platform subsidies through their creations.

Advertising revenue depends on the number of views of the work, while e-commerce sales and live broadcast rewards come from users' willingness to pay. The two indicators of playback volume and consumption conversion rate are inseparable from the content value and personal charm of the creator's video. Therefore, short video creators are actually the result of the mutual promotion of content and personality.

To sum up, user experience has become a core indicator in Xigua Video’s core business, and the quality of user experience is related to the success or failure of Xigua’s entire business system.

Next, we will discuss the advantages, disadvantages and improvement directions of Xigua Video around the key indicator of user experience.

Xigua Video Business Core Model

3.1 Advantages

3.1.1 Pay equal attention to algorithm distribution and relationship distribution to build a strong technical barrier

In the short video industry, there are two main ways to efficiently connect the short video production and consumption ends - algorithm distribution and relationship distribution. Algorithm distribution is that the machine decides what you see, and relationship distribution is that the people you follow decide what you see. In Xigua Video, the two coexist and are unified.

As the company with the highest density of algorithm engineers per unit area in the world, Toutiao’s advantage in algorithm distribution is unquestionable. However, to establish a long-term incentive mechanism for content production, the social assets of producers are equally important, and relationship distribution is an important strategy to solve this problem.

3.1.2 Coexistence of short videos and ultra-short videos to create a rich content ecosystem

In the field of short videos, there is a very obvious differentiation in content form. The most obvious one is the division into short videos and ultra-short videos based on the horizontal and vertical screen ratio, duration, and author type. The former are mostly 1-15 minutes, horizontal, and PGC production; the latter are mostly 15-55 seconds, vertical, and mainly UGC production. Xigua Video combines the two into one, taking both into account.

For example, Tik Tok recently launched the long video feature, which many users felt uncomfortable with. One of the reasons is that a vertical screen short video community suddenly has an extended horizontal screen version, which is inevitable to adapt to. Watermelon's design in this regard is relatively smooth.

3.1.3 Taking both PGC and UGC into account to tap into an inexhaustible source of motivation

Xigua Video positions itself as a PUGC short video platform in order to take into account both PGC and UGC. PGC and UGC are in a relationship of unity in opposition. UGC gathers the wisdom and energy of the people, while PGC emphasizes professional and stable production.

On the one hand, Xigua Video relies on Toutiao's algorithm to make excellent UGC short videos stand out, so as to continuously mobilize the enthusiasm of UGC content creators - you are responsible for the excitement, and Xigua Video helps you reach more fans.

On the other hand, Xigua Video has continuously increased its support for PGC, launched a short video content joint production fund, held the Xigua PLAY Honor Ceremony, and established the "Golden Second Award", all of which are providing a stage for creators to perform.

3.1.4 Unification of user value and commercial value to form a complete commercial closed loop

Xigua is also excellent in realizing its own business value by creating value for users.

User value can usually be broken down into two indicators: user activity and user ARPU. Xigua Video's monthly active users, including average daily usage time, are among the best in the industry, and the most critical ARPU value is achieved by Xigua Video's mature commercial monetization system.

Xigua Video's advertising monetization system is integrated with Toutiao's monetization system. On the one hand, it can enjoy Toutiao's existing mature advertising customer base, and on the other hand, Toutiao's complete advertising products and advertising algorithms can also be used by Xigua Video. In particular, Xigua Video was the first in China to launch the CPV settlement video advertising model, which played an important role in efficiently converting user value into commercial value.

3.2 Disadvantages

3.2.1 Lack of relationship orientation is not conducive to the growth of the creator team

There is no doubt that the key to Toutiao's success lies in "algorithm-oriented", but this also lays hidden worries: the content that users see is mainly dominated by algorithms, and it is difficult for content creators to accumulate fans and manage "private traffic."

Although Xigua Video also has a "follow mechanism" and a dedicated "follow page", their importance is not high. If ByteDance wants to grow further, it must resolve the contradiction between "algorithm recommendation" and "private traffic".

