Douyu product operation analysis

When it comes to games, I believe everyone’s first reaction should be to think of a specific game. As for me, I have spent my childhood envious of others who can play games. As people get older, the "games" they envy are different, such as Subor Famicom, game room, desktop computer, Gameboy, PSP, laptop computer, mobile phone, gaming book, Switch, PS5, etc. I believe these terms are familiar to all game players born in the 1990s and 2000s.

But playing games is never a solitary thing. One can complete a level, reach a high level and a high rank, but if there is no one to communicate, share and play with, any game will become boring. And these factors are precisely the charm of the game. As a form of communication and sharing, game live streaming has become a mature industry with the rapid development of the Internet.

This article will analyze from the following aspects:

1. Product function structure
2. Competitive product analysis
3. User Analysis
4. User research
5. Functional analysis and optimization solutions
6. Summarize

01 Douyu product function structure

Product Architecture

02 Competitive product analysis

2.1 Product Positioning

As one of the giants in China's live streaming industry, Douyu TV is a barrage-style live streaming sharing platform that provides users with live video and event live streaming services. With games as its core, Douyu covers a variety of live broadcast content including entertainment, variety shows, sports, and outdoor activities. Its slogan is "Everyone's live broadcast platform", and it is determined to build a pan-entertainment platform for all Internet users.

2.2 Competitive Product Analysis

The rapid development of China's live streaming industry began in 2014, when the largest game live streaming platform YY Game Live was renamed Huya Live, and Douyu TV was developed from the live broadcast of AcFun, the previous largest barrage video website. With the influx of capital from all walks of life, large and small live broadcast platforms have been born one after another since 2014. Netizens jokingly call it the "Thousands of Live Broadcast Wars" including Panda Live, Zhanqi Live, etc.

However, with the homogeneous competition among live streaming platforms, increased industry supervision and capital pursuit of profits, the three oligarchs with the highest average daily active users and monthly active users in the live streaming industry are obvious: Douyu TV, Huya Live and Qidian Esports.

Although Bilibili is a UGC video website, it has also entered the live broadcasting industry. This year, its live broadcasting division has introduced former CEO Wang Yuyang and COO Wang Zhikai of the well-known gaming and e-sports MCN Daye Culture. Bilibili can be analyzed as a new entrant and a competitor.

2.2.1 Business Analysis

Business Division

Core business: Live streaming

After years of trials and tribulations, Douyu TV, Huya Live and Qipi Esports have become the three giants in the live streaming industry. Douyu TV covers a wide range of live content, including online games, stand-alone games and mobile games. Each project includes a lot of specific games.

In the entertainment live broadcast section, Douyu includes content such as outdoors, appearance, dance, technology, and positive energy. As for gaming events, Douyu has the broadcasting rights for popular international e-sports events. For example, the League of Legends game has the broadcasting rights for the LPL Professional League and the League of Legends Global Finals, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has the broadcasting rights for the PCL Professional Championship League. The live broadcast format is not limited to video live broadcast, but also includes voice live broadcast. Whether it is live broadcast content or event broadcasting, Douyu has it all.

Huya Live has a high degree of overlap with Douyu in its live streaming business, both in terms of live streaming content and the broadcasting rights of popular events. However, in entertainment live broadcasts, Huya lacks content related to technology and positive energy. Penguin Esports also has a high degree of overlap with the other two in terms of live broadcasting business, but it provides a "one-stop event solution" at the core of the platform, which means it not only provides live broadcasts of events, but also provides relevant event information and data content.

The entertainment live broadcast focuses on singing and dancing. Bilibili also has a very wide coverage in game live streaming, and has paid a high price for the exclusive broadcasting rights for the League of Legends S League for the next three years. But in terms of entertainment, there are more 2D elements and singing and dancing. However, Bilibili also includes a learning section and live broadcasts by UGC creators and up-masters.

Business 2: Social

The most distinctive feature of Douyu TV is the Yuba community, which provides a separate interactive platform for anchors and their fans, where anchors can send and publish exclusive content, which is not limited to videos and pictures. Fans can like and comment on it. Similarly, they can also send posts or videos about the anchor, and the anchor can also like and comment on them, further improving the stickiness between users and anchors. Douyu also provides social gameplay besides live streaming, such as voice chat, song request and radio.

