The most popular 618, video account still has no big anchor

This article mainly discusses the development challenges of WeChat Mini Program Video Account in the field of e-commerce. Although it is regarded as a new growth opportunity, the development of Video Account is relatively slow due to the lack of strong head anchors and the lack of e-commerce infrastructure and services.

The annual 618 has begun. Video accounts can no longer be indifferent. They should seize the best marketing opportunity of the year and impact live streaming sales.

In this "most anxious" 618, comprehensive e-commerce and short video platforms have tried their best to embrace growth.

According to Analysys data, during the first period of 618 this year (May 20-June 3), the GMV growth rate of the comprehensive e-commerce market led by Taobao Tmall, JD.com and Pinduoduo reached 14%.

It’s not just the low prices that are responsible for this; live streaming e-commerce has also played an important role.

Li Jiaqi's crossover talent joined the hit variety show "Brother Overcoming Troubles" and became a hot search on Weibo. Dong Yuhui, who "started a new business", appeared in Nanshan, Shenzhen, and sold 100 million in just one live broadcast. Simba, who had just criticized Kuaishou, apologized on the eve of 618 to attract attention, and in exchange for the unblocking of his account.

Unlike Taobao, Douyin and Kuaishou, which have all top anchors contributing to the topic volume and popularity of the platforms, the video accounts supported by WeChat have a slightly insufficient presence. Although recognized as the "new growth depression" and "the hope of the whole market", the video accounts that have been exploring the live streaming sales track for three years have still not discovered a real super head.

During the 618 shopping festival, Li Jiaqi’s first live broadcast in the beauty category had a GMV of 2.675 billion yuan, and Simba, the top anchor of Kuaishou, had a GMV of 1.427 billion yuan during his first live broadcast on 618, which were 50 times and 28 times the GMV of 50 million yuan for Guo Yiyi, the top anchor of Video Account.

Apart from the lack of big anchors with a global reach, at a time when the growth rate of the live streaming industry is slowing down, the performance of video account e-commerce is far behind that of its competitors. According to public data, the GMV of video account e-commerce in 2023 will be about 100 billion yuan, which is equivalent to 1/20 of Douyin e-commerce and 1/10 of Kuaishou e-commerce.

The trillion-dollar achievements of Kuaishou and Douyin today are inseparable from the platform's support for top anchors. If video accounts that are still driven by products want to join the "trillion-dollar club", they can no longer be so indifferent.

1. No intention to cultivate a super head

The fact that Video Account has not produced any super head comparable to Li Jiaqi and Dong Yuhui has a lot to do with the top-level design of the platform.

As Zhang Xiaolong said, the purpose of Video Account is to create an equal and inclusive ecosystem. It is not exclusive to top players, does not invite celebrities to join, and does not spend money to buy content. Adhering to the principle of "technical equality and inclusiveness", the Video Account page does not display the number of fans to the outside world, and has not even set a KPI for GMV of goods brought in, and strives to treat all major anchors equally as much as possible.

It is precisely because there is no intention to cultivate super-heads that even if a top organization that is popular on the entire network wants to settle in, the video account will give up the opportunity.

It is reported that in 2023, the Dongfang Selection team had discussed with WeChat about entering the video account. However, WeChat only expressed its welcome to start broadcasting, but did not provide traffic support and would not treat them differently. On the contrary, Taobao sent a team of 20 people to fight for it. In August of the same year, Dongfang Selection joined Taobao Live.

Specifically in terms of the layout of the e-commerce ecosystem, there is still strategic inconsistency between Video Account and Tencent Advertising.

According to reports, Tencent Advertising advocates that Video Accounts follow the path of Douyin’s interest e-commerce, increasing GMV, increasing the revenue of internal circulation advertising, and improving the level of commercialization. This is almost a proven growth path. However, Video Accounts are still indecisive because of their love for technology, and their positioning is still a tool. They have not tried to solve the customer service and supply chain issues that live e-commerce businesses are concerned about.

Because of its slow pace, Video Account has also been criticized by the outside world for its slow infrastructure growth.

As retail e-commerce industry expert Zhuang Shuai commented, Tencent relies on third-party platforms such as WeMall to build e-commerce infrastructure such as related sales, cross-store discounts, purchase promotions, user evaluation systems, etc., which has led to a lack of integrity in the Video Account e-commerce system.

The incompleteness of infrastructure has to some extent limited the rise of top anchors on the platform.

In contrast, in order to support new anchors, Taobao launched a full hosting service in February this year to provide "nanny-style" operation services from account cold start, official product support to marketing planning for celebrities, KOLs, and MCN organizations who intend to start broadcasting on Taobao. The results are obvious. Jiumeimei and Wei Junjie are both "dark horse anchors" in the vertical category who have just joined Taobao this year, and their live broadcast rooms have sales of over 100 million yuan.

Video accounts are eagerly awaited by the outside world and are eager to grow rapidly. However, their ability to take action is very twisted. They insist on going their own way, causing Video accounts to deviate from the track of rapid commercial growth.

2. There is no price war in video accounts

It is a consensus that top live streaming rooms rely on low prices to increase sales.

Brands promise low prices in exchange for a spot in the top live broadcast rooms, thus achieving certain sales, and anchors rely on lower prices to get orders from fans, and the two complement each other. Li Jiaqi relied on the "lowest price on the entire network" to gain considerable attention, in exchange for brand concessions, creating repeated breakthroughs in the transaction volume of the live broadcast room.

However, unlike the low-price strategy adopted by major anchors’ live broadcast rooms, influencers on the Video Account restriction platform are not forced to compete on low prices for their products, but instead are choosing to compete on brand power.

