The present and future of Mango TV

Hunan TV is the leader of domestic satellite TV. As a new media carrier of Hunan TV, Mango TV shoulders the heavy responsibility of Hunan TV's transformation. Especially after Mango TV was listed through Happy Shopping, its sample significance is still worth paying attention to.

Mango TV’s past success

The most important reason for Mango TV's previous success is that Hunan Radio and Television attaches great importance to and supports new media. This is reflected in the following aspects:

First, with the help of Hunan Satellite TV's "exclusive broadcast" strategy of multiple phenomenal programs, Mango TV has gained hundreds of millions of users on its mobile terminal. Hunan Satellite TV's high-rated programs featuring young entertainment will undoubtedly bring a considerable number of users if they are broadcasted exclusively on Mango TV. If these programs need to purchase copyrights, it will also be a considerable expense. This is equivalent to Hunan Satellite TV directly directing traffic to Mango TV. Mango TV has announced that it has more than 400 million mobile users and tens of millions of daily active users. Together with the PC version, it has been announced that it is the fourth largest online video after iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video. Third-party data shows that Mango TV's monthly active users have reached 76 million, second only to the three video apps under BAT and LeTV.

The second is that Hunan TV granted its new media copyright to Mango TV. In 2016, Mango TV realized 450 million yuan in new media copyright revenue, and in the first half of 2017, the new media copyright revenue reached 500 million yuan. Of course, Mango TV also had some self-made program copyrights during this period, and it is estimated that the proportion of copyright revenue from self-made programs should be very small. This new media copyright revenue is actually a direct blood transfusion from Hunan Satellite TV to Mango TV.

Third, Mango TV used Hunan TV's exclusive broadcasting to generate billions of new media advertising and user payment revenues. In 2016, Mango TV's new media advertising and membership revenues reached 989 million yuan, and in the first half of 2017, it had already reached 639 million yuan.

Fourth, as the secondary broadcast control platform of Hunan Radio and Television IPTV, it cooperates with telecom operators to develop IPTV and obtain revenue sharing. Mango TV claims that it has developed 7 million IPTV users in Hunan Province, while Hunan Telecom claims that the number of IPTV users has reached 5 million. Perhaps the other 2 million are users of Mango TV, China Unicom and China Mobile. In the first half of 2017, Mango TV's IPTV revenue was about 200 million yuan. If there are really 7 million users, the monthly ARPU value of one user is 4.76 yuan. There are 12.6 million broadband users in Hunan Province, and the ceiling of IPTV revenue sharing is very limited, with an annual revenue of 1 billion yuan. There is still a long way to go for the future refined operation of IPTV and the improvement of ARPU value. It is difficult to say whether it can achieve a major breakthrough.

Fifth, Mango TV has used Hunan Radio and Television’s Internet TV license and Hunan Radio and Television’s programs to expand tens of millions of OTT users through national TV terminal channels and operator channels.

Sixth, driven by the phenomenal programs on Hunan Satellite TV, Mango TV has a certain degree of brand awareness. All other state-owned media new media opportunities have no brand, including CCTV, SMG, etc.

In general, Mango TV has gained a certain number of users, a certain amount of income, a certain brand, and achieved a certain degree of success by relying on the new media copyright, new media distribution rights, and broadcasting rights of Hunan Radio and Television programs.

However, after Mango TV went public through Happy Shopping, it faced the heavy task of taking on the transformation of Hunan Radio and Television and how to become the Hunan Health Song on the Internet. Compared with this arduous task, the previous success was almost insignificant.

According to the data released by Happy Shopping, Mango TV lost 940 million in 2015 and 590 million in 2016, with a cumulative loss of more than 1.6 billion in two years. It made a profit of 158 million in the first half of 2017. Happy Shopping promised that Mango TV's net profit for the whole year of 2017 will reach 427 million, and will achieve net profits of 679 million, 910 million, and 1.294 billion from 2018 to 2020. At present, all domestic Internet video companies are in a state of burning money, and have been burning money for more than ten years. Mango TV can make money except for the income from IPTV licenses and new media copyrights. The real hematopoietic ability of Mango TV itself is still very weak. As a listed company, Mango TV needs to have beautiful financial statements, but in the domestic Internet video environment, making money is still a rare thing.

