A five-way battle among short video apps such as Tik Tok and Kuaishou

The author of this article analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of products from the aspects of functions and interfaces, and analyzes five apps, namely, Douyin, Kuaishou, Weishi, Huoshan Video and Haokan Video, trying to find out their respective shortcomings and put forward his own suggestions.

Table of contents

1. Background

2. Purpose

3. Competitive product selection

4. Competitive Product Analysis

4.1 Current status of competing products

4.2 Basic Information Comparison

4.3 Product Function Analysis and Comparison

4.3.1 Main Function Analysis

4.3.2 Comparison of Features

4.3.3 Page Function Comparison

4.4 Product Function Structure Comparison

4.5 Product Business Process Comparison

4.6 Product Page Flowchart Comparison

V. Conclusion

1. Background

The short video industry has been advancing by leaps and bounds, and the user usage time has surpassed comprehensive videos, becoming the second largest application type after instant messaging. Short videos have had a huge impact on everyone’s lives. Watching short videos after dinner has become everyone’s daily behavior, and short videos have even become a new way of socializing.

Today, the demographic dividend of mobile Internet has been exhausted, and the short video industry has entered the competition for the existing market. Internet companies have focused their attention on the sinking market. High-quality content and good user experience have become the winning magic weapon for the next stage, and social networking has also become a major focus.

2. Purpose

1. Improve your product thinking by focusing on the product’s strategic, scope, structural, framework, and presentation layers.

2. Through comparative analysis of various software, discover the possible shortcomings and deficiencies of the software and put forward your own suggestions.

3. Competitive product selection

Reasons for selection:

1. Tik Tok and Kuaishou are the first-tier products in the short video industry;
2. Weishi is a key support target of Tencent. The social traffic of WeChat and QQ makes its potential not to be underestimated.
3. Haokan Video, owned by Baidu, has seen impressive growth due to the traffic from Baidu search.
4. The direct competitor of Huoshan Video is Kuaishou, so we chose it.

Tik Tok and Huoshan Video are products of ByteDance, Weishi is a product of Tencent, and Haokan is a product of Baidu. We hope that through this comparative analysis, we can understand the similarities and differences between the short video products of several giant Internet companies.

4. Competitive Product Analysis

4.1 Current status of competing products

As of June 2019, in terms of user scale, the monthly active user scale of Douyin short video of Toutiao reached 486 million, ranking first in the industry, and Kuaishou ranked second with 341 million monthly active users;

Tencent Weishi has 105 million monthly active users, joining the 100 million club, and is not much behind Toutiao's Huoshan Video.

The monthly active user scale of Baidu's Haokan Video lags significantly behind these four apps. It can be seen that the competitiveness of Toutiao and Kuaishou APP is very strong, and the industry presents a "two super and many strong" situation.

In terms of the activity rate of short video apps, Douyin is 52.6% and Kuaishou is 49.9%. Douyin is slightly ahead of Kuaishou by a few percentage points, but the activity rates of Douyin and Kuaishou are still in the leading position. This may be because Douyin and Kuaishou continue to attract high-quality content producers, and the types of recommended videos are in line with user tastes, and they have a good reputation among users.

It should be noted that compared with June 2018, the activity rate of Kuaishou has hardly changed, while that of Douyin has increased significantly. This may be due to Kuaishou's weak operation and Douyin's frequent launch of distinctive operational activities to attract user participation.

The activity rate of Baidu's Haokan Video has increased significantly, and its competitiveness is strong, and Weishi has increased slightly. The popularity of Volcano Video has declined to varying degrees, and it is possible that users have lost to Douyin or Kuaishou.

As users' dependence on short video products continues to increase, their entertainment needs, social needs and even shopping needs are met to varying degrees, and user retention rates continue to increase.

Kuaishou, driven by community-based trust relationships, has a 7-day retention rate of 84.4% of active users, and has given birth to the "old iron economy", with a very high conversion rate in performance-based e-commerce;

Tik Tok, which is driven by strong operations of "centralized" traffic distribution, also reached 81.7%. This may be based on the precise interest reach and immersive design based on algorithm recommendations, which also makes users love it.

Huoshan Short Video also has a high retention rate of 71.1%, which may be related to the fact that the recommended content is more life-oriented and pays more attention to the live broadcast section;

Haokan Video has a retention rate of 52.0%, and Weishi has a retention rate of 33.8%. The low retention rates of these two softwares may be due to the lack of high-quality content, weak operation, fierce competition in the short video industry, and the flow of users to other softwares.

