Douyin Ecosystem Full Service User Manual

In this article, the author will describe Douyin’s short video content types and monetization methods; live broadcast content types and monetization methods; Douyin’s e-commerce system; Douyin’s advertising system; and Douyin’s peripheral businesses.

If nothing unexpected happens, the following content should be the most comprehensive introduction and interpretation of Douyin’s business model on the entire Internet. If there are too many words and you are too lazy to read them, just use the "Search" function to directly search for the business name you don't understand.

First, let’s make an outline:

1. 1. Short video content types and monetization methods
2. 2. Live content types and monetization methods
3. 3. E-commerce system in Douyin
4. 4. Advertising system in Douyin
5. 5. Peripheral businesses in Douyin

The core of Tik Tok is actually the understanding of the traffic distribution model of "algorithm recommendation". I have written a lot about this before, so I will not repeat it here.

1. Short video content types and monetization methods

1. Types of short video content

Content creators on Douyin can be divided into two groups. One group is those who create IPs and rely on content to attract user attention and increase followers for advertising; the other group is those who "wash traffic".

From my personal understanding, for a platform like TikTok that uses algorithm recommendations to distribute traffic, the idea of ​​"washing traffic" is actually better. Because the traffic the platform gives you each time actually has little to do with your past accumulation (a high number of fans will have a larger basic recommendation value, but not much higher, only a few tens of thousands of views). Whether you can get high traffic depends mainly on whether the content is popular.

Even when working on IP, it might be better to use the mentality of "washing traffic" to create content and operations: be prepared for an explosion every time, and then find ways to convert the traffic into monetizable or hoardable resources during the process of the explosion. Yes, it is the same as the traffic model of mini programs in previous years.

Back to the content types of short videos, on page 27 of the PDF, I listed the classification of influencers on the star map, and there are more than 30 types including the sub-types. Content creation is a very complicated matter, so I won’t go into detail here. There are three concepts related to content creation that are frequently mentioned: MCN, KOL, and KOC.

There is no need to explain the concept of MCN in detail. It is actually a collection of professional content creators. Its value lies more in helping creators commercialize.

In other words, if you set up an MCN and there are no special needs, the most important thing you should ensure is business capability.

Nowadays, the conflicts between MCN and influencers are all about business. No one fights with MCN because MCN did not help them increase their fans or create good content. For Douyin, wild MCNs are of little value and must be officially certified to receive official policy support (generally, A to S level traffic support is given to MCN talents who complete the task package every month).

There are two requirements for officially certified MCN: the main body must be an enterprise with business categories such as brokerage and new media promotion; there must be 5 influencers with more than 10,000 fans, but currently, for a quick review, at least 100,000 fans are required (of course, there are also audit agents, which guarantee approval within a week.)

The second is KOL and KOC, which everyone should be familiar with. Simply put, KOL is an expert with a large number of fans, and KOC is an expert with small number of fans or who has a say in a small circle.

Nowadays, KOC has fallen to the level of being almost an ordinary person, and those with thousands of fans call themselves KOC. There is no value in three or two posts. They are mainly used to assist decision-making or gather a large number of KOCs to flood the screen (the content should be diversified, the same content is easy to fail, such as the unboxing of Wanlimu some time ago)

2. Monetization methods for short video content creation

One of the core reasons why so many short video platforms failed to take off before Douyin was that "creators rely on their passion to create". Without money to be made, positive incentives cannot be generated and the business will not last long.

Douyin was launched in 2016 and began to be promoted in 2017. It started to provide monetization services in mid-2018, from showcases to star maps to various plans.

1) Star Chart Platform

This platform serves business owners who have a need for influencer advertising. Two types of people can log in: organizations with self-employed individuals or corporate entities, who can register an account with a business license and a public account, and can view the quotes and detailed data of all influencers; influencers with more than 100,000 fans can log in through a bound Douyin account, and can perfect their own quotes and take on advertising tasks from business owners.

Enterprises can place advertisements through the Star Map platform. After the task is completed, Star Map will charge a 5% service fee. Any enterprise can place advertisements.

