Zhang Jun: The controversy brought about by teenagers indulging in short videos
Author: Zhang Jun, PhD student at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Development Research Institute, Sun Yat-sen University, and a part-time research assistant at the Public Policy Institute of South China University of Technology
Source: IPP Comment_ p3p
WeChat platform editor: Zhou Yue
Guide
From the perspective of domestic industrial development in recent years, the Internet industry has been in the limelight for a while, and in the Internet industry, short video is one of The most dazzling growth point . But at the same time, the outbreak of the short video industry is also accompanied by vicious competition, copyright disputes, and youth addiction. . So how should we treat the various controversies brought about by the outbreak of the short video industry? The author briefly summarized some of the objective conditions and related controversies, and gave my own views, hoping to have certain reference value for readers.
Source: Network
The number one position
The short video industry sprouted in 2011, and then driven by the development of smartphones, mobile Internet, and 4G technology, the industry has shown explosive growth and has now formed " "Two supers and more powerful" competition pattern, that is, in addition to the well-known Douyin and Kuaishou, WeChat (embedded video number), Baidu (embedded Baidu is good), Weibo (embedded Miaopai) , Yi Live) has become an increasingly important player. [1]
Nowadays, the business model of the short video industry has gradually matured. At least four user scenarios have been developed, including short video, show live broadcast, e-commerce live broadcast, and social networking, and more and more diversified monetization methods have also been developed. The statistical results of different institutions are slightly different,But overall, short videos have undoubtedly become the number one position in Chinese online entertainment .
According to the "2020 China Short Video Industry Insight Report" released by Mob Research Institute, as of February 2020, the number of users in the short video industry has exceeded 640 million. According to the data released by in the "2020 China Internet Audiovisual Development Research Report" by the China Internet Audiovisual Program Service Association, as of June 2020, the number of Internet audiovisual users in my country has reached 901 million. The user utilization rate is the highest, reaching 87.0%, and the number of users is 818 million.
By 2021, the trend of the short video industry is becoming more and more obvious. According to the latest "Q2 Mobile Internet 2021-Industry Data Research Report" [2] released by Aurora (URORA) in August, as of December 2020, the number of Chinese Internet users is 989 million, and the number of short video users is 873 million. That is, 88.3% of netizens are users of short videos; among them, monthly active users reach 850 million.
In other words, almost every short video user opens short video applications every day, and the proportion of users in the short video industry continues to rise, reaching 29.8%, an increase of 6.2% year-on-year, leading the industry. In particular, it should be noted that the short video industry accounted for 29.8% of user time, which is higher than the second-ranked instant messaging 9.4%, even if the latter includes "national apps" such as WeChat.
Is the time fragmentation commonly faced by contemporary people a kind of social crisis? We can continue to discuss this issue, but in any case, in terms of "killing" the fragmented time of contemporary people, short videos have already occupied a fairly obvious advantage.
Although video games (especially mobile games) can compete with short videos in some groups of people, the coverage of people is far less than short videos. For example, in addition to chess and card games, middle-aged and elderly people rarely get involved More complicated other types of games.
Therefore, as far as the overall situation of netizens is concerned, short videos with an average monthly usage time of more than 20 hours (the average daily usage time of Douyin and Kuaishou have exceeded 110 minutes) have overwhelmed comprehensive videos, games, music, etc. in the limelight. Other projects have become the "top card" in China's Internet entertainment industry. [3]
Capital Feast
The "top card" is by no means a vain name. Every minute it takes up with everyone, it is eventually converted into real money. According to the "China Short Video Industry Market Forecast and Investment Strategic Planning Analysis Report" published by the Foresight Industry Research Institute, the scale of China's short video market has continued to grow in the past few years, and will exceed 200 billion yuan in 2020. [4] In comparison, the market size of China's mobile game industry reached about 194.7 billion yuan in 2019, and about 200 billion yuan in 2020, [5] on par with short videos.
In this situation, the promotion of capital is indispensable. In 2017, Internet giants that smelled business opportunities gradually entered the short video market and used huge subsidies to promote content production, which increased the enthusiasm of creators for participation and also cultivated the first large number of loyal fans for short videos.
Relying on this part of fans, live streaming rewards (45%) quickly built a market position of the same importance as traditional advertising (44%) in the revenue structure of short videos. Of course, this is also the future (2021 ) The state's centralized implementation of special rectification actions for the live broadcast industry has laid the groundwork for it. In contrast, e-commerce share revenue is currently not the bulk of the short video industry (this may be related to the low proportion of short video platform e-commerce commission share).
