BAT and other companies are working together to eliminate traditional TV brands from the smart TV industry

An industry field that is collectively favored and developed by the three major Internet giants BAT can basically be identified as a potential gold mine.

After experiencing an explosive rise in 2014, the smart TV industry has become a particularly dazzling new star in the current Internet industry. Recently, the news that Tencent will launch its own smart TV products in 2015 has spread again. So far, the pattern of BAT's collective efforts to compete in the field of smart TV has gradually taken shape.

Tencent's inevitable path in the smart TV industry

At the end of last year, after Tencent separated the "Living Room Department" from its interactive entertainment department, news began to come out that Tencent was about to get involved in smart TV products.

Tencent has many advantages in entering the smart TV field. First, Tencent, which has been defeated repeatedly in the field of smart hardware, urgently needs to find the next outlet; and as the threshold for manufacturing smart TV products continues to decrease, Tencent, which has plenty of money, may not fail in hardware configuration.

Secondly, Tencent has TV application resources that are unmatched by any other company; looking at the mainstream content applications of smart TVs, video ranks first, and games rank second. In terms of video, the average daily PV of Tencent Video platform has exceeded 600 million, the average daily number of mobile users is 45 million, and the mobile traffic accounts for 65%; compared with 2013, the revenue has increased by 270% year-on-year.

More importantly, as a giant in social platform, Tencent's Internet account system can be directly transplanted into the smart TV platform, thereby further enhancing the social, entertainment, interactive, service and other functions of smart TVs, making them truly intelligent.

In the new TV game industry, the payment link of large-screen games, which has been a problem for the industry, may also find a breakthrough with the participation of Tencent. Especially during the Spring Festival of 2015, the blessing red envelope and shake functions in WeChat Wallet made WeChat Wallet surpass Alipay and enter the field of vision of users.

In fact, with a huge Internet social account system and a payment platform with a good reputation, Tencent may become an important member in the smart TV industry with a late entry and fast layout.

Why are smart TVs attracting the attention of BAT?

The competition among Internet giants in the smart TV industry, on the surface, is a competition for smart TV products and TV users, but in fact it is an early layout for living room entertainment and future smart home systems.

Alibaba has always been considered the most long-term-sighted Internet company. In terms of investment in the smart TV industry, in addition to spending money to cooperate with hardware manufacturers to produce smart TV products, Alibaba has also paid out of its own pocket to gradually apply the cloud OS system it has developed to smart TV products. Of course, this approach not only helps domestic TV manufacturers cut off the troubles of the Android operating system, but also occupies the foundation of the smart TV industry.

In addition, Jack Ma, who once publicly stated that he would not get involved in the gaming industry, finally decided to switch to the TV gaming industry after leading Alibaba to fail in the mobile gaming field, and hopes to become a leader in this emerging industry.

Apparently, Alibaba has not shown much interest in the production and manufacturing of smart TV hardware products. Just like Jack Ma's attitude in the past two years, Alibaba actually values ​​the construction of entertainment and cultural content.

In the field of smart TVs, Alibaba has invested heavily in Wasu Media, one of the seven major licensees, to open up content channels for living room entertainment.

Among Internet companies, compared with LeTV, Xiaomi, and Dr. Peng, the penetration of the three giants BAT in the smart TV industry is still not very significant. In terms of smart TV products, the three companies can be described as "outsiders", but this does not prevent the giants from being optimistic about and investing in the smart TV industry.

With the entry of Internet giants, the smart TV industry may be like the mobile phone industry in the future. In the tide of Internet-based product replacement, Internet companies with unique vision will completely replace traditional TV manufacturers. Among the five traditional TV brands, Hisense, Konka, Skyworth, TCL, and Changhong, who will become the next "Nokia"...

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.