The Douyin advertising platform was launched for the third time. This time, the commission was reduced from 60% to 30%!

After being delayed for more than a month, Douyin’s advertising trading platform – “Star Map” is finally launched.

On the evening of September 3, Douyin officially announced that Star Map was officially open for use, and stated that there are currently 4 Star Map service providers, 42 MCN companies and more than 1,200 influencers.

This is not the first time that Star Map has been launched online.

This time, the most direct change is the commission ratio.

When it was first launched, Douyin said it would take a 60% commission; this time, the commission ratio was reduced to 30%, and this commission was directly converted into traffic consumption.

After adjusting the rules and gameplay many times, Douyin Star Map has at least illustrated one thing: traffic is king, and traffic is money. But the market has the final say on how much to draw.

After the third revision, Douyin’s commission was reduced to 30%

After three revisions and being criticized for taking too high a commission, Douyin’s advertising trading platform – “Star Map” was finally officially launched.

On the evening of September 3, Douyin officially announced that Star Map was officially open for use, and stated that there are currently 4 Star Map service providers, 42 MCN companies and more than 1,200 influencers.

According to Chang Mei, before this, when Douyin influencers or MCN agencies accepted advertisements, they only needed to report to the platform, and Douyin officials did not charge any fees. The reported videos could be exempted from being deleted and removed from the Douyin officials.

Previously, native advertising orders that went through the influencer reporting channel accounted for as much as 70% of the total orders each month. Nowadays, if Douyin influencers want to accept advertisements without being deleted by the platform, they must trade through the Star Map platform.

The launch of the Star Map platform, in addition to standardization, is more importantly because Douyin wants to get a piece of the pie in the huge advertising business .

However, the most direct change after this launch is that Douyin’s advertising commission rate has been reduced from 60% when it was first launched to 30%!

The road to Star Map’s launch was quite bumpy. As early as July 20, Douyin’s official “Douyin Star Scout” released a message in the influencer group, saying that the official promotion task ordering platform Star Map has officially been launched.

On July 23, Douyin officially released the specific introduction and operation methods of the "Star Map Platform". From the simple flowchart released by the official, it can be seen that brand owners, Douyin influencers/celebrity, etc. all need to go through the Star Map platform.

At that time, a relevant person in charge of the MCN agency also revealed that when it was first launched, Douyin would charge a 60% fee for orders placed by contracted influencers. The commission rate is unprecedentedly high, which also shows the strength of Douyin.

Subsequently, the Star Map platform, which had been online for a short time, caused a lot of controversy. Many people in the industry believed that Douyin was too overbearing and tough , and except for the MCN agencies that received invitations, most of the mid-level agencies and guilds could not find how to join Star Map.

On July 31, a short video organization stated that due to technical upgrades, the Star Map platform will be postponed to August 6 for its official launch. Before that, it can accept advertisements through offline reporting, but the reporting must be done 7 days before the video is released.

The official also stated that this report is an urgent order report, and the report will be closed at 24:00 on August 5, and the video must be released before 24:00 on August 25.

But half a month was not enough to complete the upgrade. On August 6, when Star Map was supposed to be launched, Douyin again announced that the launch would be postponed and the time was set in early September.

This is the second postponement notice for Star Map, which is directly postponed for one month.

"Much ado about nothing" is the most direct comment from many MCN agencies after Star Map went online. Although the official reason for the delay in the launch of Star Map was "technical upgrade", most MCN agencies believed that the fundamental reason was that the profit sharing ratio between the platform and the agencies could not be agreed upon.

After two "unsuccessful starts", Douyin still has not given up on Star Map, which shows its determination to not give up an inch of the advertising pie.

However, since the market is so sensitive about the commission, how is Douyin going to collect this 30% fee?

Want to advertise? Buy traffic first!

The Star Map platform has been relaunched with upgrades in both the screen and login settings.

After entering the Star Map platform, you can see that the description of Star Map is "TikTok Commercial Content Intelligent Transaction & Management Platform". The login channels below are divided into two types: expert login and customer/MCN login.

