The commercialization of Kuaishou has entered an accelerated stage.
On November 30, the Kuaishou 2020 Magnet Conference was held in Beijing, which pointed out a new direction for the ecological construction and brand marketing of Kuaishou commercialization.
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2020, run fast
Kuaishou will continue to make big moves in 2020 and achieve breakthroughs in many fields.
At the beginning of 2020, Kuaishou became the exclusive interactive partner of China Central Radio and Television's 2020 Spring Festival Gala. With the global influence of the Spring Festival Gala, Kuaishou will become an international platform in 2020. According to the "2019 Kuaishou Content Report" released by the Kuaishou Big Data Research Institute, Kuaishou's DAU successfully exceeded 300 million in February this year.
In 2020, Kuaishou live broadcast e-commerce will enter the fast lane of development. In early May, the person in charge of Kuaishou e-commerce announced that Kuaishou e-commerce's daily activity exceeded 100 million. At the same time, more than 1 million Kuaishou accounts have potential operating behaviors. On May 27th, Kuaishou and JD Retail announced the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement, and the two parties have conducted in-depth cooperation in the supply chain. JD Retail will provide superior categories of goods to Kuaishou stores, and the two parties will jointly build a high-quality product pool, which will be selected and sold by Kuaishou anchors. Kuaishou users will be able to directly purchase JD’s self-operated goods at Kuaishou stores and enjoy JD’s high-quality delivery and after-sales services. According to official data, the total transaction volume of Kuaishou e-commerce in the first half of the year has exceeded 100 billion yuan, making it the fourth largest e-commerce platform.
On November 5, Kuaishou formally submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and began to sprint for Hong Kong stock IPOs. According to media reports, Kuaishou plans to raise US$5 billion in a Hong Kong stock IPO, with a valuation of US$50 billion. According to the prospectus, the revenue of Kuaishou has grown rapidly during the record period, from RMB 8.3 billion in 2017 to RMB 20.3 billion in 2018, and further to RMB 39.1 billion in 2019. The RMB 17.1 billion for the six-month period ended June 30 increased to RMB 25.3 billion for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020, a year-on-year increase of 48.3%. Specifically, Kuaishou currently makes money mainly on live broadcasts, online marketing services, and e-commerce sales commissions. In 2019, the three businesses achieved revenues of 314.4, 74.2, and 260 million yuan respectively, accounting for 80.4%, 19.0%, and 0.6% respectively. In the first half of 2020, the three businesses achieved revenues of 173.5, 71.6, and 810 million yuan, accounting for 68.5%, 28.3%, and 3.2%.
From the revenue data disclosed in the Kuaishou prospectus, live broadcast and online marketing are the two major revenue engines of Kuaishou. But by comparison, in 2020, live broadcast revenue accounted for nearly 70%, and online marketing revenue accounted for less than 30%. The difference between the two is more than doubled. Judging from the revenue data of live broadcast and online marketing, the upward trend of online marketing from 2019 to 2020 is obvious, and the future potential is huge.
Therefore, we have seen that Kuaishou has strengthened its online marketing revenue capabilities since version 8.0, and has made numerous upgrades in product and commercialization.
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Kuaishou magnetic engine evolves, and private domain integration activates a new channel of "integration of product and sales"
At this magnetic conference, Mao Haifeng, vice president of magnetic engine sales, Chen Yan, product manager of magnetic engine, Sun Huifeng, national planning director of magnetic engine, and Feng Chao, manager of magnetic engine e-commerce marketing business focused on the "full integration of public and private domains" product sales The new marketing plan of Heyi "New Channel" elaborated the iterative upgrade of the magnetic engine from four aspects: brand, product, planning and e-commerce marketing.
In September 2020, Kuaishou version 8.0 was launched.
Compared with the previous version, Kuaishou version 8.0 has three major changes. The first is the update of Kuaishou's product concept, from "seeing" every life to "embrace" every life, emphasizing the true nature of life. The second change is that the product structure of Kuaishou AAPP has changed from "dual-column mode" to "single-column mode". The third change is in commercial products.
Here we will focus on the commercialization of Kuaishou 8.8. In version 8.0, Kuaishou upgraded its Magnetic Juxing and Kuaishou Noodles. With the help of algorithm breakthrough, eye-opening and quick creation, and original service, Kuaishou magnetic engine further realized the integration of public and private domain traffic.
