China’s short video war heats up as Tencent offers cash to influencers from rivals Douyin and Kuaishou
- Weishi, the weaker of Tencent’s two short-video services, is targeting influencers with at least 30,000 followers on other Chinese platforms
- After short videos took off, Tencent resurrected Weishi in 2018 and merged it with long-form video site Tencent Video under one business unit in 2021
Tencent Holdings’ short video app Weishi is offering cash and other incentives to woo influencers on rival platforms, including TikTok’s Chinese sibling Douyin, in a bid to win viewer attention in the fiercely competitive market.
Weishi, the weaker of Tencent’s two short-video services, has kicked off a “new star” initiative tailored for influencers with at least 30,000 followers on other Chinese short video platforms, which also include Kuaishou Technology and Instagram-like social e-commerce platform Xiaohongshu.
The influencers are promised triple pay in revenue sharing, as well as a 50 per cent boost in traffic, if they post at least 20 videos in the first two months, according to a Weishi post on WeChat on Tuesday. The post was later removed.
The programme, which started on Monday and runs to the end of June, favours content creators in the fields of movie reviews, healthcare and parenting, among others. It also encourages individuals with a “down-to-earth” ordinary lifestyle to join. “The recruitment process is in line with standard industry practices, and it is not a new initiative for Weishi,” according to a person familiar with the matter, adding that the programme is ongoing.
Weishi launched similar campaigns in November and February, targeting multi-channel networks (MCNs), agencies that connect creators with short video platforms. It promised similar benefits if an MCN brought in influencers who had more than 500,000 followers on Douyin or Kuaishou.
Zeng Xiangyu, in charge of recruiting new talent for Taobao’s live streaming ecosystem, said they “had approached [every influencer across all platforms] that anyone could think of”, according to a September interview with Chinese media FunTalk.
At the time, Zeng said Taobao Live aimed to add 100 live streamers in 2022, each contributing more than 1 million followers. They would either be cultivated by Taobao itself, or poached from other platforms, the latter group being the largest in number, he added.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Tencent launched Weishi in 2013, before short video apps became the hugely popular social media platforms they are today. However, its lacklustre performance led to the company shutting it down in 2017.
Tencent also operates the WeChat Channels short video service within its all-purpose super app WeChat. WeChat Channels saw its user time triple in the fourth quarter of 2022, even exceeding the time spent on WeChat’s social media timeline Moments, according to Tencent’s financial disclosures.
In a speech last year Pony Ma Huateng, Tencent’s co-founder, chairman and chief executive, called WeChat Channel the company’s “new hope”.
