Analysis of Douyin vs. Weishi Competitive Products

This article conducts a multi-dimensional analysis and comparison of the two products, Tik Tok and WeChat, to understand their internal product logic and how different logics shape different products. It also summarizes the development strategies of the two products, giving everyone an in-depth understanding of the future development direction and competitive situation of the short video industry.

We must continue to do Weishi and do it better. ”

——Ren Yuxin, COO of Tencent

01 Purpose of analysis

This article hopes to understand the relationship between functional design, product positioning and business model by comparing the core functions of Douyin and Weishi, and put forward some improvement suggestions based on personal experience.

Experience version: Douyin 11.3.0; Weishi 6.9.0.588

02 Competitive product background analysis

2.1 Product Development History

We can divide the growth of Douyin into three stages:

Phase 1: Focus on function development and establish product tone (September 2016-May 2017)

Focusing on a small group of early users, we continuously optimize and polish the product.

Phase 2: Focus on communication operations and promote user growth (May 2017-January 2019)

They have invested resources like crazy, such as attracting many celebrities to join, sharing red envelopes during the Spring Festival Gala, sponsoring popular variety shows, New Year's Eve concerts and even the Spring Festival Gala, etc. Their exposure has continued to increase and their user base has grown steadily.

Phase 3: Strengthen supervision and build a harmonious community

In January 2020, TikTok’s global daily active users exceeded 400 million. From a "music short video community for young people" to an "original short video sharing platform for recording a beautiful life", the influx of a large number of users and the generalization of content styles have made Douyin gradually become synonymous with "short video" from a vertical music short video product.

Tencent Weishi was officially launched in September 2013 and is positioned as an 8-second short video sharing community. At this time, Weishi did not choose the UGC development model, but instead chose to divert celebrities who had settled in Tencent Weibo to Weishi. However, Weishi, which was highly anticipated, did not find the correct product direction and monetization methods, and was suppressed by Miaopai and Meipai in terms of competition. In 2015, Weishi was strategically marginalized, with only simple technical maintenance still ongoing. In March 2017, Tencent led the investment in Kuaishou, and Weishi was officially closed.

In 2018, Douyin, Huoshan Video and Xigua Video, which were incubated by Toutiao, gradually formed a system and formed a three-on-one situation against the short video giant Kuaishou. Douyin even experienced an explosion around the Spring Festival, even putting pressure on Weibo. Against this backdrop, Tencent revived Weishi and poured unprecedented resources into this product, demonstrating Tencent's determination to continue fighting in the short video arena.

2.2 Market Analysis

2.2.1 Overview of the overall app market

1) The mobile Internet industry has shown significant benefits during the pandemic, with average daily app usage time per person reaching 6.7 hours

• In the first quarter of 2020, the total number of apps installed per mobile Internet user continued to grow to 63, and the average daily app usage time per person reached 6.7 hours, an increase of 2.4 hours compared with the same period last year.
• Affected by the epidemic, the national home quarantine measure lasted for nearly a month. Residents' entertainment, consumption, work and study mostly turned to online, resulting in a significant increase in mobile Internet usage time.

2) The proportion of short video duration has increased significantly, approaching the instant messaging industry

• Looking at the changes in the industry share of user usage time over the past year, the total usage time share of the top 8 mobile Internet industries has shrunk in Q1 2020 after growing for four consecutive quarters.
• Affected by the epidemic, the user time structure of the mobile Internet industry showed a significant change in the first quarter of 2020; among them, the proportion of the short video industry increased significantly to 21.1%, approaching the proportion of the instant messaging industry ; at the same time, the proportion of the mobile game industry increased by 2.6% compared with the same period last year; the proportion of time spent on comprehensive shopping malls decreased to 3.2%, and the industry ranking fell to seventh.

