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My opinion on the long term potential of China's short video platforms has changed completely in the last three months. Used to be high on it, but now I think it's useful but not to this hyped up level, not even close. The majority of videos on Douyin belong to one of these three categories,
1, girls putting on crazy amount of makeup staring at the camera or lip syncing. The platforms's software are often used to make the eyes larger and legs longer, to ridiculous degree.
2, cats, dogs and other pets,
3, tens of thousands of people imparting universal wisdom to you on how to get rich quickly, become a skillful pickup artist or life guru, etc. Other than these three types, there are very little left. Of course you may find it differently. But IMO shortage of quality content will be a big problem going forwad for these platforms. In general most people in every country don't have the skill to produce videos of good quality, coupled with China's tight control on what can be shown, it's becoming suffocating for creativity. For example comedies or poignant news commentaries are very rare. A lack of respect for intellectual rights is still a problem in China, endless copying and pasting and boring and fake stuff. Anyway, content shortage is a problem everywhere, but it's just terribly bad in China. Also, unlike say Facebook or Wechat, these video platforms lack the relationships between users that keep people around. Sure you can leave messages on Douyin but there are basically zero long term interactions going on. People on Douyin always tell others to meet at Wechat or Weibo or other places. Douyin is simply not made for social networking, and I don't see it can change that. |
Sort of similar to how Instagram and New Yorker work in US. You can use/read either of them, or both.
I would like to write something on Wechat subscription accounts soon, which like douyin so few people outside the Chinese circle knows.
Edit: Instagram is a better example than Snapchat.