Game live streaming platform: Douyu, Huya competitive product analysis report

In this article, the author attempts to analyze the differences between the two and find out their respective focuses.

Douyu and Huya have always been strong competitors to each other. With the reshuffle of live streaming platforms in 2017, these two platforms have completely laid the foundation for being the first echelon of the industry. From a development perspective, their actions seem to be the same, both shifting from game live streaming to pan-entertainment platforms. However, are they really so homogenized?

In this article, the author attempts to analyze the differences between the two and find out their respective focuses.

Industry Overview

1.1 Market Structure

The game live streaming industry has been surging since 2018, and the head effect has become increasingly obvious . With the big anchors of Longzhu Live jumping ship one after another, it has entered a semi-bankruptcy stage and the whole nation is in wage arrears. A few months ago, netizens revealed that Panda Live was suspected to be sold for 3 billion. The second echelon of the game live streaming industry has become a delicate flower after a rainstorm, with only a few petals left.

With Tencent's new round of 4 billion investment in Douyu and Huya's successful IPOs , the duopoly in the game live streaming market - Douyu and Huya - has basically taken shape.

Let's trace back:

The game live streaming market has gradually demonstrated its ability to attract traffic since 2014, with the average daily search index soaring from 300 to 1,200 times in one year, an annual growth of 300%. This year, 4G network officially landed in China and became the fundamental basis for subsequent mobile growth.

After 2015, the live streaming market became popular and capital poured in. Most of the game live streaming companies were established between 2014 and 2016 (Douyu 2014.1.1; Zhanqi 2014.1.20; Huomao 2014.10.7; Longzhu Live 2015.2.1; Panda 2015.9.18; Quanmin 2015.10). The only thing that surprised the author was that Huya was established as early as 2012.

As a content-based industry, live streaming means that whichever company has the most and highest-quality anchors will have more traffic and higher profits. However, in the competition, compared to cultivating high-quality anchors, basically all live broadcast platforms have chosen the method of "poaching" .

The poaching was relatively restrained at the beginning, but after Longzhu Live entered the market strongly, Wang Sicong also joined the battle with traffic and capital, so the "transfer fees" of the anchors became higher and higher, and some small platforms were crushed by the sudden explosion of operating costs, and in the end, what were left were the behemoths that were built by burning money . In the second half of 2017, live streaming platforms began a major reshuffle, and at least 72 of the hundreds of live streaming platforms were shut down.

Flick the dial to September this year:

In 2018, Huya received US$460 million in financing from Tencent, and then successfully went public, becoming the first Chinese live broadcast stock; it created its own event "Huya Destiny Cup", with a full range of online and offline layout; it also made efforts in live variety shows, and created its own programs "God Lie" and "Pick! "The Circle of Destiny" and so on; won the live broadcast rights of the five major LOL leagues, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds League, Mobile Game League and other events; spent tens of millions of dollars to win a seat in OWL and built its own Overwatch team.

During this period, Douyu held the Douyu Carnival, with more visitors than ChinaJoy; since June, it has been blocking traffic through football guessing and other means; the "Douyu Golden Grand Prix" covering most of the popular games was officially launched; these are all manifestations of Douyu's excellent operational capabilities.

At the same time, Longzhu experienced a series of incidents of large-scale wage arrears and anchor withdrawal in May and June, followed by a large-scale exodus of anchors. In terms of data performance, the mobile and web versions fell by more than 20% month-on-month in September, completely falling out of the top five.

Quanmin was also caught up in a constant wage arrears crisis at about the same time, and in August it was even revealed that the company was deserted. Panda was also facing many crises at this time. There were constant rumors that its capital chain was broken and it was about to be sold. PDD had not returned yet, and Tencent's self-built platform was competing with Huya and Douyu for market share.

At this time, Huya and Douyu began to gradually accept anchors from other platforms, and the two oligarchs finally gathered the most powerful lineup of anchors.