With the disappearance of the dividend of mobile user scale, "Tik Tok sinks, Kuaishou rises", competition in the industry's stock market has intensified, and the competition for user time has become fierce. The user exclusivity rate of typical apps has declined to varying degrees, and it has become a norm for users to install multiple short video software. This may be related to the fact that Internet celebrities have accounts on different platforms, which has driven the cross-platform flow of users.

How to build the characteristics of one's own software, produce higher-quality content, make one's own products have a unique tone, and even make excellent content producers the exclusive output has become an urgent problem that needs to be solved.

4.2 Basic Information Comparison

From the perspective of product positioning , all five software are short video communities.

Kuaishou and Weishi were established earlier, and the other three software were all established around 2016. Although Weishi started earlier, it missed the best development opportunity due to Tencent Group's strategic abandonment. Kuaishou has gradually grown into one of the first-tier products in the short video industry.

Kuaishou's user base is mostly in third- and fourth-tier cities, while Douyin's users are mostly in first- and second-tier cities. As the size of the user group continues to expand, competition between Douyin and Kuaishou in the sinking market will intensify.

Kuaishou recently changed its slogan from "Record the world and record you" to "See every kind of life", indicating that it is preparing for better expansion.

ByteDance incubated Volcano Video to compete with Kuaishou. Judging from the ratings, the user experience of Volcano Video still needs to be further optimized.

4.3 Product Function Analysis and Comparison

4.3.1 Analysis of main functions

From the perspective of video/shooting, Douyin, Weishi and Kuaishou have relatively complete shooting functions and a variety of shooting methods, as well as abundant shooting props for users to choose from;

Volcano can meet most shooting needs, but the number of its functions is relatively small compared to the first three.

Haokan Video splits video shooting, photo MV and subtitles into three modules. The operation is simple, but it shoots in horizontal mode and may be more inclined to shoot Vlogs. It can meet basic shooting needs, but has relatively few functions and lacks appeal to users.

All five software programs support the function of saving works locally. In addition, Kuaishou and Haokan Video have launched subtitle recognition functions, which is convenient for users who need to add subtitles; Weishi has launched editable text stickers to make the text production of videos more standardized.

From a social perspective, all five apps can meet the basic functions of likes, comments, reposts, and follows.

When publishing videos, Douyin, Weishi, Kuaishou and Huoshan Video all support personalized functions such as adding locations and setting viewing permissions.

When setting browsing permissions: Douyin’s categories are “public, friends and private”, while Kuaishou’s are “public, group chat and private”. What’s interesting is that the more “centralized” Douyin pays more attention to the relationship between friends, while the “decentralized” Kuaishou sets permissions in the form of groups.

Kuaishou also has personalized video settings, such as "not allowing users to download their own works" and "not displaying in the same city", which increases the power of users.

Weishi, Kuaishou and Huoshan Video all support hiding your likes, but Douyin does not support it at present, which is not very friendly to users who value privacy.

Except for Haokan Video, the other four software all support @friends when posting videos, which increases the interactivity and intimacy between friends.

In addition to displaying works, the other people's pages of Douyin and Kuaishou also show other people's updates. The updates on Douyin show the timeline of the author's own works, while Kuaishou hopes that the updates page will record personal daily life. Currently, Kuaishou updates show more information about the author's personal behavior, such as who they follow and what works they like. Obviously, Kuaishou is not doing enough at the moment.

In addition to the videos played on the homepage of Weishi, videos played on other pages have a save button in the lower right corner, which allows users to save them locally for easy sharing.

think:

Tik Tok’s “My” interface is an independent tab bar, which shows that Tik Tok attaches great importance to the “My” interface and hopes that users will open this interface frequently.

When you enter my interface, the default recommendation is "Display of My Works". I personally don’t pay much attention to the display of my own works, but I pay more attention to the content I like.

In addition, the dynamic page does not play a better role, it is just a timeline display method of the work page. The like page may also face the problem of too many liked works, with a single display and arrangement, which affects user browsing.

Personally, I feel that the number of works can be on the same level as likes, attention, and fans. I like the way to add filtering to the page, or to display it by date collection.

