Toutiao’s products are ambitious after all, and what is meant to come will come sooner or later.
Due to the epidemic in 2020, many industries have suffered terribly. Except for some companies that have resumed work, everyone has responded to the policy and stayed indoors. However, online industries such as e-commerce, live broadcasting and short videos have ushered in a golden period of traffic growth. How these industries can seize traffic during this period and turn crises into opportunities is the key to widening the gap with competing companies after the epidemic.
At the beginning of March, the news that Douyin launched a voice live broadcast function made Ajing sigh: Toutiao's products are ambitious after all, and what is coming will come sooner or later.
It is euphemistically called "enriching live broadcast functions", but in the end everything is inseparable from traffic monetization.
The author had previously planned a voice live broadcast project, and it happened that the voice live broadcast function of Douyin was launched. As the number one fan of Toutiao, I hurriedly experienced it. And I would like to talk to you about this function update and my first taste of voice.
1. Tik Tok enters the voice live broadcast market
At the end of February, rumors emerged frequently: Is Douyin going to do voice live streaming?
Recently, Douyin has also confirmed the new function and responded that Douyin voice live broadcast is currently in the testing stage. During the epidemic, we hope that through the enrichment and improvement of the live broadcast function, ordinary users can communicate better, obtain better content, and enrich their spiritual life; small and medium-sized enterprises can better communicate with their customers, improve transaction conversion, and overcome difficulties together.
Ajing also specially sorted out the update timeline, which will be officially launched in March.
March 2: Douyin version is fully upgraded and voice live broadcast is officially available
March 2-March 9: Platform penetration, mainly focusing on functional experience
March 7: The union moved in and started broadcasting
Officially launched (+ios)
2. Overview of Live Voice Function
The updated voice live broadcast function of Douyin has a clean and tidy interface and clear functions. In addition to the main function – voice live broadcast, only a few auxiliary functions have been launched.
2.1 Live broadcast overview
The above two pictures show the path map of Ajing entering through Douyin. Click the "+" sign at the bottom and swipe right to the "Live Broadcast" on the far right column. You will find that Douyin has added the "Voice Live Broadcast" function. Click "Voice Live Broadcast" to try out the voice live broadcast update of Douyin. However, it is only available for download by users, and iOS is under review (Apple friends, wait a little longer)
There is no mode division for voice live broadcast, the traditional "1+8" format, that is, 1 room owner pit and 8 user pits. Compared with Douyin's own video live broadcast, the page is clean and tidy, with concentrated functions, and the purple + rose red color tone really makes users' eyes stay in the interface for a long time without feeling tired.
2.2 Product Comparison
Ajing compared the interfaces of two or three audio and video products on the market (as shown below)
The first on the left is the Douyin voice live broadcast interface, the second and third on the left are Taro Planet and Oxygen Voice.
In comparison, the interfaces of voice live broadcasts on the market are similar, with 8 additional user microphones in addition to the main microphone. In addition to the main functions, the function of Douyin voice live broadcast is a mini version of video live broadcast. In addition to the lack of beauty and filters, it only supports online comments, gifts, tasks, decorations and other functions.
Taro Planet and Oxygen Voice are representatives of niche voice live streaming software in the past two years. In addition to the normal mode, they also collaborate with entertainment mode, blind date mode, close friend mode and other modes to broaden their voice live streaming gameplay, and use family, union, ranking and other functions to create a voice ecosystem.
3. Is it possible to overtake on a curve?
Comparing Tik Tok’s voice live broadcast with many voice live broadcast software on the market, its functions are simple, but simple not simplistic.
Why? There are four reasons.
(1) Try socializing again
Other voice live broadcast software focuses on entertainment; however, what is different from other voice functions is that while the host is connected with 8 users, the chat room function can also be set up. This shows that Toutiao wants to step into the "social" field again.
"Social networking is a treasure, and everyone wants to get involved." Since Duoshan came out of nowhere in 2019, Douyin has been constantly promoting and directing traffic to it, and Toutiao products have also been supporting Duoshan. However, despite spending a lot of traffic, Duoshan has not been able to make much of a splash and is mediocre, and its pain points lie mostly in social networking.
Duoshan failed to take on the responsibility of short video + social networking. Ajing checked the recharge mico coins and found that the last update was in August 2019, 7 months ago, which inevitably makes people speculate. Relying on this voice live broadcast to re-arrange the social chain is also a good idea.
