[Streaming Media Network]Abstract: Do you think the “video war” is over?
This summer, the long-form video platform has performed one after another puppet dramas, enjoying themselves in the full screen of “You Nong My Nong”, “Ascension to Immortal”, “Jianghu Chivalry” and “Hot Over Ten Thousand”.
The relationship between short videos and movies has attracted unprecedented attention. There are different opinions on whether the “sinking publicity” of short videos has achieved the box office of movies, or whether “short videos” will subvert the entire film industry.
In short, the competition between long video platforms, short video platforms, and long and short video platforms has rarely been mentioned and paid attention to. The video industry seems to have entered an unprecedented stable period of development. “Is it really over?
Video Wars: From Fierce to Moderate
In the course of more than ten years of development, the video industry has experienced the relationship between long video platforms, short video platforms, long video and short video, long video and traditional TV, long and short video and traditional film and television. After several “wars” between the production and broadcasting modes, the subversion that should be subverted, the disappearance that should disappear, the persistence that should be persisted, and the abandonment that should be given up, can be said to be a wonderful game with far-reaching consequences.
Relevant data from “QuestMobile2023 China Mobile Internet Semi-annual Report” shows that in the first half of this year, the long-term video platform strengthened the content supply, and the high-quality content continued to be archived, which drove the growth of industry traffic and enhanced user stickiness. It seems that it has overcome the impact and squeeze of short videos After the short video has experienced an explosive period, the growth rate of the industry will slow down in 2023, the user penetration rate of the entire network will basically be stable, and it will gradually enter the stage of stock competition.
As the user scale, market structure and traffic flow gradually stabilize, the video war seems to be moving from “intense” to “moderate”. Behind this is not only the influence of the development life cycle of the video industry itself, but also the result of the gradual maturity of the entire mobile Internet ecosystem.
Entry stage, growth stage, maturity stage, and decline stage are the four stages that a product life cycle must go through. In the absence of new “video species”, after experiencing a stage of rapid growth, the video industry will enter a relatively stable mature stage. There will still be plenty of competition, but the direction of development is already very clear and stable.
The mobile Internet ecosystem has also shown stable characteristics. As of June 2023, there are 1.213 billion monthly active users of the mobile Internet. Throughout the first half of the year, the growth of user scale is stable, maintaining between 2% and 2.5%. Among all kinds of people, the senior group has become an important source of growth for the mobile Internet, and is still in the stage of rapid penetration of online applications.
The competition in the video industry has changed from “fierce” to “moderate”, which will help all competitors to settle down and think about their “initial heart” and “mission”, so as to find the real focus.
Long video: recognize the “underlying logic” and focus on high-quality works
After more than ten years, the long-form video industry has gradually found its “initial heart” and realized the “underlying logic” of industry development. The most direct manifestation of this is that the head length video platforms have successively announced full-year profits. Recently, it was also reported that iQiyi’s revenue in the second quarter is expected to increase by 17% year-on-year, especially advertising revenue will increase by 25% year-on-year, and adjusted operating profit is expected to increase by 123% year-on-year.
Relevant data in the “2023H1 Marketing Value Report of Drama Series” and “2023H1 Variety Show Marketing Value Report” of Yien also show that the “recovery” momentum of the long-form video industry is very obvious. The average number of investment invitations has shown an upward trend; the phenomenon of “naked broadcasting” of variety shows has improved, and the variety show sponsorship market has gradually recovered.
The “initial heart” and “underlying logic” of the long video industry are of course high-quality works. How to provide users with high-quality long video works is the most important issue that long video platforms should think about. Gong Yu mentioned in his speech at the iQiyi World Conference in May this year: “For iQiyi, for content producers or companies, works are the only and most valuable point of value.” High-quality partners, professional team and industrialized management system, these three aspects constitute an important support system for iQIYI to produce high-quality works.
On August 9th, the unit drama “Lotus House” with strange cases in the rivers and lakes broke through 10,000 at the peak of iQiyi’s content popularity, becoming another drama series with over 10,000 popularity on iQiyi this summer after “Long Wind Crossing”. This year, iQiyi’s third work with over 10,000 hits.
Accurately grasp the needs of the target audience in each schedule, and accurately provide works that best meet the tastes of the audience, and the popularity of the platform will naturally increase. Last summer, “Cang Lan Jue” and “Xing Han Brilliant” became popular puppet models. The popularity of Yu Shuxin, Wang Hedi, Wu Lei, Zhao Lusi, etc. soared, setting off a “CP” carnival among fans. This summer, the major long-form video platforms have fully considered the viewing needs of young users, and many key ancient puppet dramas such as “Long Fengdu”, “Long Lovesickness”, “Lotus Tower”, “Da Song Youth Chronicles 2”, “Seven Occasions Auspicious” and so on Appeared one after another, creating a “summer file” that continues to be hot.
