Douyu Live Product Analysis Report!

Game players should be familiar with Douyu Live, which is a barrage-style live broadcast sharing website that provides users with video live broadcast and event live broadcast services. It focuses on game live streaming, and covers a variety of live content such as entertainment, variety shows, sports, and outdoor activities.

The predecessor of Douyu Live was ACFUN Live Broadcast, which was officially changed to Douyu TV on January 1, 2014. Later, with the capital injection from Alpha Animation, Sequoia Capital, Tencent and other companies, the company developed rapidly. By 2018, it had basically achieved one of the top positions in the domestic game live streaming field.

On July 17, 2019, Douyu Live was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

Article Structure

The author analyzes Douyu Live from the following aspects:

1. Douyu Live Functional Structure and User Path
2. Market Analysis
3. User Analysis
4. Functional iteration
5. Summarize

1. Functional structure and user path

1.1 Functional structure diagram

Douyu Live is divided into 6 sections according to its functional structure: live, community, search, ranking, mine, and discovery, as shown in the figure below.

Figure 1.1 Douyu Live Functional Structure

1.2 User Usage Path Map

Figure 1.2 Watching the live broadcast room you have followed

Figure 1.3 Entering Fish Bar

Figure 1.4 I want to watch live broadcast, but there is no designated live broadcast room

2. Market Analysis

2.1 Douyu Development History

2.2 Market Positioning

Douyu mainly focuses on game live streaming, including online game competitions, stand-alone popular games and mobile game leisure, as well as some entertainment live streaming such as appearance, outdoor, science and technology education and voice live streaming.

The main audience of game live streaming is relatively young, approximately between the ages of 18 and 35; the average age of other types of live streaming may be slightly older, so take what you like.

Although Douyu has many types of live broadcasts, according to the rankings, game live broadcasts are still the main force.

In the online game competition category, the anchor who ranks tenth in fans can reach the third place in the non-game ranking. Although Douyu may develop non-game live streaming in the future, at present, Douyu Live is still positioned as game live streaming.

2.3 User scale prediction

Douyu’s main business is game live streaming, so the user ceiling is calculated based on game players.

I believe that as the market expands and society's recognition of games gradually increases, all game players can become our target users. However, due to some family, social, age and other issues, the age ratio of users will not change much for the time being, so I chose gamers aged 25-35 as the basis for calculation.

The user scale of the game market in my country in 2017 was 583 million people, of which the 25-35 year old age group accounted for 46%, that is, the user scale of the 25-35 year old game market in my country in 2017 was 268 million people.

According to iResearch data, people aged 25-35 account for 66% of all Douyu live broadcast users. Based on this user group, it can be calculated that the ceiling of Douyu user numbers is 406 million people.

2.4 Competitive Product Analysis

At present, Douyu Live and Huya Live are the main platforms in the field of game live streaming. They are far ahead of other live streaming platforms in terms of active users and network penetration rate. Therefore, Huya was selected for this competitive product analysis.

Figure 2.1 Active users and network penetration rate of major game anchor platforms Data source: Analysys Qianfan

2.4.1 Overall Performance

Figure 2.2 The number of Douyu Live and Huya Live devices and their month-on-month growth rate in the past year Data source: iResearch

By observing the data from August 2018 to April 2019, we can see that Douyu Live and Huya Live are comparable in terms of monthly independent device numbers and month-on-month growth, with Douyu Live slightly ahead of Huya Live in terms of independent device numbers.

Figure 2.3 Data comparison between Douyu Live and Huya Live Data source: Analysys Qianfan

From this picture, we can see that Douyu’s active users and usage time are higher than Huya’s, but its next-month retention rate, average daily usage time per person, and monthly usage days are lower than Huya’s.

2.4.2 User stickiness analysis

In the overall performance, we can see that although the two software have little difference in overall data, if we look closely we can see that Huya's user stickiness is higher than Douyu, and the gap is gradually widening. With the help of the following pictures, you can see it more intuitively.

Figure 2.4 Comparison of the next month retention rates of Douyu Live and Huya Live Data source: Analysys Qianfan

Figure 2.5 Comparison of average daily usage time of Douyu Live and Huya Live Data source: Analysys Qianfan

Figure 2.6 Comparison of average monthly usage days of Douyu Live and Huya Live Data source: Analysys Qianfan

By the second half of 2017, various game live streaming platforms had passed the exploration period, and everyone was more focused on attracting users through high-quality content. So by comparing the events of Douyu and Huya at the time, I chose three factors: anchors, technology, and events.