3) Top 10 industries with the largest user base

• In March 2020, enterprise applications and K12 education industries surpassed the popular short video industry to become the two industries with the largest growth in user scale, with year-on-year increases of 240 million and 197 million respectively; short video is the industry with the largest current user scale among the top 10 industries , reaching 852 million.
• In addition to K12 education, education platforms, student assistants, and education tools industries all entered the top ten rankings in terms of user growth; it can be seen that the online education industry has benefited most from the user scale growth dividend under the epidemic.

4) Top 10 industries with the highest growth in user time

• During the epidemic, watching short videos has become an important way for netizens to relax and entertain themselves during the days of home isolation and to obtain information related to the epidemic; in March 2020, the average daily usage time of the short video industry was one and a half hours, an increase of more than one hour compared with the same period last year, once again becoming the industry with the most obvious year-on-year growth in user time.
• Instant messaging is still the industry that occupies the most user time, but the year-on-year increase in time is significantly less than that of the short video industry; due to the extension of the time for users to return to work and school, the average time spent on mobile games has also increased by nearly 20 minutes year-on-year

2.2.2 Short video industry

In March 2020, short video apps from Toutiao and Kuaishou dominated the top 5 penetration rates and DAU rankings in the short video industry. Among them, the industry-leading Douyin short video app had a penetration rate of 53.1%, an increase of 10.9 percentage points over the same period last year, which means that more than half of the users on the entire network have installed the Douyin short video app . The penetration rate of the Kuaishou app is still somewhat behind that of the Douyin short video, but its user scale is also growing rapidly.

2.3 Product User Analysis

It can be seen that the age distribution of Douyin and Weishi users is roughly similar, mainly concentrated in the 20-39 age group, and their interests and geographical distribution are also roughly the same. Both platforms have more male users than female users, and the proportion of male users on Douyin is higher. Overall, the user groups of the two are highly similar.

2.4 Commercialization

In addition to relying on advertising to generate revenue, Tik Tok is also continuously exploring live streaming, e-commerce, and gaming. Weishi is still in the stage of attracting new users and activating users, with various red envelope subsidies emerging one after another. It is still some distance away from Douyin in terms of traffic monetization.

03 Competitive product analysis

3.1 Product Positioning

Tik Tok, record your beautiful life

Tik Tok is a short video sharing platform designed to help the general public express themselves and record their beautiful lives. Create rich and diverse gameplay for users, allowing users to easily and quickly produce high-quality short videos in their daily lives.

Micro-view, discover more interesting

Come to Weishi to create short videos, record wonderful videos, and share different perspectives! Trendy special effects, colorful stickers, high-definition beauty, dynamic music, unlimited creativity is up to you!

3.2 Product Function Structure

Tik Tok functional structure diagram

Micro-view functional structure diagram

It can be seen that the functional module settings of Douyin and Weishi are very similar. Douyin has five modules: homepage, region, shooting, and message. Weishi replaces region with channel, and the rest is exactly the same as Douyin.

3.3 Comparison of core product functions

3.3.1 Home page function comparison

(1) Tik Tok

Open the Tik Tok app and enter the recommended video playback page. Swipe up and down to switch videos.

The video title, author, background music and other information are displayed below the video. Users can use the same background music/special effects as the video by clicking the corresponding tab, or enter the page to purchase the same background music/special effects as the video;

On the right side of the video: Click on the author's avatar to enter the author's homepage/live broadcast room, where you can like/comment/forward the video and view comments;

Above the video: Click the Live button to enter the live broadcast room, click the Follow button to view the video dynamics of the people you follow, and click the Search button to enter the video search button;

Below the video: you can enter the same city page, the video shooting page, the message page and the personal homepage.

(2) Micro-viewing

The Weishi page is very similar to Douyin, with the following differences:

Many videos on Douyin have the same special effects button, while many videos on Weishi have a challenge tab;

Many Douyin videos have buttons for the same product. Clicking them will redirect you to a third-party e-commerce platform such as Taobao, or to the author's Douyin store. Few Weishi videos have similar buttons. Clicking them will jump out of Weishi and enter the WeChat purchase page. For a few videos with the word "advertisement", you can click "view details" to place an order directly in Weishi.

