Why is it said that Tencent’s 450 million yuan investment in Thunderbird and its expansion into the OTT industry further confirms the success of Coocaa’s model?

In early July, the news that Tencent invested 450 million yuan in Thunderbird, an Internet TV brand under TCL Group, broke the calm of the Internet TV industry. It should be noted that the Internet TV industry at this stage is experiencing the dual challenges of rising upstream supply chain costs and the market survival of the fittest reshuffle. The favor from Internet giants will undoubtedly enhance the confidence of the entire industry in the future.

What is even more controversial is why Thunderbird, which was established only three months ago, has become Tencent’s new choice to increase its layout in the OTT industry?

This reminds many people of another Internet TV brand, Coocaa, which also received a strategic investment of 300 million yuan from Tencent a month ago.

Why is Thunderbird so popular? "New brand + Coocaa model" has become the cornerstone of its development

Some people say that Thunderbird is a "copy" of Coocaa, and there is some truth to that.

As an Internet TV brand backed by a traditional TV manufacturer, Thunderbird, which was born out of TCL, has a similar idea to Skyworth when it founded the Coocaa brand. As a traditional TV enterprise that has taken the Internet transformation step with a new brand, can Thunderbird become a disruptor in the Internet TV industry again after Coocaa? This is enough to leave people with more speculations.

It can be seen that the birth of the Coocaa brand has indeed taken a development model that is completely different from traditional TV companies that mainly focus on terminal hardware sales and manufacturing, and has provided a template and opportunity for new brands like Thunderbird to learn from.

Just as Coocaa proposed the big content strategy last year, it is to build an open platform with large-screen TVs as the carrier, introduce differentiated content service providers including film and television, education, tourism, health, and games, and bring more value to partners through comprehensive openness. It is regarded as a game changer in the OTT industry.

Thunderbird received investment from Tencent three months after its establishment. The reason behind this is that, on the one hand, after the layout of PC and mobile terminals, the Internet giant continued to be optimistic about the content portal of home smart TVs; on the other hand, can the "new brand + Coocaa model" really create a "second Coocaa"? This has also become the main reason why it has been favored by the capital market in a short period of time.

With tens of millions of daily active users, Coocaa has taken the lead in tapping the trillion-dollar market in the OTT industry

In fact, before Thunderbird received the investment from Tencent, Coocaa had received two consecutive strategic investments from iQiyi and Tencent.

Internet giants are increasing their investment in the OTT industry. Why are they still looking for the "second Coocaa" after choosing Coocaa? All of this still needs to be explained by data.

Wang Zhiguo, chairman of Coocaa Network Technology Co., Ltd. and dean of Skyworth Software Research Institute, once stated that as of June 6, 2017, Coocaa had more than 22 million activated users and more than 9 million daily active users. In 2016, its operating income after content sharing reached 167 million yuan, with a gross profit of 120 million yuan. It is expected that Coocaa's performance will continue to grow at a rate of more than two times per year in the next two to three years.

This means that today Coocaa has grown into an Internet TV brand with more than 10 million daily active users. The Coocaa model has taken the lead in grabbing a share of the new OTT large-screen development environment. In addition, the Coocaa system can provide adaptation features for TVs of multiple brands. The influence of the platform operation capabilities centered on Coocaa's big content strategy is also constantly being amplified.

It should not be overlooked that Coocaa, founded in 2006, was a decision made ten years ago by Skyworth Group based on its foresight into the future of the OTT industry. Ten years later, Coocaa continues to receive support from external capital, and even other new brands that copy the Coocaa model can get the attention of industry capital. This shows that a new model for sustainable development of the OTT industry has been explored and maintains strong vitality.

The path pioneered by Coocaa is becoming the fast lane for industry transformation, and it is inevitable that it will be followed by friendly competitors including LeTV.

As the trend of PC and mobile traffic being directed towards large-screen devices gradually emerges, industry insiders predict that the share of OTT large-screen in on-demand traffic will increase by 20%-30% in 2019, and the OTT large-screen market will usher in a trillion-dollar boom. However, the premise of embracing the future is to change the previous product and business model and increase the layout and investment in content operations.

From the current perspective, at the user level, with its operational strength of tens of millions of daily active users; and at the capital level, with the fact that its development model has been repeatedly affirmed by different TV brands, Coocaa has not only become a beneficiary of TV companies' Internet transformation and deepening of large-screen content operations, but also made the Coocaa model a truly viable choice for Internet TV manufacturers as they embrace the future of large screens and develop changes.

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.