In-depth analysis of the Douyin algorithm mechanism

There are thousands of ways to play Tik Tok . It is not professional to understand the algorithms and mechanisms and conduct an in-depth analysis of the Tik Tok algorithms, but we can dig deep into Tik Tok to make your Tik Tok video delivery more effective.

With so many short video platforms, why does Douyin stand out?

1. Instinct

It is human instinct to like intuitive sensory stimulation, and the process of reading text involves an additional step of processing and transformation.

Therefore, videos that can directly stimulate the senses and do not require brain conversion and processing are far more intuitive than text stimulation and are easier to accept.

2. Threshold

Since it is a video, why is it a short video instead of a long video?

Why is Tik Tok, not Youku?

The main issue is the threshold.

Compared with the difficulty of producing and viewing time of long videos, short videos are naturally suitable for this fast-paced era:

In this era of universal self-media, long videos with high production costs and huge time consumption have been eliminated by the times. The shorter duration makes short videos easier to produce and more suitable for everyone who wants to engage in the self-media industry. Whether in terms of production cost or production difficulty, short videos are the darlings of this era.

3. Fragmentation

We divide a person's day into three eight-hour periods: 8 hours for sleeping, 8 hours for working, and 8 hours for living. Then, it can be said that almost all of a person's entertainment activities will take place in the "8 hours of living".

However, "8 hours of life" is not a complete 8 hours. It is the accumulation of various fragmented time, such as 30 minutes to go to the toilet, 30 minutes to eat lunch, 1 hour to commute, etc., which are all fragmented time.

It is almost impossible to watch a long video in its entirety (if you can finish watching a movie in your commute time, you’d better rent a house closer), so short videos have replaced long videos.

If you want to play Douyin, you must understand the rules of Douyin. Only by abiding by the platform rules can you go further. After all, if you want to make money, you have to abide by the rules.

1. When a user uploads a video, the video will be initially screened through machine review. Mainly review the video title, screen title and keywords. If the machine determines that there is a suspected violation, the video will enter the manual review stage. Once a violation is manually confirmed, the video will be deleted or restricted. If the video does not violate any rules, deduplication will begin, and videos with high duplication rates will be included in low-traffic recommendations.

The above rules are a must-read.

After understanding the violations, I will first give a brief explanation of the Douyin algorithm mechanism. The subsequent content is also based on this algorithm in general. No matter how things change, the essence remains the same. Just understand the content . I will try to talk about other aspects for your convenience in understanding.

1. Tik Tok’s algorithm mechanism

Douyin is a platform with strong operations. The official control over Douyin is very strict. Unlike official accounts, the operators are almost free to do whatever they want. In other words, the number of video views on Douyin is not determined by fans. Douyin implements a "planned economy" on the platform, and the official is responsible for allocating traffic.

After a content creator publishes a video, the Tik Tok platform will give the video initial traffic based on the content quality of the video, the number of the creator's fans, and user preferences.

The initial flow consists of two parts:

Push to the content creator’s fans;

Through algorithm calculation, the video is pushed to users who may like the video;

PS: The platform will not distribute the video to all fans who follow this account. Only about 10% of the fans can see the push of this video.

The number of Douyin plays is calculated using the following 4 dimensions and 1 weight:

4 dimensions: completion rate, like rate, comment rate, forwarding rate

Let me briefly explain the meaning of these four data: The completion rate means that if 100 people see your video and 20 people watch your video completely, then the completion rate is 20%.

The same applies to the like rate, comment rate, and forwarding rate.

That is, the number of views = A* completion rate + B* like rate + C* comment rate + D* forwarding rate

The four values ​​of A, B, C, and D are adjusted instantly by the system based on the current situation. We don’t need to know what the coefficient is, but we need to know that the completion rate > like rate > comment rate > forwarding rate.

In other words, if we want our videos to become popular, we should increase the completion rate, like rate, comment rate, and forwarding rate. Weight

In addition to the completion rate, like rate, comment rate, and forwarding rate, weight will also affect the dissemination of content. The so-called weight refers to the influence and contribution on Douyin.

For videos of the same quality, content creators with higher weights will definitely be more likely to be recommended, and the probability of becoming popular will be greater. Moreover, the weight also concerns penalties:

If your weight is very high, Douyin will be more tolerant of you; if your weight is relatively low, you may be locked up in a small black room for the slightest violation.

