180°, a big reversal of video accounts

WeChat Video Account has undergone a major transformation recently, abandoning the traditional e-commerce operation model and returning to the operation ideas of the public account era. This change has had a profound impact on merchants, influencers, traffic owners and service providers.

Video account has experienced a super reversal.

A very big change, no more operations and no more waiters!

Abandoning the traditional e-commerce operation ideas, I mentioned in the previous article: Video accounts return to the era of official accounts.

That is to say, if you want to sell goods through video accounts and you can’t find anyone on the platform, you can do it on your own!

Business experts have entered a "black box" state, guessing the direction based on only a few announcements. This once again proves that Tencent's products are supreme, and problems are solved through products first, rather than relying on operations.

Some are happy while others are sad. The operation direction of video accounts has reached a major turning point. Here are some thoughts:

1. Opportunities for brand merchants;

2. Transformation of influencers/traffic owners;

3. Major transformation of third-party service providers;

01 Don’t be too big, but don’t starve to death

This adjustment has the greatest impact on merchants

Let me give you the conclusion first: "You won’t grow big, but you won’t starve to death."

WeChat’s consistent “decentralized” distribution logic, what does it mean if it does not engage in e-commerce operations?

All merchant rules rely on algorithm support.

E-commerce is an extremely complex matter. The operation teams of Taobao, JD.com, and Douyin all require tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people to support them.

Without operations, there will definitely be a lot of bugs, and there will be more and more one-size-fits-all solutions.

Many issues, such as category review, marketing rules, and after-sales rules, may be solved in a one-size-fits-all manner, greatly increasing the operational difficulty for merchants.

Therefore, without the operational support of the waiter, the performance of the leading merchants that have already settled in will decline, while new merchants will be allocated more traffic and it will be easier to get started.

As part of the overall strategic adjustment, WeChat Stores came into being.

WeChat Stores have a lower entry threshold, 0 deposit, and connect all public and private domain traffic, empowering merchants more.

For merchants, as a form of "compensation":

You don’t need operations support, but instead you are empowered with global traffic.

Fewer algorithms "distribute traffic",

More ecosystems to “empower traffic”.

Zhang Xiaolong said in an open class that WeChat is not willing to distribute traffic, but to establish a mechanism to allow capable people to obtain traffic naturally.

The consequence of relying on the merchant’s own ability to obtain traffic is that they “cannot grow big”.

Because the overall trend is still "biased towards private domain", the soon-to-be-released WeChat stores will upgrade their brand certification and store naming systems. For example, there will no longer be official flagship stores or specialty stores, but they will be collectively referred to as small stores.

There will be no distinction in levels to the outside world, which means "equal rights for merchants". There will no longer be gold labels or flagship store certifications for big brands, and everyone will be back on the same starting line.

Small shop owners can continue to operate in private domains through their own private domains, official accounts, and mini-programs; they can also conduct public domain operations through live broadcasts and short videos on their own video accounts.

There is only so much traffic, and if he can’t expand it, you will inevitably starve to death.

More businesses are involved, more people make money, and they make money for a longer period of time. This may be the basic idea of ​​WeChat e-commerce.

02 Experts, make money first

The expert traffic masters have entered the "traffic blind box", with no road signs or correct path ahead.

Let me first state the conclusion: use the unconventional approach to make money first.

If talents and traffic masters want to make money on video accounts, they must brush up on their historical knowledge.

Don’t get it wrong, all of this must go back to the official accounts of 10 years ago, not TikTok of 5 years ago.

"Content is information". To do business on WeChat, you must deeply understand these five words. (I will write a separate analysis later)

Traffic comes from high-quality content, but in terms of content distribution logic, Douyin and WeChat are completely different.

The reason why Tik Tok can create traffic miracles like Xiao Yangge and Dong Yuhui is essentially the result of the centralized distribution algorithm.

Another way to express personalized recommendations is "seeking the worst of people", which means to push recommendations based entirely on the weaknesses of human likes and dislikes.

