In recent years, domestic video websites have been constantly exploring paid business. Since 2014, various video websites have achieved significant growth in the number of paid members. In the revenue of China's online video industry, the rise of the paid value-added market is surprising. The "paid storm" caused by the super online drama "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" in 2015 has brought new vitality to this model in TV series, online dramas and other contents except movies. It can be said that China's video payment is rising in full swing.
The paid membership group has increased year by year
In 2010, major video websites began to try paid services. Among them, LeTV video launched online on-demand and member payment services in the first half of the year. After that, pps, ku6, Thunder and Youku all launched paid services one after another. In the first half of 2011, iQiyi and Sohu Video also launched paid services one after another. During this test period, each company's monthly subscription fee is also high, about 20 yuan. Since many Hollywood blockbusters and theater new films, monthly subscription members cannot directly watch them and need to pay for on-demand broadcasts. Therefore, monthly subscription members are facing great growth pressure.
Major video websites are constantly trying at this stage and are developing slowly. Video websites that launch membership paid business are mainly Hollywood movies, supplemented by a small number of new domestic films to attract paid members. However, due to the incomplete copyright library of each video website, the small reserves, the window period of new Hollywood films and domestic films is long, the update is slow, the online payment technology is not mature enough, and the operation is complicated, the growth of members is slow.
In this process, the habit of Internet users not paying has changed to a certain extent, but the impact is relatively small.
2013. In 2014, the country's efforts to crack down on piracy have been continuously strengthened, creating a good environment for the rapid growth of the scale of paid members in the video industry. In addition, the exclusive procurement of domestic movies and the continuous shortening of the window period have also become one of the important reasons for the rapid growth of paid members. For example, "Beijing Love Story" in early 2014 launched genuine resources on the day the theater was launched, realizing the "zero window period". After that, the "zero window period" movies continued to appear. It is worth noting that the release of online movies has become a powerful supplement to the paid film library of video websites. In 2015, iQiyi launched 612 online movies, more than 451 movies released in theaters in the same year. The producers of major online films can obtain the dividend through the payment sharing model. In addition, the continuous popularization of mobile payment methods such as Alipay and WeChat payment has made member payment more convenient, which is also an objective reason for the rapid growth of membership scale.
In the second half of 2015, the scale of member payment entered a period of explosive growth, mainly due to innovation in paid content and paid models. Among them, high-quality dramas are the most important innovation in paid content. As a driving point for members' explosion growth, two key events occurred: First, "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" triggered a paid frenzy: VIP members first watched the full episode, with over 100 million views in 22 hours, and VIPs first watched the first to be watched in July. The full episode was launched with an instant broadcast request of up to 160 million times within 5 minutes of online launch; Second, "Shushan War Chronicles" set the first "first-network backstage" - VIP members exclusively watched the full episode, last season of each month, playing the "first-network backstage" mode, 3.8 million members were watched in 12 hours, generating 15 million on-demand broadcasts.
In addition to TV series, major video websites are also continuing to make efforts in concerts, documentaries, education and other fields. Although the speed and scale of attracting members in these relatively niche fields are not as fast as TV series and movies for the time being, they have great user stickiness and high loyalty. With the further segmentation of audience demand, there is huge room for growth in the future.
Where should the paid membership system go? From
content advantages, although it can drive users to convert to paid members, it is difficult to make users continue to be active and loyal. The paid membership model of traditional video websites uses the method of watching exclusive dramas to "force" users to purchase and pay. Most members come only for content, and are easily lost due to content. According to the report data, 57.7% of users have become paid members because "the content they want to watch can only be watched for a fee", 56.6% of users cannot tolerate opening advertisements, and 40.9% of users buy members to watch blockbusters first.
In fact, in addition to content, services are the core of the rights and value of paid membership of video websites. In terms of service, iQiyi and Youku performed mediocrely, and were basically based on basic rights such as first viewing, high-definition movie viewing, and no advertising, and had few diversified services. Compared with LeTV Film and Television member , the rights and interests of are more abundant in service and form a unique ecological chain. In terms of membership rights, the membership rights of various domestic video websites currently cover basic rights such as theater new films, free film libraries, advertising, membership logos, high-speed channels, high-definition picture quality, movie viewing coupons/on-demand coupons gifts, etc. In addition, each video website provides the same additional services based on its own special content. Each platform combines its own special content, resources, services with member rights to a certain extent, but there is no big difference in sovereignty and interests, and it is difficult to use the special member rights to attract paid users.
For the video industry, there are three modes of revenue: advertising, clicks and membership payment. From a global perspective, American video peers are the targets of imitation by the domestic video industry, especially the star company Netflix, which adopts the third model.
Since 2015, seizing paid users has become the number one target of major video websites, expanding the number of paid members through "member exclusive", "member first viewing", and "member free participation". During the National Day, in order to attract new members, Youku Tudou launched member benefits such as "Youku Tudou Ideal Music Festival", "Running Man" online exclusive broadcast and offline viewing, Zhao Chuan concert, and even opened Youku mobile phone number starting from 170. As long as it is activated, you can directly become a paid member of Youtu. Tencent Video has innovatively launched a "limited-time free" event on some HBO's fine American dramas, and has also tried to attract users' attention such as BigBang concert live broadcasts. In the summer of 2015, iQiyi, which benefited a lot from "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", once again launched a big move - the first "net first and backstage" model, setting a good example in attracting paid users.
users’ demand for rich genuine content is the core driving force for the formation and rapid growth of the paid market. With the continuous growth of user income and consumption levels, especially the main users in the paid market have mostly changed their consumption concepts in first- and second-tier cities, and users are more inclined to watch high-definition video content conveniently. The "finding resources-download-watch" model in the era of piracy has gradually been abandoned. In layman's terms, you can use "find, watch, watch it, watch it" to describe the needs of video website users.
In fact, as a service-oriented product, paid members in the entire video industry are not yet mature. On the one hand, users’ earliest understanding of payment for video websites was to advertise, and still have a long way to go to cultivate users’ payment habits. This is also the main factor in the popularity of the “tomb robbery” model (pay first + free follow-up broadcast). On the other hand, content plays an important role in the development of the entire membership, especially the traffic diversion of high-quality dramas is very significant. Video websites need to invest in various content to ensure their attention to users. In addition, the membership model also needs to focus on the bundling model of hardware and services. In other words, the user's experience directly determines his loyalty to the platform and his recognition of brand value.
(Author: Hua Yifan)
