Is the WeChat video number worth the content creator all in？

Editor’s Note: This article is from WeChat WeChat official account "Minced Pepper Entertainment Investment" (ID:ylwanjia), by Blue Lotus, published by 36Kr with authorization.

A meteor shower made the video number out of the circle again. According to statistics, millions of people watched it that day, and hundreds of thousands of people shared it [click the link to review]. Since its launch on January 19th this year, VideoNo. has staged a Pearl Harbor sneak attack in the field of short video. Just like the path of WeChat catching up with Alipay.

Before 2020, we will talk more about Tik Tok, Aauto Quicker and bilibili. These short video platforms have achieved rapid growth in the past year or two. But in the process, WeChat users are close to the ceiling. An obvious change is that the activity of WeChat official account has been declining in the past two years.

In this context, the emergence of video numbers has largely saved the traffic crisis of the entire WeChat. In the middle of this year, Zhang Xiaolong revealed on WeChat that the daily activity of WeChat video number has exceeded 200 million.

In fact, the development of video number has undergone obvious changes. In the first half of this year, due to the lack of creators and content of video numbers, high repetition rate and poor user experience, the industry also had doubts about the future development of video numbers, and even felt that video numbers were not very good.

However, since June, the video number has stopped internal testing, and user registration has been fully opened, and the speed has suddenly accelerated. In the words of industry insiders, WeChat is not restrained this time.

In the second half of this year, three major changes have taken place in the video number. First, the functions are becoming more and more perfect, including the open live broadcast function; Second, video number provides operating tools for video creators, such as video number tentacles; Third, get through the traffic of the whole ecology, especially the traffic of friends.

According to Rolling, the head of the new list, after a year of development, the video number is not what it looked like at the beginning of the year. "It gradually matures and can participate in interactive sharing or sell goods."

For this matter, WeChat has a great determination to do, which can be seen from the opening of multiple entrances to the video number. At present, friends circle, topic tags, take a look, etc., give the green light to the video number all the way, which is the reason why the video number can rise rapidly this year.

Rolling shared a piece of data at the new video conference. According to the statistics of November, the content ecology of video number has the following characteristics.

First of all, in the top 500, the top three account types come from emotion, music and life. Nearly half of the hits are from these three categories, and the emotional music life adds up to 244.

The reason is that these categories of users have a wide audience and a low threshold for content consumption. From this, it can be inferred that the user portrait crowd of the video number is relatively sinking.

In addition, the data of the new list also found that among the creators of video numbers, most of them are female creators, accounting for more than 60%. This is a major feature that distinguishes the video number from Aauto Quicker, Tik Tok.

Another feature is that users of video numbers are more patient than users in Aauto Quicker, Tik Tok, and they prefer to watch those videos that are slightly longer than those that are particularly short and fast-paced. According to statistics, the short videos on Tik Tok are mostly within 15 seconds, while the short videos with video numbers are mostly within 16-30 seconds, or even more than 40 seconds.

At the same time, a large number of brand enterprises have entered the video number. In contrast, the Enterprise on Tik Tok’s fast hand only entered at a later stage. After all, brand enterprises generally have WeChat WeChat official account, which belongs to the same system as video number.

In the new video number forum, a forum host Fan Weifeng asked Pan Luan, a well-known technology media person. What kind of opportunity do you think the video number is? Is it worth all in?

Pan Luan replied, on the video number, the single video broadcast volume of Break Dance Kaikai is 400 million. Which article has been read more than 400 million in WeChat official account era? The market and ceiling of video number are infinitely high. "The biggest possibility is that it appears in WeChat products, and the video number can be used as a social business card. In addition, from the perspective of the production efficiency and circulation rate of content, it is higher than that of the WeChat official account era. "

I believe everyone is familiar with night listening.

This is an emotional self-media company established in 2015 and positioned as a radio station. The founder of the company is Liu Xiao, who is also the anchor of WeChat official account, and once worked in Hengyang TV Station. WeChat official account, with women as its main audience, regularly releases an audio, a sentence and a picture at 10 o’clock every night.

