The Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Goat tried "social networking + TV" and it burst out with amazing power

From the New Year's greetings SMS a few years ago to the New Year's greetings on WeChat , to the national scramble for red envelopes this year, all of them reflect one thing profoundly and practically - the change in the medium and method of information transmission, and this change is naturally inseparable from the popularization and rapid development of mobile Internet. Now this change is once again reflected in a set of surprising data: According to the Tencent WeChat team, during the 22:30 red envelope sending activity during the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Goat, the total number of WeChat shakes reached 7.2 billion times, with a peak of 810 million times per minute, and 120 million WeChat red envelopes were sent out. The highest record of this data before the Spring Festival Gala was 40 million per minute, which was one hour before the Spring Festival Gala began.

This data directly reflects the popularity of WeChat red envelopes. It is not only a reflection of the rise of social applications and mobile payments, but also shows the stimulation that red envelopes have on interpersonal relationships in social networks. However, it is also important to note that the Spring Festival Gala, which has been criticized for so many years, has also played a vital role in this. This year, when the ratings have been questioned for years and attention has decreased, the Spring Festival Gala only made a slight attempt at social interaction and it unexpectedly burst out with amazing power.

We don't doubt the quality of the Spring Festival Gala at all. Yes, it is getting worse year by year, but it is also ridiculous to "question the appeal of the Spring Festival Gala". Some people complain that the Spring Festival Gala has been reduced from the main show of New Year's Eve to the background music of New Year's Eve, but let's think about it carefully. In this birth and death Internet era, it is so enviable and terrible to be the background music of hundreds of millions of people in a few hours. The implantable content, the trial model and the changeable communication channels contain potential and a vast market that we can't imagine.

There is no doubt that the social attributes of this Spring Festival Gala must be the best in history. It is not just the official claim of TV-Internet interaction. For TV stations, facing the competition from the Internet, as the mobile Internet has reached a certain degree of maturity, they must do everything possible to enter this market. On the other hand, in this current situation of universal socialization and full-platform socialization, how to enrich the dissemination channels of TV by using social portals is also an important direction explored by TV stations. Perhaps we can predict the future trend from some changes this year, but we also know that this year's superficial attempt has not actually touched the bones of the Spring Festival Gala. However, in the next few years, changes may be faster than we think.

Current hot topic: Second shift of attention, turning bad things into good things

For TV stations, whether CCTV or Hunan TV, the primary goal during the transformation process is to maintain their leading position in the industry, and the second is to find ways to bring back viewers who have fled to the Internet. This kind of thinking is not problematic in form, and any industry giant will inevitably react in this way when it is impacted by the outside world for the first time.

However, this kind of thinking is a big mistake in logic. In the era of fast-food content dominated by the Internet and the multi-screen era driven by various smart devices, it is no longer realistic to try to bring the lost audience back to the original screen to appreciate a single content. Not only does the era not allow it, but the audience who have already formed the habit of using it will also not be interested in it.

Imagine that when we are used to lying on the sofa, watching TV, browsing Weibo on our mobile phones, and shopping on our tablets, we cannot focus on TV for several hours. This has nothing to do with the quality of the content on the screen. Maybe it was possible a few years ago when mobile Internet did not appear, but in today's highly mobile world, this old idea has completely collapsed.

If it is said that in this multi-screen era, television can no longer completely draw the audience's attention back, then it is the wisest approach to follow the trend and think about how to focus the audience's attention on the second screen. If the content itself can become the reason for the audience to switch between screens, it is undoubtedly the best choice. The shake function of the Spring Festival Gala is an example, but it is not a precedent. As early as 2013, CCTV and Hunan Satellite TV launched apps called "CCTV Weishi" and "Hula" respectively. Both software are social software attached to TV programs. They are social platforms built based on the content of TV stations and only support their own TV programs. However, from the launch of the APP to the present, neither CCTV nor Hunan TV has caused any waves. After several major updates, the software has not attracted many hardcore users.

It can be seen that although the original intention of the design is very ideal, intending to create a circle-type social platform based on its own content, while integrating social functions such as fan circles, games, and real-time interactions, especially when these two TV stations also have huge website resources such as CNTV and Mango TV, this seems to have formed an industrial closed loop and enriched its own content ecosystem. However, the shortcomings of this social platform are also obvious. Compared with mainstream social software, it has a single function and is too limited in use. If you watch five TV stations at the same time, it means you have to download five different APPs at the same time, which is obviously not in line with the current mobile social trend.

