The video number is the correct answer to WeChat video, but it is not a general answer.

Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “letter list” (ID: wujicaijing), Author: Cheng Jie, Editor: Wang Qian.

Not long ago, the video number was quietly revised. The “Friends” tab of the video number was fully switched to full-screen display. Previously, the “Follow” and “Recommend” tabs have been switched to full-screen mode.

Following the change from dual-column layout to single-column display in Kuaishou (compatible with double-column clicks and single-column sliding up and down), the full-screen video number form means that the entire vertical screen short video display standard will not be available Avoid the full “douyin”.

In the early days of the video number, the 6:7 display ratio once caused a lot of trouble to creators. The vertical screen video cropped by the video number can easily block the subtitles or block the main body of the screen.

Last year, after Tencent acquired the short video creation tool VUE, it launched a short video creation tool “Miaojian App” (renamed Miaojian), which supports one-click publishing of the video to the video account after generating the video. The “perfect video ratio, best display effect” in the product description of the Miaojian App refers to the 6:7 video number ratio.

In the latest update version, Miaojian App has fully supported the 9:16 template.

(Miaojian App 1.4.0, Android)

Of course, WeChat was not too entangled in the 6:7 standard. Zhang Xiaolong explained: “In the first half of the video account, the content of the platform was not rich enough, and the hit rate was very low. So at that time half screen The information flow is suitable. If more than one content is displayed on one screen, the user has a choice. At that time, if you go directly to the full screen, you may die very quickly.”

The video number has crossed the line of life and death, and the focus of consideration will also change. Zhang Xiaolong confessed that of course the full screen will display a single video better than the half screen.The content ranking of official accounts is based on the consideration of improving the hit rate.

“After the full screen, because the user has zero options, algorithms are needed for sorting.”

Therefore, the key to the change of the video number in the next period of time should be to optimize the recommendation mechanism based on the evolution of the algorithm after the content form changes and the distribution efficiency is improved.

In this year’s WeChat public class, Zhang Xiaolong also asserted: “One day in the future, the consumption ratio of video playback, following, friend recommendation, and machine recommendation should be 1:2:10. In other words, the future traffic composition of video accounts will also approach this trend, and “machine recommendation” will become the most important source of traffic for video accounts.

Specifically, in terms of product form, at present, among the three top tabs of “Follow”, “Friends” and “Recommendations”, the “Friends” tab is entered by default by clicking on the video number. Among the three types of content distribution, “follow” itself is the smallest and has relatively large limitations; “friends” come from social recommendations, which can exceed the user’s personal vision to a certain extent and bring freshness; and recommendations need to rely entirely on platform machines recommend.

Looking at the video account from the WeChat domain, the biggest difference between the three tabs is: the insertion of the official account associated with the two tabs of “Follow” and “Friends”, WeChat groups, and Moments of friends, which constitute a more fragmented outside of the video account entrance. The communication channel of “recommendation”, and the algorithm mechanism of “recommendation” relies more on the centralized platform entrance.

Based on these factors, the letter list judges that when WeChat TV the frequency number is really up, it should be when the “recommended” tab becomes the default tab of the video number entry, and Douyin default “recommended” “, Kuaishou defaults to “discover” the same.

This also means that many creators of platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou can deliver or specially create videos for video numbers according to a set of standards, and the content of video numbers will explode soon.

On the other hand, after the video number has solved the earliest content richness problem, after the product form continues to approach the Douyin Kuaishou, the focus is on product efficiency, that is, the trend of video number is more Focused vertical screen short videos are developed, short videos within 1 minute will be the absolute mainstream-machine recommendations will value the “end rate” indicator, generally speaking, the longer the video, the worse the end rate. .

In addition, for WeChat, official account video messages are also a focus of videoization, and relative to video accounts, Official account video is a better way to carry longer videos, especially horizontal screen videos. product.

