GuShiio.com Wen| Growth black box Growthbox
You know, China has the highest enthusiasm for AI in the world. We are the most excited when any news about AI is released. On the contrary, Europeans and Americans are very calm. nbsp;
Source: Ipsos offline closed-door meeting
From the perspective of production, it is no longer uncommon for Internet platforms to access AI search capabilities.
As a leader in the search field, Baidu has been connected to AI capabilities early on. In 2024, among its 700 million APP daily activities, the penetration rate of AI functions has exceeded 70%.
Byte has launched Douyin search APP and Doubao, both of which have strong AI search capabilities. The latter even dominates the domestic AI product No. 1 with tens of millions of daily lives (it was just overtaken by deepseek a few days ago).
Tencent launched the Yuanbao app, which is equipped with a self-developed mixed-source model. It is the first tool in China that can directly conduct AI search based on the content of public accounts and video accounts.
Xiaohongshu launched Diandian app, which specifically builds AI search capabilities for life inspiration and strategies based on its own content
Independent AI products such as KIMI, Tiangong, and Mita enabled the AI search function earlier than major Internet companies.
But on the application side, everyone seems to have put all their enthusiasm into the stock market, feeling that investors may discuss AI more times than company CEOs.
In the past few days,WeChat starts grayscale testing and connects to DeepSeek-R1 model, provides in-depth thinking services. Users can use this function for free through the AI search portal at the top of the WeChat dialog box. It integrates Tencent’s ecological content such as Weixin Official Accounts and video numbers as well as high-quality information sources across the network.
This time, the strong alliance between social media giants and big model ceilings,In our view, it is very likely that new business opportunities will be created.Especially for brand marketing, a new scenario and opportunity are incubating.
Why are there new business opportunities?
On the surface, the answer is simple: WeChat’s 1.382 billion MAU size advantage is something no company has. Correspondingly,The WeChat search function has basically the most monthly activity in China, even surpassing Baidu Mobile, which represents a huge traffic opportunity. Everyone is full of reverie about a hidden mine.
But the contradiction is that everyone does not know what is in the mine:Judging from the situation in 2024, the average daily number of searches on WeChat Souyisou is very small, indicating that the frequency of use is very low.It is actually difficult to judge how much commercial value these traffic can generate.
Because in our regular understanding, WeChat’s mind has never been search. No matter how large the number of users is, actions without backlinks will be useless.
(Data source: Xiaohongshu @ Mingdao)
Enterprises are very worried that mining this mine will not get gold, but low-viscosity, imprecise copper and iron. At least judging from the current WeChat advertising revenue, the proportion of search is not high.
However, this situation is changing.
First look at the short term.Our user survey in Q3 2024 shows that WeChat search is the TOP1 entry for public account content and the TOP2 entry for video account content. At the same time, the higher the user’s income class and the stronger the consumption power, the higher the proportion of content entering public accounts through search.
Compared with Douyin, its TOP1 entry is to directly open and swipe videos, while TOP2 is an APP message push recall; while Xiaohongshu’s direct opening and swipe content and search are almost tied for TOP1.
From the perspective of content consumption, the mentality of WeChat users is undergoing tremendous changes, closer to Xiaohongshu and Baidu than Douyin. According to data from the WeChat Open Class in 2023, WeChat search accounts for 20% and 27% respectively for new daily users in Mini programs and new fans in public accounts. [1]
Tencent’s 2024 Q3 financial report shows that advertising revenue generated by WeChat search has doubled year-on-year thanks to large-model capabilities that have improved user experience.
Secondly, look at the long term.The more complex the APP has, the more powerful it is, the more powerful it can win in the storm. The platform with truly ecological capabilities is the mainstream entrance of AI.
Bill Gates once said: The landscape of the entire software market will change. How many applications will you need in the future? What we see now is that everyone is adding AI to their apps and saying, Look, I added AI functions, so I have to charge more.” rdquo; But in fact, the number of applications you need should actually be greatly reduced. [2]
From this we infer:As user behavior changes, the value of WeChat search will continue to rise, directly linking the brand’s content marketing within the WeChat ecosystem, promoting the precipitation of private domain assets, and may even lead to transaction scenarios such as live broadcast rooms and Mini programs.
This is indeed worthy of attention for corporate marketing customer acquisition and brand building-if with the support of AI, the user experience can be improved and more activity can be promoted, it will naturally be a new increase.
So, where will the increment appear?
