Douyin is a music creative short video social software incubated by Toutiao. It was launched on September 20, 2016 and is a music short video community platform for all ages. Users can use this software to select songs, shoot short music videos, and create their own works. The software will update users' favorite videos based on their preferences. The author of this article has produced a competitive product analysis report for TikTok.

1. Introduction

1.1 Contents

1. Purpose of analysis
2. Product Overview (Understand the current status of the product)
3. Market analysis (asking questions)
4. Product analysis (analyzing the problem)
5. Product optimization (problem solving)
6. Summarize

1.2 Purpose of analysis

In 2020, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, offline entertainment demand shifted online, driving the user scale of the pan-entertainment industry. Short video entertainment has received more attention. People not only enjoy the happiness brought by short videos, but also become part of producing happiness.

Launched in 2016, Douyin has now become a leading product among short video apps.

This article mainly analyzes the successful experience of Douyin since its launch and the characteristics of competing products in the market, boldly imagines the future development direction of Douyin, and provides some optimization ideas for existing products.

2. Product Overview (Understand the current status of the product)

2.1 Product Experience Environment

Experience model: Huawei P30 pro

System version: EMUI 9.1.0

APP version: Douyin version12.3.0

Time: August 2020

2.2 Product Introduction

Slogan: Record a beautiful life

Official introduction: Douyin is a short video platform that helps users express themselves and record their beautiful lives.

2.3 Product Performance

2.3.1 In the past year

• As of January 2020, Douyin’s DAU exceeded 400 million, a 60% increase from 250 million in the same period last year (Source: 2019 Douyin Data Report);
• In June 2020, the number of monthly active users reached 513.36 million, a year-on-year growth rate of 5.6% (Source: QuestMobile TRUTH China Mobile Internet Database June 2020);
• The average monthly usage time per person is 1,569.5 minutes (Source: QuestMobile TRUTH China Mobile Internet Database, June 2020);
• The 7-day retention rate of active users is 87.2% (Source: QuestMobile TRUTH China Mobile Internet Database, June 2020);
• The top ten iOS app best-selling list and photography and video (best-selling & free) list in the past year (2019.08 - 2020.08) (Source: Qimai Data).

2.3.2 Long-term product performance

2.3.2.1 Exploration period

Since its launch on September 26, 2016, Douyin has gone through an exploration period of more than half a year, focusing on optimizing product functions - iterating new versions, continuously launching new filters, special effects, updating music libraries, and optimizing operating procedures and experience.

2.3.2.2 Primary growth stage

Subsequently, Yue Yunpeng’s forwarding incident brought Douyin into the public eye, and Douyin also started its initial growth journey.

From May 2017 to April 2018, the number of Tik Tok users grew rapidly. The slogan of TikTok has been changed from "Let worship start here" to "Record a beautiful life", indicating that the brand positioning of TikTok is changing.

2.3.2.3 Rapid Growth Stage

From May 2018 to January 2019, Douyin entered a period of rapid user growth and also launched a series of operational actions. As of January 2019, Douyin’s daily active users exceeded 250 million, and its monthly active users exceeded 500 million.

2.3.2.4 Maturity

From 2019 to 2020, Douyin's daily active users exceeded 400 million; in early 2020, Douyin and Huoshan Video officially announced their brand integration and upgrade; in August, Douyin and NetEase Cloud Music announced a partnership.

2.4 Product User Analysis

2.4.1 User Attribute Analysis (as shown in the figure)

The overall population portrait of Douyin is relatively balanced between men and women, with a high TGI (Target Group Index preference) for those aged 19-30; and a high TGI for users in new first-tier, third-tier and below cities.

The overall age of Douyin users is relatively young, and they are more receptive to new things. People in new first-tier, third-tier and lower cities have a relatively slower work pace, a stable income structure, and more cultural and entertainment options. They pursue a stable life and have plenty of entertainment and leisure time.

Tik Tok was initially positioned as trendy and cool, attracting young users and users from high-end cities. From the change of Douyin’s slogan from “Worship starts here” to “Record a beautiful life” in 2018, it can be seen that Douyin has expanded the scope of target users, and also shows its intention to expand the sinking market.

