Government agencies jump on short-video bandwagon to ensure Chinese youth still hears “official voice”

In 2018, it is no longer enough for Chinese government agencies to write fun short messages or post emojis on social media to grab the attention of the country’s more than 700 million internet users.

To ensure their messages are heard by China’s mobile internet-obsessed people, especially those fun-loving millennials, they have had to learn some new tricks, such as adding catchy music and special effects to short videos.

That is why a growing number of Chinese government agencies are turning to the country’s viral video app Douyin, known as Tik Tok outside China, to create entertaining short-form music videos that can better connect with China’s younger generation as authorities step up their efforts to ensure that “core socialist values” are still communicated. For Douyin's parent Beijing ByteDance Technology, hosting government agencies can also be seen as a way of promoting these official messages after it recently fell foul of the authorities for posting other kinds of “vulgar” content.

More than 500 government agencies, Communist Party organisations and official media have set up accounts to post videos on Douyin, which has 150 million daily active users in China. According to data from Douyin, the government videos have been viewed more than 1.6 billion times as of June.

The emergence of cutting-edge new content technologies in China poses new challenges for the ruling Communist Party, which under President Xi Jinping has pushed hard to ensure the public receives more messages from official propaganda outlets.

One of the first Party organisations hosted by Douyin was the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, which has posted 125 short videos on various topics, from the tough training faced by Chinese soldiers to the launch of several home-made rockets. The account has more than 1.68 million followers on Douyin.