What do TikTok users like to watch? I flipped through the current comment section

As a leader in short video platforms, Douyin has a huge amount of content emerging every day. In such an era of content explosion, what kind of works can attract users' attention? Through data analysis and user comment observation, this article reveals some common features of users' favorite content on the Douyin platform. From knowledge and appeal to surprise and outstanding creative expression, deeply understanding user needs and creating touching works are the key to every creator's success on the Douyin platform.

Is Tik Tok still easy to make?

Before answering this question, let’s take a look at some data. According to statistics from Xinbang’s Douyin data tool Xindou, at least 3 million works are uploaded to the Douyin platform every day (based on Xindou’s Douyin account sample library with 10,000 fans, unofficial data).

Since its launch in September 2016, the popular content of Douyin has been constantly changing, from the initially popular technical videos, to the later popular beauties and handsome men, to the film and television, finance, agriculture, rural areas and farmers, fitness and other vertical tracks.

Due to the huge number of creators and abundant content supply on TikTok, topics that would have been popular a few years ago are now abundant, and high-quality videos from a few years ago have now become standard.

Faced with this change, creators must think: What is good content? What content do users really like?

1. Let’s start with the user comment section. How can creators create good content?

There is no fixed standard for good content, but user feedback must be one of the important reference dimensions for good content.

Recently, the editorial department of Xinbang sorted out some works with extremely high user praise rates. Some of them were forwarded crazily by netizens, and some attracted online dancing in the comment area of ​​netizens. What is good content? These works may give creators some reference.

Last November, "Teacher He is in a daze" explained in the video "It doesn't matter who painted it, what matters is that he inspired us" how Duchamp's work "Woman Descending a Stairs" was created through a plot interpretation: for the first time, Duchamp recorded things and time on the same picture, showing the flow of time.

Many netizens left comments under the video, saying that they finally understood the famous painting. Among them, the comment "When I first took a photo of star trails, I finally understood what Van Gogh painted." received 1.16 million likes.

For users, they certainly hope to gain something from spending their time. Good content is often altruistic and can bring netizens a sense of gain in knowledge, feelings and insights.

Comment section for the video "Teacher He is in a daze"

By observing the content of the account "Teacher He is in a daze", we can find that his videos all use easy-to-understand language and vivid interpretation to unravel the process of art creation. "Teacher He is in a daze" once told the editorial department of Xinbang that good content can often achieve a balance between altruism and resonance. (Extended reading: "A single video has exceeded 100 million views! Tsinghua graduate quit his job and gained 2.6 million followers in a single month by disassembling famous paintings | Xinbang exclusive interview)

If altruism is about increasing users' sense of gain, resonance is about whether the content is infectious and whether it can resonate emotionally with netizens.

Recently, because of a guzheng version of "The Flower Guardian", "Lu Rouyi" not only received over 3.92 million likes for one video, but also attracted over 620,000 netizens to dance online in the comment section.

From cute cats to happy Jerry, netizens' disco emojis are both neat and chaotic, highlighting the joy. Many netizens also left messages in response to "Lu Rouyi's" call: "I need a not-so-normal team" and "I need a cute team."

Comments section for Lu Ruoyi's video

The reason for this is that when the classical and solemn Guzheng and the DJ version of "Flower Guardian" were mixed together, the interesting creativity instantly aroused the enthusiasm of netizens for interaction.

What can infect users is not only creativity, but also the creator's real feelings and experiences. Last month, "Pipi on the Blue Planet" shared his experience of encountering a storm in New Zealand. The vigorous vitality revealed in the video infected countless netizens. One netizen left a message: "Pipi, I hope we can all live passionately and freely."

Comments section for the video "PiPi on the Blue Planet"

Some netizens like content that makes them feel fulfilled and infectious, while others expect more eye-opening and vivid expressions.

For example, "Masno" transformed himself into "the Duke of Northwest Special Village" and introduced his hometown in a pure London accent on the loess land of Ningxia. In the video "Plateau Baby Pumpkin", on one side is "Masno" wearing a suit and promoting the local specialties in English like a diplomat, and on the other side are the verdant vegetable fields and the vast loess land. The huge contrast and "Masno"'s deep love for his hometown have earned this video more than 500,000 likes.

Masno's video comments section

The use of "Western" English to introduce local specialties brought netizens a great sense of freshness and surprise. One netizen commented: "It feels like going from a speech at the United Nations to a casual chat at our dinner table."

When single content cannot attract users, creators need to innovate in multiple dimensions such as topic selection, expression method, etc. to create a sense of surprise for users.

