How do short videos go to sea to avoid pits?
After listening to too many vibrato and quick video stories, Ali will start to write his own short video chapter. However, its main battle site currently selected is India, which is also the first stop for all domestic content platforms to go to sea.
In May of last year, VMate, a short video product hatched by UC, emerged from the market with a US $ 100 million financing from Ali. Now half a year has passed, VMate’s monthly activity has increased from 30 million to 50 million, becoming the third largest short video platform in the Indian market after TikTok and Likeee .
Cheng Daofang, CEO of VMate, Alibaba’s Innovation Business Division, said that VMate’s development strategy is to be the Indian version of “Quick Hand”, which meets the expression needs of Indian third- and fourth-tier users and provides them with a content platform.
However, the other side of the coin is that domestic content platforms have already established a lot of follow-ups in the process of short videos going to India. In the Indian market, TikTok, the fastest lifting company, also paid a lot of “tickets.” For any company, overseas is an unfamiliar market environment. The hidden cost may be much higher than expected. Every aspect of cultural differences and staffing will make domestic Internet companies have encountered “adversity.”
How to form a team, how to review content, what experience does the content platform bring to India in the end? For these external concerns, Cheng Dao, CEO of Vmate, answered the media communication meeting held recently.
The following is a media question session, edited:
What VMate needs to do is the Indian version of “Quick Hand”
Media: Why did you choose the short video format to go overseas?
Cheng Daofang: Our basic principle for overseas business is Copy from China. When starting a new track in a new market, you still have to pick a well-known track. Taking VMate as an example, we chose the short video track at the time. From the present perspective, this is a relatively unique business model in China. There are not many short video products in the Internet field in the United States. Douyin, so going to sea at the time will be based on the logic of Copy from China. In addition, 2017 is the 4G outbreak period in the Indian market, which is also a very good opportunity for the development of short video.
Media: What is the specific strategy of VMate to open the market?
Cheng Daofang: We call the fast hand the UGC community, and Douyin the PUGC short video consumer platform. The core point of our insistence on Copy from China is to analyze the reasons for the success of the Chinese business model? Kuaishou successfully boiled down to a very core point, and found the people in China’s third- and fourth-tier cities. They are a group of people who have the ability to express desire and expression. But in fact, Chinese content platforms at that time were not particularly friendly to such groups of people. Both Weibo and Meipaipao were handsome guys and beautiful people who were particularly fashionable in first- and second-tier cities. If the content of the special soil worn by the fourth and fifth tier cities is definitely not read, it will also laugh at you. The fast hand caught the core demands of these people, based on an equal perspective of content sharing. At the same time, watching users are also this group of people.
Looking back at India, there are many more exaggerated places in this society than in China. First of all, the Indian language is particularly fragmented. The input method needs to support 22 languages to go online. Under normal circumstances, the business generally supports at least 8 languages to cover 80% of the population. In addition, the wide gap between the rich and the poor, is not so friendly to women, and Indians basically dance, etc. all provide opportunities. VMate provides an equal channel of expression for these people.
Media: Did anyone do this before?
Cheng Daofang: There are a large number of people in India who have the desire to express, but in fact there is no channel for expression at all. Youtube is also doing this, but it is also extremely unfriendly. First of all, Youtube is mostly a few minutes of video, and most people do not have the ability to shoot. In addition, you need to use a PC to shoot clips, but India does not have a PC at all. Most of them have access to the Internet, especially people from the lower levels who have access to the Internet have started from mobile 4G. India ’s Facebook and Ins have a high penetration rate, but they are both handsome and beautiful content. So we also saw this and decided to make fast-handed products in India.
Media: I just mentioned that all Indians express equality. Do you have specific user data to show the use of VMate?
Cheng Daofang: This data is not convenient to say, but we emphasized that the distribution is balanced. Take the fast hand as an example, the distribution is to suppress the head, and there is an economic coefficient insideAdjustment. Although a video is good, you also need to control its maximum amount. The result of such distribution logic is that the tolerance range of fast hand content is higher than that of tremolo. The purpose of Douyin is to make users consume cool. This refreshing feeling must be maintained, so the result presented is that every video is very exciting. But in the fast hand can see a variety of people, so the logic of VMate is the same, so that more people can survive on the platform, this is a prerequisite.
Content construction has a long way to go
What is the difference between VMate’s approach to scaling users and other competitors?
Cheng Daofang: Most of the logic of Chinese content overseas products, one is to buy video content, which is PUGC, and the other is to buy volume, which is basically this routine, itself is very simple and rude. Tiktok is doing very well in the Indian market. They choose the PUGC method, based on the logic of distributing good content. Take the favorite European and American content in India as the first place. It is also a good way to start in one step. Once it starts to turn around, it will develop quickly.
