Wen/Great Entertainer

TikTok is really everywhere this year.

according to cloud infrastructure company CloudflareInc., which tracks internet traffic, this short video platform, which is famous for its algorithm recommendation, has become the most visited internet website in the world in 2121, surpassing Google, the search engine that has dominated the list for many years.

according to p>Cloudflare, TikTok topped the list of the most visited websites in the world for the first time in February this year. The popularity in August this year is getting higher and higher, and in the rest of this year, it has generally maintained the top position.

this state of being continuously sought after by users has also made TikTok's commercialization strategy more radical.

In addition to the attempt to carry out live broadcast with goods and e-commerce stores with reference to the route of TikTok, Tiktok has recently been exposed to start live broadcast of wading games and even take-away business.

TikTok, as a latecomer, obviously has great potential in terms of the growth rate of users, but at the same time, in the face of the international market, which is already full of giants from search to social advertising to e-commerce and live broadcast, TikTok's enemies on all sides seem to bring a dangerous signal. Can the strategy of selling "everything" by using short video platforms really succeed?

out of the mobile terminal, TikTok wants to keep growing by live game

In June this year, TikTok beat Tik Tok to launch the PC terminal and the subsequent TV big-screen version. Compared with watching short videos on the computer desktop and TV, "live" is actually the main function.

in fact, the reason why TikTok did this is not hard to imagine. On the one hand, it needs to adapt to the behavior habits of European and American users, and at the same time, it needs to find new growth points through multi-end coverage. On the other hand, through the live broadcast to realize commercialization, after all, only the increase of users without reasonable commercialization strategy, then the increasing number of users will only become a sweet burden, constantly bringing losses to ByteDance.

for American users, "live online" was almost equal to "live game" in the earliest days.

Twitch is the earliest live broadcast platform in the United States, which was launched in 2111. For a long time, Twitch has been positioned as a live broadcast platform for games. After 2121, JustChatting and other life-oriented live broadcast channels began to be more accepted by users.

JustChatting ranked first in the March p>Twitch3 list

However, unlike many Internet users in China who are all mobile Internet aborigines, the viewing habits of European and American users are more confined to the PC. According to Leftronic's data this year, only 35% of the traffic sources of Twitch in 2121 will still come from the mobile terminal.

therefore, it is almost the only way to continue to attract users' attention after the growth of the mobile terminal gradually enters a flat period. Obviously, TikTok not only wants to make the PC an enlarged version of the APP, but recently, its exclusive live game application has also begun to show its true meaning.

According to TechCrunch, TikTok is testing a new desktop streaming media application called TikTokLiveStudio, which allows users to broadcast live images from games and other desktop applications. TikTok official said that the application is currently being tested by a small number of users in the European and American markets.

if this platform is officially released, TikTokLiveStudio may mark an interesting change in TikTok's live broadcast strategy-

instead of focusing on locking users into mobile devices, TikTokLive will expand its focus to live games, so that it can compete with companies that have taken the initiative to share the market, such as Twitch, YouTubeGaming and FacebookGaming.

ZachBussey, a media person, shared a screenshot of TikTokLiveStudio on Twitter, saying that the application is still in a quite primitive state. In-app supports horizontal and vertical live broadcast forms, and can obtain live images from games, personal applications, mobile devices and cameras.

ZachBussey shared a screenshot of TikTokLiveStudio on Twitter

Before that, some users would use third-party software, such as Streamlabs, to broadcast live from desktop devices to TikTok, but this function was quite limited, and it was only limited to the users who invited the audience to watch it themselves. There are also some tutorials that use third-party services such as Loola.tv as workarounds to connect TikTok with live programs such as OBS, but these methods obviously have to be discounted in the experience.

although it is not clear when TikTok will extend its test of LiveStudio to more users, if it comes to a formal version, live desktop games can bring more kinds to the live content directory of the platform.

And TikTok's actions have indeed verified one thing. Users in Europe and America are more and more "adapted" to live broadcast, and they are no longer limited to games. TikTok, which has no advantage in live broadcast of games, may be able to expand its live broadcast business by relying on more diversified content, especially the live broadcast e-commerce in Tik Tok.

the online shopping behavior of European and American users mostly occurs on the website side. judging from TikTok's efforts to lay out the content on the PC side, it is also conducive to the penetration of e-commerce business in the future. Not only live games and e-commerce business, TikTok even started to involve take-away business, and its realization path was also through online celebrity in short videos.

The popularity of recipes in online celebrity has made TikTok take the idea of take-out.

The rise of Tiktok has gradually penetrated into offline life from online. Users in Europe and America use TikTok for more than just interesting short videos-its recipes are so popular that TikTok decides to start his own take-out and complete food supply chain.

In fact, since last year, one simple recipe after another has become popular in TikTok, which has caused many users to punch in recipes. In response to this phenomenon, in a CNN report entitled "How TikTok teaches a generation to cook food", it was pointed out that "TikTok's success in the food field has benefited from the continuous growth of food bloggers in the past 21 years, as well as the general public, especially the middle class with expectations for food culture."

