Video platform, price increase should be more to improve quality

Tencent Video recently announced that since 00:00 on April 20, the membership fee of Tencent Video VIP and Super Film and Television VIP has increased, and the price increase is between 5 yuan and 20 yuan. As soon as the news came out, many netizens said: "'Chasing dramas' is getting more and more expensive!" "The increase in membership fees for long-form video platforms is nothing new. For the platform, the price increase should be matched with the service improvement. In the long run, long-form video platforms need to rely on high-quality content to attract users in order to achieve sustainable development.

○ Platform membership fees increase year by year

The reporter found that the increase in membership fees on long video platforms has become a common phenomenon in the industry. In April last year, Tencent Video adjusted the VIP membership fee, and all membership fees have increased to varying degrees. iQiyi, Mango TV, and Migu Video have also increased their membership fees in the months from the end of last year to the beginning of the year.

Through the video website "chasing dramas" and "brushing variety shows", has become an important way for many people to entertain and pastime, in order to watch popular TV series or variety shows, many people open memberships. According to the data released by the "2021 China Online Audiovisual Development Research Report", iQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku, Mango TV, and Bilibili account for 88.3% of the market share. Tencent's 2021 annual report shows that Tencent Video has 124 million paid members.

At the same time, long video platforms have long faced industry pain points with large investment and high costs. Under the influence of factors such as copyright price and actor remuneration, iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video and other long-form video platforms have invested hugely in the early stage, and under the influence of high operating costs and revenue pressure, increasing membership fees has become a direct and effective method at present. The relevant person in charge of iQIYI recently said that China's long video industry has entered a new stage, paying special attention to the pursuit of loss reduction and profitability, rather than the previous pursuit of market share and rapid growth.

Chen Jia, a researcher at the Institute of International Monetary Research of Chinese Min University, pointed out in an interview with this reporter that the increase in membership fees of long video platforms is mainly based on two internal and external factors: from an external point of view, one is that the platform is facing rising costs in content production, manpower, publicity and promotion; second, some partners have raised prices, which has raised the copyright cost of the platform; third, the platform has gradually recovered the cost of exchanging high input for market share and fighting a "price war" in the early stage. From an internal point of view, the current corporate development plans of some long video platforms no longer blindly emphasize price competition; in the case of rising internal operation and maintenance costs, the platform side believes that the accumulated membership user stickiness for many years is enough to support moderate price increases.

○ Follow-up services must keep up

In response to the recent increase in membership fees, Tencent Video's explanation is to "provide rich audio-visual content and value-added services". iQIYI also stated that the purpose of adjusting the membership fee is to "establish a more benign industrial ecology, so that excellent content producers can return, and ultimately provide members with more and better content."

In the face of the repeated price adjustments of long video platforms, some netizens have made it clear on social media that they will not renew their fees. However, there are still many netizens concerned: the price has risen, is the service "value-added"?

The reporter found on a well-known long video platform that VIP members can participate in the "sneak peek" activity of a popular TV series, but they need to invite 5 friends to help to unlock the latest episodes, and each invitee can only "help" once during the event. Many VIP members complained in the comment area: "Do you still have to pull people to help watch the drama?" "What's the use of me opening a membership?"

Previously, topics such as "advanced on-demand services" and "advertising-free treatment" for VIP members of long video platforms have repeatedly aroused heated discussions. In October 2021, iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video successively announced the cancellation of the "advanced on-demand service" where VIP users can spend money to watch new episodes. However, according to many netizens, the increase in membership fees has not brought about an improvement in the actual user experience, and the situation of opening screen ads, additional fees, and canceling the complexity of the automatic renewal procedure still exists.

"At present, some long video platforms still have many problems in providing services, such as binding packages, overlord clauses, frequent recharge without restrictions, hidden advertising implantation, etc., which seriously affect the user experience and have a long way to go for their normative regulatory governance." Chen Jia pointed out.

There is also a view that price increases are OK, but "more and better content" still needs to be taken action by the platform. "The content is so ordinary, the price increase is so confident" "The subject matter is too single"... All kinds of doubts point to the prominent problem of insufficient high-quality content on long video platforms. Xiang Kai, a young playwright and director, believes that raising membership fees is not once and for all. If the price is raised without quality, blindly hyping traffic will only cause the loss of member users.

○ Content for wang dang insist

After the membership fee rises, how can long video platforms retain users? Industry insiders pointed out that adjusting the membership fee can improve the survival dilemma of video platforms at this stage to a certain extent. With the growth of membership fees, video platforms may have stronger hematopoietic capabilities and more motivation to produce good content. Whether users are willing to accept price increases depends on whether the platform can create more high-quality content and improve the user experience.

The platform should uphold the concept of "content is king", conduct in-depth research and accurately locate market demand, increase the originality of works, improve the quality of content, cherish original resources, strengthen technical support, prevent piracy, piracy, pirate chain and other infringements; strengthen technology research and development, and meet the multi-dimensional viewing needs of users through various immersive interactive technologies such as virtual reality and bullet screens.

Experts believe that the long video industry is a talent-intensive industry, and film and television creative talents are one of the important factors restricting the development of the industry. In the long run, it is necessary to strengthen the investment in education and infrastructure construction in the cultural, film and television sector, and provide a good creative environment and support conditions for outstanding talents. In addition, the platform should also highlight its own characteristics, take the path of differentiated development, and avoid duplicate and single content, which is conducive to preventing the risk of user loss.

Li Yongjian, a researcher at the Institute of Financial and Economic Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that from the perspective of future development, there are still many things that the platform should do well after the price increase. On the one hand, how to control costs, especially the cost of content production, will continue to be the focus of the platform's sustained profitability. On the other hand, we should give full play to the technical advantages of the Internet platform, use big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies to produce more content products that meet the needs of users, and provide users with a better and more personalized experience, which will be an important way for the sustainable and healthy development of the industry.

Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition

Guangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor: Lin Weilin