2.4.2.1 Anchor

As public figures, anchors have extraordinary influence. The number of anchors with big IPs a platform has can largely determine the platform's traffic. Therefore, live streaming platforms are willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to hire major anchors.

Figure 2.7 Signing platforms and fees of some anchors Data source: Today’s Internet Celebrities, Huachuang Securities (2016 data)

However, the current models of Douyu and Huya in cultivating anchors are different. Douyu operates top anchors, while Huya creates mid-to-top anchors.

Although each leading platform has its own powerful anchors, the top anchors were all trained by Douyu or jumped to Douyu. Huya was split from YY and inherited the powerful guild power of YY Voice in its early years. The guild made an indelible contribution to the creation of top anchors.

But compared with Douyu, Huya hopes to disperse user attention and not concentrate the weight on a single anchor.

Anchors are a double-edged sword: on the one hand, they bring their own traffic and can attract more users to the platform; on the other hand, when the anchors have enough traffic, their bargaining power increases, the platform's ability to control them weakens, and there is a higher risk of user loss.

By comparing user usage and anchor flow, this risk does exist and has a huge impact.

Figure 2.8 The flow of top anchors on Douyu Live and Huya Live Data source: Jianshu

In 2017, there was a frequent turnover of top anchors, and Douyu Live and Huya Live also poached each other's talents many times. In terms of specific changes, Douyu Live signed several top anchors with super traffic in the early part of 2017, and the user flow was positive throughout the year (inflow > outflow). However, it encountered scandals such as "cheating" and "wage arrears" in the second half of the year, resulting in a gradual loss of anchors at this stage.

In contrast, Huya Live had negative user mobility throughout the year (inflow < outflow) due to the loss of top anchors with super traffic. However, it stopped the loss of anchors in the second half of 2017 and signed several top anchors, showing a steadily upward trend. The anchor mobility trend was basically in line with the user usage of that year.

Therefore, the number and quality of anchors largely determine user stickiness.

2.4.2.2 Technology

As a technology-driven company, Huya has spared no effort in improving user experience, especially in terms of clarity, a key pain point in game live streaming. Huya has won unanimous recognition from users with its high-bitrate Blu-ray clarity.

In 2017, Huya worked closely with Intel to launch Super Blu-ray, a cinema-level live broadcast quality. After a year of technological improvement, in 2018 Huya supported up to 20M Blu-ray and overcame client limitations, becoming the first live broadcast platform to support three-end Blu-ray. Huya became the clearest of all platforms at the time.

Figure 2.9 Comparison of image quality of some live broadcast platforms Data source: China.com

In addition, Huya also uses AI technology to analyze live broadcast content, intelligently identify platform content, and provide different label filters for audiences with different needs. This is equivalent to the algorithm recommendations of many internal information platforms, and increases user stickiness through precise push. This technology application won the Innovation Award at the 2017 China Online Performance (Live Broadcast) Industry Summit.

2.4.2.3 Game events

Currently, most game live streaming platforms are for competitive games. The competitions in these games are highly entertaining, and the participation and enthusiasm of gamers are very high. This is definitely an opportunity that cannot be missed for game live streaming platforms.

The main game types are League of Legends (LOL), Honor of Kings, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG). The main types of competitions are divided into two types: official game events and third-party platform-organized events.

League of Legends (LOL) is mainly divided into five major regions: LPL (Mainland China), LCK (Japan and South Korea), LCS (NA) (North America), LCS (EU) (Europe), and LMS (Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau). Huya Live obtained all the broadcasting rights for these five major regions in early 2018, and Huya even obtained the exclusive broadcasting rights for the Korean region (LCK), which is second only to the Chinese region in popularity.

In comparison, Douyu only has the broadcasting rights for one Chinese mainland competition area (LPL), which makes it seem a bit weak.

There is currently only one official tournament for Honor of Kings, KPL. Since it is a game produced by Tencent, Tencent's Penguin Esports, as well as Douyu Live and Huya Live, of which Tencent is the largest shareholder, all have the broadcasting rights.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), currently the highest level PUBG competition in China is none other than PCPI. The champion of PCPI can directly get a direct ticket to the global league PGI.

