Image source @ Visual China
Text | Kasumitsu Society, author | Thousand Miles, Editor | 0016
In the past year, more and more Chinese apps have entered the international arena. From e-commerce to social networking, from mobile games to online texts, all walks of life have ushered in a highlight moment in "going to sea". However, affected by the new crown epidemic, geopolitics and other black swan events, the road of Chinese enterprises to the sea has also gone to a tortuous way.
After riding the wind and waves, how can Chinese companies swim against the current and start from the "new"? In this article, we mainly focus on the live broadcasting industry in Todo Japan.
A few years ago, if you asked China's Internet companies: Where is the most difficult market to enter? The answer must be Japan. Because of its unique ecology and strong cultural exclusivity, very few foreign products can survive here.
However, in the face of this huge market with the third largest market in the world, China's Internet companies have never given up.
In 2020, the revenue of Chinese mobile games in Japan surged by 81% year-on-year, and Japan officially surpassed the United States to become the highest-income market for Chinese mobile games overseas, and the unremitting efforts of a group of overseas people in the past decade finally came to fruition.
On another track, there are also a number of Chinese apps with strong gold absorption ability, which are quietly growing up in Japan - live broadcasting. This is the story of another group of "stubborn" players who nibble on the next "hard to nibble" market.
01 The cake gets bigger
Like games, the live broadcast platform went to Sea to Japan, and it didn't go well at first.
Taking Bigo Live and UpLive, which entered Japan in 2017, app Annie data shows that Bigo Live's revenue in Japan has been flat from 2017 to the beginning of 2019, and then began to show a strong growth trend; UpLive briefly broke out in 2018, and then fell back to the trough until 2020.
Image source: App Annie
Why is the Japanese market so difficult to enter? "Moby Dick Goes to Sea" has analyzed three reasons: 1, the market access threshold and localization requirements are higher; 2, the content of the platform is more specialized, and developers without local performing arts resources cannot enter; 3, the cost of traffic is expensive.
These problems do exist. But another reason that cannot be ignored is that a few years ago, live broadcasting was not so popular in Japan.
Unlike the Middle East, where culture is conservative, entertainment methods are limited, and there are many young people, Japan is a very developed market for offline entertainment. At the same time, the aging of Japanese society is well known, in 2020, the local population over 65 years old accounted for 28.9%, and the demographic structure further limited the market space for online social entertainment.
Japan's game industry is extremely developed, occupying most of the users' online entertainment time. The survey shows that from 2010 to 2019, the Japanese game market showed 10 consecutive years of rapid growth. In 2019, the market size reached 1,733 billion yen (about 95 billion yuan), doubling from 2010, and the total number of game users reached 47.93 million, accounting for nearly 40% of Japan's total population.
So, in the end, what is left for live social networking is only a very limited small piece of cake.
Source: Famitsu Game White Paper 2020 Survey
But the arrival of the pandemic has changed that.
The first is the impact on the offline entertainment and cultural industry. According to a survey released by local agencies, from February 2020 to January 2021, the market size of Japan's five types of entertainment industries, including music, drama, film, and sports, shrank sharply to 280 billion yen (about 15 billion yuan) compared with 1 trillion yen (about 63 billion yuan) in 2019, a sharp decline of 3/4.
People have to spend more time at home, and in addition to games and anime, users need more diversified online entertainment methods. According to a survey in Japan in April 2020, the time spent by Japanese people on various entertainment projects has changed dramatically due to the impact of the epidemic. Nearly 40 percent of respondents said they spent more time watching Blu-ray movies, webcasts, etc.
At the same time as the surge in user demand, the anchor group is also expanding rapidly.
After World War II, especially since the 20th century, the decline of the lifelong employment system in Japanese society is obvious, the economic development rate is slowing down, the income level and stability have declined, such an environment has spawned Japan's "gig economy", and more and more Japanese people have begun to use odd jobs and part-time jobs to earn income, especially for women and young people.