Huya and Penguin, as major competitors, also have their own fan and anchor communities. The communities of the two platforms are also called Dynamics, but the interactivity is not as strong as Douyu. Dynamics is limited to content posted by the anchors, and fan players are limited to likes, comments and reposts. This may not be as strong as Douyu in terms of user stickiness between the anchors. Bilibili is more of a UGC content platform, where users and creators have a good community atmosphere, creating a better live broadcast community atmosphere.

Business 3: Games

Game live streaming naturally requires game recommendations, and the game businesses of the four live streaming platforms are all mobile game agents. Users get to know more mobile games through platform promotions, and the platform provides reservation and download services. In addition to acting as agents for mobile games, Douyu and Penguin Esports, which is backed by Tencent, use the influence of their own platforms to promote their own mobile games, thereby achieving mutual development between the platform and the company's other businesses.

Business 4: Video

The video business is mainly based on short videos. Through the rapid development of Douyin short videos in 2018, its popularity has even become a national phenomenon-level product, making major live broadcast platforms realize that live broadcast as a medium-to-long video content cannot capture and fill the many fragmented time gaps of contemporary users, nor can it attract a wider range of potential users. Therefore, traditional live streaming platforms will vigorously develop short video content.

The short video content of the three live broadcast platforms is more of a compression and refinement of the live broadcast content. Short videos are information-intensive and easy to spread. Users cannot watch the entire live broadcast in fragmented time, so the anchors and officials edit their own live broadcasts or event live broadcasts to make short highlights and promote them to users. In addition, the Douyu platform also introduces high-profile individual creators as a supplement to the short video business, such as Xu Dasao and Li Ziqi, etc., hoping to fill users' fragmented time and further increase the stickiness between users and the platform.

In addition, in early 2020, Douyu and Huya stated that they would pay more attention to improving game short videos. As a content-based video platform, Bilibili itself has a large number of video creators and a strong community atmosphere. As long as the platform allocates certain resources to game live streaming, it will be able to guide more UGC users to pay attention to the platform's live streaming.

Simply put, traditional live streaming platforms are expanding their video business in addition to live streaming in order to better maintain the loyalty between users and the platform and keep users. As a content video website, Bilibili itself has a large amount of traffic and a good community atmosphere. By guiding video creators and users and developing live broadcast business as a new entrant, it may pose a considerable threat to traditional live broadcast big brothers.

Business 5: Playing with others

The companionship business has hinted that it will be the next blue ocean in the gaming industry as independent companionship apps, such as BiXin and Laoyuegou, have received financing in 2018. Major live streaming platforms with over 100 million monthly active users are also rapidly expanding their companionship business.

Douyu’s companion gaming service is called “Play Together”. The name is simple and clear, and users know it is companion gaming as soon as they see it. At the same time, Douyu’s companion play also has social attributes. The companion play host has a special interface to introduce himself and display dynamics. Users can also follow the host and chat privately.

Penguin Esports, like Huya, has a companion gaming business on its own platform, while Huya implements the companion gaming business through the agent "Xiaolu Peiwan". Penguin Esports simply asks people to play with them.

2.2.2 Development History

Development History

1) Douyu TV: Burning money to become famous and gradually becoming more stable

In 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch, the largest game live streaming platform in the United States, for US$970 million, allowing domestic Internet practitioners to discover the prospects of game live streaming. The core competitiveness of the live broadcast platform lies not only in the perfect live broadcast content, but more importantly in the competition for anchors. Most users choose the live broadcast platform based on the anchors.

Douyu understood this principle from the very beginning, so in the early days of its establishment, Douyu gained fame through two rounds of financing of tens of millions of yuan, poaching and signing a large number of anchors, and sponsoring e-sports teams. Among them, many well-known anchors from YY Game Live, the predecessor of Huya, such as Ruofeng and Zhou Baolong, were poached, and it quickly became a leader in the live streaming industry.

