Station B considers canceling the playback volume display, is the era of UP owners shouting "one-click three in a row" about to pass?

On March 10, according to self-media "Zhiwei", station B is considering canceling the playback data displayed in the foreground, and changing to the idea of "user consumption time" to measure the spread of the video, and the front-end and back-end of the relevant changes have been developed, but the specific launch time is undecided.

The number of views is one of the visual data of the popularity of works on video platforms. On station B, the million-level playback volume can enter the weekly must-see list, and the tens of millions of broadcasts are explosive models on the station, which has a circle-breaking effect. For example, last year's UP master "Yige Conjecture" created "Three Days Back to the Village, Second Uncle Cured My Mental Internal Friction" had 48.48 million views, and the influence of the work also radiated to platforms such as Douyin Kuaishou and Weibo.

In fact, there are not many platforms that still show the playback volume of works in the foreground, and the popularity of traffic-only or broadcast-only works is relatively outdated. As far as the current mainstream long and short videos are concerned, among the four parent video platforms of iYoutengmang, only Mango TV still presents playback data on the site, and the other three use popularity values to measure the popularity of dramas.

On Douyin and Kuaishou, the audience has long been accustomed to using the number of likes instead of the number of plays to evaluate the popularity of the work, and on the platform where pictures and videos coexist such as Xiaohongshu, the number of views is also not presented, but the number of collections and likes is reflected. Station B is one of the few platforms that still visually presents playback data.

As far as station B is concerned, clicking in from the "popular" channel on the homepage can also see that the platform's streaming works are not only high-playback works. Hundreds of thousands and millions of views of the work are placed together, on the "comprehensive popular" page is recommended to the audience, it can be seen that the B station also has its own content screening standards, and is gradually weakening the impact of the single data of playback on the audience's choice of content.

On March 12, the B station comprehensive popular video

At present, the presentation of key operational data is more sensitive to the adaptation of platform design and content attributes. For example, the product design of double-clicking the screen to like on Douyin actually reflects the emphasis on the dimension of likes, and Xiaohongshu, as a note sharing platform, has strong sharing and planting properties, so collecting data is more important.

Compared with iQiyi or Douyin's relatively clear long video and short video positioning, Station B is more like a comprehensive video platform, with both short videos of less than 1 minute and movies, documentaries and PUGC content of more than two hours.

In addition, adjusting the original playback volume to the usage time data can better reflect the advantages of station B different from other platforms, and is an operation that can promote the strengths and avoid the weaknesses. Compared with the playback volume of the short video platform, station B may not have an advantage in the number of broadcasts alone, but in terms of user usage time, station B has super user stickiness. The latest financial report for the fourth quarter of 2022 shows that the average daily usage time of site B users is as long as 96 minutes, and the total usage time of users has increased by 51% year-on-year.

For the UP owners and viewers of Station B, this change will also have a complicated impact. UP master "Wang Daoye" believes that this change is good for high-quality medium and long videos. "Many low-quality short videos that rely on the title party to get high playback should get a lower weight ratio." He judged that station B may have to cut with short videos, focusing on the development of medium and long videos, "which is also the advantage of station B all along."

Station B 6-year user Aqiu holds a similar view. He said that since Station B launched vertical short videos in 2021, the content advantages of medium and long videos have continued to be weakened. On the one hand, short videos will continue to loop without pause, which will affect the user experience, but its playback data will often be very good; On the other hand, many large-scale game guides, film and television dramas and historical interpretation videos on station B are relatively long, and they are all users "generating electricity for love", but the number of views is far less than that of short videos, and after converting to consumption time, such high-quality videos will also get certain incentives.

In addition, some B site users said that after the change, the popularity of the content in different zones will also change. "The knowledge area, technology area, and live games will have a good push stream, and it will not be the short video life area that dominates the list."

This may also be related to the quality of short videos on station B, since the launch of story-mode short video content in 2021, there are not many original high-quality short videos in station B, more content creators will push the same content on the three platforms of Douyin/Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu and station B, or many users will move the short video content originally created on other platforms to station B, resulting in the lack of originality and freshness of short video content on station B, which has also spawned some copyright problems related to content handling.

For example, "Common Sense of Life" blogger "Working Boy Xiao Zhang", who has recently become popular on Douyin and gained millions of fans, recently posted a video saying that his original video was moved to station B, and the appeal process was difficult, resulting in his video posted on station B and being judged to crash. Of course, there are not a few original videos of station B carried by other platforms, but in the short video content, the content ecology of station B is still more chaotic than that of medium and long videos.

In addition, from the perspective of advertising investment, this adjustment is bound to affect advertisers who attach importance to the performance of UP master data, and on the basis of trying to highlight the advantages of the platform of user stickiness, stand B will change the advertising standards and perspectives of advertisers, so that more high-quality content can obtain better monetization opportunities, and shift from traffic theory to more focus on mining the quality of works (regardless of length).

Station B's 2022 financial report shows that the company's overall advertising revenue is 5.1 billion, although it increased by 12% year-on-year, but the growth rate has declined significantly compared with 2019 and 2020, in the case that degamification has become a reality, Station B's revenue is mainly driven by value-added services and advertising, and after a net loss of 7.5 billion yuan in 2022, the recovery of advertising revenue will be crucial to the commercialization of Station B. After this adjustment, Station B is also expected to push more high-quality content to the front of the stage and promote more new advertising cooperation.

For UP owners, perhaps after this adjustment, the B station UP owners may no longer shout "like, coin, collect, one-click three-in-a-row", but "don't rush away, you must see the end", UP masters' mantra and the culture of one-key three-in-a-row of B station will not change, which is also an interesting observation.