However, this platform still did not kill the 4A companies that acted as pimps in the middle, because investment requires depositing money into the account first, but companies do not have the habit of paying first, so 4A companies are still required to advance funds for investment.

On the other hand, influencers do not have the ability to accept orders from everyone thanks to such a convenient platform. 4A companies make money on both sides by pimping, earning service fees from enterprises with one hand and discounts/rebates from the media with the other.

As a result, most orders were given to MCN companies with business capabilities. Ordinary talents can only play with ordinary companies that do not use 4A companies, but the budget for this part is actually pitifully small...

After PS MCN reaches a certain standard, it can be "packaged" and settled in Star Map without any service fee.

2) PICK and Link plans

The star map above is mainly for serving large accounts and MCNs with more than 100,000 fans. The Pick and Link plans are more "convenient" and can be applied for by those with 50,000 fans.

The Pick plan is mainly for internal advertising of Toutiao's products. It is charged according to CPM and is mainly based on exposure. For example, many movie clips you see will eventually guide you to Xigua/Toutiao to watch the full version, which is part of the Pick plan. (There are also tutorials on editing and how to use silhouettes)

Only a small number of external companies that have a good relationship with Toutiao can place advertisements under the Pick plan. Most non-Toutiao companies that want to place advertisements on small accounts with 50,000 followers can do so through the Link plan. Link is mostly presented as a component above the nickname in the lower left corner of the video, which is similar to the shared bike, except it is a blue diamond. In the early days, it would appear in the first comment as a link. Now Link can also place orders directly through Star Chart.

3. Game promotion & national tasks

This is a monetization method with a lower threshold than Pick and Link. It does not require a fan base. You can search for "Douyin Game Promotion" and "National Mission Plan" on Douyin and choose to join the mission.

The main promotion content of the game promotion plan is Douyin mini-games, which currently only supports Android phones. The reward is calculated based on the number of people who are directed to the mini-games through the video.

There are no mobile device requirements for national tasks, but the rewards are not that good, mainly traffic rewards and gifts, and occasionally some cash rewards. The tasks include challenging topics and celebrity events launched by brands (actually, it is to help Douyin complete its advertising KPI)

4. Private domain diversion

Although TikTok does not encourage it, there are still many ways to do it. The easiest way is to leave your WeChat ID in your profile. In addition, after authenticating/trying the enterprise account, you can set up automatic replies. Earlier, you could create a landing page through Orange Website Builder, add a plug-in to jump to open WeChat and directly guide users to WeChat to add friends. Now, few people dare to do this and they are blocked quickly. For the specific process and method, just send a private message to a "Snail Insurance" account to experience it...

5. E-commerce distribution

This is the most important part of Douyin’s monetization, so I will talk about it last. The logic behind this matter is very simple: Douyin creators have traffic, and e-commerce merchants need traffic to make conversions. Therefore, merchants give a certain percentage of commission to creators based on the sales of the goods.

The platform that facilitates the distribution of commissions is called an "Alliance". Douyin has the Selected Alliance, Taobao has the Taobao Alliance (Alimama), and JD has the JD Alliance. Merchants list their products on these alliances, and creators select products from them, put them in their own shopping carts, and sell them through videos.

For products from Douyin Selected Alliance, Douyin will charge a service fee of 10% of the selling price; Taobao Alliance charges a content scenario service fee of 6% and a technical service fee of 10% of the commission.

Therefore, if a product comes from Douyin Store /JD.com/Kaola/Suning/Ymatou/VIPshop, if you want the creator to help you sell the product, you have to offer a commission greater than 10%, because the portion exceeding 10% belongs to the creator. Although Taobao Alliance does not charge too much, you still need at least 10% to be included in the Douyin showcase.

In addition, not all products can be distributed on Douyin: the Taobao store rating (DSR) must be greater than the average and must be at least 1 diamond. And it cannot be in the beauty category (which was killed last year).

