In recent years, the development of the domestic Internet has been very rapid. It has not only changed people’s lifestyles and made people’s lives more and more convenient, but also made China’s Internet penetration rate rank first in the world. No matter how the Internet develops, the competition among major companies is essentially a competition for traffic. After all, this is an era where users are king. Whoever has a large number of users can build his own business empire. In the development of China’s Internet, the rise of new platforms has brought three e-commerce dividend periods. The first was after Taobao was established in 2003, and many people started their e-commerce journey by opening Taobao stores; the second was after WeChat appeared in 2011, and some people started micro-businesses through WeChat; the third is now, with the rapid development of short videos, many people have started Douyin business with the help of Douyin.
1. Taobao, the representative of e-commerce
At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, network technology developed rapidly, and with the accelerated pace of people’s lives, more and more consumers began to seek a faster and more convenient shopping experience. In order to meet this demand, merchants began to gather on e-commerce platforms represented by Taobao, thus opening the e-commerce era. Because e-commerce has the advantages of diversity of choice, low prices, and convenient shopping, more and more consumers have begun to use it as their main consumption method. It is precisely because of this that many people realize that e-commerce has become a mainstream consumption method, and the cost of opening an e-commerce store is relatively lower, so more and more merchants have begun to engage in e-commerce and sell their products through e-commerce platforms. Some merchants have even shifted the focus of sales to e-commerce platforms.
2. WeChat, the representative of micro-business
Taobao took ten years to develop less than 10 million practitioners, while micro-business only took one year to have more than 10 million practitioners. Strictly speaking, micro-business is a form of e-commerce. In addition to relying on the WeChat ecosystem, the biggest difference between the two is that e-commerce accumulates trust through long-term consumption behavior, while micro-business relies on the trust of social relationships to generate consumption. Most of the consumption behavior of micro-business occurs between acquaintances.
The fundamental reason for the development from e-commerce to micro-business is that there is currently an oversupply of goods, and people need a basis for quick identification and decision-making. In the past, people bought goods more based on brands. For people, things from big brands are safe to choose and use. So for a period of time, brushing teeth with Gaolu toothpaste and washing hair with Head & Shoulders shampoo became the inherent idea of many people.
With the increase of brands, people will have more and more choices when choosing a certain product. At this time, a series of questions arise: Which product should I choose? How effective is this product? Is the one on the shelf a fake?
Because there are too many questions and it is difficult to make a decision, and people don’t want to accept the cost of trial and error, so many people choose a relatively safe approach, that is, to refer to the opinions of “acquaintances” who know the business. So, under this circumstance, those micro-businesses have achieved rapid development.
3. The representative of Douyin
Whether it is brand, experiential, participatory or word-of-mouth consumption, the ultimate goal is to make consumers believe in our products, and the core of the transaction lies in two words: trust.
Therefore, in order to build this trust, we will adopt different business models at different times. This is true for micro-businesses, and it is even more true for the Douyin business created today. One of the important reasons for the development of Douyin business is that the maturity of the Douyin platform can achieve the integration of communication and sales.
In the past, people who did marketing knew that communication and sales were two different concepts. The marketing department is responsible for promoting products, while the sales department is responsible for actual business transactions. However, we now find that communication and transactions have become inseparable. Where there is traffic, there is the battlefield for communication and sales.
In the era of relying on television for advertising, many traditional companies relied on CCTV’s heavy advertising to become big brands. Now, even if you spend 10 times the advertising cost, it is difficult to achieve the original publicity effect.
Why? Because modern people’s time is cut into pieces, and the communication channels of the market have become complicated, so brand marketing is now facing many challenges. The market is more fragmented and difficult to cover. The efficiency of traditional media channels has become lower and lower. It is difficult to fully cover and effectively reach target users. User needs have become diversified, personalized, more vertical and segmented, and the circle of people is also very obvious. If brands only adopt conventional standardized strategies and methods, it will be difficult to make target users excited and take action.
As a short video platform with huge traffic, Douyin not only has convenient shopping links such as shopping carts and product showcases, but also allows users to place orders in real time while watching.
As of January 2019, Douyin has more than 250 million daily active users and more than 500 million monthly active users, making it the largest short video platform in China. 2019 is an important year for the development of 5G, and the incremental dividend of users will enter the user’s time dividend. Some industry research institutions said that short videos, live broadcasts, etc. will become the first choice for mainstream media to report news in the future.