From an operational perspective, in what strategies can Weishi surpass Douyin?

We all know that TikTok and WeChat have been fighting fiercely recently. One moment you block me, the next moment I accuse you, and it goes back and forth, which is really exciting for us, the spectators.

The reason for their fight, simply put, is that the time spent on TikTok by users continues to grow, squeezing out the space for WeChat. When TikTok launches social functions in the future, Tencent's ticket to the mobile Internet may expire. So, we see that Tencent would rather be scolded than try its best to prevent TikTok from continuing to expand.

What means can completely eliminate the opponent's arrogance?

There are three strategies:

1. Support the pro-goose faction and invest in the rival’s products by acquiring shares. At present, it is difficult to find such seed players in the short video industry ;

Second, by developing and operating on your own, imitating at the pixel level, and pushing with superior resources, you may also surpass your competitors;

3. Watch the American TV series "House of Cards" and you will know.

At present, Tencent's strategy is the second one, using " Weishi " to complete the task of suppressing and surpassing Douyin. Its difficulty is no less than creating another WeChat. Therefore, almost no one thinks that Weishi can win, including me.

Of course, nothing is absolute. If the Douyin server is destroyed by a meteorite one day, we can’t say for sure. We don't consider such low-probability events, and only start from things that can be manipulated by humans. By optimizing the strategy of Weishi, there may still be a chance of winning.

The prescription I prescribed for Weishi to surpass Douyin is the core idea: enhance content - weaken retention - algorithm recommendation - external exposure. These four strategies are implemented in different time periods, but their weights are the same. If any one of them is not done well, it will be impossible to achieve the goal of surpassing TikTok.

Step 1: Enhance your content

Whether it is short video, long video, long text, short picture, etc., the content must be the core. Mobile Internet APP can be divided into three major parts:

Tools , which meet certain functional needs of users, such as cleaning software;

Services: services that meet users’ daily needs, such as e-commerce software;

Content category satisfies users’ spiritual needs and provides spiritual food, such as information; Tik Tok and Weishi both belong to the content category, providing us with the spiritual content we need when we are free.

We should all know the means to enhance content. Tencent has invested 3 billion RMB to support Weishi influencers to produce content. To a certain extent, this solves the problem of lack of high-quality content, which is an approach of material incentives.

As operators, we all know that the advantage of material incentives is immediate. As long as there are enough benefits, it is easy to get users to shout "Weishi, I love you!" on the streets. However, the disadvantages are also obvious. Once the rewards stop, the popularity will drop a lot in an instant. Some people even specialize in getting such benefits. The industry calls this behavior of going wherever there are benefits "薅羊毛".

Primary operations rely on material incentives, while top operations rely on achievement incentives. Because the operating level of most companies is very low, they are accustomed to using material incentives. Who doesn't know how to spend money?

Awesome operations are different. In addition to the pursuit of material things, people's pursuit of a sense of accomplishment is far greater than their pursuit of material things. Of course, the premise is that when material conditions are met, they begin to pursue a sense of self-esteem (refer to Maslow's needs).

For users who shoot micro videos, what impresses them the most? Likes, comments, and shares, which means interaction . If I were a broadcaster and not many people interacted with the videos I posted, then I would just give it a shot and take the money and leave.

Therefore, when a user comes in to shoot and publish a video, the system can help get a few likes and increase the number of views, which are ways to help improve the retention of the broadcaster. It’s just like in a game , where the first few rounds are all played by robots, ensuring that the user will win. Even if the user knows it’s fake, the feeling of pleasure in the brain will still exist. The purpose of doing this is to encourage users to continue their enthusiasm for creating videos and avoid spending 3 billion yuan without any output.

The above is a universal practice that covers all Weishi users. The effect is slow, but the power is amazing. The next step is to target the top players and rank them by region or well-known areas, so that the top broadcasters can continue to produce content without monetization. How to play it specifically?

For example, No. 99 on the Shenzhen Fans List, No. 18 on the Window of the World Check-in Celebrity Likes List, No. 1 on the Crayfish Queen, etc. Users like labels and titles the most. There are many regions and titles can be given away at will. When the host's ranking enters the top ten, he or she will not be easily lost.

With the continuous production of content, Weishi has the conditions to compete with Douyin. Without high-quality content, everything is empty talk.

Step 2: Weaken retention

Let me first explain what retention is. The retention rate refers to the proportion of users who continue to use the app after using it for the first time. The weakened retention mentioned here means not using the retention rate as an evaluation indicator.

