Advertisements cost 680,000 yuan each, accounts sold for 178 million yuan in cash… Luo Zhenyu and Mi Meng are facing five major changes in their businesses

After Mimi Meng ’s advertising quotation of 680,000 yuan per advertisement and her assistant’s monthly salary of 50,000 yuan were exposed, the self-media circle went wild. This industry is really profitable!

However, there are more ways to make money.

In addition to advertising, some people earn 5 million yuan a month by selling content, some people earn 50 million yuan a month by selling goods, and some people cash out 178 million yuan by selling accounts... The ways to make money are still constantly expanding, and paid circles are also a new way. Some people made 650,000 yuan in 26 days through paid communities . At the same time, businesses that provide tool services around the WeChat ecosystem have also received millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in financing .

In 2017, can self-media continue to make big money? How to earn?

We interviewed more than a dozen people, including Xu Danai , the founder of Xinbang , and Lin Shao, the founder of " Shidian Reading " who has more than 15 million fans, and drew the following five conclusions.

1. Although the advertisements costing 680,000 yuan per piece are good, don’t be greedy

In the text and image self-media advertising model, Mimi Meng should be a legend in the industry.

According to Xinbang, Mimi Meng’s headline offer was 680,000 yuan, column sponsorship was 300,000 yuan, and the bottom banner was 250,000 yuan; the second soft article was 380,000 yuan, and the bottom banner was 150,000 yuan. According to Xu Danai, the founder of Xinbang and an expert in the field of self-media, the quotes for headline advertisements in most leading self-media are between 100,000 and 300,000 yuan. It is also because of the generous advertising income that Mimi Meng's assistant, who just graduated two years ago, can get a monthly salary of 50,000.

It has to be said that advertising is still the most mainstream monetization model for self-media. However, only a few people can get the top resources. The reason why Mimi Meng has achieved such great commercial success is also based on her 10 million+ fans and 2 million readers.

However, the advertising model has always been criticized for being no different from the traditional content business model and having a low ceiling.

As early as 2015, Wu Xiaobo (representing Toutoushidao ) convened a meeting of invested self-media people for exchanges. Wu Xiaobo believed that the share of advertising should be reduced and things other than advertising should be done. Afterwards, Wu Xiaobo himself began to try the paid product "Hear Wu Xiaobo Every Day".

It turns out that many WeChat public accounts have indeed begun to do things other than advertising. Lin Shao, the founder of "Shidian Reading", told Inc. that Shidian Reading's paid content revenue is currently more than twice that of advertising.

In addition, Youshu ’s founder Lei Wentao also told Inc. that Youshu’s knowledge service fee revenue has now exceeded advertising, accounting for more than 50% of total revenue.

In the future, advertising will be one of the monetization methods for every self-media, but not the only one.

2. There will be more and more content e-commerce companies with monthly sales of 5 million

In August 2016, Xinbang and Youzan jointly released a report pointing out that among the top 5,000 public accounts on Xinbang, 1/7 are trying content e-commerce, and some can even achieve monthly sales of 50 million.

Uncle Kai was originally a host of CCTV's financial channel. In order to share the stories he told his daughter online, he created "Uncle Kai Tells Stories".

As the number of fans increased, parents began to ask where they could buy the story picture books selected by Uncle Kai? In order to meet the needs of users, Uncle Kai started to build his own mall to sell picture books, audiobooks and other parent-child products.

Content allows self-media people to gather a group of loyal fans, and in the process of interaction, self-media people are given an unprecedented sense of dependence, and users' sense of dependence gives rise to payment, which is the simplest content e-commerce logic.

Nian Gao Mama ’s Gao Ma Youxuan and Xiao Xiao Bao Mama are leaders in content e-commerce. They are all mothers, and during the period of preparing for pregnancy and raising children, they became KOLs in the maternal and child parenting field.

Many young parents are willing to trust their product selections and hope to purchase them in the most convenient way. Therefore, building a shopping mall has become a need for many content creators, and has also given rise to service providers such as Youzan.

As of now, the average monthly turnover of Nian Gao Mama and Xiao Xiao Bao Mama is around 50 million yuan, while Gao Ma Youxuan’s highest monthly turnover exceeds 80 million yuan, and its highest daily turnover exceeds 20 million yuan.