3.2.2 Insufficient video supply makes it difficult to form a strong commercial barrier

In terms of content, Xigua positions its product as focusing on short videos of less than 15 minutes, and covering the entire video ecosystem including short videos, ultra-short videos and long videos.

The advantage of this is that it is easy to build ecological barriers and create a broad market space for oneself, but the disadvantage is also very obvious, that is, the construction of a full video ecosystem will inevitably place higher requirements on the richness of the video.

Without sufficient video supply, Xigua’s business barriers will become empty talk. Obviously, watermelon's performance in this regard is not optimistic.

According to the data I can obtain, Xigua currently supplies about 300,000 videos per day, while YouTube supplies about 3.6 million videos per day.

The road ahead for watermelon is long and difficult. The growth of content is inseparable from the continuous expansion of the creator team, which is why Xigua Video has continuously invested huge amounts of money in recent years to attract and cultivate a team of creators.

3.2.3 The search function is weak, which is not conducive to improving user experience

Search is one of the important functions of Xigua Video, but its role is far inferior to functions such as recommendation and follow.

In the minds of users, Xigua Video is mainly a place to "watch videos" rather than "search videos". This tendency may not be serious in the short term, but as Xigua Video’s resources continue to grow, the role of search will become increasingly important.

After all, recommendation is just the machine understanding your needs, while search gives the choice to the user. Only when the two complement each other can the best user experience be achieved.

In addition, the search business can also provide more advertising space, which naturally has a stronger conversion effect. This is also the significance of Xigua's continuous strengthening of search functions. In the latest iteration of Xigua's search function,

3.3 Future

Based on a comparative analysis of Xigua Video's market positioning and the strengths and weaknesses of its core business, the author believes that Xigua's future development direction should be: creating a dual engine of recommendation + search, and building a full-category video ecological platform that combines short-term and long-term.

3.3.1 While maintaining its own powerful algorithm and accurate recommendation advantages, further strengthen the search function

In this regard, Xigua Video needs to do three things: first, improve its technical level, second, increase searchable content, and third, guide user usage habits.

In terms of technology, ByteDance already has strong reserves and is not lacking in attractiveness to technical talents. Since we have achieved success in the information flow push algorithm, it is only a matter of time before we achieve success in the search algorithm.

In terms of searchable content, Toutiao has opened up the function of off-site search since the second quarter of 2019. In the future, it should also explore areas such as vigorously supporting original content and exchanging resources with other content platforms, so that Xigua Search can reach more content, while improving user experience and attracting more advertisers.

In terms of cultivating user search habits, Xigua has more work to do which is more complex and detailed.

3.3.2 Achieve a dynamic balance between algorithm orientation and relationship orientation to further optimize user experience

Objectively speaking, there is a natural contradiction between algorithm-oriented and relationship-oriented approaches, and the success of Xigua Video is first and foremost attributed to the success of algorithm-oriented approaches.

However, Xigua Video’s positioning as building a full-category video ecosystem platform means that it cannot ignore the huge role of relationship orientation. Only by creating an environment that is more suitable for content creators to survive and grow can we attract more outstanding creators to join and produce more and better video products.

How to solve the contradiction between "algorithm recommendation" and "private traffic" and achieve a balance between not destroying the dominance of the platform and meeting the demands of KOLs.

The key is to be able to truly achieve accurate and fair distribution of what users see between "focus objects" and "algorithm recommendation objects".

At this point, Douyin's approach is undoubtedly very successful. Since this is the case, we have every reason to believe that watermelon, which is the same as TikTok, can also do it.

04 Xigua Video User Analysis

4.1 Product Positioning

A comprehensive video platform that aggregates diverse cultures, forms a complete content matrix with short videos, ultra-short videos, long videos and live broadcasts, and gradually creates a full-category video ecosystem. The video content is finely divided to meet people's entertainment needs in their spare time.

