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Author: Li Nan

Baidu released its second quarter results on August 22, with online marketing revenue of 19.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2%. This is related to the weakness of the macro-consumption environment and the changes in Internet user behavior. In a conference call after the earnings report, Robin Li pointed out that more and more users are spending their time on short videos and social media platforms, which has affected Baidu's online advertising business.

Regarding the latter, looking at it more carefully, people's habits of "playing" the Internet have changed, and their habits of "using" it have also changed.

Take "search" as an example. More people are used to searching for answers to various questions on content platforms instead of asking traditional search engines. This poses a challenge to the search engine market, and the market will face more complex and fierce competition in the future.

Just one day before Baidu released its financial report, a software called "Tik Tok Search" was launched on the Android app store.

It is classified as a browser in the app market, and its positioning is "a new way to open Douyin." Judging from the official promotional content, Douyin search is more like Xiaohongshu than search.

Tik Tok search home page

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A practical new TikTok?

"There is a problem with Q Douyin", this is the first theme in the official introduction poster of Douyin search.

The poster lists some search scenarios. For example, for those who love to play games, they can search "What are the tips for ranking up?" For those who like to travel, they can search "Where to go for less crowded and chill during the National Day holiday." People who like to cook can search how to make shredded pork with fish flavor, and those who love beauty can search for ways to save panda eyes. In the public's impression, Douyin is a time black hole for entertainment and a platform for bringing goods with "123, link up." The launch of Douyin search highlights another selling point of the platform's content: usefulness. "From Douyin, real and useful" is the theme of another promotional poster.

Introduction to Tik Tok Search

Search is one of the most needed services on the Internet, but it does not mean that searching must be done in so-called search engine products.

When traditional search engines cannot provide accurate and reliable search results, the knowledge, experience, strategies, etc. that users have spontaneously summarized have become the preferred choice for everyone when they encounter difficult problems. Xiaohongshu, which is famous for its various "notes", is naturally suitable for search scenarios. And Douyin, which has more users and richer content, naturally has the basis for answering questions and solving doubts for netizens.

In fact, Douyin is continuously strengthening its search value.

According to data from May 2023, each Douyin user initiates an average of 3 search requests per day. From a horizontal perspective, Douyin search results cover more than 200 vertical categories. For example, in a vertical comparison, the year-on-year growth rate of Douyin search volume in the first half of 2023 compared with the first half of 2022 was 66.2%. After high-speed growth is no longer readily available, Douyin itself obviously wants to seize the opportunities behind these data.

Its latest answer is an independent Douyin search. Those groups who are not interested in entertainment and sales content need a tool to search for practical content on Douyin. Douyin even believes that they can be separated from the main users and operate in different applications.

However, from the actual product experience, Douyin search is almost the same as the Douyin main app except that the search box and search suggestions are highlighted on the homepage. There are four tabs at the bottom of the software: "Home", "Video", "Message" and "Me". Click the "+" in the middle to post a Douyin video. Even after logging in with a Douyin account, you can synchronize the chat messages on the Douyin App.

This doesn't feel like a search app that matches the functions of Douyin, but more like Douyin put on a "search" coat. From the initial experience, searching the same question on Douyin and the Douyin main app gives similar results, and the most obvious benefit is that there are fewer ads.

Comparison of search results. On the left is TikTok, where ads are inserted into the first column of search results

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Is the target Baidu or Xiaohongshu?

Douyin is used to competition from its old rival Kuaishou, and has also taken away some of the market share from Taobao and Baidu. But it is also facing competition from new rivals. Douyin Search was launched as an independent app, and it is more aimed at new search trends and new rivals than at the traditional search market. The focus may still be Xiaohongshu. Although the two have a huge difference in size, the friction between them is increasing.

An obvious trend is that young people's search habits are shifting from search engines to content platforms. When in doubt, more and more people no longer ask Baidu, but open Zhihu, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu. Especially Xiaohongshu, its COO Conan revealed in an interview in December 2023 that nearly 70% of Xiaohongshu's monthly active users will search, and one-third of monthly active users will go straight to search as the first step after opening the software.

This has a direct impact on the advertising market. As industry insiders say, search corresponds to precise needs. It is the starting point and the end point of marketing. The transfer of search entrances means the migration of traffic and marketing opportunities.

Douyin cannot ignore the opportunities under the new situation. At the same time, the convergence of the two in terms of content also determines the intensification of friction.

Xiaohongshu, which started out as a graphic and text platform, has continuously increased its video and live broadcasting, driving its e-commerce business to flourish. Since 2023, Xiaohongshu has created two live broadcast sales cases of Dong Jie and Zhang Xiaohui, which has greatly accelerated its commercialization. According to foreign media reports citing people familiar with the matter, its revenue in 2023 was US$3.7 billion, an increase of 85% over the previous year.

And Douyin is also "running in both directions" towards Xiaohongshu.In 2021, Douyin began internal testing of the picture and text function, and then continued to cultivate picture and text content, develop picture and text to bring goods, and try to create a grass-planting business like Xiaohongshu. At present, the double-column display format of pictures and texts in the "Experience" column of the Douyin App is already similar to Xiaohongshu.

The left is Douyin, the right is Xiaohongshu

But it is not easy for Douyin to copy Xiaohongshu. Despite the graphic format, the outside world's focus on Douyin is still on short videos and live broadcasts. In the graphic environment, users pay more attention to value, hard content, and usefulness when they ask for content, while in the short video environment, users mainly ask for easy and fun content. So we can see the distinction between the two platforms by marketers: Douyin's scene is entertainment, and Xiaohongshu's scene is search; Douyin is strong in exposure, and Xiaohongshu is strong in planting grass.

This means that Douyin's inherent over-entertainment not only hinders the reach of "useful" content to users, but also hinders the maximization of the commercial value of such content. Douyin needs a new position that is different from the current main App image. At this time, a strong search tool may be the solution.

However, as mentioned earlier, the current user experience of Douyin search is similar to that of the Douyin main app. It is more like a product that attempts to break through some existing ideas. It remains to be seen how much users will pay for this product.You should know that this is not the first time ByteDance has launched a search product. It has launched three independent apps in succession. Among them, Lightning Search has been taken off the shelves, Wukong Search has been transformed into the AI ​​product "Little Wukong", and Toutiao Search and Toutiao Express Edition have been merged into one.

Those attempts had all failed, but would this time be different?