Another short video app born in China wants to conquer Latin America, starting with Brazil. Launched here in late 2017, Kwai opened an office in the country in November last year. Since then, it has gone from 7 million to more than 12 million daily active users in the country–the app has more than 200 million daily active users in the world, according to the latest available data, from May last year.
A competitor of the TikTok phenomenon, which closed the 2020 first-quarter with more than 2 billion downloads worldwide, Kwai belongs to Kuaishou (the same name by which the app is known in China), a Tencent Holdings-backed company.
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As an asset to its rivals, Kwai bets on a “fair algorithm”, that favors the distribution of well-produced content to the detriment of content made by those who already have a large number of followers, which can turn someone unknown into an overnight celebrity.
The hyper-localization technology of the app is responsible for identifying which content is most connected to the trends of each country or region where it operates.
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“Kwai distributes traffic not only to celebrities but also to ordinary people, allowing them to be seen fairly, so that users can communicate in the community equally and the content is closer to people,” explains Wu Yan, global director of operations at Kwai, to LABS.
The result of this is the availability of more real and diverse content on the platform, promoting an authentic and interactive experience. This makes people trust each other and feel close. What goes well with the enthusiastic and outgoing culture of Latin America
wu yan, global director of operations at kwai.
Lara Romeiro is one of the examples that Kwai gives for its “fair algorithm”. She published dance videos on the app in 2017 and, in just one week, got over 10,000 followers. Today, Lara has already passed the 900,000 followers mark and her popularity on Kwai has also helped her on other social media profiles–from 2,000 followers on Instagram, she now has more than 20,000.
“Today I have people who send me messages saying that I am happy with their videos, in addition to receiving gifts. It’s very rewarding, ”says Lara, who is known as” Lara da Kwai “by her followers.
Another advantage of Kwai is that it allows easy sharing in another favorite Brazilian app, WhatsApp. Currently, Kwai is one of the top 3 most downloaded video apps in Brazil, according to data from Sensor Tower.
“In addition to Brazil, Kwai is growing rapidly in other countries in Latin America, such as Argentina and Chile. We want to invest more efforts and resources in this region. The high inequality in some of these countries is also evident in some social networks, where only people famous people are in the spotlight and “ordinary people” don’t have the same opportunities, “Wu Yan told LABS.
