Coocaa Network's annual review: One small step closer to the dream of OTT's universal reach

The OTT industry is accelerating in 2020.

The OTT industry, which has been growing rapidly, has not hit a low point this year due to the epidemic. Instead, it has reached a new peak due to the wonderful prospects shown by 5G and IoT. It is estimated that by 2025, the scale of China's OTT market will reach 100 billion yuan, which is nearly ten times the scale of 10 billion yuan in 2019.

In this favorable context, how can the OTT industry seize the opportunity to achieve broader development? As a unicorn in the industry, Coocaa Network has given its own answer. In fact, when we look back at the various trends in the OTT industry over the past year and look at the actual actions of Coocaa Network, a new path that can inspire the entire OTT industry is already clearly discernible.

Digging Deep into the Basics

In future home scenarios, OTT large screens will have a wider range of applications. Driven by new technologies such as 5G, this conclusion has become a foregone conclusion. However, considering the actual situation of users, in 2020 when IoT is not fully rolled out, OTT large screens still have certain limitations in terms of functions and need to unlock more connection skills.

Based on this misalignment between functions and trends, Coocaa Network's most important business action this year is to further strengthen the connection between OTT large screens and users at the content level based on insight into consumer needs and enhancing the highlights of OTT products.

1. Take advantage of the large screen to help family education

At the beginning of 2020, the epidemic started the "stay-at-home" mode for the whole nation, but it inadvertently opened a new journey for the OTT industry. According to Gouzheng data, during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Rat, the average daily active rate of China's OTT large-screen reached 52%, and half of the users turned on their devices for more than 6 hours.

Unlike its peers in the industry who are stepping up their efforts to tap into traffic dividends, Coocaa Network is well aware of the passivity of traffic during the epidemic period. Therefore, during the epidemic, Coocaa Network hopes to bring truly meaningful content to the audience based on the characteristics of OTT large-screen products.

For example, at the beginning of the outbreak, Coocaa Network fully utilized the credibility of the large screen and opened the "Fighting Epidemic" channel to disseminate epidemic information, scientific knowledge on epidemic prevention, and other content as soon as possible; and in early February, Coocaa Network actively responded to the Ministry of Education's call for "no classes but no learning", and launched an education section covering four systems including preschool, elementary, junior high and high schools with more than 100,000 episodes of "No classes but no learning, learn for free at home in the new semester".

It is precisely because of the accurate grasp of the audience's content needs that during the Spring Festival, more than 10 million families received Coocaa system education VIP, and the total online education live viewing time of Coocaa Network exceeded 1.7 million hours, which is equivalent to Coocaa Network giving 2.6 million classes to students across the country.

The most commendable thing about Coocaa Network's actions during the early stage of the epidemic is that it did not get confused by short-term dividends, but took it as a breakthrough point, and then demonstrated the unique charm of OTT large screens through its own operational capabilities. This strategic direction not only laid the traffic foundation for Coocaa Network's business in the next year, but also changed the audience's stereotype that large screens can only be used to watch TV. To a certain extent, it has played a very positive role in reshaping the value of the OTT industry.

2. Seize the hot spots and boost the influence of OTT

During the epidemic, Coocaa Network had the courage to break through the traditional content boundaries of the OTT industry, mainly due to its confidence in its own OTT business data.

How to meet users' strong demand for content as much as possible is the main driving force of Coocaa Network in OTT marketing.

During the Spring Festival this year, Coocaa system users spent an average of more than 7.5 hours a day using the large screen, an increase of more than 50% compared with the pre-holiday period. During the same period, the average daily usage time of mobile phones was only 6.8 hours.

The reason why Coocaa system can surpass the industry average in this key data and even compete with smartphones is not only driven by the external environment, but more importantly, it is due to the innovative marketing methods of Coocaa Network. During the Spring Festival, Coocaa Network launched the New Year's Nine Blessings Collection event, where users can participate in the division of 3 million cash with just a few clicks. This gameplay, which is common in online games, was cleverly borrowed by Coocaa on the big screen, thus opening up a new operating idea for the big screen.

Interestingly, WeChat in 2014 and Baidu in 2019 also achieved a business comeback by sending red envelopes. This shows that Coocaa Network has a keen insight into Internet trends in terms of operations.

Coincidentally, this year, Coocaa Network predicted that the entire consumer market would rebound, and during this year's 618, it decisively launched the "618 Watch TV Earn Cash" campaign. The data of this campaign ultimately shocked the entire OTT industry, with a total exposure of 1.1 billion and a total of more than 4.31 million people completing the task.

Using pure Internet thinking to open up the road to large screens, the goal is to directly meet the fundamental needs of users. In this entire strategy, Coocaa Network not only pioneered the industry, but also provided a referenceable operational example for the interactive connection between TVs and mobile phones.

3. Test the waters with a feature film

Although unique marketing launches and user-friendly content can bring strong impetus to OTT, ultimately, the reason why users use OTT large screens is largely because of the immersive experience of large screens, which is different from that of small mobile phone screens.

In the first half of 2020, movie theaters around the world experienced a life-and-death test, but this gave rise to an even stronger desire for the audience to watch movies.

Coocaa Network noticed this trend and tried its hand on July 24 by premiering the special effects blockbuster "Journey" on the big screen of TV. As we can see, it earned 42.62 million yuan in box office in just 72 hours. In addition to TV, Coocaa Network once again started its exploration of the cinema chain.

