Will Tik Tok “take over” from Weibo?

Although Douyin and Weibo belong to different fields, they have similarities in terms of user traffic. As Douyin's new functions tend to be more like Weibo and Weibo users flock to Douyin, the two products have gradually undergone new changes. The author of this article uses data to analyze the marketing actions of the two platforms and the popularity of Douyin hot spots, and puts forward some of his own views. Recommended reading for those who are interested in Douyin operations, product operations, and user research.

In 2018, Douyin launched the hot list function. At that time, Douyin had only 250 million daily active users. This new function, which was highly similar to Weibo's hot search, sparked quite a lot of discussion at the time. Currently, the two platforms are leading in their respective fields, one of which is firmly at the top of the short video track and the other is a leader in comprehensive information apps.

It is worth noting that although they belong to different fields, on some levels, Douyin and Weibo have shown some similar characteristics. For example, in terms of content ecology, Douyin, like Weibo, has emerged with a dazzling number of marketing accounts; in terms of the ability to create hot spots, Douyin has also brought many hot spots that have become popular on the entire network in recent years... From the current Douyin, it seems that we can always see some "shadows" of Weibo. Is this a blessing or a curse?

01 Ubiquitous “Marketing Accounts”

During the Spring Festival, Kas’s screen was flooded with the video “The Unmarriage-minded Aunt Sends Red Envelopes”.

In the short video of just a few seconds, the aunt with delicate makeup and elegant temperament sat in front of the sofa, counted the New Year's money slowly, and then distributed it to each child with a smile on her face. What came across was the confidence and composure of an independent woman.

The entire video has no lines and no camera effects, but thanks to the "aunt's" appearance, temperament, and confidence in counting and giving money, it received over 10 million likes on Douyin in two days, becoming the most popular short video during the Spring Festival holiday.

@CC Yuhan Tik Tok video screenshot

Interestingly, at the beginning, Kas did not see the video from the original creator of the video @CC Yuhan, but learned about it through the overwhelming dissemination of many marketing accounts.

Observing the videos released by these marketing accounts, they all have similar upper and lower borders, similar girlish voice backgrounds, and even similar commentary copy. One of the sentences, "I also want to be such an aunt," attracted many netizens to like it and became the traffic password for multiple accounts.

If we define this type of account, they are undoubtedly the 2.0 version of marketing accounts active in the era of short videos. The main purpose of this type of account is to gain traffic and profit (creation and sharing are not the main purpose), and they search for some novel and explosive content from the entire network, process it in a "similar" way, and then push it on a large scale.

Looking back, the story of Sun Yining @iiiis and @治不开心药 years ago also brought a similar experience to Kas.

Image source: @爱豆研究室TikTok screenshot

At that time, many netizens exclaimed "I'm so touched" because of the interesting interaction between the two beautiful anchors during the live broadcast. The live clip quickly spread on the platform and became more and more popular. Many marketing accounts also took advantage of the opportunity to join in, and after simple editing and adding text to "set off" the atmosphere, they attracted the attention of netizens. "Sister Sun, you must have thought of a name for your child at that time" became a popular meme on the platform.

Subsequent discussions about this matter continued to be heated, and even became a hot search on TikTok and other platforms. The two had to come out to dispel the rumors, explaining that they were very good friends in private and were just joking during the live broadcast. They did not expect that there would be such a heat later. In order to avoid suspicion, they will not be connected via live broadcast in the near future.

Image source: @Good Dog TikTok screenshot

Of course, in addition to this type of "hotspot-riding" account, there are many other accounts that can also be classified as short video marketing accounts.

For example, there are various accounts that have been active in the circle of friends of the elders for a long time and focus on life tips. The content they publish is basically the same, and many of the so-called tips are criticized by users; for example, there are those works that look well-made but are actually not original, and have a strong sense of "moving" and "copying": there are also a large number of slice-style film and television editing accounts that attract fans' attention by intercepting gimmicky film and television clips.

