Zhang Xiaolong was absent for the first year, and the WeChat video number dormant period ended?

Author: Cui Pengzhi Source: IT Times

From the beginning of 2020 to the beginning of 2022, the WeChat video account has completed the start-up period from scratch.

On January 6, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the video number, the 2022 WeChat Open Class Pro was held in Guangzhou, and Zhang Xiaochao, the head of the video number team, became the first lecturer to take the stage.

However, founder Zhang Xiaolong was completely absent from the open class, which was the first time in the 8 years since the WeChat open class was held. His name continues to appear, Zhang Ying, head of the WeChat Pay team, talked about Zhang Xiaolong's inspiration for himself in the promotion of WeChat Pay, and Tan Simin, head of the Mini Program team, recalled that he announced the birth of WeChat Mini Program on the stage 5 years ago.

The last time it appeared in the 2021 WeChat open class, Zhang Xiaolong's focus was on the video number. He led the video number that had just turned "one year old" to the stage and interpreted its operational logic for the first time. The baton was handed over to Zhang Xiaochao this year, which may mean that the established track for the future development of the video number has been completed.

"In last year's open class, Xiaolong has made a lot of detailed explanations on the framework structure, iteration goals and vision of the video number product." Zhang Xiaochao said in his opening remarks that we will mainly share the idea of content ecology and the changes in the overall content of video accounts in the past two years.

In this talk, the video number is seen as an "atomized basic content component." The ability of video number and payment to meet and produce "tipping"; the ability of video number and public account to be integrated, and video cards appear in articles; the ability of video number and enterprise WeChat integration to promote private domain operation...

Zhang Xiaolong's interpretation of the video number in 2021 is being visualized, he said at the time: "The video content circulating in WeChat in the future should be more and more in the form of a video number, rather than a video file." Like his product philosophy, the "atomization" of the video number is still a subtraction process.

Unlike short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, the video number has chosen another way of symbiosis with the WeChat ecosystem. An investor made an image analogy to the IT Times reporter: "The video number is a new building block handed over to users by WeChat. ”

Zhang Xiaolong once said that he did not expect that the public account would become the base camp of the self-media, and the self-media practitioners used the public account "so well." But after tasting the sweetness, WeChat, which bet on video expression, undoubtedly began to expect the same surprise.

"Of course, after we set up the platform, we need more good content to add to this system and provide it to users." Zhang Xiaochao said. Some plans were announced on the stage: "Creator Incentive Plan", traffic tilted to original content, support 10 million original authors, so that 1 million high-quality creators can monetize; "video number live broadcast - business incentive plan", in the next year through traffic incentive support of no less than 100,000 businesses, businesses each time to guide a private domain user into the live broadcast room, the platform will at least incentivize one public domain user.

The biggest key point is still traffic. A flashpoint appeared at the end of 2021, showing the private domain fission ability of the video number backed by WeChat's huge traffic pool.

The Irish group West Side Boys held an online concert on the video number, which attracted the phenomenon of weChat circle of friends. The concert eventually attracted more than 27 million onlookers, and the highest number of people online that night was 1.5 million, Zhang Xiaochao said, "If the Bird's Nest 100,000 people start a concert, then we have 15 Bird's Nest audiences watching the concert at the same time." ”

In the first year of Zhang Xiaolong's absence, there were fewer soul figures in the spotlight of WeChat, but he was calling for more new figures in full force.