However, starting in 2019, the short video industry has promoted e-commerce and delivery of goods with content diversion. At least in terms of business philosophy, it seems to be "safer" than live broadcast rewards, so subsequent development may be more sustainable. In addition, according to the "2020 China Short Video Industry Insights Report" released by Mob Research Institute, short video is a national application, and the user age structure is not much different from that of the entire network. There are still large female users and users in the sinking market. Therefore, the growth of its performance can be expected at least in the next few years.
Finally, under the blessing of capital, to go overseas and do the things done in China again. Now it has become an increasingly mature development routine for the domestic Internet industry. Since 2017, the "first shot" of short video going to sea in the happy gathering era, ByteDance's TikTok (TikTok overseas version) and Kuaishou have followed up, quickly gaining ground in the international market, such as the statistics in 2020. , TikTok’s total downloads in the global App Store and Google Play have exceeded 2 billion times, surpassing Facebook and becoming the world’s most downloaded app.
addiction curse
There are many reasons why short videos can be so popular and attract money, but one of them is unavoidable, and perhaps the most important point, is that the short video platform's increasingly powerful algorithm has deep insights. Weakness of human nature, so as to design a nearly perfect addiction mechanism for human behavior habits. There is a lot of rigorous academic research in this area, but generally only focus on one or two or three of the most important mechanisms.
As ordinary people, they want to understand the whole situation, and the cognitive burden is too heavy. Fortunately, knows that netizens sorted out this. The author thinks that it is very comprehensive, that is, there are five main addictive mechanisms for short videos: [6]
The five addictive mechanisms for short videos
Earworm effect:
Open the APP——>swipe up and down——>15 seconds stimulation——>memory etching——>desire generation——>cannot stop (analyzed from the perspective of engineering psychology, 15 seconds is just human The easiest time for concentration to be concentrated, higher than 15 seconds, the focus of attention will be weakened.And 15 seconds, just enough to make a moment of imprint, generate a strong desire, want to read it again or read the next)
immersive experience:
single column + full screen + automatic playback, immersive experience formation, Change the user’s subjective sense of time
Random reward:
The user cannot accurately predict the content of the next video, which conforms to the " operational conditioned reflex" effect: that is, random and unpredictable rewards stimulate animals Feeling stronger
Instant feedback:
is cool when you watch it, and you’re cool when you watch it
Precise push:
The more you read, the more you understand, the more you look at it
An "instinctive behavior" of conditioned reflex and muscle memory, and the algorithm after machine learning adjustment can approach the brain's desire curve infinitely, which can make people deeply addicted.
I believe that many people are not unfamiliar with the above mechanism. Long before short videos became popular, experts and scholars analyzed the addiction mechanism of video games for some reasons similar to this. However, it is necessary to explain an important issue based on social reality, that is, why the addictive design is also consciously carried out, and why short videos can surpass mobile games in the "user time ratio".
This is due to the passive content acquisition mechanism of short videos, which has advantages over the interactive content acquisition mechanism of games. A wise man who also came from Zhihu noticed that passive is easier to achieve full coverage of the crowd, and full coverage products at least arouse less vigilance among parents ——Parents generally On the contrary, playing games is like an enemy. Instead, children often don’t have much opinion on watching short videos or even shooting short videos.
This situation is probably because short videos have penetrated into people of all ages.Therefore, parents also feel that it is common for parents to scan short videos. When there are no major loopholes in the country’s supervision, the content and format of short videos do not pose much threat to their children. They just need to be appropriate in terms of duration and occasion. (Although this is often difficult to achieve in reality).
Coexist with anxiety
Short videos are so overwhelming that they will inevitably cause many people's concerns, especially the fear that it will have adverse effects on minors. This kind of anxiety is by no means unique to ordinary people. The governments of many countries, including our country, have restricted the implementation of short videos within their jurisdictions. So is this widespread concern about short videos, or even panic, necessary?
If you can put your emotions aside, look at the problem from a historical perspective and look at the problem for a long enough period of time, the answer is probably that the short video is not worth worrying about.
Up to now, mankind can always find a way to rationally use new technology through exploration and temptation, even if it is a dangerous technology like atomic energy. If nuclear weapons have not destroyed the world, short videos should not work either.
The anxiety caused by short videos, in the words of Dr. Dong Chenyu from the School of International Journalism and Communication, Beijing Foreign Studies University, who has recently become popular on the Internet, reveals a permanent phenomenon between a person and technology: , the birth of any new medium At that time, it will cause moral panic in the society, making people afraid that technology will ruin the era of their lives.
