Per reporter: Du Wei Per editor: Zhang Haini
What do you use Alipay for?
For most people, the most commonly used functions are payment tools when eating, riding, paying electricity bills, upgrading a little operation, and may also use it to borrow and return power banks, share bicycles, or buy insurance, look at funds, etc. But now, you can also use Alipay to brush short videos.
Image source: Alipay
As a large platform with 1 billion users, Alipay has not only attracted a group of Internet celebrity bloggers to test the waters, but also attracted well-known brands, major scenic spots, and media to settle in. A payment software, why should it focus on the short video track? In the case of the three "jitter fast" companies dominating the market, how many opportunities are left for Alipay?
In fact, for content creators, Alipay makes short videos, giving everyone an additional place for content distribution. However, many bloggers admitted in interviews with the "Daily Economic News" reporter that they have not yet paid attention. From a platform perspective, it's not easy to really entice bloggers to stay for a long time and create a lot of high-quality content, taking the opportunity to extend users' stay time.
"We don't benchmark Douyin and Kuaishou"
Open Alipay, and on the homepage of its "Money" homepage "Life", you can easily enter the short video.
This can't help but trigger speculation from the outside world, Alipay, which has always wanted to get rid of its "tool" identity, should vigorously play the "content" card and create another "Douyin"? "We don't benchmark short video apps such as Douyin and Kuaishou." On April 19, Alipay said in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter.
Image source: Alipay
At present, short videos are undoubtedly the best way to capture users' attention and occupy users' time, and have a growing population. According to the "China Online Audiovisual Development Research Report (2023)", as of December 2022, the number of short video users in mainland China reached 1.012 billion, a year-on-year increase of 77.7 million, a growth rate of 8.3%, accounting for 94.8% of the overall netizens. In 2022, the average daily usage time of short video users exceeded 2.5 hours, far ahead of other apps.
"Short videos and live broadcasts are tools that can help businesses improve operational efficiency, and they are also the capabilities that the next digital open platform should have." When talking about the original intention of opening up related business segments, Alipay said, "Life short videos and live broadcasts are the natural evolution of the content marketing demands of merchants based on more than 3 million mini programs on our platform. In the future, short videos will become the infrastructure of Alipay's APP, and together with mini programs, they will become the two major positions for merchants to operate themselves, forming a closed loop from service to content marketing. ”
Alipay's short video is still in its infancy, "We are exploring the content mentality that matches the platform's services and has a valuable attraction point for users." Alipay revealed to reporters that since July 2022, the number of settled accounts has increased by more than 10 times, and the average daily upload volume of works has increased by more than 300%.
"When the platform is amplifying, you have to catch it"
Although Alipay has entered the short video track, there are still some bloggers and MCN institutions that have not yet paid attention.
"I haven't paid attention, I can't imagine the (Alipay short video) application scenario." A well-known anime blogger with nearly 10 million fans on the whole network told the "Daily Economic News" reporter bluntly. During the interview, the reporter learned that for most bloggers and companies, the mainstream money-making channel is "jitter fast small and micro". However, many interviewees told reporters that they would not be excluded from distributing content to Alipay to see if they could also "get a piece of the pie".
"The choice of platform is how you choose the battlefield." Liu Xiaochen, CEO of Beijing Haomeng Live Culture Communication Co., Ltd., the account operator of "Flash Girl Sisi" with more than 3.5 million fans on the Internet, said in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter, "No one knows what kind of content products will survive to the end, but there is a principle, when the platform is expanding, you have to catch it."
Image source: "Flash Girl Sisi" Weibo screenshot
Liu Xiaochen has been listed on the "Forbes China 30 Under 30 Elite List", in her opinion, bloggers have the following considerations for entering the platform. "The first is the mentality of advertisers, which big brands, such as luxury goods, have come in? The second is the community atmosphere, you accept ads, what do users think, are they willing to support? Moreover, the positioning of the platform itself, is it supporting your type of blogger recently, is it really setting up a stage for you to sing, supporting you to go up, or is it dissolving you and diluting you? ”
"Monetization ability, whether advertisers recognize it" is what bloggers value the most when choosing a platform. But the real problem is, "content has entered the era of refined operation, unless you are a super blockbuster, it is no longer possible to string all platforms with one set of content." Liu Xiaochen said.
Bloggers have limited energy, they don't run multiple platforms for a long time, and they don't hesitate to abandon accounts that are difficult to commercialize. Dong Zhe, the operator of the well-known pet blogger account "Dada & Qioba", told reporters that her account on a short video platform has more than 2.6 million fans, but her monetization ability is weak, "last year, 40,000 yuan was sold."
Can I wake up a silent user with a short video?
"Alipay's opening of short videos (tracks) is related to its future monetization direction." Zhang Yi, founder and CEO of iMedia Consulting, said in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter that at present, Alipay's main role is to serve the convenience of the people in the city, but if it is only used as a payment tool, the ideas that can be expanded are limited, "If you want to maximize the thinking space for monetization, the premise is that you must be active before you can add value."
Alipay has 1 billion users, but it has been used for much less time than other platforms. QuestMobile data shows that during the Spring Festival in 2023, Alipay's average daily usage time was 7.8 minutes, less than one-tenth of the Douyin Extreme version, ranking last among apps with more than 50 million daily activities.
Image credit: QuestMobile
"Most people rarely open Alipay after using the payment function, and it seems quiet. And silent users have little commercial value for the platform. Short videos may be one of the best ways to wake up Alipay's hundreds of millions of users. Zhang Yi pointed out.
Although "jitter is small" is a major player in the industry, it also exposes the drawbacks of "information bombing". "All platforms are providing massive content, which is too diverse, and does not meet the needs of users in terms of professionalism and vertical categories." Zhang Yi further told every reporter that from the demand side, the pure pursuit of short video entertainment by users has passed, "In the past, everyone brushed short videos to pass the time, but now how to change material money and money to make money is what everyone is more concerned about." ”
In Zhang Yi's view, Alipay has financial attributes, "Under the premise of reasonable legal compliance, if you can combine professional and professional and do money-related content and topics, such as talking about funds, housing prices, financial traps, etc., and play your own characteristics, there is still a chance." ”
In terms of user age, "Alipay's active users are mainly distributed in 20~35 years old, which is relatively overlapping with the user ages of Douyin and Kuaishou." Zhang Yi believes that this is both an opportunity and a challenge for Alipay, "This age group of users has good spending power, but they still have many choices." ”
In the face of fickle users, as a new player of short videos, Alipay may take advantage of the advantages of the large platform to attract bloggers to settle in the short term, but how to really retain them in the future, so that bloggers can produce high-quality content in line with the tone of the platform, so as to extend the time of users staying and enhance the activity of the platform, it is not an easy task.
Daily economic news