On April 20, Tencent adjusted the price of Tencent Video VIP and Super Film VIP members.
This round of price increases ranges from 5 yuan to 20 yuan.
Among them, the largest price increase is the "Tencent Video VIP continuous package", which rose from the original 218 yuan to 238 yuan.
"Tencent Video VIP Continuous Monthly Subscription", "Tencent Video VIP Annual Pass", and "Super Film and Television VIP Continuous Monthly Subscription" will increase by 5 yuan respectively.
Prior to this, the membership price of paid video platforms such as iQiyi and Mango TV has risen for a round, coupled with the increase in the membership fee of Tencent Video this time, it is really a public outrage.
Just heard this news, the old fox said for the first time: as long as the price rises, immediately cancel Tencent's membership.
Fox Sister was indifferent, saying that she was usually a white prostitute, and whether the price rose or not had nothing to do with her.
The weasel next to it feels very strange, most of the current video sites are paid, why should the price increase?
Yeah, why the price increase? What's wrong with the current paid video platform?
Free Lunch Copyright Sad
Previous video sites were basically free.
Like Youku, potatoes, 6 rooms, PPS and other websites, now zero and zero is estimated to have not heard of one, in that year, everyone is like thunder.
I think when the old fox was still a poor student, I counted on these websites every day to pass the time, all kinds of anime movies and TV series, did not spend a penny, and you watched enough.
However, this kind of free video that ignores copyright is a serious infringement on the copyright owner.
Moreover, at that time, the regulations were not perfect, and the content of various video websites was similar, there was a mess, and the quality was also very poor.
The first to get involved in the field of paid video is actually LeTV, which has been low-key for many years.
In 2011, LeTV, together with tencent, Xunlei, Storm and other seven websites, jointly launched the "Movie Network Cinema Distribution Alliance", which protected the interests of film and television copyright owners to a certain extent, thus setting off a boom in paid video.
How can such a piece of fat meat be less bat?
In 2013, Baidu acquired pps video business and re-integrated to create a new iQiyi.
In 2014, Ali spent a huge amount of money to acquire tudou Youku after the merger.
Tencent uses its own clients such as QQ, WeChat and Tencent News to continuously divert traffic to Tencent Video.
After a lot of sand and sand, by 2016, iQiyi, Tencent, and Youku occupied most of the paid video market share, forming a pattern of the three giants of Aitengyou.
The price is high and the quality is inferior, and the user is speechless
The main model of the three giants' income is "membership + advertising", that is, membership fee income, and advertising revenue.
However, with the outbreak of the epidemic, the advertising revenue of the big three has dropped sharply.
Tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall, the advertising income is less, then it is better to improve in another piece.
The increase in membership fees is the inevitable choice of the big three.
So, the question is, since the membership fee has risen, will the quality of the work also increase?
Objectively speaking, there are still good works.
Taking Tencent as an example, in the summer of 2019, Costume dramas such as "Chen Qingling" and "Qing Yu Nian" broadcast by Tencent Video became the market hits, with more than 2.5 million people on demand.
However, the Big Three do not have the ability to continue to produce fine products.
After the explosion of costume dramas in 2019, from 2020 to 2021, Tencent launched 10 costume dramas in one go.
However, according to the Douban score, of these 10 costume dramas, only "Three Lives three pillow book" and "Douluo Continent" are above the passing line, and the ratings of other works are difficult to say.
*Image source: Douban score
And "Knife In the Snow", which Tencent has high hopes for, the martial arts scene is almost scolded by the whole network.
Every time I watch an episode, I have to make up jackie Chan Jet Li's movie to wash my eyes.
In addition, many episodes are shoddy, the content is difficult to say, some works are even plagiarized, full of hard implant ads, various three-cent special effects, five-cent cutouts, and seven-cent PPT.
There is no worst, only worse.
Such a level of programs, it is really difficult for users to pay willingly.
And then you want to raise the price? Then don't blame netizens for being ruthless under their mouths.
The reason why the increase in membership fees has made so many people criticize, in addition to the quality of the program that does not deserve the price, there are various membership systems, and the user experience is very bad.
The most abhorrent is the unworthy "ad-free membership".
Old Fox remembers that after paying to become an "ad-free member", he thought that he would say goodbye to the advertisement from now on.
