I believe that friends who have been browsing Bilibili in recent days have noticed such an unusual thing. A large number of strange numbers have appeared in the barrage and comment areas of many videos, such as "4K 13834Kbps", "1080P 719Kbps", etc., which make people confused.

In fact, this is neither a mysterious code nor an encrypted code, but everyone is discussing the bit rate of the current video.

As for why this phenomenon occurred, we have to start with the video of Big V Film and Television Hurricane that was taken off the shelves.

Why is 4K not as clear as 720P?

On October 8, 2024, Movie Hurricane released a video titled "The clarity is not as good as it was 4 years ago! Is the blurry video just your illusion?", which discussed the phenomenon that the quality of online videos is declining instead of improving and the reasons behind it.

The video mentioned that since high-resolution videos (such as 4K) take up a lot of storage space and the amount of video data in a typical minute can reach 44GB, platforms generally use high-compression encoding methods to facilitate viewing and sharing. For example, the new encodings H.265 and AV1 can reduce the size of video files by dozens of times.

Here we introduce a concept - video bit rate.

Video bitrate refers to the amount of data used by a video file per unit time, usually measured in kilobits per second (Kbps). Simply put, it reflects the speed of video data transmission and the amount of information. The higher the bitrate, the more data is transmitted per unit time, and the richer the information contained in the video, which can present clearer, more delicate pictures and more accurate colors.

The numbers that were flooding the barrage and comment sections of Bilibili mentioned earlier are the bit rates of the videos.

We usually simply regard the video resolution, that is, 480P, 720P, 1080P, 4K, etc. that you choose when watching videos, as the most important indicator of video quality. In fact, this is a very common misunderstanding.

High resolution does not mean clearer video or richer video information.

You can simply think of resolution as a container, a bottle. A 4K bottle is four times larger than a 1080P bottle, but a bigger bottle doesn't necessarily mean more. Bitrate represents the quality of the actual contents of the container, and a small bottle can hold more liquid than a large one.

The bit rate of 1080P video may be higher than that of 4K video. If the effect of encoding format on image quality is not considered, then the higher bit rate of 1080P video is likely to be higher than that of 4K video. Video Clearer.

In the past, the capacity of a 1080P movie on a Blu-ray disc could reach 50GB. Now, most 4K videos on video websites do not exceed 10GB. The difference between them is the difference in bit rate.

The video of Film and Television Hurricane mainly discusses such a problem - four years have passed, with the improvement of shooting equipment, the video bit rate of video platforms should also rise, so that users can enjoy more exquisite and clear pictures. But the fact is just the opposite. Not only has the video bit rate not increased, but it has decreased. The video quality is often not as good as expected, resulting in loss of details and reduced picture quality.

Film and Television Hurricane found that the clarity of the videos they uploaded in 2024 was even worse than those uploaded in 2020. After investigation, they found that various video platforms had reduced the playback quality and bit rate to save costs.

For example, the bit rate of 1080P quality was 6Mbps four years ago, but it will only be 2-5Mbps for 4K quality in 2024, and the so-called "high bit rate 1080p" quality will only be 1-1.5Mbps.

What is the concept of 1Mbps?

We can convert 1Mbps (megabit per second) into the more familiar MBps (bytes per second) by dividing it by 8, which is 0.125MB per second. One minute of 1080P video only takes up 7.5MB. A 100-minute movie only takes up 750MB, and you can imagine its quality.

Today, a 100-minute 4K movie with a bit rate of 2-5Mbps has a capacity of 1.5GB-3.75GB. In comparison, a 1080P movie with a bit rate of 6Mbps four years ago had a capacity of 4.5GB. You can judge for yourself how much water there is in the so-called 4K image quality today.

The video platform does this not to save traffic for everyone. There is no need to guess the reason behind it - to save bandwidth costs.

What is the bandwidth cost of a video platform? Simply put, you can think of our behavior of watching videos on the platform as the platform buying a broadband and continuously uploading video content from its own server to all user devices that are watching the video.