There are three events in the second half of 2018 where PCPI points can be earned, namely the ongoing Douyu Golden Grand Prix, the IMBA Super League and the Huya Destiny Cup.

Both the Douyu Golden Grand Prix and the Huya Destiny Cup are self-organized events on the platform and are officially certified, but when compared with the Baidu search index, the popularity of the competitions is obvious.

Figure 2.10 Comparison of Baidu search indexes for Huya Tianming Cup (blue) and Douyu Golden Grand Prix (green) Data source: Baidu Index

2.4.3 Analysis of Douyu’s data anomalies in April 2015

Figure 2.11 Comparison of active users of Douyu Live and Huya Live in the past year Data source: Analysys Qianfan

Figure 2.12 Comparison of the average daily active users of Douyu Live and Huya Live in the past year Data source: Analysys Qianfan

We can see that except for the period from June to September 2015 when the number of Douyu users surged, and then declined from October 2015 to January 2016, in other time periods, the number of users of Douyu Live and Huya Live basically grew or declined simultaneously, with Douyu Live slightly ahead of Huya Live.

But by comparing it to the picture below, you can find something very interesting.

Figure 2.13 Comparison of average daily usage time of Douyu Live and Huya Live Data source: Analysys Qianfan

Although the number of Douyu users increased sharply from June to September 2015, the average usage time per person fell to the bottom, at one point differing by more than ten times.

I looked up the news about Douyu at the time and found that from May to August 2015, Douyu platform mishandled its relationship with some well-known anchors, resulting in a large loss of resources, which can well explain why users' usage time has shortened.

However, the increase in the number of active users means that more users downloaded the Douyu Live app during this period, but the average daily viewing time did not exceed 10 minutes. For a platform that focuses on game live streaming, the average daily viewing time per person is too short.

Taking the then-popular League of Legends (LOL) as an example, a single game of this game lasts about 30 to 40 minutes, which means that during this time period, Douyu users only watched less than one game before exiting the software, which is inconsistent with general user behavior.

I found the download volume during this period on KuChuan.com (only data from September 2015 onwards). It can be clearly seen that the number of user downloads surged in September 2015, and the number of user uninstalls also skyrocketed in December 2015. The author thought that the reason for the surge in downloads and uninstalls might be that Douyu did some activities, such as receiving rewards for watching for 10 minutes a day, but I did not find similar activities on the Internet, so there is no reasonable explanation for the abnormal user data during this period.

According to netizens, this may be related to Douyu hiring internet trolls, but this statement has no evidence to support it, so it cannot be used as a conclusion for the time being.

Figure 2.14 2015.09—2016.01 Douyu Live App downloads Data source: Kuchuan.com

2.4.4 Baidu Index Analysis

Figure 2.15 Number of reports on Douyu Live (blue) and Huya Live (green) in Internet news Data source: Baidu Index

This picture shows the situation of Douyu Live and Huya Live in Baidu Index.

We can see that during the period from March to May 2018, Huya Live experienced significant ups and downs, which were mainly related to financing and listing. In March 2018, Tencent invested 6.9 billion in Huya and Douyu, two major platforms, and Huya prepared for its IPO; in May, Huya successfully landed on the New York Stock Exchange. Apart from this, there is little change in other time periods.

Douyu Live is even more ups and downs. I checked the data anomalies shown by the red dots in the figure one by one.

• In September 2015, Wang Sicong founded Panda TV, and many Douyu anchors switched to the Panda platform;
• In January 2016, Douyu live broadcast of making a baby (pornographic);
• In February, female anchor Guo Mini took off her clothes on live broadcast;
• In March, it received $100 million in financing led by Tencent, and several live streaming platforms were criticized by CCTV;
• In April, Douyu, Panda TV and other live streaming platforms were investigated;
• In May, the first e-sports live broadcast dispute was settled: Douyu lost the case;
• In June, LOL anchor Ayi played for him;
• In July, the Ministry of Culture investigated and punished 26 live streaming platforms including Douyu;
• In August, the company completed a C round of financing of RMB 1.5 billion;

Apart from the financing situation, the rest are all negative news about Douyu. Although for game live streaming platforms, most of the online reports are negative news, it can be clearly seen that the amount of negative news about Douyu live streaming platform is far more than that of Huya live streaming.

