Douyu Product Operation Analysis Report

Although Douyu has always been in a leading position in the live broadcast industry, the regulatory risks faced by live broadcast and the difficulties in exploring commercial models still cast a shadow on the development prospects of Douyu and the live broadcast industry; how to make the cake of "live broadcast" and "live broadcast +" bigger and better, while gaining recognition from users and regulators, when the number of new users in the live broadcast industry is slowing down, is still a problem that needs to be considered urgently.

丨1. Product Overview

1. Experience the environment

Model: iPhone 7

Ios version iOS11.4

Douyu version 6.081

Experience time: 2020.3.12

2. Product positioning

Douyu TV is a bullet screen live broadcast sharing website that provides users with live video and event live broadcast services;

It is not difficult to see from Douyu slogn (everyone's live streaming platform) and its subsequent development path that Douyu's vision is to gradually develop from game live streaming as an entry point to a pan-entertainment social platform that integrates many hot spots such as games, star shows, technology, outdoor, sports, film and television.

3. User needs analysis

① User portrait

Source: Baidu Index

Source: Baidu Index

Source: Baidu Index

A) The geographical distribution of users is balanced, with no obvious differences

The top three provinces in terms of Douyu user volume are Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. Overall, the number of users in coastal provinces (economically developed regions/populous provinces) is generally higher. However, with the popularization of live streaming and the large-scale deployment of wired broadband after speed increases and fee reductions, the number of users in inland areas will gradually increase, further reducing the difference in user volume.

B) Users under the age of 29 account for more than 90%

From Douyu, to Huya, and then to Bilibili, the proportion of young users is generally high. It reflects not only the strong acceptance of new things by Generation Z, but also the pursuit of entertainment life by users aged 20-29 who are in the energetic period of their lives. At the same time, since most of the anchors/up hosts behind the live camera are almost the same age as Douyu users and have outstanding advantages in games or other aspects, under the intentional guidance of the anchors/up hosts, the anchors' behaviors (including catchphrases) can easily form a detonation point among peers and then spread widely.

An interesting thing is that more than 60% of Douyu users have a bachelor's degree, and users with master's and doctoral degrees account for about 6%. This coincides with our prediction that the live broadcast industry will gradually shift from developed areas to sinking areas in the future.

C) Imbalance in gender distribution of users

Since the Douyu platform mainly used game live streaming as its entry point in the early stage, men themselves have a high degree of love for games and are very sticky, so naturally the user gender is higher in men. Although Douyu has gradually opened up diversified live broadcast channels such as star shows, technology, outdoor, sports, and film and television in its later development, the gender distribution of users is still unbalanced due to the high number of male users in the initial stage.

② User group analysis

A) Student group (age 23 and below)

User characteristics: The average daily usage time of the APP is long and the value of gifts given is low.

This group of users has a longer time for leisure and entertainment, but as they only have living expenses or part-time job expenses and no fixed salary or investment income, they have almost no spending power, and the value of the gifts they give is generally low.

B) Newcomers to the workplace (age 23-28)

User characteristics: The average daily usage time of the APP is average, and the value of gifts given is average.

This group of users has a certain level of spending power and is in the transitional period of growth in their lives. Compared with other groups, the time and money that can be allocated to live streaming are more balanced. As the saying goes, not as good as the best but better than the worst, this is exactly what they are like.

C) Successful career group (age 28-33)

User characteristics: The average daily usage time of the APP is average, and the value of the gifts given is relatively high.

This group of users are often managers of companies or enterprises with strong spending power. Once they meet the right anchor, they are more generous in giving gifts. However, since these users often begin to enter the next stage of life, such as getting married or having children, and the daily affairs of the company are tedious, the average daily usage time of the APP is not high.

D) General user group (no fixed age)

User characteristics: The average daily usage time of the APP is not fixed, and the value of gift giving is "random".

The main purpose of these users using the APP is to kill random fragmented time, and there is no fixed usage time. When giving gifts to the anchor, they are more casual, which is what we usually call passers-by.

E) Special groups (professional associations)

User characteristics: The average daily usage time of the APP is long and the gifts given are of high value.

This group of users are born for live streaming and are the driving force behind the hosts' advancement and the scale-up of the live streaming industry.

③ User needs analysis (KANO model)

A) Basic needs: Having live video content and hosts that you like to watch, enough to kill time

B) Excitement needs: a sense of belonging, achievement, participation, and recognition after comments, rewards, and interactions

4. Market analysis

Source: iResearch

Source: iResearch

The user scale of China's online live streaming industry has maintained steady growth in the past five years. Although the annual user growth rate has slowed down, it is estimated that the user scale of the online live streaming industry will still reach 526 million in 2020. Currently, Douyu has an average of 76.425 million monthly active users on PC, ranking first in the industry. It is expected to firmly occupy the forefront of the live streaming industry through the Matthew effect in the future.

Moreover, since 2019, new technologies such as VR and AI have begun to drive the development of the online live streaming industry, among which "live streaming + e-commerce" has ushered in a period of rapid development. In the future, the "live broadcast +" business model will continue to develop and improve, and online live broadcast platforms will have more commercial monetization models. They can completely win the competition in the online live broadcast industry by innovating products, forms and content and strengthening their own differentiated advantages, deploying more business and content modules.

