Kuaishou, with 500 million users: Who is the marginalized party?

After 6 years of establishment, the number of users has exceeded 500 million, but such a product with such a fierce momentum has been labeled as "vulgar" and "low", and even the explanation is considered to be whitewashing. There are too many contradictions in this product of Kuaishou ...

"It feels like it's going to explode, more and more offensive things are becoming popular."

This is what Zhihu users say about Kuaishou. As the two extremes of the Chinese Internet contempt chain, Kuaishou and Zhihu users started to quarrel. In response to the question "Why is Kuaishou so annoying" on Zhihu, the Zhihu elites were passionate and indignant, listing Kuaishou's "crimes" one by one. In comparison, the mirror question "Why is Kuaishou so popular" has received few responses and has been labeled as "online water army" and "whitewashing".

Zhihu screenshot

In essence, Kuaishou is a tool for recording and sharing short videos , a short video content community. The emergence of Kuaishou is a milestone in the history of China's Internet development. It is the first time that an app with grassroots groups as its main users has grown to such a scale, which has to attract the attention of mainstream media and "elites". So, how is this product so "lovable" that it has gained an explosive user base, yet at the same time has developed to the point where it leaves people with a stereotype of being "vulgar" and "low", and even makes unrelated people feel it is "annoying"?

This article will take you to explore this issue.

1. Why is Kuaishou so popular?

1. Kuaishou’s “universal” values

Recently, Kuaishou CEO Su Hua was asked to use four labels to describe Kuaishou in an interview. The CEO, who has a technical background, was a little shy but said the first three labels almost without hesitation: "record", "inclusive", and "technology-oriented".

"Record": Kuaishou's official slogan is "Record the world, record you", with no limits or thresholds.

"Universal Benefit": "We insist on not operating for a specific group of people (such as internet celebrities ), and we do not sign cooperation agreements with celebrities and internet celebrities." We hope to become a platform for ordinary people to record and share their lives, and product iterations will try to maintain the user's original usage habits.

"Technology-oriented": Strong technology drive, attach great importance to the recommendation flow mechanism, reduce operational intervention and value guidance, and make recommendations through algorithms based on the types that users like. The recommendation algorithm follows the value of "universality": the recommendation mechanism is decentralized, giving all videos the opportunity to be discovered and liked, rather than directing traffic solely to top content.

Kuaishou’s rise is largely due to the above three labels: As a short video content community, such product positioning and product operation strategies ensure that the content community has a steady source of content and development space.

The value of inclusiveness actually also means that Kuaishou is targeting the bottom-level user group of 800 million: the vast number of users in fourth-, fifth- and sixth-tier cities, towns and rural areas, as well as marginalized people who are ignored in first- and second-tier cities. This user group is not only huge in number, but has also long been on the margins of the real world. Even in the Internet world, there are very few vertical products targeting them. Before the rise of Kuaishou, this market was almost an unnoticed blue ocean. Kuaishou’s extremely easy-to-use product features have lowered the usage threshold for this group of people. The decentralized recommendation logic has allowed them to experience the feeling of being noticed and becoming internet celebrities, which has further stimulated their creative passion. The lower-class groups that have been suppressed for too long have found a space to express themselves on Kuaishou.

At present, Kuaishou has been established for 6 years, with users exceeding 500 million and daily active users exceeding 65 million. It ranked first in short video apps in the first half of 2017, and its weekly active penetration rate far exceeds that of other followers. Millions of UGC short videos are uploaded to this platform every day. Behind these data, it reveals the love and loyalty of Kuaishou users for this platform.

Ranking of short video apps in the first half of 2017
Image source: Cheetah Global Think Tank

2. Shouting for light industry and Wechat business

Where there is traffic, there is naturally revenue. The emergence of Kuaishou has added more room for imagination for traffic monetization. Short videos attract fans, social platforms build relationships, and live broadcasts attract money for monetization. The white, gray and black industry chain of Kuaishou platform, which has 500 million users, is booming, and the income of Kuaishou users is enough to exceed that of first-tier white-collar workers.