However, in 2015, Douyu was hit by a series of negative events including wage arrears, delayed financing and copyright lawsuits. Coupled with the external situation of the live broadcast industry booming, the “Thousands of Live Broadcast Wars” officially began. Capital poured in from all walks of life, with Chen Qidong and Wang Sicong bringing in Longzhu Live and Panda Live respectively, causing most anchors to leave and disperse to different platforms, driving up the anchors' signing fees and causing Douyu to suffer heavy losses.

It then received a new round of financing in 2016, further clarifying the development strategy of the pan-entertainment live broadcast platform, which included the development of an entertainment section. It then successfully cultivated and provided mobile game "Honor of Kings" anchors and platforms in 2017, and added the Yuba community, and finally announced profitability in early 2018.

The emergence of Yuba Community is Douyu’s hope to create an interactive community where anchors and users exist within the Douyu platform. In the early days, the interaction between anchors and fans was mainly concentrated in QQ groups or Sina Weibo, while the interaction between fans about anchors was on Baidu Tieba. Such a fragmented platform is not conducive to generating user stickiness and user growth. In 2018, Douyu held its first offline Douyu Carnival, where fans and anchors gathered together, further deepening the interactivity and loyalty between users, between users and anchors, and between users and the platform.

In 2019, Douyu said it would try to build a diversified content live broadcast, with games as the core, and develop outdoor, technology, food and other content. Among them, Douyu launched the "Live Earth Plan", which will carry out science and education content around the world in the form of live broadcast, hoping to break the ceiling of the traditional live broadcast industry and try knowledge content services. Douyu has completed projects such as the "Crossing the Center of the Earth" live broadcast of the total solar eclipse, the super rocket launch and recovery, the Yangtze River hiking challenge, and the "Mars Camp" survival challenge live show.

2) Huya Live: Facing internal and external difficulties, it came from behind

Huya Live was independently developed from YY Game Live. It went through the "Thousands of Live Broadcast Wars", industry reshuffle, and industry rectification, and finally became an oligopoly in the live broadcast industry with Douyu. In the early days, YY Game Live occupied part of the domestic game market by relying on the technology and users accumulated. In 2014, the first year of the explosive development of the live streaming industry, Huya's founder Gu Feng resigned from the company, and Douyu poured in tens of millions of dollars in capital and aggressively spent money to recruit talent, thus taking away most of Huya's market share.

Subsequently, the "Thousands of Live Broadcast Wars" broke out and platform competition became more intense. As Douyu analyzed above, the anchors are the core competitiveness of the live broadcast platform, and the anchors are the foundation of traffic and monetization. Joyy decided to invest 700 million yuan in Huya Live, allowing Huya to gain a foothold in the live streaming industry, which was then heavily involved in recruiting talent. Subsequently, Huya relied on the phenomenal mobile game "Honor of Kings" to vigorously promote and develop anchors and events, and finally achieved profitability in 2017. And then achieved ten consecutive quarters of profitability from 2018 to 2020.

Huya also hopes to position itself as the number one interactive live streaming platform. In addition to game live streaming, Huya has started to develop and cooperate with the world's first one-stop interactive development live streaming drama "If You Can Do It", breaking the traditional model of film and television drama shooting. Huya also hopes to connect with the entertainment industry and invite celebrities from the entertainment industry to join and provide direct interaction between users, fans, grassroots anchors and celebrities.

3) Qiqi Esports: Backed by Tencent, hoping to get a piece of the pie

Penguin Esports started late, but with the support of Tencent, it is the mobile live streaming platform in the e-sports field that Tencent will focus on developing in the future. Tencent hopes to develop corresponding businesses in the gaming industry, especially game live streaming, but the traditional live streaming industry has long been dominated by Huya and Douyu. Penguin Esports has taken a different approach. Its positioning is not just live streaming, but also integrates game graphics, videos, events and other content. With the addition of resources such as Tencent Interactive Entertainment Platform, it hopes to create a one-stop mobile esports content platform.

In 2018, Tencent adjusted its internal organizational structure and established a game content product center to introduce video and copyrighted event content. This means that Penguin Esports will be more closely integrated with gaming events and gaming social networks, and will receive more exposure from Tencent's resources.