As a result, the video was opened, and what "member-only ads", "small theater ads", "VIP extreme ads", flocked to.
Advertising is not less at all, ah, this spends money on a lonely?
Money is spent without access to services, lack of quality programming, and all sorts of blatant fraud.
The poor experience has made more and more users refuse to become members of the Big Three.
Originally, the advertising revenue was less than before, and now even members have begun to refuse to be leeks.
Now the big three, life is indeed not very good.
Three factors Giants vomit blood
In addition to the decline in regular revenue, some factors have also led to the development of the Big Three entering a bottleneck period.
The first is that the price of copyright and film remuneration is too high, in order to grab resources, the three giants buy the copyright of the work at a sky-high price, and pay the artist's film remuneration at a sky-high price.
The high procurement costs and film remuneration expenses have become unbearable for the big three.
* Online celebrity income table
These high copyright prices and remuneration are far higher than the actual level of works and artists themselves, with a serious premium.
However, the three giants adhere to the principle of "buying is earning", knowing that the price is inflated, or hard to burn money, resulting in a heavy burden.
The infringement of some short video platforms has also had a lot of impact on the big three.
The videos of the three giants are mainly movies and TV series, and some short video platforms make secondary edits of film and television works.
Users don't need to pay to watch in the Big Three, just watch free secondary clips to understand the direction of the story.
This kind of near-zero cost clip playback is a serious infringement on the big three that spend huge costs.
In fact, since last year, the Big Three have continuously launched infringement lawsuits against these short video platforms.
While spending money on content and spending money on lawsuits, the big three are really too busy.
The biggest challenge in the development of the Big Three is how to retain the loyalty of users.
Even a video platform of the size of the Big Three does not dare to claim to have "user loyalty".
Although the three giants each have a large number of member users, but the users do not have a fixed residence, "where there is a fire drama, where to run", the so-called three giants, is just a change of name of the residence.
Most of the film and television content produced by the three giants takes popular IPs and first-line traffic artists as the core selling points, relying on the fan economy model to drive business.
The problem is that fan loyalty is often limited to the IP or the artist itself, not the platform.
Once a popular IP or artist is transferred to another platform, these fans will be taken away, and it is difficult for the big three to convert these fans into their own resident users.
In the final analysis, there is no way to retain users by relying on the fan economy alone.
In this era when content is king, there is no high-quality content, no matter how you make a fuss about advertising, others can't obediently cut leeks for you.
Advanced experience is worth learning
So, is there a way for the Big Three to get out of this predicament? Old Fox believes that it can refer to the practice of American video giant Netflix.
To say that the price increase, in fact, not only the domestic three giants, Netflix also announced a price increase in March this year.
The Standard membership price increased from $14.99 to $16.49 and the Premium membership price from $18.99 to $20.99.
* Image source: Netflix Canada official website
However, compared with the scolding of the three giants in China, there are not many scoldings against Netflix abroad, and most members are still willing to pay money, why is this?
Compared with the revenue model of the three giants "membership + advertising", Netflix is driven by a single core of membership as the main revenue model, and has a high dependence on content.
Taking the fourth quarter of 2020 as an example, the number of Netflix members increased by 8.5 million, mainly due to the broadcast of the blockbuster drama "Rear Wing Abandoned Soldier", which attracted 62 million users to watch it in only 28 days after it was launched.
This is not only the basis for the growth of the number of Netflix members, but also the basis for increasing the price of membership fees.
Members believe that Netflix can continue to produce high-quality content, willingly pull out their pockets, and Netflix also has enough funds to invest in production.
High fees, high inputs, and high returns form a virtuous circle.
epilogue
Old Fox believes that for the Big Three, this may be a revelation.
In the face of continued losses and slower growth in membership revenue, more open source channels must be opened, and more content must be put first, rather than racking their brains to defraud users of money.
The Big Three is not without the ability to create fine works, but there are too many factors hindering the sustainability of this creation.
Let the content become the core of retaining users, so that every money spent by users is worth the money, which is the way for the big three.
Resources:
Southern Metropolis Daily: Tencent video members have increased prices again
Skeletal Network TV: "The Battle of Burning Money" has come to an end, how is the new way out of the long video platform?
CMNC: Web Drama Development Report 2021
OTT Research: User Loyalty is "Zero" How difficult is china's video industry?
Editor: Chen Zhanxiang