Short video operation: Vlog melee, who can break through?

After posting the video "Going to the Supermarket to Find My Mom's Love Rival" on Weibo, the number of fans of "Ma Shark Shark" increased tenfold in one day. This video has been played 6 million times on Weibo and has been forwarded by many big Vs. This is the 8th Vlog of "马鲨鲨". Before this, the highest number of views for her Vlog on Weibo was 300,000 for a single episode.

In 2019, Vlog became the direction of many platforms' efforts, and the situation of investing huge sums of money to "buy content" was repeated. However, what will ultimately determine the direction of Vlog will still be its inherent PGC attributes and its strong connection with the author's personal IP.

01. Short videos are "weak", Vlogs are in chaos

In the past three months, many platforms have started to focus on Vlog. In April, Douyin opened up the publishing rights of 1-minute videos and launched a 1 billion traffic support plan to promote the development of Vlog. In May, Baidu invested 500 million in cash subsidies and 2 billion in traffic support to encourage users to post Vlogs. In June, Bilibili launched the "Vlog Star Plan", investing 50 billion exposures throughout the year, 1 million special bonuses per month, 100 million special on-site exposures, and "Excellent UP Master in the Vlog Field" certification, etc., to fully develop Vlog.

A year ago, Vlog and vloggers were only active in vertical communities such as Xiaoying, VUE, and Maobing. Among the mainstream video platforms, only Bilibili had a group of Vloggers. In September 2018, Weibo launched the “Vlog Bloggers Call” to bring this group to the public’s attention. Now, except for Kuaishou, which has "universal traffic", all mainstream short video players have entered the market.

This is not surprising. Before the emergence of Kuaishou and Douyin, short videos had actually been lukewarm. Meipai is more like a vertical community, Miaopai is dependent on Weibo, and Weishi was even abandoned at one point. Although many video platforms want to become "China's YouTube", the introverted personality of the Chinese people and the low penetration rate of DVs in households make "recording life" out of reach.

As the overall growth rate of mobile Internet slows down, short videos are also beginning to lose their momentum. In the "China Mobile Internet 2019 Spring Report", QuestMobile believes that the "industry bonus period of short videos has passed." In March 2019, the year-on-year growth rate of MAU in the short video industry was only one-third of that a year ago, and the month-on-month growth rate even saw its first decline in the past 12 months.

However, competition in the industry shows no signs of abating. According to statistics from QuestMobile, the number of short video apps opened by users increased to 1.7 in March 2019, and the number of choices is increasing. In the sinking market, in March 2019, the MAU of Haokan Video increased by 559.9% year-on-year, and the active penetration rate TGI reached 107, which is only slightly lower than Kuaishou among short video apps.

The big players are all determined to gain a share of short videos. Kuaishou and Douyin completed the original accumulation of content and users through UGC. It is difficult for other platforms to catch up by following this old path, so they must find shortcuts. After realizing the problem of UGC, Douyin is also seeking change. Vlog has become a common choice.

02. Vlog is good-looking, but vlogger is hard to be

Compared with the mainstream short videos on Kuaishou and Douyin, Vlog is more refined. According to data released by Weibo, more than one-third of Vlogs are about beauty, fashion, travel, food, sports and fitness, etc. This reflects the pursuit of quality of life by Vlog creators and viewers. Most of the early Vloggers had a background of studying abroad, which also shows that Vlog has an "extraordinary origin."

Beautiful appearances are all the same, interesting souls are one in a million, and exquisite content is difficult to mass produce. Well-known Vlogger Jing Yue believes that the core of Vlog is individuality, and good individuality cannot be mass-produced. Sun Dongshan, known as "China's No. 1 Vlogger", also believes that "few people can do" to shoot Vlogs like Douyin.

Vlog has had strong PGC attributes since its birth. Casey, the "Father of Vlog", is a professional photographer. Among the well-known domestic Vloggers, Sun Dongshan’s main job is new media content director, Cbvivi used to work as new media director in a media company, and Jing Yue is a professional screenwriter. Planning, shooting and editing videos are exactly what they are good at.

Whether it is YouTube or Bilibili, the first domestic platform for Vlog, the mainstream Vlog is horizontal screen. This reflects the PGC characteristics of Vlog to a certain extent. If the vertical screen short video platform fails to adapt to the local environment, it is very likely to lose this piece of the "cake". This worry is not unfounded. The download volume of IGTV launched by Instagram plummeted by 94% two months after its launch. The disruption of user habits by vertical long videos is considered to be an important reason.

PGC determines the threshold of Vlog. Despite the lack of a clear definition, both the platform and Vloggers believe that Vlog should be personalized, lifelike and high-quality. Weiss, who has 17,000 followers on Bilibili, said that it takes him an average of 8 hours to make a Vlog. It takes Jing Yue 6-10 hours to make a 5-minute video. Vlogs on YouTube are generally 10-20 minutes long, and domestic Vlogs are also generally around 10 minutes long. The length alone will deter many people.

More importantly, Vloggers are better at shaping their personal IP than short video creators, and algorithms are not enough to determine the effectiveness of communication. For Vloggers, gaining fans is more important than video views. Well-known Vloggers such as Jing Yue, Zhuzi, and Shen Ye Lao Shi Xu are already Gold Vs on Weibo, and the proportion of Gold Vs in MAU is about one in ten thousand. Even without the cash subsidies like other platforms, Vloggers will not turn a blind eye to Weibo.

In the process of managing fans, there will definitely be Vloggers who become the new “Big V”. The emergence of any new form of content will bring about a group of new "big Vs". After the emergence of short videos, Papi Jiang has become popular ever since. In the live streaming era, anchors such as A Leng, Ruofeng, and Miss have attracted countless fans. Vertical screen short videos also made Daigula K, Fei Qiming, Black Face V and others famous.

Vlog has already demonstrated its remarkable ability to create stars. As the Vlog aired, Ouyang Nana's Baidu Index began to rise. On Weibo, Schlieffen gained more than 1.1 million followers in one year. For people with social assets, Vlog is a leap forward that they can try. For people with professional skills, Vlog is a promising upward channel.

However, it is still not easy to become a professional Vlogger. The certified information on Weibo shows that "Ma Shark Shark", whose followers increased 10 times in one day, graduated from the Central Academy of Drama and is a screenwriter by profession.

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6. Short video promotion and operation: Who has better ability to bring goods?

Author: Financial Story Club

Source: Financial Story Club