Xigua Video product analysis report!

As a product of Toutiao, Xigua Video has been around for 4 years. How is it developing now? Judging from industry data and operational status, what changes and improvements have there been, and what issues are worth optimizing?

As a die-hard fan of Toutiao apps such as Xigua Video, I have been concerned about its every step of growth. From small things like incentives for creators to big things like the Xigua PLAY Video Carnival, I follow almost every one of them. I would like to analyze the current status of Xigua Video's products and operations based on my understanding of it and industry data reports, and discuss the operational strategies of the platform and creators.

Table of contents

1. Xigua Video File Card

2. Xigua Video Events

3. Industry Report Research

4. Analysis of Watermelon Video’s Advantages

5. Platform Disadvantages and Improvement Measures

• 5.1 Problems that still exist on the creator side
• 5.2 Improvements on the Creator Side
• 5.3 Creator Operation Strategy

6. Keep pace with the times and win in 2020

1. Watermelon Video File Card (Overview)

• Name: Watermelon Video
• Hatching date: May 2016, almost 5 years old
• Motto: Give you fresh and beautiful
• Hobbies: Absorbing fresh content and creating mobile variety show IP
• Specialties: Games, short videos, vlogs, music, variety shows, farmers, food, pets, children, comedy, fashion, car knowledge, sports, entertainment, culture, handicrafts, technology, square dance, parent-child, emotions, travel, NBA, military
• Daddy: Today's Headlines
• Brother: Tik Tok, Volcano Video
• Other siblings: Wukong Q&A, Dongchedi, FaceU, TopBuzz, Tik Tok, Gogo kid, Tuchong, Buzz Video
• Favorite Party: Watermelon PLAY Video Carnival, Golden Second Award
• Gifts from Aifa: Spreading money, free movies and TV series, music festivals
• Special section: Xigua Live, Xigua Academy
• My understanding of the brand spirit: novel and interesting content, a rich and colorful content matrix, and an all-encompassing brand attitude.

2. Xigua Video Events

May 2016: Launched as an independent app, positioning: China's largest PUGC short video platform with personalized recommendations.

June 8, 2017: Officially changed its name to Xigua Video

On November 25, 2017, the first Xigua PLAY Video Carnival was held, with a 2 billion joint production fund to support short video authors (the cumulative number of users exceeded 200 million, the daily playback volume exceeded 3 billion times, and the average user stay time was up to 70 minutes per day)

3+X monetization: platform revenue sharing upgrade (six times the revenue sharing from daily traffic), buy while watching (product cards), and live streaming.

January to March 2018, Million Heroes, live quiz show.

2018.08.24, 4 billion yuan was invested to build Xigua Video’s native mobile variety show IP and create mobile native long-form videos. "Top Mission" released

On October 12, 2018, the second Xigua PLAY Video Carnival event released 9 variety shows, including "The Number One Mission", "It's Okay If You Don't Do Well in the Exam" and 7 micro variety shows "Xigua Rice", "Li Yu Ke", "My Brothers and I", "Danxing Line", "Meet Taiwan, Meet Golden Horse", "Sweet Teeth at the Cape" and "Lovers' Journey: Roll in Africa".

On January 22, 2019, China’s first new media short video award, the “Golden Second Award”, was held; vertical and IP became the keywords for creation in 2018.

On April 15, 2019, Xigua Video launched the Advanced Classroom to support platform creators and help build IP. Xigua Vlog Academy, Attack Classroom, Vlog is included in the Kaleidoscope Project...

July 23, 2019, the 10,000 yuan monthly salary plan was released (can be improved, experience required) 3+x

On August 7, 2019, Xigua Video provided all-round trademark protection support to creators and has helped 17 people

Eggshell Plan 2019

On December 29, 2019, the live quiz show "Hero No. 1" ended on December 31, with more than 140 million people participating in the online quiz.

On January 24, 2020, the first day of the Chinese New Year, Lost in Russia was released online, and users can watch it for free.

February 18, 2020, Campaign to Help Farmers

February 21, 2020, Strawberry Music Festival.

Product Overview: A comprehensive video platform that aggregates diverse cultures, forms a complete content matrix with short videos, ultra-short videos, long videos and live broadcasts, and gradually builds a full-category video ecosystem. The video content is finely divided to meet people's entertainment needs in their spare time.