As a way to attract fans, Kuaishou short videos have the advantages of low threshold and easy hype. To increase fans, you no longer need to study hard for ten years and be well-versed in classics, or have professional skills such as singing and dancing. Just a few tens of seconds will be enough as long as the process can catch the audience's attention. For example: the rap and social dance that are popular on the Kuaishou platform quickly gain popularity with simple brainwashing rhythms. Regularly posting short videos of eating can also accumulate a lot of attention. If you eat special foods, you have the potential to become popular. The threshold to becoming an Internet celebrity is greatly lowered.

Directly communicating and interacting with fans through live broadcast can greatly narrow the distance between fans and the audience. With the help of instant interaction, beautiful anchors can play a marginal ball, handsome young men can shout in the microphone, and social dance aunties can also take advantage of the opportunity to shout a few times to increase their popularity. While everyone's hormones are rising, the rich can show their support with money and the poor can show their support with their presence. The sponsors who spend money can make a profit, and the internet celebrities can also earn a wave of gift income.

In addition to monetization through live streaming, advertising and micro-business are the main ways for Kuaishou users to make money. Regarding the attitude towards advertising, the users and the Kuaishou platform have an unspoken rule: Internet celebrities do not blatantly advertise on Kuaishou, and the Kuaishou platform turns a blind eye and takes a neutral attitude towards advertising. So a strange phenomenon emerged: Internet celebrity video uploaders would thank the Kuaishou platform in their profiles, and at the end of the profile, attach their WeChat number as the beginning of micro-business.

For example:

For Ms. B, an uploader of food-eating videos with more than 300,000 fans, the traffic from Kuaishou fans can bring her very real monetization. Her WeChat account was already filled with 5,000 friends, so her WeChat store No. 2 was also opened. Through slow exploration and adjustment, this rural housewife also found a "way of work" that suits her and can balance her life: she wakes up early every morning and posts a wave of promotions on her two WeChat accounts (WeChat business stores). For food and consumables, there must always be a lot of temptation to attract people to buy them. In the morning, she prepares the ingredients for recording short videos and live broadcasts, records short videos for previews in the afternoon, and does live broadcasts in the evening.

She is well versed in attracting fans through short videos and generating revenue through live streaming.

WeChat ID of a Kuaishou celebrity

With this mode of operation, 300,000 Kuaishou fans can be converted into more than 7,000 WeChat fans, and among the more than 10 SKUs sold, 20-30 orders can be sold every day. Based on a customer unit price of 100 yuan and a profit margin of 30%, Ms. B's daily net profit is about 750 yuan, which is roughly the salary of a white-collar worker in a first-tier city after two or three years of employment. This does not include Sister B’s advertising income and live broadcast income.

Of course, in the even more lucrative clothing and cosmetics industries, internet celebrities’ profits will double on this basis. Relying on the Kuaishou platform, the micro-stores of Kuaishou users continue to have an influx of new traffic and repurchases from loyal fan customers, supporting half of the micro-business world.

3. New channels for rising and for lower-class groups to speak out

Recently, the "sad" culture has been frequently mentioned among young people. Why are they so sad? There is no expectation for the future. Although you work hard, your room for advancement is limited, and the rate of wage growth will never catch up with the rate of house price growth. This is the class stratification that everyone can feel, where social wealth and resources flow between fixed classes, and the channels for class mobility are becoming increasingly slim.

This phenomenon is even more serious at the bottom of society. The lower classes go to work in foreign places with their dreams, only to find that the wages are low and the growth rate is slow, the working environment is poor, the burden is heavy, and there is no way for them to live a better life. What is even more frightening is that the increasing cost of education and rising housing prices in cities and towns have made it impossible for their children to break through the class structure. Compared with young people in first- and second-tier cities, their opportunities for upward mobility are even slimmer. The emergence of Kuaishou has provided them with a different possibility for advancement. They can earn a certain amount of income through live streaming and WeChat business. Those with good business results can earn an income comparable to that of first-tier white-collar workers. Although this path to upward mobility is slim, it has a low threshold, low cost, is open to the general public, and has actually produced a large number of KOLs from ordinary people at the bottom of society.