Youzan data shows that in terms of categories, parent-child, food, home, digital, and jewelry are the majority. In terms of the goods sold, most of them are books, children's picture books, children's toys, tea, diapers, facial masks, skin care products, cookware, cosmetics, sportswear, and small digital products.

As for the threshold of content e-commerce, Leng Mian, Youzan CEO assistant and senior operations expert, believes that the following three core capabilities are required:

First, e-commerce operation capabilities. Without a good e-commerce operation team and unfamiliarity with operations, promotions, customer service, order processing, shipping, and after-sales service, self-media doing e-commerce may be ruined by a single event.

Second, the ability to select products. If the product does not match the tone of the official account and the needs of fans, it will cause inventory backlogs, and due to inadequate product selection, it will create a vicious cycle, and fans will form prejudices from the previous few product recommendations. It is best to try carefully for the first time and strive for a good start.

Third, supply chain integration capabilities. Self-media is very good at content operation , but in order to ensure the source and qualifications of the purchased goods, it is necessary to hire professionals to be responsible. Otherwise, product quality and delivery time cannot be guaranteed.

In addition, there is a prerequisite for content e-commerce, which is that the content must be needed by readers. Currently, the top few earners in content e-commerce all have public accounts with readerships exceeding 100,000.

In the future, vertically segmented fields, especially those not covered by traditional mass media, will be the main battlefield for content e-commerce, such as parent-child, mother and baby, clothing etiquette and other fields.

Against the backdrop of consumption upgrading, on the one hand, users need exclusive and professional content to build scientific knowledge for them, but on the other hand, they are too lazy to choose and hope to buy directly by watching.

Fashion blogger Rebecca has long understood the user mentality behind this sense of dependence: "It's not that there is a lack of such things on the market, but that they are simply too lazy to choose."

Leng Mian, assistant to Youzan's CEO and senior operations expert, firmly believes that in the future more supply chain companies will enter the content e-commerce industry and provide supplies to self-media e-commerce companies; at the same time, there will also be a large number of self-media e-commerce companies with monthly transaction volumes of more than 5 million.

3. The content payment pie is growing, and the number of players is increasing.

When users pay, they are not only entertained on the material level, but also improved on the spiritual level, and paid knowledge services are born.

In the context of increasingly fragmented time in the mobile Internet era, fragmented learning has become a spiritual need for many people. Therefore, content products based on mobile Internet and mobile payment scenarios will continue to flood into the market, and Luoji Siwei 's content payment cake will also be divided.

"Ten O'clock Reading" was one of the earlier attempts. Inc. has learned that "Shidian Classroom" under Shidian Reading has currently achieved a monthly revenue of 5 million, and the income from paid content is more than twice that of advertising.

Ten o'clock reading Lin Shao

Recently, Lei Wentao, the founder of Youshu, also told Inc. that Youshu’s knowledge service fee revenue has exceeded 50% of its total revenue.

Although there is still no specific statistics on how many public accounts have begun to try the content payment business, we understand that The Woman with the Scent of a Soul, Chazuo Academy, Three Classes , Noteman , Spenser, etc. are all doing knowledge payment , and the content covers all aspects of women's growth, psychology, workplace, new media , etc.

In order to concentrate on developing knowledge service business, Luo Zhenyu even gave up advertising and investment business, and broke up with Papi Jiang and terminated his contract.

Luo Zhenyu once personally described his experience in trying to pay for content at the following three levels:

The first level - you can make money by gathering top people and content, but later you realize the problem, because in the Internet age, everyone is being empowered, and users who are empowered to the extreme need a Hanlin Academy;

The second level - in different industries, people who are good at it divide their forces to guard the information. For example, the products "Qianshao·Wang Yuquan" and "Wu Jun·Letter from Silicon Valley" launched by "Get";

The third level - turning the knowledge in a certain field into a copyright-level product of the new era.

Luo Zhenyu believes that users are more willing to pay for "copyright-based knowledge products". Taking the "Xinhua Dictionary" as an example, after the Commercial Press seized the recognition of the Chinese dictionary, it was difficult for other competitors to follow up. Occupying users' recognition will also be the key to competition in the content payment market.

Therefore, self-media that occupies user cognition in a certain aspect will become the most authoritative content organization in this field, and users are willing to pay for it, and the market outside of Luoji Siwei is constantly rising.

