Analysis of the Douyin app operation and promotion plan!

Short videos have become the hottest track in recent times. Players with their own characteristics such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Maobing, VUE, Xiaokaxiu, Huangka, Huoshan, and Muse have made their debut one after another. What we are going to introduce today is Douyin, the BGM APP short video application that is currently very popular in the short video market. Backed by Toutiao and riding on the craze of The Rap of China, Douyin already has a good hand, plus it has a powerful built-in video editor.

The APP is a spoof APP similar to the previous Xiaokaxiu. As a 15-second music short video community focusing on young people, users can choose songs and match them with short videos to create their own works. It is similar to Xiaokaxiu, but the difference is that Douyin users can make videos more creative through techniques such as video shooting speed, video editing, special effects (repeated, flash, slow motion), etc., instead of simply lip syncing.

These cool special effects, fun ideas and dynamic dances are all loved by young people. Combined with elements such as rap, electronic music, the second dimension, and cuteness, Douyin has attracted a large audience in more than half a year since its launch, and its ranking in the App store has reached 60th.

Star support in the cold start phase

From Baidu's index, we can see that the popularity of the Douyin app started on March 17-18. The sudden popularity must be due to advertising investment or promotion by its operating team. If we search Weibo, we can find that on March 13, Xiao Yueyue reposted a Weibo post imitating his with the Douyin logo. Since then, Douyin's index has soared. Subsequently, Tik Tok was sought after by more celebrities. The use of more celebrities has increased Douyin's exposure. For example, singer Hu Yanbin also launched a music video campaign on Douyin with his new song "No Choice". It also produced very good results. Tik Tok is a very creative and entertaining app that suits the tastes of modern young people. Through the promotion of celebrities, Douyin has gained a certain degree of exposure. Celebrity promotion plays a very important role in the cold start phase of the APP.

Relying on Toutiao's algorithmic content distribution mechanism

Secondly, the Douyin APP is backed by Toutiao and also uses Toutiao's algorithm, which is conducive to the distribution and decentralization of high-quality content. In this way, any ordinary person like us can get a large number of views and exposure through high-quality content and increase fans. This is something that other platforms don’t have. We don’t look at weight here, we only look at content. That's why it is loved and followed by a large number of young people.

This decentralized recommendation model avoids the short-lived results caused by over-reliance on celebrities and KOLs. In this regard, Xiaokaxiu is a typical centralized product, which excessively directs traffic to celebrity accounts and ignores the demands of ordinary people. Toutiao's centralized algorithm solves this problem very well.

User flow analysis

It has been observed that the Douyin platform is almost entirely populated by young users, with the soundtracks mainly consisting of electronic music and dance music. The videos are divided into two categories: dance and creative. The common feature is that they all have a strong sense of rhythm.

At the same time, Baidu's related index shows that users who watch music short videos on Douyin are mainly concentrated between the ages of 20 and 29, and are all from first- and second-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Wuhan.

These user groups of music lovers from first- and second-tier cities are all high-quality and accurate traffic. They not only have strong consumption concepts, but also a strong concept of paying for knowledge, so their subsequent monetization conversion rate is very high.

Launch timing and target audience

The timing of TikTok's explosion in popularity was also a coincidence, as it began when its competitor Kuaishou received US$350 million in funding led by Tencent. And it ranks high on the free list of APPstore. Secondly, when you open Tik Tok, you will see vertical screen content pushed on the homepage, and it is carefully selected recommended content. This way of opening is conducive to quickly grabbing the user's attention on the mobile phone where the user's attention is distracted. This is unlike other apps that require users to click on them themselves to play.

According to information revealed by Douyin, its main users are well-educated young people under the age of 24 in first- and second-tier cities. This doesn't seem like the kind of user group that has been nicknamed "There are tens of thousands of idiots in China, and Kuaishou accounts for half of them." We saw a user comment on the Appstore: "I hope TikTok will always be like this, and give netizens a pure land. Don't open it like other platforms - waiting for you at the highway intersection in the wind and rain, so scary."

Learn from the operational lessons of Xiaokaxiu

Douyin also has unique insights in operations. When operating the community, Douyin will not direct traffic to those celebrities. This is a lesson learned from the short-lived Xiaokaxiu. Everyone still remembers how popular Xiao Ka Xiu was when it became popular. It attracted the favor of more than 1,500 celebrities on Weibo. However, after the celebrities lost interest, Xiao Ka Xiu also declined.

It’s very simple. In essence, celebrities are centralized products, and Internet products must be decentralized. Your product is played around with and shown off by celebrities. What about the right of ordinary people to express themselves being respected? What about the sense of existence of ordinary people?

Of course, in the early stage of promotion, Douyin relied on the rapid exposure of celebrity accounts, which resulted in not many people knowing about Douyin. However, the powerful resources of Toutiao began to grow explosively a few months after the version was launched. It was probably because they found the growth pattern during the seed user testing process, so they began to strengthen their marketing efforts in the later stage.

PR promotion is just right

Before celebrities started using Tik Tok, I myself had never even heard of this app. Before this, its public relations team did not do excessive public relations. Rather, it is when users gradually become aware of this APP and it gains influence. When its operations team realized that it was just one step away from becoming a hit, they launched a lot of public relations. In the early days of TikTok’s popularity, many Internet platforms, startups, and venture capital firms paid a lot of attention and spread the word, leading to TikTok’s explosive growth.

The sudden popularity of TikTok was simply a natural result. Its operation team had great insight and gave it a push at the right moment. The popularity of Tik Tok is not accidental, but is the result of the support of the above.

AAP exchange recommendation for the same user attributes

For a period of time, Douyin and NetEase Cloud Music started a traffic exchange cooperation and exchanged startup page advertisements. The users of NetEase Cloud Music are basically concentrated in the young generation, white-collar workers and teenagers in first- and second-tier cities, who are of similar age to Douyin's user group, so this exchange achieved good results in Douyin's user growth.

At the same time, as an incubated product of Toutiao, it has also received strong support from Toutiao's parent company in terms of resource allocation and exposure, thus quickly detonating the social network.

Summarize

As a music short video community focusing on young people, Douyin APP was able to accurately locate the target user group in the early stage and disseminate high-quality works in the mid-term, thus winning a small camp in today's short video market. The reason why it is loved by those born after 1995 is probably because of its cool style and fast-paced music, which fits the self-expressive personality of modern young people, and thus will spread quickly and have an impact in this group.

Author: Doushang Training Camp

Source: Doushang Training Camp