Xigua Video is an app owned by ByteDance. During the Chinese New Year this year, due to the closure of cinemas caused by the epidemic, Xigua Video released movies such as "Lost in Russia" and "The Big Winner", and gained a large number of users. This article mainly analyzes the Xigua Video APP from three aspects: market, users and functions, and puts forward some suggestions.

1. Experience the environment

• Product experience: Xigua Video
• Software version: 4.7.5
• Phone system: Android 10
• Experience time: 2020-8-20
• Experienced by: Albert

2. Product positioning and market analysis

1. Product positioning

Slogan: Give you fresh and beautiful.

Product Introduction: Xigua Video is a video platform software under ByteDance. The video content can be divided into long videos (PGC content such as film and television works, variety shows, etc.) and medium and short videos (UGC, PUGC content). Users can continuously obtain content of their interest with the powerful recommendation of Toutiao.

2. Watermelon's big move

In terms of medium and short videos, from the earliest [3+X] plan to the more recent "Movable Type Plan" and "10,000 Yuan Monthly Salary" and other activities, Xigua has continuously launched incentive activities for different types of creators; on the one hand, it attracts users to become UGC users, and on the other hand, it encourages existing creators to become PUGC users through the accumulation of platform fans and event income.

In terms of long videos, Xigua started its layout in the second half of 2018, first creating variety shows such as "Top Mission", "My Brothers and I", and "Danxing Line"; in 2019, it produced variety shows such as "Uncle's Restaurant" and introduced classic old dramas such as "Drawing Sword" and "Home with Kids"; this year since the Chinese New Year, movies such as "Lost in Russia" and "Big Winner", variety shows such as "The Voice of China 2020" and "Masked Dancer", and the introduction of BBC Studio documentaries - Xigua began to continuously accumulate its own film library and continued to make efforts in the layout of long videos.

3. Industry status

In the early days, Xigua focused on short videos, but now it has a layout in both long and short video fields. The following article will analyze the industry status faced by Xigua from two aspects: online video and short video industry.

1) Online Video

Due to the epidemic, users had plenty of time and user activity surged in the first quarter; but as work gradually returned to normal, the industry's monthly active users stabilized at 860 million.

Source: QuestMobile

Tencent, iQiyi, and Youku occupy the top three in the ranking, enjoying a high penetration rate with their large and comprehensive copyright film libraries. The quantity of high-quality content is the key to a platform's success. To this end, each platform continues to launch new exclusive dramas and variety shows to increase user activity.

Source: Aurora

Source: TopMarketing Research Institute

2) Short videos

Compared with the online video industry, the user scale of the short video industry has steadily increased, but the growth rate has gradually slowed down to below 10%. The user dividend has gradually disappeared, and the battle for users will gradually shift from the incremental market to the stock market.

Source: QuestMobile

Toutiao and Kuaishou apps dominate the short video industry, with Douyin leading the way with a penetration rate of over 50%. For fragmented time, users prefer to spend their time enjoying light-hearted humor, daily life, food, skills and knowledge.

Overall, users have diverse content demands, and broader and deeper content platforms can better meet users' diverse content preferences.

Source: Aurora

Source: iResearch

3. User Analysis

1. Age and gender distribution

Source: iResearch

According to the data provided by iResearch, the main users of Xigua Video are middle-aged and young people, with slightly more male users than female users.

Young people under the age of 24 are full of energy and like to pursue new and cool things. They can get more trendy and diverse information from various variety shows, short videos and other content, and make more friends with similar interests.

The light middle class people aged 25-35, whose main battlefield is work, are under high pressure in life and need to explore the fun in life; various medium and short UGC contents enable them to quickly relieve stress by "seeing something interesting".

2. Consumption capacity analysis

City share chart (data source: Analysys Qianfan)

Consumption capacity ratio chart (data source: Analysys Qianfan)

According to data from Analysys Qianfan, users in first- and second-tier cities account for over 50% of the total, with spending power concentrated in the low- to medium-range.

Residents in first- and second-tier cities have already met their material needs and have higher spiritual demands. They are more willing to pay for their own entertainment and are more receptive to paid services.

The prices of Xigua Video’s long-form paid content are largely in line with users’ spending power.

At a time when iQIYI, Youku and Tencent Video are the three major players, people have long been accustomed to paying for long video content, but most of Xigua Video's long videos, such as movies, TV series, and variety shows, are free.

In terms of PGC content payment, Xigua Video is mainly divided into "Hollywood Membership" (selected Hollywood movies) and "Anime Membership" (some popular anime). The corresponding monthly package prices are 5 yuan and 1.9 yuan respectively. This price is undoubtedly a better choice for users who "want to watch but don't want to spend a lot of money."

3. Usage scenarios

The main users of Xigua Video are divided into two categories: content consumers and content creators, corresponding to different usage scenarios.