In terms of traffic, the Penguin Esports team will be responsible for the operation of the content ecology in both information flow and short video scenarios. In 2019, Penguin Esports was merged into Tencent Interactive Entertainment and became one of the core businesses of Tencent Interactive Entertainment (IEG). Penguin Esports can leverage the product matrix behind Tencent Interactive Entertainment to gain greater competitive advantages. Among them, Penguin Esports can cooperate with Tencent games, literature, animation, film and television dramas, etc. to achieve great support in content quality and the possibility of breaking the business circle.

4) Bilibili: A new wave of players enters the market and launches an impact

Bilibili was originally a video website for creating and sharing ACG content. After several years of development, it has also expanded into content sections such as games, life, and music, and has developed into a comprehensive video website loved by young people. Bilibili added the live broadcast function in 2014. In the following years, it learned from mature live broadcast platforms, added a series of rich live broadcast functions and content, and added a live broadcast section on the web page and client homepage.

In 2017, it formed the League of Legends team BLG (Bilibili Gaming) to enter the e-sports field, and then purchased the three-year live broadcast rights of the League of Legends Global Finals in China for 800 million yuan, and introduced the former CEO Wang Yuyang and COO Wang Zhikai of the well-known game e-sports MCN Daye Culture to the live broadcast business department.

Bilibili is vigorously developing the live broadcast section through a combination of video traffic, platform community and anchor-friendly profit-sharing ratios, which will have an impact on traditional live broadcast platforms.

2.3 Data Analysis

Data source: Analysys Qianfan, March 2020

The data about Bilibili is the data of the entire site, including live broadcast, video viewing, community viewing, etc., and cannot be directly compared. However, if Bilibili takes actions to divert traffic to the live broadcast section through the video community, the data of the entire site will still have great analytical value.

Industry scale: number of active users + industry monopoly rate

In terms of active users, Bilibili currently ranks the highest, followed by Douyu Live and Huya Live, while Penguin Esports has less than half of the top two. Bilibili won the first place because of the uniqueness of its platform. Douyu and Huya have experienced ups and downs to become the two major oligarchs in the live streaming industry. It is not surprising that they have very high numbers of active users. Penguin Esports entered the industry relatively late and was unable to quickly reach a high number of users.

In terms of industry monopoly rate, Huya is slightly higher than Douyu, and the difference is very small. This is also because the live broadcast industry is too homogeneous and no one has completely occupied the market. Also because the anchors are scattered on the two platforms, there are many users who use both Huya and Douyu. Penguin Esports only has 2.8%, which is a big gap.

Product usage: Average number of daily activations per person + Average daily usage time per person

In terms of the number of daily launches per person, Douyu is slightly ahead of Huya by half a point, at around 6-7 times, and the difference is still not big. Penguin Esports is also only half the size of its two older brothers. Bilibili ranked first with 9.6 times, thanks to the richness of its video content and the characteristics of short videos.

In terms of average daily usage time per person (minutes), Huya is ten minutes ahead of Douyu. Penguin Esports only had a pitiful 20 minutes. Douyu and Huya are also ahead of Bilibili, which may be because the video market and video content are quite different. Bilibili mainly focuses on short videos, and the video content will change with different Up. Traditional live streaming is a medium-to-long game live streaming. Users may spend time watching one live game after another, and the live streaming time will also end when the game ends.

User loyalty: next month retention rate

Douyu has the best next-month retention rate at 70.7%, followed closely by Huya at 61.%, and Penguin Esports still ranks at the bottom at 25.7%. The higher the retention rate, the higher the user loyalty and stickiness. Douyu retains users and converts them into loyal users through a relatively broad development strategy, a fish bar community with a strong interactive atmosphere and offline activities. Penguin Esports may not have as rich content as Douyu and Huya, and there are many external software such as event information, which distracts from Penguin's so-called one-stop esports content.

According to the “40–20–10” retention rate rule circulated on the Facebook platform, the numbers in the rule represent the next-day retention rate, the 7th-day retention rate, and the 30th-day retention rate. The average next-month retention rate of most products is stable at 40%, which is determined by many factors, such as external competitive factors, operational activity design, etc.

