Tik Tok traffic self-closing loop is accelerating

Recently, Douyin has updated a number of merchant regulations. From restricting third-party traffic to focusing on shelf e-commerce, Douyin is taking a series of measures to keep user consumption behavior within the platform and create a complete business ecosystem. This article will explore in depth the strategy of Douyin's traffic self-closing loop and its impact on merchants and users.

Recently, Douyin has updated many merchant regulations for soliciting opinions, including but not limited to the [Merchant-Improper Acquisition/Use of Information] rules, [Merchant-Inducing Third Parties] rules, and other opinion solicitation notices. The intention of this update is obvious, and the penalties for violations will be stricter.

(Details on improper access/use of information)

(Details of inducing third parties)

For example, in the revised regulations, the core change is to cancel the A/B violation points and make definite penalties based on the number of violations and the severity of the violations. For example, it is clear that liquidated damages will be deducted, the store will be rectified, etc. Now this opinion collection is more like Douyin drawing a clear boundary.

Industry insiders whose business focuses on Douyin explained that this series of changes is an extension of Douyin's compliance with the Consumer Protection Law and an initiative to regulate the rational operation of businesses' stores.

Judging from the changed information, the focus of the penalty is on the illegal acquisition of third-party information and the behavior of inducing third parties. The intention is obvious. Douyin will increase its efforts to prevent any business or individual from leading users or their information out of the platform. The strong punishment shows Douyin's determination.

Douyin has taken related actions before, but in the past the punishment decisions were vague and unclear, but this time it will be more obvious.

In the past one or two years, Douyin has been restricting and cracking down on third-party traffic-generating behaviors, including the previous adjustment of the order decryption policy and the strict prohibition of merchants from obtaining user mobile phone numbers through third parties or other illegal means. This includes the earlier crackdown on traffic-generating behaviors such as matrix numbers and AI courses. All of these are aimed at preventing users from flowing to third parties and keeping users on their own platforms.

Even the exit of Xuelang APP can be seen as a move by Douyin to further retain traffic on its own platform.

Many businesses compare Douyin's private domain to WeChat, believing that Douyin's private domain cannot be established and no one will chat on Douyin. But in fact, for Douyin, on the one hand, it is trying to build a social system for acquaintances and couples, such as small sparks, video chats, and watching short videos together, trying to keep users in Douyin even in non-short video scenes.

On the other hand, Douyin's efforts in shelf e-commerce also aim to encourage users to consume and retain on Douyin through various means. Including Douyin's local life business and Douyin Mall incentive policies, Douyin has designed many discounts and promotions at the consumer level to continuously arouse users' actions to purchase goods.

In this regard, a person in charge of Douyin's private domain layout told Jianshi that Douyin has no intention of building a WeChat private domain. Instead, it is more like building a Meituan-style private domain - by constantly issuing coupons and discounts, allowing users to pay on Douyin.

So contrary to using WeChat’s private domain approach to develop private domain on Douyin, Douyin welcomes businesses to use Meituan’s private domain approach to be active on its own platform.

This is actually a way to play to one's strengths and avoid weaknesses. Combining the characteristics of its own platform to create a platform that allows users to pay and be active may be more effective than simply doing social networking. For this reason, Douyin's future actions will actually be more inclined to prevent its users from spending outside the platform.

This is not only reflected in Douyin, Taobao, Xiaohongshu, and JD.com are also accelerating this move. Taobao will cooperate with DingTalk groups to do private domain, and also issued new regulations to rectify the current concern of outbound calls; JD.com monitors brand outbound users and imposes penalties; Xiaohongshu launched a number of private domain incentives for Xiaohongshu group chats, etc.

Because of this, we may see a variety of private domain models in the future - different platforms and different private domain strategies.

However, it is unknown whether this kind of private domain is popular among the majority of merchants or brands. But for the platform, this is the most effective way to retain users.