1) Content consumer usage scenarios

Xiaopeng, male, 18 years old, a freshman at a certain university.

The children born in the 2000s have a strong ability to accept new things. They are heavy Internet users and spend a lot of time on online games and mobile games.

The reason for using Xigua Video is that you can browse a lot of game-related content on this platform, such as: tutorials on high-difficulty levels, game skills, and trials of new games.

Here Xiaopeng follows many game video creators. In addition to playing games, he will check out new game videos. He will also push interesting video content to his gaming friends to share.

Xiaohong, female, 25 years old, an employee of a private company.

Xiaohong has been working in the society for 3 years and has basically mastered her business processes. Although she is busy at work, she still browses Taobao and watches short videos in her spare time.

On weekends, she occasionally goes out for dinner with friends, but the hard work makes her prefer to stay at home.

Xiaohong is used to catching up on the variety shows and TV dramas she hadn’t finished watching during the week on weekends. If there is still time, she will choose a movie that interests her and slowly enjoy a good rest.

Xiao Zhang, male, 32 years old, middle-level manager of an IT company.

Xiao Zhang, a pillar of society, is under great pressure from both work and family and has little disposable time.

Apart from work and family affairs, Xiao Zhang will open Xigua Video to watch wonderful clips of Dongchedi and sports games to relax himself. Occasionally, he will also watch some film and television content and read some refined interpretations of film and television works to keep himself up to date.

2) Usage scenarios for content creators

Xiao Li, male, 21 years old, student.

Xiao Li, who is still studying in college, has strong hobbies. He likes to record some game videos himself and then process them again to give the game a more interesting form.

Xiao Li has been making this type of game videos for more than a year and has accumulated hundreds of thousands of fans on Xigua Video. For him, the likes, favorites and comments under each video are an affirmation of him and the biggest motivation for him to continue making videos. In addition, the platform's incentive money also brings Xiao Li some pocket money.

Xiaojia, male, 25 years old, self-media person.

Xiaojia is a heavy fan of suspense movies and TV dramas. He likes to analyze the foreshadowing of various suspense dramas in the early stages. He often puts himself into the story to see the plot logic and story integrity of the work.

I want to share my understanding of suspense works with more people. On the one hand, I can explain it to the audience who don’t understand the works, and on the other hand, I can exchange views with more suspense fans.

4. Product Structure

1. Product function structure diagram

2. Product information structure diagram

3. Product core process

Content consumption process:

Content production process:

4. Functional experience

1) Search

There are 2 preset search contents in the search box on the home page. The first preset content will be retained after entering the search. The content displayed from top to bottom on the search page can be divided into 3 parts: 2 preset contents, search history, and search guide content.

a) The two search results that are displayed first are essentially similar to the results in the subsequent “Guess what you want to search”, but they are singled out and listed at the top.

On the one hand, for users with clear search content, the two pieces of information are very small and will not seriously interfere with the user's search. On the other hand, for users with a wider range of search content, if the first two pieces of information do not cover the search content, they can also get more content below.

b) In the search history, a maximum of 6 recent search records are displayed. After deleting a record, if there are still records, they will be supplemented to 6. You can also delete all of them at once. The history records allow users to skip text input and search directly when the search needs are the same as the most recent times.

c) The default item for search guidance content is "Guess what you want to search", and the content is all keywords of UGC works, and it will be refreshed every time you enter the search page.

In contrast, searches for PGC works often produce clear results and do not require excessive guidance. Its content is divided into TV series and movies, corresponding to the ranking of 10 works respectively; in addition to the UGC and PGC categories, the "Popular Authors" category is added to the search guide, providing users with another way to discover content.

Suggestion: Content beyond the 6 items in the search history cannot be obtained. Compared with this, it would be better to use the omission method, which can satisfy users to view longer search records.

2) Channel classification

In the channel navigation bar at the top, users can swipe left and right to display more channel categories for selection, or click the More button on the right to enter the channel management page; this navigation bar fixed at the top allows users to quickly switch to other channels.

On the channel management page, users can browse all categories and edit the information in the navigation bar at the top of the homepage, including sorting and deleting (not displaying). The recommended and followed categories cannot be operated. The customized channel navigation bar allows users to arrange channel priorities by themselves, so that more concerned categories can be switched more quickly.

Suggestion: The text description of "All Channels" is somewhat misleading. For example, when a user enters the channel classification page for the first time, there is no content in "All Channels". It can be changed to "Hidden Channels"; when the user hides more than half of the channels or all of them, a reminder should be given; if no channels are hidden, a text prompt should be displayed.

3) People you follow

Under the recommendation and follow column, there is a list of followed authors (horizontally) (the list under the recommendation column can be closed in the settings). You can view more followed authors by swiping left and right. When an author uploads a new video, the avatar will be surrounded by a yellow circle. During live broadcast, it will be surrounded by a red circle and display "Live Broadcast". Click on any author to enter the follow page. After the user enters Xigua Video, he can watch the latest videos of the authors he follows in one step.

