The Way of Weibo Shede: Don't do content, just connect (transfer)
Text/Jeff
As China's largest social media platform, Weibo has been enjoying a good time. According to Weibo's first quarter 2016 financial report, Weibo's net profit increased by 491% year-on-year, and net revenue exceeded the company's expectations. At the same time, Weibo's mobile average daily active users (DAU) increased by 45% year-on-year. These figures not only reflect the strong growth momentum of Weibo, but also pushed the market value of Weibo to break the US$6 billion mark for the first time in June this year, creating a new record high.
It can be said that Weibo has been trying to better meet the needs of users through transformation in the past two years, and Weibo has also used such an excellent answer sheet to prove the success of its transformation to the outside world. Recently, Weibo once again talked about the transformation and the future. What impresses me the most is that Weibo emphasizes its own positioning, that is, it is determined not to do content, but only to connect. However, behind this, we found that Weibo has increasingly influenced content producers and promoted the dissemination of more valuable content, so that content producers, content producers and users can be better connected in the Together.
Linked with the media, Weibo public opinion affects media content
In the past two years, many news topics and popular events in the society were first fermented and spread on Weibo, and finally reported by social media and TV, and finally detonated. It can be said that Weibo public opinion is deeply affecting media content.
In addition, the combination of Weibo and variety shows has been deepened, and Weibo has also been widely recognized for the increase in popularity and ratings of variety shows. In the running man recorded on May 13, the audience will see a different program. The running man recording process of this episode is all decided by Weibo netizens. During the recording of the program, all the guests posted tasks through Weibo, solicited the objects of tearing up famous brands from netizens, and updated the progress of tearing up famous brands in real time.
It is reported that the first Weibo in the program was sent by the big black cow Li Chen, and the other 8 guests also released the brand-name interactive Weibo one after another. After nearly 4 hours of enthusiastic participation by netizens, Na Ying posted the last Weibo on the field. At this time, Zheng Kai, Lu Han, and Na Ying were left on the field, and the three staged the ultimate PK. Who will win in the end, when the show is broadcast, the answer will be revealed on Weibo!
Through Weibo, "Running Brothers" has evolved the participation of netizens and fans into a key link in the program. It affects the development of the program during recording, and presents interactive results when it is broadcast, which effectively prolongs the dissemination cycle and scope of the program. According to Weibo official data, on the day of the recording of this episode, there were 2.2 million mentions of running male stars, and 144,000 related searches. By the time of statistics, the number of readings on the topic of running male stars had reached 32 billion, leading the variety show on Friday.
In fact, "Running Brothers" has been focusing on the dissemination and interaction on Weibo since it was broadcast for four seasons. As early as the first season, Running Man became the first program with a topic of over 10 billion in the first season; in the second season, the program group In conjunction with Weibo Sports, we launched the "Running 2015 Sunshine Public Welfare Runway Program", with a cumulative run of 4.87 million kilometers; in the third season, Luhan & baby's micro-interview once created 460,000 user questions. It can be said that Running Man shrewdly used Weibo's unique advantages and communication space in the field of entertainment, social networking and celebrity fans, and finally stood out in the red sea of variety shows.
In my opinion, the cooperation between Weibo and Running Man is just a microcosm of the interactive upgrade of Taiwan and the Internet. With the rapid increase in the popularity of Weibo in third- and fourth-tier cities, Weibo has become a national-level application. It is believed that in the near future, the in-depth interaction between Weibo and variety shows will become standard.
Weibo does not do content, but will spread high-quality content
Recently, Weibo announced that Weibo has reached a strategic cooperation with CCTV Sports for the Olympic Games, and reached a strategic cooperation with Hisense for the 2016 European Cup (Hisense is the top sponsor of this year's European Cup). Similarly, Weibo does not involve the content copyright of the two major competitions, but will select the highest quality content to recommend to users, providing users with a more mobile, more social, and more personalized cross-screen viewing experience.
As Jiang Heping, director of CCTV Sports Channel, said, the cooperation with Weibo mainly focuses on the scale of its users, the youth of users and the influence of Weibo itself. CCTV Sofure's research shows that every 1% increase in Weibo discussion volume can lead to a 0.248% increase in the arrival rate of TV programs and a 0.1% increase in viewership.
In addition to exerting unparalleled communication power in major sports events, Weibo has also begun to exert its strength in the field of live broadcasts. In mid-May, Weibo and Miaopai announced the joint launch of "One Live", officially entering the field of live video. Different from the ordinary show mode, Yizhuan is committed to providing users with better live broadcast content and experience, so it has established a very strict review mechanism; in addition, Yizhuan has many advantages such as rich star resources and strong public welfare, which Helping it gain a firm foothold in the fiercely competitive live broadcast Red Sea, various data have soared.
近年来微博推出了一系列工具，比如头条文章、短视频产品、直播产品等，其初衷就是降低内容发布门槛。同时，微博还加强对用户兴趣的挖掘，通过优化信息流算法，避免低质量内容对用户的打扰，并提升优质内容的曝光与传播力度。
通过这些举措可以发现，微博更加注重提升用户体验和优质内容的传播效率。微博也逐渐变成一个更好的“连接者”。
从实时信息网络到兴趣社交网络转变
如今，微博成功完成了由实时信息网络到兴趣社交网络的华丽蜕变。
早期微博极为关注时政话题和社会事务，如今微博开始向旅游、电影、汽车、电视、美食等基于用户兴趣的垂直细分领域扩张。第二个显著变化是，原来微博的话语空间几乎都掌握在“大V”手中，如今它们正被中小V和自媒体所稀释。微博上越来越多垂直领域的中小V变得更活跃，使得不同喜好的用户都可以精准获取自己想要的个性化内容。
由于更加关注用户感兴趣的内容，用户规模和活跃度自然也就上去了。2016年的第一季度，微博月活跃用户净增2600万达到2.61亿，日活跃用户净增1400万达到1.2亿，均创下上市以来最大单季增幅。其中，三四线城市的微博用户和年轻用户的规模增长尤其明显。
关于微博的未来
当前，微博的内容生态已经空前强大，有12个垂直行业的月均阅读量超过100亿。可以说，如何帮助这些垂直行业更好的成长，关乎微博的未来。微博也强调，未来将与更多专业机构在内容生产，账号成长，收入变现等多个方面展开合作，在不同垂直领域构建行业生态。
当下，生态布局成为各大互联网公司的“常备武器”，微博也将进入构建多元化生态的新阶段。在我看来，这会是一条充满挑战但也前景无限的道路，希望微博可以坚持。此外，微博未来还将继续坚持“不做内容，只做连接”的平台定位——传播有推动力的内容，推动有传播力的关系。不论如何，微博满足用户兴趣的方式正变得更加多元化，从140字内的文字或图片，再到更具有个性化和传播力的短视频，还有正在成为趋势的视频直播......更加多元化的微博，未来的商业化前景也会充满想象力。