The cost of this data transmission channel is different from the broadband in our homes, it is very expensive.

How expensive is it exactly?

iQiyi's total revenue in the second quarter of 2024 was 7.4 billion yuan, and its bandwidth cost was 450 million yuan. In 2020, iQiyi's bandwidth costs reached 2.4 billion yuan.

Youku has not disclosed its annual bandwidth cost information. However, in earlier financial reports, such as 2014, Youku Tudou's bandwidth costs reached RMB 917.3 million, accounting for 23% of the company's net income.

There is no exact official data disclosed about the specific bandwidth costs of Douyin, but it can be inferred from relevant information that in 2020 it was said that Douyin's monthly bandwidth costs exceeded 1 billion yuan.

The bandwidth and server costs of Bilibili in 2023 are about 1.47 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 10% of the total cost.

In order to save these "billions of dollars", video platforms have all chosen to suck back the toothpaste, regress the experience, reduce the video bit rate, and let users watch blurrier images.

Film and TV Hurricane also pointed out in the video that in order to make the video look less blurry, the platform will also sharpen the video. This method only increases the contrast at the edges, fails to enhance the underlying information, and may also destroy the original intention of the creator. For UP who cares about their own work, this is indeed difficult to accept.

As one of the most professional UP hosts in the film and television area of ​​Bilibili, the Film and Television Hurricane Team carries expensive heavy equipment deep into the jungle, snow-capped mountains, and polar regions, just to present first-class image quality to the audience. However, their own works were "re-created" by the platform, and the team founder Tim commented that this was "unbelievable."

The video attracted widespread attention after its release. As of noon on October 9, it had received over 400,000 views on Bilibili.

However, at 14:38 on October 9, Movie Hurricane suddenly posted a blog post saying "due to various reasons, the video related to clarity has to be removed from the entire network."

As for the specific reason for the removal, it is not yet completely clear, but it may be related to the exposure and criticism of the image compression strategies of major video platforms involved in the video, which touched the interests of certain parties.

Ironically, this was supposed to be a popular science event spread among fans of Hurricane Film and Television, but it unexpectedly became popular because it was "removed from the entire network", topping Zhihu's hot search list, making more people pay attention to the issue of video platforms reducing their bit rates, and sparked heated discussions among netizens. Many people expressed dissatisfaction with the video platform's approach, while also expressing sympathy and support for Hurricane Film and Television's experience.

For example, the platform was "publicly punished" in the video barrage and comment area. After everyone's exploration, more outrageous operations of the video platform were confirmed.

For example, the more popular a video is, the lower its bit rate will be. The video platform will compress the popular videos overnight to reduce bandwidth expenditure. The B station UP host "Dongdong Gun" calculated that for a video with 40 million views, the platform would have to spend more than 100,000 yuan to "invite" everyone to watch it.

People joked that you should watch the video as early as possible because "the earlier you watch, the clearer it is." Some users also complained that they watched the video later in order to accumulate comments, and the video bit rate dropped a lot.

In addition, according to actual tests, the platform will also push videos with different bit rates according to different devices.

For example, when watching the latest 4K video of Hurricane Movie on a computer through a browser, the video bit rate is displayed as 9628Kbps.

Downloading the same 4K video on a mobile phone has a capacity of 571MB. The video bitrate is calculated to be only 3766Kbps, which is more than half lower than the bitrate on a computer. Now you know why the annual fee for watching a video client on a TV is more expensive, because the video website pays more.

This is indeed the case when actually watching it. The enlarged picture on the mobile phone is obviously much blurrier than the picture on the computer screen.

It is worth mentioning that video websites limiting bitrates is not a new thing. More than a decade ago, Bilibili had already learned to perform secondary compression on videos that exceeded a certain bitrate.

At that time, there were still many UPs on Bilibili who had mastered some tricks to circumvent the platform's bit rate restrictions.

For example, if 7 minutes of inaccessible content is added to a video, the average bit rate of the video will be significantly lowered. This type of video is commonly known as "black front", and someone will "popularize science" in the barrage: "Yes, 7 minutes of your life have been eaten up by others."