4.2 Age & Gender Distribution

Xigua Video's users are mostly male, accounting for two-thirds of the total.

At the age structure level, young people between the ages of 24 and 35 account for more than half of the total users. The characteristics of this age are that they like stimulation, have a strong acceptance of new things, and have a certain consumption capacity.

Data source——IResearch Qianfan

4.3 Consumption capacity analysis

Xigua Video users’ consumption level is olive-like, and middle-level consumers account for 80% of the total consumer population. In addition, the population showed signs of shifting from low consumers to high consumers, with medium-sized consumers, medium-sized consumers and high consumers showing month-on-month growth, while low consumers and medium-sized consumers declining month-on-month.

Data source——IResearch Qianfan

4.4 Geographical location distribution

The provinces where the user group is located, the coastal and inland distribution are relatively evenly distributed. The provinces with faster growth month-on-month growth (Lu, Jiangsu, Henan, Sichuan, Hubei, Anhui) mostly have second-, third- and fourth-tier cities and rural populations, and the fastest growing cities are Hefei, Zhengzhou and Changchun.

Although the average income level of downsized users is not high, they have relatively abundant time and a lot of leisure time can be used for entertainment.

It is worth mentioning that the data given by iResearch Qianfan shows that consumption level has a trend of growth from low income to high income, while the user's city is located in Beijing and Shanghai, while other second- and third-tier cities are growing.

Data source——IResearch Qianfan

4.5 Typical user portrait

Male A, 28 years old. As the first content creators to stay in Xigua Video, he and his team quickly accumulated high popularity on the platform.

Although the props are original and the editing is rough due to economic reasons, they firmly grasp the users with their novel creativity and funny plots.

A is also always paying attention to the videos posted by competitors on watermelon to remove the drought and preserve the essence. Compared with other short video platforms, Xigua has the highest number of views and the best response. Although signing an exclusive contract with Xigua can get more traffic support, A still decided to distribute it in multiple content channels in the context of fierce competition in this industry.

Otome, 26 years old. B has lived in the countryside since he was a child and likes to film the daily lives of some villagers during the slack season.

At first, it was just out of interest, but unexpectedly, it received a lot of praise for its simple and realistic shooting style. Compared with short videos that cost dozens of seconds, B's videos are longer, more story-oriented, and can impress the audience.

The audience likes to buy local local products from her watermelon store. The sharing of advertising and e-commerce sales is really improving B's quality of life.

Female C, 22 years old. C is a game anchor with a medium level, but fortunately, she has a sweet voice and looks charming, and she will sing from time to time to meet the requirements of her fans.

The users who follow her are mainly young men, with high attention and low incomes.

Ding Male, 38 years old. After the day's work and family affairs, Ding is used to watching the watermelon video for a while at night.

He has several authors who love very much and think their works are thoughtful and attitude. If they have their updates, they will watch them as soon as possible, like and comment, and sometimes share them on WeChat Moments.

At the other time, I would browse it on his favorite channel - Dachedi, but I felt that Dachedi's channel was too far behind and I didn't know how to manage the channel, which was very troublesome.

Male Wu, 24 years old. Wu likes Xigua’s shadow channel the most, and he can unknowingly brush it in it for a long time.

He likes film and television clip editing very much. If he thinks the clip is not good, he can watch the next one; if he thinks it is good and has the desire to watch the whole movie, he jumps to the main movie and watches it directly on the watermelon;

But many times he needs to jump to other platforms due to copyright reasons, but the small amount of film sources made him a little unhappy.

He is a man, 60 years old. He has just retired and his social scope has been greatly reduced compared to before he retired. In order to maintain synchronization with society, he hopes to connect to the outside world through Xigua Video, so he will browse social channels and pay attention to many official accounts of local news.

When you are free in your housework, you will watch live broadcasts posted by the official news accounts, which is equivalent to watching the news on your mobile phone.

