As a high-EQ video website, how does Sohu Video achieve great things with little money?

For a video website, there may be many labels attached to it, but after the Sohu Video 2016 Marketing Sharing Conference today, Sohu Video has been stamped with an exclusive seal of "high emotional intelligence".

Zhang Chaoyang explained it in his own words: "Sohu Video has a very high EQ in society and entertainment, and often makes very accurate judgments. It may spend less money on content than its competitors, but it can get special blockbusters and good films, including increasing its own content."

The understanding of "high emotional intelligence" is not only a summary of the year 2015 which is about to pass, but also a prospect of Sohu Video's entire content marketing in 2016.

So, with Zhang Chaoyang's high IQ and Sohu Video's high EQ, how much imagination space can Sohu Video bring to the video website industry in 2016?

Independently developed online dramas are overtaking TV stations

At the beginning of 2014, Zhang Chaoyang once said that the video website industry was the "first year of self-production". In response, Sohu Video has successively invested in and produced high-rated self-production dramas such as "Diaosi Man", "The Best Lady", "Fleeting Time", "Water Margin Academy", and "Secret and Great". In 2015, as the price of film and television drama copyrights continued to rise, and the influence of self-production content continued to expand, the entire video website industry began to enter a period of explosive growth in self-production content.

First, the broadcasting mode of TV dramas began to align with international and video modes, especially online dramas that are mostly broadcast weekly; secondly, IP positioning, which is what the Internet is best at, has ensured the success of online dramas through more accurate and powerful data support.

In this regard, Zhang Chaoyang said that in 2015, TV screens and video screens were in a state of competition and coexistence, and video became more important. In fact, video has been developing for many years, but in 2015 there were signs of overtaking.

Of course, no matter copyrighted content or self-made programs, all major video website companies are currently unable to escape the current situation of losses, and the competition in the video website field that relies on the head content advertising model is extremely fierce. The platform can be said to be using the funds of the capital market to bring video content services to everyone. Therefore, Sohu Video can only rely on "high emotional intelligence" and accurate grasp to obtain good video content and continue to invest.

We-media is one of the development directions of China's video industry

Even during the heyday of UGC content, Sohu Video never gave up its investment and attention to PGC content. As for the coming 2016, Zhang Chaoyang still said that Sohu Video will vigorously promote Sohu Video self-media, which will not only be a direction for the development of China's video industry, but also a direction that Sohu Video will strive to lead.

Data provided by Sohu shows that one year after Sohu Video integrated 56.com to focus on the video self-media field, the number of self-media producers showed explosive growth; currently, Sohu 56 has 1,800 self-media producers, who have created tens of thousands of columns and produced 350,000 video contents.

At the same time, the platform has 600 million monthly viewers and 1.8 billion monthly views. Currently, there are 200 producers on Sohu Video with a cumulative viewing volume of more than 50 million, accounting for about 10% of the total share.

In the final analysis, a business model that cannot make a profit is not a good business model. However, Sohu Video’s exploration of PGC is breaking out of this vicious circle. This year, the total number of views of Sohu Video’s self-produced drama “Diaosi Nanren” has reached 4 billion, and the movie “Jianbing Man” invested in it has also achieved a high box office of 1.1 billion, and these successes are all derived from the content produced by the PGC model. In this regard, Sohu Video said that it will continue to invest in Dapeng’s movies in 2016; at the same time, online self-produced dramas such as “The Obsession Master”, “Wuxin the Monster Killer” and “He’s Coming, Please Close Your Eyes” will be prepared for theatrical movies.

Marco said that the advantage of PGC is that they have a group of precise user groups with the same hobbies and labels, and this is where the core business value lies. Every column, content and fan group produced in PCG is actually such a user group.

Zhang Chaoyang: Sohu Video's competitiveness has not declined

With the continuous injection of capital from BAT into the video field, the entire video website industry has been constantly undergoing mergers and acquisitions. In this regard, Zhang Chaoyang believes that the impact of mergers and acquisitions on Sohu Video may only continue to intensify the competition in the price of copyrighted content in the near future. Although mergers and acquisitions have led to more intense competition in content prices, it is actually a lack of product innovation, because after mergers and acquisitions, companies often lose their entrepreneurial spirit, but Sohu Video has currently maintained this entrepreneurial spirit.

At present, the traffic of Sohu Video has not shown a downward trend, and the traffic is still growing, and the user distribution is healthier. Zhang Chaoyang said that in terms of market share, Sohu Video is still in the first-tier status. Although there is a lot of noise in the capital industry, for Sohu Video, long-term competitiveness ultimately comes down to whether it can capture the hearts of netizens. Therefore, it can be said that Sohu Video's market competitiveness has not declined.

In order to meet more intense market competition, Zhang Chaoyang said that Sohu Video will carve out a new path in 2016 and seek content production in terms of self-production.

At the conference, Sohu Video announced that it expects to broadcast up to 200 new dramas in 2016, including Hunan Satellite TV's "Illusion City" and "The Legend of Qin" and other copyrighted content; in terms of Korean dramas, Sohu Video will have the exclusive broadcasting rights of South Korea's KBS TV station for the next three years. In addition to purchasing the most popular phenomenal Korean dramas, it will also exclusively introduce the SBS Awards and operate Korean stars' China tour; and in terms of American dramas, Sohu Video will continue to maintain a strong investment, introducing the country's best new dramas and the country's most popular talk shows such as "The Ellen Show" and "Saturday Night Live" variety shows; in terms of new dramas, Sohu Video will continue to expand the subject matter innovation and create new series such as "Forensic Qin Ming", "Dear, Princess Syndrome" and "My Intimate School Beauty".

In an era where entertainment works are born and die quickly, content that can be steadily developed and achieve sequels is becoming increasingly scarce, and the quality of video content determines the level of a company's brand. So, the question is, will the "high EQ" Sohu Video be the one that laughs last?

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.