Image source: Garbagenews, the blue curve indicates the change in the number of part-time and zero workers in Japan
The arrival of the epidemic has caused a large number of restaurants, convenience stores, shops and other part-time work places to shorten their business hours or force them to close. According to the Japan Labor Force Survey, in 2020, the number of part-time and odd jobs in Japan will be significantly reduced by 460,000 compared with 2019.
As a result, "live broadcasting" has become a new choice for many Japanese "workers". The live broadcast platform took the opportunity to increase the publicity of recruiting anchors, and people found that this is a very low entry threshold to make money channels, only a mobile phone, some talents and skills that can become the theme of live broadcasting, and even as long as a good voice or high emotional intelligence speaking skills, you can sit at home and get benefits.
In 2020, the number of anchors in Japan ushered in a blowout. According to Japanese media reports, the number of 17LIVE contracted anchors in Japan has risen sharply from 17,000 in 2019 to 32,000 in 2020, almost doubling in one year, especially in February to April, when the epidemic was most serious, and the number of signed anchors increased by about 10 times.
The size of the industry has also grown rapidly. According to data released by local agencies in Japan, the size of the Japanese live broadcasting market is about 14 billion yen in 2020; it is expected to double to 31.4 billion yen in 2021; and it is expected to maintain rapid growth in the next few years, reaching 98.4 billion yen (about 5.4 billion yuan) in 2024. It can be seen that although the overall scale is not large at present, the growth rate is very considerable.
Sources: CyberZ, OEN, Digital In fact research
App Annie data shows that in December 2021, 11 of the top 30 best-selling social apps in Japan were live apps, and the top 10 live apps occupied 7 seats. This proportion even exceeds that of the Middle East, the gold market where live broadcasts go to sea.
02 people who divide the cake
There is no doubt that the cake has grown in the past two years. But in the process, which Chinese players got a share of the cake?
Zhang Kai (pseudonym), a practitioner in the live broadcasting industry in Japan, introduced that at present, Japan's head live broadcast platform is mainly divided into three echelons. Local platform Pococha Live and Taiwan's 17LIVE are in the first echelon, with a monthly turnover of tens of millions of DOLLARs. Among other Chinese products, Bigo Live is in the second echelon, and Dokidoki Live, MICO, UpLive, etc. are in the third echelon.
As can be seen from the above-mentioned Top 30 best-seller list, products from China include 17LIVE, Bigo Live, Dokidoki Live, MICO, and UpLive in the Top 40.
It can be seen that unlike go global's Chinese games (from home to overseas), the Chinese live social APP that breaks into Japan is a group of born global (born global) players, and has a strong global (global localization) attribute.
For example, Dokidoki Live's parent company, Audio Entertainment Time, has targeted the Japanese market since its inception, and has successively launched live and online K song products such as Dokidoki Live and Pokekara, and has now gained a firm foothold in Japan. According to App Annie, Pokekara ranked No. 3 on the Japanese music app revenue chart in December 2021, surpassing products such as YouTube Music.
Another example is Bigo Live, although its Huanju Group started in the domestic market, BUT SINCE THE BEGINNING HAS BEEN AN INDEPENDENT OVERSEAS PROJECT, BUILT BY AN INDEPENDENT OVERSEAS TEAM. Moreover, Huanju has sold its domestic Huya, YY and other businesses, focusing on overseas markets, and now it has firmly taken the first place on the live broadcast sea track.
In addition, the naked city technology behind MICO is a veritable born global player. The company began to go overseas in 2013, in addition to MICO, there are also social apps such as Yumy and YoHo. MICO is also a social product, with live broadcasting as the main scene, previously focusing on the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other markets, and officially entered Japan at the end of 2020, but the upward momentum is very strong.
In the november 2021 November 2021 China non-game manufacturers' overseas revenue list released by App Annie, Huanju Group ranked 2nd, and Naked City Technology ranked 4th, which can be seen in the global gold absorption ability of these two companies.
However, even the best products for globalization have encountered new challenges in Japan.