3. Industry Report Research

China has 1.135 billion Internet users. After experiencing the embryonic stage and growth stage, the short video industry entered the explosive period in 2018. Since 2019, the growth rate of the industry has slowed down significantly, with the following characteristics (Source: QuestMobile data and Kas Data)

3.1 Personality, diversity, quality, and hits become the keywords of the short video industry in 2019

3.2 The dividend era is coming to an end. The industry is gradually saying goodbye to barbaric growth and the growth order is more benign.

From the perspective of the proportion of each content type:

Pan-entertainment content still dominates, but it has declined by more than 10% year-on-year (accounting for 60% of the total content volume), showing a clear cooling.

In other content areas, general life content grew the fastest (with an increase close to double digits), followed by vertical content.

Among all major vertical content types, fashion, beauty, automobiles, and sports performed the best, which shows that users' short video content consumption has upgraded, shifting from entertainment demands to multi-dimensional demands such as acquiring knowledge and realizing self-worth.

Personal analysis: Although the overload and high homogeneity of pan-entertainment content have caused users to become aesthetically fatigued, resulting in a decline in 2019, lightheartedness, humor and entertainment are still the core motivations for users to watch short videos. About 60% of the share will be the bottom line for pan-entertainment content (including plot/funny, high appearance, talent and other content categories) on short video platforms.

If latecomers want to survive, they have to compete not only on content quality, but also on the comprehensive capabilities of distinctive character positioning, refined content, fan operations and traffic management.

3.3 User stickiness continues to increase. Grabbing users is a long-term battle and platform competition remains fierce

3.4 The trend of competition and cooperation in the industrial chain is obvious, and the commercialization process of the platform is accelerating.

After several years of development, the construction of the short video industry chain has been basically completed. A complete industrial ecosystem including industry regulatory departments (the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the executive department of the Cultural Bureau), content producers (UGC, PGC and PUGC), video publishing platforms (mobile short video apps, content distribution platforms, traditional video platforms), advertisers, technical support platforms and users has been initially established, laying a good foundation for the healthy development of the short video industry.

3.5 More specialized content areas will emerge in 2020

From the perspective of growth space for each content type, although the current size of professional knowledge, popular science, and cultural and artistic accounts is relatively small, as short video platforms increase their support for long video content and users' demands for content consumption increase, there is greater room for them to become popular.

In addition, accounts with unique content, strong professionalism and content focusing on a certain vertical category have been revitalized.

In addition, some very niche fields, although with a small population base, have high stickiness, huge monetization potential, and a higher chance of "going out of the circle."

3.6 In the industries with the highest growth rates, duration, model dividends and traffic refinement are the main factors for growth

Among them, the fastest growing areas are health and beauty, themed beautification, education and learning, and automotive services; the largest areas are mobile shopping and financial management. At a time when the epidemic is prevalent and online life is mature, Xigua Video can expand the KOLs in the corresponding categories, and produce or introduce more variety shows on beauty, health, learning, and finance.

4. Analysis of the advantages of Xigua Video

4.1 Platform Advantages

Rich resources + personalized and accurate recommendations

1. Content advantage: Both long and short videos are available, using the short to promote the long and the long to support the short.

Advantages of short videos: light, interesting, efficient, no burden on users, suitable for fragmented scenarios, strong appeal, can occupy users' entertainment time, and break up traditional leisure modes such as text/pictures/games.

Advantages of long videos: The content is more professional and rich, the information conveyed is more systematic, the marketing scope is expanded, the operability is stronger, and it is easy to salvage and promote S-level high-quality content; the user stickiness is high, and it has a texture that short videos cannot match.

2. Powerful algorithm recommendation and artificial intelligence technology accumulation can more intelligently and accurately recommend appropriate content to users. Video recommendations are made through algorithm analysis of users’ browsing volume, viewing history, length of stay, etc.

3. A high subsidy mechanism, regular skills training, and offline Xigua Creator Conferences give users a sense of belonging, and establish a training system to help them quickly become professional producers on Xigua Video. Favorable policy support, such as 3+X monetization: platform share upgrade (six times the share income of daily traffic), buy while watching (product cards), and Xigua live broadcast, all these policies help short video entrepreneurs realize commercial monetization.

