author: Large home entertainment, thematic map from: Vision China

Disney +, a streaming service that has been online for a long time in the United States and many European countries, will finally land on the Japanese market on June 11. It can be said that looking at the global scale, the fierce competition in the Japanese streaming market is probably comparable to that in the United States.

In addition to the various international streaming giants we are familiar with: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV +, DAZN are competing to enter this market, there are as many double-digit local players in Japan as active players: U -NEXT, dTV, FOD, TSUTAYA TV, AbemaTV, Hulu Japan, etc.

In addition, local streaming media has not fallen out of the competition with international giants. According to a report by Japanese film and television research agency GEM Partners last year, in 2019, if it is not a pure DAZN that provides sports live broadcast services, Japanese streaming The top five media market shares still include U-NEXT and dTV local companies.

▲ Screenshot of dTV website

Of course, when it comes to video streaming, an unavoidable problem is the profit problem that comes with its business model.

Whether it is Netflix or Hulu in the United States, or the three-legged iQiyi, Youku and Tencent videos in the domestic market, except for Netflix’s barely realized book profit, most of them are still in the stage of losing money and crying It is Disney +, which is now in full swing, and there is still a long way to go before achieving breakeven.

But looking at the highly competitive Japanese market, whether it is the first Hulu Japan or the rising star dTV, U-NEXT and FOD have achieved profitability while quickly occupying the market. A good external market environment and more differentiated operating strategies have become the key to their success.

A brief history of Japanese streaming media: the triumph of local TV stations, commercial organizations and American streaming tycoons

On April 23, the Japan Digital Content Association released the “Video Distribution Market Research Report 2020”.

In recent years, the association has regularly released estimates of the size of the paid video distribution market. This service market, centered on streaming media such as Hulu and Netflix, allows users to watch TV series and movies directly by paying on the Internet. According to this latest report this year, Japan ’s paid streaming market will reach 277 billion yen in 2019 (about 18.3 billion yuan) , year-on-year An increase of 126%.

What is the size of 277 billion yen?

Just make a comparison to have a clear concept, because the movie box office in Japan for the year 2019 is 261.1 billion yen (Japan Film Producers Association The published data is about 17.27 billion yuan) . In other words, the box office generated by Japanese people watching movies in cinemas is almost the same as the benefits generated by watching movies or TV shows on the Internet.

▲ 2019 Japan Annual Box Office

In Japan, on the one hand, the movie market is still growing, and audiences will still enter the theater in droves on weekends. On the other hand, watching streaming content at home everyday has also become a common consumer behavior.This is the result of the rapid development and widespread popularity of the entire industry since Hulu and other American streaming media landed in Japan 10 years ago.

There is no doubt that the world of streaming media has grown into an area that cannot be ignored. More importantly, despite the increasing number of new players, the size of this market in Japan maintained a year-on-year growth rate of more than 20% in 2019. It can be said that the entire streaming media industry has become an important area supporting the Japanese entertainment industry.

What are the main players that opened this market and expanded rapidly?

The first video streaming service to be launched in Japan is Hulu. The service was originally established by a number of traditional studios in the United States. In 2011, it entered Japan as a foreign company, but was acquired by Japanese TV in 2014. Therefore, Hulu Japan and Hulu, which is fully controlled by Disney, are actually Two companies.

Hulu is still the mainstream player in the US streaming market, with more than 30 million subscribers. Hulu Japan has profited in the first half of 2018 because of its backing of Japan ’s top-rated Japanese TV , while the number of paying users achieved a year-on-year growth of 150% in 2019 and more than 3 million The annual turnover was 68 billion yen.

It is Hulu Japan ’s success as a pioneer and a successful cooperation with traditional Japanese television stations, which has enabled traditional Japanese television stations that have acquired more film and television resources to begin to transform into the streaming media market.

The FOD under Fuji TV is also a streaming service operated by the TV station. Their main original youth-themed genre episodes have attracted a large number of audiences. The most recent popular episode “Tokyo Love Story 2020” was produced by FOD and co-broadcasted with Amazon Prime Video and achieved profitability in 2016. . TBS cooperated with Japan Economic News Group and WOWOW to launch a streaming service called Paravi in ​​2018. In addition to TBS’s popular episodes, users can also watch news programs of Tokyo TV station under Nikkei Group.

▲ Stills of “Tokyo Love Story 2020”

At the same time, NTT DoCoMo, which includes one of Japan ’s three major telecommunications carriers, also launched a streaming service, dTV, in cooperation with Japanese music entertainment company Ibex Group. According to DoCoMo official data, the number of subscribers was close to 5 million, and has brought profits to DoCoMo’s online services business in the past two years.

Of course, among all local Japanese streaming media, U-NEXT has to be mentioned. After its launch in 2007, it did not start independent operations until 2015, but its subsequent trend is quite rapid.

In the Japanese streaming market, the monthly subscription fee ranges from 500 yen (about RMB 30) to 1500 yen varies, but U-NEXT ’s only subscription fee has exceeded 2,000 yen after tax increase (about RMB 120) , 60% of the subscription fee will be converted into points and can be used to redeem online comics and magazines Even offline movie tickets, U-NEXT still maintains a very strong competitiveness. In various market research in the past two years, its market share has remained in the top five, and has brought USEN profit for the entire consecutive years.

Of course, when it comes to the streaming market, the two members that cannot be bypassed are naturally Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The two giants almost entered the Japanese market in 2015, and since then, the development of the entire streaming media industry has been iterating at a faster rate.

Netflix ’s original content and distinctive advertising campaign are its biggest advantages. But in the early morning, for many Japanese people, European and American TV series and unfamiliar Hollywood actors, it is difficult to show them appeal. It is also true that Netflix began to create more original content based on the local Japanese, from “Spark” to “Nude Supervision” and massive animation content. Stable and continuous expansion of its sphere of influence, GEM Partners latest survey