Our reporter Zhao Yuhan
Catering, takeaway, leisure and entertainment... More and more local life fields have begun to appear in the shadow of short video platforms.
It is no secret that short video platforms have entered the field of local life.
In the past two years, Douyin has been testing the waters in the fields of catering live broadcast and takeaway, intending to share the cake of local life.
Recently, Douyin and Ele.me jointly announced a cooperation, which became another big news.
With Meituan's takeaway firmly occupying the first market share, can the intervention of the traffic engine Douyin stir up the takeaway rivers and lakes?
Short video "Pathfinder" local life
Young people who are accustomed to finding places for dining and entertainment on platforms such as Dianping have been attracted by short videos in the past two years.
When viewing short videos, you can see some nearby shops, distinctive snack bars, affordable buffets, newly opened hot spring clubs... Compared with pictures and texts, short videos have a greater impact and are easier to arouse interest.
As a result, the short video as the "best spoiler" started to enter the field of local life with Tandian as the "pioneer of the road".
It may be relatively easy to fire the first shot, but after entering the "hintland" of local life, the short video platform began to feel powerless.
On the one hand, the commenting system established by Meituan, a local life leader, has formed a huge first-mover advantage, which is difficult to be surpassed by latecomers; on the other hand, the mature food delivery system has also become its other trump card.
But for consumers and businesses, the entry of more players is often welcome.
Chen Jiajia runs a small burrito shop. Since there is almost no dine-in space, the shop mainly relies on takeaways to make profits. Meituan, which has the highest market share, is an inescapable platform.
"In the absence of many choices, even though Meituan's commission is so high that sometimes I can only make a few cents by selling a burrito, I still have to stay on this platform." She felt helpless. .
However, this year, under the recommendation of other friends in the catering industry, Chen Jiajia began to try live broadcasts on short video platforms.
"At the beginning, there were not many people watching the live broadcast, but later, through the channel of small store fan base, it gradually attracted more customers. I will introduce some coupons during the live broadcast, which can be used for offline self-pickup after purchase. Got good results.”
Ele.me provides services based on the Douyin platform
Li Chun felt itchy when the catering shops he read on Douyin several times offered preferential packages, but seeing that she could only mention it by herself, she was too lazy to run errands and silently gave up the payment.
"If these offers can be delivered to your door, it would be perfect." Li Chun sighed. Once, she accidentally swiped on Douyin to a store that could deliver, and she immediately placed an order in surprise.
The "lame" of takeout has always been a pain in Douyin.
Previously, the "Heart Delivery" function that had been tested was taken offline due to poor results, and the recently launched pilot food delivery mainly relies on the delivery method provided by the restaurant itself.
Therefore, finding a partner with food delivery capabilities seems to be the direction for Douyin to expand its influence in local life.
This cooperation with Ele.me came into being.
On August 19, Douyin and Ele.me jointly announced a cooperation.
According to the disclosed cooperation content, Ele.me will be based on the Douyin open platform, using mini programs as a carrier, and together with Douyin, through rich product scenarios and technical capabilities, to help millions of merchants provide content from Douyin’s 600 million daily active users Local life services from planting grass, online ordering to instant delivery.
This means that, perhaps in the near future, users can directly jump to the Ele.me applet to order food while Douyin is being planted to achieve home delivery.
Insufficient complementarity or the ability to share takeaway cakes
Douyin has never lacked traffic.
And with the intervention of Ele.me, the platform made up for the biggest shortcoming of not being able to deliver.
But can the combination of the two really pose a threat to Meituan?
Everything is not as simple as it seems.
First of all, the completely different push logic and usage habits of short videos and food delivery platforms also affect users' choices.
Citizen Li Kai feels that even if it is more convenient to order takeout in short videos in the future, it will be more of a "happiness" and will not become a normal habit.
"After all, the short video may be swiped occasionally, planted and then placed. But it is really for the 'just need' of three meals a day, and it may be accustomed to ordering from the list."
In addition, as early as the end of December last year, Meituan announced the interconnection with Kuaishou, which opened a precedent for the cooperation between local life giants and short video platforms.
However, after more than half a year, this cooperation did not cause much splash.
This also puts a question mark on the cooperation effect of Douyin and Ele.me. After all, both parties have their own interests to consider.
In the opinion of Mr. Yang, an industry insider, many people were optimistic about the cooperation between Meituan and Kuaishou last year.
But now it seems that the two sides have only formed unanimous external allies, rather than a strategic relationship of expanding territory. The key depends on the actual strategic layout, depth of cooperation and implementation.
Therefore, the cooperation between Douyin and Ele.me may be difficult to shake the leading position of Meituan in the field of food delivery in a short period of time, but if they can really play their respective advantages, they can also share the cake to a certain extent.