2.4.2 User-Scenario-Requirement Analysis

According to different needs, Douyin users are divided into five categories (as shown in the figure). Among them, the top users have the desire to perform and hope that their videos can be displayed and recommended. They are the biggest contributors to UCG content and are closely related to the quantity and quality of platform content.

Douyin attracts celebrities and KOLs in certain fields to join the platform, bringing high-quality content to Douyin; it also expands its top users through some activities and reward mechanisms to produce high-quality content, thereby attracting more users to watch short videos, and arousing the creative desire of some users to make the entire ecosystem operate healthily and benignly.

Among the five types of users, the largest base is users who watch short videos to kill time. They may rarely create videos, but hope to get what they want from videos, such as fun, knowledge, information, etc.

For such users, smooth user experience, high-quality content, accurate algorithm recommendations, and a good community environment are most important to them.

2.5 Product Overview Summary

This section introduces the four periods of Douyin's development history, as well as Douyin's achievements and performance in the past year, to understand Douyin's current development status, analyzes user attributes, and understands Douyin's current user attribute positioning.

We broke down and analyzed the users, scenarios, and needs of Douyin, and briefly presented the current user composition of Douyin. Sort out the basic information so that you can compare it with the subsequent competitive product analysis.

3. Market analysis (asking questions)

3.1 Industry Overview

QuestMobile data shows that due to the impact of the epidemic in the first half of the year, the number of monthly active users of the entire network reached 1.164 billion in May, and then fell slightly in June, with an average monthly MAU of 1.155 billion (the average monthly MAU in 2019 was 1.135 billion, and the average monthly MAU in 2018 was 1.109 billion). Short videos are growing rapidly, and the industry MAU has reached 852 million. The duration of short videos has accounted for 20% of the total duration, second only to instant messaging.

Affected by the epidemic, the user scale of the pan-entertainment industry increased. As the epidemic situation improved in China, the user scale declined slightly, but the short video industry still increased in percentage compared with the same period in 2019.

3.2 Industry User Research

The new type of pan-entertainment video users are sinking across the country, which is consistent with the results of the Douyin user attribute analysis mentioned above.

With the popularization of mobile devices, a large population base, and a slower pace of life, people have relatively more time for leisure and entertainment, so low-tier cities have huge market potential.

Douyin and Kuaishou have both launched express versions to attract lower-tier users. However, the positioning of Kuaishou's main app itself is more down-to-earth than Douyin's main product. Douyin's positioning in its early days was trendy and cool, using special effects and technology to attract young people.

Douyin’s KOLs are basically celebrities and famous people in the field, while Kuaishou’s top users are internet celebrities and grassroots celebrities. Even though the Douyin Speed ​​​​Version was launched, its performance in the sinking market is not as good as the Kuaishou Speed ​​​​Version.

In the subsequent comparative analysis, it is necessary to focus on analyzing what excellent designs Kuaishou has made in attracting low-end users.

3.3 Business Model

Typical methods of commercial monetization for new traffic platforms include: e-commerce sales, rewards, knowledge payment, advertising traffic, game distribution, etc.

At present, there are three main modes of advertising monetization for social entertainment videos: information flow advertising, embedded advertising, and patch advertising. Advertising monetization modes are more often combined with short-term and frequent advertising. Among them, information flow advertising is currently the most important advertising monetization method for social entertainment video platforms.

Since 2019, e-commerce monetization has become an important monetization method for social entertainment video platforms, with live streaming as the main means.

Taking Douyin and Kuaishou as examples: Differences in product ecology lead to differences in monetization

3.3.1 Douyin: Advertisement as the core monetization method, e-commerce live streaming continues to increase

Douyin pushes hot topics and popular videos to users through algorithms, and pays more attention to the popularity of video content. Therefore, the relationship between users and ordinary KOLs is relatively weak. However, top KOLs have their own hot topics and can create hot topics for Douyin.

The entire product presents the characteristics of high traffic but discreteness, and e-commerce videos also focus on displaying the product itself.