2. Product Analysis

1. Product structure diagram

Douyu functional structure diagram

Douyu has many functions and duplicates, and the APP is too large

Douyu APP has both top and bottom navigation bars, and there are duplicate channels between the "Recommendations" and "Entertainment" columns in the bottom navigation bar, resulting in too many first-level entrances and confusing interface functions. Although too many functions and differentiated priority rankings are Douyu's helpless measures to retain users, they directly lead to the excessive size of the APP and an increase in the user download churn rate.

2. User flow chart

Douyu allows users to register/log in with a third-party account. Overall, the login and usage process feels relatively smooth.

User flow chart

3. Functional experience analysis

A

B

C

A) Poster status changes randomly when users browse

When users browse the live broadcast room, the system will randomly convert a static poster into a dynamic video for playback. This function can effectively attract users to click and watch while browsing.

PS: Taking the business I am responsible for as an example, the difference in the number of users visiting the recommended position for dynamic video playback and static poster display is about 2-3 times;

B) Gesture call-jumping to the live broadcast room is simple and convenient

In Douyu Live Studio, long press the video for 2 seconds to call out the most frequently visited and historical records, making it very convenient for users to use the jump function in the live studio;

C) Fish Bar - Natural strong social relationship

Using the form of Baidu Tieba to form a 'fish bar' within the APP with the anchor as the interest center, it has a natural advantage after its launch. Because the 'Fish Bar' is composed of fans of the anchor and is managed by the anchor/room manager, most of the topics discussed within the Fish Bar revolve around the anchor. Therefore, the launch of Yuba can continuously form positive feedback between anchors and fans, effectively improving user retention and stickiness. This is also one of the innovative measures that Douyu has taken to widen the gap with other competing products.

4. Version iteration analysis

Douyu iteration record

Douyu has been iterating rapidly since its launch on June 28, 2014, with new features added almost every month and as many as 2.26 updates per month. Although Douyu is currently at the forefront of the live streaming trend, the frequency of APP updates and such radical attempts to add new features also show Douyu's sense of urgency and the fierce competition in the live streaming industry.

3. User Opinion

Douyu APP Rating

1. Judging from the ratings, users have different opinions. One-star and five-star ratings accounted for 63.76% and 31.76% respectively, and the overall share exceeded 95%.

The success or failure of the anchor is also due to the anchor's rating

One star:

A) The barrage environment needs to be cleaned up. Currently, there are too many meaningless, provocative, and discriminatory words in the barrage.

B) Some anchors play by the rules when broadcasting live

C) After the relationship between the anchor and the platform changes, their fans retaliate by rating

Five Stars:

A) Fans’ love for the anchor

B) Appreciation of live content

2. In summary, one-star and five-star ratings are mostly given by users based on the anchor, the atmosphere of the live broadcast room and the video content produced. The anchor is equivalent to the button connecting the users and the platform. If you want to improve user satisfaction with the product, you can start by improving the overall quality of the anchor, live broadcast skills and standardized live broadcast content, and establish positive feedback between users and the platform.

In addition, the extreme nature of the ratings also indirectly confirms that the users are of a relatively low age group and most of them are emotional ratings, so the platform needs to be extra cautious when guiding users to rate.

4. If I were a PM

1. Support small and medium-sized contracted anchors in different fields and promote the diversification and standardization of live broadcast content

From Lu Benwei to Chen Yifa, Douyu has suffered extremely serious financial and reputational losses due to the inappropriate remarks of its top anchors. Moreover, judging from Douyu's financial reports for the first three quarters of 2019, despite profits in the first two quarters, its net profit in the third quarter was -164.6 million yuan (RMB), of which revenue-sharing fees (anchor share) and content fees increased to 1.304 billion yuan. This shows that the signing fees for top anchors still have a fairly high premium.

Therefore, formulating bottom-line rules for live streaming and strictly supervising them, while cultivating small and medium-sized anchors in various fields signed by the platform, is a good way to reduce regulatory risks, reduce platform content costs, and enhance the diversity of the platform's live streaming field.

2. Accelerate the exploration of the commercial model of "live broadcast +"

Douyu currently has only four types of commercial models: user rewards, merchant advertising, game joint operations, and live broadcast tickets. In addition, the progress of Douyu's "live broadcast + e-commerce" module is very slow, with only some e-commerce video teaching and Taobao store traffic diversion. In contrast, the "e-commerce + live broadcast" model has developed rapidly: Taobao Live (Li Jiaqi) has the ability to sell 15,000 lipsticks in 5 minutes, and the market prospects of this business model can be imagined.

Douyu's commercialization model still needs to start from the exploration of the "live broadcast +" model, promote a traffic cooperation system between platforms and form a platform similar to "Taobao + live broadcast", so as to reverse the overall loss situation as soon as possible. Therefore, the progress of introducing the 'live broadcast +' model is also one of the topics that PM needs to pay attention to at present.

3. Pay attention to the function module by default on the user initialization guide page

Currently, Douyu's initial recommendation page only has a recommendation classification module. In order to consider the richness of the content of the new user's attention page, the next-day retention, and the exposure recommended to small and medium-sized anchors, a 'default followed people' module can be added to this page.

Ps: The default focus function module can be grayscale tested with the fluctuation of relevant data as the assessment indicator to decide whether to update and launch the function module.

V. Conclusion

Due to its immediacy and long-term loss-making nature, the live streaming industry is naturally subject to regulatory pressure and investors' doubts about its business profit model. I hope Douyu can standardize its live broadcast content as soon as possible and accelerate its exploration of commercial models. At the same time, we must also be wary of putting ourselves in an irreversible situation due to short-term interests.

Author: Zheyuan_3052

Source: Zheyuan_3052