The author | Lü Yue
For a long time, short video is a typical "Internet traffic" play, aggregating short video content, recommending matching to users, users do not need to pay, the platform monetizes through advertising; and long videos are currently in a dynamic balance after experiencing the tragic battle of the free money-burning era, the platform's membership payment, the film's single-film payment are trying to bridge the distance between the content and the audience, so that the audience's money is directly given to the content, forcing the content from the past "toB" sold to the platform, transformed into a more "scientific" Sell to users (D2C).
Nowadays, these two completely different business models have crossed again, and "short video payment" has come.
At the end of January, the WeChat video account launched the first paid live NBA regular season, paying 9 yuan to watch the whole field. And this is just the beginning, in the 2022 WeChat open class, WeChat officials also said that in the future, it will not rule out that there will be medium-long videos or short videos of paid content. Kuaishou and Douyin have also launched paid short drama content, and iQiyi's short video platform has also launched a paid subscription creator "super fan" model last year.
Overseas, "short video payment" is nothing new. YouTube has long had a "channel membership" service, where users can see customized content from their favorite creators after paying for it. In recent years, everything from Facebook (now Meta) and Instagram to Twitter and TikTok has also turned on this paid subscription function.
Whether it is domestic or foreign, whether it is a short video platform or a social media containing short video content, everyone has charged users, but before "short video payment" brings new stories to the industry, there are still many problems that have not yet been clearly understood:
The payment model for long videos is struggling, can short video payment run through? What is the paid setting point for short videos? And what is the inherent logic that triggers the payment? Is short video payment the same as the knowledge payment and tip coin that we are familiar with? What is the width of the track? Is it a complement to everyone, or can they be left alone?
How do I pay? Who's paying?
Different from the user's short video on the B station, coin-operating and tipping are "after-the-fact behaviors", that is, after the user watches the video, the user can selectively pay, whether to pay, and how much to pay are decided by the user. The short video payment opened here is a "pre-behavior". Users need to pay first to see the full content.
Classified from the content, the current mainstream short video platform and short video payment on social platforms are mainly two blocks of knowledge content and entertainment content.
In 2019, the small-budget movies and micro-short dramas created by UGC began to become popular on short video platforms, and in the same year, Kuaishou first launched the model of pay-to-watch short dramas. Douyin only began to try to do short drama payment from the end of last year, similar to Kuaishou, Douyin users can pay by the number of episodes, and can also choose to unlock the whole drama at one time.
Left: Kuaishou paid short drama Right: Douyin paid short drama "Super Security"
In addition to short dramas, most of the other paid video content in Kuaishou belongs to the pan-knowledge category. Different from the knowledge payment familiar to the public in the past, these pan-knowledge short videos that need to be paid are not necessarily a complete set of systematic courses, but there are quite a few types, including vocational skills, talents, recipes, dance teaching, and even game live screen recording tutorials. There are also pan-knowledge paid video content in Douyin, but they are sold directly by creators on their own small stores, and directly take the e-commerce route.
iQIYI's short video platform immediately launched an innovative payment model "Super Fan" last year. This model is similar to YouTube's "channel membership", which allows creators to establish a paid channel for fans, customizing to provide fans with more refined content and interactive value-added services. Fans watch exclusive content and enjoy more benefits through monthly subscriptions, and creators get more revenue.
This paid subscription model is indeed the first time in China, and it was only open to some creators in the early days after it was launched.
Summarizing the payment mechanism of the above platforms:
At present, the main content designed for the payment model on the platform is pan-knowledge, film and television entertainment content, and copyright content such as NBA games.
Users may pay for expertise that allows them to gain something, but they will also pay to like someone and impulsively pay for certain types of highly entertaining content. For example, users who are willing to pay to subscribe to creators must be loyal fans who have followed for many years, and the "special fan treatment" after payment can make them feel satisfied. And users who are willing to pay to watch short dramas will almost always comment that it is because the plot is "toxic", so they will unconsciously watch continuously.
But I have to admit that whether it is for love or impulse, the level of payment of users is not too high.
In terms of short drama content, although there are now more regular film and television companies involved in production, its price has always been 1 yuan 1 episode, 2 yuan 3 episodes, 3 yuan 5 episodes, 10 yuan packaging level, compared with long video platforms on the network movies and advanced on-demand network dramas are lower unit price. For short dramas such as "Dangerous Sister", some of its free single episodes have about 100,000 likes, and the number of fans of the main account that released the episodes is also more than 7 million, but in the end, the finale only attracted 50,000 people to pay.
In terms of knowledge payment, there are not many paid courses that sell more than 10,000 on the platform, and some paid courses have actually jumped out of the scope of "paying for short video content", and creators often need to have other services such as recorded content playback, one-on-one guidance, and homework reviews to attract users.
More common operation is that the "professional households" who pay for knowledge place information flow advertisements on the platform, pull users into the "private domain", and then sell and convert courses, rather than directly on the platform.
Jumping out of the platform thinking and standing from the perspective of creators, the current role of short video payment is still in the position of "supplement".
