The unicorns who didn’t get the tickets for the second half may choose to flee the ticket to avoid the moment, but it is impossible to avoid the first.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Internet circle affairs” (ID :quanneishi), the author of Shanglu.
“When you go home on a car every Friday, listening to the singer and telling the horror story has become a habit of thunder.” From the beginning of the university, after the 90s, Xiao Xia is a loyal fan of the Himalayan platform anchor. For Xiao Xia, listening to the radio before bathing, eating, and going to sleep has become the best pastime.
After waiting for things to finish, I will pause the audio. I can continue listening when I next empty.” Xiaoxia averages 30 yuan per month in the Himalayas for a small summer: 198 yuan for members who buy one year. Last month, the purchase of paid audio books for payment of 15 yuan.
For these young people, the ability to listen to online audio anytime, anywhere is an entertainment tool that kills fragmented time and is a new social way, emotional companion to bedtime scenes. Listening friends can choose to listen to the program time, choose their favorite host and program in countless programs, and use real-time APP to communicate with online groups through barrage, comments and online groups.
One unicorn after another, with the rise of China’s “sound economy”, is about to usher in its own moment of high light.
01 Matthew effect in the online audio industry
According to the data of Ai Media Consulting, as of the fourth quarter of 2018, the domestic online audio industry has formed a three-legged pattern of Himalayan FM, Litchi and FM.
From the data we can see that although it is a three-legged, the Himalaya has already opened up a big gap with the other two.
At present, Himalayan FM has gradually formed an online to offline realization mode, through the platform multi-content to complete user retention, to direct online content to offline e-commerce, artificial intelligence products, education and other fields. According to media reports, the Xiaoya AI smart speaker released by Himalayan FM sold 100,000 units in 40 hours after the release of the module.
Overall, the Himalayan FM is undoubtedly the first in the industry.
China’s APP+ radio station, which started in September 2011, 蜻蜓FM rateThe radio was first moved to the APP, but due to the limited scope of content at the time, coupled with the rise of the video platform, online FM users gradually became the edge of the mobile Internet development tide.
After a period of exploration, the audio content of each family has gradually diversified, music, cross talk, talk show, audio books and so on. In addition, with the rise of knowledge payment, the radio stations also harvested a wave of high growth.
currently in total users, Himalayan FM It has exceeded 480 million, including car, wear, audio intelligent device users and 35 million overseas users. Active users listen to an average of 135 minutes a day. There are 6 million anchors in the platform, covering more than 300 categories of hundreds of millions of audio content, including history, news, finance, music, and novels, occupying 70% of the industry.
The head enterprises in the industry are naturally inseparable from the sight of capital. The data from Tianyan has shown that the Himalayas have carried out nine rounds of financing so far, including many front-line institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Tencent and Transatlantic Capital, and Xiaomizi. The company also invested in the Himalayas but the specific amount and share ratio were not disclosed.
It is worth noting that the Reading Group has made a strategic investment in 2015. The Reading Group holds 70% of the copyright in the online market, including “Full-time Master” and “Double”. The big IP like Luo Continental, and the big god-level authors such as Tang Jiasan and I eat tomatoes. The purpose of reading the text and the Himalayan is to lay out the audio market, and this has also made the Himalayan FM.
According to the data display, audiobook + Radio drama content accounts for 72.1% of audio user preferences, and the Himalayan FM, which introduces strategic investment, is far ahead of friends in this regard.
This news of the launch of the Himalayan FM is actually not a hole in the air.
In May of this year, a number of industrial and commercial changes occurred in Shanghai Zendai Himalayan Network Technology Co., Ltd., including 12 directors including Xiaomi Vice President Hong Feng, leaving only one of the Himalayan co-founders and co-CEO Yu Jianjun. Not only that, the company’s registered capital decreased by more than 314 million yuan, a reduction of 5.22%. On April 23, Good Future’s Xinxin Education Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. also withdrew from the ranks of Himalayan shareholders, and the registered capital of the Himalayan company decreased.More than 8 million yuan, a reduction of 1.41%.
There were many media speculations at the time that the Himalayan VIE structure was preparing for the listing, not far from the time of its listing. In response, the Himalayan FM official response said that there is no clear listing plan.
In early July of last year, there was also a news from the media that the Himalayan FM had completed 4 billion yuan in financing and planned to go public in Hong Kong in 19 years. The valuation also rose from the initial rumor of 20 billion yuan to 50 billion yuan, but still suffered Denial to the Himalayas.
Despite being “listed” again and again, it has been rumored again and again, but this can’t change the Himalayan FM with capital support and massive copyright and nearly 500 million users. It is infinitely close to the “online FM first stock” fact.
