Pipixia Competitive Product Analysis Report

Pipixia is an established funny content community that focuses on light humor and interesting comments. This article selects two leading products in the industry - Douyin and Kuaishou as comparative competitors. It compares and analyzes the three products through multiple aspects such as industry background, market conditions, and core users. Finally, it summarizes and puts forward some suggestions for functional improvement.

1. Introduction to Competitive Product Analysis

1.1 Competitive product analysis description

Analyze the short video industry market and user groups, understand user needs, explore user pain points, and derive core product functions;

Analyze short video APP competitors, understand the basic functions of industry APPs through direct competitors, and understand the special functions of APPs through indirect competitors.

1.2 Test Environment

2. Industry Market Analysis

2.1 China’s short video industry landscape

Summarize:

• From the perspective of the short video industry's industrial chain, its industrial chain mainly includes content production, content distribution and end-user ends. Content production mainly comes from UGC (user-generated content), PGC (Internet celebrity economic companies, professional video production companies) and PUGC ("professional user-generated content" or "expert-generated content", a content production model that combines UGC+PGC.)
• From the perspective of content distribution: content distribution video platforms are divided into two categories. One is the independent short video platform such as Douyin and Xigua Video. The other is the comprehensive short video platform, which is mainly divided into three subcategories: information platform, social platform and traditional video platform. In addition, regulatory authorities, MCNs, and brand owners are also involved in the industry chain.

2.2 Industry Development Background

Summarize:

In 2011, Kuaishou launched the GIF production service, marking the rise of China’s short video industry. Subsequently, the short video industry experienced a growth period from 2012 to 2015, an explosive period from 2016 to 2017, and has gradually entered a mature stage of development since 2018.

In February 2019, the short video industry had 820 million monthly active users, breaking the 800 million mark for the first time. By March 2019, the growth of monthly active users in the short video industry began to weaken, and even from September 2019 to December 2019, the short video monthly activity index showed a downward trend. The data shows that the bonus period of the short video industry has passed. The short video industry has entered a mature stage of development. The short video industry has begun to show characteristics such as refined operations, a stable competitive landscape, and gradually mature commercial monetization models, indicating that the industry has entered the second half of mature development.

After ten years of development and gestation, the short video industry has entered the second half of its maturity stage. The industrial chain of the short video industry has been complete, and the commercial monetization model is constantly expanding. The competition in the short video industry will enter the next stage.

2.3 Short Video Market Size

Data Analysis:

According to the chart, China's short video market is growing rapidly. From 2016 to 2020, the year-on-year growth rates were 65%, 52%, 52% and 40% respectively. The market size is expected to reach 41.02 billion yuan in 2020.

Summarize:

From 2016 to 2020, the year-on-year growth rates were 65%, 52%, 52% and 40% respectively. Although the growth rate has declined, considering the short video industry map, the short video itself has the characteristics of rich forms, fragmentation and fun, making it more suitable for new marketing trends. Coupled with the deepening application of live e-commerce in the short video field, its market development prospects are worth looking forward to.

2.4 Analysis of Industry Macro Environment

2.4.1 PEST analysis

1) Policy factors:

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stipulate that those engaged in Internet audio-visual program services must have an "Information Network Audio-visual Program Transmission License";

The Cyberspace Administration of China issued the "Internet News Information Service Management Regulations" to purify the network environment and provide guarantees for the healthy development of short videos;

2) Economic factors:

Various video software and other institutions have introduced short video support plans to promote the development of the entire industry through income or subsidy incentives and improve the short video industry ecosystem;

The short video industry continues to grow, some short videos have received financing, and content providers and platforms are sought after;

3) Social factors:

The number of mobile Internet users and mobile Internet traffic are growing rapidly, providing a huge user base for the development of short videos;

By 2021, videos will account for 70% of mobile traffic. Short videos with light content and short duration are suitable for users’ fragmented reading time and meet their social and entertainment needs.

4) Technical factors:

With the popularization of 5G, the traffic speed will soar, greatly increasing the number of users and user experience;

As technologies such as VR continue to mature, we can more accurately tap into user needs and effectively distribute marketing information;

3. Market Analysis

3.1 User scale

China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released the 46th "Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet" in Beijing. Data shows that as of June 2020, the scale of short video users in my country was 818 million, an increase of 44.61 million from March 2020, accounting for 87.0% of the total Internet users.