Hit the emotional crowd, so that night listening quickly accumulated more than 10 million fans. Around 2017, the number of new fans added to Night Listening is between 100,000 and 300,000 every day. At present, there are over 30 million fans listening to the whole network at night.

In February of this year, the video number "Listening to Liu Xiao at Night" was officially opened.

In Liu Xiao’s view, the high proportion of emotional content on the video number is only phased. If the content is too homogeneous, users will definitely choose to leave. The greatest value of the video number should come from the live broadcast room.

"Because how many users you can mobilize to come to the live broadcast room and do live broadcast every day, how many people there are in the live broadcast room is your user’s daily life. A product is worthless only if the user has no daily life. From the beginning of making the video number, I focused on how to operate the live broadcast room. "

At present, the realization mode of video number is still advertising, which has the fastest effect. However, Liu Xiao believes that the mode of video number should be TOC, that is, transactions should be made and users should be regarded as customers.

"Our users are concentrated in the crowd between the ages of 30 and 40 after marriage, which is relatively sinking. The life scenes of this group of people are most concerned about the family’s oil, salt, sauce and vinegar. It is more direct to directly trade with our users, although it is said that advertising is not the most important thing for me to make video numbers."

Night listening was a high-quality project in the tide of double innovation in that year, and at the same time it got investment from several well-known venture capitalists such as Zhenge Fund and Jinshajiang Venture Capital. In Liu Xiao’s words, after several rounds of financing, it expanded and started to work as a platform, but missed the content opportunity in 2018-2019. It was not until the video number appeared that night listening let go of the content again.

In the future, the live broadcast room for night listening will be live broadcast with goods, and the people and goods yard are very important.

Listen to the content at night, but there is no goods, and the supply chain capacity is lacking. Therefore, we will find high-quality supply chain cooperation, such as magic chopsticks, to customize products.

In Liu Xiao’s view, there are still many imperfections in the "field" of the video number live broadcast room for night listening. For example, the live broadcast room can’t keep people, and the number of online viewers can’t get up. "Of course, it is also related to ourselves. Can we make the live broadcast room brighter and the lighting more professional? Maybe users will be willing to stay for a while."

At present, there are three nights of listening, one selling movie tickets and the other two selling goods. The number of people who made an appointment for the first game was 60,000, and that for the second game was 70,000, and the sales data doubled.

"Later, we also reflected that the sales volume increased, but the number of online people declined. The video number is traded by old users, which is private domain traffic. This kind of traffic will face the loss of trust, and there will be a decline in traffic. This needs to cause content creators to reflect. How to keep users in the live broadcast room more is different from doing business through the trust and approval of private domain traffic. I see more crisis in this matter. How to mobilize users, and after the transfer, it is very difficult for users to trust you. "

It’s not just night listening that tries to broadcast live on the video number.

Not long ago, Li Xiaoyi, the founder of "Woman with a Fragrant Soul", opened the first live show with goods on the video number. In three hours, the total book turnover reached 1.9 million, and the number of viewers reached 65,000, which made a beautiful battle.

There are nearly 8 million users of "Woman with Aroma of Soul", in addition, there are 4.6 million fans in WeChat official account, the largest single account fan is 3.5 million, in addition, there are 400,000 broadcast users and 300,000 content paying users.

Li Xiaoyi just started making video numbers on April 30th this year. When she made the video number, she wondered if she could leave some interfaces for business, because without commercial realization, it is difficult to continuously produce high-quality content.

"WeChat official account’s experience has given us some data support. The field of video number is equivalent to our second venture. The advantage of starting a second business is that you have experienced a complete cycle and are not afraid. Just like the recent cliff-like decline in traffic of my video number content, what’s the matter? We have been doing WeChat official account for six years, and there have been at least 100 cliff-like declines in traffic, but each time it has risen back, so I am not so nervous. "

In Li Xiaoyi’s view, a very important prerequisite for the transformation of advertisements or live broadcasts brought by content is to think clearly who the content is for, so as to form an accurate portrait of fans. In the current live broadcast anchor with video number, Li Xiaoyi’s achievement is quite bright.