Although Kuaishou hopes that the dynamic page can serve as a record of daily life, it is hidden too deeply. It is recommended to place the writing of comments on the same level of importance as the shooting button.

4.3.2 Comparison of Features

In terms of video shooting , Douyin and Kuaishou support switching between long and short videos, and both support taking photos.

Douyin’s shooting type has the option of live streaming, while Kuaishou’s is karaoke, and Kuaishou’s live streaming is hidden deeper, serving as a threshold for screening users. This reflects that Douyin hopes that users can easily start live broadcasts and showcase themselves, while Kuaishou hopes that users have more skills and talents to showcase.

Douyin has added a location collection feature, probably hoping to make it easier for users to visit popular stores. Check in at internet celebrity spots. Kuaishou has a function of automatically playing the next one, which makes it convenient for users to choose scenes, such as when brushing teeth or cooking. I hope Douyin can follow suit.

Weishi's one-click video-producing function has introduced the recently popular photo card points and video template functions, which lowers the production threshold for users and makes it easier to use.

In terms of social networking, Douyin launched Snap, which allows users to shoot short videos and photos, and even post texts;

Kuaishou has launched a group chat function, where users can create five groups of less than 200 people, or join other people’s groups. The group function is similar to that of WeChat groups.

Through this move, Kuaishou hopes to strengthen interest-based social interaction among users, and social interaction between anchors and fans, thereby increasing stickiness and retention.

Huoshan has launched circles, where users can join circles of interest and post pictures, texts and videos in the circles, allowing people with similar interests to find organizations.

For other functions, Weishi has launched bubble stickers and interactive games, such as sending and asking for red envelopes, which may be more popular among female and young users.

Weishi's featured page has a video collection, which integrates a series of videos for users to watch. I personally feel that this is more suitable for mini-series and knowledge explanations. Douyin and Kuaishou can learn from this.

Huoshan has a unique radio function and can make videos into GIFs for easy dissemination; Haokan Video has viewing records, which can be saved for reference by Tik Tok and Kuaishou.

4.3.3 Page Function Comparison

Note: Douyin and Weishi are compared together because they are direct competitors, while Douyin and Kuaishou are essentially different things. In addition, the author also compared Douyin and Kuaishou.

The reason for comparing Huoshan Video with Kuaishou is that they have the same product positioning and target groups.

front page:

When you just register on TikTok and have not logged in, the labels on the homepage are "Recommendation" and "Same City". After logging in to your account, "Recommendation" and "Name of your city" are displayed. The names have changed.

Personally, I prefer the same city or nearby, because the city name gives people a great sense of distance, which is psychologically not conducive to user exploration.

As can be seen from the page, the Douyin follow page is located in a tab bar, and the user switching cost is relatively high. Weishi displays recommendations and follows at the same level, making it easier for users to switch.

The reason for this situation may be due to the design of the product. The content recommended on the homepage is rich enough, the immersive experience is good, and users are not very enthusiastic about switching.

On the other hand, the effect of displaying the content of the followed users on a single page may not be as good as that of a list.

It is worth mentioning that Kuaishou puts attention, recommendation and discovery on one level, which is equivalent to combining the homepages of Douyin and Weishi.

The search function of Douyin is in the upper right corner, while that of Weishi is in the upper left corner. This does not mean that the search function of Douyin is not important, but that it is not as important as that of live streaming. This may be a necessary measure.

In addition, Douyin’s search page is obviously richer than Kuaishou’s, with popular searches and various recommended lists. Kuaishou’s search page is hidden deeper in the right sidebar, which may be related to its “decentralization” and weak operation.

Douyin’s video interaction buttons are arranged vertically, while Weishi’s are arranged horizontally, which may be related to screen space.

Kuaishou and Volcano are direct competitors and have many similarities in product design. Both use a double-column feed waterfall flow display.

The homepage of Kuaishou displays following, discovery and the same city, while the homepage of Huoshan Video displays following, videos, circles and live broadcast.

Kuaishou hopes that users will also browse the content of the following and display the three side by side. This is because there are many people in third- and fourth-tier cities with low mobility and more spare time, and users also like the following and same-city pages.

The city of Volcano is in the square on the sidebar, hidden deeper.

The fact that Huoshan puts circles on its homepage shows that it pays great attention to interest-based social networking and hopes to attract people with similar interests through circles to increase stickiness and activity; Kuaishou has a group chat function, and users can create and join group chats.