2.4.5 AppStore Rating Comparison

Figure 2.16 AppStore ratings of Douyu Live (above) and Huya Live (below) Data source: Qimai Data

We can see that Huya Live scores slightly higher than Douyu Live, but if we look closely we can find a very interesting point, that is, the scores of the two live streaming software are basically concentrated between 5 points and 1 point, and there are very few 2/3/4 points.

I summarized the reasons for the 5 points, which are nothing more than the fact that there are many anchors, complete resources, and the software is easy to use. The two software are not much different. However, the reasons for one star vary, summarized as follows (since 2019):

The reason for Douyu's one-star rating (excluding meaningless negative reviews):

1. The platform banned some anchors but did not give a reason;
2. Netizens believe that some anchors use plug-ins, but the platform has not responded;
3. A netizen was cheated when looking for a proxy player on the platform, and the platform did not respond.

The reason why Huya gave it one star (excluding meaningless negative reviews):

1. User data management issues, such as automatic subscription to certain anchors without user permission, loss of props, etc.
2. The video playback is stuck due to reasons other than network reasons;
3. Huya mismanaged the guild.

We can see that although the two software have a large number of one-star reviews, the reasons are completely different. The negative reviews of Huya are mostly due to technical problems such as database and server. Occasionally there are negative reviews such as anchors cheating, but they are relatively rare; while Douyu’s negative reviews are mostly due to problems with the management of anchors.

Looking back at Douyu’s development history, there was an incident where many well-known anchors collectively left the platform from May to August 2015, which led to a sharp decline in the usage of Douyu. However, by observing user reviews over the past year, Douyu is still in a state of inaction, which is a great harm to users and may lead to a loss of users.

2.5 Summary

Judging from the data, Douyu is still a leader in the field of game live streaming, and it has also recently submitted a prospectus. Although there have been some twists and turns, it has been successfully listed. It seems that Douyu's development momentum is still very good.

However, through the previous analysis we can also see some problems in Douyu's development: First of all, its attitude towards anchors. Looking at Douyu's development history, it was once very popular because of some big anchors, and it also fell to the bottom because of some big anchors. Douyu currently has no shortage of big anchors, nor does it lack the ability to create anchors from the grassroots.

How to handle the relationship with the anchors to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results is what I think Douyu needs to solve most.

The second is the control of game content, including striving for more event broadcasts, and how to deal with issues such as cheating, proxy gaming, and pornography involving anchors.

3. User Analysis

3.1 Attribute Analysis

3.1.1 Gender analysis

Figure 3.1 Gender ratio of Douyu Live users Data source: iResearch

We can see that Douyu Live basically maintains a ratio of males at around 76% and females at around 24%. Male users are three times as many as female users, which is not unrelated to the positioning of the live broadcast platform.

According to statistics, the gender distribution of China's overall game users in 2018 was 75.9% and 24.1% male and female respectively, which is basically consistent with the proportion of Douyu's population.

3.1.2 Age Analysis

Figure 3.2 Age ratio of Douyu live streaming users Data source: iResearch

The age group of Douyu users is mainly concentrated between 25 and 35 years old, accounting for more than 60%.

The first main force is 30-35 years old. Most people in this age group have already started a family, and their living habits and pace of life have not changed much. They rarely have a lot of time to play games, but the fragmented time of live streaming is very suitable for them.

The second main force is 25-30 years old. This age group basically consists of new employees who have graduated from undergraduate programs or are graduate students. These people’s lives are not as colorful as they were in college. Their lives are basically filled with work or scientific research, but they do not have family pressure for the time being, so the live broadcast room can be a temporary carnival for them.

The third main force is under 24 years old, which can be roughly divided into college students and non-college students. College students have a variety of entertainment options while they are in school, and live streaming is just one of them. Some students will use it, but it is not very attractive. Non-college students cannot spend a lot of time on live streaming due to academic pressure.

Figure 3.3 Age ratio of King of Glory users Data source: iResearch

The above picture shows the age distribution of users of Honor of Kings (mobile game). It can be seen that the average age of this app is relatively low, mainly people under 30 years old, which is completely consistent with the situation in real life.