Even for the short dramas with the most promising payment, brand implantation and traffic sharing are still the mainstream monetization methods. Putting it on a larger perspective, using free short dramas to praise people, and then letting people live with goods, is also a path that some people explore. For example, the short drama "This Male Protagonist Is Not Too Cold" that received more than 900 million views on Kuaishou, its protagonist Yi Lu quickly became a live streamer after the short drama became a live streamer.
How to do short video payment on overseas platforms
Short video payment is difficult to do in China, so what is the situation overseas where users' payment habits have been formed and their willingness to pay is higher?
YouTube is the first platform to refer to, and YouTube has never stopped for years in exploring paid models.
As early as 2014, YouTube launched YouTube Premium, a paid service, which is equivalent to the membership of major domestic long-form video platforms, users can enjoy advertising-free, offline caching, background playback and other benefits after subscription, in addition to it also includes YouTube Music and Play Music members.
In 2017, YouTube launched a "super chat" service where users can pay to keep their comments going on longer and more visible in the ever-updating and scrolling live comment section. In 2018, YouTube launched "channel membership", which is the model that iQiyi immediately benchmarked in the previous article - users can enjoy more exclusive content after paying for creators. In 2020, YouTube officially said that the revenue of channel members has increased to 4 times that of 2019.
Source: YouTube Official Blog
This year, YouTube announced that it will expand its features and services, many of which are paid user programs to help creators improve their monetization ability. For example, the "Super Chat" function has been extended from live broadcasting to short videos, the "Channel Membership" function has also been opened for live streamers, the "Gift Membership" function allows users watching live broadcasts to buy channel memberships for others, and the plan to introduce NFTs to the platform so that creators can sell directly to their fans.
In addition to YouTube, more social media platforms that contain short video content also have paid subscription services for users. Facebook launched a subscription service in 2020, followed by Twitter launching a similar "super follow" service in 2021, and Instagram began testing this year.
Instagram paid subscription feature
The paid subscriptions of these platforms are actually almost the same in terms of model, and the small differences are only in the form of content that can be selected for payment within the platform and the related benefits of the accompanying gifts. On Twitter, for example, paid subscribers can see exclusive Tweets, while on Instagram, paying users can see exclusive Instagram stories (photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours) and access to live streams.
This year, TikTok also began testing the paid subscription model. It can be said that overseas, this kind of user payment has been the same basic and conventional model as advertising traffic sharing, and it can be used as long as there is original content in the platform.
Is short video payment a chicken rib?
In China, short video payment is obviously still in the early stage, auxiliary supplementary role, and slightly chicken ribs. But if you think about it from another angle, perhaps the purpose of this model is not to monetize in the first place.
Overseas platforms continue to enrich the payment model, basically emphasizing what to bring to the creators. YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan repeatedly mentioned the word "creator" in his own post, saying that YouTube has always invested heavily in creators. And he also stressed that a more diversified income mix can help creators cope with many unexpected environments. It is not difficult to see that the most direct goal of the platform is to gain more favor from creators by providing more monetization models.
The ultimate purpose behind leaving more creators on the platform more stable and long-term is actually to cope with industry competition.
Since TikTok and other domestic short video platforms have entered the overseas market, the short video track has always been chased by you, and several giant players such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have almost all embedded short video content in the platform. This competition is first reflected in the support of creators: one is to directly throw money to give creators incentive bonuses, and the other is to let creators intuitively see that there are more monetization opportunities on the platform.
Therefore, in terms of new features and business models, each platform is "borrowing" from each other, and its overlap is getting higher and higher. For example, YouTube will increase e-commerce business, let creators open stores with goods, and implant more functions from live broadcast platforms to generate revenue for anchors. TikTok, which used to be the same as Douyin, is now also in addition to the ad traffic sharing, making up for the model that allows users to pay directly for creators and the content they create.
Although the environment at home and abroad is different, it also has certain reference significance for domestic platforms in comparison.
Nowadays, the payment of short video knowledge content has matured, and the payment of entertainment content is ultimately paying for the "blogger" person. The sense of following, exclusivity, and interaction between users and creators is enough to support paid subscriptions. And this is also a feasible model that has been verified by many overseas platforms such as YouTube.
Although in terms of the current level of user payment, the actual effect of adding a short video payment model for creators may not be significant compared with the direct platform to throw money into the share, but intuitively this is the platform to provide content creators with more monetization channels, which is a breakthrough for creators to monetize. Under continuous exploration, the platform will gradually form a more perfect content creator growth system, which can directly motivate creators to make focused choices about the platform they are stationed in, and can also motivate them to optimize content.
Although for the platform, the revenue brought by payment and advertising revenue is still too much of a drop, but this is bound to be a kind of commercial supplement and exploration, especially in today's advertising business under pressure.
When the paid membership model of long videos first appeared, user rejection was also very strong, but after a long period of development, users have also accepted. From the perspective of user habits, the "baggage" of short video payment is not heavy, and the lower unit price also increases the possibility of users paying impulsively and paying for love. Paying for short videos may not necessarily take a more difficult journey than paying for long videos.