WeChat Channels Video Search Scraper

EN — Find trending 视频号 Channels videos by keyword in 30 seconds. Drop one keyword, filter by duration (short / medium / long), sort by latest or hottest, and pull up to 50 ranked videos with engagement metrics (10万+ like counts), publisher profile, shareable export IDs, and cover images. No login, no captcha, no headless browser.

ZH — 视频号视频搜索 — 一键按关键词 + 时长筛选抓取。 一个关键词,按时长(短视频/中视频/长视频)、排序(最新/最热)筛选,最多 50 条视频(5 页 × ~10),含点赞数(10万+)、发布者资料、可下载的 exportId、封面图。无登录、无验证码、无 headless 浏览器。

Built for influencer discovery, trend monitoring, and competitor intelligence on 视频号 (WeChat Channels) — China's fastest-growing short-video platform inside WeChat. Output exports as JSON / CSV / Excel — pipe directly into your CRM, BI tool, or another Apify Actor.

5 free runs / day — no API key required. Open on Apify Console, drop a keyword, get results in 30 seconds.

What you can search

Filter	Values	EN	中文
duration	all (default) / short / medium / long	all videos / <5 min / 5-20 min / 20+ min	不限 / 短视频 / 中视频 / 长视频
sort	default / latest / hot	relevance / publish time desc / like count desc	相关性 / 最新 / 最热
publishTime	all / day / week / half_year	all time / 24 h / 7 d / 6 mo	不限 / 24小时内 / 7天内 / 半年内

Other inputs:

• keyword (1-100 chars, e.g. 美食, 健身, 跨境电商)
• maxPages: 1-5 pages, default 3 (cost control)
• cursor: opaque token from a previous run's SUMMARY.nextCursor for resumable pagination
• raw: include the unprocessed upstream data envelope on each pushed item (off by default)

Input

{
  "keyword": "美食",
  "duration": "short",
  "sort": "latest",
  "publishTime": "all",
  "maxPages": 3,
  "cursor": "",
  "raw": "false"
}

Output

Each pushed item is a normalized Channels video row keyed by docId (string — base64 may exceed JS Number safe range):

{
  "keyword": "美食",
  "page": 1,
  "rank": 1,
  "businessType": "video",
  "businessTypeRaw": 7,
  "docId": "finderobjv0iGrW2Ju7cmIl5Q2m0E",
  "exportId": "export/UzFfAEDovIKb9q9zJ4...",
  "hashDocId": "17711004180000001",
  "feedNonceId": "1717...",
  "title": "家常菜快手菜...",
  "titleRaw": "...<em class=\"highlight\">美食</em>...",
  "coverUrl": "https://wx.qlogo.cn/...",
  "duration": "03:42",
  "pubTime": 1757365200,
  "dateLabel": "2小时前",
  "likeNum": "10万+",
  "source": {
    "name": "刘小妹正餐",
    "iconUrl": "https://wx.qlogo.cn/...",
    "verified": true
  },
  "collectedAt": "2026-09-09T00:00:00Z"
}

exportId outlives a search page — pass it to the upstream fetch_video_detail endpoint to download the actual video media. likeNum is kept as a string to preserve Chinese unit formatting like 10万+.

The run also writes a SUMMARY to the Key-Value Store with pushed / pagesFetched / nextCursor / hasMoreInSource / tier / runsToday / dailyLimit / startedAt / finishedAt — use nextCursor on the next run for resumable pagination.

Use cases

• Influencer discovery (视频号) / KOL 调研: filter by duration=short + publishTime=week to surface emerging Channels creators before they saturate.
• Trend monitoring / 热点追踪: run daily with the same keyword, diff docId sets between runs to spot new entrants.
• Competitor intelligence / 竞品监控: track competitor 视频号 accounts' video cadence and engagement metrics.
• Short-video sourcing for cross-border e-commerce / 跨境电商短视频素材: collect exportId for top-performing videos in your category, then download and repurpose.
• Long-form content (视频号 > 5 min) market mapping / 长视频赛道调研: filter by duration=medium|long to find Channels' longer creators, an under-mapped segment.

Pagination

The Actor auto-paginates via the upstream cursor + continue_flag envelope. Set maxPages (1-5) to cap requests per run (5 pages ≈ 50 videos). To resume a previous run, copy SUMMARY.nextCursor from the previous run into cursor on the next run.

maxPages	Items per run (avg)	Cost control / 成本控制
1	~10	smoke test / 冒烟测试
3 (default)	~30	sweet spot / 推荐值
5	~50	hard cap (cost & quota safety)

Quick start

Open the Actor on Apify Console, fill in keyword (e.g. 美食), click Start. Results land in the Dataset tab in ~30 seconds.

Want to run from the CLI?

$apify call wechat-channels-video-search-scraper -i '{"keyword": "美食", "duration": "short", "sort": "latest"}'

The upstream API key is wired into the Actor — no Secrets tab setup, no env vars to set. Apify free users get 5 runs / day.

Sister Actor — WeChat universal search

For full WeChat ecosystem search (公众号 / 视频号 / 文章 / 账号) across 18 business_type filters, see the sister Actor:

→ WeChat Universal Search Scraper — same keyword, broader vertical coverage without the duration filter.

Tests

$npm test

Runs 17 unit assertions (input validation, request body shape, video normalization) plus 6 integration scenarios (mock fetch drives the full run() flow against captured upstream fixtures).

✅ unit.js: 17 assertions passed.
✅ integration.js: 6 scenarios passed.

Notes on upstream behavior

• Channels video items always have the same shape / 视频号视频 shape 固定: docID / exportId / hashDocID / duration / image / jumpInfo / likeNum / pubTime / source / title.
• 30-second hard timeout / 30 秒硬超时: TikHub documents that the upstream takes up to 30 s. The Actor enforces this with AbortController + exponential backoff (3 retries: 500 ms / 1 s / 2 s).
• Large integer IDs preserved as string / 大整数 ID 保 string: docID is base64, hashDocID is a 19-digit number, likeNum includes Chinese units like 10万+. All kept as strings to avoid JS Number precision loss.
• exportId is the durable handle / exportId 是稳定句柄: it outlives any single search page and can be passed to the upstream fetch_video_detail endpoint for actual media download.

Changelog

See ./CHANGELOG.md.

License

Apache-2.0