Author: Financial Times in Xiaojuan Editor: Lili
US local time on the 18th, well-known short-seller Muddy Waters released a 71-page short report for the celebrations of the times. According to the report, nearly 90% of Huanju’s YY live broadcast revenue is fraudulent, and as much as 80% of Huanju’s overseas business Bigo Live live broadcast platform’s revenue is also fraudulent. Z1z
was affected by this, and YY Live's share price fell nearly 30%. In response to this, Huanju Times responded on the 19th that Muddy Water did not understand the business model of the entire live broadcast industry, stating that its report contained a lot of wrong information and statements, as well as misleading conclusions, and stated that it could provide cash balances at home and abroad. Bank deposit statements are confirmed and investigated by competent third-party institutions for cash.
is one of the earliest domestic platforms that joined the live broadcast battle. YY Live broadcast has also experienced glorious moments in the PC era, but it has been slightly weak after the advent of the mobile Internet era.
In fact, not only YY live broadcast, but also traditional live broadcast platforms including Douyu, Inke, Momo, and Huya are facing huge competition from new traffic platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Station B.
On November 20th, Ding Daoshi, Dean of Speedway Research Institute, said in an interview with Times Finance and Economics, "Capital and the market are profit-seeking. Which one has more money, and the market will change in which direction. At present, the market prospects of the e-commerce + live broadcast method have far surpassed the pan-entertainment live broadcast field, which will naturally attract capital investment."
"Crossover" Li Xueling
As the founder of the Happy Times, Li Xueling is a slave Entrepreneurs in the media industry. When he was studying philosophy at Renmin University in his early years, he liked to run to the school's computer room and wrote programs in assembly language.
After graduating from university in 1997, Li Xueling worked as an IT reporter for China Youth Daily. At that time, he aimed at the budding domestic Internet industry. During that time, he interviewed many entrepreneurs in the IT industry, including industry leaders such as Zhang Chaoyang, Ma Yun, Lei Jun and Zhou Hongyi.
One of the negative reports on Kingsoft Software made Lei Jun notice Li Xueling. "Li Xueling likes to ponder. He is still a technology enthusiast and enthusiast. What he criticized us is still on the point and very deep." Lei Jun commented when recalling that experience.
In 2005, Li Xueling decided to leave the media to start his own business.
Under Lei Jun’s suggestion, Li Xueling aimed at the game field and founded DuwanGame.com, which also included an investment of 1 million yuan provided by Lei Jun.
Around 2005-2006 was the era of the outbreak of online games in China. "World of Warcraft", "Fantasy Westward Journey", and "Jin Yong Group Online" contracted a generation of youthful memories. What Li Xueling started from the beginning was a dedicated website for World of Warcraft. With the growth of game players, the social needs of games have gradually emerged. In 2008, YY Voice was born as a game voice instant communication tool.
Actually, around 2008, 9185, 6 rooms, and Gugua Video had already proposed a live video business model. However, because the domestic live video environment was immature at the time, PCs were not popularized, and the mainstream Internet mode was still going Internet cafe. At the same time, large-scale terminal games rely heavily on instant voice interaction, and the layout of YY voice seems to "quench the thirst".
In 2010, the number of YY voice users exceeded 100 million, with a growth rate of 823.1%. Taking advantage of this momentum, Duowan changed its name to Huanju Times in 2012 and successfully landed on Nasdaq in the United States under the stock code "YY".
also in the same year, Li Xueling mobilized 20 people to start the YY game live broadcast business, which is also the predecessor of Huya live broadcast. In 2018, Huya live broadcast landed on the New York Stock Exchange, and Li Xueling owned his second listed company.
Picture source: Huanju Times official website
YY is the first to develop overseas live broadcast business among all live broadcast platforms, and it is also the most successful live broadcast platform going overseas.
In 2016, Li Xueling launched a product called "BIGO" overseas. Its predecessor was the mobile phone application "Weihui" launched by YY in 2014. At present, BIGO LIVE under BIGO has become one of the largest overseas entertainment live broadcast platforms. In addition, the short video community Likee and short video live broadcast application Imo incubated by the Happy Times have also achieved good results.
According to Huanju Times’ financial report for the second quarter of 2020, as of the second quarter, BIGO LIVE’s mobile monthly active users were 29.4 million, a year-on-year increase of 41.3%; in addition, the average mobile monthly active users of Likee increased by 86.2% year-on-year to 150.3 million. The declining trend of live broadcast of
was just when YY's business was doing well. In 2016, the "Qianbo War" kicked off.
In the two years from 2015 to 2016, a number of pan-entertainment live broadcast apps appeared in China, such as Feng Yousheng’s Inke Live, Zhou Hongyi’s Huajiao Live, etc., occupying the track of the show. In addition, due to the popularity of League of Legends and other games that have promoted the development of the domestic game industry, game live broadcasts have also become popular. In addition to Huya, a large number of game live broadcast platforms such as Douyu and Panda have joined the track. Thousands of apps compete with each other on
, but after the carnival, they are all over. It is reported that in 2017, half of the live broadcast applications that joined the battle have been unavailable. Huya, who survived the melee, was gradually overtaken by Douyu. According to the "November 2017 Mobile APP TOP1000 Ranking" released by Analysys, the monthly livelihood of Douyu was 18.561 million, and that of Huya was 12.244 million.