In the same way, some people add a still image with low bitrate to the video to reduce the average bitrate of the whole video. In this way, UP can even upload high-quality 1080P 60fps content with a higher bitrate than today's videos on Bilibili more than ten years ago.

In general, the videos of Film and Television Hurricane not only aroused the audience's attention to video quality, but also made people start to think about the balance between cost control and user experience of video platforms.

For video creators, they are more concerned about the impact of the platform's image quality adjustment on their works. They spend a lot of time and energy to produce high-quality videos, but because of the platform's bit rate adjustment, the original image quality is lost, which undoubtedly dampens their creative enthusiasm.

Viewers also expressed strong dissatisfaction with the blurry video. Many people said that they paid for membership to enjoy a higher-quality video experience, but now they have to endure blurry picture quality.

Some users even began to question the integrity of the video platform. Although the platform only promised to unlock higher resolutions for a fee and did not make any promises about the bit rate, the current 4K picture quality is blurrier than the 720P quality of foreign platforms such as YouTube, and lower than its own 1080P bit rate in the past, which is indeed a bit unfair.

Who is to blame for the video platform's reduction in bitrate?

At this point, many people may be gnashing their teeth. We consumers pay for mobile data, broadband, and video website memberships. It can be said that we pay for the entire industry, but we don’t enjoy the high-quality services we imagined.

Here, we have to "smooth things over".

Reducing the bit rate of video platforms will have an impact on user experience, which is actually a question worth discussing.

In fact, reducing video bitrate to lower bandwidth costs is a common practice in the video platform industry. Even Netflix and YouTube, whose bandwidth costs are several orders of magnitude cheaper, are doing the same.

Industry insiders pointed out that in the decision-making process of video websites to reduce bit rates, a large number of rigorous A/B tests have been conducted internally.

By pushing videos with different bit rates to different user groups and providing videos with different bit rates at different viewing times for the same user, video websites collect a large amount of data on user behavior and feedback.

For example, in group A, users watch videos with a high bit rate, while in group B, users watch videos that have been down-coded. Video websites can monitor indicators such as user viewing time, playback freezes, and user retention rates.

If the downcoded video does not show a significant decrease in these indicators compared to the high-bitrate video, and even shows improvement in some aspects, such as faster loading speed, reduced user waiting time, and thus improved user's overall viewing experience, then this provides a strong basis for video websites to reduce the bit rate.

At the same time, video websites also use A/B testing to evaluate the performance of different types of videos after bitrate reduction. For example, for some videos with more action scenes and fast picture changes, a higher bitrate may be required to ensure the smoothness and clarity of the picture.

For some videos with more static images and relatively smooth plots, reducing the bit rate may have a relatively small impact on the user experience. By classifying and testing different types of videos, video websites can more accurately determine which videos can appropriately reduce the bit rate and which videos need to maintain a higher bit rate.

In addition, the higher the video bit rate, the better it is. There is a threshold. For example, do we really need 4K resolution for watching videos on our mobile phones?

According to Steve Jobs' definition of the retina screen, the limit of the human eye's perception of mobile phone resolution is 300PPI, or 300 pixels per inch, which allows the eye to believe that the picture is continuous and has no graininess.

Based on this definition, we can calculate what resolution of video you need to watch on a 6.7-inch large-screen phone to deceive the retina.

According to calculations, even 1080P is not needed to achieve retina-level display on a 6.7-inch mobile phone. No matter how high the resolution is, the improvement in visual effects is already very low, so it is better to reduce the bit rate to save traffic costs.

For video platforms, server bandwidth costs are like a heavy mountain, weighing on their shoulders. When the video bit rate is reduced from the original 5Mbps to 3Mbps, the server bandwidth usage may be reduced by about 40%. This is undoubtedly a considerable cost saving for video platforms.