In March last year, Video Account issued relevant regulations prohibiting influencers from promoting products at prices lower than the market average; in October, it stepped up efforts to investigate low-price trend-inducing behaviors. Products with a minimum price below 5 yuan will temporarily be unable to enter the alliance. At the same time, merchants are prohibited from holding back orders or promoting low-priced products with poor after-sales reviews from a large number of merchants.

In addition to rejecting excessively low prices, in terms of the style of the anchors selling goods, Video Account is more inclined to encourage merchants or influencers to learn Dong Yuhui's style of knowledge-based live streaming rather than Li Jiaqi's hawking style.

The anchors who sell content are actually not as efficient as Li Jiaqi in terms of monetization. Dongfang Zhenxuan, which became popular by "selling goods with knowledge", realized this problem and significantly weakened the proportion of content output in the live broadcast room, leaving more time for selling goods. Although it has been complained that it has "changed its taste", we can see that the content-based selling currently encouraged by the video account may have limited room for growth.

At a time when Pinduoduo's low-price strategy and Li Jiaqi's hawking style have been proven by the market, Video Account has decisively taken another path. Of course, Video Account's desired goal, that is, brand strategy, has not progressed well enough.

However, the video account that tried to compete in terms of brand power went too far and thus shut out many brands.

In early February this year, Video Account updated the brand merchant entry certification rules. It no longer requires the provision of qualification certificates from external sites such as Taobao, JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Douyin. Instead, it turns to refer to the brand power grading entry standards officially formulated by Tencent, including brand listing status, WeChat index, public account fans and other evaluation dimensions.

It is reported that the number of brands certified on the video account in some categories is even higher than that of the above platforms. A home furnishings merchant who opened a flagship store on Tmall failed to pass the video account flagship store certification that he recently applied for because of "lack of brand power".

The essence of emphasizing brand power is to ensure user experience, user reputation, and maintain the health of the ecosystem. However, the operation of WeChat public accounts is not a one-day job. Excessively high entry barriers will undoubtedly prolong the period of brand entry, and many brands are rejected. For the newly launched video accounts, insufficient supply will inevitably affect the large-scale development of live e-commerce.

WeChat Open Class data shows that brand merchants only account for 15% of GMV. In comparison, 70% of Taobao and Tmall's revenue in 2022 came from brand merchants; in 2021, Douyin's brand GMV accounted for nearly 60%. Some well-known brands have formed regular live broadcasts on Douyin, but only "occasionally" on video accounts.

It is understandable that Video Account does not want to conquer the world in the same way as Pinduoduo. It wants to create a unique value with a strong brand tone. However, in today's world where low prices are the core competitive point of major e-commerce platforms, Video Account is going the other way. It will take time to verify how much room for growth it has.

3. If you want to grow from 100 billion to 1 trillion, you don’t need to be a Buddhist anymore.

Buddhism and restraint are the basic colors of WeChat. Over the past year or so, the video account has been given too much attention. Only by running fast can it live up to the name of "the hope of the audience".

Tencent obviously hopes that it will develop quickly. According to reports, it may further expand the team of Video Account e-commerce business. The WeChat payment team will also join the construction of Video Account e-commerce business and participate in the expansion and operation of various industry categories, experts and customers, as well as the construction of basic functions such as transaction products.

But now, the GMV of Video Account is only 100 billion. According to the 1% to 5% technical service fee standard disclosed by WeChat, it can only become a new growth pillar of Tencent if it increases to 1 trillion. Then the homework that can be copied now are Douyin and Kuaishou, whose GMV has also exceeded one trillion.

Kuaishou e-commerce just reached a trillion GMV in 2023, and Douyin e-commerce was launched in 2022, achieving a trillion GMV in 2022. So what strategies did the two platforms adopt in this process?

One obvious point is that the platform should be the leading force, supporting top anchors, amplifying the platform's ability to sell goods, and cultivating consumer minds.

Douyin has joined hands with many celebrities and even staged a "True Return Story" with Luo Yonghao, a tech celebrity. Later, it conspired with Dongfang Zhenxuan to cultivate Dong Yuhui, the top online influencer. The ups and downs of celebrities and internet celebrities are certainly due to their lack of ability to bring goods, but you cannot deny that Douyin, as a trader, has always had absolute control over the platform's traffic, and the platform is the main driver of the top.

Kuaishou has actively introduced a large number of YY influencers, forming a live broadcast ecosystem with a strong "jianghu atmosphere". With the help of algorithms, a group of anchors in the form of families and gangs have been cultivated. Although anchors headed by Simba challenged the platform later, under the operation of the platform, the traffic has gradually been directed to regular anchors at the mid- and low-end levels.

In general, the two content e-commerce platforms are led by top anchors. After the content platform is perceived as a shopping platform, they begin to support mid-level anchors to allow the entire ecosystem to develop healthily. The growth to today's trillion GMV is by no means entirely due to the natural growth of products. The platform plays a major role.

Although live streaming e-commerce is a scenario-based innovation of traditional e-commerce, it still cannot escape the scope of e-commerce. It can be said that the essence of e-commerce is to rely on operations, which is actually contrary to the product orientation that Video Account currently wants. WeChat emphasizes use and leave, while live streaming wants to retain users for as long as possible. Whether the tones of the two can match is also a question.

Tencent has lost many battles in short videos, Weibo, and e-commerce. Live streaming is a combination of short videos and e-commerce, Tencent's two weaknesses. This time it has come to a critical juncture. Whether WeChat has thought clearly about the next route and made a decision as soon as possible is the key.