Add to that dou+, a stable delivery tool that charges 100 yuan = 5,000 exposures, and you will find that everything can be accurately calculated with this process. Even if the content is rubbish, 100dou+ can still get 5,000 exposures. After testing the conversion rate, you can directly derive the ROI calculation formula. That’s why Douyin Taoke was able to grow so rapidly last year. (It’s too late now, the platform restrictions are strict, and spending money needs to be calculated carefully)

If the goods come from Taobao, JD.com and Yangmatou, there is also a concept of PID. One Douyin account can only be bound to the PID of one Taobao/JD.com/Yangmatou distribution account, and one Taobao/JD.com/Yangmatou PID can be bound to multiple Douyin accounts.

2. Live Streaming and Its Monetization

If we classify the content of live broadcasts, there are two categories, if we are not strict about it: show live broadcasts and e-commerce live broadcasts. If we are more strict about it, show live broadcasts can also be divided into knowledge live broadcasts and game live broadcasts.

1. History of Live Broadcasting

CCTV has been broadcasting the Spring Festival Gala live since 1983. The then chief director Huang Yihe used telephone on-demand and crowd interaction in the Spring Festival Gala, which is very similar to the current Internet live broadcast. Before that, the Spring Festival Gala was just a recorded and edited video program, no different from the short videos of today.

After the "real-time image synchronization" mechanism was added, the requirements for content creators increased significantly: it cannot be corrected later and must be completed in one go. At this time, the value of the host who controls the whole scene becomes extremely important in the entire live broadcast. The profession of "host" has been increasingly valued in television media since the 1983 Spring Festival Gala directed by Huang Yihe.

In 2006, a game called World of Warcraft became popular among young people.

The copy system in this game requires 20-40 people to play the game online at the same time, which makes voice collaboration a rigid requirement for the game at that time.

In 2008, YY saw this demand and launched voice collaboration software with clear voice and stable network. While providing game collaboration, YY found that players would also chat in the channel when they were resting or did not need voice collaboration, and some people even specifically provided chat and entertainment services in the channel. So YY launched the official singing and entertainment room, which was the earliest prototype of online live streaming.

In 2009, when YY was still working hard on voice live streaming, Liujianfang moved the nightclub show model to the online live broadcast room and performed for the audience in real time through video. This was the earliest show live broadcast.

In 2010, YY Live pioneered the reward model. After the anchors had stable and even super-high incomes, show live streaming entered a period of rapid development. In the following years, YY Live produced many anchors such as MC Tianyou, Sanda Ge, Erlu, etc., who were rumored to be worth over 10 million yuan.

Almost at the same time as the show live broadcast, with the rapid popularity of national-level games such as League of Legends, game live broadcast platforms emerged like mushrooms after rain.

YY spun off Huya, AcFun spun off Douyu TV, the state-owned Zhejiang Daily Media invested in and controlled Zhanqi, and the "rich second generation" Wang Sicong founded Panda TV... With the massive influx of capital, more than 140 live broadcast platforms emerged in 2016 alone, and live broadcast entered the era of "Thousands of Broadcast Wars."

When the "Thousands of Live Broadcast Wars" dominated by show and game live broadcasts were in full swing, Taobao launched Taobao Live in March 2016.

On Singles’ Day that year, internet celebrity Zhang Dayi became famous overnight as she brought in more than 20 million in sales for her store through a 4-hour Taobao live broadcast. One month after Taobao Live went online, Wei Ya started live streaming on Taobao. On October 10 of the following year, in the five hours from 7pm to 12am, she completed sales of 69.79 million, becoming the top live streaming influencer on Taobao until today.

Since then, live streaming with e-commerce as the main content carrier has begun to frequently refresh records: on June 18, 2019, Taobao Live 13 billion, on "Double 11" in 2019, Taobao Live 20 billion, in 2019, Kuaishou anchor Simba's annual GMV was 13.3 billion, and in 2020, Luo Yonghao's first live broadcast on Douyin brought in 110 million.