A careful look at the content of these accounts reveals that their video styles are basically the same, often using exaggerated titles and uncreative content to attract traffic and earn profits. On Weibo, such marketing accounts have been "all over the place" and are often criticized.

02 From "TikTok Hotspot" to "Internet Hotspot"

In addition to the creators, in terms of platform influence, Douyin has gradually gained the super "dominance" that Weibo once had. With the rapid development of short videos, more and more users regard this huge traffic field as an important platform for obtaining new information. In this environment, the hot spots on the Douyin site have also begun to grow into hot spots on the entire platform. In other words, the Douyin platform has the ability to "create hot spots on the entire network."

In the past year, more and more people and things have come into the public eye from Douyin.

For example, last spring, Liu Genghong single-handedly started the "live fitness craze" across the entire network.

With the enthusiastic support of "Liu Genghong girls", his Douyin account @刘畊宏 achieved a record of gaining 1 million followers in one day and 5 million followers in a week.

Image source: Screenshot of Liu Genghong’s Douyin search

On Weibo, according to incomplete statistics from the Jinan Times, in late April 2023, the number of hot search terms related to Liu Genghong on Weibo was close to 50, and the number of discussions reached 194,000 times; in the hot list of that week, on average one out of every 10 was related to Liu Genghong.

On Xiaohongshu, Liu Genghong's cumulative increase in followers exceeded 619W throughout the year, making him the blogger with the most followers on Xiaohongshu in 2022. On the site, there are more than 480,000 notes related to #刘畊宏. For reference, the number of notes under the #健身 tag is more than 707W, and the number of notes related to #美妆 is more than 327W. Although the number exceeds that of #刘畊宏, the latter two are both long-lasting first-level hot topics on the site.

In addition, there are cases such as the "bilingual live broadcast room" Dongfang Zhenxuan, Xin Jifei, the founder of "Technology and Hard Life", and the light-speed "black and red" of the Coconut Tree Live Broadcast Room, which have verified the ability of the Douyin platform to "take over" Weibo and create hot spots on the entire network. One obvious feeling is that many of the entries on the Douyin hot list in the past originated from Weibo, but now many of the content on Weibo's hot searches are "purchased" from Douyin.

Attracted by the huge amount of traffic from short video platforms, more and more brands, celebrities and entrepreneurs are choosing Douyin as their new “voiceover”.

For example, before this, the "ice cream assassins" that cost dozens of dollars were discussed a lot, and the 50-cent bag of snow lotus was regarded as a conscientious domestic product. But after that, someone broke the news that the snow lotus factory was "dirty, messy and poor" and the sanitary conditions were worrying, and the news that "the snow lotus collapsed" quickly spread on various platforms.

Xuelian Group, which is at the center of public opinion, opened a Douyin account overnight. In order to prove that there was no problem with the production workshop and that it was a regular manufacturer, Xuelian posted photos of the workshop, business license, design patent certificate and trademark registration certificate to prove its innocence. It is worth noting that this series of actions were completed on Douyin, and Xuelian has not yet opened a Weibo account.

Image source: Screenshot of Xuelian Douyin search

In addition to Xuelian, Fenghua Chairman Gu Jinwen and Erke President Wu Rongzhao all chose to respond to the sudden brand "explosion" on Douyin.

What is more worthy of attention is that celebrity traffic, which was previously the most important traffic for Weibo, seems to have recently gradually shifted towards short video platforms such as Tik Tok.

A similar topic, #Miss the celebrity Weibo posts from ten years ago#, once appeared on the Weibo hot list. At that time, these proud people standing in the spotlight were very bold when surfing the Internet. The media even joked that the celebrity Weibo posts in the past would all make headlines today.

But now, the human touch of celebrities on Weibo has long faded, and what occupy the attention of netizens are only various advertisements and stereotyped notices. The wording is professional and precise but a bit boring. The celebrity traffic on Weibo has gradually "changed".