1.2 Market Background

The live streaming market has huge potential, but the demographic dividend is shrinking and the user growth rate is declining ; on the other hand, the penetration rate of game live streaming in life is gradually increasing, and the number of game live streaming users is catching up with the number of online game players .

As the depth of game live streaming increases, users' requirements for live streaming quality and platform technical level will gradually increase . When a duopoly is formed, the strategic focus of the live streaming platform will shift from winning over the other party's users to eliminate the other party to paying attention to attracting new users for common development. At the same time, how to jointly cope with the impact of short videos is also a major test.

The growth rate of market size has slowed down, which is due to the impact of short videos and the single profit model of live streaming. On live streaming platforms, most users do not pay. How to increase users' willingness to pay, cultivate paying habits, and make full use of the long-tail effect to expand the market should be the focus that Douyu Huya should focus on next.

The author believes that cross-border cooperation with some industries that have already cultivated user payment habits may be a good new way to make profits.

Competitive product analysis (APP side)

2.1 Product positioning:

The product positioning of Douyu and Huya are both interactive live broadcast websites with barrages. They have always focused on game live broadcasts and are competing for game players. At the same time, they are actively creating stars, expanding their business scope to the three-dimensional world, and carrying out offline activities . They seem to have almost the same positioning.

The difference between the two is:

In addition to its own e-sports events, Douyu has also launched the "Billion Star-Making Plan" to continue attracting celebrities and continuously increase its investment in the pan-entertainment industry. Douyu’s CEO also said: Douyu insists on the “live broadcast +” model , and will explore content that combines entertainment and live broadcast, focusing on the development of the short video field.

Huya's layout is mainly focused on games . In addition to self-produced events and purchasing the rights to live broadcast events, even its self-produced variety shows are closely integrated with games. At the same time, Huya also supports the pan-entertainment part and launched its first outdoor live broadcast program "Wild Madman". However, it is obvious that most of Huya's money is spent on game live broadcasts.

Then the positioning of Douyu and Huya can be seen for the first time.

• Douyu: A pan-entertainment platform covering game live streaming, sports, outdoor activities, shows, and other aspects.
• Huya: A live streaming platform that focuses on game live streaming while also taking into account sports, outdoor activities, and show events.

2.2 User Group Analysis

(1) Betta:

(2) Tiger Teeth:

Overall, the user structures of the two game live streaming platforms, Douyu and Huya, are basically overlapping, which means that the target users and product positioning of the two platforms are basically the same , with only slight differences in certain segments.

Gender ratio:

It can be seen that although most users are male, the proportion of female users on Douyu is slightly higher than that on Huya platform, which is related to Douyu's positioning as a pan-entertainment platform .

It is normal for male viewers to be the majority on a platform that focuses on game live streaming. However, from another perspective, it also shows that the growth potential of female users is huge . Douyu is also leveraging the characteristics of a pan-entertainment platform and collaborating with celebrities to control operating costs and effectively attract female audiences.

Age ratio:

At the same time, the overall age range of Huya users is younger than that of Douyu. This may be due to Huya's positioning towards young people , especially its strong support for popular games such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. The 4AM team that joined Huya also won the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds International Invitational. This catering to young people has a positive effect on the joining of young users.

Considering the user usage scenarios, due to the inherent impressions these two platforms give to users, the main purpose of users who choose these two platforms is to watch live games. From this perspective, pan-entertainment requires long-term planning. Only when the platform reverses the outside world's impression can it achieve a successful transformation from game live broadcast to a pan-entertainment platform and convert the breadth of the product into the number of users.

2.3 Product Structure Diagram

Next, let’s take a look at the product structure diagrams of Douyu and Huya. The functions that are more than the other will be marked in red.

(1) Douyu product structure diagram:

(2) Huya product structure diagram:

(3) Features of Douyu functional group:

The first thing that is obvious is that Douyu’s functional group is much larger than Huya’s, and the most important of these is the social functional group .

