A compulsory course for video websites in the first year of self-made video: platform-based “revenue sharing”

Note: When drama fans began to shift their attention from TV sets to video websites, self-produced dramas have been gaining momentum, and this has become a clear direction for major video websites. By reviewing the performance of self-produced dramas submitted by various companies, we can find such a logic: video websites are transplanting the "separation of production and broadcasting" model of the past TV station system into their own ecosystem and starting to cooperate with external content producers. Let's take a look at the cases and industry reviews interviewed by Titanium Media to find out why platformization will be a compulsory course for video websites. The answer lies in it:

Video websites are often fickle, sometimes betting on UGC, sometimes scrambling for copyrights, and sometimes collectively promoting the "first year of self-made dramas". This is due to both the loneliness and coldness of not being able to make money and the anxiety about the future. After stumbling all the way to the present, video websites finally have a slightly clearer hope for the future, and the momentum of self-made dramas is booming.

The most attractive labels for self-made products are "genuine", "exclusive" and "saving money", so it is the only choice for video websites to achieve differentiated competition. If done well, there will be a lot of traffic and money. Of course, the advantages are too dazzling, and the disadvantages must be obvious: saving money is not saving effort, and being exclusive means taking risks alone, and the risks are often high.

When self-made dramas such as "Never Expected" and "Diaosi Man" are very popular, we should also be able to think that behind them there are a large number of self-made dramas that died on the beach before they could land. But no matter what, self-made dramas look so good that no video website is willing to miss them, and dare not miss them easily, unless it really has endless money.

Take a look at each company's self-made transcripts

1. LeTV

When others were playing with UGC, LeTV was playing with copyright. When everyone started scrambling for copyright, LeTV played along for a while and then started to go for self-production. LeTV has saved money to the extreme along the way.

Since the launch of the "LeEco Made" original strategy in September 2011, it has been nearly three years, and LeEco has produced a large number of self-produced dramas. The ones that have been released include "I'm Pregnant with Your Child", "My Name is Hao Congming", "Good Men in the Tang Dynasty 1 and 2", "PMAM", "Style Men and Women", "Girl Gang·Niu'er", "X Girl", "Lei Girl Heart Sutra", "STB Super Teacher", "School Sister Knows", etc.

In order to reduce risks, LeTV has adopted a relatively mature genre drama model. The dramas are either adapted from popular online novels, such as "X Girl" and "Good Man in Tang Dynasty", or invite well-known producers, screenwriters, directors or actors in traditional fields. For example, in the second season of "Women's Gang • Girls", Gan Wei and Li Xiaolu served as both actors and producers; "Lei Nu Xin Jing" was produced by Zhang Guoli, co-directed and starred by Huang Xiaolei and Ye Jing, and also invited stars such as Yao Chen, Huang Bo, and Zhang Liang to join.

Although LeTV's self-production has taken a relatively professional path from the beginning, its investment is only about one-third of the cost of TV series of similar themes. At the same time, the traffic it brings is not inferior to TV series purchased at high prices, so the money-saving effect brought by self-production is still very obvious.

Overall, LeTV's self-produced dramas performed quite well. There were no particularly outstanding dramas that created a sensation, nor were there any particularly failed cases. However, at a time when all video sites were scrambling to launch their first year, not having star dramas was a big disadvantage.

2. Sohu Video

Judging from the degree of importance given to it, no video website pays more attention to self-production than Sohu. Zhang Chaoyang will attend every press conference for Sohu's self-production dramas. In the overall layout of Sohu Video, self-production is second only to TV dramas, and the investment is twice that of 2013. Self-production will also become the first content product line of Sohu Video to achieve profitability.

Sohu's self-produced dramas are not numerous. Before 2014, there were probably "Qian Duoduo Lian Ai Season", "Le Junkai" and "Diaosi Nanzi 1 and 2". In 2014, it released "Three Kingdoms Fever", "Diaosi Nanzi 3", "Water Margin Academy", "The Best Lady 3" and "Fleeting Time" one after another. Among them, the "Diaosi Nanzi" series is undoubtedly the biggest winner, with a total playback volume of over 1.5 billion for the first three seasons, and 800 million for the third season alone. Advertising sponsorships are stuffed in one after another, which also makes Sohu Video thoroughly taste the sweetness of self-production.