Geng’s daughter, 32 years old. Geng is a professional woman with a cheerful personality and a wide range of interests. She followed no less than dozens of authors and would watch their updates in time, but as the number of followers increased, she began to be unable to cope with it.

For those who are following, she sometimes prefers to understand the situation outside the author's work, but the content of the author's dynamic column is mostly repeated with the content of the video column, which disappoints her.

The content in the recommended channel is very consistent with her taste, which is also an important reason why she became a melon fan. But watching too many programs of the same type will make her feel tired. She wanted to try to watch some other types of programs, but she couldn't start. There were too many subdivided channels behind it, so it was too troublesome to go separately, which made her very upset.

4.6 Summary

It can be seen that Xigua Video uses long and short video matrices formed by pgc, ugc, pugc and ogc to meet the needs of different users. Reasonable user structure distribution and good consumption capacity have laid the foundation for watermelon's commercial monetization. The relatively mature business system has nurtured a large number of short video authors and contributed to the rich video supply. The powerful recommendation function and meticulous channel division provide convenience for different users to find the content they like, but Xigua still needs to make more efforts in cultivating user usage habits, popularizing usage skills, deepening their understanding of users, and better meeting users' personalized needs.

05 Functional analysis and optimization suggestions

Xigua Video Functional Architecture

5.1 Added "Ranking" channel

5.1.1 Recommended personalization and de-personalization of rankings

The recommended function is the Toutiao series's magic weapon, and it is also the core channel of Xigua Video, and it is a winning weapon to realize traffic.

But there are two problems that the algorithm itself cannot truly solve. One is that human interests are changing, and the other is that humans sometimes do not know what they like.

For example, when people have a certain demand (such as buying a laptop), videos about laptop knowledge will become the content that users need the most. After searching for this keyword, the system's relevant recommendations will make users very interested.

However, once the user's purchasing behavior is completed, the user's demand for the above content will be instantly reset to zero. However, the system cannot sense the changes in users' needs at the first time, and will still distribute a large number of similar videos, which will greatly reduce the user's user experience.

The countermeasures that Xigua has taken are firstly to add the "not interested" option to the second-level page of the video to help users eliminate the content that is no longer needed.

Second, through meticulous channel division, users provide more extensive and accurate choices. Xigua Video currently has 30 subdivided channels. But no matter how many channels Xigua Video has or how finely divided it, it will horizontally cut the video library into small pieces and vertical fields, so that users can see only what happens in this small field.

As mentioned above: in most cases, users do not know what their real needs are. Letting users search for multiple subdivided channels aimlessly will also greatly reduce the user's user experience.

By setting up rankings, users can see vertically what is happening in the world in all fields. The goal is to discover videos that all kinds of users think are good to watch.

What is different from the recommendation is that the ranking list is set up to be depersonalized. At the same time, all users of Xigua Video see the video content and order in the ranking list are the same.

There is another small point to explain that the default search terms on the original search box of Xigua Video come from the user's search history and its related content, and are not the hot topic nowadays.

When the user searches, the search bar drops down, and the user can view the search history and guess what you want to search (content similar to the videos the user has watched), but rarely see the current hot spots.

When a ranking list is set, the default search terms on the search box will be replaced with the top four keywords of the video ranking list. Let users understand the current hot events in the world.

5.1.2 Optimization plan

The specific location of the ranking channel is placed behind the live broadcast and in front of the movie channel. The ideal state of the video arrangement inside is to refresh it every 15-20 minutes. After each update, the video ranking will have three situations: rising, falling, and unchanging.

In general, there are three specific factors that affect video ranking:

1. Number of views, that is, the number of views;
2. Update time;
3. After the release, how fast it is to be viewed is both popular.

There are three standards for video content

1. 1. Can attract all kinds of viewers and display the works of various creators
2. 2. Don't mislead, trick or sensational
3. 3. Can show what is happening everywhere

After the search bar is pulled down, the first thing that shows the titles of the top four rankings is displayed. Next to it, use popularity to remind users, click more and jump directly to the rankings to divert traffic to them.

