American Internet giants compete for short videos

Reporter Wang Dong ● Fu Honglie Wang Huicong

"Amazon began to imitate Tiktok as short video e -commerce." The Wall Street Journal said on the 18th that American e -commerce giant Amazon launched a new application to learn China's short video e -commerce model. The British "Economist" recently reported that the latest financial report data from the US Internet giant showed that when the economic environment was not good, the "counter -cycle" was not returned, and the company's performance has been synchronized with the US economy. In 2022, the US economy has grown negatively for two consecutive quarters, and concerns about recession are heating up. Industry experts told the Global Times reporter that in the face of the competition of Chinese opponents, the US Internet giants have entered an innovative anxiety period.

Imitate Chinese opponents

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is imitating the style and content of Tiktok, the short video platform, to create a new feature called "INSPIRE" in its application. Essence According to the information provided by the Israeli artificial intelligence company Watchful Technologies, which is tracked by this function, "Inspire" will be very similar to the operating mode of Tiktok. Amazon users can scroll the screen up and down on this function interface to view dynamic content such as product photos and videos uploaded by other users. In addition, users can also like to share with the content, or buy goods directly from the interface.

The report quoted people familiar with the matter and revealed that the "INSPIRE" function is still in the internal test stage. At present, only a small number of Amazon employees can come into contact with the test content. A spokesman for Amazon said, "Before the release of the 'INSPIRE' function, Amazon may still adjust it significantly." Researcher Watchful Technology said that this is a new experience for Amazon users. The "INSPIRE" function may become a "social viscosity" media browsing method. Amazon's layout of short video business at this time wants to use the influence of short video platforms to consolidate its position in the e -commerce field.

Short video everyone does

Before Amazon imitated Tiktok's entry "video with goods" business, a number of American technology giants also launched similar functions in their applications to cope with Tiktok's impact on its business. The Wall Street Journal reported that in 2021, Tiktok became the largest downloaded software in the world. According to data from the mobile application data analysis company Sensor Tower, in July 2022, Douyin and its overseas version of Tiktok once again won the global mobile application download champion with more than 69 million downloads.

In February 2022, Meta released its short video product "Reels" for all Facebook users around the world. Meta executives believe that because Facebook and Instagram users are watching videos for more than half of the time, the company's future business development is directly linked to short video content. The purpose of "Reels" is to snatch young users with Tiktok. Google has also invested a lot of resources in the field of short video business. In June 2022, Google said that video website YouTube has become the most popular platform for American teenagers. There are more than 1.5 billion users on YouTube to watch short videos in the "SHORTS" function, but the business has also been impacted by Tiktok's impact. Essence In the second quarter of 2022, the year -on -year growth rate of YouTube's advertising revenue has slowed down, and it has become the slowest quarterly growth of the website since public disclosure revenue data. Analysts believe that Tiktok's popularity has led to the division of advertising revenue from traditional video websites.

Not only that, TIKTOK is also shares of Google search business. The senior vice president of Google Plabacal Ragon said that the company has now realized the risk and pointed out: "According to a research on Google, about 40%of young people are not using them for lunch, they no longer use it. Google's application search is more inclined to recommend other users on Tiktok or Instagram. "

"Bao Bao" new business relieves uneasiness

"The U.S. Internet giant began to enter the innovation anxiety period", Fang Xingdong, executive director of the Public Foreign Diplomacy and Strategic Communication Research Center of Zhejiang University, told the Global Times reporter on the 18th that in addition to cloud computing, the search business, social media, electronics of the US Internet giant Business and other have begun to enter a relatively saturated period, and there have been no major innovation in the past ten years. Fang Xingdong believes that Tiktok's explosive rise has attracted young groups and directly affects the growth of American Internet giants. "So in the past few years, they are working hard to imitate or even copy Tiktok, but so far limited."

A scientific and technological analysis website in India believes that although giants such as Google, Apple, Meta, and Amazon have entered different fields and industries, their sources of income have not yet diversified. More than 50%of Apple's income comes from iPhone. 70%of Google's income and 98%of Meta income come from advertising. Most of Amazon's income comes from its e -commerce business.

Now large American Internet companies are feeling uneasy, and most companies' business growth comes from the home office of the United States and Europe.However, as the Fed tighten monetary policy, rising crude oil prices, and various uncertainty in European geopolitical crises, an economic recession is invisible.Earlier this year, the stock prices of major American technology companies have experienced a sharp decline.Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta have all announced the suspension of recruitment.In May, Apple's market value evaporated US $ 220 billion in just 3 days, and Microsoft lost $ 189 billion in market value.The market value of Google's parent company's alphabet fell 123 billion US dollars.Meta's market value evaporates $ 70 billion.In this context, the development of new businesses and the diversification of income sources is more significant for American Internet companies.The helm of the technology giant also realized that the life cycle of any technology is very short.In the 1990s, Amazon started with e -commerce, but now the company has become a leader in the field of cloud technology.The new business of "betting" is becoming an important means for American Internet companies to maintain vitality.▲