The former is like Tieba, or like your group chat on WeChat; the former is open to a certain extent, while the latter focuses more on privacy, but both hope to carve out a path in social networking. Huoshan also attaches great importance to live streaming, and the fact that the live streaming entrance is placed very shallowly also reflects this.

The sidebars of Kuaishou and Volcano are very similar, with search and message notification functions included. Kuaishou's message notifications are obviously more detailed.

The square of Huoshan is like a content aggregation platform, similar to the homepage of Baidu Haokan Video, and the gossip is the dynamics of the people you follow. In addition, the live broadcast of Volcano is simple and easy to start, while the live broadcast entrance of Kuaishou is placed very deep. It is recommended that Kuaishou reduce the broadcast permissions.

The homepage of Haokan Video is a content aggregation platform that displays clips from various variety shows, with plenty of eye-catching clickbait titles and borderline content. The short video display is similar to that of Kuaishou and Huoshan. The video types are not very rich and there is not much UGC content.

Video playback page:

Kuaishou's video playback page is simple and clean, with the video interaction button on the upper left and the user's avatar on the upper right, trying not to disturb the user's viewing experience. Swipe left to enter the personal homepage, and swipe down to view comments and video introductions;

The video information of Huoshan Short Video and Haokan Video is at the bottom of the video. The interactive buttons of Huoshan Short Video are arranged vertically, while those of Haokan Video are arranged horizontally. They are at the bottom and easy to reach with fingers. The software may hope that users will interact more.

The page of Huoshan Video is very similar to TikTok. The video text introduction and user name are suspended above the playback page, but a very important change is that there is an input box on the playback page, which improves the level and facilitates user comments. The same is true for Haokan Video, but Huoshan's is more obvious. In addition, Haokan Video also has a setting for quickly inputting emoticons.

There is also a forward button in the upper right corner of Huoshan Video and Haokan Video, which may be considering the usage habits of some users.

Follow Page:

Tik Tok’s “Follow” feature is an independent tab bar. When you click on it, the video will play automatically. Likes and comments will be displayed independently below the video. The vertical screen feed stream displays rich information.

At the top, there are reminders for following friends’ live broadcasts and entrances to friends’ snapshots. Swipe left to see friends’ updates.

It is worth noting that there is a snapshot button in the upper left corner of the video, and you can also enter the snapshot page by swiping right.

The follow page of Weishi is at the same level as the recommendation page. It displays the works of different users in vertical screen. Unlike Douyin, it can display two videos of the user at a time and can slide horizontally. Below the video is the video input box with a small arrow pointing to the commented video, but this function has a small bug and cannot point to the user's last work.

The follow page is a deepening of social relationships, and users can choose to follow their favorite hosts.

Kuaishou's follow page is similar to the discovery page, with a relatively unified overall style. The follow page displays the works of the followed users. If the number of followed users is small and the number of user works is limited, the content displayed on the follow page will not be rich enough.

The first thing displayed on the follow page of Huoshan Video is the avatar of the followed user. Clicking the avatar will lead to the user's personal information page. The problem it faces is similar to that of Kuaishou. The number of works on the follow page may not be rich enough due to the small number of followed users.

The Haokan Video Follow Page is for videos recommended by PUGC organizations.

Shooting page:

Comparison of shooting entrances:

The shooting entrance of Tik Tok, Weishi and Haokan Video is in the middle of the tab bar, which shows the importance of shooting to these three softwares. It is convenient for users to shoot and create UGC content.

The shooting button of Kuaishou and Volcano Video is in the upper right corner, which is also a very important position. This setting can free up more space for the playback page and give users a better experience.

Shooting interface comparison:

The shooting pages of Douyin, Weishi, Kuaishou, Huoshan Video and Haokan Video are very similar, with neatly arranged buttons, low cognitive cost and easy to use. One obvious difference is that the shooting button of Weishi is white, while the other four softwares are red.

Compared with Kuaishou, Douyin and Weishi have richer shooting function settings. All five software can meet the needs of normal video production. Weishi also has a one-click film-producing function, which greatly reduces the user's production cost and threshold and improves ease of use.

There are different modes to switch on the shooting page. Douyin and Kuaishou can shoot videos of different lengths, Douyin and Huoshan can be used for live broadcasts, Kuaishou can be used for karaoke, and both Douyin and Kuaishou can take photos.

mine:

The "My" page of Douyin, Weishi and Haokan Video is an independent tab bar, while Kuaishou and Huoshan Video are in the sidebar in the upper left corner.