3.3.2 Kuaishou: Live streaming as the core monetization method, e-commerce and advertising continue to make efforts

Kuaishou attaches more importance to the relationship between users and KOLs, and its recommendation mechanism is also people-oriented. E-commerce monetization is mainly based on live streaming, which creates a good community atmosphere, strengthens the trust relationship between anchors and users, and forms a model in which people bring goods.

Through short videos and traffic advertising, a lot of exposure can be obtained and it is easy to spread, but the e-commerce conversion rate is low; the conversion rate through live streaming is high, but it is more dependent on the relationship between the anchor and the user.

Douyin's core commercial monetization model is advertising traffic. It has also made efforts to expand into e-commerce, launching the e-commerce advertising system "Luban" and live streaming sales on Douyin stores, and ByteDance has established an "e-commerce department."

Attract traffic through high-quality content, and then use live streaming to accelerate the monetization of private domain traffic.

So, while maintaining a high-quality content recommendation algorithm, how to strengthen the community atmosphere, enhance relationship accumulation, and increase e-commerce conversion rates are areas where Douyin needs to learn from its competitors.

3.4 Summary

Use SWOT analysis to list relevant information

Through market analysis and the strategic adjustments made by Douyin, we can conclude the future development direction of Douyin:

1. From the change of slogan and the merger of Huoshan Video to compete with Kuaishou, we can see that Douyin has begun to focus on the lower-tier markets.
2. With advertising monetization as the core, e-commerce live streaming continues to increase its investment, and the two complement each other's advantages to enhance the overall commercial monetization capabilities.

The following competitive product analysis will focus on the above issues and find ideas for improvement by analyzing the practices of competitors.

4. Product Analysis (Analyze the Problem)

Douyin and Kuaishou are undoubtedly each other's biggest competitors in terms of the fields involved, product structure, market share, and target population. Therefore, Kuaishou was chosen as Douyin's main competitor for analysis.

4.1 Product Structure

The figure below is the product structure framework of Douyin and Kuaishou. It can be seen that Douyin’s logic is very clear and the hierarchy is not complicated. Kuaishou’s waterfall flow display method is one level deeper than Douyin.

From the perspective of several major sections, Douyin and Kuaishou are almost the same: Home Page, Same City, Shooting, News, and Me.

From the analysis of Douyin's development, focusing on live broadcast content is also one of the trends, and Douyin's live broadcast entrance is in the upper left corner of the homepage. It can be seen that Douyin has placed the live broadcast section in a relatively important position.

Kuaishou divides the live broadcast section into more detailed categories, and users can search under the category labels according to the type they want to watch. Tik Tok’s live broadcast also uses a sliding screen immersive approach. If you want to watch a specific type of live broadcast, you need to search manually.

Since Douyin wants to develop the live streaming section, it should make this part more detailed.

In addition to the five large tabs at the bottom and the Follow, Discover, and Featured tabs at the top, the items in the side drawer bar are not small sections. For example, there are live broadcasts, rankings, and various categories under the rankings. There are also complex hierarchies after clicking in.

The contents of the side drawer are also very mixed, as if they didn't know where to put them so they found a drawer to put them in. In comparison, Douyin's hierarchical relationship is clearer, and its operation is simpler and easier to understand.

4.2 Product Function Interface Analysis

If you use a table to list the main functions of Douyin and Kuaishou and their corresponding modules, you will find that the two are becoming more and more similar. These requirements are classified using the Kano model. Let's compare the two to see what the similarities and differences are.

4.2.1 Shooting/shooting editing

It can be seen that Douyin and Kuaishou are almost the same in terms of shooting process and content of each part of the interface, except that the arrangement of elements on the interface is slightly different.

• Douyin is more comprehensive in solving technical problems of shooting. For example, when entering the shooting interface (1), Douyin has a wide-angle button in the upper right corner. Pulling down the more button reveals the flash button and the anti-shake button. The anti-shake function is not available on Kuaishou.
• Kuaishou supports shooting long videos of 5 minutes, and Douyin supports shooting videos of up to 60 seconds. If you want to upload long videos, you need to upload them through the video management of the Creator Service Center.