The awareness of works, costs, schedules, and users has been continuously enhanced, and the profound insight into social emotions and the effective grasp of long-term cultural trends have been continuously enhanced, which is also an important indicator of the maturity and stability of the long-term video platform.
In terms of marketing value, the high-quality users gathered by long-form video platforms and their brand building capabilities are being recognized by advertisers again. Wu Gang, Senior Vice President of iQIYI believes, “The long-form video head platform is reaching high-quality people and gathering elite users. Brands can use high-penetrating content to connect with high-value people with the most scale effect on the entire network. iQIYI’s The subdivided groups are concentrated in middle-class white-collar workers, exquisite mothers, silver-haired people, and young people in small towns, and these subdivided high-quality users are the core assets of brand cultivation and the booster for the long-term growth of the brand.”
After experiencing the impact and squeeze of the rapid rise of short videos, long videos regained their sense of value identity, focused on high-quality works, focused on user value, and became stable and mature.
Short video: The “spillover” effect on other content industries is not over yet
After the rapid rise of short video platforms in recent years, the industry’s competitive landscape is gradually stabilizing, but the impact of the “spillover” effect on other content industries seems to have not yet ended. This summer’s “turn” has come to the film industry.
The movie “The Missing She” was released on the Dragon Boat Festival, but it detonated the entire summer season, with a box office of 3.5 billion+, and it is still the highest-grossing movie in this year’s summer season so far. On the short video platform, the dissemination data of “The Missing Her” before its release was not outstanding, but after the release, with word-of-mouth fermenting, a benign interaction was formed between the film and the audience, and many hot topics were naturally fermented on Douyin , For example: Take you to see the starry sky under the sea, cover of the theme song “Cage”, actors’ imitation makeup, Zhu Yilong’s highly restored acting skills, etc., have become hot spots for Douyin netizens “Second Creation” and discussions, which greatly boosted the popularity of movies. and box office.
But it is also a hot movie on the short video platform, and the situation of “All or Nothing” is different. Before the release, the box office forecast data of “All or Nothing” in various industries almost did not exceed 100 million, and there were almost no traditional movie big Vs applauding and promoting the film on social platforms. The video promotion effect is excellent, and the communication data is very prominent.
Douban netizens summarized the Douyin dissemination data of several popular summer movies. Among them, the pre-screening topic readings and the pre-screening official Douyin likes data of “All or Nothing” can be described as “a ride on the dust”. Douyin marketing is highly permeable.
After the release of “All or Nothing”, the box office is also “a ride on the dust”. It has been released for 5 days, and the box office has exceeded 1.4 billion. Maoyan predicts that the total box office will be as high as 3.7 billion+. This is in stark contrast to the situation that before the release of “Hot”, big Vs in various industries have given a super high box office forecast of 3 billion +, but after the release, it may be difficult to reach 1 billion +.
This summer, the box office prediction seems to be getting more and more inaccurate. The number of “dark horses” has increased, and the “white horses” have fallen into the sand. One factor that cannot be ignored is the super “sinking” potential and super box office conversion rate of short video platform movies.
More commentators believe that the short video of movies will have a huge impact on the movie industry. “Creating movies with the logic of creating short videos may encourage all-round failure of domestic entertainment. Popular scripts allow screenwriters to be lazy. Spectacular audiovisuals allow directors to be lazy. Symbolic characters allow actors to be lazy. In this creative trend, human inspiration, human talent, and human thinking have become less important.”
In this summer, the relationship between short videos and movies has attracted unprecedented attention. On the one hand, the short video platform has a high degree of user activity. Secondary dissemination has boosted the popularity of the film and soared the box office; on the other hand, whether short videos will have an impact on the production rules of the film industry is still uncertain, but starting from this summer, this issue really needs to attract the industry’s attention.
Conclusion No. 1
Ren Zhengfei said: “Our competitors are not others, but ourselves. Only by doing our best can we become the real winners.”
This sentence sounds like a “chicken soup text”, but it is actually the simplest and most effective reason for competition in all walks of life. The same is true for the long and short video industries. The key is to focus on their respective advantages and give full play to their respective values. Although competition is inevitable, it is most important to be yourself!
It’s time for the “video wars” to end.
Editor in charge: Li Nan
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