Content e-commerce: Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu "part ways"

As content platforms move into the e-commerce field, the development paths between platforms have also diverged. In this article, the author interprets the e-commerce business development of platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu. Let’s take a look.

Speaking of content platforms, I believe everyone will be familiar with them. Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu are among the most commonly used content platforms by consumers today. Whether it is Douyin, Kuaishou, or Xiaohongshu, they have all relied on their unique advantages to gain a firm foothold in their respective fields, grow into the industry's leading players, and have won the favor of many users.

On the other hand, e-commerce is also an industry that is very close to people's lives and has brought great changes to people's lives. The two seemingly unrelated industries are gradually getting closer. Content platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu have all targeted the e-commerce field and have continuously increased their investment in e-commerce business.

1. Content platforms are cross-border

In recent years, cross-border has become the norm in the Internet industry, and content platforms have unanimously chosen the e-commerce track. Specifically, as early as 2014, Xiaohongshu began to focus on the e-commerce field and launched its own cross-border e-commerce platform "Fulishe"; Douyin began to test the e-commerce business in 2018; in the same year, Kuaishou also tried e-commerce business. Since then, Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu have continued to explore and work hard in the e-commerce field. There is also a logic behind the content platforms targeting the e-commerce field.

First, the e-commerce business of content platforms will help cultivate a new growth curve. In fact, most content platforms rely on advertising to make money. The continued growth in the number of users has made content platforms popular with many advertisers and become the main battlefield for advertisers to place ads. However, as the growth rate of advertising revenue slows down, content platforms are in urgent need of finding a new growth curve. At the same time, e-commerce has long been deeply integrated into people's daily lives and has huge room for development. Therefore, content platforms have begun to actively deploy e-commerce businesses, hoping to achieve new growth through the development of e-commerce businesses.

Second, content platforms have a large number of users and can provide support for the development of e-commerce business. After years of development, content platforms have accumulated a large number of users, and their number of users continues to grow. Relevant data show that as of January 2023, Xiaohongshu has more than 350 million users; as of 2022, the number of Douyin users has exceeded 800 million, and the number of monthly active users has exceeded 600 million; in the third quarter of 2023, Kuaishou's average daily active users reached 386.6 million, and the average monthly active users reached 684.7 million. The huge user base has given Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu a certain degree of popularity and influence, and these users can also become an important support for the development of their e-commerce business.

Third, content platforms can use their own content as a starting point to differentiate themselves from other e-commerce platforms. Although they are all content platforms, their content has different focuses. For example, Douyin and Kuaishou are in the form of short videos, which are more intuitive and immersive, while Xiaohongshu is in the form of pictures and texts, with a stronger atmosphere of planting grass. The different functions and attributes of content platforms will also become an important focus for their development of e-commerce business, and take this as an opportunity to extend different e-commerce differentiation characteristics and embark on their own e-commerce path.

2. Tik Tok "step by step"

In recent years, Douyin has been increasing its investment in e-commerce, from the initial trial to the formal establishment of a first-level business department clearly named "e-commerce". Not long ago, Douyin also increased its investment in self-operated cross-border e-commerce and medical e-commerce. It is not difficult to see that Douyin's emphasis on e-commerce is increasing day by day. In the process of developing e-commerce business, Douyin also has its own pace.

Firstly, Douyin uses short videos or live broadcasts to stimulate users' potential consumption desires and ultimately facilitate transactions. As a short video platform, Douyin has accumulated a large amount of high-quality content and attracted a large number of users. Douyin can also rely on these high-quality content to stimulate users' potential needs. In addition, short videos and live broadcasts can display products in all directions, making it easier to awaken consumers' purchasing needs and ultimately complete transaction conversions. Through the live broadcast model, Douyin's e-commerce business has also achieved rapid development and has become a force that cannot be ignored in the e-commerce field.

Second, Douyin vigorously develops shelf e-commerce and improves its e-commerce business map. With live streaming, Douyin has gained a firm foothold in the e-commerce field. After that, Douyin e-commerce began to layout shelf e-commerce. For example, shopping malls, searches, and windows belong to shelf scenes. In 2023, Douyin e-commerce once again accelerated the layout of shelf e-commerce, launched the "Douyin Supermarket", tested the "planting grass" function in the window, and issued a three-month preferential policy, exempting commissions for commodity card orders.

The promotion of this series of measures has significantly boosted the development of Douyin's shelf e-commerce. According to the 2023 summary released by Douyin e-commerce, Douyin's shelf scene business has grown rapidly in the past year, with the mall's GMV increasing by 277% year-on-year, and the number of authors with a cumulative GMV of over 100,000 yuan has exceeded 600,000. Driven by the dual scenes of content and shelves, Douyin's e-commerce landscape has been further improved and its competitiveness has become better than before.