3.2 Number of Monthly Active Users of Top 20 Short Video Apps

However, there is an oligopoly in the short video industry. The MAUs of Douyin and Kuaishou have exceeded 520 million and 380 million respectively. The first echelon has already divided up nearly 80% of the market. It is undoubtedly difficult for niche products to survive under the giants, and users can only be acquired through product positioning.

3.3 Top 10 users’ favorite video types

The data shows that comedy, food and travel are users' most popular short video types, reaching 85.4% and 77.9% respectively. Among these types are comedy vertical products such as Zuiyou and Pipixia.

3.4 Summary

The short video industry as a whole has been growing from 2018 to 2020. As of June 2020, the scale of short video users in my country was 818 million, an increase of 44.61 million from March 2020, accounting for 87.0% of the total netizens. The market as a whole prefers it, but there is an oligopoly in the short video industry. The MAU (monthly active users) of Douyin and Kuaishou have exceeded 520 million and 380 million respectively. The two apps have divided nearly 80% of the short video market. The survival space for niche products under industry giants is particularly small.

Users can only be acquired through product positioning. According to the data chart of the short video types that the TOP10 users like, among users in the entire short video industry, 85.4%, 77.9%, 75.7% and 69.7% of them like to watch humorous and funny, food, travel and inspirational short videos. The market user stock of such videos is large. The content of niche short video apps can consider developing in the direction of humorous and funny, food, and travel, and develop the app into a professional and vertical short video app.

4. User Analysis

4.1 Purpose

Through user attributes, we can explore the essential needs of users and derive core functions; secondly, we can use user scenarios to analyze user pain points and extend special functions.

4.2 User Segmentation

1) User age and city distribution

Data Analysis:

Short video users are penetrating into young and middle-aged groups and third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities. The sinking market will become a new traffic entrance and industry growth point. This shows that short videos are gradually penetrating from young people under 24 years old to the middle-aged and young user group aged 25-35.

From the perspective of urban distribution, users in first- and second-tier cities currently account for more than half, or 52.1%, of which second-tier cities account for 22.4%, the highest proportion among all types of cities, while the TGI index of third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities is relatively high, at 102.5, 106.3, and 107.5 respectively, with obvious characteristics of users in the sinking market. In recent years, with the gradual saturation of first- and second-tier cities, the sinking market has become a new battlefield for Internet giants to compete and will become the main support for the growth of short video users in the future.

2) Proportion of short video users’ motivations

Data Analysis:

From the perspective of user motivations, among the top three motivations for users of Chinese short video products, watching content and sharing life are the main reasons. The data shows that 75.6% of users said that "browsing interesting content" is the main reason why most people choose short video products, and "sharing the wonderful moments in life" has become an important reason for short video users to choose short video products in addition to "learning knowledge and skills."

Summarize:

Content is still the most important factor that users pay attention to when choosing a platform. Judging from the factors that users pay attention to when choosing a platform, content quality and content diversity are the focus of users, followed by the overall reputation of the platform and the comfort of the platform interface. This explains why the "content-based" short video platforms have the widest user base. Therefore, the focus of the development of short video platforms located in the middle of the industrial chain is on how to cooperate with upstream content production ends to establish a good content production and distribution mechanism to provide consumers with diversified high-quality content.

3) Proportion of short video user product usage scenarios

Data Analysis:

Judging from the scenarios in which users use short videos, they are generally concentrated in the before bedtime and break scenarios. Data shows that 58.9% of users watch short videos before going to bed, and the proportion of users who watch short videos during sleep time is generally around 30%. Short video users mainly prefer fragmented time of 5-10 minutes and medium-long time periods of 10-30 minutes.

Summarize:

The fragmented video usage scenarios are highly consistent with the usage duration. In 2019, the usage scenarios of short videos in my country were mainly before going to bed, after get off work (school), during rest time, during breaks between work (classes), during meals, and on the way to work, and the usage scenarios were fragmented. In terms of usage time, short video users mainly prefer fragmented time of 5-10 minutes and medium-long periods of 10-30 minutes. Users who use for long periods of more than 30 minutes account for less than 20%. Fragmented usage scenarios and usage time make it difficult for users to experience long-term immersion.

