Zhihu, forced to live stream

On September 30, a Zhihu user said that he had received an official invitation from Zhihu and Zhihu Live will be officially launched on October 11.

Just one day later, on October 12, the live broadcast port located in the upper right corner of Zhihu "disappeared". According to Ma Li, the first anchor on Zhihu and an excellent answerer on topics such as user experience design, "Zhihu Live has temporarily closed its entrance because it needs to be developed and improved. It is estimated that it will be open again in a week. There are functions to be upgraded, so it is temporarily hidden."

After seeking confirmation from Zhihu, Douban Entertainment received a reply saying: the live broadcast function has just started testing, "We have invited some anchors to test the live broadcast. We hope to further debug and optimize both technology and content based on the operation status and feedback, so as to bring better user experience." In other words, live broadcast is still in multiple rounds of technical adjustments and function improvements, and will be fully open in the future.

Ma Li also stated in his Zhihu "Thoughts" that he will connect with one of the behind-the-scenes bosses of the live streaming industry, Liu Yaping, Momo's vice president of product, tonight to continue testing the waters for Zhihu live streaming.

Douban Entertainment Investment also found that on October 11, Zhihu Live did not support clicking on the live broadcaster's avatar to jump to the user's homepage, but on the 14th, the function could already achieve full jump.

Therefore, Zhihu’s live broadcast port may appear and disappear for a period of time and be updated from time to time.

Regarding the launch of Zhihu live streaming, although the functional experience is still being further improved, related discussions have gradually unfolded, and voices of pessimism or doubt are heard everywhere. As the largest knowledge content community in China, every adjustment and change of Zhihu’s community functions is accompanied by huge controversy. This time it is still the old problem that Zhihu has always talked about - "commercialization". I wonder if Zhihu can catch the live broadcast trend?

Zhihu Live is still a story of paid knowledge

If they hadn’t seen the news reports, many old Zhihu users would not have noticed that Zhihu has launched the live broadcast function. Currently, Zhihu’s live broadcast entrance is located in the upper left corner of the homepage. After clicking in, you can see the live content stream. Users can make an appointment to watch, and the start button is hidden in the upper right corner of the secondary page. It is not placed in the entire Zhihu content flow like short videos, nor is it strongly promoted on the opening screen or homepage. Overall, it appears to be quite low-key.

In addition to the independent live broadcast page, you can also see the live broadcast preview in the live broadcaster's "ideas". The relevant presentation of the live broadcast cannot be seen in the "recommended" content stream. Zhihu told Doujiao Entertainment Investment that "in the future, high-quality live broadcast content will enter the recommended content stream." This also means that by then, live broadcasting will become a standard means and regular content in Zhihu's content ecology, just like short videos.

On the 11th, users could see their homepage information by clicking on the live broadcaster's avatar on the live broadcast page, but were unable to jump to the live broadcaster's homepage. Today, the jump function has been fully realized. When browsing the live broadcast content, users can view the live broadcaster's past information to complete their psychological expectations of the live broadcast, and at the same time increase fans and divert traffic to the live broadcaster.

Zhihu Video currently supports user questions, comments, online conversations, rewards, and other behaviors. Reward gifts are in "salt grains" and a variety of gifts with different "salt grains" are set up. You can reward applause with 0 salt grains, and it also supports the highest reward of 888 salt grains for "learned people". The settlement between salt grains and RMB is 1 RMB equals 10 salt grains, which basically follows the normal rules for reward settings in the live broadcast industry. Currently, it supports two payment methods: WeChat and Alipay.

As the first anchor of Zhihu, Ma Li's live broadcast on noon on October 11 lasted nearly two hours and was watched by more than 8,000 people. Zhihu CEO Zhou Yuan also gave gifts during the live broadcast to show encouragement. Zhihu Live supports replay, but it seems that the link can only be found in the live broadcaster’s "Thoughts" dynamics. The entrance is deep and not easy to be discovered.

When many people mention live streaming, they think it has a strong entertainment attribute, and naturally associate it with internet celebrities chatting with others. However, looking at Zhihu live streaming, in the selection and presentation of live streamers and live content, it has not deviated from the scope of knowledge payment, and the content is still organized around knowledge. It is more like a video version of Zhihu Live, and is also somewhat similar to the "professional broadcast" function of Maimai.

The unpopular Zhihu live broadcast

"Zhihu is doing live streaming? This goes against Zhihu's simple style, and does not fit in with Zhihu's audience circle and user habits." Many people's first reaction when hearing that Zhihu has launched live streaming is two words: it doesn't match.

That’s right, Zhihu has been based on pictures and texts from the very beginning, and pictures and texts themselves are more suitable for the presentation and dissemination of serious content. Later, the short video function was launched, which has made the outside world call it Weibo-like and joke-like. Now that the live broadcast function has been launched, some people have criticized it as "the sinking and fall of an elite community towards mass entertainment."

An Internet product manager said, "In the final analysis, I don't think Zhihu has the genes for live streaming."

Just discussing the live broadcast itself, Zhihu live broadcast seems to be difficult to avoid the problems of fragmentation and low knowledge concentration. Ma Li also admitted when answering related questions: "It feels more suitable for interactive and relatively fragmented sharing. Sharing that is too systematic may make it difficult for users to stop throughout the whole process, but by answering questions and chatting, it is easier for everyone to participate." For now, Zhihu live broadcast does not seem to have solved the problem of uneven content quality that existed in Zhihu Live in the past, especially since live broadcast is a kind of thing that is more difficult to control the quality of content.