Opportunity 1:
Corporate official websites and social media accounts have the opportunity to get more natural traffic
Not only WeChat, with the development of AI+ search, the entire market will create opportunities for free, long-tail traffic for corporate marketing. The underlying logic is somewhat similar to search engine optimization (SEO).
In terms of operating principle: No matter what AI tool, after the user asks questions, in addition to providing summary content, it will also provide a link to the information source as a comment. Like traditional search engines, in most cases, users will selectively click on these links to learn more about them.
If the content provided by the company can be included by AI algorithms and provided to users as part of the answer, then the company has the opportunity to harvest additional traffic from the AI search portal.
This is mainly reflected in the growth of traffic on corporate official websites, e-commerce pages, and social media accounts. Let’s first benchmark mature foreign markets to see trends, and then think about opportunities with reference to WeChat’s functions:
A broad study of website traffic shows that63% of websites have received at least one referral from AI search engines (such as chatgpt, bing, gemini, etc.).In other words, any publicly available website has a 63% chance of receiving additional traffic from AI search engines. Among them, 98% of AI traffic comes from three giants: ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. [3]
In China, for many categories, Weixin Official Accounts/Mini programs have almost become synonymous with corporate official websites[4]. The company’s Own media content has a greater probability of being discovered by accurate customers, thus arousing interest. As the only entrance that can search for the content of public accounts and video accounts, WeChat’s AI search has certain uniqueness.
Source: New List “2023 Enterprise New Media Matrix Marketing Insight Report”
For the B2B industry, this is even more important. Weixin Official Accounts and video accounts have overwhelmingly become TOP1 windows for corporate social media. [5]
Source: KAWO “2024 B2B Social Media Marketing Research Report”
In terms of website types, online services, education, entertainment media, and technological Internet are all the most direct beneficiaries of ChatGPT diversion. [6]
The data we have obtained shows that these categories are highly consistent with the most active categories in WeChat searches. nbsp;
Source: Tencent Advertising Official Information
Particularly good for long-tail content and small and medium-sized enterprises
From the perspective of traditional search engine rankings, weight is the real blood suppression-authoritative and well-known websites are naturally favored by algorithms. On some mainstream topics, small and medium-sized enterprises basically cannot get a good ranking, and there is no traffic. Some high-quality and niche content may not make a difference under traditional mechanisms.
But AI search can greatly change this situation, using user needs and experience as a higher standard, rather than ranking people based on authority.
Even if you are not well-known in the public sense, you may still be an expert in a certain niche or a TOP1 product in certain vertical categories. You are the one who understands users best. Then, the content you create may be displayed to users by AI as the highest priority, thus obtaining a large amount of accurate traffic.
Research shows that AI search brings a much higher proportion of traffic to small and medium-sized websites than large websites.[7]
Although we have not yet obtained the internal beta qualification for WeChat AI search, we have long tried the search function on the Yuanbao APP produced by Tencent. The results show that the content of the public account of the growth black box can indeed be well displayed on some vertical topics, and even some mainstream hot topics (we are not famous, right?).
The commercial value of traffic is higher and more diverse
AI’s bonus effect on search will show two extremes: some users want to be fast and concise, but many people also want to be deeply professional. The commercial value of attracting the latter category of users is significantly higher, because they are more likely to be interested in high-priced unit price categories/services and B2B professional areas.
A study on the traffic of the head B2B official website found that the traffic generated by AI search actually increased by 500% in 2024! Modeling and predicting according to this momentum: Three years later, more than 50% of the traffic on the official B2B website will come from AI searches.[8]
Let’s look at the value of traffic from the perspective of daily consumption. A study on transactional traffic (mainly Amazon, ebay, etsy and other e-commerce websites) shows: Users who enter e-commerce pages through AI search will stay longer and visit more page content than Google. Longer session duration combined with higher page views means that users spend longer evaluating products and have higher interest in purchasing, which can obviously be summarized as higher quality of traffic.[9]
Another noteworthy phenomenon is:Users seem to no longer be satisfied with graphic content, and the evaluation of traffic value has become more diversified.
For example, the place with the largest amount of ChatGPT diversion is currently youtube, with its proportion increasing from 0.17% in July 2024 to 3.9% in September; while Amazon’s e-commerce diversion has increased from 0% to 1.1%. [10]
If WeChat’s AI search in the future can introduce live video numbers, private domain shopping guides, B2B Mini programs landing pages, and Mini programs e-commerce malls, imagination can reach a higher level.
So, how big will the incremental scale of the entire AI search creation be? Here we need to look calmly.
