Video UGC breakthrough: Video-based self-media

The domestic video UGC model looks more and more like a pit.

The industry has tried to commercialize UGC, such as introducing social elements into "short video social networking", but after two years of development, the effect is limited. Especially with the fall of "Weishi", this wave of UGC experiments in the mainstream market has once again fallen into a state of hesitation. China's video UGC has been around for ten years, and many methods have been tried, but nothing has been achieved so far.

From the perspective of content operation, whether the current content can be fully monetized no longer depends on advertising, but on the diversified business operations designed around the content. Tencent paid five times the price to acquire the NBA copyright, and advertising obviously could not fill the gap, so it came up with a multi-channel business operation idea around NBA copyright content.

The current consensus in the content market is that it is worthwhile to design a complete business plan for each high-quality content. Although the cost has increased, the total revenue is more considerable. In the final analysis, it is the confidence in the value derivation and intensive cultivation of content.

In terms of production quality, although UGC is classified as low-quality content, its value output will be improved if it is carefully cultivated. If this set of commercial operation ideas for high-quality content is applied, can it solve the domestic UGC dilemma? It seems that there are two fatal flaws that videos cannot solve at present.

1. There are too many UGCs. It is impossible to fully operate and exploit each one, let alone design a business plan for a particular UGC (this is all cost). 2. UGC content is too fragmented. Individually, it lacks content value. In the final analysis, the cost cannot cover the output, and the gain does not outweigh the loss.

In other words, it is unrealistic for video platforms to cultivate and operate every UGC by themselves. Wouldn't it be more reliable if the UGC producers themselves were to do it?

This solution solves the first problem mentioned above. However, the commercial value of UGC is very limited. Can UGC producers recover their operating and production costs? If not, this model is obviously unsustainable and unscalable. Logically, it is quite difficult to simply let producers operate UGC.

What will happen if these producers are also self-media people?

We-media people are indeed more professional in some areas, which relatively guarantees the value of the content. At present, the videoization of we-media is relatively successful, for example, Wu Xiaobo. However, Wu Xiaobo is a special case, a big V. The vast majority of we-media people are small and medium V. The two are not comparable.

The advantage of self-media people is that they have various columns and many social accounts, including audio. These columns, social tools, and audio actually form a relatively stable fan community. However, the value of this community has not been truly exploited so far.

The reason is that this fan community, which is basically composed of pictures and texts (mainly text), lacks a clear image outlet and branded content. At the same time, text is the main form of expression for self-media, and the commercial value of even institutional media is in decline, let alone self-media.

However, the video format is naturally an excellent image window, and the content expression method formed by the video is also the most anticipated mining target at present.

If the content of self-media can be turned into video and combined with graphic content, that is, the self-media person's external writing can be regarded as a whole, and "video" can be regarded as the value outlet and image outlet of this whole, perhaps the value of self-media can be released. Assuming that this method is feasible, self-media people can completely design unique commercialization plans for their social communication content and form an independent brand.

In fact, many advertisers are quite conflicted about placing ads on self-media. Whether it is the mode of cooperation, form of placement, or amount and strategy of placement, it is difficult to standardize them, which is not conducive to the self-media forming its own industry field.

If video can be involved, for advertisers, self-media that uses video as an image outlet, at least video itself is a more suitable delivery channel, and the price can be raised, and there are more options for cooperation.

The biggest benefit is that by referring to the business operation ideas of videos, the formation of self-media business can be aligned with the mainstream operating methods of the industry in all aspects, regardless of price, form, and cooperation, thereby forming its own industry norms.

Secondly, although many self-media are professional and vertical, they lack popular communication methods, which restricts their accumulation of fans. Video is a popular medium that is easier to spread and influence people, and can promote self-media to form better brands and accumulate value.

Therefore, self-media people and mainstream video platforms may consider mutual adaptation.

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.