Tencent's three do's and three don'ts in entering OTT smart TV

In recent days, rumors about Tencent's official entry into the OTT field and the launch of independent brand smart TVs have been rife in the industry. Among the three major Internet giants BAT, only Tencent is still in a state of being close to OTT. Apart from investing in Future TV, investing in Taijie, and launching WeChat TV with TCL, which are more like moves, it has never made high-profile moves like Alibaba and LeTV, especially in the field of content cooperation. After all, as far as Tencent's style is concerned, it usually strikes back after it has secured a victory. Therefore, the rumors that Tencent will make big moves in the OTT field have attracted special attention for the OTT market, which has always been under high policy pressure.

According to the judgment of the streaming media network, in 2015, for the field of OTT smart TV, the competition pattern of the entire industry is shifting from the original entry competition represented by box products to the user competition represented by content and the expansion resource competition centered on smart home. Therefore, Tencent's move at this time is also a step-by-step entry from products to users to resources. However, Tencent's entry into the field of smart TV is to grab the future home Internet entrance and extension, rather than just focusing on TV sets.

Regarding Tencent’s actions in the field of smart TVs, we at Streaming Media Network believe that there may be the following three yeses and three noes.

What won’t Tencent do?

1. Products: Tencent will not launch its own brand of smart TV hardware:

Tencent is not a hardware-oriented company. In terms of brand and market influence, it does not need hardware that users can reach to position its presence in the OTT field like Xiaomi and LeTV in the initial stage. Moreover, at this stage, promoting Tencent's own brand TV sets requires a huge channel and sales system, and there are also policy risks. Given Tencent's style and Pony Ma's political sensitivity, we think Tencent will not make itself the focus at this time. Therefore, Tencent will only adopt in-depth cooperation instead of promoting independent brands.

2. Cooperation: Tencent will not enter the market from the operating system:

With more and more licensees and terminals matching each other, the coupling between them is getting weaker and weaker, and it is easier to change partners. Therefore, how to ensure the stability of partners is a headache for all companies. Although it is highly controllable to start from the operating system, such as Alibaba, we at Streaming Media Network believe that Tencent will not start from the operating system.

Taking Alibaba as an example, Alibaba's current operating system entry, on the box side, has achieved great results through terminal subsidies and Taobao promotion. That's because box companies value profits more. However, in the field of all-in-one home appliances, even if the subsidies are as high as hundreds of yuan, Alibaba's operating system has little effect. This is because home appliance companies and box companies have different scales and seek different patterns. They will hope to give themselves more control over their strategies. Therefore, they will not bundle themselves with a certain operating system, thereby hindering their own future development.

Therefore, Tencent should adopt a more relaxed business approach in its cooperation model, rather than forcefully and tightly coupling from the bottom up.

3. Business: Tencent will not enter the market with multiple businesses as a whole:

Judging from this cooperation, Tencent is still following the strategy of laying out its pieces, but it has gone a step further than before, from functional cooperation to content cooperation. It will pay more attention to the operation effect, which is both a test and a clarion call.

From the content of the cooperation, we think Tencent will first focus on its own Tencent Video, add unique sports and other resources as selling points, and launch it in the name of the licensee, while using WeChat, QQ, video calls and other advantageous functions as highlights. We predict that Tencent may not immediately launch a large and comprehensive multi-business overall entry model, but will start with video content, focus on Tencent's own resources, and gradually expand horizontally in the later stage. It will not launch six major business systems at once like Alibaba, but will make vertical breakthroughs on the basis of stability, and avoid making too many enemies.

What will Tencent do?

1. Alliance: Tencent will form deep alliances with major terminal companies

Tencent will not advance alone, but will take the approach of forming deep alliances with major terminal companies to enter the hardware field.

Relying on Tencent's capital and brand effect will help enhance the market expansion of terminal enterprises, while the channels and product after-sales of terminal enterprises are what Tencent currently lacks. Therefore, the 1+1 model that combines hardware and software is Tencent's current strategy.

In terms of specific implementation, it is predicted that Tencent will not only cooperate with terminal enterprises and licensees in product development, but will also use capital to form a strong coupling deep alliance with a terminal home appliance enterprise, just like Alibaba and Haier.

It is reported that Tencent will join hands with Konka and a popular licensee (not Future TV) to launch a smart TV all-in-one in the near future. Previously, Tencent launched TVs with features as selling points, such as WeChat, but this time, it will launch its own video content through cooperation with licensees.

2. Investment: Tencent will use capital means to enter the market

If you have money, you can do whatever you want and do a lot of things, even strike back after being attacked.

Capital layout is not only about quickly attracting high-quality businesses and deepening cooperation control, but also about leveraging resources to expand to the sea.

In 2015, Tencent will make full use of capital as a lever to leverage the smart TV field with its own investment or even in cooperation with third-party venture capital.

3. Business: Tencent will adopt a single business vertical breakthrough approach

Video content will be Tencent's key breakthrough in entering the smart TV field. After all, at this stage, high-quality video content is the strong demand of users.

With content as the core, using WeChat to connect multiple screens and improve user stickiness, Tencent will give full play to its advantages and achieve vertical breakthroughs. On this basis, Tencent will use the TV platform as a display center for connection, horizontally expand games, shopping, social networking and other applications, and vertically focus on its strategic layout of home Internet to achieve the depth of the Internet + strategy of product-user-home.

Summary: Another year of alliances

In 2015, the OTTTV industry was not a battle of many players, but a battle of groups, a battle of one system against another. On the surface, it was a game between licensee systems, but behind the scenes it was more of a competition between Internet companies.

Therefore, this year, there will be more and more forms of capital cooperation through alliances between licensees, the Internet, and terminals, and the industry will also change from individual combat and demand cooperation to factional struggles.

What makes Tencent different from Alibaba's "domineering" approach is that it will enter the market with a "friendly" attitude and build its market base by forming broad alliances. How it will do this, which companies it will form deep alliances with, and what capital means it will use to form alliances will gradually surface in the near future.

In 2015, the OTT drama of alliances and coalitions begins again, but the characters are becoming more and more important, the relationships are becoming more and more complicated, and the plot is becoming more and more suspenseful!

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.