10 Key Findings Marketers Must Know about Short Videos Douyin vs Kuaishou. Quick Summary of Tencent Research Report.

By Eddie Hung April 09, 2018

In short video market, two major market leaders, Kuaishou and Douyin, have already reached 100-million user milestone in China. Douyin is growing drastically and catching up with Kuaishou in recent half year. In my previous article, I have shared some thoughts about Douyin for marketers after attending its marketing conference in Shanghai.

Douyin Reaches 100 Million Daily Video Views. 4 Tips for Marketing on #Douyin

Penguin Intelligence (Tencent Research) just releases a comprehensive user study for Douyin and Kuaishou today (in Chinese). The research is conducted by interviewing 1080 Kuaishou users and 1104 Douyin users, while 630 users have both apps. This report is important for marketers to understand the short video battlefield and to help you evaluate more objectively, especially if you are going to use short video for your future content marketing.

Here I’ve picked up the 10 most important findings that marketers should know:

1) Monthly Active Users: Over 100 Millions

Kuaishou, over 200 million MAU, maintains market No.1 position and continues to increase steadily. Douyin’s MAU is increasing exponentially from September 2017 and has achieved No. 2 position in February, 2018.

2) User Stickiness: 13.5 days/month

Both Kuaishou and Douyin achieve the ratio of DAU/MAU to 0.45, which means that users on average spends 13.5 days per month (30 days x 0.45) playing their apps. It’s a remarkable figure compared to market standard.

What’s DAU/MAU?

The Daily Active Users (DAU) to Monthly Active Users (MAU) Ratio is used to measure the stickiness of a product - that is, how often people engage with your product. This ratio is particularly helpful for understanding how valuable your product is to users and provides a snapshot of user retention. The average standard DAU/MAU ratio is 10-20% but it’s up to 30-60% for game apps.

3) User Demographics: Under 24 Years Old, More Female

More users are female and young people under 24 years old. Douyin has 45.5% market penetration in Tier 1 and 2 while Kuaishou has only 38.8%. Douyin users are more educated, 41.9% with bachelor degree, which is 10% more than Kuaishou’s. Both apps have similar income distribution, with over 50% of RMB 3000-8000 monthly income (about $500-$1300).

4) How do you think about Douyin/Kuaishou?

Both have strong attributes of Fun and Young, while Douyin is strong in Cool & Fashionable (28.2%) but Kuaishou is more down to earth 接地气 (24.9%).

5）What type of users do you follow?

57% users will follow interesting ordinary people, while 53.3% will follow accomplished darens (达人, talented people). It shows that people are more interested in UGC from the ordinary people instead of celebrities who only account for 20.9%.

6) What type of advertisement do you accept in short video?

Most users accept these two types of brand advertisement in short videos: 1) interesting and meaningful videos (over 70%) and product/brand placement in how-to tutorial videos (female 43.8%). It implies that users are looking for good original content. Creative videos with high quality will be effective if marketers want to utilize this platform for brand promotion.

7) When do you usually use Douyin/Kuaishou?

Most users use the apps after meal (64.1%) or before bed (62%). People also use them in fragment times, such as in the bathroom (37.5%) and on the way to work (10.9%).

8) Why do you share your short videos on Douyin/Kuaishou?

Again, “interesting” content is the key attribute for short videos that drives people to follow and produce their own video for sharing (Douyin 77.8% vs Kuaishou 50.9%). People also use short video to record life (Douyin 59% vs Kuaishou 49.1%). Selling products is still not the significant purpose of using these apps.

9) What type of short videos do you love to watch?

People love funny, creative and interesting short videos. The top three video contents are: funny videos, videos to demonstrate practical skills and to record daily life.

10) What kind of content elements are you more willing to watch?

It’s easy to understand that attractive men and women are in general more eye-catching, especially for male users (59.2%). Female users love foods, babies and pets.