This seems to contradict what we say when we operate products on a daily basis, which is to focus on retention and improve retention. That’s because, for ordinary products, retention rate is a vital statistic, but for phenomenal products, retention rate is worthless.

For example, WeChat, Taobao , Alipay , Douyin, Honor of Kings , and Candy Crush Saga, what they value more is the user usage time. Retention data does not exist because the users who come will hardly leave.

If you want to become a phenomenal product, you have to weaken retention. This is more of a result than a strategy. How can you achieve this result?

Through the first step of improving the content, there will be enough interesting content on the Weishi platform, which can keep users browsing for several hours every day, unable to stop, and even have the urge to share, so it is not far from weakening retention.

The specific approach is to focus on the length of time users use the app. Perhaps currently a single user only uses the app for a few minutes a day, and even the next-day retention rate is far from the so-called phenomenal level. In this case, we should optimize from the point where user loss is serious.

I asked some friends and their feedback on Weishi was that they didn’t know what was wrong with it, but compared to Douyin, it just felt weird. It's similar to obsessive-compulsive disorder, where you find asymmetry strange, but you can't tell why it's strange. This requires students of Weishi to conduct their own research and find out where the problem lies.

To put it simply, there are a few points: the video is not clear, the font is too small, and the button UI needs to be optimized. You may argue, what does font size have to do with experience? Don't doubt it, it matters a lot. Product optimization is not about listing a formula of 1+1=2, but rather about data obtained through A/B testing .

Step 3: Algorithm Recommendation

The most amazing thing about TikTok is actually its algorithm. Why do people keep watching it? Because the videos they see are the ones they like. Faced with a massive amount of videos, it is a science to recommend videos that users like. For small companies, this is metaphysics. All problems that cannot be solved by technology can be attributed to luck.

Judging from the appearance, Weishi’s level of algorithm recommendation is much lower than that of Toutiao. After all, Toutiao made its fortune by relying on algorithms. If the goal is to surpass TikTok, then the tough nut of algorithm recommendation must be chewed.

When it comes to user labeling, Tencent has a lot more advantages than Toutiao. It knows the user portrait behind each mobile phone and does not need to label users based on their viewing behavior.

For example, when we place GuangDianTong ads, we can not only filter by gender, but also by income level and marital status, so we will have an idea of ​​what kind of videos to recommend. It depends on whether these data can be connected, or whether they are worth connecting.

Taobao has long had the function of providing personalized services to each customer. It can be seen that only accurate push notifications can maximize profits while keeping the number of users unchanged. I've been browsing Weishi these days and it feels like the interaction rate of the recommended videos is very low. I have two questions: are there too few high-quality videos? Or are you interested in supporting new broadcasters?

The videos recommended to me all have hundreds or thousands of likes. As I was taught by TikTok, videos with less than 100,000 likes are all crap.

When all the recommendations are videos with low likes, my personal feeling is that this platform has little content and few users, which brings us back to the first strategy. How cool!

Step 4: External Exposure

The above three steps are all for self-entertainment and to provide good services to users who come in naturally. If you want to surpass TikTok, external exposure is essential. Nowadays, Weishi has basically never appeared in the outside world, or it has appeared too little, so few people know about it.

For example, program sponsorship, celebrity recommendations, brand cooperation, etc. Recently I saw 101 voting in Weishi, and it has started to attract fans and users.

The premise for external exposure is that the product is good enough and has enough content to support a large number of users in a short period of time.

The number of Tik Tok users has skyrocketed since the New Year, but it is obvious that the content output cannot keep up. Some people run out of interesting videos to watch while scrolling. After a period of time, when I checked again, I found that there were a lot more interesting videos, forming a virtuous circle. However, for Weishi, forming this cycle cannot be achieved overnight. At present, Weishi’s strategy is to produce a result within a short period of time.

This is different from game development. For example, if you develop a chicken-eating game to 99 points, you can imagine what it will look like with your eyes closed. But Weishi is different. It is not realistic to catch up with the achievements made by others in two or three years in just one year.

For external exposure, we can combine game promotion methods, city sponsorship, and operations by city. Although we cannot beat Douyin overall, at least in some cities, we can beat it and eat away at the opponent’s market little by little, and eventually completely cover the opponent’s section, achieving the goal, and everyone is happy.

The above are some strategic plans that I have come up with. If we want to achieve the goal of surpassing TikTok, it will definitely be a huge project that requires seamless connection between various departments and links, such as user introduction, content production, etc. Users must be able to see your product, come in, and stay. If you achieve these points, you will be closer to your goal.

This article was compiled and published by @老虎(Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games