With the news of iQIYI's big layoffs, the sound of "long video midwinter" is overwhelming, with losses, layoffs, growth bottlenecks... However, most of the current dilemmas are still financial, and they have not yet wavered in the status of long videos in China's cultural industry.
The impact of short videos on long videos is a direct trigger for the current long video dilemma, but it is not the core. From a macro perspective, the demand for online entertainment is increasing, and the increased demand includes short videos and long videos. Data show that as of June this year, China's 1 billion netizens spend 4 hours a day online, especially on mobile. Long video and short video are not simply substitution relationships, and users can switch freely at any time. As long as the long video can produce good enough content, users will not hesitate to change the vertical screen to a horizontal screen.
Looking at the future of long video from this perspective, there is a lot of optimism. The more this era is dominated by the rapid economic model, the more well-made and rich cultural products are lacking, and the commercial premium for good content is actually higher. As long as there are people in the cultural industry who are willing to adhere to the sacrificial spirit of long-termism, they can rely on content to turn the tables. However, where should iQiyi start over?
The author believes that for Atenyou, the current dilemma is far from the end. Facing up to the pain and experience of the past, frankly carrying out the thorough revision of self and industry, unswervingly deepening the content track, the abyss has the opportunity to become the darkness before dawn, and the Chinese cultural industry is also expected to sail into a broader channel in this round of correction.
From extensive high-speed growth to high-value business realization
If Luffy wants to become One Piece, he needs to overcome countless fears of death and defeat countless powerful opponents; it also takes nine hundred and eighty-one difficulties for the four Tang monks and apprentices to obtain the True Scriptures, and a company needs to fight monsters and upgrades to grow and grow. Chicken soup sounds full of flavor, but for the Chinese Internet, which has been overly superstitious about traffic and data over the past two decades, what is really missing is this spirit of coping with suffering.
It's no secret that long videos have high content costs. In 2015, iQiyi's content costs reached 3.7 billion yuan, and by 2020, it has exceeded 20 billion yuan. Since its establishment 11 years ago, the cumulative loss has exceeded 40 billion yuan. With the slowdown in the growth of the entire Internet and the simplification of the government, the problems caused by iQiyi's long-term losses have become more prominent this year.
For Aiyouteng, the blood road burned by burning money in the past decade may not be a valuable asset. On the one hand, it is the de-falsification of business models, and on the other hand, it is the construction of high barriers to competition.
The business model of China's long video streaming media is not at the beginning, taking iQiyi as an example, the advertising + membership model, "free + pay" go hand in hand in the early stage of user expansion, but from the perspective of commercial profitability, it has not brought about the IP "Matthew effect". The day iQIYI members earn more than advertising marks that this business model has fulfilled its historical mission. At present, from the perspective of multiple layouts of Aitengyou, they are all important shifts towards the adjustment of the direction of the membership business. That is to say, from the perspective of business model, China's long video streaming media has entered the stage of membership.com. In the future, iQIYI will mainly produce and introduce content around the membership payment business, and pay more attention to the commercial monetization of content, rather than the daily active number of free users. Taking iQiyi as an example, in recent years, it has vigorously increased its self-made content, and founder and CEO Gong Yu also proposed the content idea of Focus two years ago, the reason is to value the monetization path of content payment.
In the first decade, Aitenyou oscillated between Youtube and Netflix models, and now it is clear that the Netflix-style membership model can make long videos go further. The Netflix model uses high-quality self-made content to attract and retain members, accurately control the relationship between member prices and content costs, and achieve a positive cycle of finance and scale. From Netflix's experience, we can see that the realization from negative to positive depends on increasing the number of member subscriptions on the one hand, and increasing prices on the other hand. Netflix has seen dozens of membership fee increases over the past 13 years, with the North American standard membership benchmark fee rising by 75% from $7.99 to $13.99 (about 88 yuan). The most recent price increase was an increase in The fee for South Korean memberships in November. With the popularity of "Squid Games", Netflix announced that the standard fee for two people online at the same time in South Korea will be raised from the current 12,000 won (about 65 yuan) to 13,500 won, and the premium fee for up to four people online will be raised from 14,500 won to 17,000 won, an increase of 12.5% and 17.2%, respectively.
In 2018, iQIYI was listed in the United States, and in 2019, the scale of iQIYI members exceeded 100 million, but only in November last year, the gold VIP member subscription service fee was increased for the first time in ten years. After the adjustment, Gold VIP members are divided into monthly pass, season card, annual pass and continuous monthly subscription, continuous package season, continuous package year, the pricing is 25 yuan, 68 yuan, 248 yuan and 19 yuan, 58 yuan, 218 yuan, respectively. Immediately after that, Tencent Video also announced a price increase. However, although the unit price has risen, according to the author's observation, in the year after the first price increase, several major platforms still have various membership discounts to attract subscriptions.
Through the above comparison, it can be found that the total membership volume of iQIYI and Tencent Video is very close to the total size of Netflix's total of 240 million yuan in the world, but the unit price of membership is only one-fourth of Netflix's North American market and one-third of the South Korean market. The content cost and membership fee are seriously inverted, which makes the financial deficit of Aitengyou more and more large.
The author believes that the price increase of long videos is inevitable, and the challenge is how to enable Chinese users to adapt to new prices faster.
It all depends on the content
Behind the increase in member prices is inevitably the improvement of content value and service level. The author is not advocating that Aitengyou use price increases to get rid of the financial crisis, but hopes that Aitengyou can use the economic law of price and value to make the company's development enter a normal track.
