Looking back on 2019, driven by multiple factors such as the promotion of copyright regulation, the improvement of payment awareness and ability to pay, and the improvement of technical conditions, the online video industry has entered a critical period of development.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account Blue Whale TMT (ID: ilanjingtmt) , Author Feiteng.
Reviewing 2019, driven by multiple factors such as copyright regulation, payment awareness and ability to pay, and improved technical conditions, the online video industry has entered a critical period of development.
At present, the scale of the payment market in the pan-entertainment industry has reached 100 billion, and the market size of the online video industry has exceeded 10 billion. According to a QuestMobile report, as of June 2019, the number of video users in China has exceeded 900 million, and paying users currently account for 18.8% of total video users, with high growth potential.
From an industry perspective, the overall pattern of online video is still stabilizing, and Aiyouteng still maintains a leading position in terms of user scale and business value. Among them, iQiyi and Tencent Video have successively exceeded 100 million members. UiTeng’s member revenue accounted for more than a quarter of super-advertising revenue, and paid members became the backbone of video platforms. In addition, online videos are being impacted by short videos, and high-quality content and paid users have become a must-have for major platforms.
The industry structure is stable, New technology blessings, and the content is going to the sea
In recent years, the pattern of the online video industry has remained stable, and the three platforms of “Aiyouteng” have firmly occupied the throne of the first echelon for many years. Judging from the current user penetration rates of various platforms, it is difficult for other players to shake the existing situation in the short term.
Data from China Internet Network Information Center shows that as of June 2019, the first echelon of China’s online video industry is composed of iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video, and its user penetration rate has reached 80.2%, which is much higher than that of Station B and Mango. The formation of the second echelon was 9.2%.
The reporter found that compared with the previous two years, the online drama market in 2019 has shown a trend of cooling and stabilization. The overall number of dramas has decreased, and explosive dramas are more difficult to appear. At the same time, with the tightening of policy controls and market enthusiasm, the focus of various platforms has also returned to content production itself.
According to the reporter of Blue Whale TMT, in terms of content, in 2019, “Aiyou Teng” will continue to distribute the market through major dramas, as well as high-quality, exclusive broadcast strategies to attract users. In addition to the big drama heat, the major platforms have also shown different strategies. Based on the different tones and advantages of each platform, they have made breakthroughs in the vertical circle.
Among them, iQiyi gradually formed a pan-cultural matrix with vertical content areas such as animation, rice circle culture, and documentaries;Humanistic content is the main, and the combination of humanities and commerce is explored through the differentiation behind categories. Tencent Video is investing in the development of PUGC content, and cooperates with MCN institutions, content production companies, etc., to launch various types of variety shows, fashion festivals, and life Consumption scenarios.
In 2019, Aiyouteng platform entered interactive dramas, such as iQiyi’s “His Smile”, Youku’s “Datang Forensic Doctor”, Tencent Video “The Origin of the Buddha’s Head in the Antique Bureau”, etc., and Introduce standards and related strategies for interactive video.
“Although the interactive video market is hot in 2019, overall, the development of interactive video is still in its infancy, because the batch production capacity of interactive video, the quality level of the plot, and the interactive experience need to be integrated. To improve, user awareness and business models also need to be verified. “Internet analyst Qian Hao believes.
At the same time, the arrival of 5G will also allow more platforms for development. Immersive, ultra-high-definition, and strong interaction will become the main evolutionary direction of video content. The iQiyi CEO Gong Yu previously stated that the impact of 5G on the film and television industry, one is to affect consumer psychology, the other is to promote the emergence of new forms of literary and artistic works, and the third is the cloud-based and intelligent professional production process.
For Aiyou Teng, the copyright of high-quality content continues to go to sea, such as Aiqiyi’s “Icebreaker”, Youku’s “Twelve Hours of Chang’an”, and Tencent Video’s “Chen Qingling”. A film and television practitioner said that the export of high-quality content in the video industry on the one hand is conducive to copying domestic experience overseas and looking for new market growth while the growth of domestic users has slowed down; on the other hand, the population of the Southeast Asian market Many, the mobile Internet is in a rising period, and the difference with domestic culture is relatively small. For video sites, we must seize the opportunity to seize the market.
“Aiyouteng” is becoming increasingly anxious to realise, It is difficult to balance revenue and membership rights
From the perspective of the overall market, the loss of online video platforms is still normal, and even the head platforms still face difficulties in making profits. Although iQiyi and Tencent Video have exceeded 100 million paid member users in 2019, they still cannot make up for the huge losses they have been carrying.
The financial report shows that in the third quarter of 2019, iQiyi ’s revenue was 7.4 billion yuan, with a net loss of 3.7 billion yuan, an increase of 19.4% year-on-year; Youku ’s fiscal second quarter 2020 revenue was 7.29 billion yuan, compared with adjusted EBITA loss Narrowed; although Tencent Video did not disclose specific figures, according to the data collected, advertisers ’forecasted growth rate of marketing budgets has dropped from 27% in 2018 to 19% in 2019.
As the competition in the online video industry intensifies, the value of content can no longer be maintained solely by the “advertising + membership” business model. Many platforms have begun to explore other monetization methods and seek new growth points. And digging into the value of paid members has become one of the directions of the public platforms.