Therefore, when WeChat is evolving towards video, there should be two routes of official account video and video account.

A

In the process of WeChat video transformation, the official account has not only its historical baggage, but also its unique advantage of the continuation of its creative ecology.

In the WeChat Open Class in 2020, Zhang Xiaolong said that the official account was accidentally made into articles as the main carrier, and the video account was the carrier for WeChat to compensate for the lack of “short content”.

Here shows the two features of WeChat official accounts. One is that from a functional point of view, official accounts still carry “brands and subscribers” (brands include different types of subjects) The second is that the official account naturally raises the threshold and cost of creation.

The historical baggage and ecological advantages of public account videos are also based on this feature.

In the early days, the video account was not open to all WeChat users. The first batch of creators mainly came from two sources: one is to give priority to the original WeChat official account creators to open the internal beta qualification; the other is to introduce celebrity artists and some Internet celebrities. The entry of people and MCN.

The video number has been continuously updated to this day. As its product form is approaching Douyin Kuaishou, its creative ecology will also be in line with Douyin Kuaishou-that is, video numbers will rely more on the Internet celebrity ecology and operating MCN.

In other words, video accounts have actually abandoned the official account creators who started with long images and texts. The reason is simple. High-quality graphic creators are not equal to high-quality video creators, especially content. After shortening, the cost of video transformation for original graphic creators is very high, and the contradiction in the supply efficiency of the video account ecology becomes more obvious.

Therefore, the best way for Official account creators to transition from graphic creation to video creation is the transition to the main type of UP at station B. One is that official account creators are better at long text capabilities. Second, mature creators have commercial resources such as customers and funds, making it easier to commercialize.

In the past few years, WeChat has made several revisions to the official account video message——

1. Early WeChat official account videos only supported uploading of local videos within 20M. Later, it was updated to support video uploads within 30 minutes. Now it supports video uploads within 1 hour. If you exceed the requirements, you need to upload them to Tencent Video, and then add Video link;

2, The video message group posting page has been revised. In 2018, WeChat supports individual group sending of video messages. At the end of 2020, the “Video” under the official account details directory will be upgraded to follow the official account “Messages” (tweets) and “Services” (since Define menu) same level;

3. The “Featured Videos” entry has been added to the “Frequently read subscription number” column of the subscription number message entry. At the same time, there will be related video recommendations on the video details page.< strong>The overall presentation style is similar to that of station B.

(Subscription number message video entrance)

In the past two years, the open rate and read rate of the subscription account itself have decreased a lot. It is difficult to guarantee the transmission efficiency of the official account video relying on the subscription account entrance. Different from the video account, the official account video is not only closer in form to the form of station B, but also more compatible with the creative mode of the graphic creator and the user relationship.

Currently, the video portal for subscription account messages has not yet been fully opened. The “featured videos” that are being tested in grayscale show that the possibility of a centralized portal for official account videos, and the promotion of viewing through related recommendations Mechanism of efficiency.

For example, it is possible to give more weight to the official account video in “Take a Look”, or to establish a separate centralized entry in the “Discovery Bar”. At the same time, it may also follow Tencent in terms of video capability support. Video for deeper cooperation.

B

Looking back at the video upsurge in the past two years, there are not only vertical screen short video giants such as Douyin and Kuaishou, but also the listing of station B as a node, and station B and watermelon video such as horizontal screen-based medium and long videos. The platform is also very popular, so Zhihu, Baidu, Douyu, and Kuaishou have also increased their investment in “China Video”.

For the platform, the content cost of three types of videos, long video, medium video, and short video, is gradually reduced.

In the early years, online video platforms represented by iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video tried to explore new forms of content supply represented by Wang Da, Wang Zong, and online dramas. However, due to the high cost of production and accounting High, in order to ensure the quality of the content, the long video website finally formed the characteristics of large production and IP header.

