Yesterday
iQiyi said in a message posted on Weibo
The price will be "updated"
Increased the price of some members
And from today to implement the new membership fee standard
Just on December 1, iQiyi just reported a sharp layoff, and even reported that the proportion of layoffs reached 20%-40%. According to the calculation of iQIYI's total of 7721 employees at the end of 2020, it means that 1544-3088 employees may be laid off this time.
What happened to iQiyi?
Not making money is the immediate cause. As the only listed company among the three major video platforms, iQIYI's financial report data shows that from 2018 to 2020, iQIYI's cumulative loss reached 26.4 billion yuan, and this year's Q3 financial report showed that iQIYI's revenue was 7.6 billion yuan and a net loss of 1.7 billion yuan.
According to industry insiders, the source of revenue for long video platforms is mainly membership fees, followed by advertising. iQIYI is known for its original content on domestic long video platforms, while high-quality content is inherently "burning money".
In the face of this membership fee adjustment, some consumers expressed understanding, but hoped that "the content can match the price"; some consumers said that they may change the habit of watching videos, "if there is a real word-of-mouth drama, it will be recharged".
Quality content and membership fees, like the "chicken or egg or egg chicken" question, wait time to give the answer.
Price adjustment twice in ten years VS twice a year
This morning, iQiyi announced on Weibo that it will adjust the price of Gold VIP members. At the current price, the price of the annual pass and the continuous annual package remained unchanged at the previous 248 yuan and 218 yuan, while the monthly and seasonal cards increased by 9%-20%. Among them, the continuous monthly subscription fee rose from 19 yuan to 22 yuan, and the continuous package season fee rose from 58 yuan to 63 yuan; the price of a single season rose from 68 yuan to 78 yuan, and the largest increase was the monthly price of the single package, from 25 yuan to 30 yuan.
In April this year, Tencent Video also made a price adjustment. Tencent VIP members, whose permissions are similar to iQIYI Gold's membership, have a continuous monthly subscription price of 20 yuan and a continuous package of 58 yuan; the price of a single month is 30 yuan, the annual pass is 188 yuan, and the continuous annual package is 168 yuan. Mango TV's continuous monthly subscription fee is only 15 yuan, the continuous package season is 45 yuan, the single month is 20 yuan, the single season is 55 yuan, and the annual package and continuous package prices are 198 yuan and 178 yuan, respectively. The price of Youku is similar to that of Mango TV.
The price of Tencent Video
In contrast, after this round of "chasing up", iQiyi's membership price has been slightly higher than that of other parent video platforms. However, in the eyes of some industry insiders, iQiyi has launched membership services for 10 years, a total of 2 price adjustments, the last time was last November, as a market-oriented platform "is not easy". But in the eyes of some users, more than a year to adjust the price again, "is the price pressed the fast forward button?" ”
In this regard, some iQIYI's gold VIP members expressed their acceptance. In addition to enjoying a year's original price offer, these members "have no obvious feeling" about the increase of only a few dollars a month. Citizen He Xia spent more than three years as a golden member of iQIYI: "In his spare time, he chased dramas and watched variety shows the most, and spending a few yuan more was not too much." ”
iQiyi adjusted the price, and there were many negative comments on the Internet
However, many people are not satisfied with such price increases. On Weibo, there is a continuous complaint about iQiyi's price increase. Ms. Liu, a citizen, said bluntly that nowadays, there are fewer and fewer wonderful solo dramas and self-made variety shows, and many programs are broadcast across platforms: "Why do I choose the same content that is expensive?" ”
Quality content comes at a cost
Why choose iQiyi, which is on the high price? The reporter interviewed a number of users, and "original quality content" is the most mentioned reason.
"Domestic long video platforms have been competing for many years, and a benign competition pattern with their own characteristics has basically been formed." According to industry insiders, at present, the three major domestic long video platforms "Youaiteng" and two "interlopers" Mango TV and B station have their own characteristics: Youku bought the copyright of many classic old dramas, Tencent has a lot of experience in idol dramas and network culture, Mango TV is backed by Hunan Satellite TV, from programs to artists to "play a tree of self-produced fruits", and B station is a community platform for deeply cultivating the second dimension and young people.