"The Japanese market is very unique on a global scale, very closed, and difficult to change." Summer, head of operations for MICO's Japanese market, told Kasumi-kosha.
He mentioned that when MICO does other markets in the world, it finds that users in many regions are easily educated, and the design styles of products in some markets will gradually converge. "For example, Europe and the United States in recent years to promote the simple style, we use simple design to iterate the interface of MICO, and then push to the Southeast Asian market, the acceptance of local users is relatively high." But this is difficult to happen in Japan. ”
Summer said, "If you look at the current Japanese live app, you will feel like you have stepped back in time. Users still like the previous style of brightly colored stickers and stickers. Just like Japanese variety shows, many years have passed, and the style of subtitles and transitions is still the same as before. ”
Source: A recent Japanese variety show
In 2017, China's live broadcast APP first failed to enter Japan, mostly because localization was not done in place, and did not cross the local cultural wall.
At the time, 17LIVE was arguably the only successful product. It introduced Japanese capital IVP in 2017, opened a branch office in Japan, appointed Hiroshi Ono as CEO, and quickly built a well-established local team. In June 2018, 17LIVE won the first place in the Japanese live broadcast market share.
But several others, both in product design and operation, were initially not adapted to the market or impressed local users.
According to the data, Bigo Live began to advertise in Japan since 2017, and in 2018, it invited many stars such as the famous Japanese host and singer Jun Tamura, as well as funny artists Such as Yuichiro Nagai and Masae Otani, and continued to buy large amounts, but the results in the total income list are still far from 17LIVE, which cannot shake its status.
Today, several major players, including the Happy Gathering Group, Otoko Time, and Akako Castle, have established front offices in Japan to open up the market with the help of Japanese people who are really familiar with the local area.
On the one hand, local employees are bound to be able to give more accurate advice on the design of products and operational activities. More importantly, Japanese partners are usually very vigilant about foreigners, and in the process of cooperation with anchors, guilds, companies, etc., if local employees communicate and negotiate, they can easily unload their defenses, which is conducive to the smooth progress of cooperation.
Speaking of the uniqueness of the Japanese market, Summer also gave a small example. "Japanese people are very fond of cute things, mascots and other images, and many local apps have related IP and peripherals. When MICO first entered the market, it launched the mascocot Coco ちゃん, and designed the muppets, water cups, masks around this image, which are now very popular among anchors and users," he said. ”
It can also be seen on Bigo Live's official Twitter account that as it has been in the Japanese market for longer and longer, the number of posters and events around the product mascot GO. In February 2021, Bigo Live and Sanrio held a cartoon image linkage event, launching cartoon puppets and other peripherals that combine GO ちゃん and Hello Kitty.
Image source: Bigo Live Japan official Twitter
It is known that the market is difficult to change, and manufacturers choose to be changed by the market to adapt to this environment.
After letting go of the experience and achievements accumulated in other markets around the world, Chinese companies are beginning to re-examine this unique market. They operate from a fully local perspective, build local teams, get smarter to please users, throw money to build brand recognition... Finally squeezed into this market.
03 New Contest
Judging from the current market structure, Japan's local platforms are still strong. Moreover, with the rapid growth of the market scale, it is inevitable that more "red-eyed" people will enter the market, and new competition and collisions are inevitable.
However, Chinese companies are generally confident that more cakes will be distributed next. Closed, stubborn, and difficult to change, these characteristics of Japanese society have brought a lot of trouble to China's overseas products; however, these characteristics are also common ills of Japanese enterprises, providing opportunities for Chinese products to catch up.
Chinese manufacturers are taking advantage of the flexible architecture, mechanism and operational strategies of China's Internet industry to break the monopoly of Japanese domestic products.
In the competition for anchor resources, this situation is particularly obvious.
