Screen swiping and blocking: 13 hours of Douyin drama H5 on WeChat Moments

I haven’t seen such a joyful H5 for a long time.

At around 10 am on May 18, Douyin's H5 of "The First Cultural Relics Drama Conference" was all over the WeChat Moments . Although the official TikTok refused to disclose the specific click data, the editor roughly estimated that the PV should be more than 5 million, because the friend circles of the editor’s three WeChat accounts and the editor’s WeChat community were all flooded with this H5.

Then, I was banned by WeChat, and it seemed like it was twice.

With the interactions between the three WeChat accounts of Douyin, Toutiao and WeChat Pie, what was originally a creative marketing event that swept the screen seemed to have turned into a "contest" between Toutiao and Tencent, as if the quarrel between the two big bosses Zhang Yiming and Ma Huateng in the circle of friends was reappearing.

Coincidentally, just a few days ago, WeChat quietly released an announcement involving adjustments to the sharing function, involving mini-programs , mini -games , WeChat public accounts , H5 and apps, etc.

Focus on 3 topics:

1. Why is Tik Tok’s Drama H5 so popular?
2. Did WeChat ban TikTok intentionally?
3. Will WeChat’s adjustment to the sharing function affect screen swiping?

1. Why did Tik Tok’s Drama H5 go viral?

After taking a quick look at the comments from netizens, everyone generally thinks it is very fun. So what is so fun about it? There are at least four reasons:

(1) Scenario

According to the H5 screen-sweeping theory summarized by the editor, that is, first reshape a scenario suitable for using a mobile phone and then break it up, it seems that it is not applicable in this H5, but it is not. Although the overall scene of this H5 is a life scene, namely a museum, and the storytelling routine basically completely copies the plot of the movie "Night at the Museum", plus some horror movies and games often choose the museum as the scene, so users are actually very familiar with the scene and the fact that cultural relics are "resurrected" in the museum.

(2) Resonance

After each cultural relic is "resurrected", its performance is a vertical video, and the soundtrack and picture style are completely consistent with the style and content of the Douyin interface. It has a strong sense of scene and can resonate very quickly with users who have watched Douyin. After watching the video, the scenes that impressed the uncle the most were the palace maids dancing the seaweed dance, the terracotta warriors dancing in a row... These are all popular short videos on Tik Tok, and Tik Tok's current strong user base can quickly resonate with people.

(3) Contrast

The Forbidden City is best at using this "contrast" strategy, which was used by TikTok very cleverly, to revive historical figures and create the style of those born after 1995. This is also what the editor said, the routines of screen swiping are common, and the effective methods verified by others can be copied.

(4) Drama Queen

Why is the title of this H5 "The First Cultural Relics Drama Conference"? In fact, this is also a replication of mature user insights . Many of NetEase’s H5s have been popular, and the core is to capture the emotion of "drama spirit". Of course, the same is true for the red and blue CP that went viral back then. Douyin turns "cultural relics" into "drama spirits", giving them a sense of resurrection, while also adding interesting dialogues and emotional characteristics of modern people. This is also replicable.

2. Did WeChat ban TikTok intentionally?

After the Douyin H5 went viral, some netizens said at noon that they could not open it. But I can watch it again in the afternoon, but it seems that I can’t share it. What’s going on?

Let’s briefly review the timeline:

(1) The backend data of Douyin H5 showed that at 12 noon that day, the H5 was banned by WeChat for the first time (the link was directly blocked).

(2) At 1:15 p.m., without any notification, the H5 resumed normal access and could be browsed and forwarded.

(3) At 3:00 p.m., Douyin received feedback from users and the H5 was changed to be visible only to the user when it was shared on Moments. (The above 3 pieces of information were explained on the official WeChat account of Douyin)

(4) Subsequently, WeChat Pie responded:

• Douyin H5 violated the "WeChat External Link Content Management Specifications" because of its inducing sharing behavior, so the platform has taken action on it and only the user can see it when sharing it to Moments.
• In such cases, if the party being processed has completed rectification, they can apply for restoration. After the platform reviews and confirms compliance, normal sharing can be resumed.
• Up to now, WeChat officials have never received any complaints or communications from the H5 side. The other party is welcome to communicate with us at any time.

(5) Soon, Douyin responded again, believing that the WeChat group’s remarks were untrue and pointed out two points:

• In the "visible only to myself" mode, people in the user's circle of friends cannot see it at all, which is essentially equivalent to a ban, but it is very covert and deceptive.
• Douyin deleted the text that WeChat unilaterally considered to be "inducing sharing" at 17:01 on May 18; because there was no appeal button in the WeChat backend, Douyin commissioned the producer to send an email to apply for unblocking at 17:49 (that is, before WeChat issued a statement). But so far, no response has been received.

