The power system of Internet content platforms as revealed by the popularity of “Dig, Dig, Dig”

"In what kind of garden are you digging, digging, digging..." A nursery rhyme became popular overnight. It has nothing to do with thinking or debate. Is the Internet content trend swept by "meaninglessness" still healthy? The author of this article uses the popularity of "Dig, dig, dig" as an introduction to expound his views on this Internet cultural phenomenon from the perspective of information distribution and content dissemination on major Internet platforms. It is worth thinking about. I hope it will be inspiring for you who pay attention to Internet culture.

The nursery rhyme "In What Kind of Garden Are You Digging, Digging, Digging" became an Internet sensation almost overnight. I believe that most people who go online have come across it more than once in the past weekend.

I have no intention of analyzing why "Wa Ya Wa Ya Wa" became so popular, what characteristics its content has, whether there are MCN promoters, and how to create similar popular content - although I believe these topics are also worth discussing. I am more concerned about the "power system" or "influence model" of Internet content platforms reflected by this incident.

If someone wants to study the characteristics of online content platforms such as Douyin, WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, Zhihu, etc., including the similarities and differences between the user side and the commercial side, the spread of "Digging Digging Digging" undoubtedly provides a very good case. We can roughly summarize it as follows:

• Douyin has once again proven its absolute advantage in "setting the hot topics on the entire network." Any creator or business that wants to take advantage of the hot topics on the entire network must maintain a presence on Douyin. This is the basis for Douyin's commercialization to flourish.
• The platform closest to Douyin in terms of "setting hot topics for the entire network" is Weibo, but the gap is still quite large. WeChat Video Account has this potential, but for various reasons it has not yet been brought into play. The gap between Kuaishou, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, etc. is even greater (although they each have their own areas of expertise).
• Under the current economic situation, the spread of short content such as "Wa yaya yaya yaya" is very high, and its share in online content will further increase. A large amount of resources are pouring into these short content, thus posing a challenge to long content platforms such as WeChat official accounts, Bilibili, and Zhihu.

Let’s talk about the first one first. Since Douyin’s rise in 2017, it has always firmly grasped the power to “set the hot topics of the entire network”; moreover, it also holds the power to set most of the “vertical hot topics”. As far as the short video genre is concerned, a piece of content, a meme, or a KOL is only really popular if it is popular on Douyin.

This phenomenon is particularly evident in 2022: Liu Genghong, Wang Xinling Boy, "I'm from Yunnan", "Your background is too fake", all became hot topics on the entire network through Douyin. Interestingly, the birthplace of the latter two topics is actually Kuaishou, but they have gained higher popularity on Douyin.

Yes, Douyin has many disadvantages for creators. For example, Douyin's highly centralized traffic distribution mechanism leads to creators having little control over their fans, and they are always busy chasing hot spots, making it difficult to form a stable and loyal private domain base.

However, as long as Douyin still firmly holds the power to "set the hot topics of the entire network" and "set the hot topics of most vertical categories", creators must operate this platform and businesses must place ads on it. This is the basis for Douyin's commercialization to flourish forever - no matter how the Internet advertising market shrinks, it is always other platforms that are hit, not Douyin.

Douyin's power to "set the hot topics on the entire network" is formed by a series of factors: highly immersive product design, centralized algorithm recommendation mechanism, experienced manual operation, and a good creative support environment. A single factor is easy to copy, but it is difficult to copy the entire system mentioned above. Although I am neither a heavy Douyin user nor a senior Douyin creator, I still have to admit that this "power system" is powerful and difficult to overcome.

Let’s talk about the second point. Although Weibo has been declining for a long time, it is the only content platform that can approach Douyin in terms of “setting hot topics on the entire network”. You may find an interesting phenomenon: any heavyweight KOL, no matter which platform their base is on, will open a Weibo account and use Weibo as their “second battlefield”.

In other words, Weibo is no longer the "first battlefield" for most KOLs, but the "second battlefield" for almost all KOLs. Weibo is very good at making people or topics "go viral", which means becoming a hot topic on the entire network. This is determined by the mass media attributes of Weibo and its parent company Sina.

Before 2021, Weibo was once reduced to a struggle arena for entertainment fan circles, leaving little space for general non-entertainment topics; but after the "Clear Operation" to rectify fan circles, Weibo seemed to have lost a lot of entertainment topics, but in fact it gained a broader topic space and a speech environment more suitable for mainstream users.

Therefore, starting from 2022, Weibo's value to KOLs will show a revival. Unfortunately, due to the weak operation and commercialization of Weibo, this revival is destined to be only partial. Take "Digging, Digging, Digging" as an example. Weibo only acts as an amplifier of this topic, and it is only one of many amplifiers.

In theory, WeChat Video Account has the potential to "set the hot topics of the entire network"; it has demonstrated this potential many times in many breaking news events in 2021-22. The problem is that the current development path of WeChat Video Account is neither like a public account nor like Douyin, but a completely compromised patchwork of "four different things".