Douyin places the interactive button on the right side of the video, while Weishi places it below the video. It also has the function of sending bubble stickers.

In the same position as the Douyin local button, Weishi has set up a channel button. When you click on it, you will see multiple sections such as popular variety shows, challenges, live broadcasts, local broadcasts, micro-dramas, etc., while Douyin puts the live broadcast button directly in a prominent position in the upper left corner of the video.

analyze:

It can be seen that Douyin and Weishi are rich in functions and have very similar layouts. Both of them place the function entrance at the edge to ensure the user's video immersion experience. The similar product structure and interaction methods allow Douyin users to quickly get started with Weishi and switch from Douyin to Weishi with very low switching costs.

Douyin places live streaming in a prominent position to show its emphasis on e-commerce live streaming, while the live streaming button of Weishi is under the channel submenu, which is relatively hidden. The live streaming content is mainly entertainment live streaming and game live streaming, and there is no separate e-commerce live streaming category. In addition, although Weishi also has the function of directing users to the product purchase page through videos, there are very few related videos, and the quality is poor, the content is vulgar, and there is a strong marketing connotation. In comparison, Douyin's traffic monetization capability is better than Weishi.

In the early days, Douyin created various types of activity challenges to enhance user participation and encouraged users to create challenges and set rules. Nowadays, topic challenges are no longer operated specifically, but users have begun to lead the trend spontaneously, with new gesture dances, new special effects, and new shooting themes emerging every day. Users can use the same original video soundtrack or the same special effects to follow and imitate, or create diverse content. Most of the current Weishi videos have no special effects and are not worth imitating. However, we can see that Weishi is imitating the former Douyin to operate some challenging topics to guide and encourage users to create content, but the effect is average.

What can truly bring content advantages to Weishi at the moment are Tencent Video’s business cooperation resources and its exclusive popular stars. During the broadcast of idol competition and development variety shows produced by Tencent Video, such as "Creation Camp 2020", Weishi has an exclusive support channel, access to all contestants, and exclusive content for the contestants. As the show became popular, many viewers who wanted to help the contestants form a group or were interested in the contestants were attracted to Weishi.

Improvement suggestions:

Tik Tok - When the author of the currently watched video is live streaming, clicking on the avatar will jump directly to the live streaming room. After entering the live streaming room, click on the avatar and then click on the homepage to enter the author's personal homepage. The path is too long. It is recommended to change it to: Click on the avatar to display two options: go to his/her homepage, go to his/her live broadcast.

Weishi - There are many submenus under the channel tab, and the topics involved can be easily overlooked by users because of the deep entrance. It is recommended to put key modules, such as live broadcasts, challenges, popular variety shows, etc., on the first-level menu to better catch the user's attention.

3.3.2 Follow Page Function Comparison

(1) Tik Tok

(2) Micro-viewing

analyze:

The follow page of Douyin is basically the same as the homepage. It is worth noting that if the person you follow is live streaming, there will be a prompt above the video.

The follow page of Weishi is quite different from the home page. The overall layout is similar to the video updates posted on QQ, which only displays the number of likes but not the number of comments. Clicking on a video will jump to the video details page, which is similar to the video layout of the Weishi homepage.

It is worth mentioning that every comment on a Douyin video has a like button, while on a Weishi video only the main comment can be liked, and the replies under each main comment cannot be liked.

Improvement suggestions:

Weishi - The number of reposts, comments and likes is displayed on the first-level page, which can help users judge the quality of the video; a like button is provided for each comment. Sometimes the reply below the main comment is more interesting than the main comment itself, and users may want to agree with a specific reply. This setting can help the video get more likes.

