【Text/Observer Network Li Li】iQiyi, Youku, tencent video burned 100 billion yuan in ten years, but can not see the profit, why is this? The well-known screenwriter @ Wang Hailin pointed out sharply on Weibo: "In ten years, industrial upgrading has not been realized. 100 billion, did not produce excellent works. On the contrary, it has eliminated the audience and cultivated a generation of brain-dead people, and the key is to lose money."
Weibo @ E-commerce News Released Weibo on December 13: "iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video have burned out more than 100 billion yuan in the past ten years, and they are still in a loss dilemma, and it is difficult to make a profit." Among them, iQiyi's net loss in the first three quarters of 2021 was 4.4 billion yuan, and it was recently exposed to large-scale layoffs. "Caused netizens to discuss, spent so much money, excellent works do not feel much."
In a number of comments, the well-known screenwriter @ Wang Hailin bluntly said that these online video platforms "filmed some sweet pets, beauty, crossing, ancient puppet cultural garbage." He pointedly pointed out that the platform took ten years and did not achieve industrial upgrading. 100 billion, did not produce excellent works. Instead, it "eliminated the audience and cultivated a generation of brain-dead people, and the key is to lose money." Netizens have liked his comments.
Although the video platform is crazy to throw money, but in recent years, the quality of domestic film and television dramas and variety works is worrying, especially the film and television drama injection is too serious, the drama that could have been filmed in 10 episodes was filmed into twenty or thirty episodes, the plot was delayed, the actor's acting skills were worrying, and the investment in the work was concentrated on the sky-high salary of small fresh meat, which made it difficult for the audience to like. Not long ago, the topic of "has the level of domestic dramas regressed" was on Weibo's hot search, and the total number of readers currently reached 350 million.
Has the level of domestic dramas regressed?
Netizens waited for an opportunity to spit on domestic dramas, quite a number of netizens think that good dramas such as "The Biography of Zhen Huan", "Langya List", "The Name of the People", "Qing Yu Nian", "Great Rivers and Rivers", "Mountains and Seas", "The Age of Awakening" and so on are still too few, too many dramas are filled with filters, traffic, idols, capital, filmed in pieces, and the hard-hit areas are undoubtedly youth idol dramas.
In order to cater to the consumer market of young people, the earlier red hot idol drama has now become a "sweet pet drama", and the film and television industry has also opened a blowout mass production model. It is worth noting that the "overbearing president" in some sweet pet dramas promotes the protection and rescue of men to women, and the concept of "luxury consumption" in some dramas is not worth advocating ideas such as promoting the supremacy of money and objectifying women. But fortunately, the audience is tired of the clichéd sweet pet plot for many years.
According to a report released by Yien Data on August 24, the number of sweet pet dramas broadcast has increased significantly from 38 in 2018 to 95 in 2020, and the total number of broadcasts this year is still expected to be more than 90. However, taking Youku Pet Theater as an example, although on May 20 this year, the platform came up with a list of 30 new sweet pet dramas in one go, but most of the Douban scores were relatively dismal, such as "Love at First Sight" score of only 4.6; iQiyi Love Theater launched 7 sweet pet dramas such as "One Life" and "Moonlight Variations" this year, with Douban ratings ranging from 4.3 to 7.6. Most of the sweet pet dramas are quietly broadcast, quietly offline, and do not set off a big wave, which shows that many young people have withdrawn from the unrealistic plot of the play.
In addition, due to the strong "gold-absorbing" ability of variety shows, more and more variety shows have been launched on major video platforms, and the uneven quality and value orientation of programs have also become one of the criticisms. For example, previously, fans of the variety show "Youth with You 3" voted for the "milk pouring incident" in order to vote for Aidou. Teenagers choose this incorrect way to chase stars, and this variety show has to be stopped.
In recent years, video platforms such as "Aiyouteng" can be described as crazy money in film and television, variety shows, etc., unfortunately, the platforms are still losing money. Taking iQiyi as an example, the third quarter of this year's financial report shows that the operating cost is 7.028 billion yuan, of which the content cost is 5.3 billion yuan, accounting for 69.8% of the total revenue. According to the Daily Economic News reported on June 3, Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQiyi, once introduced that the cost of content mainly comes from two aspects, the largest content budget is the procurement of TV series, followed by the production of online dramas and programs. At present, iQIYI's copyright content cost accounts for about 70% of the total content cost.
