Is Miaopai's efforts in vertical content a desperate gamble or a confident move?

Vertical short videos are the first choice for short video entrepreneurs in terms of development momentum and high-quality attributes, but vertical short videos also face problems such as interest and production threshold. Short video platforms should stop talking without doing and truly provide thorough support for vertical short videos. From Miaopai’s perspective , vertical short videos and platforms are in the same boat and their interests are closely related.

As the three giants Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu have increased their investment in short videos, short videos, which began in 2013, have ushered in their expected heyday with numbers like "1 billion" and "2 billion". On June 1, Miaopai and Xinbang jointly released a series of short video rankings for May, including originality, Sichuan and Chongqing, influence, trend, food, fashion, MCN, etc. In these lists, a few fixed accounts for gossip and funny short videos continue to dominate the list, with the highest number of views for a single account reaching 440 million, putting traditional media such as TV stations to shame.

However, although humor and celebrity entertainment still have the largest total share, their proportion is declining. Vertical short video content such as food, fashion, and lifestyle continues to heat up , and nearly half of the vertical lists have new faces.

Earlier, Liu Xinzheng, senior vice president of Miaopai's parent company Yixia Technology , said that previously, the proportion of traffic from non-entertainment stars, non-news scenes, and non-purely funny content was less than 20%, but as early as the end of 2016, the cumulative traffic share of various vertical content had exceeded 60%.

What does this mean? On the one hand, the popularity of vertical short videos is constantly increasing. On the other hand, the top vertical short videos have not yet taken shape, and there are still a lot of investment opportunities.

But the more realistic situation is: although most short video platforms are under the banner of vertical content, most of them are "hypocritical". They neither really pay attention to incubating vertical content nor do they know how to operate vertical content, but let it grow wildly.

Is Miaopai's efforts in vertical content a desperate gamble or a confident move?

Sichuan and Chongqing original rankings, is Miaopai going to be a vertical “blower”?

It was a routine thing for Miaopai to release the short video list on June 1. However, this routine "Sichuan and Chongqing Original Creator List" is a bit confusing. A short video platform company has moved offline and set up a mobile video base in Chengdu . What is the idea behind this?

1. Does Miaopai support vertical entrepreneurs just for "philanthropy"?

Generally speaking, as a purely online platform, apart from various online function iterations and offline marketing activities , the platform rarely intervenes in the upstream of the short video ecosystem - the production link. Originally, on short video platforms such as Miaopai, Huoshan Video , and Kuaishou , entrepreneurs mostly developed freely according to platform rules and market feedback - or left them to fend for themselves.

Obviously, this is not very beneficial for vertical short videos that are more professional than entertaining.

The mobile video bases that Miaopai has set up across the country have changed the relationship between the platform and the content providers. The platform has begun to intervene offline and upstream, encouraging and supporting the development of entrepreneurs. The vertical short videos benefit the most.

Did Miaopai see the problems faced by vertical short videos and come here to play the role of "living Bodhisattva" for these entrepreneurs? I'm afraid not. In fact , for a platform like Miaopai that already has a sufficient scale, the most valuable thing is to weave its own "value network" through both online and offline channels, allow as many resources as possible to attach to it, and embed the interests of participants into the network with the platform as the core. Once the network is closed, it will form its own content ecosystem, which will also form a competitive barrier. This is essentially a shift from a "platform" to a "content ecosystem". In this ecosystem, vertical content will become the mainstream due to its characteristics. For example, the first batch of vertical content to move into the Miaopai Chengdu Video Base include "Bingshan Literacy" and "puamap Wandering Education".

2. What is the real purpose of Miaopai setting up an offline base?

The offline video base established by Miaopai has objectively solved the two problems of vertical video creators' production and resource sharing, supported short videos, especially vertical short video creators, and made its own "value network" more powerful and with higher barriers . Xiangling believes that this is the real purpose of Miaopai.

In terms of production, the base provides venues, equipment, training, media and other support, so vertical content creators no longer need to overcome a "high threshold", and video production becomes a relatively simpler matter. Creators will focus more on creating vertical in-depth content, and like graphic content service providers they can become more focused, and the video content and depth will become higher quality. Unlike entertainment and funny videos, this kind of content and depth are the key to attracting loyal fans for vertical videos.

When it comes to sharing community resources, sharing becomes even more important because video production is a technically similar thing. In such an offline base, producers form a community in offline physical space. First, talents, capital resources and infrastructure are shared. Second, teams have ample opportunities for exchange and communication. Because in addition to the specific content, the production and distribution of vertical short videos such as food and education are mostly common.

3. Is the ecological support provided by Miaopai a bit different?

The newly appeared "Sichuan and Chongqing Original Creator List" in this Miaopai list is an outlier in the entire short video industry list. Judging from Miaopai’s Chengdu video base, this list is obviously tailor-made for it.