(2) Policy support to share the voice live streaming market
As we all know, Lizhi, China's first online audio stock, went public in the United States on January 14, 2020. Its voice live broadcast function was launched in 2016, and it has been four years since then. While exploring UGC content, it also focused on audio live broadcast. This listing has also rekindled hope in the voice and video live broadcast market.
As far as Ajing knows, the three audio giants on the market: Lizhi, Himalaya, and Qingting FM, and even the music platform NetEase Cloud Music, are all involved in voice live streaming. Although Lizhi has had experience in stepping on minefields before, it is a representative that has done better among them.
Relying on audio live streaming and good storytelling, Lizhi successfully got the capital market to pay for it; and Douyin's audio live streaming also tried to get users to pay for it, through its own traffic and support policies, which circulated in voice live streaming.
"Daily settlement", "high commission", and "limited places for internal testing" are the keywords on a Douyin voice live broadcast poster. It can be seen that there are corresponding policy supports for the launch of new functions.
(3) Leverage platform advantages and launch surprise attacks
In 2020, it is a bit late to enter the voice live broadcast track. There is a strong competitor in front of Lizhi and many voice dating apps behind. The pie is getting smaller and smaller. From this point of view, is there no advantage of surprise attack when being attacked from both sides?
No.
Friends who have experienced Douyin should know that Douyin has many subcategories, such as emotional, inspirational, storytelling, and talk show videos, which also occupy a considerable part of the platform.
Most of these videos are presented in the form of "picture + text", which is based on the "emotion + sound" approach. They are top up mico codashop that touches people with sound, so it is naturally not suitable to display pictures to add more interference.
Relying on its own advantage of 400 million daily active users, Douyin has surpassed a number of "friends" when it entered the industry. The advantage of traffic has also been fully utilized in this voice live broadcast function, which not only reduces the embarrassment of customer acquisition when launching a new APP, but also brings more stable retention to the platform itself. While retaining the "voice actors", if operated properly, it can also achieve the goal of attracting new users to a certain extent.
(4) Utilize your own traffic to fully realize monetization
Douyin has been incubated by Toutiao since 2016 and has a history of nearly 4 years. Douyin is always considering how to make good use of the accumulated traffic.
It is a huge traffic pool in itself, and the traffic must eventually be monetized. "Traffic that cannot be monetized is just hooliganism." From live video streaming to live streaming with goods, all of them are Douyin's exploration of traffic conversion, and this voice live streaming is no exception.
According to the data from the iMedia Consulting Report, in the voice market of more than 500 million (as shown in the distribution of population in the figure below), most of the users are born in the 1990s and 2000s, and the mainstream users of Tik Tok are also highly consistent. Since the audience is the same, voice live streaming has been a natural development for a long time.
At the same time, the report shows that more than 55% of users will comment while listening to live voice broadcasts, and more than 80% of users give rewards of more than 10 yuan. So the monetization potential for live voice broadcasts is huge.
"Live voice broadcast, reward and pay" points out the most direct way to monetize live voice broadcast. Live voice broadcast relies on audience users with high similarity to Douyin, as well as the extension of subcategories such as emotion and music. It creates monetization opportunities for such creators and avoids the embarrassment of broadcasting but not wanting to show one's face.
4. What should we do in the future?
In early 2018, Southern Metropolis Daily revealed the existence of soft pornographic content on voice platforms such as Lizhi. The experiences of "Yinyue" and Lizhi, which focus on voice, can serve as a lesson for Douyin. While having high monetization, voice live streaming also carries high risks. Corresponding minefields were exposed in 2018 and 2019.
"Voice social networking may become the next carrier after text and picture social networking and video social networking." Although Douyin is ambitious, there are precedents. How to control it? Is Douyin fully prepared to deal with it? Another point is whether its voice live broadcast will destroy its own style, which is also a controversial topic.
As far as the current online functions are concerned, it is still easy to control its single mode function. The key lies in how to take the next step. The single "ear economy" is far less than the retention of the "value economy", but with its short video + video live broadcast + voice live broadcast multi-party cooperation, it is expected to play new tricks.
Final Thoughts
It is unknown whether Douyin can catch up with the trend of voice live broadcast again through the voice live broadcast function. But what is certain is that Douyin has been constantly enriching itself on the road of live broadcast, from short videos, video live broadcast, e-commerce sales, to the current voice live broadcast, and building its own video + live broadcast ecosystem. This is a process of multiple attempts and multiple trials and errors. Fortunately, most of the layouts are correct.
Ajing also wants to know whether Douyin’s entry into voice live streaming is a correct move or not.
So, give it time and wait and see.
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