If helping the lower classes break through class stratification is only for a small number of people, I believe that providing them with a voice channel is Kuaishou’s greatest contribution to the social and cultural collision. When interviewing a heavy user of Kuaishou, the author inadvertently revealed his own evaluation: "It looks a bit embarrassing." This already very subtle evaluation was strongly refuted by the user: "I don't feel embarrassed. Maybe it's because of the embarrassment that I find it particularly fun." This is their aesthetic and needs that the author does not understand.

The division of social classes not only allows the upper and middle classes to have more control over wealth and power, but also gives them more voice. Social media dominated by mainstream society focuses on its own class and pursues its own aesthetics, while marginalized lower classes do not have good communication even in the Internet world, and it is difficult for different classes to understand each other's values.

Lucky people work hard to enrich themselves and get in touch with more high-level interests, and label the old iron culture that they don’t understand as "low" or "diaosi".

However, China's current situation is a pyramid -shaped social class structure, which means that the grassroots at the bottom of society are destined to be the majority of this society. The rise of Kuaishou has provided the grassroots people with an Internet content community for recording, sharing, and entertainment. It has also provided them with a channel to express their opinions in the Internet world, allowing more people to see the various aspects of life at the bottom of society. It is a great channel for cultural exchange as it enables the connection and collision of values ​​among different classes.

2. Why is Kuaishou so disliked?

1. Lower-class groups + algorithm recommendation mechanism = vulgarity?

Kuaishou's mechanism of personalized recommendations based on different users' preferences, social relationships, etc. is a more segmented and effective recommendation method for users compared to coarse-grained, non-personalized recommendation mechanisms such as simply recommending popular lists. Birds of a feather flock together. Recommendations based on personal preferences will be more in line with user preferences. However, when the lower-class groups encounter the algorithmic recommendation mechanism, they unexpectedly experience some unexpected reactions.

Kuaishou's core user group in the early days was the lower class of society, also known as the "three low classes", namely people of low age, low education and low income. The videos they created were down-to-earth, sincere and popular, recording the simple and real side of the world. This group of people have the same or even stronger desire for fame, but do not have sufficient literary literacy. In an era where Internet traffic is king, in order to gain attention, they use eye-catching methods, either skirting the line or self-abusing, and use methods that challenge human limits to gain everyone's curiosity and clicks . Under Kuaishou's recommendation mechanism, videos that gain traffic in an extreme way will be considered as videos that everyone likes, thereby receiving more recommendations and becoming popular. Popular videos continue to influence more people, becoming a barometer of popularity and triggering imitation among people who have no creative ability but want to gain attention.

A vicious cycle of “vulgar videos are produced - clicked - recommended by algorithms - become popular - create influence - more vulgar videos are produced” is thus formed. The attention-seeking behavior and trend-following orientation of the lower-level groups are the initiators of Kuaishou's tone, and Kuaishou's official algorithm recommendation mechanism is the one that fuels this trend.

Having said that, even if vulgar videos are recommended, they are still easy to attract attention, and there are users willing to watch them and pay for them. What touches the bottom line of mainstream media and is "annoying" is that Kuaishou uses algorithm-based personalized recommendations as an excuse to allow the trend of seeking attention to spread. This inaction itself has led to a negative value orientation for the grassroots masses.

Most of Kuaishou's users are from the lower classes of society, most of whom are young, low-income, and low-educated. They lack the ability to recognize and judge beautiful things. Kuaishou's algorithm-based personalized recommendation mechanism can learn current user needs, recommend to them, and gain users' likes. However, this recommendation mechanism cannot judge people’s future needs and cannot provide positive guidance to them. Taking Zhihu as an example, users who enter Zhihu will feel somewhat uncomfortable with the "empty talk" of the elites, but after browsing Zhihu for two hours, the feeling is "I must work hard, and one day I will be as awesome as you"; when they come to Kuaishou, in addition to the discomfort, the thought that comes to their mind is "I think I can become famous by eating a big pork elbow." There is nothing wrong with returning to human nature and satisfying primitive desires, but as a content platform, while catering to user needs, it should also have the obligation to guide user needs.