Tik Tok is essential for shooting music videos, and it does better in terms of technical aspects such as wide-angle anti-shake. Post-production video editing such as filters, special effects and editing are expected functions, and if done well, they will increase user satisfaction.

In the early days, Tik Tok's stickers and gameplay attracted many users, but now Kuaishou is also increasing its design efforts in filters and fun special effects. Excluding operations, the special effects, filters and stickers are equally good.

4.2.2 Watch Video

4.2.2.1 Immersive large screen or waterfall flow

The tab bar at the bottom of the homepage of Douyin and Kuaishou is almost the same, but Kuaishou has three tabs at the top: Follow, Discover, and Featured. The browsing method under Discover is still waterfall flow, but the selection uses a large screen.

It can be seen here that Kuaishou also intends to try large-screen immersive viewing, and the large-screen mode can be switched with one click in the Kuaishou side drawer.

Can this be understood as Kuaishou trying to absorb some Douyin users?

If users have always been accustomed to the large-screen mode of Douyin, they will quickly get used to it when they come to Kuaishou.

However, what’s interesting is that Douyin chose the waterfall flow format in the same city section. The reason why the waterfall flow format is chosen in the same city may be that the number of videos in the same city is not that massive, and the quality is not high-quality or high-popularity videos screened by algorithms, so it is very reasonable to let users choose what to watch themselves.

4.2.2.2 Where to share?

The sharing button of Tik Tok will turn into an icon for sharing to Moments after liking the video and playing it twice. The Kuaishou share button will immediately turn into a WeChat share icon after clicking the like button;

However, WeChat restricts the sharing of Douyin, and it can only be shared through passwords or saved videos. Tencent has invested in Kuaishou, so it will not restrict the sharing of Kuaishou videos. Kuaishou links shared to Tencent's social platform can be directly opened and played and the Kuaishou app can be opened from the link;

Even though Tencent blocked the sharing channels of Douyin, the icon of the share button still changed to the Moments icon after the video was liked and played twice, which shows that Douyin is well aware of the power of Moments communication.

4.2.3 Interactive Social Networking

4.2.3.1 Whether to interrupt the video when reading comments

Douyin's comments are viewed by clicking the comment button on the right. The comment section floats above the video, covering three-quarters of the video content, but the sound of the video will not stop. Douyin's comment area is displayed by swiping up, and the size of the video above is reduced, but the video continues to play without stopping.

When reading comments on Douyin, you cannot see the screen, and the video cannot be paused while reading comments, which results in the sound looping and brainwashing if you read comments for too long. However, Kuaishou is more user-friendly in this regard. The screen is reduced when reading comments so as not to affect viewing, and the video can be paused at any time, which makes reading and writing comments a more comfortable experience.

4.2.3.2 Message Area

Tik Tok integrates messages into one page, including fan growth, comment interactions, and private messages.

Kuaishou has carefully divided the news section into three sections. The dynamic section independently displays the likes and dynamic posts of the people you follow, so that you can see what the people you follow like and shorten the social distance.

4.2.3.3 Private Message

• The private messages on Douyin are very simple: voice, text, video/phone, picture, video, red envelope;
• Kuaishou's private messaging function is more detailed: voice messages, text, pictures, video, sharing my favorites, playing games together;

Kuaishou’s social feature is more interesting than Douyin’s. Kuaishou’s video calls are made through chat rooms; Douyin’s private messages are more like a communication tool, including monetary exchanges such as sending red envelopes.

When it comes to one-on-one video chats and money transactions, the relationship is actually relatively private.

Kuaishou is where we chat, share interests and play together; Tik Tok is where we chat, video chat with each other and build deeper relationships.

4.2.3.4 Social Feature Sections

These two pages are not put up for comparison, but to show the differences between Douyin and Kuaishou.

The Douyin interface displayed is the latest updated page of version 12.5.0 - the friends page (the version I experienced when writing this article was 12.3.0, and this part was added later) and the Kuaishou chat page.