Of course, one way to combat fragmentation and low sense of achievement is to increase the fun. If the live broadcast can be made like Gao Xiaosong's "Xiao Shuo" where people can chat and gossip, it may be a good way. But the problem is how many live broadcasters can achieve interesting explanations? What I’m afraid of is that I feel low sense of achievement and feel bored. At this point, the effective length of time that users stay on the live broadcast is very telling.

Some industry insiders even said that "live streaming is not a way to learn knowledge, but a follow and entertainment behavior based on strong fan relationships."

When various gifts and comments scrolled onto the live broadcast interface of Zhihu celebrities, some people thought that this kind of reward behavior, which was normal in the live show room, was full of an inexplicable sense of flattery and even cheapness on Zhihu.

Some people even made the judgment and opinion that "this fully demonstrates that the iron hooves of the barbarians will eventually trample on civilized society, and Kuaishou will inevitably reap the content platform."

"Either we should strengthen the purpose and move towards education. The current live broadcast content is still biased towards paid knowledge. How many people have this demand, or this demand is not met by e-books, private lessons, Live, etc., so why do we need live broadcast?" Some industry insiders believe that Zhihu live broadcast has not broadened the scene of knowledge acquisition, and has not provided better solutions to the problems that existed in the past. "It does not have the kind of eye-opening feeling."

From a corporate perspective, live streaming is clearly another commercialization attempt by Zhihu and a step closer to a mature profit model. However, there are huge question marks as to what extent it can actually be useful to Zhihu, how much actual revenue it can generate for Zhihu, and whether it can become a success. After all, if you look at it from a broader perspective, Zhihu has neither barriers nor exclusive competitiveness in live streaming.

"I don't deny that it might be a pretty good thing, maybe it could get 6 or 7 points, but what Zhihu needs is obviously something with a score of 8 or above to solve its current practical problems."

Many people are not optimistic about the prospects of Zhihu live streaming, but from Zhihu's perspective, there seems to be no more effective way to break through. In the past few years, many media and big Vs have discussed it over and over again, but have not been able to really come to an conclusion. Therefore, live streaming seems to have become a straw that breaks the camel's back for Zhihu. Whether it is a compromise or helplessness, Zhihu must seize it. Perhaps only by trying will there be a chance.

No need to be afraid of live broadcast

While many people are eager to express their disapproval of Zhihu, there are also rational and tolerant voices.

Ma Li believes that one of the major advantages of Zhihu live streaming is that it lowers the threshold for producing content for people who don’t mind being in the spotlight. “The cost of writing text is relatively higher. It is easier to produce content by interacting with everyone directly, just like chatting face to face.” If the live broadcaster controls it well, it may be possible to turn a live broadcast into a small sharing session. It is even possible to gain thousands or tens of thousands of fans through a live broadcast. This will also attract more big Vs to pay attention to live broadcasts and polish the live broadcast content, which will help improve the content quality of the live broadcast industry and thus form a virtuous circle.

Ma Li also proposed Zhihu's question-and-answer function, which can structure video content in the future, cut out videos of different questions, and put them into Zhihu's content ecosystem.

There are also many excellent answerers on Zhihu who spontaneously participate in the discussion about Zhihu Live.

Zhihu celebrity Zhuang Zexi believes that the essence of Zhihu live streaming is to chat with interesting people. "After all, those interesting souls used to only appear in two-dimensional pictures and texts, but now they can communicate and discuss directly, which is a good thing in terms of satisfying fans. However, she believes that a good atmosphere should be cultivated: the habit of rewarding the anchor only when he answers my questions and only when he talks about useful information will develop in a healthy way. It is better not to create an awkward situation where the anchor uses knowledge to trade with the audience.

Zhihu arbitrator Dee believes that the changes brought about by Zhihu live broadcast are: "demand has changed from knowledge to content, the focus has changed from information to people, and consumption has changed from rational to emotional."

On the other hand, live streaming is becoming a standard feature of various video websites and information platforms in the form of tools and plug-ins. Whether it is Youku, iQiyi, Tencent Video, Toutiao, or Tiantian Kuaibao, live streaming is becoming a fixed page at the bottom. From this perspective, Zhihu's introduction of live streaming is not abrupt, but reasonable.

"Live streaming is a mature business model that has been proven by the market. The key to Zhihu lies in how to adapt to local conditions." Some media have previously expressed their attitude towards Zhihu's live streaming in this way.

Whether it is a helpless move under the business model or it is following the "trend" of the market form, after all, Zhihu Live is only a new feature that has been online for 2 days and is in the internal testing and continuous adjustment. Who says Zhihu will not start a new wave of knowledge live streaming? Or perhaps, from the countryside to the city, from cooking to makeup, everything is knowledge and everything can be live-streamed.

At the same time, Zhihu has never stopped its exploration of commercialization, but this year it seems particularly urgent. From the first launch of the site-wide membership service "Yanxuan Membership" at the beginning of the year, to the PGC production of "Lang Lang's Piano Lesson" to improve the quality of Zhihu course content, to the launch of MCN agency recruitment and internal testing of "Goods Recommendation" in August, and now the launch of the live broadcast function to enrich users' monetization channels. Zhihu has been trying its best to run a sustainable business model.

Obviously, Baidu's investment of US$434 million cannot solve Zhihu's long-standing profit problem, nor can it alleviate Zhihu's anxiety. Will live streaming be a shot of stimulant or a panacea? Perhaps Zhihu's more than 220 million users will give the answer with their feet.

Author: Doujiao Entertainment

Source: Doujiao Entertainment Investment (ID: ylwanjia)