The next-month retention rate of Douyu Huya exceeds 60%, which is a rather exaggerated figure. This shows that the retention rate of live streaming is relatively high, and compared with other products, user stickiness and loyalty are higher.

2.4 Summary of advantages and disadvantages

Analysis of Douyu's strengths and weaknesses

03 User Analysis

3.1 User role map

Douyu User Role Map

3.2 User Profile

04 User Research

In order to make more reasonable suggestions for function optimization, we conducted in-depth research on 5 Douyu users, all of whom are active users who use the app every day.

4.1 Research Questions and Interview Results

4.2 Summary of research questions

This survey involved a total of 5 users, and the survey results showed that they were all relatively young and were in college. In terms of daily use, Douyu is basically an inseparable mobile phone software for them, and they will take it out to watch live broadcasts whenever they have free time. And they are all long-term users of Douyu, with an average usage time of more than five years per person.

It can be seen that old users have a high degree of user stickiness to Douyu. Three of them will go to other live streaming platforms to watch live broadcasts, mainly because of the host.

Play with:

5 users all know about companion play, but only 1 has used it and is not aware that Douyu has a companion play business. Everyone’s focus on companion play is generally on technology and sound. In short, users are interested in learning technology and having fun chatting. But no matter what, the five of them will check the personal updates of the people they play with.

video:

All five users watch short videos on Bilibili, and they all like this type of UGC short videos because of their diversity and creativity. None of them realized that Douyu had joined the short video business, and one of them was happy about it because it would be much more convenient to use. However, the mentality of the five Douyu users who joined the short video industry is generally average. Some only watch the live broadcast, while others worry that there will be no atmosphere.

As for the host's dynamics, 3 of them will pay attention to it, but only 2 of them do so through Douyu Fish Bar, and the other one systematically forwards it from outside. Users generally watch the live broadcasts and video highlights of unfamiliar hosts, and have the experience of following the hosts because of this.

Esports:

4 out of 5 users are interested in e-sports and watch the events on the live streaming platforms Douyu Huya and Bilibili. However, the platforms for obtaining e-sports related information are relatively scattered, including Weibo, Huya, Douyu, Bilibili and Hupu. It can be said that each of the five users obtains information from different places. Moreover, according to the survey, they will actively pay attention to news about competition information, professional players and off-season. They also have no idea whether Douyu has any gaming information.

05 Functional analysis and optimization plan

5.1 Play Together

In the past, users could only play games with their friends, but now they only need to spend a small amount of money to get in touch with high-scoring passers-by or beautiful players to play with them. This is the business niche of companion gaming.

As early as 2017, apps such as BiXin received millions of dollars in financing and achieved hundreds of millions in turnover in their companionship business. As time goes by, Douyu, an independent APP platform and an oligopoly in the game live streaming industry, has also joined the companionship business, named Play Together.

Compared with apps like BiXin that are vertically focused on the companionship gaming business, Douyu has over one million monthly active users and an ARPPU of over 200, with obvious advantages. The large and high-quality paying user base also means that there are more potential companionship gaming consumers behind the live streaming platform. With the influence of the platform, it is not difficult to attract more companionship gaming hosts. As long as more resources and attention are allocated, the companionship gaming business will naturally accelerate its development.

Problems:

(1) The entrance to play together is not obvious

(2) Play Together lacks classification by game category and tags

(3) The personal homepage of the companion player lacks sufficient information and is not attractive enough

Optimization ideas:

(1) Add a "Play Together" entry to the Douyu homepage

(2) Optimize the main interface of Play Together, add game categories, recommend companions to play, etc.

(3) Optimize the companion’s personal homepage and add videos and comments

5.1.1 Adding an entry

The entrances for Betta fish to play with are not only deep but also few. The entrance most likely to be discovered by users is the last column in the tab bar above the "Follow" interface. There is also "My Play Together" in the personal space.

It is difficult for users to discover this content in their daily use of watching live broadcasts, so it is necessary to add targeted entrances for playing together to allow users to pay attention to playing together faster and easier.