Below is a brief introduction to the login status of different identities:

1. Expert login:

According to the information released by "TikTok Advertising Assistant", influencers are divided into TikTok contracted influencers and MCN contracted influencers.

Independent talents can only log on to the Star Map platform after signing a contract with Douyin. Talents who have signed contracts with MCN can log in to the Star Map platform directly, and their login information will be synchronized by the MCN they belong to.

2. Douyin MCN login:

Douyin MCN needs to undergo MCN certification before logging into Star Map. After certification, the MCN can click the "Customer/MCN Login" button and follow the prompts to enter the backend management page of the exclusive MCN to manage the influencers and corresponding tasks under the MCN account.

3. Customer ( advertiser ) login:

Customers can complete the registration independently. After completing the three steps of "account registration, qualification certification, and public verification", they can enter the backend management page for exclusive customers.

Changmei completed the registration as a customer, and could see two buttons, "New Task" and "Recharge", in the background.

When filling in a task, you need to fill in information such as "task name", "product/brand introduction", and "select service provider". Once the information is completed, a service provider will connect with the advertisement.

Currently, Douyin provides four star map service providers as options, namely " Beijing Mingliangxing Culture Media Co., Ltd.", "Tianjin Mars Culture Co., Ltd.", "Beijing Yingtianxia Network Technology Co., Ltd." and "Shanghai Zhongyin Culture Media Co., Ltd. "

In general, the Star Map platform does not adopt a pay-per-order model, but instead uses the recharge limits commonly seen in information flow ads , with the initial total recharge limit being 200,000. In other words, advertisers need to recharge before placing advertisements.

According to a copy of Star Map’s MCN information obtained by Chang Mei, one of the regulations regarding advertising placement reads as follows:

Star Chart recharge quota = basic limit of 200,000 + hard advertising quota (customer's Douyin brand advertising consumption * 30%) , and the hard advertising quota will be reset quarterly.

The so-called hard advertising quota actually means that advertisers need to purchase corresponding traffic when placing advertisements .

This is equivalent to a disguised commission, but it converts the cost into traffic. This means that if you mainly advertise on Douyin, you will have to spend 30% of the advertising revenue to buy Douyin’s traffic.

For example, a soft advertisement worth RMB 200,000 requires purchasing 200,000*30%, or 60,000, of Douyin hard advertisement traffic. If an MCN agency places 200,000 video ads and obtains corresponding revenue, Douyin will be able to obtain 60,000 traffic revenue.

Of course, it can also be understood that the advertising costs that advertisers need to bear have become two items: the cost of short videos created by experts + the cost of purchasing Douyin hard advertising quotas.

The so-called Star Map service providers only act as service providers and connectors. They do not participate in the commission of each advertising fee. The service fees are directly paid by Douyin officials, which is equivalent to them being "employees" hired by Douyin.

According to relevant person in charge of Yingtianxia, ​​as a star map service provider, their mission is to help advertisers connect with influencers and provide better services to advertisers. They will not take a commission from the influencers' fees, and the Star Map platform will settle service fees with the Star Map service providers every month.

"This routine is the same as Weibo. The money you recharge this month or quarter, if you can't use it up for your own advertising and account, will be reset to zero in the next quarter ." Ming, the operations manager of an MCN agency, told Chang Mei that this gameplay requires MCN agencies to consume hard advertising quotas in a timely manner.

Talents and MCNs: Wait and see

"Most agencies are actually still waiting and watching." A relevant person in charge of another MCN agency said that Star Map has just been launched and they are still exploring.

Douyin is determined to put the advertising prices and commissions on the table, but the problems it faces include not only the profit sharing ratio, but also the qualification review and entry threshold of MCN agencies, how to get influencers who are not signed to agencies to join MCN agencies or signed platforms, etc. Each and every one of them involves the issue of interests.

