A video received 13 million likes. Is it a good start for Douyin creators?

What new developments will there be in the new year for the super popular short videos in 2022? This article uses several top-ranked influencers in 2023, such as Son of Death and Sister Yu from Northeast China, as examples to deeply analyze the traffic codes that made these accounts popular, and interpret the current status and prospects of short video development. Recommended reading for those who are interested in short video operations and Douyin operations.

At the beginning of 2023, what new atmosphere has the Douyin content ecosystem presented? Compared with 2022, are there any surprising turns? Let's take a look at the list first.

At first glance, the top four accounts in the list have all seen an increase in followers of over 5 million, seemingly showing an “irresistible” momentum. However, upon closer inspection, these accounts are all brand accounts, and the reason they were able to achieve rapid increases in followers in January is mainly due to the marketing partnership they reached with Douyin during the Spring Festival .

For example, in the Douyin "Warm Chinese New Year" event, Pop Mart moved the popular offline "blind box drawing" concept online. Users can draw blind boxes through the game and get Pop Mart's New Year IP avatar pendants. Coupled with various interactive marketing methods, the number of fans of Pop Mart's official Douyin account increased rapidly during the event, and it jumped to the top of the fan growth list.

Apart from these four brands, the number of followers of the influencer ecosystem did not show a "good start" . In addition to the beauty influencer @凸仔不是坏女人, whose number of followers increased by more than 3 million, the number of followers of @东北雨姐 and @和平精英 increased by 2 million to 3 million, and the number of followers of the remaining 13 accounts increased by 1 million to 2 million.

As usual, the types of accounts on the list in January are still diverse, covering appearance, vlog, beauty, food, recommendation, creativity, games, plot and other types.

Among them, food accounts occupy three seats, with the most obvious advantage. Although the overall increase in followers did not surprise, the January increase in followers list still gave hope to creators: in addition to familiar faces such as food exploration expert @MR-白冰, family comedy expert @疯狂小杨哥, and creative cross-dressing expert @朱铁雄 with very low output but high quality, many accounts on the list are appearing for the first or second time, which means that although the content traffic is saturated, as long as the content is recognizable and high-quality, it still has the opportunity to win the favor of more users .

As for these new faces, Kas will give further interpretation below.

@MR-白冰@朱铁雄TikTok video screenshot

01 Zhang Shengtan, the "Son of Death"

How crazy can a food review blogger get? "Is this the taste of death? That's about it."

On August 25, 2022, @张圣叹 released a review video, testing the world's spiciest potato chips. In the video, he sat at the table, tore open the package, put the potato chips in front of his nose and sniffed them gently, then spit out this sentence with disdain.

Three seconds after he put the potato chips in his mouth, he gradually changed from "no feeling" to "something seems wrong", and finally to tears and a distorted face, shouting "someone give me a quick death". Users in front of the screen watched the whole process of his "face changing" and said "I should laugh if he doesn't laugh anymore".

@张圣叹TikTok video screenshot

Starting from this video, @张圣叹's journey of testing the Death God officially began . In addition to a series of spicy delicacies such as the world's spiciest cheese balls and beef jerky, chocolate made with Death God peppers, etc., @张圣叹 has also tested a series of bizarre delicacies sent to him by netizens, such as the sourest candy from the United States, kangaroo meat from Australia, marine life that looks like alien specimens, edible coconut shell charcoal from Japan, etc. No matter how strange the food looks, he will show it off without thinking, and then make a series of "exaggerated" reactions that make people laugh while tasting the food.

@张圣叹TikTok video screenshot

For example, in the work released on January 16, @张圣叹 tasted the edible activated carbon sent by netizens. After swallowing a full spoonful, he immediately spit out a large amount of black smoke and directly transformed into a moving double-bomb gas. The whole scene was absurd but funny, attracting many netizens to stop and watch. The video received a total of 1.671W likes.

@张圣叹TikTok video screenshot

Overall, the reason why @张圣叹 can stand out in the fiercely competitive food industry is that he chose a "rugged" but novel niche . On the one hand, it allows users to see all kinds of exotic foods from all over the world in addition to regular food; on the other hand, his courage to try food, "take a big bite every time when you don't know what it tastes like", as well as his lively and fun way of explaining and his exaggerated and funny facial expressions, also make users enjoy watching.

02 @东北雨姐: The rise of “alternative” rural accounts

After topping the list of rising followers with an increase of 1.489W followers in December last year, @东北雨姐 jumped to the sixth place on the list in January this year with an increase of 2.859W followers, which shows how popular she is recently.

@东北雨姐 focuses on telling the customs, daily life, and special food of the Northeast villages. According to Kass Observation, as early as 2020, "rural style" has spread on Douyin and has been loved by more and more users. Among them, accounts that focus on recording rural daily life have not only sprung up like mushrooms after rain, but also demonstrated a strong ability to attract fans.