We choose to be another way to be a community. The core point of the community is that we firmly believe that mainstream consumers are producers, and producers actually grow up from consumers. Users come to the platform with a certain touch before they start to shoot, and then interact with people to become high-quality producers. This loop will make money if quality producers distribute in large quantities. But the downside is that it is a slow process for three or four people to grow up and make particularly good videos. The advantage is that they have some emotional resonance, which is the core element of the UGC community. But the community itself has no path. You can also see that it ’s more tortuous to do it quickly.
Media: There is a domestic competition between Douyin and Faster PK. Does VMate in India face similar competition?
Cheng Daofang: The Indian market was still quite chaotic in 2018. Two startups collapsed, which directly led to the fact that the entire short video in 2019 was particularly biased towards the original PUGC track. Basically, three companies compete now, one is Tiktok of the headline department, the second is Likee of the YY department, and we are. But as far as these three are concerned, only VMate is hitting from the fast line and cuts into the middle and lower ranks, while Tiktok and Likee still hit down from the city.
Media: You also mentioned that the Indian market is relatively unbalanced and everyone ’s cultural level and geography are different. What would VMate do to attract users to become video creators or content consumers? VMWhat is ate’s product strategy?
Cheng Daofang: VMate’s entire product and operation core are placed on operational production: how to make consumers become high-quality producers. This has to solve two core problems. One is the problem of motivation. Why should we shoot? The second is the ability of to shoot out.
You must find people with similar interests in the motivation issue, encourage users through the community, and resonate with each other to establish a stable relationship. In addition, in the Indian market, we pay attention to the core point of making users famous and earn money, and solve the problem of willingness. The ability problem is to make good videos and good content. VMate will run some core users. They will have some scripts. VMate also has a team to do script creation, help these people to produce videos, and then zoom in through activities.
Long video realization is a long way
Media: Domestic short videos have started cooperation with e-commerce platforms to carry goods. Has VMate tried in the Indian market?
Cheng Daofang: The short video monetization method is relatively clear. Live broadcast rewards, carry goods, advertisements. In addition, games in India are also very important areas to give games a volume. Commercial monetization in the short video space has been proven, as long as the user is sticky. So the realization of VMate in the Indian market is only a matter of time. But overall, Indian e-commerce is still relatively immature compared to China. Infrastructure, logistics are very different, and online payment is not popular. Most Indian e-commerce is cash on delivery. The return rate is very high and the cost is very high. It is also very high. So we will do it sooner or later, but not yet.
Media: Has advertising started?
Cheng Daofang: No, but it is planned. ^
Media: There are MCNs in India. Is VMate working with them?
Cheng Daofang: Yes, but India MCN used to be Youtube system, not short video system. So in this regard, VMate is actually building its own MCN system and building a set of agents and talents around the VMate ecosystem, which is essentially cultivated from VMate’s core users.
Media: What support plans are there for Daren to help realize commercialization?
Cheng Daofang: At present, the entire commercialization has two aspects. Firstly, it is to build a closed loop of business within its own system circle, and secondly to set up a closed loop of advertising, but it is difficult to do this in the Indian market for a short time. so nowMost of the support for content producers comes from the platform. VMate has paid for support for high-quality content producers. Since last year, it has started a large-scale support plan. Because UGC is relatively slow, VMate devotes a large part of its resources to the construction of a content production system. In the whole commercial producer support plan, we have invested the most in support of talents.
VMate guide to avoiding pits in India
Media: China’s biggest problem in going overseas is lack of talent. How does VMate solve this problem?
Cheng Daofang: The team is really a big challenge. However, VMate’s entire initial operating team was spun off from UC, and UC began to go to India in 2009. Many people are resident in India. The understanding of the entire Indian market is the best in the country.
Now the entire team of VMate has two basic core points. One is that there will be about six or seven students resident in India. They understand the development of small video in China, and their core business experience must be passed on. However, the understanding of content must depend on the Indian team. Ali actually has an “international team”, and foreign students will take turns to come to China to discuss with the algorithm team “how to distribute good content?” And other issues. On the packaging of multinational teams, my intuitive feeling is that the market-oriented content is better for Indian students, and the business-oriented content must be better done with domestic teams.
Media: How does VMate solve content security issues?
Cheng Daofang: The VMate platform produces more than one million videos per day, and the content is free of cost. The cost is only for review. UC is also doing information flow, and there is a central audit team, so we have a relatively large human review machine review team, and use the central platform to support it. In content review, we are relatively strict in these companies. In terms of data security, Alibaba Cloud also has room in India, so all our business data is now in India, and there is no return.
Where is the development of short video in India?
Media: In 2017, VMate’s positioning was to make small videos for young Indians. Are there any new changes in positioning?
Cheng Daofang: Our positioning has not changed much. Our slogan is the record of young people’s lives. However, its mission is to allow all Indians to express equally and concentratedly, and the vision is to be the largest UGC short video community in India. We choose young people’s life records to enter into the relationship with the entire Indian society. The average age of Indian society is very young, with a median of 20s and China of 30s. The entire Indian Internet market, especially the mobile Internet market, is naturally dominated by young Indians.
