Inclusive Algorithm: Everyone Has the Right to Be Seen

Cheng firmly believes that content platform algorithms should not only serve top content creators but should give every ordinary person a fair chance of exposure. Kuaishou's distribution algorithm deliberately suppresses the head effect, distributing traffic more evenly to long-tail creators. He believes this is not just a business strategy but a moral commitment to content ecosystem health—a platform where only a few shine will ultimately lose authenticity and diversity.

Source: 程一笑在快手内部全员信，2018年：关于我们的产品价值观 / 快手招股说明书，2021年：产品理念与算法设计

Engineer Culture is the Most Sustainable Foundation for Innovation

Cheng believes the core of engineer culture is solving problems with data and technology, not intuition and authority. He promotes engineers leading product decisions within Kuaishou, believing technology-driven product iteration creates longer-term competitiveness than market-driven approaches. He personally maintains the habit of writing code to this day, leading by example in maintaining engineer culture.

Source: 程一笑接受极客公园专访，2019年：工程师文化与产品创新 / 快手技术博客，2020年：我们如何构建推荐系统

Tool is the Starting Point, Community is the Destination

Cheng believes the best products all go through an evolution from tool to community. GIF Kuaishou entered as a tool, accumulating the first batch of users and usage scenarios, then gradually evolved into an emotionally connected community through the introduction of social features. He believes tools solve efficiency problems while communities create belonging—the combination of both creates truly sticky platforms.

Source: 程一笑在腾讯科技专访，2015年：从GIF工具到短视频社区的演进 / 快手产品发展历程，36氪，2016年

Lower-Tier Markets Are Not Low-End, They Are the Ignored Mainstream

Cheng refuses to view Kuaishou's lower-tier market positioning as a compromise. He believes users in China's third and fourth-tier cities and rural areas have equal desires for expression and consumption capacity, but have long been ignored by mainstream internet products. Kuaishou's success proves that serving these users is not lowering standards but discovering a huge overlooked market.

Source: 程一笑在乌镇互联网大会演讲，2018年：关于普惠与下沉 / 快手IPO路演材料，2021年

Long-Tail Distribution Model

Algorithms should actively balance traffic distribution, preventing head content monopolization and giving long-tail creators sustainable survival space

Kuaishou's recommendation algorithm uses the Gini coefficient (content distribution inequality) as a core metric, actively intervening to prevent excessive traffic concentration

Tool-to-Community Evolution Path

Use tools to solve specific problems and accumulate core users, then precipitate user relationships into community through social features

GIF Kuaishou started as a tool, gradually building emotional bonds between creators and fans through introducing follow, comment, and messaging features, forming a short video ecosystem with strong community feel

Data-Driven Product Decision Making

Replace subjective judgment with A/B testing and user behavior data; let data speak rather than leaders decide

Every important product feature at Kuaishou goes through rigorous A/B testing; Cheng requires product teams to prove hypotheses with data rather than relying on intuition or authority

GIF Tool Phase

2011-2012

Develop GIF creation and sharing tool, accumulate early users

Entered market with GIF animation creation tool, solved the pain point of mobile GIF creation at the technical level, accumulated the first batch of core users

Short Video Transformation Phase

2012-2015

Co-found with Su Hua, transform GIF tool into short video community

After joining with Su Hua, product evolved from GIF tool to short video community, introduced social features, built creator ecosystem, established inclusive distribution philosophy

Scale Growth Phase

2015-2019

Rapidly expand user scale, deeply cultivate lower-tier markets, build algorithm moat

Rapid growth in third and fourth-tier cities and rural markets, user scale exceeded 300 million, formed a duopoly with Douyin, algorithm and community culture became core differentiation

IPO and Globalization Phase

2019-至今

Complete Hong Kong IPO, advance internationalization, deepen AI technology positioning

Listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2021, raised approximately $5.4 billion, simultaneously advancing international products like Kwai, continuously increasing investment in AI and recommendation algorithm R&D