Xiangling believes that this unusual action reflects the online and offline dual-track support strategy behind Miaopai. If the video is only produced at an offline base without any support from the online platform, the final result can be imagined.

Miaopai should be aware of this problem. The Sichuan-Chongqing Original Creator List can also be seen as a wave of online recommendations and traffic diversion using the list, as well as an attempt to formulate rules and provide direction guidance.

In addition to ecological support measures such as financial support, creator platform and Miaopai Hui, the more direct vertical field division and user content matching on the Miaopai APP interface also reflect Miaopai's support strategy for vertical short videos: instead of mixing everything together, first select the best (distinguish the attributes of short videos) and then compete (content competition in the same vertical field), achieve type equality in traffic acquisition, match content based on user attributes, achieve precise delivery, and help users find the content they want and become fans.

Why focus on vertical short videos?

Miaopai has done so much work and invested so many resources, and it all comes down to the many benefits of verticalization. These benefits are all due to "focus". Focus brings conversion rate , user screening, content continuity, and more opportunities, all of which are of great significance to the future of the platform.

1. In the first half and the second half, the cat is still the cat, but the mouse is different

A great man once said that it doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice it is a good cat. In the short video industry, the first thing to do is to figure out who the mouse is that we want to catch.

In the era of traffic, more traffic means investment success, which is the mouse that cats flock to. This is understandable when it comes to land grabbing. But as the grassroots era gradually came to an end, everyone began to realize the logic behind traffic : traffic is valuable only when it is ultimately monetized, otherwise it is just a bunch of nice-looking numbers.

Therefore, the ultimate goal of monetization has become the new “rat” in the eyes of investors/entrepreneurs. The more segmented the content is, the more precise the users will be, and the easier it will be to commercialize. For example, maternal and child care, cosmetics, sports, education, etc., the content is vertical enough, users will be filtered as they watch, and the purchase of related products will be a natural process.

This is actually a return to value . Vulgar and meaningless short video content will gradually be eliminated, and vertical short videos will become good cats that can catch mice. Even though the number of fans and views are not as good as those of entertainment and comedy videos, the income may be higher. This is success.

2. Verticalization allows Miaopai to build a content ecosystem

In addition to benefiting investors and entrepreneurs, vertical short videos also play a key role in platforms like Miaopai. When verticalization is not sufficiently developed, it is obvious that all the content on the platform is a hodgepodge, with entertainment, comedy, news, vertical and other content mixed together, and there is no order to what users want to watch and what they can watch.

In this case, the platform has no clear way to differentiate platform users, and advertisers can only deliver ads based on who has more traffic. Sometimes, the platform itself does not know how to differentiate its own users and can only simply divide them into low-end, mid-end or high-end.

In the long run, the positioning of comprehensive platforms will annoy advertisers who pursue precision because the effectiveness of the delivery cannot be evaluated.

In addition to accurately targeting users, vertical short videos can also help Miaopai establish a content ecosystem, forming a neat and orderly system, and carefully classify its own users based on this system, which will greatly improve the efficiency of advertising. After all, only commercial monetization can be the driving force for the continued development of short videos.

3. Verticalization enables short videos to have the potential to continue to deepen

The content production of entertainment and funny short videos emphasizes "newness" because the purpose is simple, which is to entertain users, so there is no so-called continuous deepening.

Once verticalized, the content of short videos has the potential to continue to deepen. Only a field that can be continuously deepened can have a steady supply of materials, which makes it possible to continuously produce content and continuously enhance user stickiness, and the video presentation method will also be more vivid and specific.

Furthermore, verticalization itself is a process of continuous refinement, which can be further refined, and users can become more and more precise . For example, the number of views of vertical dance videos increased sharply in the first half of 2017, while further vertical Latin dance, belly dance, etc. are also developing together. The more detailed the content is, the stronger the user matching will be, and the higher the loyalty will become, because a person who loves "dance" may only love a certain type of dance. Similar phenomena also occur in other vertical fields.

4. The vertical head formation process is slower

Sometimes, it may not be a good thing for a field to form a leader too early. This means fewer opportunities for investors/entrepreneurs. Without participants, the vitality and creativity of the industry will be affected.

Unlike entertainment short videos like Papi Jiang and MC Tianyou that became popular overnight, vertical short videos are a slow and meticulous process. A user who chooses to watch vertical short videos must have a certain professional attitude and be eager to learn about beauty, cars , dance, etc. In front of many vertical content producers, knowledge entertainment will bring more user "turbulence", and the formation of loyal fans is often the result of long-term comparison.