Before @东北雨姐 became famous, we had witnessed @蜀中桃子姐, @张同学, @康仔农人, @闲不了的阿俊 and other talents achieve brilliant results in a short period of time. After that, this kind of content has always maintained its vitality.

The popularity of @东北雨姐 is naturally inseparable from the enthusiasm of Douyin users for rural content. In addition to this factor, the reason why the account can rise rapidly in a short period of time is inseparable from her distinctive content style.

The first is to break the traditional image of the protagonist.

In the video, Yu Jie is tall and strong, with a neat braid and all the hair around her hair shaved off, making her look capable and bright. In terms of her work style, she is not only fast and furious, but also almost omnipotent, taking on most of the farm work, such as carrying large vats, scooping pickles with ice water, cooking, chopping firewood, etc.

In contrast, her husband "Lao Kuai" appears in the video as a "little bird-like" young wife, "obediently" following Sister Yu in everything she does, and from time to time appears to be "angry but dare not speak out". Many people joked in the comments that he is blessed and is "the best man to marry in the world".

@东北雨姐TikTok video screenshot

The contrasting configuration of "strong women and weak men" plus Yu Jie's strong personal charm have already attracted a lot of attention to the account. If we observe the content of its videos in detail: it is authentic and down-to-earth, full of strong Northeastern style. Users can see the local customs and special food of the Northeast, as well as the interesting and happy way of getting along between Northeastern people who have a sense of humor . The account releases a positive vitality from the inside out, allowing users to follow their rhythm and immerse themselves in it, and never get tired of it.

@东北雨姐TikTok video screenshot

03 New faces emerge one after another

In addition to these two accounts, there are many "fresh faces" that deserve our attention. Beauty and fashion expert @CC Yuhan previously shared her travel vlogs, showed off her fashion looks, and recommended various skin care methods on Douyin. Her unique temperament and style have attracted a group of fans.

@CC Yuhan Tik Tok video screenshot

During the Spring Festival, she released a video titled "My Unmarried Auntie Returns for the New Year and Gives Out Red Packets." In the video, the dignified and beautiful auntie sits on the sofa gracefully, and then hands out the stack of money in her hand to the children in the family one by one. The whole process is calm and composed, perfectly showing the positive outlook of unmarried women who are financially independent, confident, beautiful, well-mannered, and indifferent to worldly criticism.

Taking advantage of the Spring Festival, the number of likes for this video exceeded 10 million two days after it was released. As of now, the number of likes for the video has reached nearly 14 million, and @CC Yuhan has gained over 1 million followers in a week , attracting more attention.

@CC Yuhan Tik Tok video screenshot

The educational account @胖超说艺考 has been posting works on Douyin since 2020, and the account has reached 17.485 million followers. Its posts mainly record the "silly" daily life of vocal teachers and art exam students . Students with broken voices and out-of-tune singing, and teachers who take out 18 kinds of musical instruments to help students find the tune, have created countless jokes, which makes users never tired of watching. In subsequent creations, the account continues to add new characters to enhance the dramatic effect, and on the other hand, it keeps up with popular songs and hot topics to create , in order to continue to attract users' enthusiasm for watching.

Screenshot of @胖超说艺考's Douyin video In the video released by @胖超说艺考 on January 5, Director Zhang worked hard to guide the "bronze" students to sing the ancient opera-style song "Tan Chuang". However, he lost confidence due to the students' poor performance. Then he randomly pointed to a student sitting in the audience to go on stage to sing.

Unexpectedly, the boy sang with the demeanor of a king as soon as he opened his mouth. His delicate and pleasant singing voice made the students present look at him with approval. After the singing, Director Zhang stood up unconsciously, and Qingtong, who was standing next to him, pulled the king to the chair, saying, "Teacher, sit down."

@胖超说藝考TikTok video screenshot

Overall, the video combines multiple elements such as contrast, popular songs, unexpectedly stunning talents and fun . Once it was released, it received a total of 577.1W likes, which is an impressive result.

Other accounts on the list also have their own characteristics. For example, vlog expert @李要得 records his daily life in the countryside while using authentic Chongqing dialect to "argue" with people in the countryside, and has won a lot of attention with his good eloquence; @菠萝姐姐手工坊 and @喵姐手作 focus on digging and making various toys and gadgets, which are very creative and interesting.

Judging from the January fan growth list, it is indeed becoming increasingly difficult for creators to significantly increase their followers. But from another perspective, no matter what type or size of creator, as long as the content has certain characteristics, they all have a fair chance to be seen and noticed.

Author: Jiangbei

Source: WeChat public account "CaasData" (ID: caasdata6)