• On the follow page, there is also a follow list at the top (horizontally), where you can swipe left or right to select an author;
• The middle part is the video content sorted by the author's release time. Swipe left or right to switch directly to the previous/next author;
• There are two buttons at the bottom: "Followed" and "Personal Homepage". On the one hand, users can manage the authors they have followed, and on the other hand, they can go to the homepage to view more information and works.

Suggestion: The main purpose of the follow page is to allow users to view the videos of the authors they follow more quickly. If users have a strong urge to unfollow an author, they can also unfollow the author after entering the homepage. Therefore, the "Followed" button at the bottom seems a bit redundant. When an author is selected, there is no operation feedback when clicking the author's avatar again. The function of entering the homepage does not need a separate button. Adding it to the function of clicking the avatar will be more in line with users' operating habits.

4) Small screen video playback

In order to enable users to obtain video content more quickly, Xigua Video presents videos on the page in the form of a small vertical screen player. After the user clicks the play button, there is no jump to the video details page but they can watch the content directly.

Compared with entering the video details page first and then playing, this video playback method is more convenient for users to browse videos; if the video being played is a video that you are not interested in, you can directly scroll down to browse other videos, eliminating the need to return to the home page from the video details page.

a) In terms of interactive functions, in order to allow users to enter the next video more smoothly, Xigua Video places the interactive functions in different locations.

Next to the author's avatar and nickname is a red follow button, and if you are already following, it will be gray text; although it is a small screen playback, the space is much smaller than the full screen, but the barrage function is still retained, and there is an edit barrage button on the right side of the video (only displayed when the barrage is turned on); below the video are the three most basic interaction methods: collection, comment, and like, while the praise and forwarding functions are placed at the end of the video;

b) Below the video, if there is content related to the video, an entry link will be displayed, which serves to divert traffic within the platform.

For example, for the author's series of works in the picture, there will be an entrance to "view the collection"; if it is related to games, movies, and TV on the platform, there will also be relevant links.

5) Filter and continue watching

Xigua Video does not only place TV series and movie content in the screening room, but also sets up two separate channels on the homepage.

In response to users' needs for watching long videos, two functions, filtering and continuing watching, have been set up. The content is no longer presented in the form of quick playback on a small screen, but is presented in two-column cover thumbnails, showing users more information at one time.

For long videos, if users only rely on recommended information to make their choices, they may not be able to get the content they want to watch; however, the filtering function can reduce the user's selection cost. Users can filter through a series of classification options and ultimately obtain more satisfactory content.

For videos with multiple episodes, such as TV series, users need to return to the app multiple times to watch them. The Continue Watching function solves this need and provides users with a quick way to return to unfinished film or TV shows.

6) Favorite videos

On the "My" page, the number of favorite videos and the number of favorite collections will be displayed on the right side of the favorite videos. This can help users get a general idea of ​​their favorites.

On the Favorite Videos page, users can locate a video in three ways:

• Use the search tool to enter keywords to search;
• Search by video type according to the top navigation bar;
• Search by collection time.

When managing favorite videos, users can long press a video or click Edit to delete (cancel favorites) it in batches.

Suggestion: Currently, the only management function for favorite videos is deletion. However, as the number of days users use the app increases, the number of favorite videos will increase, and users may have new needs.

On the one hand, the user may have forgotten the videos that he collected earlier, and he can only scroll down to view them again. On the other hand, the user may remember a video that he collected, but only remember the content. It may be difficult to locate a video that was collected a long time ago by searching alone.

Therefore, a grouping function can be added to the management function of favorite videos, and at the same time, users can be trained to group and manage videos when they are favorited.

V. Conclusion

1. Use the short to support the long, and use the long to support the short

Xigua Video has rich content in short videos, and the platform itself has incubated many top creators; the diverse channel categories meet users' different viewing needs and occupy users' fragmented time; the entry links for related content fully divert traffic to long videos.

In terms of long videos, although Xigua does not have an advantage in the number of film and television works, compared with the patch ads and membership fees of other platforms, the trump card of "free" is enough to attract users to the platform.

2. Just watch it and you’re done

Xigua Video, which aims to "give you something fresh and interesting", gives people a sense of convenience in content presentation, allowing users to quickly browse to the next video; however, at the same time, it also reduces user enthusiasm for interaction.

For a video with a million views by an author with millions of fans, the total number of comments and barrages usually does not exceed ten thousand, and there is very little interaction between users and between users and authors.

The interactive communication between fans and authors is undoubtedly an important part of motivating creation and promoting platform development; in the future, if Xigua only focuses on distribution and traffic, it will make it difficult to build an emotional bridge between creators and users.

Author: Albert

Source: Albert