4. Introduction of high-quality exclusive copyrights: It has many international IP blockbusters, from Russia's "Masha and the Bear" to the UK's "Dracula", and mainland China's "Lost in Russia" and "Crazy Alien" and other large quantities of highly acclaimed exclusive film and television content blockbusters. Content is the only barrier to competition in the industry. With more professional content, we can enrich our content matrix while attracting more high-quality users and greatly reduce the cost of acquiring users.

4.2 Creator Ecosystem Advantages

1. The establishment of the Golden Second Award: to improve the quality of short videos and form a high-quality content ecosystem in many vertical categories such as games, agriculture, rural areas and farmers, Vlog, and sports.

2. The content is rich and diverse, with more than 300,000 PGC creators, which can serve the general public.

3. Creators who are enthusiastic about spreading knowledge and skills gather together to share life wisdom and impart academic knowledge. The platform system without knowledge payment makes users linger.

4. Show the highlights of ordinary people, share sincerely, get rid of filters and curiosity, and make people feel more intimate. It reflects the vitality and appeal of short videos.

5. Provide comprehensive introductory courses on short videos, and offer a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan to continuously introduce watermelon video creators to the platform, thus continuously injecting a lot of fresh traffic.

6. High subsidies for top traffic, the Thousands of Fans Plan, and the Kaleidoscope Plan to create more new stars in vertical categories.

5. Platform Disadvantages and Improvement Measures

1. The algorithmic recommendation mechanism may lead to enormous pressure on creating influencers. It will also cause large-scale pornographic and violent content recommendations on Xigua Children's Channel (I often automatically jump to the murderer's video after watching cartoons on Xigua Video, provided that I have never seen any violent content on Xigua Video.)
2. It has not formed its own distinctive cultural atmosphere, the reputation of video content resources in the vertical field has not yet been formed, and there is a lack of well-known KOLs with popular appeal as benchmarks.
3. PGC’s exclusive signing awareness needs to be improved, highlighting Xigua Video’s first release logo. Even with the phenomenal screen-sweeping cases of Ouyang Nana, Huanong Brothers, and Mr. Li Yongle, most users learned about them through other platforms.
4. Too many free video copyrights can easily lead to users' habit of relying on free services and a lack of awareness of membership payment, which is not conducive to the subsequent launch of a membership system.

5.1 Platform Improvement Measures

Improvement ideas:

• Traffic tilt: recommendation model/manual intervention, focus on operation.
• Scarce support: discover high-quality authors and help them grow.
• Fine distribution: Recommendation algorithm, adding the evaluation dimension of fan interaction.
• Help improve efficiency: reduce creators' repetitive, low-quality, and ineffective work and liberate productivity.

1. Optimize the algorithm recommendation mechanism, improve the machine deep learning system, and adopt artificial + machine learning multi-drive.

2. There is no distinct cultural atmosphere of its own, and the reputation of video content resources in vertical fields has not yet been formed: I suggest two points:

First, we will create top creators in a targeted manner

We have set up a dedicated agency team to customize personalized plans, making Vlog programs more refined and creators more IP-based. To develop more outstanding creators with potential like Qiaofu 9mei into multi-talented artists.

The second is to introduce and cultivate more vertical creators

It has gradually developed into a PUGC community with complete categories and many big names, allowing users to use Xigua Video as a search tool to search for the content they want to watch. It is to upgrade service efficiency, quality and tools. A dedicated creator consulting team can be established, and an exclusive VIP feedback channel can be set up to improve the user experience. Different communities can also be established in vertical fields to collect user feedback in a timely manner and optimize product and operation strategies.

The third is to upgrade the platform traffic sharing strategy

For high-quality creators, the platform will provide separate identity authentication, increase the unit price of sharing and give more traffic.

You can refer to Youtube. For example, after YouTube was acquired by Google in 2006, YouTube hoped to further enrich the video sources and encourage the emergence of more professional video content. As a result, the YouTube Partner program was launched in March 2007 to share the platform's advertising revenue with content creators, initially 45% for creators and 55% for YouTube, and later adjusted to 55% for creators and 45% for YouTube.

