"Listen" has been quietly tested for half a year, and WeChat has secretly created a "small universe"

An article on a public account can have a readership of several thousand and an audio listenership of over 100,000. How is this achieved?

How could an article on a public account with a reading volume of only a few thousand have an audio listening volume of over 100,000?

Recently, the editorial department of Xinbang discovered that the reading volume of a tweet just exceeded 7,000, but the audio was listened to by over 100,000 people.

People familiar with the matter revealed that because the audio of the article reading entered the WeChat "Listen" traffic pool, there is a large contrast between the number of picture and text readings and the audio listening data.

In January this year, WeChat conducted a grayscale test of the "Listen" function, moving the music and audio previously located in the drop-down page on the homepage to the "Discover" page, and setting up a separate entrance called "Listen" to go alongside functions such as "Search", "Scan" and "Take a Look".

As of now, "Listen" has not been fully opened. Although it is only a small-scale internal test, after half a year, the WeChat audio ecosystem has undergone significant changes due to "Listen", and it has also brought additional traffic exposure to many public account creators.

For example, the financial public account "Zhengjieju" was also hit by the "listen" traffic. An article titled "Iranian President Died in a Crash: Why Did He Take a US-Made Helicopter More Than 40 Years Ago?" was read more than 100,000 times, and the audio playback volume also reached more than 100,000 times. However, the audio playback volume of most other articles was concentrated in the hundreds to thousands.

Under the "metaphysics" of traffic, can "listen" become a new frontier for WeChat content creators? Are there any popular experiences that can be learned from audio content? Can it bring more business opportunities? We talked to many public account creators to try to find the answers to these questions.

1. After half a year of internal testing for “Listen”, which audios are easily recommended?

Previously, WeChat’s “Take a look” function opened the door to public domain traffic for official accounts. What traffic codes does the “Listen to it” function, which is parallel to it, hide?

Looking at the "Listen" page, it combines the core functions of music apps and podcast apps. Not only can you listen to songs and podcasts, but you can also watch video accounts and listen to public account articles.

Similar to decentralized distribution channels such as "Look" and "Search", "Listen" also does not have a fixed "traffic code formula".

"The traffic from Tingyiting feels like winning the lottery." In the opinion of Li Feng, the manager of "Zhengjieju", although there have been a few audio hits by chance, he has not figured out the pattern behind them.

Several public account managers told the Xinbang editorial department that they found through background data that three types of articles are likely to obtain higher audio playback volumes: first, the topics are current affairs and hot topics; second, the articles are expressed in a more colloquial manner; and third, the articles are longer and contain a large amount of information.

Li Feng revealed that several articles with high listener volume on the "Zhengjieju" public account all hit the hot topics, and the content was concentrated in the international field.

"Of course, this may also be related to the content itself. Down-to-earth expressions will make the voice spread more widely," said Li Feng.

For creators who are good at audio content, "Listen" is a shot in the arm for them, and "Listen to Liu Xiao at Night" is one of them.

In 2017, the "Ye Ting" (later renamed Ye Ting Liu Xiao) public account accumulated more than 20 million fans thanks to its radio content.

Tang Jiwen, the business director of "Night Listening to Liu Xiao", is very optimistic about the future of WeChat's audio content ecosystem. "We are well-known for 'listening', and we are willing to continue to delve deeper into audio content in the future." Excellent audio content creators will receive greater traffic support on WeChat.

Shen Shuaibo, the manager of "Jinjibo Finance", revealed that he sometimes uses "Listen" to listen to long articles, "because sometimes the articles are too long and it is indeed a bit tiring to read them, but I seldom go there specifically to look for content to listen to. I just click to listen to articles that I think are good."

Yan Min, the manager of "Short Drama Insider", also found that some articles have a high listening volume, probably because they are too long, so users choose to listen to obtain information.

It has been observed that the "Listen" function, which is still being tested on a small scale, has not brought significant public domain traffic incentives like the "Watch" function.

After reading hundreds of articles from top public accounts, the Xinbang editorial department found that cases with audio views of over 100,000 are rare.

Many public account creators said that they had noticed the "Listen" function, but did not obviously feel the change in traffic brought about by "Listen".

2. From music to podcasts, has “Listen” revitalized graphic, text and video content?

Although "Listen" has not yet brought in huge traffic, it has increased the opportunities for secondary dissemination of content for official accounts and video accounts.

The audio content of "Listen" mainly comes from official accounts and video accounts, including podcast columns, AI reading of official account articles, and video account audio. This function further connects the text, image, audio and video content of the WeChat ecosystem.

Taking the AI ​​reading of public account articles as an example, by swiping right on the playback page, users can enter the original text of the public account through audio; in addition, users can also obtain content updates of the public accounts they follow.