4. Paid communities are becoming a monetization tool for influencers

Users from all over the world took the same class together and needed a place to discuss after class, and thus the community was born. At present, many people have also started to manage their own paid fan groups, but not on WeChat .

Wu Rujia, founder of Xiaomiquan

In the paid social tool "Xiaomiquan" invested by Tencent, there are currently 50,000 circles.

The "Gossip Readers Group" created by Feng Dahui has more than 10,000 members, and users need to pay 256 yuan to enter the circle. Of course, the platform Xiaomiquan will charge a 5% entry fee. It is conservatively estimated that Feng Dahui has earned more than 2.43 million.

In addition to Feng Dahui, former Alibaba operator Yi Ren’s circle has “skills in making money” and has earned 280,000 in less than 5 days. The circle is priced at 365 yuan a year. For every 100 people, the entry fee increases by 100 yuan. It has now risen to 1,265 yuan. It has been opened for 26 days and the revenue is conservatively estimated to be 650,000 yuan.

Xiaomiquan is different from the chat mode of WeChat group . It is more like a mobile forum. Users’ communication is themed and has clues. Users can also collect valuable content.

Regarding the entry threshold, Wu Ruga, the founder of Xiaomiquan, told Inc. that in addition to self-media celebrities, ordinary people can also earn a certain income in Xiaomiquan. An English teacher answered English-related questions in Xiaomiquan and earned more than 10,000 yuan in 2 months.

5. Selling at an estimated price of hundreds of millions, there is nothing wrong with putting the money in the bag

If you no longer enjoy content entrepreneurship , there is an easiest exit mechanism that can save you from the pain of daily updates while making a fortune from it, which is selling at a valuation.

At the end of 2016, there were two cases of self-media sales:

● The public account " Tongdao Dashu " was sold for cash at a valuation of 300 million yuan, and the manager Cai Yuedong gained 178 million yuan;
● “ Li Jiaoshou ” was acquired by Baidu at a valuation of nearly 100 million yuan, and the author Li Jing became the youngest vice president of Baidu at the age of 25.

For individual self-media operators, selling at a valuation is a good option. However, more leading self-media will still choose to expand their teams and operate in a corporate manner, and make profits through other monetization methods. Some of them, such as Luoji Siwei, Yitiao, and Ergeng, have even begun to develop into their own ecosystems.

At present, all of Luoji Siwei’s paid subscription columns are completed on the "Get" App, and the latest season of the "Luoji Siwei" video program has also changed from weekly video to daily audio, withdrawing from other audio and video platforms, and only exclusively updated on the "Get" App, a knowledge service application under Luoji Siwei.

Lin Shao, the founder of Shidian Reading, has also said that he does not rule out developing his own app in the future. Currently, Shidian Reading has more than 15 million fans, and has covered public account advertising , content e-commerce, paid courses, community and other businesses. In the future, it will expand into publishing and offline bookstores.

Development into a self-contained platform means more business possibilities and more valuations and financing.

Extra: Professional tools add value to the platform

Around the WeChat ecosystem, more and more tools are playing an increasingly important role, and the company's operations are gradually improving.

● Recently, Youzan obtained a payment license through an acquisition, and Youzan’s founder Bai Ya became the largest shareholder of the listed company.

● In March of this year, Xinbang, which provides media services through data mining, completed its Series B financing with a total amount of more than 180 million yuan. The round was led by China Media Capital and Huagai Capital, with Morningside Venture Capital following suit;

● In February this year, the knowledge sharing service platform " Qianliao " recently completed nearly 10 million US dollars in A+ round of financing;

● In September 2016, " Xiaoetong ", a tool serving self-media knowledge payment and community operation, received millions of RMB in angel round investment from Lion Home New Media Fund and LKK Rococo. Its customer services include Wu Xiaobo Channel, Shidian Reading, etc.

In this crazy content business, everyone can find their own place in the big picture. You only need to keep your eyes on your cake and create your legend without envying the achievements of others. We believe that the path to monetization will continue to be expanded, and entrepreneurs behind the content business will never stop exploring ways to monetize.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

The author of this article is @创业邦杂志 and it is compiled and published by (青瓜传媒). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! Site Map