• In order to ensure that this H5 promoting museum culture can be widely disseminated on World Museum Day, we were willing to modify it according to WeChat's rules. However, WeChat's attitude and handling kept wavering and changing within 6 hours, leaving us at a loss.

(6) Around 11pm on May 18, the WeChat public relations department responded to the editor:

After verification, the H5 has been rectified. WeChat has now unblocked it and has responded to the appeal email from Douyin.

In addition, in response to the public account "Tik Tok Short Video "'s questioning of the punishment strategy of "limiting Moments to be visible only to oneself", WeChat officials once again stated that the WeChat platform strictly prohibits any misleading behavior in external links, and has always adopted the punishment strategy of "sharing in Moments is visible only to oneself" for illegal links. Only those with serious circumstances will be subject to further and stricter penalties.

So the question is, did WeChat ban TikTok on purpose?

I really don’t know…

If it is not Tencent's official H5, it is normal to be banned after being popular on the Internet. As I said, WeChat doesn’t like screen swipes, especially when others are swiping the screen. However, due to the strong tension before, any friction could lead to sparks, so Douyin was particularly "sensitive" this time. In response to some untrue content in WeChat's response, it attached screenshots. The pictures speak for themselves, and it slapped WeChat in the face. Of course, they also rectified the situation, and the latter had to unblock it according to the rules.

But as Douyin itself said, the six-hour swing and change of WeChat actually extinguished the explosive growth that this H5 originally hoped to achieve through screen swiping. This may also be the reason why Douyin officials are still reluctant to disclose the specific data of this H5.

So, was it intentional? I really still don't know, let me just tell you one small detail: you can actually look at the last page of all similar H5s, 99% of the H5s have the same misleading copy as the Douyin Museum H5. As the editor said above, the Douyin H5 is not new at all in terms of creativity, and many places are even directly copied from previous successful cases.

It seems that "inducing sharing" is the sword that WeChat uses to ban H5.

I have also said long ago that WeChat’s rules of the game are not transparent. This is determined by the nature of its platform, the so-called “small black room principle”. We have to cross the river by feeling the stones. This incident is also a good lesson for all brands . When you make H5 in the future, don’t induce sharing at the end.

3. Will WeChat’s adjustment to the sharing function affect screen swiping?

According to a report from “Zhi Xiao Cheng Xu”, on the evening of May 17, WeChat officially released a notice that the mini-program sharing function will undergo a number of adjustments, covering mini-programs, mini-games, web pages within WeChat (public accounts, H5), and apps, etc. This will, to a great extent, affect the traffic relationships and even business relationships in the WeChat ecosystem . On May 16, a public notice of "sharing function adjustment" signed by the WeChat team was widely circulated in the circle of friends.

According to the official announcement of WeChat, the adjustment of the mini-program sharing function will be implemented in the new version submitted for release on July 5, and the web page and app will be implemented after the new version of WeChat client is released in June. Let’s focus on today’s protagonist H5.

Perhaps what all brands are concerned about is whether WeChat’s adjustment to the sharing function will affect the popularity of H5?

At least for now, not for the time being.

Because this adjustment is mainly about information capture, that is, when users share messages from the WeChat web page to WeChat friends, and share to Moments, developers will not be able to know whether the user has completed the sharing, while this interface was open before. After the new version is released, the interface permissions of the original certified public account of "knowing that shares are shared to Moments" and "knowing that users share with friends" will be gradually reclaimed. This means that in the future, H5 and public account content in WeChat will not be able to obtain feedback on sharing data.

Some analysts said that the adjustment of WeChat’s sharing function this time is mainly aimed at the malicious group sharing incidents that have occurred recently in mini-programs, especially mini-games. However, from the comprehensive callback of all categories of sharing interfaces, it can be seen that WeChat adopts an indiscriminate approach. So, again, whether it is a mini program, H5 or app, WeChat firmly does not support any form of forced sharing or induced sharing.

On May 18, WeChat officially released the "Announcement on Further Upgrading External Link Management Rules". Once discovered, any behavior of malicious technical confrontation after violating regulations (including but not limited to using multiple domain names and multiple accounts to circumvent platform restrictions) will permanently ban the account, domain name, IP address or sharing interface.

The above rules have officially come into effect on May 29th. Everyone, go and learn it quickly.

The author of this article is @万能大叔 and it is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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