Putting aside various interference factors, the business model of Internet video is not complicated. The first is whether there is high-quality content that attracts users, either copyright purchase or self-made programs. With enough content to attract users, the most classic profit model is advertising and user payment. The second is excellent user experience, which requires product technology capabilities and time accumulation. The third is market promotion, whether it is B-end or C-end. The fourth is business innovation capabilities, such as interaction, various gameplays, various new formats, etc.

This is also what commercial Internet video companies at home and abroad are doing, but Mango TV is not a private commercial video company, nor is it a new video website in the video field. Mango TV is the new media business platform of Hunan Radio and Television, and it undertakes the task of transformation or integrated development of Hunan Radio and Television. Pure Internet gameplay is difficult to replace in terms of funds or system.

If Mango TV continues to only obtain new media copyrights, broadcasting and distribution rights from Hunan Satellite TV, it will not be able to continue to grow regardless of its "exclusive broadcasting" or "uniqueness".

Ten preliminary thoughts on the future of Mango TV

First, the first thing for Mango TV is to achieve integration with Hunan Satellite TV programs. The programs of Hunan Satellite TV's key columns and projects are oriented to the mobile terminals of Mango TV while facing traditional satellite channels and IPTV channels. From program planning, broadcasting to subsequent derivatives, Mango TV is fully integrated. Mango TV cannot be just a broadcasting channel. Some people may worry whether this will affect Hunan Satellite TV's ratings and advertising revenue. Planning and designing different program methods according to the different characteristics of large and small screens will increase the overall ratings and commercial benefits of the program. Mango TV needs product options for various Internet video programs, and the program team's assessment must be unified across all channels. This is an innovation in the program model, which still requires a lot of innovation and creativity. This will greatly consolidate and expand Hunan Satellite TV's programs, and is also one of the core advantages of Mango TV in the competition with BAT's video websites.

Secondly, Mango TV should avoid the money-burning model of competing with the copyrights of video websites under BAT. The state-owned system does not support money-burning, and even if it does, it will not be able to burn tens of billions of dollars every year.

Third, the current domestic Internet video control policy is still very strict, and commercial video websites are unable to make arrangements in the political and social aspects. This is an area where state-owned media have great potential.

Fourth, Mango TV needs to improve the unified product user experience and achieve unified products, users, and user experience across mobile, OTT, operators, and PC terminals.

Fifth, as a local media in Hunan, Mango TV has an important option of deepening localization. Cooperating with various terrestrial channels of Hunan Radio and Television and various local TV stations to provide localized content and operation services is an area where Internet giants cannot gain a competitive advantage.

Sixth, the ability to produce self-made content is the core competitiveness in the future, but Hunan TV is the core of self-production, which is beyond the reach of the current self-production capabilities of commercial video websites. Mango TV needs to integrate with Hunan TV. Hunan TV’s self-production is Mango TV’s self-production, rather than Mango TV starting from scratch to produce its own programs. In addition to Hunan TV’s self-production programs, Mango TV needs to use the platforms of Hunan TV and Mango TV to operate MCN and use the platforms to incubate high-quality programs.

Seventh, after going public through Joyo.com, it must be adept at maneuvering in the capital market to obtain funds to quickly upgrade products and programs.

Eighth, OTT and mobile terminals are the future of Mango TV. We will enhance the operational capabilities of OTT, increase the activity of mobile terminals, and enhance the interaction between OTT large screens and mobile terminals.

Ninth, interaction between large and small screens. Mango TV’s mobile products and Hunan TV’s interactive products on traditional large-screen TVs, OTT, and IPTV not only enhance user stickiness, but also transform program models and provide new business operation capabilities.

Tenth, IPTV needs to be OTT-ized, and deep cooperation should be carried out with telecom operators to improve operational capabilities, increase ARPU value, and transform the province’s IPTV users into OTT-ized ones.

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.