For example, the podcast audio uploaded by the top podcast "Comedian Chat Club" in the official account tweets and the podcast audio uploaded by the top emotional self-media "Shining Girl Sisi" on the video account have both entered the WeChat "Listen" recommendation pool.

In addition to pictures and texts, "Listen" also adds a public domain exposure entrance for the music content of the video account, and adds a traffic entrance for music content in the form of information flow recommendations.

From celebrity performances to new song MVs, these videos have the opportunity to be disseminated a second time in "Listen" and gain long-tail traffic.

“Listen” is not the first time WeChat has focused on audio content.

In his speech at the "WeChat Night" in 2021, Zhang Xiaolong bluntly stated that he was not very satisfied with the music listening experience on WeChat, and revealed that WeChat was then trying a project to visualize music.

Zhang Xiaolong gave an example, imagine that while you are listening to a song, there are other people listening to the same song in different scenes. If you connect the pictures in front of the listeners' eyes, there will always be some people whose pictures are similar. Based on this, WeChat has made a visual presentation of the listening experience.

In April 2023, you can directly access the "Music and Audio" interface by searching for "Music" on WeChat or opening a QQ Music song shared in a chat; at the same time, WeChat and QQ Music will launch a limited-time event, during which WeChat users can listen to QQ Music VIP songs for free.

Now, based on the social attributes of music, "Listen" allows you to see the music liked by friends and songs recommended by the platform, and see the public updates of musicians in the "Music Fan Circle".

In terms of music visualization functions, "Listen" has been connected to the video account, allowing users to listen to songs and watch videos at the same time. This not only gives music creators the opportunity to become well-known, but also revitalizes Tencent's music resources.

3. How much traffic bonus can “Listen” bring?

In social media where short videos and live broadcasts occupy the "center position", audio still has a certain irreplaceable status.

A new media practitioner revealed that WeChat now has a car version, and he would open it to listen to articles that he wanted to read but was not convenient to read at the moment on his way to and from get off work.

Tang Jiwen believes that any medium has its irreplaceable communication advantages. Audio can liberate people's eyes and hands. This immersive content experience is difficult to replace by other media. WeChat connects media such as pictures, texts and audio, giving creators more choices in content creation, making the content richer and more vivid.

In addition to traffic, "Listen" also opens up commercial imagination space.

Behind the audio content is a huge music market and a rapidly growing podcast market. Business models such as membership fees, paid audio content and brand placement have already been implemented.

According to data from China Insights Consulting, the scale of China's online music market will be approximately RMB 32.2 billion in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 33.1%. The market scale is expected to exceed RMB 49.5 billion in 2025, and the scale of music-derived social and entertainment industries is expected to exceed RMB 110 billion.

The "2023 Podcast Marketing White Paper" shows that the number of Chinese podcast programs has experienced a 25-fold explosive growth in the past three years.

Although the market potential is huge, in the context of short videos and live broadcasts constantly stimulating the audience's excitement threshold, the "listening" business is undoubtedly a slow business.

The Chinese podcast market has long faced commercialization difficulties, and music apps have been very slow to make profits.

For example, Spotify, a giant founded in 2006, only achieved its first quarterly profit after 13 years of operation. From 2018 to 2023, Spotify's net profit margin continued to be negative.

However, unlike the "Hope of the Whole Factory" video account which shoulders the heavy responsibility, "Listen" which is in its early stages has not yet been entrusted with the burden of commercialization.

Nowadays, creators tend to regard the 100,000+ views of "Listen" as "dessert after meal" and do not use it as the "main course".

Li Feng said: "It is true that many people, especially the middle-aged and elderly, have formed the habit of listening to audio on WeChat. The increase in audio content consumers will also force content creators to pay attention to the production of audio content. But we are still in the observation stage and have not yet specialized in audio content."

In Tang Jiwen's view, the essence of WeChat social networking will not change, and audio content will be more deeply bound to algorithms and interest-sharing circles. Audio content, especially music and entertainment audio, can retain a large number of audio users. Audio can be mutually channeled with public accounts and video accounts, allowing users to stay longer in the WeChat ecosystem, and can also realize the function of a knowledge sharing platform.

Previously, Xinbang had discussed the impact of "Look" in the article "100,000+ people dropped from the sky? Can "Look" revitalize the traffic of public accounts?" Once the content enters the public domain recommendation of "Look", the accuracy of readers and the circle effect will be reduced accordingly. For WeChat creators, the users who are willing to stay after watching the excitement are the most valuable.

How to balance public and private domain traffic, how to use audio to activate graphic, text and video resources, what role will audio content play in the WeChat ecosystem, and whether it can attract more creators are all difficult problems that "Listen" needs to think about right now.

After the full release, it seems that there is still a question mark as to how much traffic dividend "Listen" will bring.

Author: Bamboo

Source: WeChat official account: "New Ranking (ID: newrankcn)"