5.1.3 Solution Advantages

The benefits of increasing the popular function are obvious: First of all, although human aesthetic tendencies vary in individual ways, convergence is the mainstream. It is easier for users to find content they are interested in on popular channels. At the same time, users can also discover their favorite authors through the content they are interested in, and then trigger attention to achieve the purpose of attracting traffic to high-quality authors.

Of course, the most important point is that the machine can continuously deepen its understanding of the user through the above behaviors of the user and optimize the recommended content.

Of course, Xigua has not yet opened a ranking channel, which should also have its own considerations, such as worrying that it will limit the user's vision, resulting in excessive concentration of users and not conducive to building the diversity of the video ecosystem.

The author believes that as long as the weight of different channels is appropriately increased when filtering ranking videos, the above worries can be effectively resolved. This will also allow users to discover content they are truly interested in in some unfamiliar fields. In this way, it will broaden users' horizons and promote the construction of video ecological diversity.

5.2 Optimize author sorting function

5.2.1 Top of the following author icon helps to strengthen relationship orientation

Attention is another core function of Xigua Video and a concrete manifestation of Xigua Video's strengthening relationship orientation.

Authors who are followed by users will be topped on the following page and the recommendation page in the form of small icons. When an author who has followed is updating or live streaming, the "Live" or "Update" tab will be displayed below the icon.

Because of the time attributes of live broadcasts, the sorting of live broadcasts will take precedence over updates. This approach of putting the icon of attention to the author on the top undoubtedly provides convenience for the interaction between users and follow the author on the author on the subject, and is a proof of the emphasis on relationship orientation of watermelon.

Interestingly, under the video of the recommendation page, is the information of the video author, while the attention page shows the information of the video author above the video. Such details reflect Xigua Video's concept of focusing on content on recommendation pages and focusing on pages is commendable.

As users use watermelons more and more, the number of creators users pay attention to will increase, and a more scientific author sorting function is an important part of improving user experience.

Watermelon currently adopts a comprehensive sorting by update time and correlation. The so-called relevance is divided according to the user's preference: for creators who are more concerned by users, their ranking will be higher than those who are less concerned by users.

Currently, the arrangement order of the small icons on the top of the attention page and the recommendation page is the same. In the user "My Follow", it is also sorted comprehensively according to the author's update time and correlation. There is no sorting choice provided, such as first letter sorting, correlation sorting, etc.

5.2.2 When more and more authors are followed by users, frequent screen sliding will reduce the user experience

Due to different behavioral habits of users, the number of authors you follow will also be as small as possible. However, with the continuous development of the platform and the user's usage time, it should be a major trend to pay attention to more authors.

As the number of users paying attention to the author continues to increase, the icon that pays attention to the author will form a big long tail at the top of the page. Users can only see the dynamics of following the author after the screen moves horizontally, thereby reducing the user's interactive experience.

This arrangement will also bring another consequence, which is that it will lead to users paying more attention to authors who update content frequently. Over time, those authors who publish less videos will be neglected, which will easily make users miss some content they are really interested in.

In addition, on the "My Follow" page, Xigua currently arranges the order in a fixed way, and users cannot implement sorting management of the follower authors according to their personal wishes.

5.2.3 Optimization Solution

The recommended page and follow page still maintain the current display mode of the top icon bar and can be retrieved by sliding left and right. At the same time, the "Show all" function is added to the right, and then click to jump to the "My Follow" page.

In this page, follower authors are arranged vertically, so that more author information can be displayed on the same screen. At the same time, the conditional options are added to allow users to sort and inform the authors according to their personal wishes.

5.3 Redefine the "dynamic" function of your personal homepage and add "dynamic" portal

5.3.1 Weaknesses in the page

The rise of algorithms leads to weakening of focus functions. Pay attention is the user's active acquisition behavior, while recommendation is passive reception.

The most common content-based recommendation algorithm currently involves making similar correlations between videos that users like and have followed in the content. It can be said that recommendations include attention.