This can be confirmed by the fact that more than half of the creators on Miaopai's May influence and fashion lists are new. This also shows that by focusing on vertical short videos, Miaopai can give participants more time and opportunities. Vertical short videos can allow creators to find lively and vibrant entrepreneurial opportunities on Miaopai.

Miaopai is betting on vertical short videos. Where does it get the confidence from?

Specialization often makes the creation and growth of vertical short videos relatively more difficult. Although we know that it has a good prospect, relying solely on the trend may not be enough to make the somewhat "heavy" vertical short videos "take off". The confidence that Miaopai has in betting on vertical short videos is that it has already solved these problems through the resource investment mentioned above.

1. It is a bit difficult to promote vertical short videos . Besides thunder, there are also rains on the platform.

Since it is vertical content, its overall interest is definitely not as good as entertainment and comedy, and the user onboarding speed has become slower. There are also differences in the vertical fields themselves. From the vertical list of Miaopai, we can see that food, fashion and other content that are relevant to everyone and interesting in their own way will develop faster and have a playback volume of tens of millions. However, vertical content targeting specific groups such as cars, reviews, and film reviews will be much slower in attracting traffic.

Although all platforms have promised to support the development of vertical short videos, few have actually done so. Most platforms are not equipped to distinguish and match users with specific attributes. Lower-interest vertical content is often "displayed" alongside fast food, vulgar and "high-interest" funny videos. The result is predictable . The reality of this hodgepodge makes the user screening that vertical short videos are proud of often become empty talk. A common phenomenon is that a professional review of several minutes, which is carefully crafted, often has less than a hundred views, but no one can deny the professional value and hard work of the author.

What Miaopai is doing is to thoroughly explore vertical short videos. Taking into account Miaopai's May Hot List, Influence List, Original List, and two vertical lists of food and fashion, Miaopai has already entered more than 40 vertical fields such as fashion, automobiles, mother and baby, food, film reviews, etc., forming a comprehensive entertainment + vertical short video content ecology. The platform structure is clear, users are defined, and it becomes easier to identify. Judging from the actual results, Miaopai has launched 6-second pre-video ads, using the "industry fixed investment" method to accurately cover various vertical users with advertisements.

2. There is a "theory of relativity" in the threshold of video production

The rise of Kuaishou is due to the fact that it allows ordinary people at the bottom of society with low cultural level to have the opportunity to film their lives and satisfy their desires. For them, typing 140 characters on Weibo may be a "high threshold" thing.

However, due to the different positioning, vertical content requires a certain degree of formality and cannot be produced as easily as Kuaishou. After the trend of short videos came, many vertical critics who have been deeply engaged in the field of pictures and texts, with many valuable content in their minds, wanted to take advantage of the trend, but found that video production, which seemed to be a simple task, was so complicated to operate. Scripts, equipment, shooting, dubbing, editing... They found that making videos had become a "high-threshold" task.

This "theory of relativity" shows that vertical content will face more complex production thresholds than entertainment, comedy, and news scenes. MCNs have their own capabilities, but many small PGCs and UGCs are often unable to do so, and the outburst of broader wisdom is greatly restricted. As mentioned earlier, Miaopai's offline video base in Chengdu is actually offline, going deep into the upstream of the industrial chain to help vertical short video creators solve basic technical problems and lower the threshold that hinders content creation.

3. Community needs are an advanced requirement for video production

The above-mentioned threshold for short video production has resulted in diversified and lasting demands from vertical video entrepreneurs for general video production. The demand for talent, equipment, creativity and venue all have common features.

This is essentially a social resource that is shared by all vertical short video creations. It also means that entrepreneurs can only effectively reduce marginal costs by becoming "social animals." After all, if everyone uses the same thing, the cost will be shared and the difficulty of video production will be greatly reduced. The single-handed graphic and text self-media operation model may no longer be applicable.

MCN is popular on YouTube because it has successfully served as a community hub for resource sharing. Domestic MCNs also have similar functions. For example, in the May MCN agency list of Miaopai, Magic TV, which ranks first, is a large MCN, and its Magic Food is also an important creator of vertical short videos.

However, small and medium-sized PGCs and UGCs are far from enjoying the benefits brought by such community shared resources. Miaopai's offline bases and resource investments give these small and medium-sized PGCs and UGCs the opportunity to become "social animals" outside of the platform's MCN system, thereby achieving full coverage of content creators at all levels.

In short, vertical short videos are the first choice for short video entrepreneurs in terms of development momentum and high-quality attributes, but vertical short videos also face problems such as interest and production threshold. Short video platforms should stop talking without doing and truly provide thorough support for vertical short videos. From Miaopai’s perspective, vertical short videos and platforms are in the same boat and their interests are closely related.

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