The "hot kid at the bottom" in the cross-dressing track and the "fat milk tea boy" in the dubbing track have created many surprises for users by upgrading production and combining it with film, television and variety shows.

Because of his challenge to play the second male lead in Korean dramas, "Bottom Hot Kid" received 810,000 likes on one video; because of his secondary creation of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and released many popular singles for "Fourth Master" Chen Jianbin, "Milk Tea Fatty" was not only pushed to the platform's hot searches by netizens many times, but also attracted the attention of 5.41 million fans.

A large number of netizens made jokes in the comment section of "底辣孩" and "奶茶小肥仔"

Some creators surprise netizens with their creativity, while others impress netizens through their content.

A month ago, "Ancient Architecture Painter - Master Lin" released a video titled "Building an ancestral hall is like buying a car, there are cheap and expensive ones. Build it according to your own budget. Don't rush it", recording the process of painting the Chaoshan ancestral hall.

The video itself does not have any cool camera movements or special effects, but its clear and complete shooting allows netizens to immerse themselves in the Chaoshan ancestral hall culture. The "ancient building painter - Master Lin" who painted the door gods and colorful pillars and beams of the ancestral hall with his bare hands brought great shock to netizens.

Below the video, some netizens hoped that their children could learn a skill from the blogger, some netizens asked the blogger to cooperate, and some netizens shared more ancestral hall painting works.

As of press time, "Ancient Architecture Painter - Lin Shi" has only 35,000 followers, but the number of likes for this video has grown to 29,000.

Good content usually has good expressiveness and can clearly convey the creator's ideas, information, and feelings to users. For example, "Happy Afang" uses clean lens language to present elements such as summer watermelons, roosters crowing in the morning, bees collecting honey, a small shop at the entrance of the village, and a grandma fanning herself at the door in the video "Grandma is angry, the kind that can't be appeased", capturing the childhood life that netizens yearn for.

Overall, most of the content that receives positive reviews from users has added highlights from dimensions such as information density, emotional resonance, topic selection, and expression form: either it is very useful and can bring users a great sense of gain; or it is very charming and has a strong appeal; or it is very fresh and can give users a great sense of surprise; or it is very beautiful and has outstanding creative expression.

Good content definitely has more than just these few characteristics, but what is certain is that truly good content must be user-driven and must be able to touch the user’s heart.

2. Starting from the Selected Plan, how can creators accelerate content evolution?

The ultimate standard of good content lies in the hands of users, and the birth of good content depends on the efforts of creators.

The content industry has always had two sides: Side A is that creators use advertising, e-commerce, knowledge payment and other methods to achieve a closed loop of content-monetization; Side B is that creators rely on the creation share given by the platform to concentrate on content creation without interference. The two are equally important and have jointly promoted the development of the content industry.

For creators, a strong desire to express themselves is usually the beginning of creation, and the user recognition and commercial realization brought by high-quality content are the key to whether creation can be sustained. The editorial department of Xinbang has interviewed many creators, and almost every creator has mentioned the happiness and sense of accomplishment they get from being followed by fans and recognized by the market.

Because of the high quality of their works, creators will attract a large number of netizens to actively interact with them. Conversely, the positive comments from a large number of netizens also give creators more motivation to create. Similarly, when creators realize commercial value through content, they also gain more creative space. They can use the income from their creations to upgrade their productions, expand their themes, and ultimately create more good works.

The birth of good content has always been the result of the integration of creators, platforms, and users. Only when users actively interact and give feedback, and platforms set up the stage and provide support, can creators get more positive feedback from users and businesses, thereby accelerating the iteration and evolution of content and creating more high-quality content.

Recently, Douyin launched a long-term high-quality creation initiative, the "Douyin Selection Plan", hoping to continue to discover and encourage more good works that are loved by users, and provide traffic support or cash incentives for related works. Works that users like usually have one or more characteristics such as a sense of achievement, a sense of surprise, expressiveness, and appeal.

Currently, the program does not require creators to actively sign up. The "Douyin Creation Assistant" will send a private invitation message to eligible creators. It is understood that creators also have the opportunity to obtain exclusive creation rights including VIP customer service, posting assistant, Star Chart high-quality business orders, and e-commerce partner programs.

For creators, starting from user needs and making good use of the platform's incentives and support are the keys to creating more good content.

Author | Yun Feiyang Editor | Xiaoba Hachiko
This article is written by the author of Operation Party [Xinbang], WeChat public account: [Xinbang], original/authorized to be published on Operation Party, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.