3.3.3 Search Page Comparison

(1) Tik Tok

(2) Micro-viewing

analyze:

It can be seen that compared to Weishi, Douyin's search page has more functions. In addition to adding the function of scanning to add friends, Douyin has also classified the lists in detail, including hot list, celebrity list, live broadcast list, etc. The three e-commerce related lists of live broadcast list, brand hot list and good product list are enough to reflect Douyin's emphasis on e-commerce live streaming as a way of monetizing traffic.

Improvement suggestions:

You can add a friends’ hot search list to increase interaction between users.

3.3.4 Live Page Function Comparison

(1) Tik Tok

(2) Micro-viewing

analyze:

The Douyin and Weishi live streaming pages have similar layouts, but different content. Most of the Douyin live broadcasts are e-commerce live broadcasts selling goods, while Weishi live broadcasts are divided into entertainment live broadcasts and game live broadcasts, and there is basically no e-commerce live broadcast.

Douyin’s live broadcast related functions are more complete, with hourly rankings, topic classification, and live broadcast formats including video live broadcast and voice live broadcast. Weishi Live has a weak overall presence and basically has no monetization capabilities.

3.3.5 Functional comparison of the same city page

(1) Tik Tok

(2) Micro-viewing

analyze:

Douyin's same-city function is prominently located at the bottom of the homepage, while Weishi is placed in the submenu of the channel, which is deep in the path and easily overlooked by users. In addition to determining the user's city based on geographic location and displaying related videos, Douyin also provides a city switching function. Users can switch to any city according to their interests and learn about the customs and culture of the selected city. It can be seen that both Douyin and Weishi attach great importance to strengthening the connections between users and have obvious social attributes.

3.3.6 Comparison of shooting page functions

(1) Tik Tok

(2) Micro-viewing

analyze:

Tik Tok can be used to take photos, shoot videos, create albums, do live broadcasts, and upload photos or videos locally. Weishi can shoot videos and upload photos or videos locally. Compared with Douyin, it has two more functions: smart templates and video red envelopes.

When you click the “+” on Douyin, you will enter the “Shoot 15 seconds” page by default, guiding users to shoot more short videos. However, when you click the “Shoot” button on Weishi, the duration is limited to one minute, without distinguishing between 15 seconds and 60 seconds.

After the Weishi video red envelope is produced, it can be shared with WeChat/QQ friends. Douyin cannot carry out similar activities because it does not have the relevant interface.

Weishi’s intelligent template matching function is a highlight, which can help users save time in selecting special effects and filters, making short video creation easier, so that users are more willing to create their own videos. Douyin does not have this function. The author speculates that it may be because Douyin wants to guide users to create short videos by following and imitating the videos they like, giving birth to internet celebrity bgm or video templates with the Douyin label, leading the trend and attracting more users.

On the shooting page, users can choose to start video/voice/screen recording/computer live broadcast after real-name authentication. The threshold is relatively low, but Weishi does not open the live broadcast function to ordinary users. It can be seen that Douyin attaches great importance to monetization through live streaming.

3.3.7 Message Page Function Comparison

Tik Tok

Micro-view

analyze:

The message pages of Douyin and Weishi are basically the same. The difference is that Douyin users can view their own historical comments and create group chats, while Weishi puts friend and notification management in the same location.

Improvement suggestions:

Weishi - I personally think that the notification management function can be placed in the settings of the personal center. Here you can change the notification push management to friends (including Douyin friends and QQ WeChat friends), and change the original friend button to a view historical comments button.

3.3.8 Personal Center Page Function Comparison

(1) Tik Tok

(2) Micro-viewing

analyze:

Unlike Weishi, which places the adding friends function on the message page, Douyin places the adding friends function on the personal homepage. You can add friends to Weishi by searching for username/Weishi account, or by expanding your friends on QQ or WeChat. There are more channels for adding friends to Douyin, including searching for username/Douyin account, expanding the address book, friend passwords, scanning, face-to-face, etc.

