A few years behind the global trend, China’s short video market is warming up thanks to affordable mobile traffic costs and a healthy appetite for video content.
“Chinese netizen’s content consumption habits are changing. The integration of short video in China’s top social networking platforms like WeChat and Weibo makes it a more popular medium,” says Kuang Fei, CEO and co-founder of Beijing-based micro video editing app VUE.
Kuang believes there’s still room for improvement in the growing sector.
“It’s true that more and more micro video content is available online. But when you look at them, a great proportion are humorous ones that aim to make you laugh. The narrow content coverage reflects the fact that China’s short video content is generated by the minority, for the majority.”
Kuang believes that humor videos thrive because they can still convey their meaning despite sloppy editing and less-than-professional filming techniques. He believes that by bringing better-quality editing tools to consumers they can promote a wider range of content.
Kuang Fei founded VUE in April this year, an easy-to-use video-editing tool hopes will encourage other types of content. VUE is a video camera and editor that empowers users to capture memorable moments and edit them as well as adding filters and stickers.
VUE allows users to edit 15-second video clips with cutting, splicing and blending tools for both audio and video. Similar to Western video editing counterparts, the app also features a series of 12 filters.
By aiming to lower the production threshold for making quality videos, VUE wants to inspire more grassroots content creators to unleash their creativity and make short videos on more diversified topics.
“All mainstream hobbies or interests can become the source for filming short videos: foods, sports and pets for instance. The improvement of living standards [in China] has enabled us to experience a whole lot more than the past.”
The apps’ iOS version launched globally in June this year in English, simplified and tradition Chinese and Japanese. The Android version is expected to be released at the end of July, Kuang said.
Developing an editing tool that helps amateur video makers to create quality videos is just a start for VUE, said Kuang. “Currently, around 15,000 videos are being created by VUE per day, of which over 30% of them are of high quality.”
“[In the future] we will consider introducing more features, such as video sharing community, social networking and content distribution.” VUE also plans to roll out a dedicated app for professional and veteran users who want to edit longer video footage.
Kuang says cooperation with brands and payment service for special features and advertisements will be their main source for their revenue when they eventually tackle monetization.
The company is founded by three former employees of Wandoujia, the leading Chinese app store recently acquired by Alibaba.
Kuang Fei, CEO Founder of VUE (Left 1) and VUE Team