3. Improve the platform's MCN mechanism, sign agreements with top traffic creators, and continue to tap high-potential and high-quality authors to create an exclusive Internet celebrity incubation project and form an exclusive short video IP matrix. Taking popular and well-known KOLs as benchmarks, we attract a large number of KOLs' fan user groups and build a reputation for video content resources in vertical fields.

4. Launch a membership points system, set response points based on various task modes such as likes, comments, reposts, daily check-ins, and video publishing, cultivate users' awareness of points, exchange copyrighted film and television dramas with high points, cultivate users' awareness of payment, and gradually launch a membership card section.

5.2 Problems that still exist on the creator side

1. After signing up for Xigua Academy, which offers a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan, there is no platform reminder, so users are prone to forget, resulting in an increase in the creator turnover rate.
2. There is a lack of official student communities for user communication. Many users make too few recommendations in the early stages of creation, and there is a lack of communication and interaction with mentors, which greatly discourages their enthusiasm for creation.
3. Most videos have poor data on playback, likes, comments, etc., and lack sustained motivation and incentives. Fans have very poor stickiness, lack of social familiarity, and information flow overload, making it difficult for users to identify and remember well-known KOLs and retain fans.
4. The authors are not sensitive enough to hot topics, and the algorithm recommendation mechanism can only recommend from the existing pool of works, but cannot create similar videos on a large scale.
5. Creativity needs to be improved: Insufficient creative inspiration, weak sustainability, limited personal experience, and inability to produce high-quality video content over a long period of time. If you lack enthusiasm for creation, you will easily become bored and give up quickly.
6. The monetization ability is poor. Many splash screen ads, information flow ads, etc. are concentrated on top creators, while it is difficult for small and medium-sized creators to monetize, which seriously dampens their enthusiasm.

5.3 Improvements on the Creator Side

1. It is recommended to add notification reminder function

Allow the app to access the calendar like Taobao’s flash shopping app, and add an alarm to remind users to check in for Xigua Academy courses on time; set a time limit for completing assignments, and there will be rewards and support for publishing a certain number of videos.

2. It is recommended to set up an official student community

Increase community interaction, improve the enthusiasm of creators through daily check-ins, publishing a certain number of videos every week, and activity guidance, and cultivate students' habit of creating videos. Set up Q&A time to solve students' problems in a timely and effective manner, helping them overcome creative bottlenecks and fears of content monetization.

3. Improve product interaction module

When users are browsing or about to finish watching a video, they are guided to like or comment. The dialog box before commenting guides them to "Comments are true love", "Leave your wonderful comments", and "Comments to encourage". Provide warm and touching feedback after users like and comment, such as "Thanks for your likes, the like is the most beautiful" after liking the comment.

4. Pay attention to popular content

Combined with platform data analysis, KOL creators are accurately guided to produce content. Plan activities based on hot topics and festivals to inspire creators and enhance the storytelling and topicality of content.

5. Dig Deeper

Start from the knowledge and entertainment aspects of each category. After the online community was established, the staff provided daily reminders, ranging from hot topics in the short video industry to platform activities and the latest platform developments, shared interesting materials, and guided user creation. Develop a daily check-in habit and develop a strategy: for example, if you post at least 3 videos a week for 4 consecutive times, you can get the Big V logo.

6. Incubate multiple categories of IP, combine strengths, and realize linkage monetization.

5.4 Creation-side Operation Strategy

Content Production:

1. Improve the incentive mechanism for content production: support traffic and discover users to produce original content.
2. Vlog Star Factory sets up a certain amount of special bonus every month, and invites high-quality Vloggers and platforms to jointly produce high-quality content. Columnize the content and jointly create a series of high-quality vlog content to encourage users to develop regular viewing habits and increase user stickiness.
3. Regular online sharing sessions stimulate imagination and unconventional program selection, striving for differentiation and bringing users a different Vlog sensory experience.

Creative Guidance:

1. Improve Xigua University and output detailed tutorials, which can be divided into four major sections:

• Set up a special area for newcomers and formulate a growth plan, from the selection of topics and acquisition of materials for the first part, to the cover and title techniques for submissions, to post-production editing, and finally to operational methods. Help users grow quickly.
• Set up an inspiration station to teach users how to collect materials, shooting techniques, how to record, how to find resources, how to find inspiration, how to write scripts, and serve as an inspiration refueling station for users.
• We offer video post-production services to teach users how to make videos and how to add fancy techniques.
• Provide operation skills to teach users how to increase likes and comments, and how to increase video check-in rate

2. Open live classes to learn courses, complete homework, and the Upmaster comments on students' homework. High-quality submissions can also receive cash scholarships and work exhibitions.

