Qiang Xiaoming, chairman of Douyin Business University, once said that he missed the era of micro-business and hoped to provide some positive guidance on Douyin. Unlike those who switched from micro-business to Douyin business, he prefers to call Douyin business short video monetization. He said: “We just want to tell a very real case to tell everyone how it creates content, how to bring traffic, how to build supply chain, how to maintain user relationships, and how to build brand image.” Everyone is looking forward to a share of the wave of Douyin commercialization. As Kevin Kelly, the author of “Out of Control”, said: “Where the eyes are focused, the money will follow.”
Douyin was launched in September 2016; in September 2017, the commercialization journey started from the first brand video advertisement; in 2018, it launched commercialization measures such as the Star Map platform and the corporate Blue V plan.
Obviously, the commercialization of Douyin is also gradually deepening. Whether it is to build personal IP influence or to shape the commercial brand image of the enterprise, Douyin has become an indispensable platform at present.
When Douyin was launched in September 2016, many Internet giants had already entered the short video market. At that time, there were a wide variety of short video products. However, after a brief exploration, Douyin quickly became popular and quickly broke through the siege, becoming as famous as the short video industry leader “Kuaishou”.
In such a fiercely competitive market, Douyin, which has no first-mover advantage, can break through the siege. So what is the secret of its success? In this section, the author will conduct a detailed analysis.
Douyin’s product positioning
Douyin’s product positioning is a 15-second music short video social tool. From the current main features of Douyin, its main user groups and needs are as follows.
(1) Self-media, Internet celebrities, stars, etc.: This group of people has a certain influence. They hope to use the release of high-quality short video content to increase their fans and further enhance their influence, and gain certain benefits in the process.
(2) Online store and third-party operators: These people mainly hope to increase their own popularity through the Douyin platform and direct Douyin traffic to the target platform.
(3) Active operators: These people are not well-known to begin with, and their main purpose is to build their personal IP through the operation of Douyin, so as to gain more income through Douyin.
(4) Recreational users: These people usually do not actively create short videos, they just use Douyin as a recreational tool, and scroll through it when they have nothing to do, purely for entertainment.