TikTok: Will this product that makes you tremble be a flash in the pan?

I don’t know since when, the flat-chested girl next to me suddenly became more nervous than before. She would often twitch all over when looking at the phone. I was so scared that I didn’t dare to give her a heart shape with my hands for no reason. Until one day during a break in the meal, I saw her twitching again. Out of concern and even more out of love for food, I finally asked her the reason why she had been doing so many crazy things recently - TikTok .

Yes, just to learn the functions of the TikTok product, she became a weirdo. According to data provided by App Annie , in the iOS popular app rankings, among the top 10 free rankings in the photography and video categories, 7 are image processing software, and the remaining 3 are short video software: Kuaishou , Douyin, and Meipai .

Data source : App Annie

What kind of magic does Tik Tok have that can make a flat-chested girl shake (ahem...)? How could it have left behind Meipai, which is ubiquitous on Weibo, after only being officially operational for less than half a year?

1. What is Tik Tok?

Through personal experience, I found that Douyin is actually an app for lip-syncing short videos similar to Xiaokaxiu , but Douyin has added music elements. Users can DIY some 15-second MV works on Douyin. They only need to select songs and match them with a 5-15 second short video to have their own works.

At the same time, users can make videos more creative and turn them into blockbusters in a second by adjusting the speed of video shooting, as well as original special effects, filters, scene switching and other technologies. Since the soundtrack is mainly electronic music and dance music, most of the works have a strong sense of rhythm and are magical, giving people a cool and trendy feeling.

The current average daily video playback volume of Tik Tok has exceeded 100 million, and the DAU is in the millions. A playlist of Tik Tok BGM has also appeared on NetEase Cloud Music . Moreover, Douyin is the brother of " Huoshan Video ", which spent 20 million in May to acquire Kuaishou's No. 1 celebrity MC Tianyou (representative work: the song "I'm Drunk Alone"), and the son of Toutiao . At the beginning of this year, Douyin received an angel investment of several million yuan from Toutiao.

This piqued my interest. Toutiao already has a volcano, so why does it need a TikTok now? Is the product awesome? Or is it that the operation routine is too complicated? Since it is very similar to Xiao Ka Xiu, will it be a flash in the pan like Xiao Ka Xiu?

1. How to play Tik Tok?

1. Interface analysis

After users enter the App, the first thing that appears in front of them is the homepage. The homepage is a short video that automatically plays in full vertical screen. By swiping the screen up and down, they can also switch to other videos in the recommended list. The content formats are very diverse. With just a swipe, you can see all kinds of amazing makeup techniques, street parkour, film and television drama clip imitations , spoofs and other content.

Double-click the screen or click the heart-shaped button on the right side of the screen to like the creator, comment, follow, and share. The sharing channels are mostly platforms where young people gather.

If the video you are watching belongs to a certain topic, the entrance to this topic will appear in the lower left corner of the screen. Click it to create a video related to this topic.

The discovery interface is classified into various topics. Click on a topic to watch videos under the same topic. Overall, the video classification is clear and not confusing.

On the publishing interface, you can choose to start shooting and uploading videos directly, or you can first select the music style you want to show, from pop, electronic music parties, to the second dimension, and ancient style.

There are many options during the shooting process, including filters, beauty, etc. It is worth mentioning that during the video shooting process, users can adjust the shooting speed independently, which greatly improves the probability of creators finding the right rhythm during video shooting. On the one hand, doing corresponding dance and editing according to their own rhythm will make the shooting process more comfortable; on the other hand, different shooting rhythms will greatly reduce the homogeneity of the content. Even for similar content, different rhythms will show completely different effects.

In addition, users can also add some small props. These small props are similar to Faceu and B612. They are all small gadgets that can make the picture more cute, more weird and more interesting. In short, there are endless possibilities for multiple arrangements, making it easy for users to create many new and different works.

2. Creative process

Generally speaking, a user's creative process on Douyin should be: select music - shoot video - edit and process - publish. The process is not cumbersome. In order to take care of new users, Douyin has also inserted the topic #Douyin Shooting Guide# in the "Discover" interface, using UGC + PGC to show new users various novel and interesting shooting techniques, such as how to fill light, how to remotely control pause, how to correctly use fast and slow modes, how to play segmented shooting, etc. There are so many techniques and poses here that an entire afternoon could pass just by looking at these shooting guides.