An important difference between celebrities and anchors is that fans have a natural "voyeurism desire" for celebrities, while people who follow (game) anchors often don't have much interest in their lives, so the connection between anchors and fans is basically disconnected after the live broadcast. Douyu launched social functions such as "Fish Bar" in the "after the live broadcast" scenario, which to a certain extent enhanced the interaction between anchors and fans after the live broadcast, improved the interaction between users, and increased user stickiness.

(4) Features of Tiger Tooth Functional Group:

The features that Huya has but Douyu does not (or the entrance is relatively deep) are basically functions for e-sports , such as directly displaying the recent e-sports event schedules and e-sports information on the search results page.

Huya’s functions are very concentrated. Even though it has entered the pan-entertainment field, it is still continuously deepening its e-sports business. At the same time, Huya seems to pay more attention to information services than Douyu. These information include not only competitions, but also a lot of gossip about e-sports players, which arouses users’ desire to click in.

Finally, the difference in concepts between the two product teams can also be seen from the design of the labels. The Douyu APP will add recommendations and lists in various locations. From these locations, we can see that Douyu’s product team has been trying to guide users .

Huya only adds the "recommended" category in the places where it is bound to appear, which is slightly insufficient in guiding users and is relatively conservative.

2.4 Product comparison (Douyu on the left, Huya on the right)

2.4.1

front page:

Visual design:

The orange and white color scheme of Douyu is more distinctive and personal than the pure white of Huya.

UI Design:

In addition to the horizontal live broadcast section at the top, Douyu also uses one-third of the space on the homepage to display the live broadcast categories again, taking up a lot of space ; Huya uses more space to display exciting live broadcast content, maximizing the benefits of the page layout .

This difference is related to the different strategic positioning of the two apps. Douyu’s purpose may be to divert traffic to non-game live broadcasts and promote the platform’s pan-entertainment .

Douyu’s function of displaying all categories is set in a horizontal draggable list, while Huya places this function at the far right of the top list, represented by an icon.

Although both are draggable lists, Douyu's draggable length is much longer than Huya's, which greatly increases the user's search cost and does not conform to the principle of simple and direct UI design.

If Douyu's goal is to encourage users to use the search function to search partitions more often, the design of this list is a bit redundant. The label design of Huya is simpler and more general. Except for a few popular games, other content is mostly summarized in more advanced categories.

Search box:

As for the search box, both apps will automatically hide the search box when you drag the screen upwards on any page, leaving most of the space for the live broadcast room display. The difference is that Huya’s search box is less obvious , and after jumping to other bottom tabs, the search function will fade away or become an icon . Douyu, on the other hand, permanently places the search function at the top of almost every page .

Although this design makes the layout of the live broadcast room smaller, it actually makes better use of Douyu's advantage of having many top anchors . Taking into account the user scenarios of some fans, when they enter the live broadcast, they often have clear demands and may directly search for their favorite anchors instead of wandering around the platform. This type of user can conveniently use the search function anytime and anywhere even when wandering around.

2.4.2 Live broadcast category list

Here, Douyu does not jump to a new page, but slides directly to the category column by clicking on the tag; Huya jumps to a new page by clicking on the icon in the upper right corner , and also provides a personalized customization function for the top tab bar. Users can add, delete, sort and other operations according to their actual situation.

At the same time, Huya aggregates the secondary lists under the categories under the commonly used tags , which is obviously simpler and faster than Huya's navigation method where users can only slide up and down to search by themselves. The number of interactions required for users to jump to the page they want is less , and Huya's icons are smaller, so more tags can be accommodated in a limited page , which is very meaningful within the limited screen of the APP.

The only thing to note is that, considering the different thicknesses of users' fingers, the icon cannot be set too small to avoid users touching it by mistake .