Data shows that the traffic brought to other websites through ChatGPT networking function alone has increased by 60% in three months, and millions of traffic are directed from ChatGPT to external websites every day. The number of independent domain names receiving traffic from ChatGPT has tripled. [11]
However, many studies have also shown that from the perspective of the entire Internet, although the traffic contributed by AI search engines to websites is growing rapidly, it may be less than 1% of the total website traffic. Only in certain industries or verticals may this ratio exceed 5%, or even reach 20%. Nowadays, using AI search to gain user growth is more like a surprise victory than a subversion of tradition.
AI search is not an opportunity for a national outbreak like Short Video. On the one hand, it takes time to accumulate slowly. On the other hand, the uniqueness of the content is also a prerequisite. Well-known research institution Gartner predicts:By 2026, traffic from traditional search engines will drop by 25%, and search marketing will lose market share to AI chatbots and other virtual assistants.[12]
So at the beginning of the development of AI search trends, what strategic plans should companies make in advance and try to implement them? In fact, how to increase traffic from AI search has been the hottest topic in the field of digital marketing abroad in the past year. A concept was born: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
GEO refers to optimizing existing content on a website so that it is more suitable for being scanned by the Language Learning Model (LLM) and used as a source, allowing more users to discover content in AI searches and click to visit the website. Unlike traditional search engine optimization (SEO), which focuses on keywords and website structure, GEO focuses more on the depth of content, user intent and semantic relevance to ensure that content can not only meet user needs, but also be effectively recognized and utilized by AI engines.
The following figure shows how to use GEO to make a pizza restaurant website appear at the highest priority for AI answers, replacing the well-known Central Park in New York. [13]
A recent paper shows that through the GEO method, the visibility of source content can be increased by 40% in AI search engines, which means that the website has a 40% increase in traffic opportunities. [14]
Gartner also predicts that by 2026, more than 33% of web content will be created for the purpose of generative AI search. [12]
Of course, GEO’s implementation strategy is very complex and has a certain methodology.We will no longer start here, just to attract attention. If you are interested, you can reply to the keyword GEO on the public account background to receive the full version of the paper.
Opportunity 2:
Talent marketing and search advertising have the opportunity to improve paid traffic efficiency
Here’s the problem: If you are a CMO of a large company, what you want more must be big investment and big returns, rather than tricks in the eyes of small and medium-sized enterprises. Therefore, only WeChat’s AI search can achieve large-scale and stable growth through paid delivery can it have incremental value.
What opportunities are there?
We believe that whether the new portal of the platform is qualified to be called a traffic dividend depends on whether this portal can allow the platform to make money itself. After all, focusing on user experience does not mean doing charity. An ability that cannot be commercialized will inevitably become a marginal function.
In Internet slang, this is the degree of traffic monetization rate. Whether it is a circle of friends, video accounts, or public accounts on WeChat, the ad loading rate has always been very low. In fact, there is a large amount of traffic on WeChat that cannot be monetized.
If AI search can reuse these traffic and increase the monetization rate, then there will be real room for imagination.
Promote the development of talent marketing ecology
Here are our speculations:The real potential that AI search brings to WeChat lies in talent marketing.
Tencent has actually launched an advertising product that matches small red books, dandelions, and huge star maps. It is called Tencent Mutual Selection Advertising Platform, which is the official channel for screening and placing talents (yes, we are also the best candidates for mutual selection platforms). In the past two years, with the rise of video accounts, they have developed very rapidly.
Who controls the traffic on WeChat that cannot be monetized? It must be the best person in various public accounts, video accounts, and even the group owners of private communities-WeChat has 50 million creators.
Next, let’s deduce the logic based on the following diagram:
If the WeChat AI search experience is better, more people will definitely use it.
Users can discover more talent content, which brings traffic to talent
More native talents can grow up, and talents from other platforms are also willing to migrate.
Brands see these incremental high-quality content and are willing to spend money to deliver it to people, and they can also get better returns.
Talent makes money and has the motivation to produce more high-quality content. The quality and experience of AI search are higher, and the more people use it.
The platform makes money and is more willing to invest in AI technology, support talents, and improve commercial products.
The entire closed loop is formed
This seemingly curved approach to save the country actually captures the core resource of the content platform-high-quality content. Instead of paying for search traffic themselves, advertisers actually have other options:Why don’t you just buy the natural traffic accumulated by the talented people directly?
Our research in Q4 2024 shows that whether it is a WeChat video account or a public account, the TOP1 driving force for user growth is the degree of content matching, which is significantly different from Douyin and Xiaohongshu. ldquo; The driving force of improving content quality is more significant in the WeChat content ecosystem.
