Video websites are accelerating their "testing the waters" and paying to watch TV shows online

"Should we charge users?" This is no longer a question that Chinese online video sites have considered. What they are worried about now is "When will we start charging?" At the Shanghai TV Festival held recently, a relevant person in charge of a film and television company revealed that video sites or film companies are already planning to charge users for watching dramas online, trying to get a piece of the pie in the online payment field, and they will test the waters as early as next year.

Video websites reiterate charging

In fact, as early as 2005, when video websites first emerged, most of them charged fees, but soon the paid websites collapsed under the impact of free websites. At that time, Xunlei launched the "Ruby Cinema" service that charged users. The first phase promoted high-definition downloads, and the second phase would promote high-definition online viewing. The fee for a movie was about 1-2 yuan. As for Xunlei's paid service, some netizens sang a sad song. In the free Internet environment, whoever charges first will be the first to fall.

Times have changed. Today's video websites are very different from the melee a few years ago. Video sharing websites have formed their own ecological pyramid. Video website giants such as Youku Tudou, iQiyi, and LeTV have gradually grown and begun to reach out for the huge cake of online video charging. According to reporters, there are currently two main ways for users to pay. One is to pay for some content on demand, and the other is to pay for membership monthly, quarterly, and annual packages. On-demand payment is mainly concentrated on popular movie resources, and the charging standard is around 5 yuan each time. After paying, members can watch more movies and enjoy the ad-free function. In the view of industry insiders, the charging model of video websites has actually been under exploration, but because of the rich free resources of online videos and fierce competition, the charging exploration of various video websites is very low-key.

At the anniversary celebration of Yulebao, Liu Chunning, president of Alibaba Group's Digital Entertainment Group, revealed that Alibaba will launch Tmall Cinema, the largest paid home cinema in China, with content including domestic and foreign films and internal productions, and 90% of the content requiring user payment. Youku Tudou, in launching the "Art Channel 3.0", is also trying to implement a paid-for-member on-demand model in the art film segment.

Use personalized services to make users "pay"

For a long time, online video payment in China has been facing such a dilemma: on the one hand, the huge profits that can be generated by hundreds of millions of netizens undoubtedly make video websites very excited, but on the other hand, the number of users accumulated with great difficulty may be lost due to charges.

According to analysis by industry insiders, the charging basis of video websites has two aspects: one is exclusive high-quality content, and the other is the user's barrier-free experience.

Industry insiders said that since TV dramas are not a scarce resource, netizens can easily obtain the source through other channels, and the charging model is difficult to bind the audience, but it is not difficult to provide users with the most diverse viewing options and obtain more personalized and differentiated value-added services to make users pay. The post-80s and Internet-born generations have become the mainstream and deep users of iQiyi, and they are more willing to pay for high-quality content and services. The Grave Robbers' Chronicles, which adopts a sophisticated vertical approach to target the post-80s and Internet-born generations who are more receptive to paying for better services, has also increased the attention to iQiyi's membership services along with the popularity of the drama. On the Weibo platform, there have been more than 21.48 million discussions on "iQiyi Membership", and video users have begun to "pay" for the videos themselves.

Video payment will open up new profit methods

Although everyone knows that relying on advertising alone is not healthy, in the field of online video, when will the Chinese user payment market explode has always been the focus of the industry. Industry insiders pointed out that compared with the copyrights of American online video websites, there are thousands of distributors of film and television copyrights in China, and a film and television drama can have multiple distribution channels. The lack of standardized price competition has also made the industry channels chaotic, which also has a negative impact on user charges. Luo Lan, an analyst at Analysys International, said that the cultivation of user payment habits is still insufficient. But for domestic netizens, just like cable TV, charging netizens for online videos is just a matter of habit and time.

Although advertising revenue driven by video clicks and traffic is currently the main profit channel for video websites, the "abnormal" growth model forces video websites to pursue diversified profit models without delay. Yang Xianghua, senior vice president of iQiyi, told reporters: "In the Chinese market with a huge population base, video websites will inevitably develop a 'free content + advertising' business model first, but through the continuous layout of paid membership business and the cultivation of user consumption habits, the video payment business has exploded in China, which has become an irreversible trend."

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.