In addition, since Douyu has locked the top search bar and retrieval bar on most of its pages, the area occupied by this position is indeed a bit large, taking up a lot of space for placing the main content of the page .

2.4.3 Live Room Page

Take the League of Legends S8 Global Finals as an example:

(1) Douyu Live Room Page

(2) Huya live broadcast room page

Taking the League of Legends World Championship, which is currently in full swing, as an example, the overall structure of the Douyu and Huya live broadcast rooms are roughly similar, with the main difference being the depth of the functional entrances.

PS: In the specific distinction, the live broadcast interface will be divided into two types: "full screen mode" and "small window mode".

Overall features:

The overall characteristics are: Douyu tends to put most functions in small window mode , even if it will be a bit messy; while Huya pays more attention to the neatness of the UI interface , prefers to use text-free icons, and displays functions in full-screen mode.

For example, Douyu puts the functions of recommending more live broadcasts, rankings , pause, recording and playback in small window mode, while Huya often requires the live broadcast to be in full screen to be seen.

Focus on features:

In contrast, Huya places the follow function in a very prominent position, while Douyu places the follow function under the secondary menu (anchor) , which requires users to perform more operations to follow the anchor, increasing the user's operation workload .

By default, when you first enter the live broadcast room, both platforms default to the "Chat" tab.

Guessing activities:

Douyu’s voting and guessing functions are more diverse, and they mobilize users’ enthusiasm and promote payment through different methods such as voting, lottery and cheering (it can be turned off, but I couldn’t find how to turn it back on after turning it off); Huya’s such functions are designed in the lower right corner of the interface, represented by a small icon, which is not easy to be found . Users are likely to ignore these contents without obvious text prompts.

Gift effects:

After the special effects of gifts are manually blocked, Douyu’s setting will still display text under the white title list to stimulate players to consume; while Huya can block both text and special effects, making them completely invisible.

Live broadcast room information display:

In small window mode, Douyu only broadcasts the content of the live screen. The displayed information includes the number of views, number of followers, room number, and anchor level. The interface looks relatively messy than Huya.

However, considering the user scenario at this time, the user should have just entered the live broadcast room, checked the relevant content of the live broadcast room to decide whether to continue or exit the full-screen mode to try to use these functions. Therefore, it is advisable to set more comprehensive functions on the screen here. In addition, enough data can also take advantage of the user's herd mentality and let users pay attention to more anchors.

Huya may be thinking about the simplicity of the interface , trying to leave more screen space for the live broadcast content, and putting less used functions in the "more functions" icon. However, in the non-full-screen state, Huya does not have a function to pause the live broadcast. Perhaps Huya's product staff believes that the pause function of the live broadcast software lacks practical value. But the advantage is that Huya has made the follow function very shallow and filled it with a striking orange color, which reduces the amount of operations users have to do to follow the anchor.

Live broadcast room features: (Douyu on the left, Huya on the right)

In terms of the special features of the live broadcast room, Douyu actually has more features than Huya . This is mainly due to the existence of the "Fish Bar" module , which allows the anchor to build a fan circle behind a few simple options. It includes all the anchor's dynamic personal homepages and posts, which can effectively improve the fans' cohesion and sense of identity. The "Follow" button is also here.

In addition to this live broadcast, Douyu also provides another "live broadcast" option , which displays live broadcast content related to the content currently being watched, to expand Douyu's advantage of having many popular anchors and divert more content ; and here the functions provided by Huya can be said to be completely closely integrated with the event , providing very accurate content for people who care about e-sports.

2.4.4 Featured Modules

2.4.4.1 Douyu Feature Module

(1) Fleet

The Douyu team is like a guild, with a clear hierarchy . If you want to set up a team, you must reach at least level 60. In addition to watching live broadcasts and other activities, the most important source of level increase and experience is to reward the anchor . Under normal circumstances, users who spend less money cannot reach this level at all, so the team captain can basically be understood as the top consumer group , so this function has different meanings for different users.