Starting the topic #TikTokShootingGuide# is a very smart move. After all, Tik Tok relies on the creativity of the masses, but many users are shy. They may just come to take a look, be a nobody, or feel that they cannot take photos that look cool, so they stop outside and are unable to start their first photo shoot. But the beginner tutorials give these people an opportunity and a way to express themselves. In addition, one of the distinctive features of Douyin is that there are many challenging topics here.

On the one hand, when new users don’t know what to shoot, they can challenge the topic so that they don’t end up being confused and not knowing what to do. On the other hand, challenging topics also make the content on the site both diverse and unified. This will make it easier to mobilize the enthusiasm of ordinary users to participate, and once shooting starts, the various possibilities will prompt users to never stop creating.

However, if you shoot an ordinary video, it will easily be drowned out in Tik Tok. If you want to get more attention, the video quality and level must be higher. And if you want a high level, the gameplay must be relatively complicated. At this time, you should learn more from the technical masters on Douyin.

In the early days of Douyin, it attracted a group of Chinese music short video players to join its platform. It not only absorbed the traffic brought by KOLs , but more importantly, players on Douyin such as Ni Ni and Da Miao Ge who combined music with camera movements, and players such as Xue Lao Shi and Yu Qian who combined camera movements with creative transitions, all laid the foundation for Douyin's early tone. Everyone can pay homage to and watch the cool operations of Douyin master Xue Laoshi, which can be said to be extremely cool and awesome.

Douyin officials also hold some technical challenges to encourage users to move towards a higher level. In order to learn the shooting techniques of masters, some users will learn from day to midnight, shake the camera to the music, or perform various transitions like magic. If the battery runs out, they will use a power bank to continue watching, all in order to be able to shoot cool and natural videos like the masters.

3. Decentralization of Algorithms

With Toutiao as its father, one of the biggest resources may be the algorithm that Toutiao is most proud of. In addition, Liang Rubo, the founder of Douyin, is also the technical director of Toutiao. Douyin, which uses the algorithm, can be said to be even more powerful. Tik Tok has added an algorithm recommendation model at the product level to ensure the efficiency and decentralization of video distribution.

That is to say, on the one hand, Douyin, which uses algorithms, can ensure that every video on the Douyin platform has an equal chance of being seen, which is extremely good for ordinary users. As long as they produce high-quality content, they can use the content to bring themselves a lot of exposure and playback, and gain a lot of attention, regardless of whether they were famous before. On the other hand, as the number of users grows, the number of videos on Douyin will increase. These videos can only be distributed more effectively through algorithms. When users filter videos, it will also be easier for them to find videos that suit their tastes. This is mainly reflected in the fact that as long as you have watched a few videos, Douyin can roughly know your preferences and actively push similar videos to you.

If you still remember Xiao Ka Xiu, you should remember that many celebrities have used Xiao Ka Xiu to make fun of others. You should also be familiar with the clip where Empress Hua Jiang Xin imitated Jin Xing and asked the flight attendant for orange juice on the plane. The crazy imitations of celebrities brought huge traffic to Xiaokaxiu, but this is also one of the reasons why Xiaokaxiu was short-lived. Because there are too many celebrities on Xiaokaxiu, ordinary users have few opportunities to gain attention on Xiaokaxiu, and creative enthusiasm must be supported by attention. In the long run, users will not get attention or a sense of presence on Xiaokaxiu, and their creative enthusiasm will gradually be worn away.

Products that rely on user output must be decentralized. Only when users have equal opportunities to gain attention on this platform will they always have expectations for this platform and be more willing to inspire their creativity and enthusiasm and leave their creative works here.

2. Operational Analysis

Tik Tok was launched in September 2016, but judging from the search data of Baidu Index, it had been ignored until March this year. It was not until March this year that the number of users searching for Douyin began to soar. It is obvious that Douyin started to take a series of operational actions starting from March.