Compared with these platforms, iQIYI is considered to be "the biggest competitiveness from original high-quality content", from the variety show "Strange Story" and "The Summer of the Band" to the self-made drama "The Best of Us", "The Hidden Corner", "River God", etc., all of which have won the win-win situation of word of mouth and clicks. He Xia said: "I am willing to be a member of iQiyi forever for the sake of "Strange Story". ”
"Strange Story"
However, the industry recognizes that original quality content is a particularly "money-burning" thing. According to iQIYI's financial analysis, content costs have become the main expense of the platform and the main reason for liabilities. "Original, high-quality content requires a long period of investment, but the profit effect will not be realized until later." According to industry insiders, even a "blockbuster" like "The Hidden Corner" is actually not very profitable, but the follow-up "low-key" masterpiece "The Silent Truth" has obtained good income. "Many of iQiyi's 'blockbuster dramas' in the past two years have been short dramas with more than a dozen episodes, and they have been broadcast when advertisers find the value of traffic." And compared with long dramas to attract fixed users, explosive short dramas may attract monthly users, and whether they can continue to consume is not necessarily. ”
Patience worn away by vertical screens
Although iQiyi did not respond to the layoffs, some media reported that its VP (vice president) in charge of the short video department has left, leaving the remaining employees "half laid off and half merged". On some job search and networking apps, below the rumors of iQiyi's layoffs, there are many short video platforms that throw olive branches of "recruiting" messages. In recent years, long video platforms have continued to "burn money", and a large number of advertisements have gone to more "sinking" short video platforms with surging traffic.
Long video platforms such as "Youaiteng" have tested the waters of short videos. In 2018, iQiyi launched the "Life Has Done To Me" series of self-made web dramas, adopting a vertical screen mode, each episode is 3-4 minutes. However, long video platforms have folded in the short video conquest, and in the eyes of some users, "watching iQiyi and watching Douyin is not a bunch of people." In their eyes, what they are looking forward to is "Strange Story" and "The Hidden Corner", and here are users who are keen on short videos, whether the shooting team is professional, whether the framing is exquisite, whether the logic is smooth or not, and the short videos original by those professional teams are not grounded enough. On Douyin, there are more "chicken soup for the soul" that is good at dotting questions with golden periods, and "plots" that are reversed many times in a short period of time.
Recently, the Douban scoring problems that are still fermenting are the first to bear the brunt of iQiyi's "Wind Rise Luoyang" and "Who is the Murderer". Excluding the irrational "Pink Wars", it is inevitable that the rating given by the TV series after only one or two episodes is broadcast is too subjective. In the praise of "Who is the Murderer", some people praised the show as "tightly paced, two people die in one episode". In Tencent's "Double Detective", some people commented that "more than a dozen episodes to talk about a case? ”
"Today's users are immune to the impact of short videos." Some insiders take the suspense drama promoted by iQiyi in recent years as an example: "More and more users can't stand to lay out a story with more than a dozen episodes, and the ideal structure is two episodes and a case, and then interspersed with a main line plot and finally revealed." ”
Is there still a market for high-quality original content?
At a time when long-form video platforms are almost unable to build a content "ecosystem" that covers all users, misplaced competition seems to be the only option – with the activity of short video platforms, programs and episodes launched by platforms such as iQiyi use larger scenes, stronger teams, and more gorgeous packaging – which also means "spending more money".
This year, iQIYI's "Youth with You Season 3" and Tencent's "Creation Camp 2021" continue to have a "gorgeous competition": iQIYI continues to "build scenery" in The film and television town of Langfang, Hebei Province, and Tencent takes the scenery of Hainan Island as the background; iQIYI invites Li Yuchun, and Tencent launches Deng Chao + Tranquility. Such a competition was eventually stopped by fans to raise funds to vote for the debut of idols, extravagance and waste, and the final of "Youth with You Season 3" could not be broadcast.
iQiyi, which stands firm in the market with high-quality original content, has also "upgraded" its investment in creation this year. Compared with xin shuang, the director of "The Hidden Corner" last year, and Chen Yifu, the director of "The Silent Truth", who are "unknown", the director of the first drama series of "Misty Theater" this year, "Octagonal Pavilion Mystery Fog", is Wang Xiaoshuai, who has won many awards at the Berlin Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, and the starring lineup is "powerful" Duan Yihong and Hao Lei. However, the Douban score of this series fell to 5.7 points, and the consequent "Fatal Wish" was as low as 4.1 points.
"The quality content I hope to see is not necessarily a grand scene and a gorgeous stage, but something that resonates with the heart." In the eyes of Mr. Qin, a citizen, high-quality content can be a group of ordinary people sitting together to "quarrel" like "Strange Story", or it can be "The Hidden Corner" that makes three children become the protagonists. Some insiders also admit that the core of content competition is still the content itself, "the platform must pay attention to the core of content planning, rather than the main creator is more famous." ”
All indications are that iQiyi, which is in the midst of controversy, will still exert efforts on original high-quality content. In today's price adjustment instructions, iQIYI said that "the subscription price of the video platform has been low", and the purpose of the price adjustment is "to establish a more benign industrial ecology, so that excellent content producers can return, and ultimately provide members with more and better content". Gong Yu, CEO of iQiyi, also mentioned in an interview that he believes that the main motivation for user payment is good solo head content, most of which comes from original and self-made.
"If it's really high-quality original content, I'm willing to pay more, even for a show alone." He Xia said, "But the premise is that this content is really good enough." ”
The original manuscript of Jiefang Daily and Shangguan News is strictly prohibited from being reprinted without authorization
Author: Jian Gongbo
WeChat Editor: Jia Simin
Proofreader: Tynie