In fact, I think that Video Account may have deliberately given up the power to "set hot topics on the entire network" because it is too dangerous. WeChat already has the strongest private mobilization power on the entire network, so it should take the initiative to give up the public mobilization power - if you are the manager of WeChat, I believe you will also choose this to minimize risks.

Among other content platforms, Kuaishou has always had a certain ability to "set hot topics on the entire network", but due to the limitations of user size and tone, it is often "flowers bloom inside the wall but smell good outside the wall" - 2022's "I am from Yunnan" and "Your background is too fake" are typical cases.

In 2020, Bilibili once gained the ability to "set hot topics for the entire network", with Wizard Finance and Luo Xiang's popularity being examples; unfortunately, it gradually lost this ability in the next two or three years. Xiaohongshu and Zhihu are typical "(partial) vertical hot topics" setters, lacking the ability and ambition to set hot topics for the entire network. However, as Xiaohongshu's users continue to grow, perhaps it will one day gain such an ability.

Let's talk about the third one. From last year's Wang Xinling and "I'm from Yunnan" to this year's "Auntie who doesn't want to get married sends out red envelopes" and "Dig, dig, dig", these hot topics on the Internet from short video platforms have one thing in common: they are all "brainless, fresh and meme-making". The so-called brainless means that the content itself lacks social and cultural connotations; the so-called fresh means that it is good at appearance, freshness, and aesthetics; the so-called meme-making means that it is easy to form a catchy "meme" that is easy to spread and create again.

Of course, not all popular content meets the above common points. For example, "Your background is too fake" does not fit the category of Xiaoqing, and Liu Genghong does not fit the category of creating memes, etc. However, it is an indisputable fact that "brainless Xiaoqing creating memes" short content is becoming more and more popular and is gaining more and more attention among online content.

"Dig, Dig, Dig" is the epitome of "brainless, fresh, and meme-making" content. It's hard for me to even imagine how the later ones can surpass it (although I believe someone will definitely surpass it):

• "Dig, dig, dig" is a children's song for young children. For adults, such children's songs are brainless, exaggerated, cute and funny. The performance of the children who match the children's songs promotes this cute and funny effect.
• The original creator of "Wag yag yag" and most of its followers are young kindergarten teachers, a profession that is inherently associated with a fresh look, tone, and dress; with the help of powerful filters, the fresh characteristics of "Wag yag yag" are further amplified.
• "Dig, dig, dig" itself is a perfect length and rhythm, which is naturally suitable for spreading. Some secondary creators changed it to "crawl, crawl, crawl", etc., which is not very harmonious in rhythm and is far inferior to the original.

In the past one or two years, we can deeply feel that the traffic of content platforms and social media is increasingly flowing to short content, especially the above-mentioned "brainless, fresh and meme-making" short content. This is determined by the social and economic environment.

On the one hand, the current social environment is very complex, and any social and economic topic discussed (including international topics) can easily cause controversy; although creators can still become famous by discussing these topics, the risks involved are also difficult to estimate.

On the other hand, under the relatively complex and difficult macro-environment, Internet users are more inclined to increase their consumption of simple, mindless, and "healing" content; after all, life is already very hard, and who would not be willing to empty themselves and waste time on meaningless things during their rare leisure time?

Comparing the hot topics on Douyin in the past two years, we will find that:

"Wang Xinling Boy" has a strong nostalgic attribute, and users often discuss the social environment and personal experiences 15-20 years ago around this topic; "I am from Yunnan" has certain geographical attributes, and users can discuss their hometowns and places of residence around it (later extended to discussions about occupations, schools, workplaces, etc.); "Your background is too fake" has strong expansibility, and users can create various secondary creations based on it; "Unmarried aunt sends red envelopes" has a strong feminist color, which will trigger users to discuss topics such as marriage, family and even the economic status of women.

None of these hot topics are completely brainless, nor are they completely curable.

Only "Wa Ya Wa Wa Wa" has no social attributes, does not evoke any user's personal experience, and has no other connotations except fresh and "healing". Even the scope of secondary creation of "Wa Ya Wa Wa Wa" is obviously narrower than the above ones (basically limited to repeating the nursery rhyme). You may think this is a regression of online content, but this is exactly what users want at this stage, and it is probably what the platform wants.

A large amount of traffic, creators and commercial resources will continue to flow into these "brainless short content". This is definitely not good news for "long content platforms" such as WeChat official accounts, Bilibili, Zhihu and the three major video platforms.

The power of "short content platforms" represented by Douyin and Weibo (perhaps with WeChat Video Account) in the creation and dissemination of online content will be further strengthened. Don't get me wrong, no matter what time it is, users still need longer, more in-depth and social content. However, long-term trends and short-term trends are likely to be contradictory, and "digging, digging, digging" is a concentrated manifestation of this contradiction.

Author: Pei Pei, leader of the Phantom Thieves

WeChat public account: Internet Phantom Thieves (ID: TMTphantom), Internet industry observer and researcher.