4.3 User Demands

4.3.1 Distribution of Short Video Users’ Content Preferences

Summarize:

From the perspective of user content preferences, humor, food and life, and skills and knowledge are the three most popular categories of short videos among users. Compared with other media forms (such as long videos, text, etc.), short videos are concise, fast and vivid, so users are more receptive to knowledge content that requires skills and practicality. The data shows that 55.5% of users said they like short videos on skills/knowledge, while users who like short videos on humor and comedy and food and lifestyle account for 60.90% and 58.50% respectively.

4.4 User Scenarios

4.4.1 Entertainment Users

1) Basic properties:

Male, 22 years old, unmarried, from a second-tier city, single, likes watching entertainment videos and playing games

2) User behavior:

I am a new product manager. I feel tired and bored after studying for a day.

3) User characteristics:

Like to watch entertainment, games, funny, beauties, videos

4) Usage scenarios:

Xiao Wang likes to watch entertainment, games, comedy, beauties, and videos. He is studying to be a product manager outside. After finishing his homework, he is physically and mentally exhausted, takes a shower, and lies on the bed feeling bored. At this time, he wanted to play a lot of games to relax, but he didn't have the energy, so he thought of watching videos, so he opened the Kuaishou app and browsed for a while, but he felt that the content was too stupid, so he thought of Douyin, but Douyin did not distinguish the video types, so it was very troublesome to find them one by one. Finally, after his roommate recommended it, he downloaded Pipixia, which had clear content distinctions and he could just click on the type he wanted to watch.

4.4.2 Social Questioning

1) Basic properties:

Female, 22 years old, unmarried, first-tier city

2) User behavior:

Looking for a way to get over a broken heart

3) User characteristics:

A beautiful college student who just broke up recently and is feeling depressed

4) Usage scenarios:

Xiaomei is a college student who just broke up and is feeling depressed. She wants to find some ways to get over the breakup. She wants to ask her roommates, but she is afraid that they will laugh at her and dare not ask. She can only distract herself by watching videos, but this is only temporary. After diverting her attention, she will feel sad again. Then she saw the question-asking function on Pipixia, and then she posted her own questions on Pipixia. Not only did she get the care of her roommates, but she also learned some methods.

4.5 User Pain Points

4.5.1 Entertainment Users

Unclear distinction between content

Most short video apps do not do a good job in distinguishing video types. Currently, most of these apps require users to search step by step to find videos of their favorite types. Sometimes, searching for content for too long may cause user loss.

The content display of Pipixia short videos is done through video content classification, allowing users to accurately find the type of video they want to watch.

The video content lacks some positive energy, as well as some concern, care and charity for the society.

5. Analysis of Douyin and Kuaishou products

5.1 Analysis of Douyin-Kuaishou Product Strategy

Summarize:

From the perspective of product positioning based on the different user types, Douyin is a professional music creative short video social software and a music short video community focusing on young people. Kuaishou is a social platform that records life through short videos.

Most of Douyin's user base comes from first- and second-tier cities, and its business model is more inclined towards transaction models such as selling goods for cash, knowledge payment, etc. Most of Kuaishou's users are from third- and fourth-tier cities, and its business model tends to focus on information flow advertising and games.

Special features: Tik Tok focuses on music short videos and knowledge payment. Tik Tok is more social. Attributes: core user of Tik Tok; contributor of high-quality content. Kuaishou; grassroots content contributor.

5.2 Analysis of the functional structure diagram of Douyin and Kuaishou products

5.2.1 Douyin product function structure diagram

5.2.2 Kuaishou Product Function Structure Diagram

5.2.3 Summary

1) Tik Tok

Kuaishou: It is relatively vulgar, reflects the life of the lower classes of society, and focuses on showing real life in rural areas.

Kuaishou: Emphasizes people, everyone’s life is worth recording, pays attention to the grassroots, and pays attention to society.