For most users , they can only join a team. The main temptation comes from the fish balls obtained by signing in and receiving summons. However, it should be noted that there are many restrictions on joining a team. If the team is built by fans of a certain anchor, the entry threshold may be set to a fan level of N or above for the anchor to join, and this level can only be improved by watching specific anchors, giving rewards, etc.

For top users , after forming a team, they can spend money to summon team members to a live broadcast room. At the same time, accompanied by special effects and broadcasts, team members will chant their own slogans together in the barrage, and even dominate the screen in a short time, which can greatly satisfy the top users' sense of self-identity .

First, it improves the platform stickiness and consumption enthusiasm of the top consumer groups; second, it activates the barrage of comments in the live broadcast room ; third, the top consumer groups leading a team to parachute into the live broadcast room of small anchors can also increase the popularity of mid-level anchors and drive blood-making .

Finally, it can also encourage non- paying users to pay (becoming a member can speed up upgrades, and only after upgrading can they join the fleet).

(2) Planet

Planet is actually a non-real-time stranger social function, which is between the Drift Bottle of QQ Mail and Monkey (a stranger real-time video social APP ). Users can freely choose to be the sender or the receiver, and enter the chat interface when receiving the message.

The chat is mainly based on voice , and both parties are required to provide a photo . The photo will be blurry at first, but will become clearer as the chat history grows. When you feel you can get along well, you can click "Like". If both parties click "Like", they can become friends.

This can be said to be Douyu's test in the social field , because similar APPs were introduced to China after becoming popular abroad, but basically suffered a Waterloo.

The reason is nothing more than a relatively conservative cultural atmosphere, but the market itself is vast, so many companies have added the stranger social function to their own apps and have done a certain degree of localization in China . This can not only test the market reaction and attract some seed users , but also save costs (such as the paper airplane function on the right). If stranger social networking becomes a new trend in the future, the company will have accumulated experience and will not have to start from scratch.

(3) Fish Bar

Yuba is similar to Baidu Tieba , and its purpose is to provide a gathering place for people with similar interests.

The homepage of Yuba displays hot posts, rankings, and popular Yuba. You can also directly enter the Yuba you follow here.

As shown in the figure, there are two main types of fish bars. The largest number is the anchor-type fish bar , where the content is built around the anchor, including content from bar friends, the anchor's personal updates, highlights of the anchor's live broadcast screen recordings, etc. It is the base camp of the anchor's fan club; the other type of fish bar is the theme fish bar , which includes but is not limited to themes such as games, movies, and mutual flirting. It is centered on content posted by users, and the content is mainly provided by bar friends.

However, whether it is a host-type fish bar or a theme-based fish bar, the establishment of such a circle can build its own user ecology , create UGC content , and effectively improve user stickiness and average usage time .

2.4.4.2 Huya Feature Module

Huya’s featured modules are mainly concentrated in the Discovery tab .

Huya concentrates all platform activities in the activity center , including event content, anchor recruitment and self-made programs. This content integration reduces user search costs . After users develop user habits, the platform's strategic key projects can be promoted efficiently here.

News information is a featured module of Huya, but it is not actually real news. It is another mouthpiece of Huya besides the activity center. It can carry some small activities, advertisements or simple messages. It has a higher information density and broader content than the activity center, allowing users to access more content in a shorter time.

Looking for apps may be not a development focus at present, so there are only five apps in it, and the positioning is basically advertising content.

In general, Douyu’s special features are all dedicated to building a pan-entertainment platform, gradually moving from a content-based live broadcast platform to a content & social live broadcast platform. The function of Huya is to build its own information circle and enrich product functions.

From this perspective, Douyu's APP development is faster than Huya's. During the same period , Douyu was expanding the platform attributes , while Huya was still building the platform . Although it has its own special functions, most of them are not very effective. Or it should be said that Huya’s strategic focus is still on e-sports .