Kasumitsu interviewed Jacky (pseudonym), the business leader of another live-streaming platform, who has a firm view on the core competitiveness of the live-streaming platform. He said: "The core of the live broadcasting platform is the anchor. The anchor is the producer of content and the center of the social relationship within the end, which is the same in all markets around the world. ”
In the Japanese market, the competition for anchors is more critical. He believes that in recent years, the most eye-catching field for Chinese companies to go to sea in Japan is mobile games, but the game can be understood as a kind of commodity that is "packaged", and the production link is firmly controlled by the manufacturer, as long as the strong research and development ability to make high-quality works, in the mature market of Japan, there is a success probability of "wine is not afraid of deep alleys".
Live streaming is different. Live content production can be understood as "partial outsourcing", and when entering unfamiliar markets, it is dependent on local creator groups or certain vertical industries. Therefore, compared with games, live broadcasting requires more localization capabilities, and it needs to be deeply linked and integrated with local anchors and industries. In other words, the platform must not only build a network of relationships within the terminal, but also an offline network.
"It's hard to imagine throwing a live app in the day area app store, and then burning money to buy the amount can be successful, and the cost of buying in the daily area is not low." Jacky said.
It is in the competition for the core resource of anchors that Chinese companies have won over rigid and rigid local companies.
Pococha Live, one of Japan's largest live broadcasting platforms, is backed by DeNA, a well-known Network Service Group in Japan, whose main business is game development and distribution, and holds a number of well-known IPs such as "Slam Dunk Master" and "Football Boy".
Under the shade of DeNA, Pococha Live started from game live broadcasting and gradually expanded to entertainment live broadcasting, and the support of traffic and funds made it quickly grow into a head platform.
Image source: Pococha Live official website
However, the background of large companies seems to make Pococha Live unable to take into account the needs of too many anchors.
It is understood that Pococha Live implements a strict and unified control system for its contracted anchors. For example, the monthly live broadcast time of the anchor on the platform needs to be more than 200 hours to be able to earn a good income, and on average, at least 6 hours of live broadcasting per day, only full-time anchors can achieve it. At the same time, pococha live does not have any support for ordinary anchors without a fan base, and the traffic will be obviously biased towards those who have accumulated a certain number of fans on YouTube, Instagram and other platforms.
DeNA Group's main business and live broadcasting are still somewhat related, and there are some other Japanese large consortiums, after seeing the live broadcast track is hot, "handy" into the game, there is no related business gene before.
They instinctively operate anchors in the way that agencies run entertainers, but in fact, many people who want to become anchors value the flexibility of the live broadcasting industry, and do not want to be held back by the operating rules of the agency, and are forced to spend too much time on live broadcasting.
This rigid, self-righteous "consortium disease" is very common in Japan. "Chinese companies, on the other hand, are very flexible in their operating strategies and methods in different markets, and can react in a timely manner in the face of rapidly changing markets." Summer said.
He cites MICO's anchor operation policy in Japan as an example:
First of all, MICO has very low requirements for the monthly broadcast time of the anchor, and the basic salary issued by the platform can be obtained for more than 30 hours per month, which is a guarantee for the life of the anchor, and if the anchor is sick or has other things, he can also take leave. Sometimes, the monthly broadcast time of the anchor is slightly insufficient, but the fan growth data is good, and the platform will also flexibly pay salaries as appropriate to encourage them to continue broadcasting.
At the same time, MICO does not prohibit its anchors from broadcasting on other live broadcasting apps. This is strictly restricted on some platforms, and some even charge high fines to the anchors of the transfer platform.
More importantly, MICO will give multi-faceted support to ordinary anchors without any fan base. For example, inviting senior anchors to carry out training, helping newcomer anchors to publicize through banners and other means, and giving certain traffic support, etc., the acceptance of ordinary anchors is very high.
This series of humane rules has allowed them to cultivate a group of high-quality anchors who are loyal to their platform.
Summer tells a little story. Last September, an anchor named なむじゅう came to MICO, a former Instagram influencer with more than 10,000 followers. After becoming an anchor for a month, なむじゅう excused himself to take a leave of absence from illness, and returned to MICO after a period of time.
