As video regulation tightens, operators urgently need to change their tactics

Before the Internet Security Day on April 29, the relevant departments carried out a network rectification campaign, with video websites becoming the main target of the rectification.

Starting from April 27, four American TV series, "The Big Bang Theory", "The Good Wife", "NCIS" and "Justice", were removed from many video websites, and the removal pages showed that they were "not available for viewing due to policy reasons."

Starting from mid-March, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued the "Supplementary Notice on Further Improving the Management of Online Audiovisual Programs Such as Online Dramas and Microfilms", reiterating requirements such as "review before broadcast" and "strictly check the qualifications of film and television dramas and program broadcasts".

At 11am on April 22, Shenzhen police suddenly entered Shenzhen Qvod Technology Co., Ltd., detained all employees, and sealed up all company computers. It is understood that this action may be related to Qvod's illegal pornography.

Two days later, the National Office of the Anti-pornography and Anti-illegal Publications Working Group reported that Sina.com was suspected of spreading pornographic information in its reading channel and video programs. Three "Beijing Cultural Market Administrative Law Enforcement Hearing Notices" have been delivered. The "Notices" decided to revoke Sina's "Internet Publishing License" and "Information Network Audiovisual Program Distribution License" and impose a fine of 5 to 10 times the illegal amount.

Sohu Video has the most comprehensive library of American TV series in the industry. Industry insiders analyzed that the ban on American TV series will cause Sohu Video to suffer a great loss. Zhang Chaoyang, chairman of the board of directors of Sohu Group, told the reporter of China Business News that American TV series are relatively independent events and do not represent a complete tightening or change of the entire American TV series policy in China. Good management is for better growth. More and more users watch videos, so he is still very confident about the fate of American TV series in China.

Video websites are a high-threshold industry. Their annual cost of purchasing TV series exceeds the sum of other costs. In 2012, video websites spent nearly 100 million yuan to purchase the exclusive online broadcasting rights of TV series. "This may cause video websites to change their investment strategies," said Liu Yuan, an analyst at CCID Consulting.

QVOD announced that it will initiate a comprehensive transformation of its business model. First, it will completely clean up pirated and other bad content in QVOD video search tools and entertainment indicators, and decide to shut down QVOD servers and stop video on demand and downloads based on QVOD technology.

According to the unaudited financial report released by Sohu for the first quarter of 2014, the total revenue of Sohu Group was US$365 million, a 19% increase over the same period of 2013. Among them, Sohu mobile portal, news client and Sohu video mobile application all showed rapid growth, and mobile video traffic exceeded PC traffic in the first quarter.

Since 2013, Zhang Chaoyang has focused his work on Sohu Video. If the growth of mobile video continues, he does not rule out the possibility of Sohu Video being listed independently in the near future.

When Sina Corporation released its 2013 annual financial report, it said that the company would focus its investments in three areas: video, vertical websites, and Sina client. Now facing the issue of the "Information Network Audiovisual Program Distribution License", Sina's video journey may be delayed for a while.

It is worth noting that before the wave of large-scale profits from video websites arrives, purchasing copyrights is still the main means of competition for video companies. However, with the implementation of the new policy, the pace of video websites introducing European and American dramas will slow down, while the prices of Japanese, Korean and domestic dramas may rise.

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.