Short-video users are growing and spending more time with the services. We forecast Douyin (China's TikTok) users in China will grow to 639.4 million this year. In its latest earnings report, Kuaishou said time spent on the platform by daily active users increased 25.2% year over year (YoY) to 106.9 minutes per day in Q2 2021.
Short-video apps' blend of addictive content and interactivity will pull more consumers into their ecommerce orbits and away from traditional players. This behavioral shift favors apps like Douyin and Kuaishou over traditional ecommerce players, such as Alibaba and JD.com. Short-video players have been investing in their own commerce operations to keep users within their ecosystems with promising results. During their respective Singles' Day events in 2021, Douyin said livestream views reached 39.5 billion, and Kuaishou reported its gross merchandise value (GMV) skyrocketed by 433%. Beijing's anti-monopoly crackdowns have also freed vendors to sell their wares on any site and have opened up previously blocked platform-to-platform linking—two developments favorable to short-video players.