Gong Yu previously revealed: "The price of copyright dramas is high, the purchase price of a copyright drama episode starts from 2 million yuan, and the price of an independent drama may be as high as 6 million yuan to 8 million yuan per episode." "The copyright fee of a single episode of some head film and television dramas is as high as tens of millions of yuan." Youku and Tencent are similar.
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Even if there are occasional blockbuster dramas, consumers open members on the platform, and when the drama is finished, they close the membership. Because they know that there are too few such high-quality blockbuster dramas, and it is not cost-effective to continue to open members. In this way, the users of the platform lack stickiness, and it is naturally difficult to make a profit.
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand the data reported by the Economic Daily on the 12th: the domestic long-term video head platform "Aiyouteng" (iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video) has burned out more than 100 billion yuan in ten years.
In particular, iQIYI lost 9.1 billion yuan, 10.3 billion yuan and 7 billion yuan respectively in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and in less than four years, iQIYI has lost 30.8 billion yuan. But iQiyi's business woes are not isolated incidents.
As the head of Youku's long-form video website for two years, Fan Luyuan, partner of Alibaba Group, president of Alibaba Entertainment and president of Youku, lamented on June 3: "It is difficult, the long video industry is too difficult." This industry is a profitable enterprise, but when will the three of us (referring to Youku, iQiyi, and Tencent) be profitable? According to the current living environment, profit is just around the corner. ”
The "living environment" mentioned by Fan Luyuan refers to the escalation of contradictions between long and short videos at present.
Short videos seize user time, and Aiyouteng's days are even more torturous
According to the "2021 China Online Audiovisual Development Research Report" released on June 2, as of December 2020, the scale of China's Internet users was 989 million, while the scale of online audio-visual users reached 944 million. Short videos are still growing rapidly: 873 million users, and as of December last year, the average daily usage time reached 120 minutes, reaching 125 minutes as of March this year. In addition to the scale of users, the new strength of short videos is also amazing. From June last year to December last year, 49.15 million new netizens were added. Among new netizens, 20.4% of them used short video applications when they first went online, and only 4.5% used "watching movies, TV series, variety shows, etc. " for the first time on the Internet.
Short videos seize users' entertainment time, which is equivalent to competing for advertising share.
On April 9 this year, long-form video platforms such as "Aiyou Tengmang" and other film and television media units jointly issued a joint statement calling on the majority of short video platforms and public account producers and operators to respect originality, protect copyright, and not to carry out editing, cutting, handling, dissemination and other infringements on relevant film and television works without authorization. The spearhead is directed at platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, as well as content creators on these platforms.
"Opposing infringement is not opposing the development of short videos. How the online audiovisual industry can move more steadily depends on how the rules for piracy infringement are formulated. Fan Luyuan said.
On December 15, iQIYI announced that it would increase the price of gold VIP membership subscriptions on December 16, the last time iQIYI increased prices was in November 2020, and this year's price increase again highlighted the long video websites such as "Aiyouteng", which really began to be anxious.
In view of the long-term development of long videos, the Economic Daily commented on the 12th that under the internal and external troubles, long videos urgently need "blood return" to survive. But if you only focus on the gains and losses in front of you, and rush to achieve quick success, I am afraid that it will only be counterproductive. In the past, the advanced on-demand policy of some long video platforms brought short-term economic benefits, but also caused a large number of users to resent. Not long ago, the talent shows of individual long video platforms were ordered to be suspended due to problems with value orientation, and the lessons were more profound.
Throughout the world, Netflix, a profitable long-form video platform, has won the praise of a large number of users with its reputation of "production is boutique". Looking at China, Mango TV relies on excellent production teams and innovative capabilities to continuously produce explosive self-made content, becoming the first profitable long video platform in China. "Aiyouteng" should understand that there is no shortcut to break through, whether it is membership services, advertising or other business expansion, the core is to make articles around high-quality content.
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