Optimized interface:

5.1.2 Play together main interface

Before, Play Together lacked classification based on game categories and tags. The interface of recommended masters is rather messy, with all the games, entertainment and technical ones all put together. Users need to search by themselves and keep looking down to find one.

One is often not the best choice, so you need to refresh the interface constantly. The overall operation process is very troublesome, and it is not easy to find your ideal playmate.

After the optimization, the main interface of Play Together adds game categories and relevant information about recommended playmates. The companion play interface is clear and concise, and users can grasp key information at the first time, making it easier to choose, ultimately increasing the order success rate and further improving the user payment conversion rate.

Optimized interface:

Click More Games interface:

The categories of games played together are divided into PC games, mobile games and entertainment games, and they also adhere to a simple and concise design style.

Click on the specific game interface:

5.1.3 Personal Playing Interface

When new users use companion games, they are often faced with many choices of companion games, but they cannot further choose the companion game they want. When faced with playing with other players under similar conditions, users may tend to choose the one with a lower price. The detailed information provided on the companion’s personal homepage can be used by users for further judgment and selection.

Currently, Douyu’s companion gamers’ personal homepages lack sufficient information, being limited to personal introductions and graphic and text updates. This fails to reflect the differences between companion games, resulting in a lack of user appeal. After optimization, user reviews and play videos are added. Users can learn about the play companion’s real ability or personal characteristics through the play companion video, such as a nice voice.

Similarly, the rate of positive reviews will further increase the user payment conversion rate, while also providing room for improvement for the accompanying players. Overall, users can get to know each playmate more intuitively and understand the differences between them.

Optimized interface:

Evaluation interface:

After playing with the host, users can evaluate the host, which includes the praise rate, user evaluation and report button.

5.2 Esports

Games are more than just games. In 2003, e-sports became a sport. From 2003 to 2015, the e-sports industry experienced wild growth. In 2016, e-sports began to embark on the path of professionalism, and the value of the e-sports ecosystem has flourished. E-sports and games are now inseparable. Major game companies are vigorously developing global competitive activities, between regions, countries, and so on.

Take League of Legends as an example. It is undoubtedly one of the most popular games at present, and it is also one of the most mature games in terms of professional competitions and commercialization. In China, the number of readings about the League of Legends S10 World Championship on Weibo’s hot searches has reached 100 million. Related topics often have tens of thousands of discussions. Under the more popular Weibo posts, there are expressions of frustration or cheers from fans of different teams.

As the domestic oligarch of game live streaming, Douyu has the broadcasting rights for many events, including popular games such as the League of Legends Global Finals and the PCL PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Professional League. However, there is a lack of development in terms of e-sports event information. For example, if users want to know the schedule of the League of Legends Global Finals, they need to find the specific live broadcast room and enter the host’s homepage to see it, which is a cumbersome process. Secondly, some users need to open another information APP to learn about related events.

If Douyu adds e-sports content and realizes a one-stop live broadcast platform for game live broadcast, game broadcast and e-sports information, it can allow users to learn relevant information after watching the live broadcast, increase the interaction between users in terms of likes and comments, and keep users on the platform, thereby increasing fan stickiness and activity.

Function:

Information: Match information in pictures and texts, match video information, user interaction (likes, comments, reposts) Schedule: Match schedule, match video replays

5.2.1 Information portal

On the Douyu discovery page, you can find the e-sports homepage at the top. Related information is based on game categories, such as League of Legends, Honor of Kings, etc. Click more to learn more about game categories. The following is classified according to information and schedule. Users only need to swipe left and right to switch between them.

User comments, number of likes and specific game information are displayed in the lower left corner of each piece of information, and pictures or video illustrations are on the left. Graphics, text and video information are distinguished from the play button. The main interface is a collection of numerous game information and schedules, making it convenient for users to view them all at the same time.

View specific game information:

Users can also view information about a game individually by clicking on the game icon in the category. The example below is League of Legends information, and the overall operation mode is the same as the homepage.

5.2.2 Graphical information interface

The graphic information interface is simple and clear, with specific game information, publisher information, and published content. Users can follow the publisher, and the publisher's content will be displayed first on the main information interface. Below are all the user's comments and the number of comments, likes and reposts for the entire information.

