Last Updated on May 30, 2023
Short video platforms are incredibly popular because they have a high rate of user stickiness and are an easy to use way to connect with a large, targeted audience. Douyin and Kuaishou are two of the most used short-video platforms in China that are prefect for young, tech savvy consumers who take their phones with them everywhere.
If you’re interested in marketing your brand on TikTok or Kuaishou but need a push in the right direction to get started, we’ve got you covered. With this post, you’ll have a better understanding of both platforms’ various features and quirks, and the ins and outs of how to engage Chinese users.
What is TikTok (Douyin) & Kuaishou?
TikTok aka Douyin, backed by the tech giant ByteDance, is the most popular short-video app not only in China, but around the world. The platform has more than 1.05 billion monthly active users and has the potential to become the leader in China’s e-commerce market.
Kuaishou is China’s second hottest short-video app and has more than 347.3 million daily users. The platform also has the largest short-video library in the world with over 20 billion videos.
Understanding the two short-video platforms
TikTok (Douyin) promotes more music like features in its videos such as dancing, singing and lip-syncing. Kuaishou encourages users to share stories involving their daily life. Both applications offer similar features but have different user interfaces and content distribution.
Douyin and Kuaishou both have a large user base of women who interact and entertain themselves with video content. TikTok users are generally younger, while Kuaishou users spend more time on the app considering most users are located in rural areas. User preference for which app to use usually comes down to user location. People in 1st and 2nd-tier Chinese cities ( such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen) prefer TikTok, while users in lower tier cities (such as Urumqi and Zhuhai) prefer to use Kuaishou.
Douyin focuses more on quality content
TikTok/Douyin has more users that live in tier 1 and tier 2 cities, are more attracted to high-quality content. It showcases the most viral content to entertain this user group, which is one of the reasons as to why the platform shows a large portion of content from popular new accounts. TikTok also has a stronger focus on premium content distribution. Top KOLs are more likely to get the most traffic out of any other user group.
Kuaishou on the other hand, has more followers living in rural areas who have a stronger social circle. Kuaishou has a good understanding of this and distributes content to users from about 50% of the accounts that they already follow. The focus on social engagement is why you will see average users and smaller, niche KOLs uploading content on Kuaishou. These users are more likely to go viral and the community centric style of content allows for Kuaishou to have a higher user engagement rate in comparison to TikTok.
Kuaishou has more live-streaming
With the increased competition in the short-video market, Kuaishou expanded into live-streaming. It allows 50% of live-streaming content in its local content section. Kuaishou’s live-streaming has a wide range of features such as local Karaoke singing with personalized chatrooms. This type of personalized engagement is able to take place due to the social driven nature of the platform. TikTok has about half of the live-streaming content available in comparison to Kuaishou and users are less likely to watch live-streaming on the TikTok platform.
E-commerce on TikTok & Kuaishou Short Video Platforms
TikTok (Douyin) has been steadily increasing its reach into e-commerce by allowing KOLs to create their own stores. It allows brands to promote their products via KOLs for a commission fee. Even with this push, Kuaishou still has a higher e-commerce conversion rate over TikTok since the platform has a stronger user relationship.
According to a Kuaishou report, the e-commerce conversion on Kuaishou is 5 to 10 times higher in comparison to TikTok. However, not all types of products sell well on Kuaishou. Some of the top categories include low cost clothing and cosmetics. TikTok may have a weaker e-commerce conversion rate, but TikTok advertising is much stronger and is continually increasing in growth.
Marketing on TikTok & Kuaishou
TikTok (Douyin) and Kuaishou can both be good avenues for marketing your products. Each of them are using artificial intelligence to keep users watching. TikTok videos are usually high-quality, require more planning to make the right video to genuinely connect with users. Unlike on TikTok, where videos featuring the top influencers or popular dances get the most views. Kuaishou’s algorithm pushes popular videos away from users once the video has a certain number of views. This approach makes it much easier for users that aren’t so popular or may be new to the platform to get a chance to rise in the rankings.
The platform that you choose depends on your overall business needs. If you want to focus on advertising to a wide range of users, then TikTok would be your best option. It could be a good avenue to connect with consumers in first and second tier cities. Where users are more willing to spend money on higher costing products. Basically, Kuaishou has stronger user engagement and a stronger e-commerce conversion rate. Thus Kuaishou would be better for brands that want to serve a niche market with relatively cheaper products to sell.
Brands can no longer ignore the value that short-video platforms like TikTok and Kuaishou. It can have on their brand and marketing campaign potential. Kuaishou’s more natural style of content development and TikTok’s more vibrant and creative style of content still both have a lot of room for growth. The Chinese social media landscape is always evolving and these platforms are both great for brands with goals of attracting China’s younger consumers, so get in touch with us if you want to find out more about how to succeed in social media marketing on TikTok and Kuaishou.
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