Works of Tiger Sniffing Mobile Information Group
Author | Hu Zhanjia
Title Map | Visual China
“At the beginning of this year, Yiming asked me to talk about the business of Watermelon…. Said Watermelon Video does not have to worry about money… So Watermelon Video has no pressure on profit.”
At the Watermelon PLAY Curiosity Conference on October 20, Watermelon Video President Ren Lifeng said that in the next year, Watermelon will spend at least 2 billion yuan to subsidize creators, and through in-depth linkage with Douyin at the product level, Support high-quality Chinese video creators.
As soon as the news came out, it immediately caused waves. The last time the watermelon video attracted such a large amount of attention was the transfer of “囧 Ma” in January this year, which ByteDance spent 630 million yuan in cooperation with Huanxi Media. At that time, it was affected by the epidemic. , The 2020 Spring Festival Lunar New Year film “囧 Ma” announced that it will be freely played on online platforms such as Douyin, Toutiao, Watermelon Video, and Douyin Volcano on the first day of the new year.
This is regarded as an important landmark event for the watermelon video to hit the long video and hit the hinterland of Aiyouteng. However, Bytedance won the right to play “囧Mom” online, a six-month cooperation period After the end, when Watermelon Video had not really gained a foothold in the long video field, Station B took over Huanxi Media and slowly took a seemingly “right” path.
On August 31 this year, Station B and Huanxi Media signed a long-term cooperation agreement. Huanxi Media will allocate 347 million subscription shares to Station B, accounting for 9.9% of the issued shares. Station B subscribed for HK$513 million and surpassed Maoyan Entertainment became the fourth largest institutional shareholder of Huanxi Media.
In addition, in the agreement at the time, one of the items stated that station B had the exclusive right to broadcast the content of Huanxi Media, the youth drama “The Sky of the Wind Dog” directed by Zhang Yibai and the film “Winning the Championship” directed by Chen Kexin Metropolis will exclusively land at Station B. Judging from the Douban score of 7.9, “The Sky of the Wind Dog” has become a dark horse.
When Watermelon Video struggled to find a way to break the game, Station B has already tasted the sweetness for the first time. The watermelon video made a heavy investment of 2 billion yuan to re-enter the Chinese video, and the video war has revived. Watermelon video suddenly refocused on the video? What is the current pattern of the track?
New melee in video?
Before the watermelon video, the industry did not give a clear judgment on the specific definition of China Video.
According to Ren Lifeng, different from long and short videos, there are three main characteristics of medium videos:
First of all, in terms of duration, the Chinese video is mainly 1 minute to 30 minutes of video content, during which the creator can tell a complete story.
Secondly, in terms of form, unlike short videos, which are mainly vertical screens, the majority of medium videos are horizontal screens.
On production again, PGC accounted for a higher proportion of China Video creators, which means that China Video has a certain production threshold.
And bytedance’s support for China’s video business, one month ago, there are traces to follow. On September 15th, at the 2nd Douyin Creation Conference in Shanghai, the CEO of Beijing Bytedance Zhang Nan Zhang Nan released an 80 billion yuan creator incentive plan at the conference, which includes support for video creators in China.
“Medium video viewing time has accounted for more than 20% of Douyin’s total time.” At the conference, Ren Lifeng emphasized that the rising viewing data is also the biggest motivation for the heavy increase of watermelon video.
Today’s additional 2 billion yuan. According to Ren Lifeng, this 2 billion yuan does not include any business orders, live broadcasts, and e-commerce revenue. It is a pure subsidy through exploring the “guarantee + share” model to help the video creator career 化. Secondly, 2 billion yuan is only a guaranteed figure, not a cap.
At the scene, Zhang Nan also mentioned the current user data of ByteDance’s short video product Douyin. As of August 2020, including Douyin Volcano, the number of daily active users of Douyin has exceeded 600 million. .
According to research reports released by industry professional research institutions, Douyin has added 2.85 million live streamers in the first six months of this year, with a total of 55.31 million live broadcasts. Compared with this, Kuaishou added 720,000 live streamers in the first 6 months, and the total number of live broadcasts was 12.73 million. Although Douyin’s growth in both anchors and live broadcasts is higher than Kuaishou’s, the comparison of the two sides’ sales with goods is 11.9 billion yuan to 104.4 billion. Kuaishou is almost 10 times that of Douyin.
Bytedance’s achievements in the field of short videos are obvious to all. From short videos to e-commerce, it has already formed a full-scale confrontation with Kuaishou. Now the video is in force. It can be said that after the short video traffic gradually peaked, Seeking another growth path.
In fact, before ByteDance officially put forward the concept of “Chinese Video”, major platforms, both old and new, had already made efforts in this field.
In July of this year, Weibo launched the “Weibo Video Number Plan”. The platform said it would invest 1 billion precision advertising resources and 30 billion top exposure resources in the next year. Through the advertising sharing model, 500 million cash will be used to support creation. , Has attracted more than 500,000 authors.
In October this year, Baidu launched its independent video App Baidu Kan, positioned as a comprehensive video recommendation and video search platform for sharing life and exploring the world. According to Tech Planet report, “Baidu Kankan” can be regarded as a sister version of “Mobile Baidu”, but its development direction is more vertical, focusing more on the presentation and extension of video content.
On the new battlefield of this giant, WeChat and Zhihu are not to be outdone. WeChat has been online for more than 1 minute to upload videos; Zhihu has added a “Video” section on the homepage, and the main duration is maintained at 3 to 5 minutes. In time, a video production tool was launched to start the war in the form of converting pictures from text to video.