WeChat, on the contrary, tries to find a balance between addiction mechanism and traffic breaking through social pressure and algorithm mechanism.

Therefore, for most of the same content, it is difficult for WeChat to reach the traffic level of Douyin.

You can’t make a lot of money on Video Account by following Douyin’s approach.

Returning to the era of official accounts means that the governance rules and business logic are more in line with WeChat’s own characteristics, namely socialization and decentralization.

The traffic distribution of the video account also continues the idea of ​​the official account:

If the number is over 100,000, it will no longer be displayed.

100,000+. Don’t underestimate the concept created by this public account. Through it, WeChat tries to find the balance point to break the circle. Perhaps the idea behind this supports the long-term prosperity of WeChat.

In order to prevent super content from breaking the circle, resources are given to more middle and lower levels.

Back to the conclusion, why do we say that unconventional ways make money first?

1. Multi-account matrix.

WeChat is decentralized, and content on WeChat cannot obtain super traffic. The wild way is to distribute it in a multi-account matrix. Since you would rather see every account survive, I will use multiple accounts at the same time.

A few days ago, I found a team in Guangzhou that does just that: they create a large number of plot accounts with less positive values ​​at low cost, and each account can grow to hundreds of thousands of followers.

Then, do it quietly and monetize a set of models.

2. Generate traffic on the front end and monetize on the back end.

Since you don't operate and manage strictly, and many categories are not allowed to be put on the shelves, then I will use the video account to attract traffic and pull it into the private domain to make transactions.

Many of my members are now constantly guiding them to add WeChat in the private domain through multi-account editing and live broadcast, and then importing them into the private domain for monetization.

Products like nourishing, health-preserving, and black five categories are not allowed to be listed on video accounts, or they have to be sold in white, which can only be done in private domains.

The WeChat mechanism determines that unconventional means are an important way to make money on WeChat.

"No operation, only management when problems arise", that is, the first group of people who find the loopholes make money, WeChat discovers that they have harmed the user experience, and then bans the accounts of those who use unconventional methods.

The first wave makes money, the second wave blocks the account.

Remember, the first principle of WeChat ecology: information gap is profit.

It's information asymmetry, and it doesn't even reach the cognitive level.

You have learned a new way to play and you can make money by doing it immediately.

Therefore, following the Dayu official account is a kind of information gap, adding the WeChat below to read the circle of friends will increase the information gap, and joining the community may be the first-hand information gap.

In WeChat, we all started with wild methods.

As more people walk along the path, it becomes less wild.

03 Third-party service providers, a dramatic change in the landscape

After this adjustment, service providers have both joy and worries.

As mentioned in the previous article, WeChat Store is essentially an official SaaS. It is native, free, has more complete functions, and is seamlessly connected with other tools.

Then, service providers doing SaaS on WeChat will face a devastating disaster.

However, they will not die on the spot, and may even continue to live.

It goes without saying that e-commerce tools such as Youzan, WeMall, and Kuaituantuan have no future.

The WeChat ecosystem is huge and the demands are very diverse. WeChat stores certainly cannot meet all demands, but they solve the basic problem.

That is, SaaS service providers will be squeezed into a corner to do business.

Perhaps when it comes to starting a business, nothing is more despairing than having “no future”.

At the same time, another type of service provider creates huge business opportunities.

1. With training and support, a large number of businesses entering the market, and one-size-fits-all rules, they need various services to solve these problems.
2. Some people make a lot of money by operating WP and TP/DP, and I think WP has more opportunities because it is more complicated.
3. I have a lot of these gray industry agents who do registration, customs clearance, and negative review deletion on behalf of others in my circle of friends.
4. Other services that are said to be illegal...

Since information asymmetry is the basic foundation for the existence of the WeChat ecosystem, the value of obtaining information itself is very high.

The huge adjustment of the team and the launch of small stores have obviously made this adjustment no longer just about the video account, but the beginning of the entire WeChat e-commerce.

Understanding WeChat and Gaining Cognitive Differences

Perhaps it is the first key to unlock WeChat e-commerce.