• Douyin—Friends: The friends interface displays the updates of friends who follow each other. This part is somewhat similar to the updates on Kuaishou, but Douyin puts friends on the homepage, and their importance is obvious. Overall, it seems that Tik Tok might want to create a short video circle of friends.
• Kuaishou—ShuoShuo: When I saw the word ShuoShuo, my first reaction was QQ Space. Kuaishou’s Moments Square is not a social platform for acquaintances. Kuaishou’s social networking is mainly based on short videos, with a text component added. Kuaishou’s overall layout is large and comprehensive, but no details are neglected. On the negative side, being big and comprehensive can also give people a bloated feeling.

4.2.4 Live Broadcast

Should the live broadcast list be categorized?

• You can enter Kuaishou's live broadcast square by clicking on the side drawer bar. After entering, you will see an immersive large-screen playback. Click on "More Live Broadcasts" in the upper right corner to display the live broadcast list. Above the list are the live broadcast categories, which you can choose to watch as needed. Click on the large-screen live broadcast interface to open the special zone interface, such as game TV.
• Tik Tok opens the live broadcast directly in the upper left corner of the main interface, and after entering, it is also immersive large-screen playback. Click More Live Broadcasts to open the list, but there is a search box above the list and no categories.

Live streaming is different from short videos. It is long and the cost of watching is higher than that of a 15-second short video.

Therefore, both platforms have made waterfall lists so that users can choose their favorite videos. After all, live broadcasts are less in volume than short videos, and personal preferences are closely related to the host and the theme, so the credibility of algorithm recommendations is not that high.

Kuaishou has added categories to the list, allowing users to choose their favorite live broadcasts more accurately.

4.2.5 Intelligent Recommendation

• Tik Tok is mainly based on immersive large screen: the recommendation mechanism is to recommend videos with many likes and comments, high popularity and high quality to more users. Video recommendations are not time-sensitive. Even if a video was released a long time ago, it will still be recommended as long as it is of high quality.
• Kuaishou mainly uses a list mode: it will recommend similar videos and accounts that the users have followed and liked. Video recommendations are time-sensitive, and newly released videos are given priority.

The two in the picture are new accounts, and they posted three identical videos on the same day.

In terms of playback volume, Douyin's playback volume is 68, 44, and 20, while Kuaishou's playback volume is 293, 300, and 165; Douyin's playback volume increased slightly within a week, while Kuaishou's playback volume increased dramatically in both ends, and the numbers remained almost unchanged after 2-3 days.

Even videos that are not very popular in Kuaishou have the opportunity to be recommended to the homepage. For most ordinary video creators, there are more exposure opportunities and more motivation, which is also in line with Kuaishou’s vision of making ordinary people’s lives visible.

Douyin focuses more on quality, and ordinary records of life are difficult to be seen. This is also the fundamental reason why Kuaishou is doing better in attracting lower-tier users.

4.2.6 Creator Services

The creator services of both Douyin and Kuaishou provide courses and some guidance, but Kuaishou also has 7-day data performance and author weekly reports, which will analyze each work and tell the author where they need to improve.

The creator service section is very meticulous and considerate, not only can it provide suggestions but also allows creators to feel the warmth from the platform, which is directly related to the user groups of the two platforms.

Tik Tok requires high-quality works, so the threshold for dedicated creators is higher, and they may not need too much of these basic teachings. Kuaishou is focusing on attracting low-end users and hopes to make the lives of ordinary people visible to everyone, so they need more detailed teaching.

4.2.7 E-commerce Advertising

4.2.7.1 E-commerce

The e-commerce section of Douyin has product showcases and Douyin stores, and the product showcases are displayed on the personal homepage. The product display window can carry goods (put a link), and you can display your own products by opening a Douyin store. The Douyin store is a store that diverts traffic to offline stores.

Both short videos and live broadcasts can be used to sell goods in Douyin, while Kuaishou mainly sells goods through live broadcasts, and there is no shopping entrance in short videos.

Kuaishou Store is a platform similar to a shopping mall, where all users can shop and sell goods. On Douyin, users must go through the anchor to reach the sales window, while on Kuaishou, users can directly enter the store to browse the products.

