How do I look up a Douyin account by ID or link?

Douyin display names are neither unique nor stable. Dozens of accounts can share one nickname, creators rename themselves freely, and the same account renders differently depending on the client's language settings. The stable identifiers are the 抖音号 — a user-chosen alphanumeric handle — and sec_uid, an opaque internal string that appears in profile URLs. A pinyin transliteration of a Chinese nickname carries neither, which is why "search the name I heard" is the one approach that reliably returns the wrong person.

In the Douyin app: open the creator's profile, tap the share icon, choose 复制链接 (copy link). You get a short v.douyin.com URL that redirects to the full profile URL containing the sec_uid. Both forms work as input — a lookup tool follows the redirect. On the web, douyin.com/user/<sec_uid> is already the canonical form. If a creator has published their 抖音号 in a bio or a media kit, that works too, and it is the form worth asking for in an outreach email because it survives a rename.

From a resolved account you can read public metrics: follower count, likes / comments / shares per video, view counts where Douyin exposes them, posting frequency, and bio text — which sometimes carries a WeChat ID, an email, or a 商务合作 (business cooperation) line. That is enough to compute a real engagement rate from recent videos rather than trusting a media kit. What no public lookup returns is Xingtu's verified audience-demographic breakdown or the official rate card; those sit behind a platform login gated on a Chinese business licence.