A Joyful Diary of Agricultural Products Going Global, Setting Sail for New Journeys in International Markets

By: DaDa

At 15:00 on June 2, Meitu founder and CEO Wu Xinhong publicly released an apology letter titled "Actively Rectify, Jointly Build a Clean Internet," stating that "content and phenomena that do not conform to socialist core values have appeared on Meipai," and decided that starting that same day, Meipai would voluntarily suspend updates to its popular channel content for 30 days, suspend updates to its live streaming channel content for 15 days, be removed from Android and iOS app stores for 30 days, and take offline and shut down Meipai's "Campus" channel.

Short video social models similar to Meipai, such as "Kuaishou" and "Douyin," are becoming a "lifestyle" for the younger generation, and this new "lifestyle" is changing the rules of brand marketing and traffic acquisition. However, new rules often hide new problems behind them.

Around the time of the 19th National Congress, the State Administration of Radio and Television shut down a large number of live streaming platforms, Kuaishou was also required to carry out rectification, and Douyin had its comment function disabled for a period of time. At present, the entire domestic live streaming and short video sector is under fairly strict control.

The reason for this current situation is related to how companies position live streaming or short videos. Live streaming is about showing talents, and short videos are about recording life, with some shadow of the media. But many industry insiders define Kuaishou, Douyin, Toutiao and others as visualized social tools, and they lack the rigor and control systems of news media. This is a pain point in the industry's development.

Stronger regulation will indeed promote short video apps going global. Starting in the second half of last year, the short video industry began to go global and vigorously develop overseas markets, because many people had already felt the domestic controls. In addition, as the social sector penetrated into one another, the market began to saturate, and everyone started to open up new markets. This process is also a stage of moving from extensive development toward standardized and regulated operations.

Beyond that, it is the result of capital markets chasing profits. In China, the rapid growth stage of short videos has begun to slow, while some overseas markets such as Southeast Asia still have very weak foundations in this area, with not many competitors, and it is still a blue ocean market.

The new "lifestyle" is changing the rules of brand marketing and traffic acquisition. As the war among these Chinese short video companies spreads to the nearby Southeast Asian markets, this change in rules is also taking place. For cross-border e-commerce companies facing increasingly fierce competition and growing difficulty in capturing traffic, this "war" may well be a good opportunity to hitch a ride.

Kuaishou's going global began planning in February 2018, but the actual implementation and launch took place in March.

Kuaishou's overseas entry was quite smooth. In just a few months, Kuaishou ranked first in downloads among social software in the Philippines, surpassing Facebook and a series of other apps. Entering foreign markets so smoothly actually brought two problems.

First, Kuaishou quickly broke into the Philippine market and became the top-ranked social software by local downloads, which caught Kuaishou somewhat off guard, because Kuaishou had not yet made sufficient preparations and was not yet very familiar with the Southeast Asian market.

Second, after these results were achieved, they attracted a large number of competitors to Southeast Asia. For example, around April, Kuaishou faced competition from Douyin. In order to keep up with Kuaishou's pace, Douyin even attracted talent at high prices. Although in the long run, this approach may not necessarily lead to sustained development.

But in response to the above problems, Kuaishou must quickly adjust its team, integrate its work, and continue to deepen its efforts. In addition, it must also pay attention to the differences between the situation in Southeast Asia and that in China.

First, Southeast Asia's internet development is still equivalent to that of China 3 to 5 years ago. While China is upgrading and renewing, Southeast Asia is only just beginning to grow. So in such a brand-new period, whoever can capture users can become the leader in the industry.

Second, climate differences affect online duration. Southeast Asia is like summer all year round, and consumers spend very little time outdoors, basically staying in cool areas such as shopping malls or at home, so this group spends relatively more time online.

Third, people in most Southeast Asian countries have religious beliefs, resulting in relatively large cultural differences. For example, Malaysia has a large Muslim population, the Philippines has a large Catholic population, and Thailand has a large Buddhist population. So how to align content with users' ideas is still relatively difficult.

Fourth, policy differences, and this is also the most important one. China implements the two-child policy, while in Southeast Asia abortion is strictly prohibited, so each family has an average of five to eight children, and the young population is relatively large. In addition, China's social crowd is more about strangers, while in Southeast Asia it is more about socializing between families.

Taken together, the above four points mean that short video content will differ because of the different environments and needs of domestic and overseas markets.

Facing numerous challenges, how did Kuaishou manage in a short period to rank first in downloads among social software in the Philippines?

First, Kuaishou seized the timing. During the period it chose to go global, the Southeast Asian market was still relatively blank in this area, and internet products place great emphasis on timing. Kuaishou's timing for going global was just right, one step earlier than other platforms, so the team's vision was still very forward-looking.

Second, it was the support of the HIIN team. From early preparation to making a splash, and then to truly localized operations, combined with local communities and media influencers, Kuaishou was quickly able to grow and rank first in social software user downloads in the Philippine market.

How a brand can develop rapidly overseas requires, in addition to the company's own strategies and plans, help from outside. If a large amount of time and resources is spent attracting consumers offline, the results are too slow. Only by combining with attractive, brand-new methods can profits be maximized in the fastest way.

The most impressive case was last year's campus competition event held for Bigo, the overseas version of YY Live. During the event, it helped some Chinese phone brands build awareness among young people. In just half a year, the sales of these phone brands basically doubled. At present, in this area, there are plans to cooperate with some large projects, such as working with various local vertical social groups in Southeast Asia, to help Kuaishou create a channel for young people to show their talents through short videos, including video influencers, artist auditions and so on.

No matter how the internationalization results turn out in the end, short videos going global are the best window for the outside world to understand China. Kuaishou founder Su Hua once mentioned an ideal scene: a young Chinese man sings on Kuaishou, and his unique performance deeply moves a Russian beauty, and two people who never knew each other begin a relationship because of it.