In recent times, iQiyi can almost be said to have "lived" on the hot search. First because of the restriction of screen projection services and login devices, and then unable to resist the pressure to change back, it is no wonder that many friends believe that iQiyi's series of operations since this year seem to highlight a confusing one. But just after coming down from the cusp, iQiyi has recently had a new operation.
Recently, Beijing iQIYI Technology Co., Ltd. applied for a patent for "a video barrage advertising method, device, equipment and storage medium" was announced.
According to the relevant documents of the patent, the embodiment of iQIYI's patent application involves the field of data processing technology, aiming to realize the bullet-screen display of advertising content. Specifically, iQIYI's barrage will generate ad data to be served based on the historical ad delivery data received, match the corresponding users and corresponding videos, and determine the frequency of display of the ad data to be served in the corresponding video, and also realize the display of advertising data in the video barrage layer corresponding to the playback request according to the preset display frequency.
Originated from the Japanese online video sharing website Niconico's barrage, as a way of instant interaction, it intuitively presents the audience's empathetic response to specific content, in addition to the characteristics of interaction, it is more prominent is immediacy, instantaneous, often a short language-based form. Immediacy, interactivity and visual experience also constitute a huge attraction of bullet screen culture, and it is clear that the bullet screen does a very good job of projecting the resonance of personal emotions and some ephemeral fragments of the video into the screen in one sentence.
At the same time, the barrage, which is both interactive, but only a video content supplement with a low amount of information per unit time, does not provide users with a suitable place to interact, so it leads to the barrage is naturally more suitable for "re-reading", which is why the annual barrage of station B is the Internet popular meme of the year. In the end, users open the barrage in pursuit of short-term emotional resonance, and it is easy to create a carnival atmosphere on video content.
Even better, the barrage also has the quality of cross-time dialogue, because the location of the barrage is only related to the timeline, not the actual timeline. Therefore, for advertisers, the barrage is not only an excellent exposure scene, but also means that the advertisement has the ability to interact with users on the basis of advertising. In fact, there have long been bullet screen advertisements on iQiyi, and the vivo joint hit series "Lao Jiumen" once engaged in a viral marketing of "vivo X7 came to light".
However, why has bullet screen advertising never become the mainstream form of advertising for various websites that provide bullet screen functions? In fact, the answer is also very simple, because this form of advertising is almost devastating to the website barrage culture. Because advertising and barrage mixed together will reduce the user's vigilance, it can indeed bring amazing exposure effects, but as mentioned earlier, users watch the barrage and send the barrage in order to find the same kind in the same video, in order to vent emotions and satisfy the desire for expression, and will never want to see ads.
So if the bullet screen ad is mixed with the regular bullet screen, the final result may only make the user turn off the bullet screen function. After all, the core function of paying users of video websites is "ad-free", since users are willing to pay for not watching ads, they will naturally open the barrage in order not to watch ads, and the barrage function will be useless in the long run? On the other hand, now that iQiyi has applied for a bullet screen advertising patent, can it be understood that they are ready to squeeze out the last trace of value of the bullet screen function.
In fact, it is not surprising that iQiyi has made such a desperate operation, after all, their current situation may not be the same as what is presented in the financial report. In iQIYI's 2022 financial report released recently, the net profit attributable to the parent under non-GAAP standards turned from a loss of 4.487 billion yuan in the same period last year to a profit of 1.284 billion yuan, and as of the fourth quarter of last year, iQIYI's subscription members increased by 12 million to 112 million in one breath compared with the third quarter, but the annual revenue decreased by 5.1% year-on-year.
It is not difficult to find that iQiyi's decline in revenue has increased the size of its membership and overall profitability, relying on significantly reducing costs and giving profits to consumers. Throughout 2022, iQIYI's operating costs were RMB27.69 billion, down 21% year-on-year, of which content, which accounted for 50% of total costs for a long time, was compressed from RMB20.7 billion in 2021 to RMB16.5 billion.
At the same time, iQIYI's large-scale membership growth in the fourth quarter of 2022 may mainly come from various joint members with amazing discounts during Singles' Day. The realistic basis for this conclusion is that the average monthly income contributed by a single member of iQIYI in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 14.17 yuan, compared to 14.16 yuan in the same period last year. Despite the price increase in 2022, each iQiyi member only spends an extra penny per month.
Obviously, iQiyi's turnaround in 2022 may not be sustainable, after all, for a video website, the continuous supply of high-quality content is the key to attracting users to pay for subscriptions, and reducing content costs means that unless the content procurement mechanism can achieve insight, bet on the vast majority of blockbuster dramas in a limited budget. Unfortunately, even Hollywood giants can't find the wealth code for blockbuster content, so that superhero movies are now deteriorating.
Continuous investment in content is undoubtedly the fate of video sites, and "throttling" may only be chronic suicide, or active "open source" can ensure the hit rate of popular content. For iQiyi, the barrage is obviously not a core function, and users may not leave because the barrage becomes smoky and miasmatic, but will only opt out because the platform does not have the content they want to see.