As we get older, continuous time will gradually decrease, while fragmented time will gradually increase, resulting in no time to play games personally. However, the interest in games can be appropriately diverted by watching live broadcasts.

3.1.3 Regional Analysis

Figure 3.4 The top 10 provinces with the largest number of Douyu live streaming users Data source: Analysys International

We can see that the provinces are basically concentrated in provinces with large populations and relatively developed economies, which is basically consistent with the distribution of Internet users and gaming population in my country.

Guangdong Province leads the second-place Zhejiang Province by 1.5 times in terms of the number of users. On the one hand, this is because it has a larger population base and more potential users; on the other hand, it is because the economy is more developed and people's leisure life is richer.

However, except for Guangdong Province which is far ahead in the first place, the distribution in other provinces is relatively even, and is not highly concentrated in economically developed provinces. Comparing the distribution of users' cities, it can be seen that the main users are not concentrated in super first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Combined with the user income level chart, it shows that Douyu is not a high-end user software and its users' economic strength is not high.

Figure 3.5 The top 10 cities with the most Douyu live streaming users Data source: Analysys International

Figure 3.6 Douyu Live users’ consumption capacity chart Data source: Analysys International

3.1.4 Summary

Based on the above analysis, Douyu Live is mainly aimed at males aged 25-35, and middle-income groups, and is mainly concentrated in populous provinces and economically developed regions.

3.2 User Profile

User A, male, 20 years old, a college student, single, and a Star rank player in Honor of Kings.

He was tired of the hero he could play or had reached a bottleneck in his rank and wanted to learn a new hero, so he chose Luna. After playing a few games, he had a basic understanding of the hero and hoped to have a deeper understanding of how to play Luna. He was ready to see how excellent players played it, so he opened Douyu, selected the King of Glory section, and found a live broadcast about Luna to watch.

User B, female, 21 years old, a college student.

After using Douyu for a while, I found a host who had good gaming skills, was humorous, and had good looks, so I started to like watching his live broadcast.

The anchor starts broadcasting at 7 o'clock every night, and B opens Douyu to watch the live broadcast every night.

User C, male, 25 years old, programmer with 2 years of work experience, single.

I am very tired at work every day and rarely have some entertainment activities to relax myself. Although I like playing games very much, I only have the time and energy to play one or two games during holidays, so I can only choose to watch live broadcasts after get off work or during my lunch break.

He has a relatively fixed viewing schedule and has a few favorite hosts. He will also give certain rewards to his favorite hosts.

User D, male, 35 years old, married.

In addition to work, I also have to take care of the family, so my independent time is relatively short and scattered.

The rhythm of life is relatively fixed, and there are not many ways of entertainment. I only watch live broadcasts in my free time, mainly to rest and relax. I watch them at irregular times every day and am willing to give high rewards to my favorite anchors.

User E, female, 27 years old, game anchor, not signed with Douyu, 2,000 followers, live broadcast every day from 2 to 9 pm.

I like playing games and I play for a long time every day. I am very good at games and I have a certain number of fans after the live broadcast. So I will broadcast the game I play every day, and I will also play with my fans if I have the chance.

User F, male, 30 years old, a contracted gaming anchor on Douyu, with over a million followers.

The game technology is very good, the entertainment is very strong, and it has a large number of fans. Because of the contract signed with Douyu, users are expected to send more gifts to meet the targets. No matter if they have made wonderful performances in the game, or their live broadcast is very interesting, or they participate in guessing and lottery, fans will give them gifts.

User G, male, 26 years old, ordinary employee of the company.

My work and life rhythm is basically fixed every day, and I don’t have a lot of entertainment time. However, during my free time, I sometimes turn on the live broadcast just to kill time, such as the 20 minutes when I eat alone, the 15 minutes when I wait for a meeting, or the 30 minutes when I commute. What I watch depends entirely on my mood at the time, and there is no fixed host.

4. Functional iteration

In order to conduct a better functional analysis of Douyu Live, the author conducted in-depth interviews with Douyu users, summarized the survey results, and analyzed the problems encountered by users in the process of using Douyu. The author will optimize the process of using the Douyu Live software, optimize the "Fish Bar" user experience, add new functions such as anchor tag management and daily activity, optimize the live broadcast room recommendation strategy, and improve user experience.