Kuaishou’s user positioning is “average people in society”. The distribution of Kuaishou users in second- and third-tier cities is determined by the form of Chinese society. If we abstract all Kuaishou users as one person, he is equivalent to an "average person in society". Only 7% of China's population lives in first-tier cities, and 93% lives in second- and third-tier cities, so the "average person in society" falls in second- and third-tier cities. ”

Analyzing the functional structure diagram of the Douyin APP, we can see that the main functions of this APP are making and shooting short music videos, cooperating with e-commerce, and socializing.

2) Kuaishou

Tik Tok: It is more profound, with more sophisticated decoration and expression of content, focusing on cities and advocating quality life.

Tik Tok: emphasizes content, tends to push content in vertical fields, pays attention to design, and focuses on entertainment.

The TikTok platform is generally used by young users, and the soundtracks are mainly electronic music and dance music. The videos are divided into two categories: dance and creative. The common feature is that they all have a strong sense of rhythm. There are also a few users who play lyrical music and demonstrate coffee latte art skills, becoming a breath of fresh air in the Douyin circle.

Analyzing the functional structure diagram of Kuaishou APP, it is found that the main function of this APP is to make and shoot short videos and live broadcast fan interaction

5.3 The core functions of Douyin and Kuaishou products and their reference

1) Kuaishou’s “Featured” and Douyin’s “Friends”

In general, the functional structures of the two products are roughly similar. The most core difference is that Kuaishou places the "Featured" module of the full-screen information flow in the navigation bar, while Douyin places the newly launched "Friends" section in the bottom bar (still in grayscale testing).

Before the launch of version 8.0, all of Kuaishou's video content was in the form of a double-column card stream. In comparison, Douyin's full-screen information flow mode gives users a more immersive content consumption experience (only one video content is displayed on one screen, and there are no other video sections to interfere with the user's vision, and will not interfere with the user's visual center). At the same time, this passive reception method is also more conducive to its commercial realization through the placement of information flow advertisements.

Therefore, Kuaishou’s “Featured” section makes up for this shortcoming, optimizing the user experience through a single column + double column format, while also giving users more choices.

The newly launched “Friends” section of Tik Tok is also a bold attempt based on its shortcomings in social relationships. The "Friends" section is used to display relevant updates of friends who follow each other, similar to the updates in Weibo's friend circle. Most of the relationships in the follow list are one-way relationships, such as a creator of interest, while the "Friends" section emphasizes two-way relationships within the platform, which is conducive to promoting the construction and deepening of users' social relationships within the platform, thereby increasing user stickiness and sunk costs.

Summarize:

The video information display on Pipixia's homepage is a multi-window and multi-content display method. There will be 2-2.5 contents on one screen, including not only video content but also text content. In addition, there is a navigation bar at the top. Too many windows and information displayed on one screen will cause certain visual interference and visual fatigue to users. Therefore, in the later iterations of Pipixia, you can refer to the full-screen information flow mode of Kuaishou and Douyin.

2) Shooting function

For content community platforms, content is undoubtedly the core. From the product iteration process of Kuaishou and Douyin, it can be seen that both parties are actively developing and optimizing shooting types, tools, special effects, etc. to meet the diverse needs of users and lower their creative threshold.

The two products are generally similar in terms of shooting function types, and the biggest differences lie in the video shooting time, quick shot and karaoke functions. The video shooting time of Kuaishou is 11 seconds/57 seconds/5 minutes, while that of Douyin is 15 seconds and 60 seconds. In comparison, Kuaishou users have more choices, which is more conducive to the expansion of its content ecology.

In addition, Kuaishou has an additional karaoke function compared to Douyin, which is a function that fits the needs of users in the sinking market well. For users in third- and fourth-tier cities, especially middle-aged people, karaoke is an indispensable form of entertainment in their daily lives. Douyin has an additional quick-shot function compared to Kuaishou, which lowers the user's psychological threshold for creation and encourages users to use Douyin to record their life updates anytime and anywhere.

In general, the shooting functions of the two products are basically similar, but they have their own characteristics based on the platform positioning and user groups. As the user base of the two products continues to generalize and the overlap becomes higher and higher, more similar functions will surely be developed in the future, including the development of upstream and downstream tools for the entire ecological industry chain. Based on product positioning and target user groups, meeting the ever-changing needs of users requires continuous exploration and continuous product optimization and iteration.