3. Kuaishou takes steady steps

As another dazzling star in the short video field, Kuaishou's every move has also attracted much attention from all parties. Like Douyin, Kuaishou started its commercial exploration very early, and e-commerce is also one of its key areas of focus. However, although Kuaishou and Douyin are both short video platforms and have both increased their e-commerce businesses, their e-commerce development paths are not exactly the same.

Firstly, the strong connection between Kuaishou users has laid a solid foundation for building trust e-commerce. Unlike Douyin, Kuaishou encourages user interaction, so the social atmosphere on the Kuaishou platform is stronger. Data shows that as of the end of the third quarter of 2023, the number of user pairs following each other on Kuaishou reached 32.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of nearly 40%. The strong social community atmosphere makes the connection between Kuaishou users deeper, and it is easier for users and anchors to form a sense of trust, laying the foundation for Kuaishou to create "trust e-commerce". After all, trust is one of the indispensable and important factors in e-commerce transactions.

Secondly, Kuaishou has launched a number of support strategies to help merchants operate and create a better e-commerce environment. The importance of merchants to the development of the platform's e-commerce business is self-evident. In order to help merchants operate better, Kuaishou has launched a series of support plans to provide merchants with traffic subsidies and support. For example, Kuaishou E-commerce launched the "Chuanliu Plan" in January 2023; and released the "Fuyao Plan" in September. The launch of these support plans will not only allow high-quality merchants to enjoy traffic inclination, but also allow consumers to see more high-quality brands and high-quality products, and ultimately form a more benign e-commerce atmosphere.

Third, Kuaishou is gradually developing the pan-shelf field to meet the deterministic needs of users. The biggest feature of live e-commerce is that it can stimulate consumers' potential shopping needs, but for consumers with certain needs, the live broadcast model seems a bit troublesome, while the pan-shelf follows the logic of "people looking for goods", which can better meet consumers' deterministic needs. Therefore, Kuaishou has increased its investment in the pan-shelf field to better meet consumer needs. Taking search as an example, in terms of portal display, Kuaishou optimizes and guides e-commerce content, strengthens the demand for post-viewing search, and adds more portals.

4. Xiaohongshu “changes direction”

Nowadays, many consumers often look for guides and notes on Xiaohongshu before shopping or traveling, which shows the great influence of Xiaohongshu. Xiaohongshu has also been exploring commercialization, and e-commerce is an area that it particularly values. Despite facing many challenges, Xiaohongshu has never given up on the e-commerce field, but has continued to increase its exploration. After many vacillations, Xiaohongshu finally chose the direction of "buyer e-commerce."

On the one hand, developing e-commerce business can maximize the advantages of Xiaohongshu in planting grass. For content platforms, commercialization is an extremely important link, and e-commerce has always been regarded as one of the best paths for content platforms to commercialize. Planting grass has always been the biggest attribute of Xiaohongshu, and many users have developed the habit of browsing Xiaohongshu before making a purchase decision. Not only that, many users will be "planted" when browsing a certain note, and have a desire to buy. It can be seen that "planting grass" has a high correlation with e-commerce, and Xiaohongshu's addition of e-commerce can also maximize its own "planting grass" attribute.

On the other hand, the community tone of Xiaohongshu is highly compatible with buyer e-commerce. Content is Xiaohongshu's biggest advantage. The high-quality notes shared by platform users can often "plant grass" in a subtle way. Most of Xiaohongshu's buyers come from community creators. These buyers not only have experience, but also have their own areas of expertise. They can accurately convey the value of the goods, produce high-quality sharing content, and ultimately facilitate transactions through notes and live broadcast content.

In fact, Xiaohongshu's buyer e-commerce has already shown great development potential. Data shows that from 2022 to August 2023, in the one and a half years, the number of buyers and managers of Xiaohongshu increased by 27 times, the number of active sellers increased by 10 times, and the number of purchasing users increased by 12 times. It can be seen that Xiaohongshu's buyer e-commerce has a lot of room for growth, and it is natural for it to focus on buyer e-commerce.

Whether it is Douyin, Kuaishou, or Xiaohongshu, they have all made clear their determination to develop e-commerce businesses, and have also created differentiated features based on their own advantages. As Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu continue to deepen their presence in the e-commerce field, their e-commerce businesses have also given positive feedback. However, the attributes of cross-border integration have become increasingly obvious. As content platforms move towards the e-commerce field, traditional e-commerce platforms have also accelerated their content development. The competition in the e-commerce field is becoming increasingly difficult, and Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu cannot take it lightly.

Author: Liu Kuang, WeChat public account: Liu Kuang (liukuang110)