4.1 Optimize the user experience of "Fish Bar"

4.1.1 Current Status of “Fish Bar”

"Fish Bar" is Douyu's community function. As a good means to increase user stickiness, many products have added this function to their products and performed related operations. However, sometimes it is found that the improvement in user stickiness is not obvious.

According to the author's interview results, Douyu's community function is not satisfactory. People use it very rarely, and most of them use it for activities such as lucky draws, building forums, and spam. This does not increase user stickiness.

At the same time, according to the author's observation, most of the posts sent by the anchors in Yuba are about building buildings and drawing prizes.

At present, Yuba has set up 6 categories, namely, comprehensive, gossip, game zone, hot discussion among fans, pictures, videos, and real-time hot topics. In my opinion, there are several problems:

1. The classification granularity is too large, and users cannot make more specific classifications according to their own wishes. If the platform's push notifications are not very accurate, users will quit browsing after a few minutes without interest, resulting in user loss;
2. The content is all about entertainment and leisure, and users can obtain this kind of information on many platforms, and sometimes the resources obtained on other platforms are of higher quality;
3. There is no place to display the updates of the anchors or other users that the user follows.

4.1.2 Re-planning of “Fish Bar”

1. The classification will be reorganized into 5 categories, namely attention, recommendation, hot discussion among netizens, game guide and video.
2. A new follow interface has been added, which includes the fish bars and users followed by the user as well as posts sent by the followed users.
3. A new game strategy interface has been added. This interface is mainly contributed by game players and game anchors, and mainly publishes game strategies, gameplay, and more interesting routines for everyone to communicate and learn.
4. The importance of "topics" has been improved by setting up recommendations for hot topics at the top of the recommendation page and the hot discussion page among netizens, and increasing the presence of topics on the interface where users post updates.

4.1.3 Specific diagrams

1) Home page of "Fish Bar"

Figure 4.1 Fish Bar Home Page

The home page is a recommendation page, with hot topics added at the top of the page. Users can filter posts based on topics, and the hot topics of each post are noted below the post. The same applies to the gossip page interface.

2) Follow the page

Figure 4.2 Fish Bar Follow Page

A new follow page has been added. You can enter it by swiping left on the homepage or clicking "Follow". This page mainly includes the fish bars that the user has followed and other users he or she follows. Below the follow list are posts from other users you follow. This part of the content is sorted by time.

3) Strategy interface

Figure 4.3 Tuba game strategy page

A new strategy interface has been added, which is mainly contributed by game players and game anchors. Taking Honor of Kings as an example, users can first select the "Honor of Kings" label, and then further select corresponding heroes or lanes and other information according to the prompts to refine the target information. If the user does not select any tag, the system will also push corresponding information based on the user portrait.

4) Post updates

Figure 4.4 Dynamic page

The changes to this page are mainly to elevate the status of the topic, place it in a prominent position, and increase user usage frequency.

5) Video

The video page will not be changed for now. Place "Discover" - "Video" in the fish bar and change the video entrance.

4.1.4 Solution Advantages

1. A new game strategy interface has been added. The purpose of this page is to provide users with "dry goods". According to the author's interviews, a large number of users watch game live broadcasts in the hope of learning some gaming ideas from the host, but the hosts can only describe them verbally during the live broadcast, so whether users can meet the host to explain depends largely on luck. Therefore, an independent section was set up in Yuba, which is dedicated to sharing game strategies and increasing the frequency of users entering Yuba.
2. Increase the importance of the topic. The topic function can improve the efficiency of information acquisition for users, focus more on the content they are interested in, and make the originally large content classification more detailed; for the platform, it is conducive to user interaction, content generation and content distribution, so as to facilitate accurate push.
3. Add a follow-up page to display the hosts that users are interested in and the dynamics of other users, and increase the interaction between users and hosts, and users and users.

4.2 New daily tasks

4.2.1 Current situation

As a live streaming software, Douyu's core business - live streaming - is already well known to everyone. However, according to interviews, some users just watch the live streaming without performing any other operations, and exit the software after the live streaming ends; some users know very little about functions other than live streaming (such as fish bar, video, etc.).

The author believes that sometimes it is not that the function is not well done, but that users lack understanding. When a person does not understand or even knows something, he is unlikely to use it. Therefore, the author hopes to add a function such as daily tasks, which, through the guidance of tasks, will allow users to have a more comprehensive understanding and participate in the use of the software.