“The scene of the melee of Chinese video heroes kicked off. The next thing to compete is the content creation ability of each company and the tastes and preferences of users An industry insider who did not want to be named said that he believes that this is another way for major platforms to find themselves. After all, the competition for short videos has heated up, and long videos have been verified by the three major video platforms. A very inefficient battlefield.
The various actions and attempts of the platform seem to tell the outside world that the era of China Video is coming, but as far as the above-mentioned industry insiders are concerned, is this a new outlet?
Are there any chances in the video?
At the 8th China Internet Audiovisual Conference, a set of data proved that short video has long been a time-killing weapon. The “2020 China Internet Audiovisual Development Research Report” released by the Internet Audiovisual Association shows that as of June 2020, my country’s Internet The number of audiovisual users reached 901 million, an increase of 43.8 million from March 2020, and the utilization rate of Internet users was 95.8%. In each segmentIn the field, the user utilization rate of short videos is the highest, reaching 87.0%, and the number of users is 818 million.
Data shows that in the second half of 2018, the average daily use time of short video applications exceeded that of integrated video applications, becoming the first in the field of online audiovisual applications; as of June 2020, the average daily use time of short video applications was 110 minutes per person per day. Use time surpasses instant messaging.
In addition, in the online audiovisual industry, the short video market accounted for the largest proportion, reaching 130.24 billion. Short video is still penetrating into multiple fields such as e-commerce, live broadcasting, education, and gradually affecting the online audiovisual industry Changes in the pattern. The pattern of the short video field has been determined. The dual giants of Douyin and Kuaishou have been maintained for a long time. Where is the space for China Video?
As we all know, whether it is a long video or a short video, it is essentially a battle for traffic.
“Short videos are in charge of entrance, long videos are in charge of precipitation, short videos have strong product power, and long videos require short videos, whether it is movies, TV or variety works.” In the 8th China Network Audiovisual At the conference, Wu Yan, the founder and CEO of Yingmei Media, said that he said that short videos do occupy the time of long videos to some extent. For many long videos, the traffic and time have been earned by short videos, but this It does not mean that the long video has no traffic.
From a marketing perspective, according to Wu Yan, short videos have formed a great diversion effect on long videos. “Many films have more than 1 billion topics, and 3 to 4 films have This is how it works.”
Wu Yan said that the audiences are more concerned about the precipitation of the story, the extension of the plot, and the future direction of the human set for the dramas they put on the long video platform. After the promotion of short videos, the popularity will increase significantly.
“The leading works in the field of long videos, short videos have expanded the marketing portal for them, and more people have settled them. From the overall situation, it seems that short videos have invaded the long video time, but from the core Go watch it, the short video also promotes and promotes the head minister videoWith the development, more content will be seen by users, detonate and spread, and extend word of mouth and potential energy. “Wu Yan said at the conference.
Yin Chao, founder and CEO of Taomeng, said at the 8th Internet Audiovisual Conference that long and short videos are a process of symbiosis, and user needs are met at different latitudes.
In this case, China Video’s admission is trying to break this situation. “Compared with short videos, China Video’s PGC creators account for a higher proportion, and creators need to invest more energy in special production.” Ren Lifeng at Watermelon PLAY Expressed at the curiosity conference.
This also means that, in terms of professional production capabilities, China Video is between short videos that everyone can participate in and long videos that require more professional long video production techniques. But, as Ren Lifeng said, this is a new The creative opportunity that should not be missed is still unknown.
According to industry insiders, China Video currently does not have the momentum. First of all, the base of creators is not as large as that of short videos, and the supply of content will be far from that of short videos, and the production rhythm is not as good as that. Short videos are fast, and relying on the platform to burn money may support some creators, but there is still a lack of content continuity.
write at the end
Although everyone is currently enthusiastic about the Chinese video track, the core of this track remains the same as the long video.
“In the early stage, I still used money and burned money to buy the market. This is the gene and basic operation of this industry.” During the interview, a film and television practitioner said.
The public has long been familiar with the competition games that video platforms burn money. The major video websites have been in the quagmire of losses for a long time. This is also due to the continuous copyright war, forcing them to spend huge sums of money to buy copyrights. So as to enhance the competitiveness of the content level.
Take iQiyi as an example. On August 14 this year, iQiyi’s unaudited financial report for the second quarter ending June 31, 2020 showed that iQiyi’s net loss for the second quarter of 2020 was RMB 1.4 billion yuan (approximately 204.1 million US dollars), a net loss of 2.3 billion yuan in the same period last year.
The essence of the loss is that the platform burns money to buy content. At the content level, iQiyi has gradually increased its investment. “Mist Theater”, “Lianlian Theater”, and “Xiaodou Theater” are ensuring the quality of content. At the same time, both require capital investment and construction to continue to lead the market.
For video sites, as long as the burning of money stops, the competitive advantage will be fastWill be lost. Of course, the “new things” emerging at the moment-China Video is no exception.
Quibi, a Chinese video platform that burned nearly 10 billion in two years, is proof. According to reports from “The Verge”, Quibi announced its official closure on Wednesday, US time. The analysis pointed out that Quibi’s experience also showed that the PGC method was chosen to break new routes between the long episodes and short videos, which failed.
For ByteDance, Watermelon Video spent a lot of money in the early stage, and it may be possible to ignore profit pressure, but if it goes on for a long time, the Chinese video competition will continue the old way of burning money for long videos, and it will be difficult to say who is the real one. Winner.