When WeChat’s “Search” function learned to “Ask”

This article introduces the three major new changes and new features of WeChat in detail. Readers can understand the general development direction of WeChat through this article.

On March 28, the 2023 WeChat Open Class PRO•WeChat Appointment was held in Guangzhou as scheduled. The most important information in this event was the release of a series of new plans for application components such as Video Account, SouYisou, and Mini Programs. The focus on content is the next main line of each section.

According to Tencent's annual report, revenue in 2022 fell by 1% year-on-year, the time spent on video accounts exceeded that of Moments, the number of new fans on video accounts increased by 120% year-on-year, the number of daily active creators and the average daily video upload volume doubled year-on-year, and the consumption time increased by 3 times. It can be seen that using video accounts as a starting point to help creators increase their income will be one of the important directions of WeChat in the next stage.

1. Comparing with Zhihu and Douyin, “Search” has learned to “Ask”

Xu Jingfang, head of WeChat Soso's business, announced at the WeChat meeting on March 28 that the monthly active users of WeChat Soso reached 800 million in 2022, and the search volume increased by 54% year-on-year. As a "connector" for various content sections of the WeChat ecosystem, Soso has now become an important tool to assist content creation and operation.

WeChat Search has been continuously opening up more diverse search scenarios in order to capture and satisfy users' current curiosity. As the WeChat ecosystem becomes increasingly rich, users not only search for accounts, content, and services in WeChat, but also have more extensive information needs. The WeChat Ask function is aggregating and presenting high-quality answers on the platform, and by inviting high-quality content creators to participate in answering questions, this function is obviously a benchmark against Zhihu.

The entertainment value officer found that when you ask a question, the ranking of multiple answers will be based on the quality of the answer content, the time of answering, and user feedback. High-quality answers will be displayed at the top of the results page when users search for related questions. Users can also like, forward, or follow the creator of the answer.

At the same time, WeChat will also launch a paid subscription function, supporting creators to set up paid content areas, and users can become members by paying a monthly fee. It is reported that the paid subscription function may be a unified capability covering all authors of video accounts and public accounts.

The common paid reading business models in the industry include paid short dramas launched by Kuaishou, Douyin, and iQiyi, as well as knowledge products from Get and Himalaya. The "super fan" model launched by iQiyi Suike allows creators to establish personal fan subscription channels to increase their personal income. The overseas version of Douyin has also tested a paid subscription model, which allows creators to charge people who watch their content.

At present, Zhihu, a successful case of content monetization, has its largest revenue source from commercial content solutions. The new features and paid subscriptions of WeChat are all a return to WeChat's pursuit of content being king. Because when vertical fields and professional content become new opportunities for this round of knowledge monetization, only high-quality content has a good "money" prospect.

2. Video accounts no longer rely on nostalgic concerts?

In the third year since the launch of Video Account, from "non-intervention" and "slow growth" to full acceleration, has it achieved the goal proposed at the 2022 WeChat Open Class and become an "atomized basic content component"?

The entertainment value officer found that the person in charge of the video account has been interpreting the video account based on the two major focus points of content ecology and creators . WeChat has made adjustments to the positioning, user business cards and creative income of the video account.

The first is to increase the share of high-quality content creation. Increasing income for creators is the latest focus of Video Account. Official data shows that the total income of Video Account live broadcast anchors increased by 447% in 2022. The person in charge of Video Account said that the cumulative number of creators with income in 2022 increased by 2.64 times compared with 2021. Creators' income methods include: live broadcast rewards, live broadcast sales, short video sales, and mutual selection of advertisements, but Video Account still hopes to provide more capabilities. This time, Video Account announced that it will launch a creator profit plan for high-quality creators, including comment area advertising share and paid subscription.

The second is the upgrade of creator display and personal business card. In the updated creator homepage template of the video account, it can be seen that in addition to the inherent avatar, nickname and personal profile, modules such as video, live broadcast, window, picture and text and even audio will be personalized according to the creator type. For example, life bloggers display videos, knowledge bloggers display live broadcasts, musicians hang music works, and rural authors display product windows, etc.

Video accounts officially announced that the duration of live broadcasts has tripled in 2022, exceeding the duration of Moments, and the number of daily active creators and the average daily video uploads have also increased by more than 100% year-on-year. Official data shows that during the 2023 Spring Festival, 190 million users watched CCTV's Spring Festival Gala through video accounts. Many brand companies have opened video accounts for live broadcasts to boost sales, and live broadcast sales increased by 800% in 2022.

Recalling the WeChat Open Class in 2022, as the C-position star that attracted everyone's attention, the Video Account did not release specific official user data (review and read: Ma Huateng does not believe in buying traffic, but the Video Account cannot be relied upon).

Although Video Account has surpassed Kuaishou to become the second largest short video platform, it still lacks presence in the platform competition. Last year, Video Account found its own traffic code through breakthrough projects such as Westlife and Leslie Cheung’s concerts. No wonder netizens joked that if they could live broadcast a nostalgic golden song concert every week, it would be no problem to complete the annual KPI .

However, Video Account seems to have given up relying on celebrity concerts for traffic . After all, so far in 2023, Video Account has not held the online concerts that went viral last year. Whether a series of new initiatives can bring about a climax in content production remains to be seen.

3. WeChat for Business creates a closed-loop transaction system, and WeChat Pay is responsible for driving consumption

Compared to the video account which is the "hope of the whole village", WeChat for Business has always been a steady and solid "personality". More and more companies choose to use WeChat for Business for sales management.

The entertainment value officer had a clear experience after the epidemic. In the past, when facing the transaction needs of customers, shopping guides usually added personal WeChat to conduct transactions, which posed security risks to both parties. When WeChat for Business launched a more complete "external collection" capability, consumers and sellers would conduct transactions through safer channels.

After the "external payment collection" function is connected to WeChat for Business, funds can be directly transferred to the enterprise account, and multiple payment methods such as transfer, receipt, payment code, and mini program payment are supported, making transactions simpler and safer. The unified interface of "external payment collection" also allows business owners to clearly understand the sales performance of sales staff, and then make reasonable rewards and punishments based on the basis.

Zhang Ying, vice president of Tencent and head of WeChat Pay, also shared data on how WeChat Pay has helped local governments stimulate consumption through digital means in the past few years: Since 2020, more than 300 million people have used WeChat Pay to receive various consumption coupons, and consumption coupons for projects in more than 260 provinces and cities have been issued through WeChat Pay, with a total of more than 21 billion yuan issued, stimulating consumption by 200 billion yuan.

Currently, WeChat Pay is trying to launch the "WeChat Palm Scan" service, which allows users to use their palms to verify their identities, make purchases, and pass gates in addition to face scanning . Zhang Ying said: "I used to think that palm scanning was a very high-tech and cool thing, but later I thought it didn't matter what the high-tech feeling was, as long as it was convenient enough."

Author: Liu Nana, Editor: Meiqi

Source: WeChat public account "Entertainment Value Officer (ID: wenyujiazhiguan)"