Zheng Gang of Zihui Venture Capital: The live broadcast war is over, and small platforms have no way out!

In the view of Zheng Gang of Zihui Venture Capital, the live broadcast war is over and small platforms have no way out.

Fu Yuanhui has brought the live streaming industry to a new climax. Upon closer inspection, this track is already crowded with leaders, followers and emerging giants. Although the scene was lively, the crisis was imminent. Many practitioners interviewed by TechNode said that by the second half of this year to the end of the year, the landscape of the live streaming industry will be determined, leaving only a few survivors.

Especially in the eyes of Zheng Gang, founding partner of Zihui Venture Capital, the war in the live streaming industry has actually ended long ago.

"I've said it before, this war is over," Zheng Gang said in an interview with TechNode. "It is generally believed that at the end of the war, there will only be 1-3 companies left in the market. When I say the end, I don't mean the fighting on the battlefield. I mean the key factors that determine the victory or defeat of the war have been determined, with a forward-looking outlook of half a year to a year."

Zheng Gang believes that the key factors that determine victory or defeat include the following:

1. First-mover advantage means occupying the commanding heights;
2. User acquisition cost, user scale, retention rate and stickiness;
3. Product iteration and technical depth as well as operational experience and self-discipline;
4. the size of revenue and profits;
5. Speed ​​of appreciation.

Judging from the tremendous energy brought by Fu Yuanhui and Papi Jiang’s live broadcasts, celebrity, internet celebrity and other anchor resources have become the key to attracting and retaining users for many independent live broadcast platforms . Zheng Gang, who invested in Inke Live , disagrees with this view: "The so-called reliance on stars and celebrities is a completely false proposition. Don't just look at Inke , but most people only look at the surface and don't understand the ins and outs." Zheng Gang said that stars and celebrities are indeed scarce resources, but at most they can only be used as embellishments and cannot be made into a film: "Can you imagine Zhou Xun live streaming every day? It's totally impossible."

However, in the description of another article, Zheng Gang seems to care very much about these anchor resources:

"After participating in Inke's multi-million-yuan Series A investment, Zheng Gang, managing partner of Zihui Venture Capital, is currently tasked with finding anchors for Inke. He constantly participates in live broadcasts on other live broadcast platforms, with the goal of leaving messages for anchors, inviting them to Inke to broadcast live, or telling viewers who are watching live broadcasts that this anchor is also broadcasting the same live broadcast in a certain room on Inke. Guarding against 'Uncle Gang of Zihui Venture Capital' has even become part of the monitoring tasks of some live broadcast platforms. Ma Yue, CEO of Yanzhi Live, which focuses on live broadcasts of models and small celebrities, even posted a special message on WeChat Moments saying: We do not welcome Zheng Gang."

In response, Zheng Gang explained that he was helping Ma Yue build momentum: "Hahaha, I'm helping Ma Yue. He asked for my opinion, and I said okay, no problem, you go ahead and build momentum. I once suggested that he still cooperate with Inke to leverage his influence and ability, but the temptation to do his own (live streaming) is still quite great."

When it comes to celebrity and internet celebrity resources, Yizhibo, which is backed by Sina Weibo, obviously has huge advantages. As an investor of Inke, Zheng Gang said he is not optimistic about the combination of Yizhibo and Sina Weibo. " I am not optimistic about the shallow combination of the two through capital ties. Weibo made a big mistake by handing over live streaming to Yizhibo. If Weibo does it itself, it will be a real threat. The biggest problem of Yizhibo is that it must rely on Weibo. The user scale of live streaming is accumulated, which is not equal to the original user scale of Weibo and Miaopai . So the founder has always emphasized that 'Weibo live streaming is Yizhibo, and Yizhibo is Weibo live streaming', but people from Weibo did not say that."

Zheng Gang believes that the key here is that Yizhibo has been a full year behind Yingke and other platforms. Although I have experience with Miaopai and Xiaokaxiu , I still have to pay tuition and accumulate experience in live streaming. This is the core, but no one pays attention to it and it is often covered up by the superficial excitement.

"Look at how big the difference is after one year, it's like heaven and earth, just look at the third-party data. Everyone can do live streaming, but if you measure it with data and user scale, you will find that many people are swimming naked." Zheng Gang believes that the timing of "entering the track" is very important. Latecomers have obvious disadvantages in terms of users and operational capabilities, and this disadvantage cannot be solved by burning money: "Burn money quickly and the risk is huge, and the result is half the effort. I think the stickiness and social attributes of users cannot be burned up."

As for those small platforms that are still struggling, Zheng Gang believes that the outcome is clear - they will have no choice but to die, and are not worth being acquired : "Acquisitions must be conditional. The acquirer wants to acquire only the other party's revenue and profit, or the number of users and user value, or management talent and experience, or technology and products. Small live streaming platforms will have no place to die, which is very cruel."