5.2.3 Video Information Interface

5.2.4 Comments interface

Below the information are all the user's comments. Users can like, repost and report related comments.

5.2.5 Schedule interface

Users can swipe left to enter the schedule interface. The interface displays the schedule information of the specific game, including the date, specific event name, game status (distinguished by white and red), game stage, game teams, scores and game video replays.

5.3 Video

Compared with medium and long videos such as live broadcasts, short videos have the characteristics of high information density and easy dissemination. Therefore, in a short period of time, the effect of attracting light game users is much better than that of long videos. For example, Kuaishou and Bilibili have achieved rapid development of their live streaming business through a "video live streaming platform combination", which confirms the importance of short video content.

At the first quarter earnings conference in 2020, Douyu stated that the platform will pay more attention to the expansion of video content and the improvement of short videos. According to the survey results, most users have the experience of following hosts by watching videos or video highlights of unfamiliar hosts.

Therefore, live streaming platforms allow users to access more anchors, bringing in more traffic and rewards, which is a virtuous cycle. But in addition to relying on algorithms and popularity recommendations, if you want to allow unfamiliar users to access more anchors, there needs to be good classification and convenience in video viewing. After watching, users may become interested in new anchors due to the characteristics of short videos, thereby increasing the anchor's traffic and discovering potential users who will give rewards.

Problems:

1. The video content lacks classification;
2. After watching the highlights, users cannot quickly find the relevant anchors on the platform

Optimization ideas:

1. Add video content categories
2. Add a host card below the video highlights

5.3.1 Video Classification

Discovery, as the name suggests, gives users a scenario to explore and look at different video content. Videos are randomly sent to different users, but users have their own game preferences. Some users may only play a single game, such as League of Legends, so they hope that the recommended video content will all be about League of Legends. Therefore, adding video categories makes it easier for users to discover new content and new hosts.

Optimized interface:

After clicking on a specific game:

5.3.2 Anchor Card

When users watch video highlights, they are often interested in some of the hosts involved. They may be surprised by the host's skills or the performance of the host's program. When users want to watch a host they are interested in in a video, they often need to exit the current video, search on the current live broadcast platform, and then click on the live broadcast room to find it. The overall operation is rather cumbersome.

The optimization plan will be to add cards of related anchors below the video highlights. The card content will include the anchor ID, which section the anchor belongs to, the live broadcast room title, anchor dynamics, and a follow button. Whether the broadcast is live or not will be displayed next to the anchor ID, and you can click on the blank area of ​​the card to directly enter the anchor's live broadcast room.

5.4 Others

Other optimizations are mainly some smaller optimization solutions when using the Douyu APP.

Problem: When searching for anchors, the comprehensive results give irrelevant search results

Optimization ideas: Adjust search result priority

5.4.1 Optimizing Search Results

When searching for related anchors, the search result priority is related anchors, related live broadcasts, videos and fish bars. Moreover, in most search cases, the content of the related live broadcast column under the comprehensive tab is often irrelevant to the search content, and is more about ongoing events or other recommended anchors.

Irrelevant search results do not contribute to the user's search experience and the content that the user is looking for. After optimization, the priority of related videos and fish bars will be higher than related live broadcasts.

Interface before optimization:

Optimized interface:

06 Conclusion

It has been seven years since live streaming went from the roller coaster of capital to the calm it is today. Douyu has taken steady steps and has secured its position as the leader in the live streaming industry through its own efforts and continuous improvement of content.

However, due to the homogeneity of the nature and content of live broadcasts, Douyu cannot take it lightly. It still needs to strictly manage bad behavior, improve user experience, and expand other related businesses to achieve platform differentiation and long-term development. At the same time, with the entry of Bilibili and Kuaishou, the leaders in short videos for game videos and excellent communities, the live broadcast industry is also undergoing some different changes, which also indicates that the two oligarchs of traditional live broadcast will face challenges.

The battle for game live streaming is not over yet.

Author: StevAlex Haotian

Source: StevAlex Haotian