In 2012, Beijing Bytedance Inc. launched a new news and content platform called Toutiao which is also known as Jinri Toutiao or Today’s Headline. Toutiao, meaning headline, gets its name from the company belief that “only the things which all the readers cares about can be the headline.”
Different from the traditional news platforms, Toutiao abandons the old model of users looking for information and instead analyzes the features of content, users interaction with content, and the individual user, to generate a personalized reading list of content customized for each user.
In this era of information explosion, its new AI content analysis techniques provide a more convenient user experience, raising Toutiao to one of China's largest mobile platforms of content creation, aggregation and distribution, underpinned in just 6 years’ time. Today Toutiao commands 120 million daily active users, and growing, with over 4,000 partnering news portals.
How does Toutiao Work?
First of all, Toutiao is more like a distributor. It does not produce any original content. It uses AI technology to organize daily news from its partners and pushes their content to each readers’ homepage. All the featured articles and video are selected based on the readers’ location, click history, and even phone models.
Toutiao created the function of Toutiao Hao or Good Headline, which allows different users to register an account based on their own category and post articles or videos on their own page to gain followers. Toutiao Hao’s category includes: organization, company, personal, entertainment and more. Various renowned news firms such as CCTV and People.cn have joined to seek greater exposure through the platform.
Short Videos & Other Add-ons
Making sure to appeal to millennials and Gen-Y, Toutiao provides videos according to their tastes. By clicking the “Video” button on the home page menu, users can discover entertaining videos under various categories. Most videos are 10-15 seconds in length. Toutiao maintains the users’ attention with these engaging clips as it is easy for users to watch one after another in a series.
Toutiao also takes advantage of other successful online platforms in China. Users can register through using their personal accounts on QQ, WeChat, and Weibo. Using AI, Toutiao analyzes user behavior through primary access to their profiles. Users can also share their favorite Toutiao content through QQ, WeChat and Weibo.
Why Should You Stick to the Trend of Toutiao?
Magnificent Marketing & Advertising Power
Foreign companies should certainly establish a presence on both WeChat and Weibo when entering China. Aside from these two large platforms, choosing alternatives can provide more flexibility and variety to you online marketing strategies.
Unlike WeChat and Weibo users, content consumption is the principal focus of a Toutiao user. There are no additional functions like chatting to pull users away from the content.
Imagine gaining access to Toutiao’s 700 million registered users. 120 million daily active users spend an average 76 minutes on the platform, consuming and searching for new information and entertainment. Launching ads on Toutiao can have a huge impact on a business looking for exposure and brand awareness.
Short-Videos-Focused Business
In this era of information explosion, a problem for almost every firm doing marketing is that it is hard to catch people’s attention. Users are immune to ads or if the ad is not interesting they move on almost instantly.
Consequently, short videos have arisen as a new popular form of content. The sector is growing fast. Toutiao is not the only platform taking advantage of this new content format, but it has invested heavily into the future of it.
Toutiao has connections with most of the Chinese users’ favorite short videos apps. It is able to aggregate these videos all in one place!
DouYin is one of them and a platform beloved by Chinese youngsters. It allows users to watch and produce funny music videos. These 15 seconds clips make it easy to catch user attention. Users can lip sync or dance to the music, while the app provides special effects or filters for editing.
Toutiao also took control of another video app Flipagram. In the US, the app attracted a huge amount of attention from teenagers. Toutiao is likely to retain more young users and grow its popularity through its exploration and acquisition of these platforms.
Toutiao also operates Xigua Video and Huashan Zhibo. These applications satisfy diverse types of needs. Xigua Video has over 100 million users while Huoshan Zhibo has gathered thousands of powerful Chinese KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders).
Sticky & Young User Base
Chinese users stay on Toutiao for an average of 76 minutes per day. The data is impressive as the average time people spend on WeChat is only 66 minutes. The size and stickiness of the user base has been growing exponentially, clearly showcasing the power of marketing on the platform.
Most Toutiao users are male, with a gender ratio of 60%. Over 85% of them range in age from 18 to 30 years old and are mostly concentrated in first or second-tier cities.
The education level of Toutiao users is quite high as well, with 41.3% of them holding a bachelor degree or higher. Another interesting note is that 37.8% of the users’ occupations are freelancer, self-employed and private company owners.
From the above data, it is likely that a fair proportion of Toutiao users are young Chinese running their businesses or working as managers. Toutiao can be very helpful when it comes to B2B marketing in China. The platform is also suitable for promoting trendy products to youngsters.
Conclusion
Toutiao has enormous potential and is still growing today. China marketers and businesses entering the landscape should certainly stay up to date with it. Will Bytedance become the next ‘Facebook’ of China? Only time will tell.