Looking back at the "Thousand Broadcasting War" now, many familiar figures have disappeared, the most famous of which is Wang Sicong's panda live broadcast. The birth of
Panda Live comes with a halo. Two days after Panda Live was launched on September 7, 2015, Wang Sicong posted a Weibo: "PandaTV is currently accepting financing, and the investment boss can ask us at any time!" Then, in November of the same year, Panda Live completed millions of yuan. Angel round investment. Only one year after the establishment of
, Panda Live has caught up with the head platforms Huya and Douyu, and achieved brilliant results in the "Qianbo War", ranking third in the industry.
Panda Live completed two financings in September and November 2016, and another round A+ financing and a B round financing were completed in May 2017. It can be described as the limelight for a while. What
did not expect was that the short video industry began to grow wildly under the aura of live broadcasting. In 2017, which is considered to be the first year of short video, the short video outlets brought by Douyin and Kuaishou attracted the attention of capital. After
's financing in May 2017, Panda Live's financing process was almost non-received in the following time. It can be seen that in the initial stage of Panda's establishment, Wang Sicong was full of enthusiasm, and worked very hard to promote Weibo and win celebrity platforms. However, over time, Panda Live began to disappear from Wang Sicong's Weibo.
And the final result is already known-Panda Live declared bankruptcy, Wang Sicong was also listed as a person to be enforced by the court and issued an order to restrict consumption.
Wang Sicong led IG to the Panda Live booth. Picture source: Network
. Li Xueling, who has been in the live broadcast industry for many years, was uncomfortable. The rise of short videos and the tightening of regulatory policies gave YY and Yingke It has brought continuous impact to the representative show live broadcast platform.
According to YY's 2017 annual financial report, in the four quarters of 2017, the company's net profit increased by 160.7%, 67.1%, 59.0%, and 29.4%, respectively, and its net profit growth has been declining.
Survive with a broken arm
Li Xueling, who shouted "Tencent's enemies are all my friends", finally learned to compromise. “Sooner or later, the game live broadcast is Tencent’s home game, and I do not reject the sale of Huya’s controlling stake.”
In March 2018, Huya Live announced that it had obtained Tencent’s approximately US$460 million in Series B financing. Its prospectus showed that Tencent had obtained 34.6% of its shares. Equity. In addition, in the second and third years after the investment is completed, Tencent can gradually purchase the remaining shares of Huya Live at a public market price, up to 50.1% of the controlling stake.
Faced with Tencent, which holds most of the game copyrights, Li Xueling and Huya have no initiative.
In April this year, Huya issued an announcement stating that Tencent formally issued a notice to Huya He Huanju Group to acquire Huya at a total purchase price of approximately US$262.6 million, becoming its largest shareholder. Li Xueling’s domestic business is now only YY Live Broadcast.
It's not that he has never struggled.
In 2017, Li Xueling made great efforts in the social field. He once invested in the stranger social platform to explore, but only less than a year, Tantan was formally acquired by Momo. Afterwards, Li Xueling led YY to pursue the short video. In September 2018, he announced his cooperation with Kuaishou. However, it was the YY anchor who began to lean towards Kuaishou. At the end of 2019, e-commerce live broadcasts rose up and ushered in an explosion this year. YY also launched live broadcast purchases of antiques, but there is still not much improvement.
On August 13, Huanju Times released its fiscal 2020 Q2 financial report. The financial report showed that the total number of YY paying users decreased by 2.2% year-on-year to 4.1 million compared with the same period in 2019. Net income decreased by 18.0% year-on-year to 232.3 million yuan.
Li Xueling and YY are still running with the times, but it seems it is difficult to seize the forefront of the tuyere. Selling tiger teeth first, then abandoning YY, this may be Li Xueling's helpless "survival with broken arms". In the words of Li Xueling many years ago: "If we lose, we will live small and live with a ceiling. I will look for opportunities again." Throughout the past ten years,
has seen live broadcasts from shows represented by YY and Yingke. Game live broadcasts represented by Huya and Douyu to e-commerce live broadcasts catalyzed by the epidemic, the live broadcast format has been updated and iterated.
Tencent promotes the merger of Huya and Douyu, Taobao is targeting trillions of live broadcast e-commerce, and the two major traffic upstarts, Douyin and Kuaishou. Now Baidu is also preparing to enter the game. The live broadcast is disturbing. In the end, it is still a chess game opened by giants.
compared to the competition in creativity and mode of the early live broadcasts, in Ding Daoshi's opinion, today's live broadcasts are more of a media role. "If we put it to a broader perspective, live broadcasting is already a diversified development. So what is the future of live broadcasting + e-commerce? It is live broadcasting + everything."