Sohu's self-produced dramas do not have an advantage in terms of quantity, and can even be said to be a little thin, but the success of the "Diaosi Man" series has benefited Sohu Video a lot, and can be said to be an example of the success of self-produced dramas. The "Diaosi Man 4" currently being filmed has invited German "Diaosi Lady" Martina Hill to join, which is also a brand that Sohu Video is working hard to continue.

3. Youku Tudou

Whether it is the original UGC or self-made, Youku can be said to be the "ancestor". Since 2009, Youku has been involved in self-made content. The star dramas launched by Youku include "Hip Hop Quartet", "Miss Puff", "Never Expected", "Report to the Boss", etc. At the same time, these dramas have also made many grassroots stars popular, such as Lu Zhengyu in "Hip Hop Quartet", Chopsticks Brothers in "Old Boy", and Yi Xiaoxing and Bai Ke in "Never Expected". The biggest feature of Youku's self-made is the grassroots low-cost production, fragmented content, and single-episode time period, which is very consistent with the current consumption mode of netizens. This is also the reason why Youku often produces grassroots stars.

In terms of quantity, Youku's self-produced content accounts for less than 1% of the total, but it contributes 40% of the total network traffic. Youku is no longer satisfied with online dramas. Youku first proposed the concept of "big self-production" on July 2 this year, at the premiere ceremony of its self-produced drama "Tiny Times", the group's chairman and CEO Gu Yongqiang announced that Youku's self-production will be fully upgraded.

"Big self-made" means the scale and investment are increased. Youku calls it the Internet self-made drama. For example, the latest self-made drama "Tiny Times" is comparable to the TV station level in terms of director, cast and production level. There are also "Lianheyuan 1, 2", "Breakup Master", "Midnight Taxi", "Hip Hop Quartet" TV series, "Never Expected 2", "Jianghu Academy", "The Legend of the Cold Palace", "The Emperor's Grace", "Genius J" and so on.

Judging from the quantity alone, Youku's self-produced scale should be unmatched by other video websites.

4. iQIYI

IQIYI, which is not short of money , has never been soft-handed in copyright matters, and has bought copyrights from other video websites without resistance. We can see this from the relocation of Xiao Shuo. But some things are often fair. When IQIYI wields the big stick of money, the "poor people" have already quietly controlled themselves.

iQIYI started late in producing its own dramas, and only started to pay attention to it this year. But judging from its performance in the first year of production, the results are acceptable. It has aired five self-produced dramas, including Soul Ferry, Useless Brothers, High-Tech Girls, Hello Aliens, and School Beauty in White and Long Legs. As of July 13, front-end data showed that the number of views of these five dramas has exceeded 1 billion, with Soul Ferry reaching 500 million views, making it the best performing self-produced drama on iQIYI.

It’s very important whether there are “star dramas”!

The reason why this year is defined as the "first year of self-made content" is not only because of the high copyright pressure, but also because video websites have reached a critical point and urgently need a large amount of high-quality content to meet the massive demand of users. Therefore, the "first year of self-made content" is not just a simple slogan, and all companies are working hard.

As early as 2013, LeTV launched the "LeTV Lunchtime Homemade Theater", which is broadcasted every day in a scheduled theater format, with 700 episodes throughout the year. Youku also launched a weekly homemade theater in June this year, using the American drama style to make its own dramas. The continuous output of these homemade dramas not only brings a large amount of traffic to video websites that are eager to break out of differentiated competition, but also has a very high return rate.

Since self-made dramas are short and low-cost, the general advertising fees (product placement, title broadcast, daily patch ads and interstitial ads, etc.) can recover the cost or even make a profit. Some are even directly funded by sponsors, such as "Hip Hop Quartet" and "Never Expected" (Special Edition). Compared with copyright purchases, self-made dramas that can easily make a profit have reduced the burden on video websites that have been in a loss-making state.