For Bilibili, the financial report shows that the annual server and bandwidth cost expenditure in 2023 is 1.47 billion, a decrease of 280 million from 1.75 billion in 2022. At the same time, the daily active users of Bilibili increased from 92 million to 110 million, and the average daily online time of each user also increased by 17%.

Calculated in this way, the average server bandwidth cost per user per minute has dropped by 33%, and has dropped by 50% compared to 2021. This is a very successful cost reduction and efficiency improvement, which is particularly important for Bilibili, which has been losing money for years.

On the other hand, the bit rate of domestic video platforms is lower than that of foreign platforms such as Youtube and Netfilx, which is also due to the difference in bandwidth costs.

A report by network management company Arbor Networks once pointed out that YouTube's bandwidth costs are almost zero.

At that time, YouTube was almost the only large-scale video website in the world. Google purchased a large amount of dark optical fiber at a very low price to build its own CDN server.

By exchanging traffic with large ISPs (Internet service providers), Google not only does not have to pay for bandwidth, but can even charge operators in some cases. After all, if their own networks cannot access Google, operators will be more anxious than users.

Netflix is ​​closer to domestic video platforms, providing professionally produced HD and UHD video content. These high-quality videos consume a lot of bandwidth resources.

But Netflix has users all over the world, and while its subscription fees are high, it never lacks subscribers because of its outstanding content quality.

In addition, YouTube and Netflix adhere to the principle of network neutrality and refuse to pay bandwidth fees to network operators.

What does this mean? YouTube and Netflix believe that according to the principle of network neutrality, they should not be required to pay for network usage alone. They are content providers and have earned income by providing services to users, while the responsibility of Internet service providers is to provide network infrastructure so that all legal network traffic can be transmitted equally on the network.

For example, when Netflix's TV series "Squid!" became a big hit in South Korea, South Korean telecommunications company SK Broadband sued Netflix, claiming that the Netflix data stream it processed had increased 24 times to 1.2 trillion bits per second, and therefore demanded that it pay for bandwidth costs.

But Netflix said that there has never been a case worldwide where a court or government has forced content providers to pay network usage fees, and charging them network usage fees would subvert the existing global Internet ecosystem.

You see, you can’t help but accept that they are harvesting users from all over the world without paying.

So why do domestic operators charge enterprises high bandwidth fees? Isn't this a two-way charge? Consumers have already paid for broadband, so why should they watch low-bitrate videos because of bandwidth fees?

The reason is that China’s broadband is so, so… cheap.

There are always netizens complaining about China's oil prices, saying that "if the international price goes up, my price will go up too, because the international price has an impact on me; if the international price goes down, my price will not go down, because I am different from the international price." As for domestic broadband prices, it is completely the opposite - I don't care whether you go down or not, I will just go down in price!

Since 2015, the network "speed up and reduce fees" policy has become a strategic project, with corporate broadband and dedicated line charges reduced by more than 70%, mobile data charges reduced by more than 95%, and cumulative profits exceeding 700 billion yuan. This enables users to enjoy higher quality network services at lower prices.

Taking Hunan Province as an example, in 2023, there was an event offering 300M broadband for three years for only 540 yuan, an average of 15 yuan per month, while the price was relatively high before.

In terms of international rankings, according to the 2023 ICT Service Affordability report released by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU),

China's fixed broadband expenditure accounts for 0.42% of its per capita gross national income (GNI), far below the global average (2.9%), ranking fifth in the world, only behind Iran (0.17%), Monaco (0.24%), Austria (0.31%) and Liechtenstein (0.33%).

In comparison, the monthly cost of broadband in the United States is about $20-50; the monthly cost of fiber broadband is usually between $50-100, and the price may be higher in some areas; the monthly cost of cable TV broadband is also between $50-100. In addition, the lack of competition in the US broadband market not only makes Americans spend relatively high on broadband, but also leads to extremely low broadband coverage in the United States. It is common for some unprofitable and remote areas to have no mobile phone signal and no broadband.

On the other hand, in China, although broadband and communication services are cheap, our network construction is difficult!