The current dilemma is that in order to achieve the original accumulation of membership, Aitengyou has been selling DVD players for a long time with the money of a disc, and over time consumers have determined that DVDs are only worth the price of discs. How to eliminate such price misalignment? There is only one antidote, and that is content.
Out of the "Strange Story", "Yanxi Raiders", "Silent Truth", "Hidden Corners", "Icebreaker Action" and many other national hits, iQiyi is known as the "Explosive Factory", if you take stock of the popular content of Chinese film and television in 2021, iQIYI's "Son-in-law", "Rebel", "Xiao Shede", "Wind Rise Luoyang", "Who is the Murderer", "Annual Comedy Contest" and many other content will inevitably be on the list. In the mass media, iQIYI will occasionally be scolded by users for editing, program postponement and other accidents, but almost many users know that in terms of content capabilities, iQIYI is the strongest of the three. Because of the connection of various kinds of content, iQiyi has formed a complex love-hate entanglement with users.
"In the iQIYI APP, iQIYI Sports, Kiwi Fruit have opened automatic renewal members, I really don't want iQIYI to fall." A netizen left a message under an article about iQiyi's recent layoff rumors. In fact, in addition to this netizen, the author consulted Weibo, WeChat, Pulse, Zhihu and many other social media, most of the netizens for iQiyi's current problems expressed different degrees of understanding and sympathy, on the one hand, this platform does produce and buy a lot of genuine content, on the other hand, everyone has a deep fear of the possibility of future short videos expelling long videos.
How can long videos increase the value of content? Not only do you want to produce good content, but you also need to make good content last. In 2015, "Notes from the Tomb Robber" was broadcast, bringing iQIYI 2.6 million subscribers, and in 2018, "Yanxi Raiders" brought 12 million new paying users, which is equivalent to one-third of iQIYI's annual net increase in paying users. The blockbuster proves that the head content has a strong driving force for payment, but the platform cannot only have the blockbuster and ignore the waist. After all, even Netflix can't guarantee that all the blockbusters are blockbusters, and "Squid Games" has passed 7 years since the last world-famous "House of Cards".
"Icebreaker Action" won the Magnolia Award on behalf of the online drama, "The Hidden Corner" and "The Silent Truth" had no star cast, and became the blockbuster of the Mist Theater last year with solid plays and performances; in the form of variety shows, the young culture such as Chinese rap, tide cards, bands, and comedies was introduced to the public, and this year, with the "Wind Rises Luoyang" and other high-quality online dramas, it even led to the tourism and topics of an ancient city.......iQiyi has improved significantly in recent years in the exploration of self-made content, but compared with the growth rate of the audience's demand for good content, it is still not enough. Professional content production cycle is long, expensive, more difficult to create, each of which may make Aitengyou ruined, but it is precisely because there are still people willing to sacrifice other options to make quick money, go forward and invest in this industry, people have in addition to short video and live video consumption.
Some scene photos of "The Wind Rises in Luoyang"
"Netflix production, must be a boutique" cognition is very strong, how to make users in the cognition of completely believe that Aitengyou has a strong ability to continuously output high-quality content, is the development of long video to cross the gap, head and waist can not be loose. Netflix has crossed the past, it has become a streaming media giant with a market value of trillions, and if Aitengyou can cross the past, the future influence will be immeasurable.
Paying for content is a good time
Crisis and opportunity are always two sides of the coin.
Netflix is in the TIK TOK and Douyin global popularity, Disney+, HBO MAX, Peacock, Apple TV+ and other strong opponents, the market value and users increased together. The traffic and value of "Squid Game" is beyond the reach of all short videos, which fully demonstrates the strong vitality of long video content payment, and also shows that the biggest enemy of long video streaming is not long and short video competitors, but the past self. Always maintaining the ability to lead the market is the winning magic of long video. And China's content payment may also be ushering in the dawn of the dawn, why so, there are three reasons:
First, the signs of industrialization of China's film and television content have emerged. In the past two years, the policy has paid special attention to the cultural entertainment industry, the society is deeply disgusted by the supremacy of traffic and the supremacy of stars, and the capital is more rational, and it is more willing to invest in people and companies with real creative strength and ingenuity attitude, which is the "value" that should be in the era of film and television industrialization.
Second, the impetuous creative atmosphere has improved, and "professionalism" has become a consensus. Water injection dramas, suspension dramas, brain dramas, and big star IP dramas are not allowed to be marketed, and the audience's appreciation of film and television works returns to the play and performance itself, which to a certain extent forces the creative circle to pay more attention to good scripts and good actors.
Third, Aitengyou jointly laid a foundation for paying for content. Compared with the deep-rooted concept of paying for genuine copies in Europe and the United States, Netflix can more easily establish a paid fortress, but China's long-term long-term long-term low prices and losses, but also basically let "pay for content" instead of "free" become the mainstream trend, with the sound laws and regulations and the fight against piracy infringement, the future payment road of long video may be easier.
Layoffs, losses are short-lived problems, the fierce contradiction between supply and demand of long videos is the root of the current long video development problems, and long videos are reviewed together with the entire Chinese entertainment industry, star brokerage, film and television industrialization, capital efficiency, etc. It is not denied that these old problems are on the way to find new answers.
Whether it is a price increase or a layoff, the front is that some people are happy and some are worried, and the back is a long video that frankly deals with the problem and gives a positive attitude of solving the problem. The author hopes that the future full story and exquisite picture can become the entertainment consumption of future generations, rather than shoddy short videos, and it is precisely because of such selfishness that I hope that Aitengyou can quickly find new answers.