"What Exactly is a Video Account?"

It has been a long time since I last updated my public account. I have not been very clear about the positioning and purpose of this account. Friends who follow me can send me a private message to share why they chose to follow me. I have tried different types of articles, such as those touching on sensitive topics recently, and found that to receive positive feedback, one must align with mainstream opinions. My articles on Zhihu were reported and blocked. To put it bluntly, only articles that are sensational can garner good reviews.

During this period of downtime, I have had more time to think about the focus of this public account. Moving forward, I will continue to focus on the internet, sharing insights and perspectives on new things. Returning to the topic, what is a video account? A few days ago, a friend on WeChat urged me to check out the video account. When I opened it, my first impression was that it was just a version of Douyin in an information flow format. However, I felt that things were not that simple, so I looked up some introductions to video accounts from others.

After looking around, I found that the current opinions online can generally be summarized into the following points:

Most opinions are still tied to the logic of Douyin. I clicked in and looked around; the content inside is quite similar to Douyin. The points mentioned above do not seem to show any significant differences. The only possible differentiation is that this segment of users (like me, who do not use Douyin but use WeChat) may flow into the video account system. For content creators, it simply adds another channel for content distribution.

Having said so much, does this mean that video accounts are just a fleeting trend like Moments video? No, they are not.

The WeChat team’s greatest success is not in marketing operations, but in product restraint and imagination. However, under pressure from Douyin and commercial demands, they hope to secure a ticket in the short video space. Thus, they did what they are best at, with a clear path to follow.

**Phase One**

WeChat initially replaced SMS itself. Why not QQ? I believe the most important point is that QQ is fundamentally about being online or offline; once offline, people cannot be found. In contrast, WeChat keeps you online, allowing you to transform from a virtual person into a real presence, thus replacing SMS. Accompanying this core, one can see how different the functional directions of the two products are. This was the first phase of WeChat. At this time, WeChat was primarily a communication tool, and later features like voice and images were expansions based on communication itself.

**Phase Two**

WeChat extended from communication to content. At this stage, the public account primarily used text as its main carrier. For readers, I no longer need to go to site A to find author A's articles and site B for author B's articles; it essentially replaced the function of RSS.

**Phase Three**

Building on these foundations, WeChat developed mini-programs, allowing users to access personalized services through mini-programs, no longer limited to the public account templates provided by WeChat, and giving H5 a home.

**Phase Four**

This is the stage of video accounts. At first glance, video accounts seem to be nothing special, just a video information flow. From the previous phases, I wonder if readers have noticed that WeChat has been doing one thing: you can trace content back to its source. For example, when you send a message, you know who sent it, rather than a string of meaningless phone numbers. When you read an article, you know which public account author published it, allowing you to follow them later, rather than a string of URLs you cannot remember. You have a page, but the URL is something most people cannot memorize; instead, it is a mini-program that leads to your service.

So what about video accounts? I boldly speculate that WeChat hopes to unify the sources of video content. Why not Douyin? I believe many people have seen videos shared in some groups that originate from Douyin. However, while the content source is Douyin, the dissemination occurs on WeChat. I think many people, like me, have watched a video and moved on; even if some videos are interesting and have sequels, they generally won’t go out of their way to find them.

If I assume that in the future, every video has a tag indicating it comes from video account A, would you be able to directly click into their video list from the chat box to find the sequel you want? This undoubtedly opens up an address for the 5G era, akin to removing the URL from H5 and transforming it into a standalone mini-program entry.

It is like bridging the previously disconnected areas of live streaming (long videos), public accounts (text + images + voice), and service areas (mini-programs). Of course, some might say that I can also place mini-programs in my public account and long videos in mini-programs. For mini-programs and public accounts, they focus heavily on content, creation, and consumption. What does this mean? It means that I put a lot of thought and time into writing this article, and you spend a lot of time reading it (this is why Douyin is popular; if I don’t like a video, I can switch immediately).

The emergence of video accounts adds a brief function to these services, acting as a medium for traffic diversion. For example, I can use a video account to highlight several advantages of a product, and if you are interested, you can click to watch a detailed long video introduction. If I write a 5000-word paid article, I can use the video account to convey its core points, and if you are interested, you can enter the article for paid reading. If I am talking about a micro-business, I can shoot a video on the video account to directly let users add me on WeChat for private domain sales, etc.

**Finally**

Having said all this, for video accounts, I hope WeChat leans more towards infrastructure, allowing all content within the WeChat system to have a traceable carrier. For WeChat, I prefer WeChat's focus on PGC content production rather than UGC. Most UGC content does not hold much value, and there should be stricter management of vulgar and marketing content to prevent video accounts from becoming WeChat's Douyin, which does not align with WeChat's product positioning.

As is customary, I also need to share my video account, though I haven't decided what to post yet.