2. Tik Tok live streaming

Before Douyin pushed Luo Yonghao's e-commerce live broadcast to almost all Douyin users, the presence of Douyin live broadcast has always been relatively low, even though there have already been live show guilds/MCNs with monthly rewards of over 10 million. The ecological tone of TikTok has resulted in those flashy or funny live broadcasts with just one sentence and two "accompaniment laughter" not becoming popular. But there is no way, live streaming is the trend.

Types of Tik Tok live streaming:

Generally speaking, there are two modes of live streaming: show and selling goods. In addition to performing talents, live streaming of knowledge can also be considered a "show"; in addition to selling physical goods, live streaming of goods can also be considered a type of "selling goods", such as selling paid knowledge courses and external traffic. Let’s discuss them separately below.

1) Let’s talk about the show first

The purpose of live show broadcasts has always been simple, which is to win the audience's praise.

If you can't understand, just think about the guys you see in many northern nightclubs blowing bottles on the stage. The purpose of their suffering is very simple, just to make you, the audience, put money on the mouth of the bottle. In addition to the "self-harm" method of attracting attention, there is also a method called PK, which also originated from the Northeast's Errenzhuan. (Two people bickered and quarreled on stage to create conflict in order to win tips from the audience)

Knowledge live streaming is almost a kind of "performance". Unlike a show, knowledge live streaming relies on "information gap" to retain audiences. But obviously this model is not attractive enough, so in the early days, only the teams that teach you how to raise an account and how to operate it would broadcast it, but after three times, they all turned to the "show" after they finished speaking...

2) Live streaming

There’s nothing new about live streaming selling goods. If you go back 15 years, you would have already seen this format on TV: TV shopping guides. If you look back at my historical posts, I have posted some research related to TV shopping guides, and you will suddenly realize something after reading them. Live streaming with goods requires two things: the host and the supply chain.

3. Monetization of Tik Tok live streaming

There are two systems for live streaming monetization: the reward system and distribution system that all platforms have; and Douyin’s unique brand cooperation system that charges by the hour for Star Chart orders (just launched on May 14).

1) Conventional monetization

Rewards on Douyin are completed through "sound waves". The audience spends money to buy Douyin coins, and then uses the Douyin coins to buy gifts for the anchor. After the anchor accumulates sound waves, he can withdraw them into RMB at a ratio of 3:7 or 5:5 (3 for individuals, 5 for guilds).

In addition to basic gift rewards, fans who give specific gifts to the live broadcast can be called fan groups and receive special recognition. When connecting to PK with other anchors, the competition also depends on the number of rewards.

Tik Tok has a music wave list every hour, and the official guiding language is "being on the list can gain you a lot of exposure." Therefore, whenever a brand seeks to work with an anchor to sell products, they will brush up the rankings. After all, being number one on the list can indeed bring a lot of traffic.

Under the official list, each live broadcast room has a reward ranking list, which is what the anchors often call "the number one on the list." The method of directing traffic to the top of the list is not very popular on Douyin, but it is very common on Kuaishou to direct traffic to the top of the list.

In addition to the reward system, the goods distribution system similar to the short video sales can also be implemented in the live broadcast room. The entire monetization system is similar to the short video sales system, the only difference is the "slot fee + CPS".

2) Star Chart Order

It was just launched on May 14th, so it is not included in the courseware. Just like taking orders for short videos before, influencers can post their live broadcasts on Star Map and charge by the hour. Once the quotation is given, your live data will be seen by customers.

One thing to note here: although many quotes are tens of thousands per hour, you cannot calculate by the hour. This is because ordinary live broadcasts of selling goods only take 10 minutes to talk about one product, and the slot fee is tens of thousands. There are 6 10-minute parts in an hour, so it is recommended to divide the price by 6.

3) Live streaming

There aren't many ways to play this way, and I only found Xueersi playing it. During the epidemic, Xueersi opened live courses for all grades and subjects, and the live content was synchronized with the Xueersi courses. However, teachers will give out red envelopes at the beginning of the course and answer students' questions during the course, but the red envelopes and answers to questions only come from Xueersi's own platform. As a result, many parents ask in the comment section of the Douyin live broadcast room how to attend classes (of course some may be procrastinating), and then are guided by teachers or staff to Xueersi's own paid course platform.

