Advertisements in the comment area are online, and the video account is "catching on"

The recent intensive updates to video account product functions have pushed video accounts to gradually become better monetization tools. This article objectively analyzes the recent development of video accounts and is recommended for those who want to understand the development prospects of video accounts.

On March 3, the video account mini-tasks were upgraded in terms of profit-sharing policy, task screening and operation services. Officials revealed that creators participating in all mini-tasks will increase their income by 40%;

On March 28, at the 2023 WeChat Open Course PRO, the official revealed a set of data: in the past year, the number of video account authors with 10,000 fans has increased by 4 times, the number of daily active creators and the average daily video upload volume have doubled year-on-year, and the user consumption time has increased by 3 times;

On April 6, Video Account released a new creative profit-sharing plan. High-quality original creators of Video Account who meet certain conditions can earn advertising revenue by displaying advertising content in the comment area of ​​their original videos.

As we can see, the functions of video accounts have been updated intensively recently. Video accounts are constantly improving creators' monetization tools in order to create a more sustainable content ecosystem.

01 The “Creation Profit Plan” was launched, and the monetization system for video account creators was initially established

Since the birth of Video Account, WeChat has injected momentum into the development of Video Account by continuously opening up the content ecosystem and frequently iterating product functions.

The current monetization system for video account creators has been initially formed. For creators at different stages, video accounts can provide corresponding commercial service support, enrich the commercial model for creators, and provide continuous support for creators.

In detail, for creators in the new stage, the official provides three commercialization capabilities including product showcases, live streaming sales, and live streaming rewards; in the 100-fan stage, two new commercialization capabilities have been added: video monetization tasks (i.e. video account small tasks) and the latest released creation profit-sharing plan.

According to official information, the threshold for opening the "Creation Profit Plan" is not high. As long as the number of effective followers (number of fans) is 100 or more and the content meets the standards, high-quality original authors can participate. This function is similar to the main traffic function of the official account, except that the advertising display position has been changed from the article body to the comment area.

Claure believes that the launch of this plan is largely aimed at retaining creators with less than or equal to 1,000 fans.

For the tail creators, there are obstacles to monetization on major content platforms, which not only affects their continued creation, but also is not conducive to improving the quality of video content. The low threshold and flexibility of the "Creation Profit Plan" can, to a certain extent, better alleviate the creative pressure of the tail creators, motivate them to produce better content, and thrive in the WeChat ecosystem.

For creators with more than 1,000 fans, a video product sharing function has been added to the five commercial capabilities of 100 fans, helping them to unleash their ability to sell products in private domains.

For creators with more than 10,000 fans, the mutual selection platform has become the best "helper" for commercial monetization.

As an advertising platform where advertisers and video account traffic owners can choose each other and freely reach cooperation, the video account mutual selection platform provides creators with content creativity support and adds diverse marketing scenarios to native video formats.

For creators with more than one million fans, the mutual selection platform has opened up customized monetization services, including short video mutual selection and live broadcast mutual selection modes, to safeguard the commercialization of top creators.

In summary, the mutual selection of advertisements on video accounts can help top creators amplify the value of their IPs, increase their voice of dissemination, and thoroughly develop in-depth content and marketing goals; the types of small tasks on video accounts are becoming more diverse, covering film and television, variety shows, games, etc., with the highest revenue for a single video exceeding 100,000 yuan, allowing mid- and low-end creators to continue to earn income; the creative profit-sharing plan has further broadened the commercialization capabilities of all creators. Creators with hundreds of fans only need to declare that their original video content is original, and the video comment area will have the opportunity to intelligently display suitable advertisements to users, thereby obtaining stable income.

It can be seen that Video Account is serving creators at all levels through tiered operations, bringing a more efficient cooperation model to the market, meeting the different needs of creators at different stages, and increasing their actual income.

With the continuous opening of the WeChat ecosystem, advertisers' budgets are shifting towards video accounts thanks to the unique content capabilities and private domain stickiness of WeChat creators, and the improvement of creators' monetization products has become an amplifier of this commercial potential.

02 The number of long-tail creators has increased exponentially, and "dark horse" creators of video accounts have emerged

According to the "White Paper on WeChat Creator Marketing Value and Marketing Strategy" previously released by Clour, the proportion of WeChat users who have followed creators for at least one year is as high as 94.1%, and 87.2% of users browse updated content as soon as possible. Recommendations and sharing guidance among acquaintances are important ways for creators to gain fans.

As mentioned at the beginning, the number of long-tail creators in the WeChat ecosystem is growing rapidly.

On the one hand, they gather based on common interests and hobbies, creating a space for communication between like-minded people;

On the other hand, through social distribution, content fission can be actively spread in multiple layers, creating distinct personality characteristics and fan trust, bringing diverse possibilities to the WeChat content ecosystem. Some "dark horse" creators are also emerging in the video account.

For example, the fashion blogger "真卷毛" on WeChat has distinctive personality traits and content style, and insists on creating content in the fields of beauty and fashion. After joining WeChat, various data have grown rapidly. In less than 6 months, he received the first commercial content cooperation. He has now grown into a very influential creator in the vertical category of WeChat.

From the perspective of video account products, the single-column stream distribution model based on following, friends, and recommendations represents different traffic domains. "Follow" focuses on the content that users actively subscribe to, "friends" broadens the content vision through social attributes, and "recommendations" select hot and high-quality content through the platform mechanism.

Fast-paced and slow content coexist, funny entertainment and popular science content complement each other. Claure believes that such a variety of content forms can make the WeChat content ecosystem more attractive and ultimately increase user usage time.

With the launch of the "Creation Sharing Plan", long-tail creators will be able to enjoy more monetization products and services and explore development paths with more confidence.

The influx of long-tail creators also proves one thing, that is, the content industry has now entered a mature stage of development. Video accounts are one of the few content platforms that currently have certain dividends. If new creators want to seize the opportunity, they need to continue to delve into content and grow together with the platform.

03 Use products to help creators increase their income and create sustainable monetization channels

In the expansion logic of any field of the Internet, "burning money subsidies" is always an inevitable link, and the same is true for creators. In the era of the rise of many content platforms, traffic-based subsidies have become the only way to compete for and cultivate creators.

But the drawback of this model is that once subsidies decrease, content creators will migrate to find the next "gold digging place". Only creators who integrate into the platform ecosystem and grow together with the platform are more worthy of investment of resources and energy.

In the cycle of double growth of creators and advertising revenue, as Baizhun CEO Gong Haihan said: "The answer given by Video Account is to solve the income problem of creators by using products rather than piling up manpower."

Creation profit-sharing plans, product showcases, small tasks, mutual selection advertising... We can see that as the video account monetization service system gradually takes shape, diversified monetization products have opened up monetization links for creators at all levels, and opened up different commercialization methods based on the abilities of different creators, indirectly promoting the birth of good content.

With the gradual upgrading of video account monetization products, I believe creators will have more room for development in the future.

Author: TopKlout

Source: WeChat public account "TopKlout (ID: TopKlout)"