The first live broadcast of the book was 3 hours and 18 minutes, with a total turnover of 1.9 million yuan and a total audience of 65,000; The second live broadcast was two hours, with a code of 1.86 million.

Li Xiaoyi said frankly that the young anchor live broadcast with goods for six hours or even eight hours at a time. If you get high turnover by hours, it’s hard work. But the video number is different.

"The video number is based on private domain traffic, which is particularly interesting. During the live broadcast of the book, someone at the bottom asked, what color is your lipstick? I casually said the brand TF, and it was temporarily put on the shelves, and sold more than 400 pieces at once. What it can tell us is that if there is a very good scene, others can find a unique lifestyle here. "

This year, there is a video in the video number. In the early days, it is very likely that every user has brushed it. A 20-year-old construction worker performed a break dance on the construction site under the watch of his workmates. Today, this video has a single broadcast volume of more than 400 million, and the protagonist in the video has become a "break dance Kaikai" with 500,000 fans.

The behind-the-scenes operator of Break Dance Kaikai is Zeng Shallow, who is the founder of Shallow Media, a live e-commerce company. Since June, it has entered the field of video number, mainly in the field of dance, outdoor and home. Break dancing Kaikai is an account that they hatched successfully.

"More than 65% of Kaikai’s users are men, mainly 30-50 years old. In other words, it is mainly the sinking people who work and farm. Their usual entertainment life is not much, and Kaikai’s positioning is almost zero distance from their jobs. "

In addition, during the development of the video number, Kaikai settled in the internal testing stage. At that time, the content was relatively small, and Kaikai’s break dance was one of the few high-quality videos in the early days; Third, Kaikai’s positioning is migrant workers and grassroots. This kind of position is easy to touch people, and there is a sense of sight that even if you are in the dust, you should look up at the stars and protect your dreams.

Kaikai’s three billion-dollar videos add up to nearly 1 billion. "Our daily PV value is about 4 million, each account has 4.5 million views, 870,000 comments, 2.2 million sharing times and 400,000 collections. I have also played in Tik Tok, but I can’t reach such a level on Tik Tok. Kaikai’s second video has a single broadcast volume of more than 380 million, and the likes are higher than the first video. "

At the scene, Zeng briefly showed a video with a broadcast volume of 210 million, and said that this video was released on June 28, and in the last month, the average broadcast volume was around 2 million every day. "This is why we pay attention to the video number. The long tail traffic is too big, which Tik Tok can’t match. The account on Tik Tok, the traffic may last for one day, one week, or even one month, but it will never last for six months, so long. "

What Zeng Shallow is thinking about now is how to grasp the heat of talent. After all, dancing can easily lead to aesthetic fatigue.

Kaikai’s follow-up operation direction has also tried to bring goods. More than 300,000 GMV30 were sold in the first game, but the traffic dropped seriously. "Our losses are also very serious. Kaikai doesn’t like live broadcast, and the lens expression is not so strong. Out of respect for personal opinions, Kaikai will develop in the direction of poverty alleviation in the future. He comes from the grassroots and is more willing to do something for the grassroots. Let his account go in this direction. "

Zeng’s second direction in video number is to try to focus on operating private domain fans. "When we broadcast live, we pulled more than 200 groups, but the operation was very poor. Learn more from other masters. " The third direction is to broaden the skill boundaries of talents, such as ventriloquism, singing and dancing. In addition, some new people will be built to guide each other.

For the value of the video number, Zeng Shallow believes that the greatest value is still on the fans. Because some people in the fan base asked if there were any dance training classes for break dancing besides selling courses online. There are more than 1000 users who are interested in signing up, and they are in the same city. "We will enlarge and deepen the private fans by ten times and a hundred times."