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Ubiquitous Chinese app WeChat started beta-testing its short video feature, Channels, in late January. Photo: Shutterstock

WeChat’s short video feature Channels has drawn 200 million users in six months, but can it take on Douyin?

  • WeChat’s new short video feature, Channels, is still in beta-mode but has already attracted 200 million users, according to WeChat head Allen Zhang
  • The market is currently dominated by Douyin and Kuaishou, both of which have been around for years
WeChat
For years, short video in China has been synonymous with two major names: Douyin, the Chinese version of ByteDance’s TikTok, and Tencent-backed Kuaishou.

But in less than six months this year, a new challenger – albeit under a familiar name – has been steadily accumulating millions of users.

“200 million [users] are a start, marking this down because the next time will be at the 300 or 400 million mark,” “father of WeChat” Allen Zhang wrote in a private WeChat post about the app’s new short video feature, Channels, which the app started beta-testing in late January.

Zhang did not specify whether the figure referred to daily active users or monthly active users, and WeChat declined to comment further.

The do-everything app – which also allows users to chat, shop, play games and read blogs and news, among other things – reported in March that it had surpassed 1.2 billion monthly active users worldwide, most of them in China.

Some Chinese tech firms see a surge in users amid coronavirus outbreak

Channels was introduced at a time when the demand for video content a minute or shorter in length was accelerating. While short video apps were already on an upwards trajectory, the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in people spending more time online amid lockdowns and social distancing measures.

Chinese people are now spending 16 more hours per month on their phones compared to a year ago, and short video apps have seen a surge while more traditional internet services by tech giants such as Baidu, WeChat, and Alibaba saw zero or slightly negative growth, research firm QuestMobile said in a report in June.

WeChat is late to the game and it will be a challenge for them to make a material impact ... nothing stands out as better than Douyin, Kuaishou and the rest.
Mark Tanner, China Skinny founder
Douyin, the biggest player in the market, nearly doubled its number of daily active users to 400 million in January, from 250 million a year ago, and accounted for most of the US$95.6 million in spending racked up by Douyin and TikTok users in May. The second-largest player, Kuaishou, recently reported that it had hit its target of 300 million daily active users in the first two months of the year.

Both have been around for years. Douyin was launched in 2016, while Kuaishou started in 2011 as an app to make and share GIF images and began focusing on the short video format about a year later.

“WeChat is late to the game and it will be a challenge for them to make a material impact,” said Mark Tanner, founder and managing director of Shanghai-based consultancy China Skinny.

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“Channels has the advantage of integration with WeChat and the holistic social component, however from a usability point of view, nothing stands out as better than Douyin, Kuaishou and the rest,” Tanner added.

The competition is set to intensify even further. Despite its existing foothold in the China market, Douyin owner ByteDance is planning to focus more on growth in its home market amid a backlash against its star app, TikTok, in major markets such as India and the US, according to a report by The Information this month which cited an unnamed ByteDance investor.

However, Zhang Dingding, an internet industry commentator and former head of Beijing-based research firm Sootoo Institute, said Channels has exceeded expectations so far.

“I have clients asking about business opportunities on WeChat Channels, which shows that the industry has high hopes for its business value,” he said.

Content creator Yan Yuelong also said he was optimistic about Channels even though it is a late mover.

01:33

How China’s TikTok video app became a global sensation

How China’s TikTok video app became a global sensation

“It’s Tencent’s trump card that can leverage the enormous social network of WeChat,” said the tech blogger, who started posting short videos about tech trends as well as his personal life on Channels in February. “WeChat is an app that’s constantly evolving. … people who don’t have any existing followers on WeChat Channels can also utilise WeChat groups and WeChat Moments to promote their short video content.”

This makes Channels a good platform for those starting out with short videos, when the more established social media influencers have snapped up most of the attention on Douyin and Kuaishou, said Yan, who has accumulated 5,000 followers on Channels in the past four months, compared to 80,000 on his two-year-old Douyin account.

Gen Z users help TikTok rival Kuaishou expand live-streaming e-commerce business

WeChat groups are group chats of up to 500 members, while Moments is the app’s social networking feature which allows users to network by sharing information, photos and articles with their friends privately.

Channels is not Tencent’s first attempt to enter the short video market. Apart from its US$2 billion investment in Kuaishou in 2019, Tencent also relaunched its short video app Weishi in 2017 and a dozen other self-developed short video apps in 2018 – all of which failed to stand out in the crowded market.

“Timing-wise, [Channels] is better than some of their other short video attempts due to the [more recent] expectations and habit that everyone has in using short video and live-streaming, so they can tap into some of this organic growth,” Tanner said, adding that he thinks WeChat should focus on better-integrating Channels with the rest of its ecosystem, such as by allowing links for Moments ads in short videos through the feature.

In a recorded speech shown at Tencent’s annual WeChat conference in January, weeks before the beta launch of Channels, WeChat head Allen Zhang said the app has always been developing toward short-form content.

“Self-expression is a natural need for human beings … but we cannot ask everyone to write articles every day,” he said.

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