4.2.7.2 Advertising

• There are four types of ads in Douyin: splash screen ads, information flow ads, sticker ads, and influencer collaboration ads.
• Kuaishou has two types of ads: small patch ads and information flow ads

Advertising and e-commerce are two very special functions. If they are done well, they may become attractive functions. When you see a good product, you can buy it directly, saving time and effort. However, if there are too many advertisements or it affects users' viewing of videos, it will become a reverse function, and the more you do it, the worse it will be.

Although Douyin has many advertising methods, each one is embedded very naturally. However, the advertisements posted on the lower left corner of the video by Kuaishou have no relevance to the video content and are very conspicuous, which greatly affects the viewing effect.

4.3 Summary

1. Douyin's shooting function remains professional, stickers are trendy and fun, and new gameplay is constantly introduced. At the same time, simple and easy-to-use templates are retained. The gameplay must also be compatible with the acceptance of sinking users, leaving more possibilities for sinking users' creation;
2. The main feature is the immersive large screen, with a waterfall list of live broadcast modules in the same city;
3. If there are obstacles in sharing on WeChat Moments, then we can increase the stickiness of users on the site (so is it developing into social networking among acquaintances) or the stickiness of users in the product matrix, and attract traffic through the product matrix;
4. The comment function card blocks 3/4 of the video content, and the video cannot be paused, affecting the viewing experience. The comments can pop up and the video will shrink at the same time. The video can be paused or the video sound will be automatically reduced when reading the comments.
5. The message area is simple and functional, and the private message area allows for more gameplay;
6. Putting the Friends section in the first level shows that Douyin wants to develop into a social network among acquaintances. The most ideal development state is to replace the Moments and become a different kind of entertainment video social network (without more data research, I dare not make any predictions);
7. Although the smart recommendation is done very well and Tik Tok is very confident in this algorithm, it is not ruled out that users who have just downloaded Tik Tok may uninstall the app after watching several videos in a row and not liking them. Is it possible to give new users several preference tags to choose from when they first enter the app? When filtering video recommendations, is it possible to tilt the selection mechanism towards ordinary users? This will be more conducive to expanding the number of lower-tier users.
8. The live broadcast list is easier to find with category tags;
9. The creator service section can appropriately add some creator operation auxiliary functions;
10. The reason why people buy products on Douyin is because they watch the video, while the reason why people buy on Taobao is because they have a need and then watch the video or live broadcast. Therefore, the content must first be attractive or enhance the trust between the KOL and the audience.

5. Product optimization plan (problem solving)

5.1 How to cater to the sinking market (strategic level)

The user groups in the sinking market are characterized by emphasis on cost-effectiveness, more leisure time, stable lives, focus on home life, and living in low-tier cities. At the same time, we cannot ignore the retired people aged 50 and above, who have more time to enjoy life.

In the summary of the fourth part, several points on how to cater to the sinking market are summarized:

1. The gameplay is compatible with the interests of people in the sinking market;
2. When screening video recommendations, we tend to favor ordinary people;
3. Provide cost-effective e-commerce services.

Let’s break it down:

5.1.1 Gameplay is compatible with the interests of people in the sinking market

As mentioned in the previous article, the characteristics of the people in the sinking market, so we can design some special effects and stickers based on their daily lives.

For example, they pay more attention to family and mother-and-child related content, so when designing some special effects templates, they can create gameplay that all family members can participate in, rather than just trendy and cool gameplay.

If family play features can be created, young people can also bring older people to play together, and the videos shot can be circulated among the vast "family group", which will invisibly expand the population market. However, the quantity and quality of such sticker special effects templates must also be controlled.

5.1.2 Favoring Ordinary People When Screening Video Recommendations

The benefit of a recommendation mechanism that is tilted toward ordinary people is that it can motivate dormant users and users who only watch but do not take photos.

If ordinary users can record the beautiful moments of their lives and let more people see them, receive likes and encouragement, the atmosphere of the entire community will become active and healthy. However, doing so will also invisibly reduce the quality of the video, and this part requires the operation team to keep a close eye on it.

The most common reason for giving one-star bad reviews in the Douyin App store is permanent ban without reason. It is also worth thinking about whether the operation team will accidentally cause any harm while keeping a close eye on the reviews. Such bans will also invisibly dampen the enthusiasm of ordinary creators.