Therefore, after a brief period of hype, we see that CCTV has basically given up on developing new features for "CCTV Weishi". The last update date of the APP was in October 2014. Although Hunan Satellite TV's "Hula" is still being updated and upgraded, the number of users has not reached the initial expectations. Compared with the number of topics for a single program on social networking sites such as Weibo, "Hula" is simply not worth mentioning.

Therefore, in this Spring Festival Gala, which was determined to innovate in form, the task of transitioning to the second screen was handed over to others. Through the marriage of iQiyi and Weibo, the public's complaints about the Spring Festival Gala were brought to the extreme; at the same time, in-depth cooperation was reached with WeChat, and "shake to grab red envelopes", "shake to send blessings to stars", "show family photos on the Spring Festival Gala" and other new ways of playing in this gala. It can be seen that even if the audience's eyes cannot be kept on the TV screen, it is a great success to achieve cross-screen interaction through this form, allowing the audience to revolve around the content between multiple screens. It is a bit regrettable that cooperation with large social platforms such as Weibo and WeChat also means handing over a large amount of big data to the other party, who can use these big data to accurately push advertisements on their own platforms. This alone can make the producers envious for a long time. However, under the current situation, this is also a helpless move by the TV station. I believe that in the next few years, many programs with high ratings, including the Spring Festival Gala, will definitely not be satisfied with the status quo, and they should be cautious in cooperating with social platforms such as Weibo and WeChat.

It can be seen that although it is just a small trial, the Spring Festival Gala has fully activated the potential of the social platform with its powerful influence. With the advancement of technology and the renewal of concepts, the future form will definitely be innovative. Maybe in two or three years, we will be able to see a real-time barrage version of the Spring Festival Gala. When barrages appear on TV, there may be another bloody battle. Don't blame me for not reminding you.

In addition, although the T2O model discussed in early 2015 did not appear directly in this Spring Festival Gala, it may still be due to advertising considerations. The Spring Festival Gala may also be trying to avoid becoming an advertising platform, although it is indeed. However, we can also see that various Spring Festival Gala products can appear on e-commerce platforms a few minutes or even seconds after the show ends. Imagine if the information of scanning and purchasing this product really appeared on the TV screen, would you be indifferent?

Brainstorm: Even more distant virtual interactions will one day become a reality

In this Spring Festival Gala, a mascot Yang Yang also appeared for the first time. He also played the role of a virtual host. There were several interactions with the host in the gala, which was also very popular with the audience. This also reflects a future trend. Nowadays, on the mobile side, everyone has their own virtual voice assistants in their mobile phones. They can provide us with a variety of services, and you can also tease him as much as you want. The same is true for television. With the development of virtual reality technology, people will definitely not be satisfied with the current interactive communication based on voice. If they can have some communication and interaction with virtual characters on TV, it will definitely be very attractive. Looking forward, in a Spring Festival Gala many years later, there will be a virtual mascot who can interact with you one-on-one, provide you with a program list, and complain about the performance of the actors with you. What kind of experience will this be? Although it seems a bit far away, so what? More than 20 years ago, when we were still watching Fei Xiang on the Spring Festival Gala, who could have thought that one day there would be a virtual character? This year's Spring Festival Gala was able to create four Spring Brothers through holographic projection technology. In a certain year in the future, I think it would not be surprising even if it was a Spring Festival Gala hosted and performed entirely by virtual characters.

Summary: We need a leader. If you can do it, go to the Spring Festival Gala.

Compared with the Internet, television has an inherent disadvantage in terms of social attributes, but it has to make up for this gap, otherwise it will be left behind. For TV stations that need to implement content as king and seek to establish channels, it is really a long way to go. There is still a long way to go. It is difficult to find the most suitable route by relying on a few strong TV stations alone, and there is also the risk of failure. In this case, the Spring Festival Gala, as a giant program covering a billion people and with global live broadcast capabilities, has both inherent monopoly advantages and considerable fault tolerance. Under such a premise, any experimental attempt is meaningful and is likely to become a highly directional and guiding experiment in the coming year. Today, most attempts at social interaction remain at the formal level, and there are unlimited possibilities at the content level in the future. The weak social attributes of television are likely to change again with the development of technology. Social TV may have great development potential in the future, but there is also the risk of being short-lived. These opportunities and risks must be borne by someone. We always say you can you up, Spring Festival Gala, if you can, just go.

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.