Data source: Baidu Index

1. Star cold start

During the product cold start phase, although Douyin did not conduct any additional promotion or investment, it relied entirely on the natural increase and word-of-mouth spread brought by product operations . But if we trace back to March when the search data for TikTok suddenly surged, we will find a detail. On March 13, Yue Yunpeng reposted a video with the TikTok logo on his Weibo account, where he has tens of millions of followers. Since then, the search index for TikTok has been on an upward trend.

Yue Yunpeng's interestingness is more in line with the users that Douyin needs. This wave of cold start-up has provided Douyin with some interesting users and also set the tone for Douyin. I don’t know whether this forwarding was intentional by Yue Yunpeng and Douyin or just a coincidence, but judging from a series of subsequent actions by Douyin, this was a successful, low-cost, zero-startup operation.

After Tik Tok started to gain more and more attention, more celebrities joined the team to play Tik Tok, and the momentum was comparable to that of the Xiao Ka Xiu back then. Not only have the entertainment industry's model couple Christy Chung and Zhang Lunshuo become users of Douyin, but Hu Yanbin has also launched a music video challenge on Douyin with his own new song as the background music. Not only did it attract traffic to Douyin and contribute to topics, it also promoted his own song, making it a win-win situation. When you open the Tik Tok interface, you can also see short videos of celebrities playing Tik Tok recommended by the system, and celebrities will also like some ordinary users’ videos. For this wave of activities that leverage the influence of celebrities to build momentum, I would like to give TikTok a double 666.

2. Online + offline promotion

Of course, borrowing the influence of celebrities is only the first step to make users aware of you. If you want to make your product popular and let more people know about it, thereby exerting a greater influence, then just borrowing the influence of celebrities is obviously a bit weak. The TikTok team is also aware of this, so you can see that in May, TikTok began to do large-scale communication and cooperation, and the platforms that cooperated with TikTok were mostly vertical technology media, portals, etc. that Internet people are more concerned about.

In addition to online promotion, Douyin also does things offline, such as organizing "Douyin in Chengdu " activities and holding offline parties for Douyin fans.

It’s not enough to play Tik Tok alone, it’s more satisfying to play it with a group of people. The format of the activity is also very simple, just everyone eating and drinking together. For the Douyin team, it is low-cost, but can mobilize the enthusiasm of users and expand the influence. I believe that there will be various activities such as "Douyin in Shanghai" and "Douyin in Shenzhen" in the future.

3. Keep up with hot topics

As mentioned above, "challenging topics" is a major feature of Douyin, and Douyin's content team is also intentionally moving topics closer to current hot topics. For example, the site has topics such as "My target is Honor of Kings ", "Death Stare", and "God Knows What I've Been Through", which are all topics that young people are familiar with and can make fun of.

Wang Xiaowei, product manager of Douyin, also said in an interview with 36Kr that the emoticons of Xie Tengfei from "Country Love" became popular on the Internet some time ago. This is a very typical Internet discourse. Xie Tengfei has broken away from "Country Love" and has been given a new meaning of a popular symbol by the Internet. The operation team of Douyin further combined the music in Xie Tengfei's Country Love with Thug Life and launched the challenge #谢腾飞Thug Life#. The final mix of the two cultural symbols created a feeling of "the more localized, the more internationalized", and in less than a week, more than 10,000 users participated in the challenge.

Combining current hot topics with short videos can not only inspire users' creative enthusiasm, but also make it easier to take advantage of the hot topics and reach young people, which is conducive to the externalization of content.

3. User Reviews and Feedback

Since its launch in September last year, TikTok has been updated about twice a month. According to data from App Annie, since TikTok officially entered the public eye in March this year, although user reviews have fluctuated, overall they are still mostly positive.

Data source: App Annie

Judging from users' reviews, the Douyin product still has some problems. For example:

1. Product features:

It is very inconvenient that you cannot see the time when others post videos;

Videos that have already been uploaded cannot be deleted.

2. Content quality varies:

I hope the content promoted on the App can be carefully controlled, and that it doesn’t always promote videos that are unfunny and embarrassing.

3. The mechanism for judging the number of followers is unclear:

After posting a video and getting lots of likes and attention, I was accused of cheating on followers and likes, and my account was blocked. Feedback to the authorities also received no response;

My account was blocked for no apparent reason, and there is no customer service;

I posted a video of myself eating ice cubes, and the official website said that I violated the user agreement.