Late 2019, onlineThe realization anxiety of the video platform is particularly prominent. Iqiyi and Tencent Video even use the hit drama “Qing Yu Nian” to launch the “advance on demand” service in an attempt to increase revenue. Specifically, the service pays RMB 50 for the VIP based on the first 6 episodes, and the 6 episodes can be given priority.
However, this model quickly aroused public anger among members and netizens; official media such as People’s Daily also publicly named these two video websites in an endless stream, pointing to their “eating is too ugly.” For a time, iQiyi and Tencent videos were pushed to the forefront. Since then, with the gradual fermentation of public opinion, the platform in question had to respond publicly, admitting that it was “not done well,” and began to reflect on the problems existing in the platform in this incident.
Undoubtedly, this reflects the profit dilemma and pressure faced by video platforms. At present, the main revenue of various video platforms comes from advertising and membership. From the perspective of membership growth, Tencent Video has grown by nearly 40 million members in just one year, but it has increased by only 7 million in the past six months. The video platform has entered membership growth. bottleneck.
In terms of advertising, affected by the economic environment, the capital boom has subsided, and current video platforms are no longer able to support the increasingly expensive content costs. Industry insiders told reporters that with the cold winter in the entertainment industry, advertisers have adopted a conservative attitude towards the overall growth of the marketing budget of video platforms. This is undoubtedly worse for a video platform that achieves a commercial closed loop through “pull new purchases” and merchants to place advertisements.
“Looking internationally, domestic video platforms should refer to Netfilx’s practices to improve the quality of member services and formulate reasonable charging standards to make the transition between new and old users and new opportunities brought by the increased willingness of users to pay. The new value generated by ecological linkage and the vast international market will be opportunities for the domestic video industry. “Industry insiders concluded.
Under the impact of short videos, quality original content becomes a must-have place
Since 2019, content platforms such as Aiyouteng have experienced a decline in user data. On the one hand, due to the impact of policy supervision, the episodes cannot be broadcast on time. The root cause is that the short video boom Shock.
The battle for long and short videos has begun. The scale of short video users exceeds that of long videos for the first time. According to the 44th Statistical Report on the Development of the Internet in China released by CNNIC, as of June 2019, the number of online video users in China reached 759 million, of which the number of long video users was 639 million The number of short video users is 648 million.
In terms of user usage time, according to QuestMobile’s “China Mobile Internet Autumn 2019 Report”, in September 2019, short videos led the entire Internet industry with a high increase of 64.1%, while online video user usage time has fallen out of the top ten .
From the data point of view, this trend has affected the revenue of the three major video platforms
From the perspective of the overall market, the loss of online video platforms is still normal, and even the head platforms still face difficulties in making profits. Although iQiyi and Tencent Video have exceeded 100 million paid member users in 2019, they still cannot make up for the huge losses they have been carrying.
The financial report shows that in the third quarter of 2019, iQiyi ’s revenue was 7.4 billion yuan, with a net loss of 3.7 billion yuan, an increase of 19.4% year-on-year; Youku ’s fiscal second quarter 2020 revenue was 7.29 billion yuan, compared with adjusted EBITA loss Narrowed; although Tencent Video did not disclose specific figures, according to the data collected, advertisers ’forecasted growth rate of marketing budgets has dropped from 27% in 2018 to 19% in 2019.
As the competition in the online video industry intensifies, the value of content can no longer be maintained solely by the “advertising + membership” business model. Many platforms have begun to explore other monetization methods and seek new growth points. And digging into the value of paid members has become one of the directions of the public platforms.
Late 2019, onlineThe realization anxiety of the video platform is particularly prominent. Iqiyi and Tencent Video even use the hit drama “Qing Yu Nian” to launch the “advance on demand” service in an attempt to increase revenue. Specifically, the service pays RMB 50 for the VIP based on the first 6 episodes, and the 6 episodes can be given priority.
However, this model quickly aroused public anger among members and netizens; official media such as People’s Daily also publicly named these two video websites in an endless stream, pointing to their “eating is too ugly.” For a time, iQiyi and Tencent videos were pushed to the forefront. Since then, with the gradual fermentation of public opinion, the platform in question had to respond publicly, admitting that it was “not done well,” and began to reflect on the problems existing in the platform in this incident.
Undoubtedly, this reflects the profit dilemma and pressure faced by video platforms. At present, the main revenue of various video platforms comes from advertising and membership. From the perspective of membership growth, Tencent Video has grown by nearly 40 million members in just one year, but it has increased by only 7 million in the past six months. The video platform has entered membership growth. bottleneck.
In terms of advertising, affected by the economic environment, the capital boom has subsided, and current video platforms are no longer able to support the increasingly expensive content costs. Industry insiders told reporters that with the cold winter in the entertainment industry, advertisers have adopted a conservative attitude towards the overall growth of the marketing budget of video platforms. This is undoubtedly worse for a video platform that achieves a commercial closed loop through “pull new purchases” and merchants to place advertisements.
“Looking internationally, domestic video platforms should refer to Netfilx’s practices to improve the quality of member services and formulate reasonable charging standards to make the transition between new and old users and new opportunities brought by the increased willingness of users to pay. The new value generated by ecological linkage and the vast international market will be opportunities for the domestic video industry. “Industry insiders concluded.