The mobile video landscape is beginning to emerge. What are the secrets behind the unicorns?

In the investment field, startups with a valuation of more than $1 billion are usually called "unicorns". These companies may represent the development direction of their respective industries to a certain extent. On November 24, Yixia Technology announced the completion of a $200 million Series D financing, with a valuation of more than $1 billion, successfully joining the "unicorn" club. So far, the pattern of the domestic mobile video field has begun to take shape.

Mobile is the next stop for video

In the third quarter of 2012, the average online time per person on mobile Internet surpassed that on PC Internet for the first time. Since then, mobile traffic has been growing rapidly. It is a consensus within and outside the industry that mobile Internet is a major development trend of the IT industry.

In the video field, this trend can be clearly reflected in the traffic composition. According to iQiyi's data in July, mobile traffic has accounted for more than 60% of the total traffic. From this point of view, whether or not a video website can effectively grasp the mobile node is one of the key factors for its survival. From another perspective, the advent of the mobile Internet era has also provided entrepreneurial teams in the video field with an opportunity that is unimaginable in the PC market.

It is precisely because of the firm belief that "video will make a difference in the mobile Internet era" that Cao Kun and his team founded Yixia Technology four years ago and began to stir up the mobile video market. Judging from the several rounds of financing it has received, this direction is also favored by many star investment institutions.

The growth of unicorns

With $200 million in Series D funding and a valuation of $1 billion, the Yixia Technology team has achieved a phased success. Someone summarized its achievements today in this sentence: "The right people did the right thing at the right time." In fact, not only in the field of mobile video, the three factors involved here are worth thinking about for every entrepreneurial team.

The right people refer to the team. Han Kun, who was the co-founder of Ku6.com, is a veteran in the video industry. It is reported that there have not been many personnel changes in Han Kun's team in the past few years. The loyalty and reliability of the members, as well as their strong operational experience and technical background are one of the main reasons why investors are optimistic about this project.

The right time refers to the time when a product enters the market. Miaopai, launched in 2013, is the first phenomenal product created by Yixia Technology. Before that, the team also launched the video sharing applications Vitamio and Paike in 2011 and 2012, but neither of them caused much response. The immature network environment is also one of the reasons why these two products failed to explode.

The right thing refers to the market. Redpoint Ventures, which invests more than 80% in early-stage projects, once said that it is extremely important to consider whether there are enough market opportunities in this field to support a billion-dollar enterprise during the project selection process. A sufficient market is actually supported by a large user base. The essence of the video industry can be roughly attributed to entertainment, and consumers' entertainment needs are its unchanging market support.

When it comes to a specific product, the market behind it will be further subdivided according to its characteristics. After all, it is almost impossible for one product to monopolize the entire industry. The division of the market is also the division of user groups, which is often determined by the product form. The user group in turn affects the marketing and promotion methods of the product. Miaopai and Xiaokaxiu are positioned for the post-90s generation, and their fashionable, funny and funny product styles have also attracted many young people. From the promotion methods such as using celebrity effects and focusing on campus channels, we can see that Yixia Technology has an accurate grasp of the user group.

Mobile video landscape begins to emerge

In the field of mobile video, Yixia Technology is not the only company that did the right thing at the right time. In fact, from the current distribution of "unicorn" companies in this field, we can already see the initial pattern of this industry.

Short video social applications represented by Miaopai and Xiaokaxiu are an important part of this. This type of product has very significant social attributes, strong interactivity, and is relatively light in size. It can be regarded as a UGC video information dissemination channel. Also in this echelon is Meitu Xiuxiu in the video field---"Meipai".

Another strong force in the mobile video field is the video portal represented by iQiyi and Sohu Video. This type of product has evolved from PC video websites and continues the strategy of genuine, high-definition, and long videos. Copyright and self-made content are still the biggest highlights. Long videos are not suitable for sharing, and the social attributes of the product will be much weaker. Even if there are UGC channels, the producers are mainly professional video production teams.

Similar to this are mobile network TV stations represented by Mango TV. Compared with video portals, the resources of this type of product are more exclusive but less comprehensive, and the content has a distinct brand style.

In addition, there is another force in the mobile video industry that cannot be ignored, which is video live streaming. At present, the exploration of game live streaming and show live streaming on mobile terminals is even more in its infancy than the first three branches. Pioneers such as 9158, YY, NetQin Show Live, Panda TV, and Douyu Live have almost not entered the mainstream market, but the trial of these products can at least prove that the demand exists and the market is huge. It is precisely because the product form is relatively immature and the pattern has not yet taken shape that the opportunity to break through here may be greater. Cao Kun revealed that Yixia Technology will cooperate with Sina Weibo to jointly launch live streaming products, which shows the sensitivity of both parties to the video market.

The Internet has never been an industry dominated by first-come-first-served. Once it lacks innovation, it will be replaced by latecomers. Entering the unicorn market is certainly a good thing for startups, but the challenges ahead are no easier than before. How to sustain product popularity and avoid the vicious circle of being a flash in the pan, and how to achieve commercial realization and break the money-burning curse of traditional video websites are the problems that Yixia Technology will face next.

According to Cao Kun, the company will invest $100 million to support the content innovation team on the short video platform. It can be seen that Yixia Technology may have a tendency to focus on content innovation in the next step. Content is king, which is a point that any video website must realize if it wants to remain vibrant for a long time. After the product architecture is successful, the platform's high-quality content becomes the weight to attract users and traffic. Whether it is the copyright war, the anchor dispute, or the effort in self-made dramas, it all comes down to gaining content advantages.

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.