4. Unstable network:

After the update, the homepage cannot be played, the liked ones cannot be played, and nothing else can be done online;

When I open TikTok, it says the network is down. Uninstalling and reinstalling it doesn't help.

Several times when I opened it, it showed that the network was not strong and could not be loaded. I tried 4G and wireless, but it still showed that the network was not strong.

5. Bugs:

If you watch the video for a little longer, it will flash back.

The shared videos sometimes cannot be opened.

From the feedback of the above users:

Network instability is a big problem, which directly affects the user's browsing experience. This may be related to the sudden popularity. The influx of huge traffic makes it difficult for the server to bear the load. I believe this problem will be improved in the next version.

In terms of functionality, there is no time display for videos posted by users. I guess Douyin believes that users should pay more attention to the content of the video, and most of the creators' records here are not about their daily lives, so they feel it is unnecessary.

Another big issue is rule-making. Douyin needs to more clearly determine the mechanism of increasing followers. If the mechanism is unreasonable, it will cause great harm to users who are very enthusiastic about creating works.

In addition to the above issues, Douyin may also do something in the social aspect in the future. Currently, the only interactions that can be generated within the product are video likes, comments, messages and @ processing, and the social attributes are not strong. But if you want to increase user stickiness, social networking must keep up.

IV. Conclusion

Having said so much, let’s go back to the question we mentioned at the beginning of the article: Will Douyin be a flash in the pan like Xiaokaxiu?

Back then, Xiaokaxiu transformed itself from an entertainment tool into a national artifact with its novel lip-syncing gameplay, heavy publicity on Weibo, and celebrity support, but it quickly fell from grace. Today's Douyin seems to have learned the lesson of Xiaokaxiu in terms of decentralization. From the perspective of the product life cycle , Douyin, which is currently in the exploratory stage, will continue to ferment for a while. But Douyin still exposes some potential risks.

1. The pros and cons of precise positioning

At present, TikTok’s positioning is very precise: the urban population in China’s first- and second-tier cities. Accurate positioning helps to quickly accumulate target users in the early stages of a product and help it grow rapidly, but accurate positioning also has some problems. Although the video creation process of Douyin is simple, it still takes a lot of time (those who are more responsible need one or two hours, and some even need a whole day) and energy to think about and do it well. At present, Douyin users still have a high enthusiasm for video editing, but after a long time, when they get tired of it, they will gradually lose their enthusiasm, especially now that in addition to Douyin, its competitors Muse (Muse is better in originality and internationalization) and Huangka (backed by the resources of Xiaokaxiu and has its own traffic) are also doing well. Top users may continue to create for influence, but there is no guarantee that amateur users will not turn to other products.

2. Exploration of business models

Douyin is an independent product incubated by Toutiao. It is not short of money, but if the product wants to continue in the long run, the lack of a clear business model will be very dangerous, especially if Muse and Huangka start to provide large-scale subsidies in the future, it will be stretched to the limit. It is speculated that after Douyin has developed stably, it will consider making profits through advertising and selling peripheral products, but a clearer model may be the paid gift-giving mechanism, which has been verified on various live broadcast platforms .

3. Development space

A former intern of TikTok once revealed that TikTok recruits many clubs from various universities to shoot videos, but the types of videos they shoot are always the same, and no diversity is allowed. They just blindly require them to be trendy, fashionable, and cool. They have no interest in other styles that are very individual, such as ancient style young ladies. It seems that Douyin has confined itself to a box. People in the box can do whatever they want, but people outside the box cannot get in unless they make some changes. This is understandable in the early stages of a product because it is necessary to ensure the product's tone, just as Zhihu adopted an invitation system in its early stages in order to maintain a community atmosphere. But if the restrictions continue for a long time, where will be the room for Douyin’s development? I guess Tik Tok will collect more user gameplay methods in the future, be more inclusive and diverse, and enrich the diversity of videos.

In short, Douyin still has many problems to solve and a long way to go. Music itself is inexhaustible, which is the key for Tik Tok to improve the diversity and innovation of its products. But if there is no further innovation in the product, it may just be a flash in the pan under the attack of various short videos. (over)