3. Special topic planning: focus on hot topics and combine them with the characteristics of the platform.

4. Add a creative calendar and provide inspiration every day based on platform data. For example: February 22nd, it is difficult to swallow. What is the most unpalatable food you have ever eaten? Guide users to create videos.

5. Set up a challenge area, such as the Vlog check-in challenge. Complete 4 check-in videos in one month, share the bonus, and get the V logo.

6. Keep pace with the times and win in 2020

6.1 Latest Data Analysis

According to the latest data from QuestMobile, affected by the epidemic, short videos have recently become one of the main ways for netizens to relax. It is also an important platform for netizens to understand the epidemic and learn protective knowledge. The number of users and duration have increased significantly.

With the launch of "Lost in Russia", Xigua Video's average daily DAU increased by 38% compared to the Spring Festival in 2019, and the user usage time also increased significantly.

Online video industry: Watching TV shows online has become a way for many people to relax at home. The user scale of the online video industry has increased by 17.4% compared to weekdays to 310 million people, and the average daily usage time per person is more than 1.5 hours.

The popular IP has a significant effect on activating video platforms. When Tencent Video launched "Three Lives Three Worlds: The Pillow Book" in the week, the DAU continued to rise, with the peak increasing by 22% compared to the day before the release. When Mango TV launched "The Next Stop Is Happiness" in the week, the DAU peak increased by 26% compared to the day before the release. Bilibili has an advantage in depth of content and duration.

6.2 Under the top video landscape, Xigua Video needs to focus on innovation and quality

According to the data, iQiyi, Tencent Video, Mango TV, and Bilibili are currently in the first tier of the mobile video market.

As a video that excels at producing its own variety shows, what should Xigua Video do to keep up with the pace of "head videos"?

Xigua Video needs to focus on innovation and quality:

At present, there are two directions for the existing online variety shows:

The first is the "blockbuster" online variety shows similar to TV variety shows, such as "This is Street Dance" and "Produce 101". They have high investment volume, big stars, big productions and other resources, and are mainly aimed at the mass market;

The second is the vertical segmentation of online variety shows, such as food, beauty, travel and other life-related online variety shows. They can also satisfy part of the niche market. It can be said that they still have room to survive.

If Xigua Video wants to stand out in the fiercely competitive online variety show industry, it is important to establish its own unique brand influence. Perhaps we can start by exploring new themes, such as electronic music, folk songs, etc., and then package them in the language of variety shows to create a brand new program that can not only attract specific audience groups, but also popularize some niche culture to the general public. In addition, Xigua Video can also make innovations in terms of participants, broadcasting methods, technical means, etc., and gradually build its barriers.

On the one hand, we will pursue innovation in subject matter and content to create unique competitiveness for the program. On the other hand, it can build its own IP traffic, reduce celebrity IP costs, and thus improve program quality.

Then Xigua Video can develop its own IP, and whether the IP becomes famous can be determined by the audience. These capable amateurs will have a much greater chance of becoming famous through the spread of the Internet. To a certain extent, Xigua Video’s own IP will seize the limited celebrity market, causing the cost of celebrity IP to drop, so that there will be more funds to improve the quality of the program. High-quality programs will definitely increase the program’s broadcast volume. With the number of views, Xigua Video is qualified to compete with the "top video platforms".

6.3 Create diversified vertical high-quality videos

In the past two years, the focus of Internet users on content has shifted from general entertainment to knowledge, and they are more concerned about self-improvement. Especially during the epidemic, most people are more concerned about popular science.

Short videos are more inclusive and extensible, relatively fragmented, and do not require such high viewing scenarios. Vertical content will be the first part that users will explore in the process of acquiring knowledge. So whether it is popular science, culture and art, education, technology, finance... in every vertical field, there will be more valuable IPs like Teacher Li Yongle.

It is recommended that the platform provide more resources for high-quality content, including content planning, operational support, IP packaging, etc.

Author: Yibao

Source: Artbo