Summarize:

Kuaishou and Pipixia are both PPs targeting users in third- and fourth-tier cities. Pipixia should learn from Kuaishou how to enhance the stickiness and retention of users between the APP.

As a short video APP, in the subsequent iteration process of Pipixia, the shooting functions and types, tools, filters, and special effects will be learned from Douyin and Kuaishou.

It is possible to appropriately add some games or entertainment methods that can interact with users, increase the types of live broadcasts on the platform such as food, games, entertainment, outdoor activities, etc. Furthermore, the platform can carefully select some high-quality anchors, increase the frequency of interaction between anchors and users, let users feel a sense of belonging, and thus improve the stickiness of users to the Pipixia app.

3) Like/Unlike function

The way to like on Kuaishou and Douyin is the same, double-click the screen. The only difference is the way to cancel a like. Compared with Douyin, Kuaishou’s cancellation of likes has a stronger sense of interactivity.

Summarize:

Pipixia’s likes still rely on the like button, which will bring inconvenience to some users. Therefore, in the later iterations of Pipixia, you can refer to Kuaishou’s like/cancel like function, which will bring some immersive experience to users.

4) Social Features

The two products are generally similar in social functions. Both Douyin and Kuaishou use list-style message grouping. The biggest difference is that Douyin’s interactive message replies will display basic information about the video content on the right, while Kuaishou’s messages have dynamics added to them.

The friend relationship of Pipixia is limited to content creators and content consumers. The Pipixia app does not even have the function of "private message". The relationship between users is limited to "follow" and "being followed". Its message function is limited to some messages given to users by Pipixia officials. Therefore, Pipixia can add a private message function in later iterations.

VI. Conclusion

6.1 SWOT Analysis

Advantages :

1. Users are highly loyal, mature in age, and have strong spending power
2. Platform-generated content advantages
3. The parent company ByteDance has strong cash flow support and strong traffic generation capabilities

W Disadvantages :

1. It is difficult to create high-quality content, and non-high-quality content does not receive attention and feedback, which affects users' enthusiasm for creation.
2. Large regulatory system and poor user experience
3. No friend system, weak social connections
4. Strong official guidance restricts productivity

O Opportunities :

1. What users of Neihan Duanzi think of sister products
2. There are few humorous and funny vertical products in the market
3. Open and diverse platforms are conducive to content creation and distribution.

Threat :

1. "Duanyou gathering place" content supervision is more stringent
2. Few profit models, seeking multiple product monetization models

6.2 Summary

1) User Group

Pipixia is the leading application in the funny content community. The three of them have different group characteristics in terms of user accumulation. Only by meeting the needs of different users can they establish their own user barriers.

2) Business Model

In terms of business model, Kuaishou and Douyin have a longer history of development and are therefore more mature in their business models, while Pipixia needs to create its own profit model. For example, it can leverage ByteDance's advantages to increase the promotion of operations, work hard on live streaming, and promote or attract a big anchor to the platform to boost user activity in the live streaming section.

3) Function

Pipixia optimizes functional points and produces high-quality reviews and content through precise algorithm recommendations. Its powerful content operation retains users. Users are more loyal to the platform, forming a strong community culture. If Pipixia can use this advantage to re-expand its relationship chain, it can better retain users.

4) Content Production

In terms of content production, Pipixia has relatively few original high-quality contents, many of which are copied from external networks and most of the contents are homogenized; therefore, it is necessary to introduce original content, increase the operation of original content and increase incentives for original authors, so that the platform can establish barriers in content.

5) Industry supervision

As the short video industry's system continues to improve, content supervision has become increasingly stringent, and the core competitiveness of products is no longer based on technology.

Just as Liu Tian mentioned the three-stage product development law in the Zhongtai Product Manager's Handbook: Now the industry is saturated, the product era is about to pass, and the market era is coming; "market is king" all shows the importance of users and markets today, and the shift of focus of funny communities also confirms this statement.

Author: Just called Xiao Wangba

Source: Just call me Xiao Wangba