Are there many heroes or two strong contenders? The war among two-dimensional video websites ignites

In the field of two-dimensional video, Station A and Station B have been competing for supremacy from the beginning. Station A took the lead in completing its Series A financing in August this year, with Youku leading the investment with US$50 million. Later, Youku was wholly acquired by Alibaba. It is said that Station B was acquired by Tencent at a price of 1.5 billion, but this has not been confirmed. In addition to the two major players, PPTV, iQiyi, and LeTV have also entered the field of two-dimensional video. Enlight Media and Alpha Animation have also made frequent moves in the past two months. Has the field of two-dimensional video entered an era of division among many factions?

Since the simultaneous live broadcast of Fate/Zero in 2012, the copyright war in the field of two-dimensional videos has begun, and the territory is the number of new animations of the season. As for the new animations of this season, Youku has 5 exclusive copyrights and 13 non-exclusives; bilibili has 9 exclusives and 20 non-exclusives; LeTV has 1 exclusive broadcast and 8 shared copyrights; iQiyi, Tencent, and PPTV each have 1 exclusive; Sohu Animation did not purchase any this season.

Judging from the data alone, Station B has successfully grown and stood at the top, standing proud of its competitors. The once glorious iQiyi is no longer glorious and has almost withdrawn from the battle for animation copyrights. Although the bigwigs have attached importance to anime content, they originally thought that monopolizing the broadcast of animation dramas would attract a large number of users, but this idea is really naive. The user stickiness cultivated by Station AB far exceeded the expectations of the bigwigs. The viewing experience of Station AB is not only ad-free, but also the atmosphere is difficult to replicate by other video websites. What's more, there is nothing that can't be done in front of otakus. Want to watch copyrighted animations but don't want to see ads? Subtitle groups, Thunder... There are too many ways to count. However, can Station AB divide the field of two-dimensional videos?

Other companies seem to be spending money and not pleasing others, but people with eyes have already seen that they have started to make a difference in other places. If you can't occupy the downstream market in a short time, then start from the source. Guangguang Media established Color House and announced plans for 22 animated films; Alpha Animation acquired You Yaoqi and previously invested in Buka Comics; Alibaba Pictures invested a lot of resources to promote animated works such as "Little Door Gods"... Capital giants are starting to lay out the animation industry chain.

The rising star B station also realized the importance of building its own industrial chain. According to reports, the first animation of B station is the remake of "Calabash Brothers" animation, and the second is the domestic animation "Shadow Fight", which will be produced by Sino-Japanese joint production. Although it is full of gimmicks, it is a bit unbearable compared with the big bosses. From the perspective of animation production, the two stations A and B seem to have lost to the giants again.

In the end, audiences are king, and strong IPs and high conversion rates are the weapons for grabbing territory. In the short term, Stations AB have a solid audience base and hold a large number of overseas IPs; in the long term, Tencent, iQiyi, Guangguang, etc. have high-quality original IPs and a complete IP conversion pipeline. Whether the strategy will succeed, and whose layout and model are better, no one can say for sure now.

As an industry that has not received much attention in the past, with the explosion of Internet+ in the past two years, various ACG IP supporting games, live-action dramas, peripheral derivatives and other fixed commercial supporting solutions have become increasingly mature, and ACG industries like those in Japan, Europe and the United States have gradually formed. However, the current ACG video field is still unclear, and both the content and the audience are changing at any time. The layout and model of each company are still being explored. The outcome of the battle of ACG video separatism is yet to be determined.

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.