Specifically, the upgrade of Kuaishou 8.0 version of Magneto Stars is mainly reflected in 4 aspects: product level, which improves the link efficiency between customers and talents, and upgrades in aspects such as global distribution; and further broadens the talent level. At the marketing level, it provides customers with a complete set of marketing methods; ecologically, it is more open and inclusive, allowing ecological participants to have better interactions.
In terms of commercialization, the most important change of Kuaishou version 8.0 is to strengthen the integration of public and private domain traffic. In the past, Magixing's works were only distributed in the private domain of Kuaishou APP. After the upgrade, user works will be newly displayed on the discovery page, same city page and label selections of the Kuaishou App.
In terms of fan headlines, the upgraded vermicelli is no longer limited to the positioning of promotion tools, but has become a connector for the entire Kuaishou content ecosystem, which can help customers find more accurate commercial traffic and reach a definite fan plan.
Xi Ge believes that Kuaishou’s new marketing plan for "comprehensive integration of public and private domains to activate the new channel of "integration of products and sales"" is just right at this time.
In 2020, under the epidemic, cost reduction and efficiency increase have become the core demands of many brands and businesses. The launch of Kuaishou's new marketing program "Integration of Product and Sales" is a positive for brand owners. On the one hand, you can strengthen your own private domain traffic, and on the other hand, you can use public domain traffic to achieve the effect of public and private domain traffic superimposed and amplified, achieving multiple effects.
In a word, after the commercialization of the upgraded Kuaishou public and private domain traffic, the synergy effect is greater, the brand marketing potential is stronger, the talent promotion effect is also better, and it is easier to gain the favor of brands and merchants.
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Kuaishou Casting Live Broadcast + Marketing and Commercial Double Power Engine
Helping brands, merchants, and talents improve collaboration efficiency and promoting the integration of public and private domain traffic are only part of the commercial appeal of Kuaishou 8.0. The real purpose of Kuaishou is to build a more stable live broadcast + marketing and commercial dual engine by strengthening the commercial value of online marketing.
According to the Kuaishou prospectus, as of June 30, 2020, based on the average daily active users, Kuaishou is the world's second largest short video platform; it is the largest live streaming platform based on virtual gift rewards and average monthly paying users; Kuaishou is the world's second largest live e-commerce platform based on the GMV of total commodity transactions. The average daily active users and average monthly active users of Kuaishou apps and mini programs were 302 million and 776 million, respectively. Among them, the average daily active users of the Kuaishou app are 257.7 million, the average monthly active users are 484.6 million, the average daily usage time of users exceeds 85 minutes, and the average daily visits exceed 10 times.
With the support of such a large user scale and high-quality content platform, the Kuaishou live broadcast business has achieved fruitful results in the revenue point of "reward". According to the prospectus, as of June 30, 2020, the revenue of Kuaishou's live broadcast business reached 17.3 billion yuan, and the average monthly paid users of live broadcast were 64 million. The average monthly paid user income of live broadcast was about 45.2 yuan. "On the other hand, based on the growth rate of Kuaishou e-commerce GMV reaching 109.6 billion yuan in the first half of 2020, it should not be a problem for Kuaishou e-commerce to reach the 250 billion goal of GMV in 2020.
As mentioned above, according to Kuaishou prospectus data, live streaming and online marketing are the two major revenue engines of Kuaishou. However, compared with the proportion of live broadcasting in total revenue, online marketing still has a lot of room for improvement.
The reason why Kuaishou online marketing still has a lot of room for improvement lies in its over 300 million+ user scale and super active community atmosphere. According to data from iResearch, Kuaishou’s content community activity ranks first among China’s top video-based social platforms. As of June 30, 2020, content creators accounted for the average monthly active users in Kuaishou. The application ratio is about 26%. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, the average monthly short video uploads on the Kuaishou app also exceeded 1.1 billion.
Large-scale users and ultra-monthly active community atmosphere make Kuaishou one of the most popular platforms for brand owners.
Xi Ge believes that with the holding of the Magnet Conference and the promotion of the new marketing plan of the integration of the public and private domains of Kuaishou, the "integration of product and sales", brands and businesses will have a new understanding of the value of Kuaishou marketing. At that time, more brands and businesses will choose to conduct marketing in Kuaishou.
With the advancement of public and private domain traffic integration, the proportion of online marketing revenue will also be further increased. By then, marketing will become another powerful engine outside of Kuaishou live broadcast.
Kuaishou, driven by the dual powerful engines of live broadcast + marketing and commerce, will move more steadily and more worth looking forward to.