2. Sixth-tier villages: Refusing to be represented by Kuaishou

Another reason why Kuaishou is "annoying" is the public's anger towards Kuaishou's public relations. Kuaishou explained on Zhihu under the question "Why is Kuaishou so annoying?" that this is the unique pursuit of young people in "six-tier villages" at this stage, "he is pursuing the best thing in his life - even though you totally despise this thing." The "sixth-tier villages" have all said that this is not the countryside I know, and I refuse to be represented.

It has not yet been 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and China's reform and opening up has been less than 40 years. In China, we can always find the shadows of farmers in our ancestors three generations ago. Have we really completely lost our knowledge of the sixth-tier villages? Or is it that under the construction of new socialist countryside with Chinese characteristics, teenagers in sixth-tier villages have developed an aesthetic that pursues shoddy clothes, exaggerated behavior, and weird hairstyles?

Under Kuaishou's special recommendation mechanism, a large number of non-real "sixth-tier villages" videos have appeared in people's field of vision. The image of "sixth-tier villages" in Kuaishou videos has been vilified, exaggerated, and even demonized. This is something that everyone can see but does not say out loud. However, Kuaishou officials used the images in the video to speak on behalf of the grassroots masses in public and played the emotional card to whitewash themselves. Are Kuaishou officials really ignorant of human nature or are they obsessed with the countryside where "Super Boy" is located, and are they different from us? Selling while pretending to be worthy, committing fraud while pretending to be pitiful, the reason why Kuaishou’s public relations behavior is offensive can probably be described like this?

What is most worrying about this matter is that for the new generation born after 2000, who may have never been exposed to the "sixth-tier villages", when they come into contact with the "sixth-tier villages" through the Internet and are left with the stereotypes in Kuaishou videos, how will they view the "sixth-tier villages" as a group?

3. Speculations on Kuaishou’s transformation and development

Kuaishou’s rapid rise benefited from its three labels: “inclusiveness”, “recording” and “technology-oriented”. It was also because of these three labels that it was pushed to the forefront and became the target of public criticism. As the saying goes, "blessings may bring disasters". In order to be accepted by the mainstream society and explore better business models , Kuaishou has embarked on the road of transformation and development. The following is the direction of Kuaishou's transformation and development that I have seen and speculated:

1. Brand reshaping: "surrounding the city from the countryside" strategy, baptizing urban users

The most urgent thing for Kuaishou at present is to change its image in the eyes of mainstream media, attract urban users, and reshape its brand image. Kuaishou, which has grown and developed on the basis of the "six-tier villages", is gradually influencing urban residents. Kuaishou poached Zeng Guangming, the executive deputy editor-in-chief of NetEase Media, from NetEase, and had him join Kuaishou as a partner in early 2017, serving as chief content officer. Afterwards, Kuaishou launched a series of operational actions targeting the mainstream population. The company's senior management frequently attends various speech occasions and continues to support Kuaishou, emphasizing that the distribution of Kuaishou users is highly consistent with China's total population, and is not just low-level users as everyone thinks. Kuaishou received US$350 million in its Series D financing round led by Tencent, and sponsored popular variety shows that young people love to watch: "Running Man", "The Voice of China", and "The Next Generation of Stars", and established a positive image for itself by gaining the support of celebrity images.

Kuaishou is eager to enter the markets of first- and second-tier cities. Firstly, it is due to the consideration of reshaping its own brand image and urgently needs more high-quality content to guide the Kuaishou atmosphere; secondly, if it wants to achieve higher commercial value, Kuaishou, which has a lot of traffic, wants to achieve higher advertising value, so it needs to attract more attention from high-consumption groups in order to gain the favor of high-investment sponsors; thirdly, the short video war has just begun, and even Kuaishou, which occupies a vast rural market, cannot easily give up the urban market. A fierce battle is imminent and every penny counts.

2. Business model: Internet celebrity economy may become the main business of Kuaishou

The discussion on Kuaishou’s business model has always been at a very cautious stage. Even though it has become the fourth largest app in terms of traffic, it has not embarked on the path of advertising monetization like other apps. The management of internet celebrities’ advertisements is also very strict, and no special preferential policies are provided to celebrities that are different from ordinary users.