She sincerely explained to Summer that she went to a larger live broadcasting platform during the time she took a leave of absence, but when she had any needs, she could not contact the platform's operators, and the platform would not give any traffic tilt to the newcomer anchors. During the start of the broadcast, she had neither an audience nor any income. After mico chose to return to MICO, MICO still accepted her, and the anchor settled down in MICO.
Not only that, in order to attract anchors, Chinese companies have adopted more ways of playing that local platforms have never tried, such as "star-making".
Affected by the epidemic, many young people who aspire to become idols and engage in artist activities have lost the stage, and live broadcasting apps have become a way for them to return to the public eye. This type of talented anchor can win a good ranking in various operational activities of the live broadcast APP, and as a reward, the platform will provide them with the opportunity to expose offline and even customize their works.
Open Bigo Live's Twitter, it is easy to find a variety of offline interaction and display opportunities for anchors. Photography and interviews with the Japanese magazine GLITTER, advertising videos of the head anchors on the big screens of Shinjuku street buildings, and the year-end BIGO LIVE JAPAN 2021 CEREMONY offline anchor awards ceremony have made anchors who want to have higher popularity flock to them.
MiCO, too, held the "Light Up Osaka" event with Osaka City Hall last October, where four platform anchors brought performances to the people who were present and watched the event live; MICO also cooperated with Japanese watch brand BRULLAMICO, and its anchors became image spokespersons. Of course, these anchors are the winners of various activities on the platform.
Summer introduced an anchor named Haruno, who had previously broadcast live on other platforms, and later, as a pianist and singer, she learned that MICO held a series of events called the Star Project, and the winner could produce his own songs and release records with the assistance of the well-known Japanese musician Yanagiman, so she signed to MICO. She later won the Star Project event and released her first single, which was also seen on the stage of "Light Up Osaka".
Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
I have to say that this practice is very smart, not only to attract anchors, but also to coincide with the preferences of users, and can efficiently open up resources.
Japan's idol industry has always been developed, and people like this feeling of idol cultivation and are willing to spend money to help the anchors they support. What the platform has to do is to provide various channels to strengthen the connection between the anchor and the user, especially the offline face-to-face communication opportunities. Moreover, in this process, there will naturally be brands that value the traffic of the platform and the anchor and participate in cooperation, so that a closer network will be woven with the platform as the center.
An interesting phenomenon is that the cooperation intentions of Japanese brands and Chinese companies are increasing.
Summer said that they do not shy away from their identity as Chinese companies, and many brands are actually attracted to China's huge market and hope to extend their tentacles to China by cooperating with Chinese companies. He did introduce a Japanese consumer brand to a domestic MCN company. "But the process of communication still needs to be entrusted to Japanese employees." He added.
A more flexible and grounded way, a more humble and more humanized service, and a more innovative and diversified way of playing have made China's live broadcast APP take advantage of the accumulation of various resources, especially the competition for anchor resources.
Obviously, after overcoming the initial "water and soil dissatisfaction", Chinese companies have found key points in the new competition with local platforms.
04 Next stop
After more than four years, the Chinese platform has completed the initial pioneering of the Japanese market, so what about the next stop?
In November 2021, Google, Roland Berger, and Daguan Capital jointly released the "2021 Guide to the Globalization of Mobile Applications", which classified live social networking as a "cloud social" track, defined as "stranger social networking with the main purpose of spending time online". The Japanese and Korean markets are high-user spending scale areas of "cloud social networking", and the concentration of heads is low.
Source: Google, Roland Berger, Daguan Capital, 2021 Mobile App Globalization Guide
Zhang Kai also said that Japan's live broadcast track is still in a relatively early stage, showing the characteristics of decentralized platforms, large anchors and small number of big R users.
This naturally means opportunity, which means that the market competition has not yet reached a very fierce level.