Of course, not all dramas can achieve profitability. Those scarce high-quality content resources are often scrambled for by advertisers, while others are left alone. At the same time, platforms that frequently produce high-quality content are also the preferred choice for advertisers.

Because in the first year, more dramas will not be more favored by advertisers than star dramas, and star dramas often affect users' choice of platform, which is the most fatal attraction for advertisers. So it is not necessarily good to just work hard, but also to do it beautifully and amazingly, not only to attract users' attention, but also to catch advertisers' eyes, so as to be most conducive to the long-term development of the platform. The more self-made dramas, the better, but without star dramas to take the lead and support, and without brand effect, no matter how many there are, they may be drowned out, and advertisers will not favor them. This cycle will affect the development of the platform, so the first year should be "grabbed".

Overall, LeTV's self-produced videos are second only to Youku, which is a very good result. Unfortunately, it has no star dramas to support it, which is a disadvantage. Sohu Video has achieved good results thanks to the excellent performance of the "Diaosi Nanren" series. Youku, on the other hand, has produced many star dramas, so it is naturally the first choice of many advertisers.

The road to separation of production and broadcasting in the video industry: establishing a platform-based “revenue-sharing system”

At present, most of the self-produced dramas are invested by the video websites themselves, which is conducive to the control of the programs to a certain extent. However, from the perspective of the development of TV programs, "separation of production and broadcasting" will inevitably appear on video websites. In the end, video websites are more of a platform to connect with content production organizations. Only in this way can we broaden the source of program production, gather social forces, and enrich the program content of the platform as much as possible.

On August 3, Gu Yongqiang, chairman and CEO of Youku Tudou Group, said in an interview with Titanium Media that as more and more people get involved, Youku Tudou needs to become an open sharing platform and establish a sharing mechanism for revenue, including joint productions, to allow more people to participate.

In fact, Youku was also one of the first companies to cooperate with external content production organizations. For example, Wanhe Tianyi is a very successful example. If you don’t know Wanhe Tianyi, you will definitely be enlightened by the names of “Never Expected” and “Report to the Boss”. From the growth and changes of this company, we may be able to see the advantages brought by the platformization of video websites.

Wanhe Tianyi was founded in 2011. At the beginning, it made a living by shooting commercials and micro-films for clients. But later, due to a project with a relatively large production volume, the entire team almost collapsed, so they began to reflect on this model. At this time, it happened to catch up with the upgrade of video website platforms, and they all got involved in online self-made dramas, striving to achieve the transformation from a single broadcasting platform to a production and marketing integrated platform. With this idea, Wanhe Tianyi cooperated with Youku in 2013 and began to produce "Wanwan Expected".

Unexpectedly, the series "Wan Wan" became so popular that advertisers were lining up to buy it by the time episodes 7 and 8 were aired. The spin-off after the first season was made entirely for advertisers, but it was still loved by users.

Due to the success of this series, Wanhe Tianyi began to adjust its model and turned its full attention to series production. It not only cooperated with Youku on "Report to the Boss" and "Never Expected Season 2", but also co-produced "High-Tech Girl Cat" with iQiyi and "Schoolmate Knows" which was just launched on LeTV.

The popularity of these dramas also made Wanhe Tianyi earn a lot of money. The company has grown from 60 people when it was first established to a team of more than 100 people.

A platform can support many companies like this, and as long as there is money to be made, small companies will do their best to cater to the market and produce content that users like. This is extremely important for the future platform ecosystem construction.

It is foreseeable that video websites will be like TV stations. In addition to a few flagship programs produced by themselves, more content will need to be produced in cooperation with content production organizations and released to the public in the form of platforms. Self-production is not limited to online dramas. There will also be self-produced variety shows, reality shows, talk shows, micro-films, and co-produced movies, etc. These have already appeared on major video websites. In the future, the improvement of self-production platforms will also allow video websites to achieve profitability that is not limited to imagination.

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.