The Weishi Personal Task Center has an activity called "Watch Videos and Win Rewards". The bonuses obtained can be withdrawn through the wallet to encourage users to be active on the platform. There is no similar activity on Douyin.

Douyin has personal QR codes, mini-programs, creator service center, etc., but Weishi does not. You can only log in to Weishi through WeChat/QQ authorization, and there is no user QR code unique to the Weishi platform. It can be inferred that Weishi, which relies on Tencent, tends to attract users through QQ/WeChat, while Douyin aims to establish a new short video social platform for users that is independent of QQ and WeChat.

improve:

Weishi - Users should be allowed to register new Weishi accounts, rather than only being able to log in through WeChat/QQ authorization. This is similar to the anonymous nature of Weibo. Some users may prefer to have a third-party social platform independent of WeChat/QQ and do not want their every move on Weishi to be discovered by WeChat/QQ friends.

3.3.9 Shopping Function Comparison

Many videos on Douyin have buttons for the same product. Clicking them will redirect you to third-party e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, or to the author’s Douyin store. Few videos on Weishi have similar buttons. Clicking them will jump out of Weishi and into the WeChat purchase page. For a small number of videos with the word "advertisement", you can click "view details" to complete the order directly in Weishi.

(1) Douyin shopping process

(2) Weishi shopping process

Tik Tok

Micro-view

analyze:

It can be seen that on Weishi, you can purchase products through a small number of videos with product links or the word "advertisement". You can either buy directly, jump to WeChat, or not buy. Douyin's shopping-related functions are more complete. Store sellers can set up their own product showcases on Douyin. In addition to being able to purchase directly and jump to Taobao to purchase, users can also choose to add products to the shopping cart. They can then enter the shopping assistant to view the shopping cart items. The same page also has "My Footprints" and product recommendation functions. You can also see that the order page of Douyin can filter products according to category, and the shopping assistant divides the orders into pending payment/shipping/receipt/evaluation, etc. It can be called the Douyin version of Taobao.

Improvement suggestions:

Weishi - The types of goods pointed to by Weishi video links are too single, and the product pictures are not refined enough, giving people a sense of inferior quality. We can consider encouraging more small businesses to join Weishi, enrich the product content of Weishi, and at the same time pay attention to controlling the quality of businesses.

Douyin - The shopping cart function path is too deep. You can consider adding a "shopping cart" tab in the upper right corner of the order page. Click it to jump to the shopping assistant page.

04 SWOT Analysis

4.1 TikTok

4.1.1 Advantages

1) The product is becoming increasingly mature: Toutiao’s short video matrix has become a system, and through internal resource sharing and mutual diversion, it has built a competitive barrier. The user base has grown steadily, gradually occupying the minds of users and becoming ByteDance’s best diversion and distribution channel;

2) Good UGC atmosphere: From the early official guidance to the current spontaneous creation of users, the fun of a large amount of content and the low threshold for imitation and following make users always feel strongly involved in the product;

3) Network effect advantage: Today, Douyin has begun to show a trend of self-growth in users. More users bring greater viewing and interaction, forming a good atmosphere and reward incentives, allowing content producers and MCNs to have higher emotional investment and creative motivation for content, and ultimately bring more good content to users, continuously strengthening the platform's stickiness;

4) Good traffic monetization capabilities: Douyin has gradually achieved commercialization through advertising, live streaming, e-commerce, etc. and has considerable revenue.

4.1.2 Disadvantages

1) Tik Tok short videos cannot be shared directly to WeChat, which to some extent limits the spread of videos and user growth;

2) Most short videos have e-commerce marketing attributes, and if the quality of the products cannot be guaranteed, it is easy to cause user disgust.

4.1.3 Opportunities

1) Invite more idol stars to join and attract more users;

2) Use mini programs to design more extended functions and enhance user stickiness;

3) Further enrich life service functions and enhance user experience.