02 The worry of online audio
Although the copyright of content in the audio industry is important, has not set off a copyright war like Aiteng. On the one hand, Himalayan FM has already collected most of its copyright through cooperation with Wenwen and CITIC Publishing Group. On the other hand, each platform has adopted a strategy of differentiated competition, and has not put the treasure on copyright, the most obvious of which This is the “Litchi” that also sent news of the listing to the United States.
The original lychee was called “Litchi FM” and its initial positioning was the same as that of the Himalayan FM. Its founder Lai Xiaolong is a successful serial entrepreneur. In 2002, he won the first gold through the enterprise SMS platform “Enterprise Information Communication”. In the audio field where content homogeneity is serious, he realized early on that he wants to differentiate the competition. So when the rise of the live broadcast, he led the team to turn to “voice live broadcast”, and Litchi FM was renamed “Litchi”. /strong>.
Litchi senior user Xiaomi said that she is the reason The mode of socializing like this voice is mainly because it has abandoned the social routines that used to look at the face and the social scenes are more diverse, whether it is walking, eating or sleeping. “At least without makeup, people are more relaxed and calm.”
It must be said that the live broadcast is indeed a good direction. Before the live broadcast of the Savior, the tiger toothfish was listed. But for Litchi, the live broadcast business does not seem to be all good.
The property of making money online is also established here in Lichee. In 2016, it was broadcast live, and it has achieved quite rapid development in a short time. According to Litchi official, the live broadcast businessThe line earned more than 10 million yuan in live broadcast revenue in three months. In 2018, the founder Lai Xiaolong publicly stated that the platform’s voice broadcast revenue reached 100 million yuan, and the platform has already achieved profitability.
But both the live video and the audio live broadcast core are anchors. The mobility and instability of the anchor determine the risk of this mode is too great (refer to the tiger tooth and the fighting fish to dig the anchor). In addition, although the live broadcast business can help Litchi achieve early profitability, the live broadcast of the plate itself is not large, and the litchi is easy to encounter the ceiling. If you do other business at this time, I am afraid that the location has been occupied by the Himalayan FM and 蜻蜓FM. In other words, Litchi is too focused on live voice, which may lead to restrictions on its future development.
From the perspective of going public in the US, you can lose money continuously but you can’t live without imagination.
In addition, there is a problem with both Lychee and Himalayan FM, or “original sin” – the edge ball on the audio content.
There are two main aspects, the first one is the copyright issue.
In 2018, writer Zeng Pengyu issued a document saying that he wrote “There is a regret in the world”, which can be downloaded freely by users in the Himalayan FM platform, but without the authorization of his own and the publisher, directly affecting the genuine The introduction of audio books. Although the subsequent Himalayan purchased the copyright of the book, it was still able to see the chaos of Himalayan management of audiobook copyright.
It is not difficult to see, with the hand The Himalayan FM, which is supported by traditional publishing units such as the Reading Group and the CITIC Publishing Group, is still unable to completely circumvent copyright management issues. Other companies are naturally indispensable.
In 2015, Litchi was removed from Apple’s APPstore with the FM because of infringement. Although Litchi focused on audio live broadcasting after 2016, it did not close all related businesses.
▲From In the interface of Litchi, we can see that in addition to live audio, the content of radio dramas and audio books still has a certain share on the platform
The other side is some vulgar porn content, this year 7Four apps, including the Himalayan FM and Litchi, were removed for 30 days for violations of national information security regulations.
according to the country According to the news released by the website, the reason why the network audio platform was removed is that some audio live broadcast platforms are filthy, allowing the anchors to transmit sexually suggestive information, such as “jiaochuan” and even enticing users to cross platforms. Engage in illegal and illegal transactions.
A previous report by Southern Metropolis Daily pointed out that various social audio and voice platforms, or naked or concealed pornographic content, are spreading in various forms, and many of the audience are minors. For example, the exposed audio platforms such as Litchi FM and Himalayan FM can find audio and video content such as “Small Gun” tutorials, ASMR and other audio content, and can also find information on paid friends for minors.
Conclusion
In fact, Himalayan FM and Litchi, From the standpoint of the foundation, is a replica of QQ music and Netease cloud music.
Himalayan FM and QQ music with a large amount of content copyright, occupying an advantage in scale; Netease cloud music and lychee plus code and audio live broadcast for differentiated competition.
The top players in the industry are all holding a lot of content copyrights, and the top polls are only busy competing with the “differentiated” banner
. The same thing happened in the long video industry.
This shows that the Internet + content business, the company that got the “content copyright” ticket is eligible to enter the second half.
Of course, The company that missed the ticket, other ships may be able to carry it for a while, but it will not last for a lifetime.