The premiere of the movie "Zhengtu" on the big screen of TV is largely due to the impact of the epidemic, but considering the industry, this small move by Coocaa Network may really leverage the long-term future of OTT.

Data from Lighthouse shows that in the first half of 2019, although the number of movie screenings in China increased by 8 million year-on-year, the number of moviegoers fell by about 100 million, and the attendance rate hit a record low since 2014, at only 10.52%. Data from Allied Market Research also shows that the global video streaming market is expected to reach US$149.34 billion in 2026. The two major data undoubtedly point to the same fact - the decline of traditional cinemas and the continued growth of streaming.

Coincidentally, half a year after the release of "Zhengtu", Hollywood's Warner Bros. announced the big news that it would be released in theaters and on streaming media at the same time. The film industry distribution system that has lasted for more than a hundred years has been truly changed for the first time, and this time, Coocaa Network from China has taken the lead.

Expanding growth points

Internet companies all have a distinct characteristic: it is difficult to say what their main business is. For example, Tencent, is it the king of social media or the overlord of online games? There is no unified standard to measure it. In other words, mature Internet companies are multi-faceted and multi-wheel-driven.

In 2020, a turning point for the OTT industry, Coocaa Network, after stabilizing the "basic plate" of large screens, also began to actively explore new growth points and seek sustainable development over a longer period of time.

1. Take the lead in cloud gaming

If the exploration at the film level can only show that Coocaa Network is horizontally expanding the breadth of the OTT market, then the launch of the game area on the Coocaa system can be regarded as vertically pushing up the content ecological ceiling of the OTT large screen.

In early February 2020, Coocaa Network launched a gaming section. In addition to regular game videos, game live broadcasts and other content, the most eye-catching one is "cloud gaming".

Although the Chinese game market is extremely prosperous, data from the Game Working Committee shows that in 2019, mobile games and PC games in China accounted for 68.9% and 26.5% of the market share respectively, and console games occupying the living room accounted for only 0.3%. With the full deployment of 5G technology, cloud games may replace console games and dominate the game industry with its lightweight features. The forward-looking report on China's cloud game industry shows that the penetration rate of cloud games in China is expected to reach 50% in 2026, and the scale will be close to 300 billion yuan.

From this point of view, the current living room game market is very small, which is also a good thing for OTT large screens, because once cloud gaming is fully rolled out, OTT large screens will obviously enjoy the first wave of terminal-level dividends.

2. Unbounded space of Coocaa System 8

In addition to cloud gaming, a very promising content growth point, Coocaa Network immediately threw out another "king bomb" unexpectedly.

In September 2020, Coocaa Network held a press conference for "Unbounded Space Coocaa System 8" in Beijing, proposing the concept of "Unbounded Space" for the first time. In this regard, Wang Zhiguo, CEO of Coocaa Network, said: "Coocaa System 8 is an open and interconnected system. In the future, we will strive to make this system more open, compatible with the mainstream IoT interaction protocols on the market, and connect unlimited devices."

From an industry perspective, with the explosion of 5G networks, the Internet of Everything has become a major trend in the terminal market. CCID data shows that the number of IoT connections in China is expected to reach 5.38 billion in 2025, of which 5G IoT connections will reach 3.93 billion.

As the Internet of Everything (IoE) trend takes hold, how to achieve better interaction between terminals has gradually become a major problem that troubles major IoT manufacturers. For example, TVs and mobile phones have always been two different terminals. In the era of IoE, how can their contents be integrated and coexist at the control level?

Coocaa Network's main business is concentrated on OTT large screens, but it is not bound by this business direction. On the contrary, Coocaa Network considers the contradictions at the future terminal level from an industry perspective, and takes the initiative to start from the system level to broaden the coverage of this system.

Xing Yan, CEO Assistant/Brand Director of Coocaa Network Technology Co., Ltd., emphasized: "Coocaa Network can serve large screens in conference rooms and large screens in cars. In other words, in the future, wherever there is a "screen", it will be where the Coocaa system can reach."

From this perspective, when we look at Coocaa Network again, we will find that it is no longer a manufacturer that mainly focuses on OTT operations in our traditional perception, but has been fully upgraded to a high-dimensional system service provider with a global strategic vision.

summary:

In general, the reason why Coocaa Network has become the only unicorn in the OTT industry is certainly due to its business accumulation, but more importantly, it is due to Coocaa Network's strategic vision and firm execution.

From a fundamental perspective, Coocaa Network knows that no matter how promising the future of OTT is, it is impossible to develop in a "leapfrog" manner, and the meal must be eaten bite by bite. Therefore, whether in the epidemic or post-epidemic era, Coocaa Network has always combined the product characteristics of OTT large screens with consumer needs to promote content construction, which has given Coocaa Network a solid traffic foundation.

After consolidating the traffic foundation of OTT, Coocaa Network has expanded its business through games, Internet of Everything, company equity, etc., to cater to the trend of the times and create more futuristic products. This makes Coocaa Network's business have a certain degree of continuity, and it has grasped the most fundamental technology line in the wave of OTT large screens turning into living room and family centers.

What is commendable is that although it "started" with the large OTT screen in the living room, Coocaa Network does not intend to stick to the large OTT screen in the living room. Instead, it has set its sights on the future of "connected life" and hopes to empower all screens within its sight in all dimensions. This is the ambition of Coocaa Network and the ultimate pursuit of the entire OTT industry.

In 2020, Coocaa Network has been growing in the midst of change, and with each iteration, Coocaa Network has taken a small step closer to its dream.

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.