In October this year, "Pasta with Baked Cheese" became popular in TikTok. According to the data of Google Trends, from October to February, the search interest of "Fida cheese" and "grilled cheese pasta" in the United States reached a historical high, and the search index was much higher than before.

"Fida Cheese" search index

This means that the influence of food videos in TikTok is universal and extensive. In fact, this also benefits from the form of video content, which has a more direct and real role in showing food or recipes than pictures and texts.

in the internet age, if you want to get the reference of "what to eat today", it is like "food recommendation", "planting grass in restaurants" and "recipe sharing" on various platforms.

TikTok is now trying to provide users with take-away food that is consistent with the video content, starting from popular recipes.

TikTok has announced that it will cooperate with VirtualDiningConcepts and Grubhub, an online take-out platform, and will launch TikTokKitchen, which only provides take-out service, nationwide in March next year.

Its menu will be based on TikTok's most popular catering trends, including "Grilled Cheese Pasta" which was rated as the most searched by Google in 2121, as well as dishes such as SmashBurger.

in terms of food production, TikTokKitchen's take-out will be produced by physical restaurants founded by MariahCarey, YouTube, MrBeast in online celebrity, GuyFieri, etc. Other restaurants can also apply for cooperation with TikTokKitchen, and VirtualDiningConcepts will provide staff training, recipes, packaging, materials and other assistance.

In addition, RobertEarl, co-founder of VirtualDiningConcepts, revealed that "we plan to launch about 311 TikTok restaurants in the United States, and it is estimated that there will be more than 1,111 stores by the end of 2122", and "the menu will be changed once every quarter, and if a dish becomes popular, it may be included in this menu".

it is not difficult to see that TikTokKitchen has built a fairly complete supply chain from brand operation, menu and production to distribution.

In addition, TikTok also indicated that TikTokKitchen's profits will be used for content creators such as cooking recipes, and support promising cooking talents on the platform. It's just one thing to let users cook for themselves, and it's another to let them order from a short video platform. How effective it is remains to be seen.

TikTok's four-sided attack is not unrelated to the rapid expansion of its platform capabilities, and a noteworthy trend is whether people turn to TikTok for daily search behavior, just as they start using Amazon to search for goods they want to buy online. In other words, will a new generation of young users completely turn to TikTok from Google's search engine, which is widely regarded as a monopoly platform?

This is not only about live games or take-away business, but also has a far-reaching impact on the advertising industry.

how far is it from the next super advertiser that TikTok wants?

according to a recent report by analysis company AppAnnie, "TikTok has subverted the streaming media and social ecology." The data shows that in the United States and Britain, users spend more time on TikTok than YouTube on average.

after a platform can gain such influence and occupy users' time, they certainly hope that they can sell anything that can generate commercial returns to their users, whether it is short videos, live content, online celebrity takeout or advertisements with the highest profit rate.

TikTok previously said that the number of companies that put advertisements on its platform increased by 511% in 2121, and it is currently cooperating with "thousands" of advertisers. The surge in brand activities has greatly boosted TikTok's sales. According to The Wall Street Journal, the income of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, increased by more than 111% in the last fiscal year, and its profit soared by 93%, reaching more than $19 billion.

TikTok brand advertising product system

On TikTok, brand advertisements are presented in many ways. You can create your own advertisements, distribute them in the user's timeline, or pay an extra fee to appear on the user's home page. Brands can also sponsor labels and use various visual effects technologies provided by TikTok. Many brands have their own accounts, which are used to publish products, recruit employees, amplify the below-the-line effect, or just to provide interesting content. There are also many brands that directly cooperate with content creators. After all, creators are naturally good at combining entertainment content with consumer products.

TikTok is actively cultivating the community through the TikTok Creator Fund, and paying subsidies to users with at least 11,111 fans and more than 111,111 views in the previous month.

if TikTok is more popular than Google or Facebook now, its potential advertising revenue will be limitless. According to eMarketer's data, these two technology giants currently account for 53% of the global digital advertising market. For TikTok, nothing is more conducive to its revenue growth than an advertising business that is profitable.

A report in The New York Times earlier this month highlighted how brand marketers attract the younger generation through TikTok. Of course, the advertising expenditure of these brands may still have a long way to go before they can really improve the conversion rate.

brand label challenge will be more popular on TikTok

On the other hand, the regulatory issues against TikTok can't be ignored.

According to a series of reports in The Wall Street Journal, bad content about teenagers is still a big problem for TikTok. And geopolitical factors will continue to be considered, and how American regulators will deal with a non-native super platform is still uncertain.

once the government and consumers realize that TikTok has gradually become a dominant position in many fields, it is likely that TikTok will face more than just a competitive situation, and this is probably one of the most important scientific and technological events in 2122.