Looking at Douyin again, some time ago, Wang Xiaofei's mother Zhang Lan took the initiative to play memes in the live broadcast room and faced rumors. The entrepreneurial experience she shared and the charm of her personality won her a lot of praise. In addition to restoring the reputation of the mother and son, it also brought more popularity to her entrepreneurial brand "Maliuji". According to data from a third-party platform, on November 21 and 22, 22, the average number of views in the Maliuji live broadcast room rose to 1.177 million, the average sales volume was 25,000-50,000, and the average sales volume was 1 million-2.5 million, which is more than ten times the previous results.

Image source: @张兰·巧生活TikTok screenshot

After looking through the many celebrity accounts on the Douyin platform, Kas found that what they posted on Weibo would also be posted on Douyin simultaneously. Although Weibo is still the main battlefield for celebrity activities, Douyin is unknowingly "sharing" this part of the traffic and continuously expanding the influence of the platform.

03 Are all these changes a blessing or a curse?

In 2009, Weibo was born and grew rapidly by copying the celebrity strategy of the blog era. Chinese Internet information also officially entered the Weibo era.

Statistics show that by the end of December 2011, there were 513.1 million Internet users in China, of which 249.9 million were Weibo users. During this period, Weibo became an important platform for Internet users to express their opinions, greatly stimulating the enthusiasm of ordinary Internet users to participate in public affairs, and also attracted a considerable number of professionals to participate.

These users who possess more knowledge and voice are constantly rising and becoming well-known influencers in various fields. They attract more attention and shoulder more responsibilities. They are also the resource advantages that distinguish Weibo from other Internet platforms.

However, after the heyday, these big Vs who once lifted Weibo to the top have become obstacles to the platform's further development. Under the promotion of open interaction in new media, the boundary between communicators and audiences is becoming increasingly blurred. Every participant on the platform is eager to show themselves and gain more voice, but Weibo is still in a situation where some major big Vs control most of the traffic and voice, and ordinary netizens have a weak presence on Weibo.

In addition, because they have huge traffic, many big Vs have also taken the step of monetizing traffic. However, not everyone knows how to commercialize it, and it is impossible for big Vs to have knowledge of every field. Therefore, many people are not strict in this regard, and it is difficult to ensure the quality of the content produced, which gradually reduces the favorability of ordinary users towards them.

Gradually, there are more and more big Vs "talking to themselves" on Weibo, and with the help of water armies and robots, the likes, comments, and reposts... the characteristics of the platform are further weakened, leaving only "false prosperity".

In 2018, Weibo was summoned by the Beijing Internet Information Office and asked to temporarily shut down for a week and rectify its hot search and hot topic sections. Last year, Weibo launched a separate entertainment hot list, with fewer entertainment and celebrity content on the main list, which to some extent weakened the "entertainment" of the platform, but this part is currently the most popular content on Weibo.

In this case, Douyin, which has 700 million daily active users, can indeed fill the gap created by this situation, but are all these "Weibo-like" changes the results that Douyin wants?

On the one hand, Weibo's user data may prove that "this road is a dead end." According to official financial reports, in September 2022, Weibo had 584 million monthly active users, a year-on-year net increase of about 11 million users, and 253 million daily active users, a year-on-year net increase of about 5 million users. Obviously, it is difficult to match Douyin in terms of both user base and growth rate.

On the other hand, as a platform that started with UGC content, Douyin's core competitiveness lies in the original content of its users and the original atmosphere of the platform. The platform's past special governance actions against accounts on the site all show that the official has a low tolerance for illegal, irregular, and low-quality content, and is working hard to maintain the community's characteristics and the legitimate rights and interests of users.

Perhaps the current changes are "inevitable changes" for the platform to expand its influence, but in the long run, the rich and diverse content from creators will always be the platform's most valuable asset.

Author: Duan Ran

Source: Caas Data (ID: caasdata6), data empowers short video content creation, operation, marketing and e-commerce sales.