Once there were reports that ByteDance was working on "Douyin and Xigua convergence", stating that "content from Xigua Video would be distributed within the Douyin App, focusing on promoting mid-length videos within Douyin, and no longer implementing independent operational strategies for Xigua Video." Although this rumor was denied by the official sources, I wonder if what they denied was only the part about "promoting Xigua content on Douyin."
Recently, Xigua Video pushed a new revenue-sharing mechanism to all creators, which basically means that the original "Mid-Video Incentive Program" will be directly canceled (it has already stopped), replaced by the new revenue-sharing mechanism "Douyin Creator Partner Program" for Douyin/Xigua Apps, along with the traditional model of "Toutiao Video Creation Revenue"; at the same time, most Xigua creators have been given access to the "Creation Upgrade" feature, which essentially allows existing Douyin account content to be directly transferred to the Xigua Video App, and the Xigua creator backend will be eliminated, replaced by the Douyin creator backend.
However, the Douyin Creator Partner Program is already out of reach for creators like me at the bottom tier; even if I eventually join the Xigua Mid-Video Partner Program (yes, I was previously caught out by the requirements of this program, as I used the Toutiao account backend to upload videos, but this upload method didn't count towards the task quota, and I had to switch to the Xigua backend; haha, now the Xigua backend is dead), the new Douyin Creator Partner Program requires me to meet one of the following two conditions: either have over 10,000 followers or historical cumulative earnings over 50. I resigned myself to this because my historical earnings after joining the Mid-Video Program were only in single digits. Now the "limited-time upgrade method" (the two conditions mentioned earlier) has also ended, and to earn revenue, I might have to get my Douyin account to 50,000 followers first.
It seems that a previous negative review's claim of "no hope" is indeed true (although that person is currently in a mutual blackening state with me; and their data and content quality aren't that great either). Previously, the Mid-Video Program could still earn a bit of money through Douyin, but now it has directly regressed to a few years ago when it was just the Xigua/ByteDance revenue-sharing model — yes, "Creation Upgrade" will indeed affect the account's presentation in the Xigua Video App, but the original account data and revenue-sharing still exist on my Toutiao account; in other words, the old Xigua account = Toutiao account. Don't ask me how I know this; there were a few ill-mannered kids who rushed at my Xigua account, and I blacklisted them. Now I can still see my previous blacklists in the Toutiao App, which means the operations of the old Xigua account are consistent with the Toutiao account.
I digress.
I need to mention that my own account's data on Toutiao is quite bleak, so if I were to operate it for revenue now, it would basically be like starting over after a few years on the ByteDance platform (which I didn't pay much attention to before).
It's actually quite exhausting; although Douyin has managed to earn a bit through nationwide tasks recently, the account is still lukewarm; while there are a few pieces of content that have broken a thousand views, overall it's still the same, without any big splash. However, based on my own biases against Xigua Video and Toutiao, I still chose to upgrade my creation, even though I already knew that the creation revenue would disappear. I really don't like the content quality of Toutiao and Xigua; to be frank, the content quality on Douyin is a notch higher than these two (it might also be because the algorithm has nurtured my Douyin account but not my Xigua/Toutiao account). Moreover, I feel that the Creation Upgrade is also part of the "dismantling Xigua Video" plan, which actually suits me just fine (hee hee).
But there is one point I must mention. The account after the upgrade is still quite abstract; for example, the account "Sailor Talk Gold" (disclaimer: not expressing a stance, just for illustration) has already been upgraded, but if you had previously followed the old account, the follow page shows a horizontal video version (theoretically consistent with Xigua or Toutiao), but upon entering their personal space, it changes to a vertical version consistent with Douyin. However, the old account videos in the Xigua Video App are frozen at July (probably before the upgrade). In short, the interaction is very abstract.
After all this rambling, the bottom line is: Xigua Video (probably) is already dead. Although it has been dead for a while in my view, the official stance now seems to have sentenced it to death. Forget it, I might as well start over with my account operations on the ByteDance platform.
By the way, I don't know how to write micro headlines. Not a clue.