China has a vast territory and complex terrain, and network infrastructure construction faces many challenges. Laying optical fiber requires crossing mountains and rivers and crossing different terrains, which is difficult and costly. Laying optical fiber in mountainous areas not only requires overcoming terrain obstacles, but also faces harsh natural environments, which greatly increases construction costs.

At the same time, the operation and maintenance of equipment such as routers and switches also requires a large amount of capital investment. These devices need to be constantly updated to meet the needs of technological development, and professional technicians are also needed to maintain and manage them during operation. According to statistics, a large domestic operator spends tens of billions of yuan on equipment updates and maintenance each year.

In addition, with the development of new technologies such as 5G, the investment in network infrastructure construction has further increased. 5G networks require more base stations and more advanced equipment, which undoubtedly increases the cost of providing network bandwidth.

So how can we make up for the high construction costs and low broadband prices? We can charge Internet companies for bandwidth.

In simple terms, operators subsidize the broadband and communication costs of the general public through revenue from toB services. Internet companies that pay high bandwidth fees then collect subscription and membership fees from some users who have the ability to pay, forming a closed loop.

This idea is very similar to the domestic Free2Play mobile games. It develops, updates, and maintains games through the revenue brought by a small number of paying users, and provides them to all users for free.

The same is true for video websites. Non-paying users can also enjoy the services of iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video, and Bilibili, but the content available is less, the picture quality is lower, and they may need to watch some interstitial ads. However, membership income and advertising income allow video platforms to provide video services to the public. Many people even use video platforms such as Bilibili as free video storage and publishing tools.

From this perspective, it is really hard for us to blame the operators who take social responsibility and provide us with low-cost broadband services, as well as the video platforms that have been losing money year after year. We can only say that different countries have different choices for fairness and efficiency.

In the operation of video platforms, fairness is mainly reflected in reducing operating costs and providing services to all users. Efficiency is to abandon the "freeloaders" who have no ability to pay, and focus on providing members with high-quality video viewing experience, ensuring that they can enjoy high-quality video content with high bitrates.

It is not difficult to see that deep down we value fairness more and want more people to enjoy affordable Internet and video services, even if that means the quality of service cannot reach the highest level.

For the very few people who are sensitive to image quality or have a paranoid pursuit, they actually have more channels to obtain high-quality content.

Summarize

The removal of the Hurricane Video is like a stone thrown into a calm lake. The ripples it created make us reflect deeply on the complex situation faced by video platforms in the current digital age.

As an important bridge between content creators and viewers, every decision made during the operation of video platforms has a ripple effect. In terms of cost control, server bandwidth fees and content procurement costs are like heavy shackles, forcing video platforms to take measures such as reducing video bitrates. However, these practices have affected users' viewing experience to a certain extent, causing dissatisfaction and controversy among users.

But we should also see that these decisions made by video platforms are not made out of malice, but rather a compromise and aggressive move in the current market environment - the same bag of rice, should it be made into rice for 10 people to eat, with 10 people watching on the side, or made into a pot of porridge for 20 people to eat. Obviously, our choice is to feed everyone.

Moreover, domestic video platforms are facing fierce market competition, users’ payment habits have not yet been fully formed, bandwidth costs are high, and many other challenges. We should understand the difficulties of video platforms and give them a certain degree of tolerance and understanding.

At the same time, we also hope that the video platform can continuously improve its technical level and service quality, reduce operating costs through technological innovation, improve the picture quality and smoothness of the video, and provide users with a better viewing experience.

For example, increase investment in the research and development of advanced video coding technology to improve video compression efficiency; strengthen cooperation with operators to optimize network transmission efficiency; explore diversified revenue models to get out of the loss dilemma, etc.

In short, the video released by Film and Television Hurricane is a good opportunity for many people to have a better understanding of video encoding and operator services. It also gives us the opportunity to think deeply about issues such as video platform operations and network bandwidth costs. I believe that in future development, through the joint efforts of all parties, the video industry will be able to find a better balance between fairness and efficiency and achieve healthier and more sustainable development.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.