After understanding the recommendation variables of Tik Tok videos, you can understand the video recommendation process:

After the video is released, it will be put into the initial traffic pool. In the initial traffic pool, the system will recommend 0 to 250 people to watch your video. In the initial traffic pool, if users think your video content is good, and the likes, comments, collections and video completion rates meet the standards for secondary recommendations, then this video can get Douyin's secondary recommendation and enter the second traffic pool. The system will recommend 500 to 5,000 people to watch your video. Then it will enter the larger third traffic pool, the fourth traffic pool... and so on.

This process will continue until the likes, comments, collections and video completion rate of your video do not meet the criteria for entering the next traffic pool. It is this process that determines the video's playback volume. Videos with millions or tens of millions of views have gone through countless traffic pools before achieving the effect of being a hit. Generally speaking, the recommended cycle of a traffic pool is 24 hours to 7 days.

Everyone should have understood the algorithm of Douyin regarding playback volume. Of course, if you want to output Douyin content, you must at least do the basic work well to get Douyin to recognize your account.

2. Account processing

Tik Tok will refer to the weight of the account when allocating traffic, so creators should not neglect the construction of personal information, and should improve it from official certification, account name, introduction, avatar, and background.

1. TikTok official certification

Douyin's official certification is the platform's confirmation of the authenticity of the user's identity. Identity authentication is helpful in gaining more recommended positions for the video. There are three types of official Douyin certification: personal certification, corporate certification and institutional certification.

The user clicks Settings - Account & Security - Apply for Official Certification, enters the application page and applies as required. Personal certification must meet the following conditions at the same time: the number of videos posted is greater than 1, the number of fans is greater than 10,000, the mobile phone number is bound, and the account has no violation record.

2. Complete personal information

The account should have a distinct personal style. The account name is concise and consistent with the overall tone of the account. The personal profile is used to describe the account positioning and guide users to follow. The background image is set to match the overall style of the account, and is then added with text to draw attention. Video creators should carefully design any customizable section to increase conversion opportunities for their accounts.

After you have prepared the content, you can start to familiarize yourself with the rules of Douyin:

The recommendation mechanism of Douyin is the same as that of Toutiao. It is mainly divided into two rounds: review and cold start, which determine the final recommendation volume:

1. Audit

After a video is released, it will first be submitted to the machine for review. If any suspected violations (title, screenshots, key frames, etc.) are found, a manual review will be prompted to intervene, and then a decision will be made to block or recommend it.

2. Start

Videos that pass the review will receive the first round of initial traffic recommendations, with weights generally ranging from 300-1000. The system will then decide whether to make a second round of recommendations and the strength of the recommendation based on feedback data (likes, comments, reposts, click-through rate, and completion rate).

*It should be noted that using machines to increase followers and likes will not only fail to help improve the weight and recommendation volume, but will also result in demotion and account suspension once detected by the system.

3. Weight:

The weight of an account affects the size of the initial traffic pool. Accounts that often produce popular videos have high weights without exception. This requires improving the weight of an account from the beginning - insist on publishing videos regularly, ensure that the video content is high-quality and focused, and remember not to violate official rules.

In addition to user popularity, high-quality content is mainly related to picture clarity, originality and title description; content focus means that the video is relevant to the account field and maintains long-term stable output; while brushing fans, hard advertising and posting banned content are all violations.

(ps: It’s not all fancy stuff, just focus on the content)

If you create good content, there will naturally be recommendations. As long as you create good content, that's fine. In the Q&A section, I will also talk about some issues regarding the mechanism of Tik Tok, and I hope you can find your answers.

If you want to play Douyin, you must understand the rules of Douyin. Only by abiding by the platform rules can you go further. After all, if you want to make money, you have to abide by the rules.

1. When a user uploads a video, the video will be initially screened through machine review. Mainly review the video title, screen title and keywords. If the machine determines that there is a suspected violation, the video will enter the manual review stage. Once a violation is manually confirmed, the video will be deleted or restricted. If the video does not violate any rules, deduplication will begin, and videos with high duplication rates will be included in low-traffic recommendations.

The above rules are a must-read.

After understanding the violations, I will first give a brief explanation of the Douyin algorithm mechanism. The subsequent content is also based on this algorithm in general. No matter how things change, the essence remains the same. Just understand the content . I will try to talk about other aspects for your convenience in understanding.

Author: Qinghao

Source: Kuoyi Culture Media