3. E-commerce system in Douyin

In the gameplay of short videos and live broadcasts, e-commerce distribution is a very important system. Below, we will talk about relevant knowledge points with the overall theme of Douyin's e-commerce.

1. Douyin Store

This is the same as opening a store on Taobao or JD.com, which are all independent e-commerce systems. The only difference is that there is no centralized search and display system like Taobao and JD.com. All the products in the store are separated and distributed in the windows of various influencers.

My personal feeling is that I don’t know where the Douyin store is, but it is everywhere. This form determines that it has a completely different operating logic from conventional e-commerce platforms. One obvious one is "no brand": the products are "scattered" everywhere, rather than a whole brand.

If your product is just lying in the expert’s showcase, the entrance is very deep (expert’s homepage – showcase – product). At this depth, we can consider that the product does not exist. Only when the product is posted on the video can it be called ubiquitous: the video may be recommended to anyone.

Therefore, in my opinion, the most important thing about Douyin store products is "commission": only when the commission is high enough to be worth being posted in the videos by influencers can it have a chance to succeed.

Of course, there is another way, that is, you have a strong ability to acquire traffic. For example, last year’s popular [Bad Fruit Must Be Compensated], they did not need to offer high commissions to other influencers to promote products. The videos they created themselves were the best in the fruit market.

There should be a free and no-threshold policy for opening a small shop. Previously, you needed 300,000 fans, but now this should be cancelled. Anyone with a corporate entity can apply.

2. Luban E-commerce

The Taobao, JD.com and Douyin stores mentioned above belong to "first-class e-commerce". They all exist in the way of "goods in the store, and the store on the platform". There is another type of e-commerce, which is Luban e-commerce. It does not have a store and does not need a platform. It has one web page (H5) for one product, and this page can appear anywhere there is traffic. They are called "second-tier e-commerce".

Luban E-commerce is very suitable for platforms with accurate Toutiao traffic and user portraits: the crowd is accurate and the traffic is large, you just need to invest in a page and wait for the money to come.

You will find that although Douyin Store belongs to the first category of e-commerce, the existence form of its products is very similar to that of the second category of e-commerce. This proves from another perspective that Douyin stores cannot adopt the same operating strategy as Taobao and JD.com.

In fact, if you understand Taobao Affiliate, you will find that Taobao Affiliate is also very similar to "second-tier e-commerce". Does this mean that “second-tier e-commerce” is a trend? We don’t understand this, so don’t jump to conclusions.

3. Douyin group buying

It has now been gradually liberalized, and many offline restaurants are using it. For example, the two offline barbecues on page 46 of the PDF have group-buying products inserted into the video.

In fact, this is the TikTok version of takeout. If you are interested, you can search for the account in the screenshot on Douyin.

4. Third-party e-commerce

As mentioned before, Tik Tok’s Selected Alliance.

5. Baiying Platform

This year, a comprehensive platform serving the Douyin e-commerce system was launched to help short video and live broadcast creators better share products.

For creators, to put it simply, it is a PC version of Douyin showcase, with some operations for products in the live broadcast room (such as letting the assistant set the product to be explained). Institutions can also log in to view their artists’ data on product sales, manage artists’ product sharing, and even attract investment.

For e-commerce merchants, in addition to small stores entering the selected alliance, merchants can set up product sharing, promotion plans, and product sharing data, etc. Merchants on third-party e-commerce platforms can also view the dissemination data of each product on Douyin here once their products have entered the Selected Alliance.

4. Douyin’s advertising system

1. Information flow advertising

Similar to WeChat Moments advertising, select a targeted audience package (or audience keywords) for delivery. Currently, the account opening threshold for information flow advertising should be 30,000. You can invest in information flow and use it as dou+.