2.5 Membership System Comparison

Huya and Douyu each have their own membership systems. Huya’s membership system was launched in June 2015, and Douyu’s membership system was launched in January 2017. Both are named “nobles” , and there are different levels within “nobles”.

Unlike the rule that QQ levels are upgraded over time, both platforms allow users to directly recharge to the highest level “Emperor” (Huya) or “Emperor” (Douyu), with prices of RMB 150,000 and RMB 120,000 per month respectively.

Betta nobles:

Tiger Fang Noble:

Visual performance:

From a visual perspective, Douyu’s aristocratic interface has a more “aristocratic feel” . Douyu not only displays the noble privileges of this level, but also displays the "future" privileges that can be achieved by upgrading the noble level. It is full of temptation and has a good incentive to recharge for users with strong consumption power.

At the same time, Douyu divides the noble rights into 16 items , and each part is displayed in the form of icons and text, covering the entire screen . You even need to drag down to see all the privileges, which makes the noble privileges more substantial and "super value" .

Huya has a relatively simple interface , but the simplicity of the interface has become a constraint at this time. It seems that the difference in privileges between the lowest and highest levels is not obvious . At least the types of rights and interests are exactly the same. It’s just that the content has been upgraded, and the text size of the content is small and the color is light , which makes it difficult to stimulate the consumption desire of top users.

Specific functions:

In terms of specific functions, Douyu has far more functions than Huya , and the types are more diverse:

Douyu noble privilege structure diagram:

Tiger Tooth Noble Privilege Structure Diagram:

Obviously, the number and quality of Douyu's noble privileges are more and better than Huya's. This is not only based on Douyu's special functions (fleet, fish bar), but also reflects Douyu's attention to the top consumer groups; Douyu's privilege design is more rooted in users and takes into account the user experience .

For example, the "invisible function" is designed for high-level aristocratic users who enter the live broadcast room. The audience often posts comments such as "The emperor can watch the broadcast for free?" This may cause aristocratic users to feel unhappy when they are forced to consume for the sake of face, or they may be compared on the rankings. This not only protects the privacy of senior members, but also allows them to make a high-profile appearance when they want to. It is very humane.

At the same time, Douyu also uses the "recommended anchors to become popular" and "connected live broadcast" functions to increase the sense of participation of top users. They are no longer just giving gifts and receiving flattery, but can also become a part of the live broadcast content and even help their favorite anchors become popular.

Huya’s focus is mainly on strengthening the noble status of users. If we use a metaphor, Huya is more like this:

Service Fees:

In terms of price, the lowest tier of Huya - Swordsman has an activation fee of 50 yuan for the first month, a renewal fee of 10 yuan, and a return of 11 yuan worth of gold beans ; the lowest tier of Douyu - Ranger has an activation fee of 76 yuan for the first month, a renewal fee of 50 yuan, and a return of 50 yuan worth of shark fins .

Both of them focus on high payment in the first month , and renewals are rebated in platform tokens of equal or greater value, making users think that renewal is equivalent to free or even profitable ; in comparison, Huya's lowest payment tier is lower than Douyu, while the highest tier is higher than Douyu; Douyu's renewal fee is roughly 60%-80% of the first month, while Huya's renewal fee is less than 20% of the first month .

From this point of view, Huya’s main advantage over Douyu is price . Both the first month and renewal prices are much lower than Douyu.

The only exception is Huya’s Emperor, which is not only higher than Douyu’s Emperor, but also 10 times the price of the previous level’s King, while the service has not changed qualitatively.

The author speculates that Huya internally positions this "Emperor" more as an honorary level . It does not expect a large number of top users to recharge this level (it also needs to prevent the low threshold from causing many top users to recharge and dilute the gold content), but uses pricing as a means to guide users to reduce their aversion to recharging lower levels, because even for top consumer users, they may only recharge the Emperor level purely out of a desire to show off their wealth.