4.2.2 Optimization Suggestions

Users can complete designated tasks to gain activity. When the activity reaches a certain level, they can receive rewards such as experience and fish balls. The specific rules are as follows:

1. Daily sign-in, level experience +10;
2. Watching live broadcast once a day will increase your level experience by +5;
3. Every 10 minutes of viewing time will increase your level experience by +5, up to 6 times, for a total of +30;
4. Watched 5 live streamers' broadcasts, level experience +5;
5. Send barrage in a live broadcast, level experience +5;
6. Share a live broadcast room once using Douyu app, and you will get +10 level experience;
7. Subscribe to 1 anchor, level experience +10;
8. Send a gift to a streamer, and gain +10 level experience;
9. Send gifts to 3 anchors, level experience +20;
10. Participate in 1 full-on attack, and gain +5 level experience.
11. Participate in one guessing game, and you will receive +5 level experience.
12. Win the guessing game once, and you will get +5 level experience.
13. Win the guessing game 3 times, and you will get +10 level experience.
14. Consume 1 shark fin cumulatively, and gain level experience +20;
15. Consume 6 shark fins cumulatively, and gain +50 level experience;
16. Post once in the Fish Bar, level experience +10;
17. Like a post in the Fish Bar, and you will get +2 level experience;
18. Comment/reply once in the forum, and you will get +3 level experience;
19. Repost once in the Fish Bar, level experience +5;
20. If a post in the Fish Bar is liked once, the level experience will be +1, up to 10 times, totaling +10;
21. If a post in the Fish Bar is commented on once, the level experience will be +2, up to 5 times, totaling +10;

When your daily activity reaches 30/70/130/180, you can receive a treasure chest. The contents of the treasure chest are as follows:

• 30: Item "Like"*1, Item "Weak"*1
• 70: Fish balls*100, item "Like"*2
• 150: Item "Atmosphere"*1, Fish Ball*100
• 190: Shark fin*0.1, fish ball*100

When the weekly activity reaches 500 and 1100, you can receive the weekly activity gift package. The contents of the gift package are as follows:

• 500: 1 day experience card*1, fish balls*200
• 1100: Gift "Lucky Bag" *1, Noble 10% Discount Card *1, Fish Balls *500

4.2.3 Solution Advantages

1. Daily tasks are used to encourage users to use Douyu app. The tasks involve the use of multiple Douyu functions, which can help users understand the software in all aspects.
2. Completing tasks can earn you level experience, props, fish balls, gift cards and other gift props, allowing users to participate more in live broadcast interactions;
3. There are many tasks in Yuba, which encourage users to browse more Yuba content and create some content besides watching live broadcasts, which will bring more traffic to Yuba. At the same time, when users browse more Yuba content, the platform can also make more accurate push notifications to improve user retention rate.
4. Daily activity and weekly activity are calculated, and if users want to complete tasks, they need to participate more. For example, if the daily activity level is 150, in addition to completing all operations in the live broadcast room, users also need to participate in the fish bar; if the weekly activity level is 1100, users need to complete more tasks every day if they do not recharge, which increases the time users spend on Douyu every day.

4.2.4 Notes

The company may need to make adjustments to the specific rules based on actual conditions. The author has set up more tasks in the live broadcast room and fish bar, and other functions will be changed accordingly depending on the company's strategy.

4.3 Optimization of sending bullet comments

4.3.1 Current Status of Danmu

During the author's interviews, it was found that most users are reluctant to send barrages on their mobile phones, but will send some barrages on their PCs to a greater or lesser extent. It's not that people don't have the habit of sending barrages, but the experience of sending barrages on mobile phones is very poor, so everyone might as well just watch the live broadcast honestly.

Figure 4.5 Live broadcast room sending barrage interface

This is the current situation when Douyu edits barrage. It can be seen that the mobile phone keyboard basically completely occupies the live broadcast content, seriously affecting the user experience. This is not only inconsistent with the user's typing habits, but also after the user has edited the barrage, the live broadcast content described in the barrage may have been missed, reducing the user's sense of participation, and may even affect the next exciting content because of not being able to see the live broadcast content.

