Meitu Unveils 'Beauty and Social' Strategy for Next Decade, Doubling Down on Social to Enhance Monetization

Meitu Chairman Cai Wensheng

VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has learned that on August 8, the mobile internet company Meitu held its 2018 strategy launch event in Beijing, announcing that over the next decade it will continue to explore “beauty” while entering the “social” sector.

At the press conference, Wu Xinhong, founder and CEO of Meitu, announced this strategic adjustment, stating, “In the future, ‘beauty and social networking’ will become Meitu’s strategic direction.”

A decade ago, Meitu started with its photo-editing app, Meitu Xiuxiu, and built an ecosystem centered on “beauty”: photo-enhancement and short-video applications drive online traffic, while smart hardware targeting female customers generates cash flow, all underpinned by beauty-related big data as the foundational platform layer.

Over the next decade,Meitu to Introduce Social Strategy, further refine its commercialization strategies in an attempt to rapidly enhance its advertising monetization capabilities.

Meitu Xiuxiu is one of Meitu’s strategic products, with a user base of 214 million. Moving forward, Meitu Xiuxiu will be upgraded into a social platform, serving as a key focus of Meitu Inc.’s social strategy.

Meitu Inc. stated that Meitu Xiuxiu, as a social platform, will shift user perception from “editing photos with tools and then sharing them on other platforms” to creating a social closed loop that spans “from photo enhancement to photo sharing.”

Previously, Meitu Xiuxiu addressed users’ essential needs for photo enhancement. Currently, its focus is on refining its content positioning to transform into a community platform. In the future, as users consolidate their social connections within the app, Meitu Xiuxiu will evolve fully into a social media platform.

Meitu stated that the social positioning of Meitu Xiuxiu is to enable users to “create my lifestyle,” which means the community primarily focuses on lifestyle-oriented content such as beauty, fashion, food, and product showcases. Wu Xinhong noted that lifestyle content is highly popular and aligns well with Meitu’s user profile.

Meitu has co-sponsored the iQIYI-produced online variety show “Wonderful Food Time,” aiming to explore new forms of interaction between idols and fans, as well as emerging social patterns among younger generations. Currently, six young male idol trainees have joined the Meitu community. The user conversion driven by young idols has played a significant role in many internet products.

Currently, Meitu Xiuxiu’s core users are helping to build this social platform. According to disclosed data from sampling results, these core users open the community an average of eight times per day, spend 25 minutes using it, and browse 75 images, thereby “initially establishing a strong community presence in users’ minds.” Meanwhile, Meitu will leverage a series of mechanisms to create a closed loop of “content production–distribution–consumption–interaction.”

These mechanisms, whether already launched or forthcoming, will be guided by three progressively layered core principles: first, ensuring a sense of presence for every user; second, matching users and continuously strengthening their relational networks; and third, increasing interactions among users.

Meipai, Meitu’s second strategic product, has adopted a new positioning as a “broad-knowledge short-video community,” aiming to ensure that users “gain something new every day on Meipai” through a series of operational strategies.

Wu Xinhong, Founder and CEO of Meitu

Wu Xinhong stated that the general entertainment content production in the short-video industry is currently severely oversupplied, and users are gradually experiencing aesthetic fatigue. “Rather than providing users with brief, intense stimulation through general entertainment content, we prefer to be friends with time and offer long-term, steadfast companionship to our users.”

General-knowledge short videos can promote users’ self-improvement and personal development. For instance, by leveraging vertical categories such as gourmet food, dance, and beauty makeup, these platforms “enable users to gain aesthetic experiences,” while also allowing them to engage in interactive activities and acquire new skills. For example, women can learn makeup techniques, yoga, and dessert making on Meipai; similarly, children can learn how to solve Rubik’s cubes, engage in handicrafts, and study classical poetry on the platform.

According to data released by Meipai, the platform has aggregated more than 50 top short-video MCN agencies, over 30,000 creators specializing in general knowledge-based short videos, and content covering more than 300 interest categories within the general knowledge sector. The data indicate that Meipai leads the entire Chinese internet landscape in the dance, beauty and makeup, and food categories.