In my user interface, Douyin displays works, updates and likes; Weishi displays works and likes (permissions can be set); Kuaishou displays a richer range of works, comments, private messages and likes; Huoshan Video displays works, live broadcasts, circle content and likes; Haokan Video has four categories: works, collections and good-looking.

On Douyin’s Others page, you can see the number of works, updates, and likes; on Kuaishou’s Others page, you cannot see which works a person has liked, you can only see works and updates; on Weishi, you can set permissions (not allowing others to see your likes); on Huoshan’s Others page, you can see circle updates (displayed in the upper left corner) and the number of works; on Haokan, you can see videos, short videos, and collections.

The privacy and general settings of Kuaishou and Weishi are richer. It is recommended that Doudou refer to them to provide a better user experience.

4.4 Product Function Structure Comparison

Comparison of the functional structure of Douyin, Kuaishou, Weishi, Huoshan Video and Haokan Video:

The functional structure of the five software is reasonable. Although there are many modules, most of them have no more than three levels. The overall functional operation logic is simple and the operation paths are relatively shallow, which makes it easy for users to develop habits.

Some functions are hidden at a deep level, such as the settings function of Douyin. The privacy, snapshot and notification settings functions are hidden at a deep level; the live broadcast function of Kuaishou is in the laboratory and is difficult for users to find; the "automatically play next video" of Weishi is hidden at a deep level.

4.5 Product Business Process Comparison

Tik Tok provides two shooting modes: “Video Shooting + Random Shooting”. The video shooting process is simple, and high-quality videos can be shot very conveniently, which lowers the shooting threshold.

Snap further simplifies the shooting function. Compared with the shooting process of Douyin, the process of Snap is shorter and easier to use. It also adds usage entrances on multiple pages, reflecting Douyin's vision of allowing users to record their lives at will.

Software shooting process comparison:

In terms of product business processes, the five software are relatively unified. The shooting process is relatively simple and the level design is reasonable.

Kuaishou does not have a draft box setting at the end of video shooting. If you want to exit, you can choose to save it locally. This design may hope that users can publish their works directly. The shooting page of Weishi has a one-click film output and provides video templates, which makes it easier to publish videos and has a lower threshold for use.

4.6 Product Page Flowchart Comparison

Tik Tok page flow chart

Weishi page flow chart

Kuaishou page flow chart

Volcano Video Page Flowchart

Haokan video page flow chart

Summary: The software has a unified page style, the icons use a flat design style, and the simple and easy-to-use interactive design language makes the operation smoother.

The overall page of Douyin and Weishi is black, which feels cool and trendy and suitable for young people; Kuaishou, Huoshan and Haokan are mainly white, which looks clean, refreshing and stress-free.

Since black and white have no distinction between cold and warm, they can be matched with any other color. So the colors look very harmonious.

V. Conclusion

After a phenomenal explosion in short videos, the industry has entered a mature stage, the competition landscape has become stable, and a first-tier team consisting of "Tik Tok" and "Kuaishou" has been formed, presenting an overall "two supers and many strongs".

Although the two products are very different in nature, as the user scale expands, the user base begins to overlap and industry competition intensifies.

The competition in the future will not only be competition for users, but also competition for excellent producers.

Through the experience of the software, it is found that the same video content is flooded on different platforms. In order to avoid the homogenization of content, the refinement and distinctiveness of content have become the key to enhancing one's own competitiveness. This can be seen from the fact that Douyin and Kuaishou are actively striving for high-quality MCNs; increasing the length of short videos enriches the diversity of content, but also increases the cost of imitation by others, thus avoiding homogenization.

After the content tone is established, the focus of the next stage will be social interaction - consolidating community relationships, building a complete short video ecosystem of "people and people" and "people and content", and establishing a new way of social interaction.

In the future, short videos will still be full of various opportunities, and the collision with different fields will create more possibilities.

Note: This is my first time doing competitive product analysis. Please feel free to give me your advice if there are any deficiencies. I learned about the product position by chance. I am a latecomer and currently preparing to find a job related to product assistant. My areas of interest are social networking, short videos and tourism. I hope someone big can help me get started.

Author: Dalong

Source: Dalong