That is to say,Now WeChat urgently needs to build a distinctive talent ecosystem to maintain the growth of users and then attract advertisers to put their budgets.
And these talented grass content can indeed trigger positive post-link behavior among users-this is what advertisers are most happy to see.
According to some internal data we have obtained, the growth of the WeChat content ecosystem is still relatively positive-which further verifies our logical inference.
Introduce ads in search results
This is a very simple and crude approach, which is no different from the monetization model of traditional search engines, but it increases advertising space, which drives an increase in advertising loading rates.
In October 2024, Google took the lead in making a bold commercialization attempt: adding advertisements to AI search results and officially launching them on mobile phones in the United States.
A feature called AI overview has long been launched in Google search. This is equivalent to adding a section at the top of the traditional Google search results page to display AI’s summary of the search results. Originally, there were no advertisements here, but now some product advertisements will appear inside. For example, when users search for how to remove wrinkles while washing clothes, the AI Overview not only contains tutorials, but also product advertisements for laundry detergent. [15]
AI overviews are not 100% displayed, but appear selectively based on different search keywords. Research shows that in August last year, almost 12.47% of search results included AI Overviews, a significant increase from previous months, but from the perspective of overall ad loading rate, it is definitely very low, and Google is also in the trial stage. [16]
But at least Google’s internal research shows that users find these ads helpful because they can quickly connect them to related businesses, products and services when they need them. [17]
On the other hand, in China, basically no one dares to take this step at present. All major AI search tools focus on non-advertising. This even forced Baidu to use no advertising as a selling point when it launched its AI search function at the beginning of the year.
Therefore, according to WeChat’s consistent conservative style, AI search itself will not be commercialized so early.
For example, yesterday, a well-known blogger pointed out that there may be advertising links in the results of Tencent Yuanbao’s AI answers. Zhang Jun, Tencent’s public relations director, immediately came out to refute the rumors, which should not be theoretically true.
conclusion
Search was originally a process of actively looking for useful clues in the ocean of information. Traditional SEO mainly relies on surface data such as search terms/clicks to achieve it. For the WeChat ecosystem, since it has long penetrated into all aspects of people’s daily lives, after connecting to AI, search is likely to achieve thousands of people.
We venture to speculate thatWhen a user searches for vacations in WeChat Search, the search results are no longer the highest click-through rate or the latest post posted on the whole network. Instead, DeepSeek analyzes the user’s public account reading habits, video number likes, Mini programs access records, etc. after excluding private information.
We believe that WeChat access to DeepSeek will profoundly reconstruct the logic of traffic allocation, so for brand marketing,Not only do we need to strengthen content quality and keyword optimization to increase index weight, but we also need to seize the high-quality and efficient traffic that people already have to find their own accurate users.
When public accounts, video accounts and data across the network are matched with “deep thinking”, the purpose of brand marketing may no longer be to occupy the minds of consumers, but to become an intelligent partner who accompanies consumers at all times.
References:
[1]WeChat Search has 800 million monthly active users. How can“ data signage” help refined operations?| Beijing news
[2] Bill Gates on possibility, AI, and humanity|Youtube
[3] 63% of Websites Receive AI Traffic (New Study of 3,000 Sites)|ahrefs bolg
[4]”2023 Enterprise New Media Matrix Marketing Insight Report”| new list
[5]”2024 B2B Social Media Marketing Research Report”| KAWO
[6] Investigating ChatGPT Search: Insights from 80 Million Clickstream Records|Semrush Blog
[7] 63% of Websites Receive AI Traffic (New Study of 3,000 Sites)|ahrefs bolg
[8] How significant is AI chatbot traffic in B2B?| Growth Memo
[9] Transactional AI traffic – a study of over 7 million sessions|Growth Memo
[10] Chat GPT Search|Growth Memo
[11] Investigating ChatGPT Search: Insights from 80 Million Clickstream Records|Semrush Blog
[12] Gartner
[13] What’s Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) & How To Do It (Source: https://foundationinc.co/lab/generative-engine-optimization)
[14] GEO Targeted: Critiquing the Generative Engine Optimization Research|sandboxseo
[15] Google Search’s New AI Overviews Will Soon Have Ads|WIRED
[16] AI Overviews Research: Google Ads in the AIO-inclusive SERPs|SE Ranking
[17] New ways for marketers to reach customers with AI Overviews and Lens|Ads & Commerce Blog