Media: Are there any key directions or adjustments in future business?
Cheng Daofang: The first is the community. The Indian community is relatively special. We hit the lower and upper market communities to map offline relationships to offline, or online relationships to offline. I hope that friends I know in VMate can realize life. At the same time, friends in real life can also be mapped into the terminal. The second is the All-Star program. Every village in India is not strictly a village, so every region needs core users to do things like organizing activities. This is an important point.
Media: VMate’s prediction and opinion on the Indian short video market in the next two years?
Cheng Daofang: The ceiling of India’s short video field is very high, and there will be hundreds of millions of products. But short videos are also very costly, and one-year review fees are generally not enough for startups.
Media: Domestic short videos have started cooperation with e-commerce platforms to carry goods. Has VMate tried in the Indian market?
Cheng Daofang: The short video monetization method is relatively clear. Live broadcast rewards, carry goods, advertisements. In addition, games in India are also very important areas to give games a volume. Commercial monetization in the short video space has been proven, as long as the user is sticky. So the realization of VMate in the Indian market is only a matter of time. But overall, Indian e-commerce is still relatively immature compared to China. Infrastructure, logistics are very different, and online payment is not popular. Most Indian e-commerce is cash on delivery. The return rate is very high and the cost is very high. It is also very high. So we will do it sooner or later, but not yet.
Media: Has advertising started?
Cheng Daofang: No, but it is planned. ^
Media: There are MCNs in India. Is VMate working with them?
Cheng Daofang: Yes, but India MCN used to be Youtube system, not short video system. So in this regard, VMate is actually building its own MCN system and building a set of agents and talents around the VMate ecosystem, which is essentially cultivated from VMate’s core users.
Media: What support plans are there for Daren to help realize commercialization?
Cheng Daofang: At present, the entire commercialization has two aspects. Firstly, it is to build a closed loop of business within its own system circle, and secondly to set up a closed loop of advertising, but it is difficult to do this in the Indian market for a short time. so nowMost of the support for content producers comes from the platform. VMate has paid for support for high-quality content producers. Since last year, it has started a large-scale support plan. Because UGC is relatively slow, VMate devotes a large part of its resources to the construction of a content production system. In the whole commercial producer support plan, we have invested the most in support of talents.
VMate guide to avoiding pits in India
Media: China’s biggest problem in going overseas is lack of talent. How does VMate solve this problem?
Cheng Daofang: The team is really a big challenge. However, VMate’s entire initial operating team was spun off from UC, and UC began to go to India in 2009. Many people are resident in India. The understanding of the entire Indian market is the best in the country.
Now the entire team of VMate has two basic core points. One is that there will be about six or seven students resident in India. They understand the development of small video in China, and their core business experience must be passed on. However, the understanding of content must depend on the Indian team. Ali actually has an “international team”, and foreign students will take turns to come to China to discuss with the algorithm team “how to distribute good content?” And other issues. On the packaging of multinational teams, my intuitive feeling is that the market-oriented content is better for Indian students, and the business-oriented content must be better done with domestic teams.
Media: How does VMate solve content security issues?
Cheng Daofang: The VMate platform produces more than one million videos per day, and the content is free of cost. The cost is only for review. UC is also doing information flow, and there is a central audit team, so we have a relatively large human review machine review team, and use the central platform to support it. In content review, we are relatively strict in these companies. In terms of data security, Alibaba Cloud also has room in India, so all our business data is now in India, and there is no return.
Where is the development of short video in India?
Media: In 2017, VMate’s positioning was to make small videos for young Indians. Are there any new changes in positioning?
Cheng Daofang: Our positioning has not changed much. Our slogan is the record of young people’s lives. However, its mission is to allow all Indians to express equally and concentratedly, and the vision is to be the largest UGC short video community in India. We choose young people’s life records to enter into the relationship with the entire Indian society. The average age of Indian society is very young, with a median of 20s and China of 30s. The entire Indian Internet market, especially the mobile Internet market, is naturally dominated by young Indians.
Media: Are there any key directions or adjustments in future business?
Cheng Daofang: The first is the community. The Indian community is relatively special. We hit the lower and upper market communities to map offline relationships to offline, or online relationships to offline. I hope that friends I know in VMate can realize life. At the same time, friends in real life can also be mapped into the terminal. The second is the All-Star program. Every village in India is not strictly a village, so every region needs core users to do things like organizing activities. This is an important point.
Media: VMate’s prediction and opinion on the Indian short video market in the next two years?
Cheng Daofang: The ceiling of India’s short video field is very high, and there will be hundreds of millions of products. But short videos are also very costly, and one-year review fees are generally not enough for startups.