On the one hand, this is related to the shorter outbreak time of the track, whether it is a user or an anchor, there is still a large increment to compete. On the other hand, under the guidance of the platform or the promotion of users, the communities and circles jointly established by anchors and users in each platform will produce differentiated attributes, so many platforms have their own unique audience groups.
It can be expected that in this case, users who meet the attributes will stay because they find a sense of belonging, those who do not meet will leave, and the platform attributes will be further consolidated and strengthened. Ultimately, successful platforms are able to find their own unique positioning and build barriers.
But the process must be lengthy.
Li Xuming, vice president of products at Dokidoki Live's parent company, Music Entertainment Time, has said that Japan is a market that people love and hate. It is difficult for products from Overseas Japan to achieve an outbreak in a short period of time, and can only gradually establish brand recognition in the minds of users through long-term and stable operation. But at the same time, once you gain a foothold here, the market characteristics of high barriers to entry and long growth cycles will also make it difficult for new players to pose a threat to themselves in the short term.
In Japan, where new things are slower, the development curve of the Internet industry and products has also been stretched, and the same is true for live broadcasting.
Summer also has a similar view, he believes that Japan's live circuit, the distribution of multiple echelons will continue, the pattern of crowd competition will not change in the short term.
However, new variables may soon appear.
At the end of 2020, TikTok tried to promote the live broadcast layout in the Japanese market, but this plan has been shelved since then. Some analysts believe that the reason why TikTok gave up is because in Japan, the mode of switching short videos to live broadcasts has not yet been run through. Usually, short video products can meet the fragmented entertainment needs of users, and for live broadcasting, users must watch at least 30 minutes at a time to have a more complete entertainment experience.
Recently, there is news that ByteDance will restart the Japanese live broadcast plan in 2022, and the implementation of this plan may be buzz video.
The last wave of industry scale growth catalyzed by the epidemic has ushered in the spring for products such as Bigo Live and UpLive that have explored Japan for many years, and new entrants such as MICO have also grown up rapidly with the east wind. Will the entry of bytes bring new changes to the industry?
Image source: Bigo Live official service website, Japanese anchor on Bigo Live
The answer seems to be yes. Its huge volume, education market, and ability to catalyze the upstream and downstream of the industry will inevitably promote live social networking to have a greater influence in the local area and create a larger market space.
Although Buzz Video will indiscriminately impact existing products on the track, in Japan, where "slow work is done", the platform that has established a localization team one step ahead of the other cannot be easily shaken. Moreover, in the face of possible changes, more flexible Chinese companies will most likely cope better than local Japanese consortia.
"If byte enters the game, it may be a shock or another opportunity." Zhang Kai told Xiaguangshe.
Moreover, with the expansion of market size and user volume, entertainment live broadcasting may spawn new opportunities, such as live streaming with goods.
According to public data, Japan's Internet penetration rate is as high as more than 90%, but by 2020, its online retail sales account for only about 10% of the country's total retail sales, and the annual growth rate of Japanese e-commerce penetration has been in single digits for several years, and the aging of the population has become a major factor hindering its development.
A survey assisted by SG ENTERTAINMENT found that young users and anchors of live broadcast products in Japan have a high degree of acceptance of live streaming. The survey concluded, "The relationship of trust between the anchor and the fan can be established, and the fans will naturally have a sense of trust in the products recommended by the anchor." ”
Of course, live streaming is still in a very early stage in Japan. At present, for the products recommended by the host, users usually need to jump to other shopping platforms to search for purchases, and the whole process is far from perfect. At the same time, Japan has not produced full-time anchors with goods such as Li Jiaqi who specialize in cooperation with brands to promote.
In addition, the premise of live streaming with goods lies in a considerable traffic pool, which Japan obviously does not have at present.
However, with the rapid growth of the scale of users, the development conditions for live streaming with goods are gradually taking shape. Coupled with the fact that ByteDance, which is good at this way, is expected to open Japan in 2022, the future may have a good boost to the formation of the local live streaming industry.
What is certain is that the next stop, China's live social players will play a more important role in the Japanese market.