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On August 27, YouTube officially launched the game live streaming platform "YouTube Gaming" in the United States and the United Kingdom. Next, YouTube will also release corresponding mobile applications on Android and iOS platforms. Just one year ago, Amazon acquired the game video platform Twitch for US$970 million, which attracted the capital market's attention to this emerging field.
At the same time, the domestic game live broadcast market is also gradually heating up. In 2014, Douyu TV became independent from A站 and received support from Alpha Animation and Sequoia Capital. In the same year, Joyy integrated its live broadcast platform and launched the Huya live broadcast brand. At the beginning of this year, it announced that it would continue to invest 700 million yuan in Huya live broadcast. In February this year, Tencent invested in Longzhu TV and entered into a strategic cooperation with it.
As e-sports is developing rapidly, game live streaming platforms are growing rapidly on PC and mobile phones. It is understood that there are dozens of game live streaming platforms in China, which are in the early stage of competition. In terms of platform content, there is not much differentiation, mainly including e-sports competitions, personal live streaming and game show live streaming.
According to a report by iResearch, the scale of China's game live broadcast market was 270 million yuan in 2014 and is expected to reach 1.17 billion yuan in 2015. The market scale is constantly expanding. At the same time, live broadcast platforms have not yet formed a mature monetization model.
From the initial podcast era, to the interactive show stage, and then to the emerging game live broadcast platform, the UGC and PGC of videos have become more vertical. Xue Yongfeng, an analyst at Analysys, believes that the game live broadcast platform is an important part of the e-sports market and is one of the few untapped areas in the e-sports industry chain. In the future, domestic game live broadcast platforms will also usher in a period of integration.
Wild Growth
Game live broadcasting belongs to the downstream broadcasting link of e-sports. Why has it been favored by capital in the past two years? On the one hand, live broadcasting itself has strong timeliness and interactivity, and the emergence of new modes such as barrage has increased user participation; on the other hand, game live broadcasting events are frequent and easy to operate. Compared with sports competitions, game competitions do not require high venues, and the cost of participating in competitions is also low. You only need to connect to the Internet and the team to go online to record and share the screen. In addition, the high stickiness of game enthusiasts makes game live broadcasting generate very large traffic.
Earlier this year, Amazon said that Twitch's monthly active users had reached 100 million. According to data released by Riot, the developer of League of Legends, the number of viewers worldwide reached 27 million during the League of Legends Season 4 finals.
Industry insiders in the domestic game live broadcast industry told reporters that although some video live broadcast platforms are very popular, there is still the problem of fake online users. The current platforms are in a period of wild growth and are all making arrangements in terms of copyright, anchors and other content. Among them, platforms like Huya Live and Zhanqi TV are supported by large platforms such as Joyy Times and Bianfeng Network, and their operations are relatively mature.
As live streaming platforms grow, so do users. According to iResearch, the development of Chinese game live streaming users can be divided into three stages. 2013-2014 was the start-up period, when the core users were PC competitive game enthusiasts, and the penetration rate of e-sports game players was high; 2015 was the sedimentation period, when the addition of long-tail game content increased the number of users of niche games; 2016 will be the explosive period, as the platform shifts to mobile terminals and mobile phone screen recording technology improves, mobile game live streaming will bring a large number of users. It is estimated that in 2015, the scale of Chinese game live streaming users will reach 48 million, an increase of 58.8% over last year.
Profitability to be determined
Like all video industries, game live streaming also needs to use high traffic to bring commercial value to the platform. However, these platforms are still niche industries and are mostly acquired or invested by giants, and they still need to make breakthroughs in their profit models.
Earlier this year, Huya CFO He Zhenyu said that Huya Live would not consider profitability for the time being and expected to lose 400 million yuan in 2015. Huya CEO Li Xueling decided to increase investment in Huya Live, and this year it is expected to invest 700 million yuan in technology upgrades and ecosystem construction.
At present, the main business models of game live broadcast platforms include advertising, game joint operation, value-added services, content subscription, e-commerce, and event guessing. The first-tier game live broadcast platforms in China are still in the exploratory stage. Xue Yongfeng told reporters that the platforms mainly monetize through traffic, most of which are through game joint operation. Now most game live broadcast platforms are in the stage of gathering traffic, and the next step is to make profits.
It is reported that Twitch's core business model is advertising and user payment. Among them, user payment includes Turbo membership and subscription channels, and only Twitch's partner channels have paid subscription functions. In South Korea, Afreeca TV is the only online live broadcast platform, and its content is mainly game live broadcast. In addition to live broadcast, the company also has a mobile game center. Zhanqi TV told reporters that the platform's current business model includes virtual service sharing and game joint operation income.
The above-mentioned industry insider said that all game live broadcast platforms are basically in a state of burning money. In terms of cost, the main expenses are copyright, anchors and bandwidth fees. Xue Yongfeng revealed that about 30% of the expenditure of game live broadcast platforms is used for bandwidth construction, and the rest is used to invest in content. Among them, anchors occupy a relatively core position, and the highest annual salary even exceeds 20 million.
Whether it is copyright or anchors, capital is needed to pay for them, so game live broadcast platforms are more dependent on large platforms. Tencent, Bianfeng, and Joyy have all been involved in heavy vertical game live broadcasts to supplement the e-sports industry chain. As for Zhanqi TV, on the one hand, Bianfeng has competitive resources such as chess and cards and Haofang; on the other hand, its parent company Zhejiang Daily Media also has e-sports resources such as Huaao Xingkong and Shanghai Qifan, which can integrate upstream and downstream resources.
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. |