The difference between opening an account and directly placing ads on Dou+ is that there are more and more detailed groups of people to choose from, and there is a more valuable way of placing ads: don’t place ads on those that have already been seen.

I recently heard an insider news that Douyin has signed an agreement with JD.com, and JD.com merchants can guarantee a 1:5 ROI for information flow. If you are interested, you can go and ask for details (if you have the need to place an ad before 618, it is best to ask, so as to avoid all the junk traffic)

Regarding information flow advertising, many big guys in the planet have talked about it, so I won’t repeat it here.

2. dou+

Dou+ is actually a small information flow advertisement. Its advertisements are exactly the same, except that the object of exposure is not the brand but the video (in fact, if the video contains brand exposure or product shopping cart, it is still brand exposure). The threshold for placement is so low that everyone can invest (minimum consumption is 50 yuan).

The dou+ product was used to the fullest during the short video sales promotion last year, which has been mentioned before (where ROI of investing in dou+ for short video sales promotion is calculated). In fact, up to now, if they are careful enough in budgeting, the "doujiashao drivers" can still make a lot of money.

5. Other forms

In addition to the many functions mentioned above around short videos, anchors, e-commerce and advertising systems, Douyin also has some smaller service functions on the periphery.

These small functions are out of the sight of most entrepreneurs, but they are closely related to the Douyin ecosystem. If you can master them, they can be a good way to make money.

1. Special Effects Artist

Many of the special effects you see on TikTok are not officially released by TikTok, but are created by TikTok's special effects artists. Tik Tok provides a very useful special effects creation application and preview app to help special effects artists create Tik Tok special effects. If you are interested, you can download the app and create one to experience it. It is as easy to use as Windows' "Paint".

Anyone can create special effects and publish them to TikTok for others to use. Those with great influence can also obtain "TikTok Special Effects Artist" certification, which is a very good exposure opportunity.

2. Tik Tok Musicians

It’s a very high-sounding name, but the authentication is super easy. Just go to the musician page and upload a single you sing or copyrighted BGM.

After the certification, you will have a special certification in Douyin, and the homepage of the account will give priority to your music instead of your works.

The musicians’ web version allows users to view the spread and usage data of BGM, and high-influence musicians will also have opportunities for advertising cooperation.

3. Tik Tok mini games/apps

When I talked about the monetization of short videos earlier, I mentioned the “Mini Game Promotion Plan”, which was promoting this Douyin mini game. Its profit model is similar to that of the Douyin mini program: selling props or taking advertisements. In addition, well-made mini-games will be officially supported by Toutiao. For example, “My Kung Fu is Awesome” seems to have come out of the Douyin mini-game and was supported by Toutiao to be launched as an iOS game, and then topped the App Store game list.

Mini Programs are similar to WeChat’s mini programs, and most of them are for business functions. For example, Wanlimu’s live streaming sales are based on mini programs. In addition, one of the most popular ways to play is to use the promotion of mini programs as a "gimmick" and develop downline agents.

Douyin just issued a policy a few days ago that testing-type mini-programs can no longer be charged. But some big guys have already made money and left... I don’t know if there is still a chance to catch up now.

4. Instant Platform

The platform was launched last year, together with Star Map, and it is obviously for corporate customers with advertising needs. Its business content is to invite teams with video shooting capabilities to settle in and customize advertising videos for enterprises in the form of packages (the invitation has been stopped at present, and no other channels for settlement have been found).

Simply put, the official TVC shooting team has joined.

5. TikTok Open Platform

Like the open platforms of other major companies, Douyin's open platform provides Douyin-related data interfaces for teams with technical development capabilities, such as account fan data (including portraits), work dissemination data (including playback), fan interactions, work releases, etc. Just like WeChat, you need to scan the QR code with your account to authorize you to get the relevant data.

If the team has development capabilities, they can actually arrange for technical research. From my personal experience reading the documents, I feel that many functions can be used to make money, so there are still many opportunities.

The above should be relatively comprehensive. If there are omissions or inadequate descriptions or wrong places, I hope you can point them out.

Author: Xixin

Source: Xixin