Short videos are getting longer and longer, and Douyin is "abandoning" short videos

Douyin, which almost everyone has, has slowly "changed". In the early days, short videos of more than ten seconds on Douyin occupied most of the users' attention. Now, medium and long videos account for a larger proportion. What caused this change? Let's take a look!

Do you watch Tik Tok every day?

I have a friend who loves watching Tik Tok just like me.

A few days ago, he complained that it took him longer and longer to finish watching a video on TikTok. Last time, he went to the toilet to slack off, and his legs became numb from squatting while watching TikTok. In the end, he could only hold on to the wall to get back to his workstation.

He is right, the videos on TikTok are indeed getting longer and longer.

Tik Tok’s iconic 15-second short videos are slowly disappearing.

1. 15-second short videos are being “abandoned”

Tik Tok is one of the synonyms for short videos.

In the early days of its launch, Douyin mainly featured 15-second short videos, targeting young people who were pursuing fashion trends. Short videos of handsome men and beautiful women singing and dancing were the mainstream at the time.

As its user base continues to expand, Douyin has launched a new brand slogan “Record a Beautiful Life”.

Since then, Douyin has broken the shackles of 15-second short videos, and more diverse content has emerged. Short videos on Douyin have gradually become longer, from 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, to 30 minutes, or even longer.

At present, video content with a duration of 1 minute to 30 minutes is called medium-length video. Compared with traditional short videos, medium-length videos have both the length advantages of short videos and the content advantages of long videos, that is, more exquisite pictures, better editing and richer content.

According to the "Career Development Report for Mid-Length Video Creators" jointly released by Xigua Video and Xinbang, it is estimated that the number of users who frequently consume mid-length videos has reached 605 million in the past year, with an Internet user penetration rate of 64%, which means that 3 out of every 5 Internet users frequently consume mid-length videos.

In order to encourage creators to create more medium and long videos , in June 2021, Xigua Video, together with Douyin and Toutiao, launched the "Mid-length Video Partner Program". Douyin launched a traffic sharing plan for the first time, giving creators a share of traffic.

At the 2022 Douyin Creator Conference, Zhang Qi, head of Douyin's medium and long videos, said that the number of creators with monthly income of over 10,000 yuan under the Medium Video Partner Program has reached 17,000.

At this year's Douyin Creator Conference, Douyin announced that it will strengthen incentives for graphic content and medium and long videos, and continue to expand content categories and formats beyond the short video track.

Image source: TikTok

It can be seen that Tik Tok has begun to shift its resources to medium and long videos, and traditional short videos are being "abandoned".

In the past, Douyin was mostly filled with singing and dancing videos. Nowadays, there are more and more popular science, film and television commentary, teaching, live broadcasts, etc., and the video length is getting longer and longer.

2. Short videos are getting longer and longer, which is really a helpless move

Why do you say that?

The answer is different for different roles.

For creators, 15-second short videos have a very obvious disadvantage, which is that they are easy to be plagiarized.

Once a video goes viral, countless people will immediately follow suit and remake it. Some are other internet celebrities, and some are other internet celebrities under the same MCN. The same script, everyone is filming, and the homogeneity is very serious. Soon everyone will get tired of it, and the overall traffic will drop rapidly.

For example, if a video goes viral, they will copy and paste everything from the script, storyboards, music, etc. Then, the following situation occurs.

Image source: City without Elk (Bilibili)

Sometimes, when watching some short videos with plots, I don’t even know if what I’m watching is from the original author, so I can only try my luck in the comment section.

In addition, it is difficult for creators in some fields (such as knowledge, food, film and television commentary, and finance) to compress effective content into 15 seconds or even 1 minute.

Imagine if a short video reviewing a mobile phone is only 15 seconds long, how can it tell you whether the phone is good or not?

In theory, at least the various data parameters should be displayed, and then further compared with other friendly products.

Just 15 seconds is definitely not enough.

For creators, it is indeed inevitable that short videos will become longer.

What's more, this move is conducive to better monetization for creators. Only when the content is longer can it have a better traffic diversion effect, and can it be more effective in live streaming, selling goods, and making customized products.

The end of the universe is still live streaming sales.

Not only do the creators have this desire, Tik Tok itself is also focusing on making short videos longer.

In the short video competition, Douyin, Kuaishou and WeChat Video Account are the three major players, and the red ocean has long turned into a bloody ocean. The incremental market has long turned into a stock market, and the growth rate of user volume has slowed down.

When the user growth reaches the ceiling, it is a good choice to start with the user time.

In the past, fragmented and homogenized short videos made it difficult to increase user stickiness and user time. However, medium videos with more exquisite pictures, better editing and richer content are undoubtedly an excellent way to attract users.

At present, the Tik Tok short dramas that are popular on the Internet are also medium-length videos.

By the end of 2022, the daily users of Douyin short dramas represented by "Twenty-Nine", "Escape from the British Museum" and "I Have a Heartbeat for You" increased by 67% year-on-year, and the daily playback volume increased by 99%. Users who watch dramas really stay on Douyin.

Image source: Escape from the British Museum

Only by improving user stickiness, increasing user time, and improving user retention can we make money.

If the video quality is excellent, it can even snatch users from long video websites. After all, the user overlap of major video giants is not low.

From any perspective, it is an inevitable trend for Douyin to "abandon" short videos.

Author: Weaving

WeChat public account: Weiguojiang (ID: wjam123456)