Similarly, Meipai’s unique user base also helps reinforce the platform’s positioning as a hub for generalized knowledge in short-form video. Its active users from the post-95 and post-00 generations have formed both small, peer-to-peer communities and larger, one-to-many communities around emerging content areas of interest, such as clay art, journaling, stamp collecting, and SA.

Meipai will explore several directions: first, verticalization, as content in vertical categories has strong fan cohesion; second, high quality, as high-quality content tends to attract high-value fans; and third, social responsibility, emphasizing “positive energy.”

Next, Meipai will consolidate the relationship chains of interest-based user groups, evolving from social networking to social interaction.

These adjustments to specific products all reflect Meitu’s core strategy: stabilizing its foundational traffic base, expanding incremental social traffic, and thereby unlocking greater commercialization potential.

Previously, Meitu leveraged its core entry point of “camera” apps to capture substantial low-cost traffic by meeting users’ essential needs for enhancing their appearance and sharing content. Products such as Meitu Xiuxiu, Meipai, and BeautyCam served as the primary vehicles for this traffic acquisition.

Meanwhile, Meitu has stabilized its core user entry point—the “Camera”—while leveraging “Social” features to further boost traffic. The content generated through the “Camera” entry point complements social objectives: it reinforces the foundation of social interaction, while social engagement, in turn, drives further content creation.

Wu Xinhong stated that user growth and increased traffic “can unlock commercialization opportunities.” Traffic-driven initiatives are already evident: acquiring new users, enhancing app stickiness, and extending usage duration. Meitu Xiuxiu, one of its core products, has transitioned from a utility tool to a social platform by onboarding celebrities and influencers; another core product, Meipai, has partnered with MCN agencies and introduced artist revenue-sharing plans and content marketing strategies.

Next, in addition to its hardware products that have generated substantial cash flow, Meitu will further implement its internet revenue-generating business.

In terms of commercial operations, Meitu primarily employs two approaches. First,AdvertisementMeitu anticipates that its advertising business will become the company’s “primary and stable source of monetization in the future.” The social transformation of Meitu Xiuxiu and Meipai has “created greater potential for the scale and diversity of Meitu’s advertising offerings.” Meitu projects that its 2018 advertising revenue will more than double from the approximately RMB 300 million recorded in 2017.

II.Big DataThese integrated user-side and advertiser-side big data assets span the entire journey from the “camera” entry point to social engagement and ultimately to advertising monetization. They will be extensively applied across business lines closer to commercialization, including advertising, smart hardware, e-commerce, and value-added services.

In fact, to facilitate the smooth implementation of this strategy, Meitu has already initiated changes: it has adjusted its organizational structure, demonstrating a firm commitment to transformation. In the most recent restructuring, Meitu’s core business units were reorganized into three segments:

First, the Social Products Business Group, built on the foundation of Meitu Xiuxiu and Meipai, focuses on social strategy and is responsible for advertising product monetization;

Second, the Beauty Products Business Group is responsible for the development of beauty-related services and applications, with the aim of securing low-cost traffic sources to drive user acquisition for social platforms;

Third, the Intelligent Hardware Products Business Group will continue to explore Meitu camera phones,Ecosystem Layout of Beauty-Enhancing Smart Hardware, Such as Skin Analyzers。

Amid the current market landscape of slowing overall user growth, investors’ risk appetite has further declined. Investors are now placing greater emphasis on identifying opportunities with lower user acquisition costs and faster commercial monetization capabilities.

“Meitu previously placed excessive bets on user growth,” stated an analyst who has maintained close communication with Meitu. “Although Meitu’s foundation still relies on the growth of its user base, in the beauty camera market where MAU has reached a scale of 500 million, Meitu’s proactive strategic adjustment to develop a social ecosystem can not only make its entry-point foundation more robust but also accumulate big data on young users’ behavior, thereby solidifying the base for accelerated expansion. Meitu’s Beauty Big Data Platform has already been activated.”