Previously, some Douyin influencers told Chang Mei that Douyin officials required them to sign a contract to become exclusive Douyin influencers, and only after signing the contract could they enter Star Map. There are two ways for talents to join the Star Map platform. One is to sign a contract with a certified MCN agency, and the other is to sign an exclusive contract for official content.

"If you want to make money from me, you have to listen to me." A Douyin influencer said that she has no intention of signing with an MCN agency or Douyin official, and prefers to develop on all platforms, but the contract with Douyin can only be exclusive.

However, if she does not sign the contract, it means that she will not be able to accept advertisements on Douyin. She believes that Douyin's move is too harsh on influencers.

“If a platform wants to make money from influencers, it has to endure the consequences of losing influencers, and Douyin is no exception.” The head of an MCN agency once said this in an interview, believing that there is always a game between influencers and platforms.

As Douyin becomes increasingly mature on the road to commercialization, it naturally needs to standardize everything, even at the expense of sacrificing some influencers.

However, after Star Map went online, Chang Mei discovered that Douyin’s advertising commission strategy had actually changed: it was no longer a direct commission, but a traffic business.

The traffic business of Douyin

The income from short video influencer advertising is certainly not to be underestimated. According to the advertising quotation of Douyin influencers, the industry quotation is 3-5 cents per fan, which means that the quotation of a Douyin influencer with 1 million fans can be as high as 50,000.

Seeing that MCN agencies and influencers are making a lot of money on their own platforms, Douyin urgently needs a commercial advertising platform similar to Kuaishou's "Quick Order" and Meipai's "M Plan" to get a share of the considerable advertising revenue.

Of course, there is no doubt that connecting to a professional service provider will make it easier for advertisers to find influencers. Previously, many advertisers could only connect through advertising companies, and the talent they could choose from was limited, and it was indeed more time-consuming and energy-consuming.

These four Star Map service providers all have experience in video advertising production and delivery, and can develop more suitable delivery plans for advertisers.

Moreover, although the advertising price has become more expensive after adding Douyin’s commission, it can better guarantee the exposure of the video after it is released.

It can be understood that the fees charged by Douyin are hard advertising ratios, which can be converted into traffic for consumption. This is another official way to monetize traffic, directly packaging and selling soft and hard advertisements .

Tik Tok’s current content recommendation mechanism determines that celebrities with a large number of fans may not necessarily receive corresponding exposure , because although users follow the celebrities, their viewing habits are still to scroll through the information flow on the homepage. Therefore, the advantage of packaging soft advertising and hard advertising together is that it can better guarantee the advertising effect.

Douyin, which has the advantage of traffic, naturally needs to find ways to maximize the value of advertising, but Douyin also cherishes the traffic of the platform.

It is understood that Douyin has previously launched a forwarding function similar to Weibo and Meipai. Users can forward other users' videos on the Douyin site, and they will be displayed in their personal updates.

This seems to be a feature that increases user stickiness and social gameplay, but Douyin is particularly cautious about this feature.

A Douyin influencer once revealed that after the Douyin forwarding function was launched, the system prompted violations when forwarding videos of related brands . But after trying it, Chang Mei found that it could be operated normally. She guessed that the limit was only set for top talents with a certain number of masters.

A Ming said that the forwarding function can now be used normally, but the flow limit is obvious and it feels like it is blocked.

You should know that on Weibo, top KOLs also need to pay for forwarding Weibo posts. According to an MCN agency that has in-depth cooperation with Weibo, Weibo needs to charge a certain fee for forwarding advertisements , and now Douyin may also be exploring such a way of monetization.

In my opinion, Douyin, which is determined to become the "short video version of Weibo", even tries to match Weibo in terms of traffic monetization.

However, every policy has its own countermeasures. It is ultimately unrealistic for Douyin to always hold the right to speak in its own hands.

Although the commission rate has been reduced and the fees have been converted into traffic consumption, it is still unknown whether MCN agencies and influencers will pay for it.

After all, the more important mission of the Star Map platform is not to "make money", but to provide better services and a better business model .

Otherwise, who knows whether Star Map will experience another "delay"?

Source: Short Video Factory ( zhhbili )