The era of online video bandits has ended, and mobile video UGC sharing is about to explode

  Typhoon Mouth

A crackdown on piracy and pornography has stirred up the video industry. Qvod, which has been operating in the gray area for many years with its P2P technology, was the first to be hit. Last month, its headquarters was suddenly investigated by the police. Subsequently, Sina, which ran aground, had its video license revoked, and Xunlei Cloud Broadcast was also "timely" shut down.

The era of Internet video bandits has ended. Qvod has used the "Nirvana Declaration" to show its determination to transform from technology to original content. In an interview with a reporter from Nandu, Xu Hao, an analyst at iResearch Video Industry, believes that the most critical thing in the video industry is content. For platform-based video websites, they either buy copyrights or make their own, and the main revenue contribution is still from the former. Angel investor Yang Ning pointed out that for startups that are unable to "compete for money" to compete for copyrights, being a professional content provider or sharing mobile video UGC, which the giants have not yet figured out, are all opportunities in the future.

Continue to "fight for the father" to buy copyright

Southern Metropolis Daily (hereinafter referred to as "Southern Metropolis Daily"): The P2P model made Qvod rise to prominence. Although it has always emphasized that it only focuses on technology and not content operations, it is still unable to deny its relationship with piracy. What do you think of this model?

Zhou Juan: The P2P model is indeed a product of market demand. There is no right or wrong in technology. As long as it does not infringe on the rights of copyright holders and complies with relevant national laws and regulations, it can provide services to users.

Xu Hao: P2P has technical advantages. PPT V and PPS were also based on this model. But now, the advantages are not so great. Although the content is rich, it is definitely full of piracy and has a high risk. Qvod has always had such high revenue, which is an exception. In fact, advertisers generally have limited recognition for P2P model companies. In essence, the most important thing in the video industry is content, and users follow the content.

Nandu: So is the transformation into copyrighted content a feasible direction?

Zha Li: Buying copyrights is like "competing with your father" and relying on money to maintain traffic. This is a sign of middle-aged decline and lack of innovation. In essence, it is still the model of traditional TV media. The Internet model should be long-tail and free. For grassroots teams that lack background and resources, there is no need to think about competing for copyrights. It is better to focus more on innovation.

Xu Hao: If you want to transform the content, then any sub-field will involve copyright, and spending money to buy copyright is inevitable.

This is the threshold of the video industry. PPTV introduced Suning's investment to solve the problem of funds, because in order to stay in the main competition circle, financial support is necessary. In fact, the video industry is still a typical media, and in the short term, it still relies on copyright content to realize profits.

Adding value to your own products to make a difference

Nandu: The current video websites are inevitably falling into homogeneity in the competition for copyright content. What models can be explored in content procurement and extended cooperation?

Xu Hao: If you take the copyright route, you have to buy exclusive content and increase user aggregation, so that you can generate higher advertising value. Another way is to make your own content, which is not only low-cost and short-term, but also has higher gross profit than copyrighted content. It can also establish a brand and increase user loyalty, and there is room for content marketing in the later stage . Now the main competitors are putting most of their resources into self-production to alleviate the dilemma of homogeneity.

Now the mainstream Youku Tudou, iQiyi, LeTV, Sohu Video, etc., all have self-produced dramas, self-produced variety shows, etc. Although this is the general direction, it still needs some time to develop. After all, in terms of output and quality, they are far from being able to compete with copyrighted content. The main revenue contribution still comes from copyrighted content, so at present it is still walking on two legs. It will take a relatively long time for self-produced content to generate considerable revenue contribution.

Zhou Juan: For video websites of media platform type, content is always the core competitiveness. At present, in addition to increasing the copyright purchase of exclusive content, the video industry is also facing the trend of content competition in the video industry, namely, joint production or complete self-production, or even direct investment in the upstream content industry. For example, 56.com will cooperate with TV stations in some key projects planned in 2014, with both parties jointly investing, jointly producing, jointly distributing, and even jointly recruiting merchants. In addition, we will continue to increase investment in completely self-produced content, and it is expected that the investment in "56 produced" self-produced content this year will reach 100 million. I think that in the future, video websites will further enhance their content self-production capabilities and further penetrate into the upstream of the content industry. Various types of high-quality programs and big movies are the future direction. In the future, video websites will not only be content broadcasting platforms, but also important content input parties.

UGC is about to explode

Nandu: Today, video websites have become giants and have attracted most of the users. What opportunities and space are there for entrepreneurial companies?

Xu Hao: The video industry still has a certain threshold for startups. If you want to be a platform-type video website, there is no chance. But if you are a part of the industry chain, a content provider, and make some micro-films and professional short videos, there is still a chance. Many of these companies are very small. For example, Youku Tudou has many simple studios like this, which are not even production companies. But for them, cooperating with large institutions will get support in terms of funds and resources.

Yang Ning: I agree with the direction of professional content production, but as a content producer, creativity is the key. In addition, I am optimistic about UGC, which allows users to share self-shot video content. Tencent Weishi and Sina Miaopai have been pushing this hard, but they have never found the real pain points of users. There is obviously a demand for video shooting and sharing, and there are successful cases such as Vine and Instagram abroad, but I just don’t understand why it can’t be done in China.

Zha Li: There are definitely opportunities, but there is no need to compete head-on with content playback platforms. I have never believed that the video industry landscape has been finalized by giants. The competitiveness of startups lies in innovation. Small teams can often come up with new ideas. We can try something similar to Weishi UGC, which uses videos uploaded by users to organize content and position. In addition, there are many innovative objects to learn from in the video industry. For example, YY is also a video platform. It used to do music, but now it has a lot of training and educational content. Users interact in real time through voice, text and video, and its scale is not much smaller than Youku.

Mobile terminal trial implantation

Nandu: Mobilization is also a trend in the video industry. Will startups have more opportunities on the mobile side?

Zhou Juan: Although the concentration of the video industry is increasing, I don't think this means that there are fewer opportunities for entrepreneurs, especially in the field of mobile Internet. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the economic operation of the communications industry in March 2014, and the total number of mobile Internet users has reached more than 850 million. In the mobile Internet video market, there is no giant controlling the situation like the PC side. With the increase of bandwidth, the rapid advancement of 4G, and the popularization of smart terminals, the huge user market will inevitably have a variety of video segmentation service needs, leaving many opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Yang Ning: Currently, the penetration rate of videos on mobile terminals is still not high enough. There are fewer people watching videos on their mobile phones than on their tablets, let alone on their computers. The low penetration rate affects commercialization, but this is also where there is room for development in the future.

The commercialization pattern of mobile terminals will be different from that of PC terminals, and new platforms must have new forms of expression. The biggest profit of videos comes from advertising, but the problem is that the screen is too small and the display effect is not as good as that of PC terminals. As for the new charging model, I am optimistic about paid on-demand. When it comes to payment, many people are worried that the user habit has not been cultivated, but I am not worried about this, because we are only concerned about the first batch of Internet users - they were born in the 1970s or early 1980s and started to use the Internet in the late 1990s. Many of this group like to find bargains and look for pirated copies everywhere, and are willing to spend as much time as possible on this. However, the mainstream Internet users now are those born after 1985 and 1990. They are not willing to spend so much effort to find videos. They are willing to pay for good content, and the same is true in combination with the direction of tightening copyrights in the country. In addition, product placement is also a good direction. For example, the popular micro-film "Enemy of Women" last year was a collaboration between the Internet Film Group and Jumei Youpin, which used movies to attract e-commerce sales and obtained very considerable profits. In the future, I think this model has far greater potential than hard advertising and paid on-demand.

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.