As for Douyu, its transition from Ranger to Emperor has a relatively smooth improvement curve. The Emperor's service does have three more items than the King, namely "Recommended Anchors", "Customized Rockets" and "Anti-Banning", which is more like encouraging users to recharge than Huya. Although most levels of Huya are priced lower, the services provided by Huya are also much less than those of Douyu members.

Judging from the functions provided at different levels, the major categories of functions provided by Huya at all levels are the same, but the coolness of the presentation is different , so I will not introduce them in detail.

The key point is Douyu: "The content in [ ] can be ignored"

[The highest level of Douyu has 16 privileges, but the King level has 13 privileges, only three less than the Emperor level (recommended anchor, customized rockets, anti-banning) and the price is 1/2 of the higher level;

The Duke has 11 privileges, two less than the King (hidden from the list, exclusive super administrator) and the price is 1/4 of the higher level;

The Earl has 10, only one less than the Duke (invisible when entering a room) and the price is 1/3 of the higher level;

The Viscount has 8 privileges, less than the Earl, including noble barrage and free zone speakers, and the price is nearly 1/4 of the higher level;

The Knight and Ranger have 8 and 7 privileges, which are basically similar to the Viscount, and the prices are 1/3 and 1/15 of the Viscount respectively. 】

From this perspective, for most users, if they want to join the nobility, the lowest level Ranger is the most cost-effective choice , and the completeness of its functions is basically equivalent to or even exceeds that of each level of Huya ; and for top consumer users, the Duke and Earl can already meet most of the functions they want, and the cost-effectiveness is much higher than the more advanced models (the Earl has only one less function than the Duke, but the price is 2/3 cheaper, which is simply a great deal!).

This is also the way product prices induce users . No matter how happy users were when using a product before, they tend to become more rational when faced with the decision to pay . Therefore, products can induce users to buy through differences in price settings and functions, and give users the illusion that "they are getting a good deal."

For example: for takeout, if you spend 30 yuan, you can get a 5 yuan discount. A full meal may cost 25 yuan. At this time, users are attracted by the discount and may buy other products that they did not intend to buy. A user who originally planned to spend 25 yuan on a meal might be induced to buy a meal plus a snack or even a drink.

This is what is called "second-degree price discrimination" , which is to provide consumers with different combinations of quantity, quality and price, and then let consumers choose (actually be guided) the combination they prefer most. In this process, the price of goods will change with the purchase quantity, but the total price that consumers need to pay and the purchase quantity will not show a proportionally increasing "linear" relationship.

To sum up the membership systems of the two, I believe that Douyu is ahead of Huya in terms of the number and quality of functions, as well as the visual design of the noble activation page ; but the most fatal thing is: Huya’s membership price is much lower than Douyu.

2.6 User Rating Comparison (ios)

Since there are many types of application markets in the Android environment and the data are not interoperable, the APP Store ratings are chosen as the basis for comparison.

Douyu — App Store ratings (Qimai data)

Huya — App Store ratings (Qimai data)

Judging from the overall ratings, the gap between the two is very small , especially the number of Douyu reviews is an order of magnitude higher than that of Huya.

At the same time, Type C evaluation also means that there are a lot of emotional ratings and score manipulation. So let's focus on the detailed comments from users:

Since the two live streaming software have highly overlapping user groups and users’ praises and complaints are surprisingly consistent, we have bolded the differences between the two platforms (differences do not necessarily mean being different, they can also mean doing better).

