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On August 6, Youku Tudou Group held its first open ecosystem conference in Beijing. At the conference, Gu Yongqiang announced several important news: Youku Tudou officially changed its name to "Huayi Group" and planned to invest 10 billion yuan in cash and resources to support online content in the next three years. After the name change, Huyi Group will transform into an entrepreneurial platform for the cultural and entertainment industry.
Say goodbye to video sites
As the largest video website in China, Youku Tudou is already a household name. The sudden name change must have sufficient reasons, and of course it also requires great courage. In the view of Gu Yongqiang, chairman and CEO of Youku Tudou Group, the change from Youku Tudou to Heyi is not just a simple name change, but a farewell to the positioning of "video website". In the future, Heyi will be "the best entrepreneurial platform for the cultural and entertainment industry."
In fact, when Gu Yongqiang started his business in 2005, the registered name of the company was Youku, which came from Gu Yongqiang’s judgment of the future trend of “multi-screen integration”. However, because it was too “avant-garde” and “aloof”, in order to make it easier for ordinary users to understand, in 2006, the team suggested using the name Youku to name the website, intending to express “helping users find the best and coolest videos.”
As for the reason why they have returned to their original aspiration and changed their name to Heyi, Gu Yongqiang explained the reason behind it: "The pure media era of online video is slowly coming to an end. We see a bigger market opportunity brought about by market changes and technological revolutions. In 2015, the entire industry has reached a critical point again. We have reached the point where we are not only a platform company, but also a production company. We must also build an ecosystem. Calling ourselves Youku Tudou can no longer describe our current situation." He told China Economic Weekly.
The wind has changed, and only those who follow the trend can become successful. As early as March this year, Youku Tudou began the most intensive organizational structure adjustment. After the adjustment, the group has six BUs (Business Units) including Youku, Tudou, Heyi Pictures, Cloud Entertainment, Heyi Culture, and Innovative Marketing, as well as nine centers such as movies, games, animation, and music, and more than 20 relatively independent studios, which will also produce high-quality content. "This number is not online." Gu Yongqiang said. Among them, Heyi Pictures and Heyi Culture focus on content production, including movies, TV series, variety shows, self-made content, etc.; Youku Tudou is the main content distribution platform.
From this point of view, the video website is indeed no longer an accurate description of Youku Tudou, and the name change is a natural outcome.
Trillion Ecosystem
At the same time as the name change and transformation, Youku Tudou also announced that it would invest 10 billion in cash and resources in the next three years to support online content, namely self-made, PGC (professional producer generated content) and UGC (user generated content). Specifically, Youku Tudou will launch a self-channel strategy and create three major plans, namely the "Newcomer Plan" to generate 100,000 self-channels with 1,000 fans; the "Ten Thousand Plan" to generate 10,000 self-channels with monthly income of over 10,000; and the "Peak Plan" to generate 100 self-channels with valuations of over 100 million. Ultimately, it hopes to create a trillion-dollar market.
In fact, Youku Tudou has accumulated experience in promoting its ecological strategy for some time. Currently, there are already high-quality video content PGC self-channels such as Baozou Comics, Luoji Siwei, and Feidie Shuo, with valuations exceeding 1 billion. In addition, there are more than 50 self-channels in vertical fields such as games and food with valuations exceeding 10 million yuan.
"Nowadays, photographers are really everywhere in the world. There are 6 billion camera phones in the world, and content IP (Intellectual Property) is booming unprecedentedly. A large number of young people who want to start a business and have independent thinking, as well as people who are very good in vertical fields and have a good grasp of content, have joined the army of video content production, greatly enriching the original content system. We have seen a very strong signal that on Youku Tudou, the traffic of online content has exceeded that of traditional content." said Gu Yongqiang.
In terms of self-production, Heyi has also achieved initial success. Gu Yongqiang listed a number of achievements: Heyi Pictures, which was established on August 28 last year, has now produced a total of 24 films, with a total box office of more than 7 billion yuan. Among the top ten Chinese-language films last year, three were co-produced by Heyi Pictures. This year's "Monster Hunt", which set the highest box office record for Chinese-language films in history, was also co-produced by Heyi Pictures. The popular dark horse film "The Return of the Great Sage" also has the exclusive copyright of Heyi... and this year's highly anticipated movie "Never Expected"...
"In the future, I hope that TuYi can become the best entrepreneurial platform for the cultural and entertainment industry. Whether you are an individual, a studio or a company, you can find more possibilities for fame and fortune in the ecosystem," said Gu Yongqiang.
Is profitability still far away?
Although the online video industry has experienced 10 years of development and has accumulated hundreds of millions of users, the biggest embarrassment has not yet been solved: almost all mainstream video websites have not yet achieved real profitability. The stock price of the listed "big brother" Youku Tudou has been sluggish, and the road to listing for the "second-largest" iQiyi is also extremely bumpy compared to other Internet companies.
After a series of acquisitions, mergers, integrations and reorganizations, the current video industry only has a few players left, including Youku Tudou (Alibaba has become the largest shareholder), iQiyi (wholly acquired by Baidu), LeTV, Tencent Video, and Sohu Video. Most of them rely on continuous transfusions from their "biological fathers" or "godfathers."
Not only Youku Tudou, but all video websites are telling "ecological stories" in their own contexts, increasing investment in online and self-made content, and working hard to build an ecosystem. However, can the online video industry achieve rebirth and profitability through a "big ecosystem"?
Gu Yongqiang believes that the benefit of online content is not only based on hard advertising, it can also bring in user income, and this income space is much larger than hard advertising.
In fact, Wall Street’s “low eyes” for Chinese video websites is mainly because the profits of Chinese video websites almost all come from patch ads, which is what Gu Yongqiang calls “hard ads”, while the profit model of major American video websites mainly relies on user payments. Wall Street believes that the latter is a healthier and more imaginative model. Once the ecological strategy of video websites can make progress, shifting from traditional primary traffic monetization to IP resource value monetization, it can make up for the existing shortcomings and break through the past overly single monetization model.
After 10 years, the two sides have returned to the same track, which shows Gu Yongqiang's deep affection for this term originated from Taoist thought. He hopes to create an open and unified platform to allow the industrial chain to coexist and win together. This is a beautiful wish, and I hope it is not far away.
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. |