Ask yourself, is our fear of short videos, live broadcasts, and online games really different from the panic of predecessors in newspapers, radio, and television when they first came out? Because they are afraid that new technologies will shake their authority, the powers that have the right to speak will inevitably have to be cautious, and they may even ask for full blame at a certain stage. Dong Chenyu put it well, blames the technology for being the most convenient, but it's useless.
Professor He Wei from the School of Media of Beijing Normal University did a statistics. He analyzed 1,700 gaming-related reports in the People’s Daily for 40 years.From the time when Nintendo’s red and white machines entered the Chinese market in 1989, to the rise of computer games and Sony’s PS2 next-generation console in 2001, none of the reports was positive, not the "spiritual opium" that we are familiar with. , Is to discuss the problems of public security management caused by games.
Since 2012, China's game industry has matured and started to go overseas, creating huge economic benefits. The mainstream media reports have turned to a more fair "industrial economy" and "new entertainment method" perspective. In the past five years of reports, negative conclusions have dropped to 13%. [7]
Maybe this example is not convincing in the world, but based on the current China, this example can at least guide us to think about this question: if the Chinese have begun to be more rational, peaceful, and comprehensive Looking at video games, then is there any reason to suspect that in the near future, Chinese people will be able to view short videos more rationally, peacefully, and comprehensively? Or the other way round, it’s not surprising that the Chinese are a little uncomfortable with the new thing of short video. After all, it took decades to take off the colored glasses for watching video games. We just need some time.
is different from the above historical perspective. If we just stand in the present and we don’t have the luxury of transcending time, then may be the only option to coexist with anxiety on the issue of short videos. First of all, from the perspective of government governance, the total cost of banning the short video industry is too great, and the effect will not be good, so our coexistence with short video is inevitable.
In the short term, it is the most direct and common practice to regulate the operation of short video platforms through policies and laws. It’s just that the author always believes that, like movies, the grading system for short videos is also necessary, even a necessary part of a sound prevention mechanism for Internet addiction, but our country still has not reached a consensus in this regard.
In the long run, under our country's system, the government has to shoulder the mission of finding a richer meaning for the lives of citizens. After all, if you can see the bottom of life at a glance, it is nothing more than work 996, sick ICU; 30 years of housing, chicken baby every day,So lying flat and swiping short videos is almost an anesthesia necessary to continue living, so who cares about indulging for two more hours a day?
Of course, no matter what step the government can do, its policy will always take effect slowly. In the process of policy fermentation, although we use short videos to anesthetize ourselves, as long as we don’t want to be swallowed by the drug resistance, Need to do some self-discipline efforts.
As an ordinary member of the 989 million Internet users in my country, you and I have an 88.3% probability of becoming a short video user, and the short video development platform, the addictive mechanism developed for our human weakness, will most likely still be effective. Then the more urgent question is how can we, as ordinary people, minimize the effect of this mechanism on ourselves.
In the field of countering consumer algorithms, Zhuoke, a well-known science community, summarized three methods that can be used for reference, including: 1. Aware of the flaws of the algorithm , consciously breaking the information cocoon of the algorithm; 2. Protection Data privacy, there are many specific methods, even including some non-core applications installed on a separate mobile phone for special management. In short, the core spirit is that the more incomplete the algorithm is for your portrait, the more it will implement information investment on you. The possibility of feeding is also lower; 3. Active search + active rejection , search with purpose, filter useful information, reject irrelevant information (for example, click "I am not interested"), the reason behind it is to avoid being voted Hi information.
To give a recent practical example: If the author just happened to see a discussion about a short video while reviewing a short video, he would like it a few times, and even follow a few up hosts, and then I would be recommended a bunch of them. Similar content, that is, passively accepting feeds; but actively searching for information about short videos, rejecting irrelevant content searched out by keywords, such as "How to shoot popular short videos", and finally sorted into the current article, which is Reasonable use of network materials including short videos.
References:
[1]https://www.mob.com/mobdata/report/114
[2]https://www.jiguang.cn/reports/542
[3]https: //www.zhihu.com/question/482183971
[4]https://www.qianzhan.com/analyst/detail/220/210709-93ba17b1.html
[5]https://bg.qianzhan. com/trends/detail/506/200807-0fa12729.html
[6]https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/352487469?utm_source=wechat_session&utm_medium=social&utm_oi=815180265268862976&wechatShare=1&s_r=0
;Cao Shule. From "Electronic Heroin" to "Created in China": The Discourse Changes of "People's Daily" Game Report (1981-2017)[J];国际新闻界;2018-05
*Disclaimer: This article only represents the author personal opinion,Does not represent the position of this official account
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