In 2017, a war in the short video industry was on the verge of breaking out. On May 16, Huoshan Video launched the “1 billion subsidy” and “recruiting top internet celebrities” initiatives. Although this approach is somewhat simple and crude, some Kuaishou celebrities have indeed switched to Volcano Video, including MC Tianyou, the "No. 1 Kuaishou celebrity." This strategy of Huoshan Video targets the fragility of the relationship between Kuaishou and its top users. Faced with such provocation, a partner of Kuaishou once responded, "I feel sorry for the funds of our competitors. This direction is totally wrong," and stated that it would not join the subsidy war.

In the eyes of Kuaishou partner Zeng Guangming, the value of the platform does not lie in subsidies, but in building a platform with a good ecology that gives all content producers the opportunity to succeed. "Kuaishou can help a person with potential become a successful person from scratch, which is the greatest value that the platform provides to users."

The recently popular idol development entertainment talent show "The Next Generation of Idols" has set up a competition area on Kuaishou, which is Kuaishou's first attempt to create stars. Kuaishou sent two contestants, Zhong Yixuan and Yang Qi, through user voting to participate in the competition. With their outstanding talents and super high popularity, they successfully advanced to the top 12. This is Kuaishou’s response to the development of top internet celebrities: trying to connect film and television companies with needs and internet celebrities through artificial intelligence , providing these content producers with a possibility of growth.

Kuaishou Shanghai subway station advertisement: Kuaishou internet celebrity Zhong Yixuan

In order to effectively operate and manage the tens of thousands of video uploaders, and ensure that not only the top KOLs but also the long-tail video uploaders can find their own positioning, monetization and development channels, we can achieve the virtuous development of "Kuaishou can enable a person with potential to become a successful person from scratch" and realize a win-win situation for the company and users. This may be the highlight of Kuaishou’s commercial monetization model.

3. Algorithm optimization: Who says algorithms have no values?

As mentioned above, Kuaishou’s personalized recommendation mechanism is very likely to lead to the proliferation of vulgar content and the guidance of bad values ​​when it encounters the lower-class groups. If Kuaishou wants to reshape its brand image and eliminate everyone’s stereotypes, it needs to add value guidance to its recommendation algorithm.

Who says algorithms have no values? The program itself may not have values, but the people who write the program will naturally pour their own values ​​into the recommendation mechanism. Whether Kuaishou’s recommendation mechanism will include value guidance still depends on Kuaishou’s official decision. Increasing human intervention and no longer making personalized recommendations based entirely on user preferences will have an impact on certain user groups given the scale of Kuaishou's users, regardless of the proportion of human guidance. The degree and direction of human intervention are the key factors that determine whether Kuaishou will fall into the trap of "selling well but not selling well in the box office" and lose the favor of its core users for the sake of word of mouth.

The bigger challenge that Kuaishou faces is how to integrate its original core users with users in new first- and second-tier cities after entering first- and second-tier cities so that they can coexist and meet the needs of both. This problem is as difficult as national class integration and ethnic integration.

One solution is to strengthen personalized recommendations to meet the needs of various types of users (lower-tier, first- and second-tier, etc.), so that the two types of users can operate and develop separately and move further and further apart; another possibility is to bring the two types of users closer to the middle: improve the taste of lower-tier users and create high-quality and cultured content; and encourage urban users to understand the popular culture of rural users. This is a tricky problem, but not unsolvable. This situation reminds me of the scene in Dream of the Red Chamber where Granny Liu visits the Grand View Garden. The collision between highbrow culture and the wild and original culture is unexpectedly interesting and fun. A good content platform will not only consume users' time, but also bring additional value to users, either to please their body and mind, or to relieve anxiety. Furthermore, it will help users find their own interests and development directions. There is no shortage of amazing works by "masters among the people" in Kuaishou's short video library. How to guide the overall taste of users and enhance their creative and aesthetic abilities is a long and arduous task and a major event in the development of social culture.

Kuaishou presents two sides, "lovable" and "hated". This is not only a contradiction of Kuaishou as a company, but also a microcosm of the contradictions in this society. The future direction of Kuaishou makes people unable to help but imagine the changes and development direction of this social class, and where it will go, and they are full of expectations.