Snapchat has laid a good foundation for the social network video dividend has emerged

Recently, it was reported that Snapchat’s daily views have doubled to 6 billion since May this year. Meanwhile, Facebook announced last week that its daily video views are 8 billion. Mark Zuckerberg said, “In the next few years, video will become the most attractive content on social networks.” Although there is still a long way to go between Facebook and us, this does not prevent the domestic video social circle from catching up with the wave of Internet development in its own way.

According to observations, the current domestic video social products are mainly divided into two types: sharing and live broadcasting. There are several representative applications in each camp for reference. Video sharing includes Meipai, which leverages the advantages of Meitu, and Miaopai, which relies on the Weibo platform; video live broadcasting includes Xiuse Show, a mobile entertainment application under NetQin, and Inke, a lifestyle live broadcasting platform that focuses on fashion.

It can be seen that both giants and entrepreneurs have already sensed the trend of "video social networking" and have begun to lay out their plans. The competition in this field is no less than that of text, pictures, voice or any other form of social applications. The exit of Tencent Weishi is a good example. The attention of various capitals has revealed the general trend of social network video to a certain extent, but is the time really ripe now? Is there enough driving force and support behind this trend? Some answers may be found from the commonalities of several video social software that are currently developing well.

Basics: Large screen mobile phone + 4G/Wi-Fi network environment

Compared with the transmission of multimedia information such as text, pictures, and audio, video has higher requirements for hardware resolution and network transmission. However, with the popularity of high-resolution, large-screen mobile phones and the advent of the 4G era, the conditions for video social networking have matured in terms of hardware and network.

The impact of the network environment on live streaming platforms is even more obvious. According to He Xiaowu, the person in charge of the Xiuse show, the Wi-Fi environment was taken into consideration at the beginning of product design. The optimization of the Wi-Fi environment has a great help and promotion effect on the development of the entire industry. Compared with the PC side, the situation on the mobile side is more complicated. In order to ensure the speed and clarity of video upload in most scenarios, the design architecture of Xiuse's product is based on a network environment that is worse than 4G.

Temperament: Meet the needs of Internet natives

Professional data reports have shown that in large and medium-sized cities, 70% of post-90s have been exposed to the Internet in primary or junior high school, and 61.7% of post-90s college students use the Internet every day, and the Internet penetration rate among post-90s is 100%. On the one hand, Internet natives have a higher demand for diversified online information, and more vivid videos cater well to the tastes of young people. Some sharing software has specially added the barrage function that is popular among young people; on the other hand, as the post-90s grow up, demands with significant age characteristics begin to emerge, and keen practitioners have seized the opportunity here.

Baljeet Singh, head of Twitter's video business, once said that studies have shown that the feeling of watching a friend's video is very similar to receiving a handwritten letter from a friend. This may explain why major social networks are now working hard to build their own video platforms, because the essence of social interaction is to connect people better. The post-90s generation, who are gradually becoming the main consumer group, prefer this form of social interaction and are more willing to accept this new type of social interaction that can fully demonstrate their own personality.

According to He Xiaowu, the person in charge of "Xiu Se Show", "We hope to capture the psychological needs of young people for making friends and interacting with each other, so our social video products are initially positioned at young people around 20 years old in first-, second- and third-tier cities." By observing other social video websites, we can find this "youthful" temperament. If we don't want to fall behind in future social competition, doing a good job in video shooting and sharing, and capturing the appetite of young people has become a top priority.

Opportunity: Super strong monetization ability

Analysts say that video ads tend to have higher click-through rates than static images or text, which means that digital video ads may grow significantly. Good monetization capabilities are the foothold for almost all Internet products to survive. Even if there is no monetization capability, video social networking can still monetize well by relying on traffic and fans.

Previously, Sohu Video and LeTV had cooperated with operators to launch preferential policies for video traffic. Video consumes more traffic than other file formats, so in theory, the profit-sharing model can still be used for video social applications. The means of monetization of live broadcast software can be attributed to the fan economy to some extent. In this regard, the profit model of Xiuse Show has attracted widespread attention in the industry. Unlike other video websites whose income mainly comes from advertising, its main income comes from virtual gifts, accounting for more than 80% of the total income, and transactions mostly occur in the interaction between visitors and anchors. This kind of transaction based on interaction is often voluntary payment by users, and there is no compulsory membership system of video websites. The social needs of users can help video websites realize traffic monetization.

From the overall scale, the development of video social networking in China is still in a relatively early stage. Like most fields, the capital market prefers products that are at the forefront. The agglomeration effect and brand influence can be said to be barriers accumulated over time for social products. Data shows that as of September 14, 2015, the download volume of "Xiuse Show" on the five major third-party Android app stores in China (Baidu Mobile Assistant, Wandoujia, App Store, 360 Mobile Assistant, and Anzhi Market) was 22.12 million, ranking first in the industry, Guagua Video-Beauty Dating Live ranked second with 19.35 million downloads, and YY Video ranked third with 7.2 million downloads.

Judging from the current development of these social video websites, "video will become a new social medium, replacing pictures and texts as the mainstream communication carrier..." This statement is not an exaggeration. In the future, the social model based on video platforms may bring a new round of baptism to people's online entertainment life.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.