(Chinese Version)

　　(Source: Vision China)

　　Recently, TouTiao’s 15-second short video platform Amemv rose into popularity almost overnight, marking the ambition of Zhang Yiming, founder and CEO of TouTiao, to catch up and even outperform other Chinese internet giants.

　　Passion, youth, hot blood, joy… these are labels many users put on Amemv.

　　Amemv, a Chinese lip synchronization short video APP, rose into popularity this April. As online celebrities emerged from other short video platforms such as Miaopai posted innovative rap videos made via Amemv in their WeChat friends circle, both social network users and investors began to go after everything about Amemv.

　　Amid an array of vulgar short video platforms, Amemv, with strong European and American electronic music genes, seems to be quite a contrarian one. “In fact, there’s high entry to the APP,” a heavy social network user told TMTPost.

　　Known as “an interesting community for young people to make friends via hobbies”, Amemv is actually developed by TouTiao.

　　As one of TouTiao’s strategic products, Amemv was launched as early as last September. Recently, Amemv disclosed that its daily view times had reached 100 million.

　　A sneak attack against Kuaishou

　　From the promotion of “Broadcast yourself” by Youtube to the rise of UGC long-video communities in China, from the battle of film & TV series adaptation right to the merger of Youku and Tudou in 2012, the era of PC-based UGC communities was gradually replaced by the era of mobile short videos.

　　Indeed, expressing oneself and recording life in videos have become a rising need of internet users.

　　With the rise of mobile internet, people’s life is increasingly fragmented by smartphones. Although major Chinese video platforms have all spared their efforts in the mobile end, they failed to develop any excellent product with mobile internet characteristics, since they often contain the same content and adopt the same content form in both platforms.

　　As we see the rise of Miaopai drawn by the “Bucket Challenge” and the rising attention towards Weishi due to its shutdown, we can conclude that mobile short video platforms rise and draw public’s attention mostly thanks to the participation of celebrities in promotional activities or PGC contents produced by professional organizations.

　　This rule also applies to Kuaishou APP. In fact, it was not until last June that Kuaishou rose into popularity overnight thanks to a report by Doctor X and people began to realize the potential in the UGC short video sector.

　　This March, Kuaishou announced that it had completed $350 million Series D round financing led by Tencent.

　　At present, most contents on Kuaishou APP come from the daily life of people living in third and fourth-tier cities.

　　Although kuaishou was once put on lables such as “countryside”, “grassroots”, and “crude”, Su Hua, CEO of Kuaishou, has reiterated that “in fact, Kuaishou has more users in first-tier cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen” and that “Kuaishou represents the average life of Chinese cities. If all Chinese cities become first-tier cities one day, then Kuaishou will also represent life in first-tier cities”.

　　Coincidentally, as Kuaishou completed Series D round financing this March, Amemv also came into public view and was soon ranked as one of the TOP 50 free APPs in Mainland China’s App Store.

　　Any time you open Amemv APP, a recommended high-resolution short video will automatically play. This way, users will be attracted to the short video in a short time and won’t be easily attracted. In comparison, users have to click and play short videos on most other short video platforms.

　　Christy Zhong and her husband Shawn Zhang are both heavy Amemv users.

　　In fact, vertical high-resolution short videos have already been regarded as “industry standards”.

　　“After analyzing the bebavior of 60 million DAUs, Kuaishou found out that vertical short videos have become industry standards. Those that grasped such standards will grasp an opportunity in this entirely new industry. This is the ultimate answer,” Zeng Guangming, co-founder of Kuaishou Technology, mentioned in a TMTPost report.

　　As a matter of fact, Amemv does intend to penetrate among the group of young people living in first and second-tier cities that are not yet covered by Kuaishou. By building a fashionable and cool youth culture community, Amemv attempts to fully embrace the popular culture of this group of young people.

　　Amemv’s respondents revealed to TMTPost that at present, its users are mainly 20-something well-educated young people living in first and second-tier cities.