However, the role of attention is not only to meet the user's needs for obtaining targeted information, but also to generate social assets.

5.3.2 Rich column division helps to enhance the author's charm

In the following channel, when the user opens the author's personal homepage of Xigua Video, in addition to displaying the author's basic information at the top, the page also has multiple columns such as dynamics, videos, and short videos.

This will help users improve their understanding of the author from different angles and enhance their user stickiness. However, if the division of column functions is not clear and reasonable enough, it will be difficult to achieve the original intention of the design, which will also reduce the user's user experience.

5.3.3 The vague column function may cause double damage to the user and the author

Today's Watermelon Following Page is a video of the authors who are followed by users, and it only serves as a function to view the authors' past works. If it develops in the community, it can completely redefine the dynamics in the personal homepage.

Dynamics should be the creator's daily life state, not the creator's work. The dynamic column can be a move in the author's daily life, or it can be a behind-the-scenes reflection of the author's creative process, but it is by no means just the work itself.

It can be a light video of a few seconds, or even a picture and text. Such a lighter expression will narrow the distance with the user and increase the user's stickiness.

To some extent, understanding the life state outside of the author's work is more likely to arouse empathy than watching the work.

The dynamic page and the content of the video page in Xigua’s personal homepage are currently mostly overlapping. Either the content of the dynamic page = the content of the video page, or the content of the dynamic page = the author dynamic + the content of the video page. Very few post dynamics.

In this way, a position that could have been effectively used to create a social atmosphere was wasted, which is a pity. It is not conducive to mobilizing creators' enthusiasm for updating dynamics.

In addition, the video stream under the following page is to follow all the videos of the author, arranged in chronological order. Since you have been followed, you can put the updates of the authors who follow it, which not only allows users to see the video, but also the latest updates of the persons who are being followed.

5.3.4 Optimization Solution

Redefine the "dynamic" function, publish the author's daily dynamics in the dynamic column, restrict the author's permission to publish his works in the dynamic column, and use the policy of "dynamic" release through traffic allocation to encourage and guide creators to update dynamic content in real time, create a social atmosphere in the dynamic column, enhance the popularity and interactivity of personal homepages, and continuously improve user stickiness.

5.4 Open the "channel management" function

5.4.1 Channel segmentation has pros and cons

Based on the strategy of building a full video ecosystem, Xigua Video adopts a segmentation tactic in channel settings, with as many as 30 channels, which is undoubtedly very beneficial for broadening the content width and deepening the vertical market.

However, too detailed channel division can easily cause some inconvenience to users' choices. Due to different user interest preferences, the needs for segmented channels will also vary. When the channel that users are really interested in is ranked too far behind, they can only be found by constantly sliding the screen, which will greatly harm the user experience.

Especially when the several sub-channels that users like are too scattered, this bad experience will be further aggravated. Therefore, it is very necessary to open the "channel management" function.

5.4.2 Optimization Solution

Maintain the existing channel settings and presentation method, and add a "+" button to the right, click to enter the channel management page.

All channels are presented in this page, and a few channel names such as follow, recommendation, live broadcast, rankings, etc. are gray, which are unmanageable channels. There is a "+" button in front of other channel names, allowing users to move freely after clicking, allowing users to concentrate the channels they are really interested in to display at the head of the channel.

5.4.3 Pros and cons analysis

The advantages of the open channel management function are that it helps to improve user experience. The disadvantages brought about include not being conducive to the platform's traffic diversion to channels that are prone to consumption behavior, and limiting users' vision;

However, the direct consequence of disrupting user experience is a decrease in user stickiness and loyalty, and other disadvantages will become insignificant.

06 Conclusion

"Give you fresh and beautiful!" is Xigua Video's main pursuit at this stage. So, what about the future?

"Watch the video and put on the watermelon!" It should become the more ambitious goal of watermelon, let's wait and see!

Author: Thick lips

Source: Thick lips