Moreover, although we can see that Douyu has a hot word option, according to the author's observation, the hot word is just a vocabulary set in advance by Douyu, and has nothing to do with the live broadcast category and the current live broadcast room, so there are relatively few users among the interviewees.

4.3.2 Optimization Suggestions

Figure 4.6 The modified live studio interface

1. Modify the hot word content and change it to the hot word of the current live broadcast room. If there are few bullet comments in the live broadcast room or the live broadcast has just started, you can set it to the hot words pre-set by the platform, and then update the hot words every 5-10 minutes based on the bullet comments sent by users in the live broadcast room;
2. New customization features. Users can preset some barrage content according to their own usage habits, and click on the preset barrage to send it directly;
3. Added voice-to-text barrage. Users can click the microphone button next to the "Send" button to record audio and convert it into text in real time. After recording, it can be sent directly.

4.3.3 Solution Advantages

1. Modifying the hot word content in real time can allow users to learn more about other users' ideas, increase the connection between users, and make users feel more involved;
2. Added a new custom function, allowing users to send bullet comments more conveniently, and focus more on the live content or interaction;
3. Added voice-to-text function, users can send bullet comments more quickly and accurately. Compared with hot words and custom functions, voice-to-text has a higher degree of freedom;
4. Optimizing the way of sending barrages, shortening the time users spend editing text, and allowing users to send barrages faster and more conveniently can not only improve the user experience, but also enhance the user's sense of participation and belonging. When users interact with the anchor, it will greatly shorten the distance between users and the anchor, thereby improving user retention rate and paying user conversion rate.

4.3.4 Notes

1. Whether the hot word and custom functions exist at the same time can be determined based on user usage. The two functions can be temporarily placed. After a period of use, if the user's usage habits clearly tend to one side (such as hot words), the other function (such as custom) can be deleted.
2. When recording audio, the sound of the live broadcast room will be temporarily interrupted, and the picture will not stop, which may slightly affect the viewing of the live broadcast. However, according to the users interviewed, this operation should be fast, and the 2-3 seconds sound interruption will have little impact.

4.4 Add anchor tag

4.4.1 Current situation

According to the author's interviews, users sometimes choose small anchors in addition to big anchors when watching live broadcasts, mainly focusing on certain characteristics of these anchors, such as appearance and voice, humor, or a hero with its own unique gameplay, etc.

However, for how to find such anchors, most of them are recommended by acquaintances or by some chance, and it is difficult to locate them through active searches by users. However, once the user cannot find the live broadcast he wants to watch in a short period of time, it is highly likely that he will exit the software. Therefore, the author hopes that users can find their favorite live broadcast room in a short period of time.

4.4.2 Optimization suggestions

According to the above analysis, the author suggests adding the function of adding tags to anchors, and users can evaluate tags, so that users can filter according to the corresponding tags and choose a live broadcast room that is more in line with their own.

Figure 4.7-1 Added anchor tag

Figure 4.7-2 Evaluation anchor tags

Figure 4.7-2 Tag Entrance

The tag can be uploaded by the anchor himself or uploaded by the user. Click the "Entertainment Anchor" button in the live broadcast room (as shown in Figure 4.6) to enter more recommendations of entertainment anchors, swipe the page to the right to enter the tag evaluation interface of the current anchor. At the same time, after selecting the relevant categories on the homepage, you can continue to classify according to the tag (as shown in Figure 4.7-3).

4.4.3 Solution Advantages

1. For users, the tag function can more detailed the classification of live broadcast rooms, which can help users find their favorite live broadcast rooms quickly and accurately;
2. For anchors, the tagging strategy can make the live broadcast characteristics more accurate. At the same time, the better the tag evaluation, the higher the corresponding live broadcast room ranking and have a higher exposure rate.

V. Conclusion

The entertainment method of game live broadcast has been around for more than five years. In these five years, different players have entered and exited one after another, and Douyu Live has firmly ranked in the first echelon with its strong strength.

However, looking at Douyu's development history, we can also see that the intensity of supervision, the relationship with top anchors, etc. are still very important factors that affect the development of the platform. As well as how to balance advertising and content, how to make a "fish bar" hot, how to appropriately transfer the focus of profits, etc., are all problems that Douyu will face.

We look forward to better development in Douyu.

Author: Xiaobailu

Source: Little White Rabbit