4.1.4 Threats

Short videos are at the forefront of the Internet industry and have developed rapidly in recent years. Similar short video products have emerged in an endless stream and competition has become increasingly fierce. For example, Kuaishou, which has the same user base, and Weishi, which is backed by Tencent, have emerged. Once the internet celebrities/stars who have joined the platform move away, their fans will also leave the platform. In addition, long-term development can only be achieved through increasingly strict government supervision, strict control of platform content, and building of a harmonious community.

4.2 Micro-viewing

4.2.1 Advantages

1) Low user acquisition cost: The diversion of products such as WeChat, QQ, and App Store has reduced the user acquisition cost. Cash red envelope promotions and Tencent video variety show linkage have driven many users to skip the long chain of "attention-interest-memory-desire-action" and download directly;

2) Low user learning cost: Similar product structure and interaction methods allow Douyin users to quickly get started with Weishi.

4.2.2 Disadvantages

1) Ambiguous product positioning: As a strategic defensive product, Weishi’s product logo tone and slogan are similar to those of Douyin, and its product UI is also exactly the same as Douyin. Borrowing well-known benchmark products can quickly establish user awareness, but the premise for retaining users is that the product itself is truly superior to the benchmark products in all aspects. However, the current user experience of Weishi is far inferior to that of Douyin. The psychological impression of "the second Douyin" results in that once users find that Weishi does not have some of the advantages of Douyin, they will directly abandon Weishi and return to Douyin.

2) Low content quality: Weishi can indeed attract some users through red envelope rewards, variety shows, and popular celebrities, but the value that the platform content brings to users is low, and it is difficult to convert these attracted users into loyal users of the platform.

3) The sense of participation in the content is low, and it is difficult to make users addicted: In order to guide and encourage users to create content, Weishi has operated some challenging topics like Douyin did before, but the effect is not obvious. Most of the videos on the Weishi recommendation page are PGC content, which are not imitable or followable, and cannot provide creative guidance to viewers. When users are scrolling through videos, they cannot see any videos that can be followed, so they do not post videos. As a result, other users cannot see any videos that can be followed, creating a vicious cycle. Therefore, the proportion of UGC in Weishi has always been relatively low.

4.2.3 Opportunities

1) Seize channels, explore producers, and look for Weibo influencers, live-streaming bloggers, etc. who have not been conquered by TikTok, and sign exclusive contracts with them;

2) Establish a complete traffic monetization mechanism to encourage users to produce higher-quality content;

3) Encourage more merchants to join Weishi, enrich Weishi product content, and encourage merchants to sell goods through live broadcasts;

4) Optimize official PGC content, find ways to create your own characteristics, create your own phenomenal hot spots, and guide users to follow the creation;

5) Discover and support potential stocks, allocate resources to those who are capable and willing to work with the platform, and let some people taste the sweetness first, which will naturally attract more outstanding creators to the platform;

6) Label and weight high-quality content as [Selected] to make it easier to expose and display, or adopt the format of the early Zhihu Daily to manually select high-quality content to make special topics, or today's rankings, etc. These practices can expose high-quality content when there is not much high-quality content in the early stages, allowing users to easily consume good content. The current Weishi content and quality are mediocre, with no surprises, which makes users bored and quit.

4.2.4 Threats

As a homogeneous product comparable to Douyin, Weishi has a much lower user base than Toutiao's short video products. It has few high-quality UGCs and no distinctive content style. It is difficult to attract user retention and conversion, not to mention traffic monetization. In the long run, it will be difficult for it to survive in the short video market.

05 Conclusion

From the perspective of product life cycle, Douyin is growing rapidly and its business model is becoming increasingly mature, while Weishi is still in the exploratory stage. This means that everything is possible. On the basis of benchmarking Douyin, it may be able to go further by focusing more on developing new product forms, finding new ways, and forming differentiated competition.

Author: Cat's Tree

Source: Cat's Tree