The letter list mentioned in the article “Creators Die in Video”: Long videos are one of the few big IP homes, and the prosperity of the short video industry was born on the basis of the massive supply of new content. , For example, the Tik Tok hierarchical traffic pool is to more efficiently screen out the very small number of “survivors”.

Therefore, different from the long video website with the big IP copyright industry as the core, the vertical screen short video and horizontal screen medium video rely more on the creator ecology of “creating by everyone”. The lower the creation threshold, the more The richer the content, the lower the cost of platform content.

From this perspective, it is not difficult to find that the video account is heading for this kind of future. On the other hand, the creators of the official account face different problems——

It is very difficult to transform the video of graphic creators that have formed for a long time in the WeChat ecosystem, so the creation threshold and survival cost of such creators are relatively high.

At the beginning of 2013, Cheng Lingfeng, the former director of Tencent.com Technology Center, posted a sticker advertisement on his official account with a price of 10,000 yuan. In half a year, Cheng Lingfeng’s self-media advertising revenue was approximately 500,000 yuan. Statistics functions are not yet online.

Since then, the content entrepreneurship model has become popular. Initially, it started with the transformation of media professionals. After that, full-time self-media began to spread to multiple forms and different fields. In general, this has also caused the “mediaization” of the WeChat official account to be too heavy, although Zhang Xiaolong said that “the official account itself is not prepared for the media.”

On the one hand, the video account introduces a more popular form of creation to WeChat, making “creation for everyone” a step further in WeChat.

On the other hand, video accounts are naturally more personal, faster, and shorter, which conflict with non-information media content. The more entertaining nature of short videos suggests to creators of official accounts. new challenge.

Take “Witcher Finance”, “Half Buddha Fairy” and other popular pan-financial video creators in the past two years. Although they are advertised as “hardcore” or “knowledge”, the depth of the content is still relatively shallow and interesting Stronger; similarly, social in-depth report content is also difficult to be presented and efficiently disseminated through video.

Compared with graphics and text, video content has several basic features that are more entertaining:

●First, the content form of the video caters to the inert consumption scene. This is the case with “brushing the vibrato”, and the same with the video number;

●Secondly, video is a rich medium. While enriching expressive power, it will also weaken the focus of information, making it more suitable for image and scene-based content expression;

●Third, video expressions put more emphasis on the deletion of complex texts to reduce the user’s acceptance threshold. A “golden sentence” or two is more likely to resonate and spread than a deep analysis of a few hundred words.

Entertainment is the greatest common divisor of user needs. This is the same for any content format, but it will appear on the videoMore prominent. Pleasant user incentives will directly reflect the broadcast, repost, and like data. Most video programs that do not perform well need to be reflected from the perspective of “whether it brings users a sense of pleasure”.

(Luo Xiang, Thirteen Invitations)

If you lose the interesting foothold, it will be difficult for “high-quality video content” to get positive feedback on the amount of playback. Just like the online class has been born for so many years, Zhang Xuefeng, Teachers such as Luo Xiang also have “interest” before “profound”.

C

Re-examining the video viewing behavior in WeChat, we can more clearly see the user base of WeChat video and the direction of WeChat video.

For a long time, there has been “video usage time” in WeChat.: Moments videos, video files in WeChat chats, external links to video websites, etc…

Among them, Moments videos are more focused on personal life sharing; video files in WeChat chats include both shooting videos and external video local forwarding; mainstream website video external links have evolved into WeChat applets (except byte series) ).

Zhang Xiaolong believes: “Cloud-based structured videos are videos, and local video files are bare data. They should be eliminated.”

Therefore, WeChat currently encourages users to upload videos to the video account and forward the video account information. The video account points to the quantifiable future of video data—that is, before Users’ local video sharing in WeChat only has “dark content” on the communication data, and does not generate data value.

This point is the same as the previous trading activities in WeChat, but After the appearance of the mini program, the WeChat transaction is further stimulated and presented in a short period of time.