(1) Betta:

Appreciation:

• The platform is rich in content , and in addition to games there are also many entertainment live shows.
• Signed a contract with your favorite anchor
• Control of inappropriate live content
• You can use live broadcast to save life moments and share them with friends and family
• Push accurately to meet users’ preferences

Make complaints:

• Some anchors and commentators have low quality, and some live broadcast rooms broadcast inappropriate content
• The live broadcast is very laggy and the phone is overheating
• My favorite anchor was attacked and my favorite live broadcast was banned
• Too many ads
• Some special effects of live broadcasts cannot be blocked, affecting viewing

(2) Tiger Teeth

Appreciation:

• The platform is rich in content, and in addition to games there are also many entertainment live shows.
• Signed a contract with your favorite anchor
• Control of inappropriate live content
• The live broadcast atmosphere is relatively good
• The image quality is relatively clearer
• The interface is simple and provides personalized customization, easy to operate

Make complaints:

• Some anchors and commentators have low quality, and some live broadcast rooms broadcast inappropriate content
• The live broadcast is very laggy and the phone is overheating
• My favorite anchor was attacked and my favorite live broadcast was banned
• Some functions are not yet perfect

(3) Summary:

Due to the huge number of users on both platforms, it is inevitable that some anchors or users have low quality . Some anchors will also test the edge of illegality . Depending on the different networks, many users will often experience lags .

Douyu's advantage lies mainly in the diversity of platform content , and users hope to see improvements in the management of content and advertising; Huya's advantage lies in its simple interface and clear picture quality , and users hope to see improvements in the improvement of functions and content management.

This feature is related to our conclusion from comparing the two products earlier.

2.7 Profit Model

Once again, the two platforms share almost identical profit models due to their almost identical positioning and highly similar areas of entry.

• Traffic monetization: Mainly through advertising, through its own traffic and relatively single user portrait , it provides accurate delivery services to advertisers. This revenue accounts for about 4.5% of Huya’s revenue in its Q2 financial report.
• Value-added service: income from users applying for membership.
• Virtual goods: mainly rewards, which is also the main source of income for live streaming platforms. This income accounts for about 95% of Huya’s Q2 financial report.
• Game revenue: The two platforms respectively act as agents or cooperate with some mobile games, web games, etc. to earn part of the commission.
• Offline activity revenue: includes offline ticket revenue, peripheral sales revenue and advertising revenue. The reason for listing them separately is that the two platforms have gradually developed from competing for online resources to competing for offline resources. Their own offline competitions have gradually been carried out. Douyu has also launched the "Douyu Carnival". The online and offline platforms have been gradually connected, which is a new starting point for the platform's social influence and cross-border cooperation capabilities.

Summarize:

Although it seems that the profit channels of the two companies are the same, it should be noted that their profit structures are not the same .

Although Douyu has not officially disclosed its financial report, based on the breadth of its pan-entertainment layout, its revenue structure may be relatively more reasonable . Although live streaming revenue is undoubtedly the main source of revenue, revenue from other aspects should gradually increase with the development of the platform's influence. Taken together, they should account for a significant proportion of the total revenue. At least it should not be like Huya, where 95% of its revenue comes from live streaming rewards.

Of course, this is not to say that Huya is not doing well, because it is caused by the company's development strategy. Huya is committed to deepening its e-sports and game live streaming, so its revenue will continue to be mainly based on live streaming rewards in the short term . With Huya's layout of pan-entertainment, its revenue structure should gradually become similar to Douyu.

Summarize

After a major reshuffle in the second half of 2017, the two giants Huya and Douyu stood out, with a total MAU of nearly 220 million (without excluding overlapping numbers). According to data from the China Internet Data Center, the number of Chinese game live broadcast viewers was only 260 million as of June 2018, which means that at least 70% (assuming the user overlap between Douyu and Huya is 40%) of users watch game live broadcasts on these two platforms.

The two platforms are competing with each other, trying to extend their tentacles into each other's strategic focus to avoid being crushed in a certain field. However, money is limited, and resources are also limited. In the future, the development of the two platforms will gradually move towards different paths. By then, whose plan will be better? Faced with the rapid rise of short video apps such as Tik Tok , how can live streaming platforms grab these users?

Let's wait and see!

Source: Hakuna Matata