While focusing on top users, we also need to stop and look at the demands of ordinary users.

5.1.3 Provide cost-effective e-commerce services

While actively guiding e-commerce companies to settle in and sell goods through live streaming, the platform should also pay attention to their qualifications and the quality of their products. Although this field is just starting out, it seems difficult to pay attention to quality and qualifications. For example, this problem was common in the early days of Taobao and Pinduoduo.

If this part is done well, it will be a charm function, allowing users to find good products while watching videos. If it is done poorly, it will be a reverse function, and the more it is done, the more annoyed users will be.

5.2 How to Build User Relationships (Strategic Level)

From the iterative actions of Douyin, such as putting the friends page on the first layer, and Duoshan launched by ByteDance, we can see that ByteDance wants to break into the social field. But the social interaction of Tik Tok must be entertaining because it is a video-based social interaction.

At present, WeChat’s social status has been unshakable. No matter whether it is Douyin, Weibo or people met at offline gatherings, as long as they want to develop further, they will flow into WeChat.

At the same time, modern people are also experiencing a surge of fear towards WeChat, because WeChat is too much like a tool to maintain relationships with friends that have to be maintained and to reply to work messages that have to be replied to. Therefore, such a video app that requires no work and no pressure and is based on entertainment needs is promising in the future.

Therefore, the social development direction of Tik Tok cannot be like that of communication software, it should have diverse gameplay. Weak social interaction with friends is more appropriate. After all, opening a friend's chat room on WeChat to start a topic and end it by saying goodbye is an anxious thing for many people.

If we get together for entertainment, the distance is just right so that we don't have such a strong connection after the entertainment but don't feel awkward.

5.3 Give users what they like (scope layer)

1. New users enter the interest preference tab for the first time
2. Add category tags to the live broadcast list
3. Creators like data and operational analysis

5.3.1 New users select interest preference tags for the first time

The first entry interface of Xiaohongshu (as shown in the picture) is to select user preferences, which can ensure to the greatest extent that the algorithm initially recommends to the user what he is interested in.

Because the large-screen immersive experience is different from the Kuaishou waterfall flow, users are passively accepting and have no chance to choose.

Then the content pushed to users is largely what they don’t like, but there is actually content that users like in the content pool. It is a pity to lose some users who are not so patient because of the first impression.

5.3.2 Add category tags to the live broadcast list

Similarly, for the algorithm, the larger the content pool, the greater the possibility of recommending high-quality products. However, the cost of clicking and watching live broadcasts is high for users, and the live broadcast content pool is small. Therefore, it is more important to label and categorize users and give them what they like.

A specific example is the category labels on the Kuaishou live broadcast list page, which is worth learning from. The pictures have been listed in the previous competitive product analysis, so I will not repeat them here.

5.3.3 Creators like data and operational analysis

After working hard on shooting, post-production and sending the video, the most favorite thing for the creator is to refresh the page constantly to see how many views it has, how many people have liked it, and whether anyone has commented.

This is a fascinating feature. Some ordinary users who record daily information may not need it, but for creators who care about data, selectively opening this feature to them is a fascinating feature.

Can this be done in conjunction with the Tik Tok mini program?

It can be called up when needed, and it won’t disturb the user when not in use.

5.4 Non-disruptive interaction (structural layer)

As mentioned earlier, the card in the Tik Tok comment function blocks 3/4 of the video content, and the video cannot be paused, affecting the viewing experience. Since Kuaishou uses swiping upwards to display the comment area, it is very natural to swipe upwards to shrink the video playback area.

Tik Tok has a pop-up comment area, but the pop-up direction is also from the bottom to the top, so it is also possible to shrink the video area while displaying the comment area. Please refer to the Cloud Village section of NetEase Cloud Music for details. The interactive experience is also very smooth. However, Kuaishou allows you to pause videos on small screens to prevent the music from being a brainwashing loop.

6. Conclusion

After nearly a month of experience, I have a better understanding of short video products. I will continue to pay attention to the iterations of Tik Tok and Kuaishou in the future, and see what is desirable and undesirable in my analysis.

Author: Seventeen

Source: Seventeen