Douyu's "gambling turmoil" has finally come to an end.
A large number of Douyu anchors have stopped broadcasting because of "gambling", and the once beautiful head anchors have also stopped broadcasting to avoid the limelight.
This trouble, this "old platform" that has been broadcasting live for several years, has finally been revealed.
Live broadcast involving gambling, pornography... The betta fish, which quietly faded out of people's sight, has long lived into a different look.
The one who paid for all this was CEO Chen Shaojie, who "disappeared" for more than half a month.
On November 21, Chengdu police arrested Chen Shaojie on suspicion of opening a casino.
A generation of Internet legends has just left the scene.
With Chen Shaojie's subordination, Douyu's share price fell off a cliff, from more than 22 billion yuan at the time of listing, directly down 90%, evaporating 20 billion.
In many people's impressions, CEO Chen Shaojie is the proud young man who rings the bell on the NASDAQ with a betta fish.
In 2020, he was also on the "Hurun Report" once, from an Internet addict teenager who dropped out of school to a young CEO worth billions, Chen Shaojie was an inspirational model in the first half of his life.
But a few years have passed, Chen Shaojie not only retired in despair, but also took several anchors with him.
In just a few years, what did Chen Shaojie do with betta?
The "bad CEO" who grew up in an Internet café
Make a fortune by pinching otaku
For a long time, Betta was a home base for domestic gamers.
And the person at the helm of Betta is naturally the one who knows Chinese gamers best.
As for why Chen Shaojie "understands" so much? He himself is one of these players.
is different from the configuration of other bigwigs "Qingbei Bottom", Chen Shaojie is a standard Internet addicted teenager.
Since opening an Internet café in his hometown, Chen Shaojie has been spending time in it day and night.
It is impossible to study well, and after the college entrance examination, Chen Shaojie was reluctantly admitted to an ordinary university.
After studying for a year and feeling that studying was boring, Chen Shaojie boldly chose to drop out of school and engage in his favorite career: games.
Chen Shaojie did not shy away from his lack of a strong academic background, and then he often used Liu Guanzhang to benchmark himself: "As they grow up, they have all become the best generals."
In 2006, together with Zhang Wenming, another founder of Douyu, he made the first game battle platform in his life: Boss.
The head was soon favored by the game giant - Shanda Network, so Shanda Network directly "co-opted" this game and Chen Shaojie's brothers, Chen Shaojie not only earned the first pot of gold, but also became a manager of Shanda Network.
Chen Shaojie's first big gamble in his life ended in success.
Chen Shaojie, who became the manager of Shanda, was a little unwilling to send people under the fence, so he had the idea of starting a business.
At this time, a video website with the theme of niche Japanese anime attracted Chen Shaojie's attention.
Chen Shaojie, who smelled a business opportunity, and together with Pan Enlin, the boss of Shanda Network, bought the website called AC Fun and became the new leader.
As soon as he arrived at Station A, Chen Shaojie did two things:
1. Introduced a barrage system that imitates the Japanese Niconico website, and comprehensively Niconico;
2. Set up a game live broadcast section "live broadcasting" in station A to carry out game live broadcast business;
At that time, live broadcasts on the Internet were not uncommon, but it was rare to play games live.
Station A quickly gained a large number of fans with its high-quality game content, barrage function, and deep cultivation in the field of animation.
At that time, Station B was still just the younger brother of Station A, and Aiyouteng did not work hard in the direction of online dramas and variety shows at all.
Station A is "far ahead" and has become the favorite website of otaku.
The second gamble really put Chen Shaojie on the cusp of the Internet.
It can be said that the popularity of station B and the popularity of the barrage mode are all due to the contribution of this "gambler".
With the development and growth of station A, the number of users of "live broadcasting" is also increasing.
In 2014, Du Shaojie wanted to gamble again, and he decided to separate "Shengfang" and operate it as a separate business.
Chen Shaojie named the platform "Betta TV", the word betta comes from Thailand's betta culture, which means that two male fish fight each other, and one must die.
Douyu insiders once commented that Chen Shaojie "likes to take risks and licks blood from the knife edge", but behind this character, Chen Shaojie is as "gambling" as ever.
When he smells an opportunity, Chen Shaojie, who is "good at gambling", will immediately show his fierce side.
"Killing" Wang Sicong depends on a ruthless word
The Internet rivers and lakes in 2014~16 are the arena of game live broadcast platforms.
In addition to Douyu TV, all the gods "made an appointment" to go online almost in the same year:
YY's game live broadcast business was also independent and renamed Huya Live, and Battle Flag TV was also born in the same year.
In 15 years, Wang Sicong, the second generation of the highest profile rich, entered the game and founded Panda TV; at the same time, the platform "Dragon Ball Live" was announced;
In 16 years, with the entry of major manufacturers such as NetEase CC and Penguin E-sports, there have been more than 200 game live broadcast service platforms on the whole network, and the platform competition known as the "Thousand Broadcast War" has officially entered its heyday.
As the leader of the game live broadcast industry, Douyu naturally has to meet this "big war" with 120% of the state.
In 2016, Chen Shaojie led Douyu to complete the C round of financing, with a total amount of about 1.5 billion yuan.
The excited Chen Shaojie posted a circle of friends saying: The ammunition is sufficient, and the bullets are loaded. Betta friends, guns in hand, follow me. We must win this battle of thousands of broadcasts, fight!
Chen Shaojie, who has enough ammunition, mainly used two ruthless tricks to win the "Thousand Broadcast War":
The first trick is: grasp the copyright and take the lead
In 2016, Douyu received investment from Tencent, and in the period when the live broadcast copyright of the game became clearer, Douyu took advantage of the convenience of investment to win the live broadcast copyright of three games under Tencent: "Glory of Kings", "League of Legends", "Dungeons and Warriors".
Needless to say, the influence of these three games among domestic players is equivalent to winning these three games, which is equivalent to mastering most of the Chinese gamers.
Compared with other platforms, Douyu, who took the lead in hugging Tencent's thigh, naturally hardened his confidence.
Of course, it's not enough to have the copyright of the game live broadcast, Douyu also has to grab its real resource: the game anchor.
Douyu's second trick is: sparing no expense, snatching the anchor.
Like the current live broadcast, the core resources of the game live broadcast industry are those anchors with a fan base, where the anchors are, where the fans and traffic are.
In order to snatch anchor resources, Douyu is not stingy with burning money at all:
signed a contract with the "chicken" anchor Lan Zhanfei and spent 150 million, and the head anchor Feng Timo can get a maximum salary of 50 million / year in Douyu.
It is said that the contract value of these top anchors can increase several times overnight, and the total value of the top ten anchors in the industry exceeds 250 million yuan.
Douyu's contracted anchor PDD
It is also common for platforms to dig each other's walls and sue each other after the end. In 2017, Douyu poached Huya's anchor Hi Shi, and was directly fined 49.7 million yuan after being sued by Huya.
Chen Shaojie is not only good at gambling, but after discovering the signs of "winning", he is really ruthless.
No matter how high the price of the anchor is, and no matter whether it violates the law to poach people, as long as the goal can be achieved, Chen Shaojie will never give up.
Under the continuous "money offensive", Betta finally gained a firm foothold in the Thousand Broadcast War.
In 2017, due to the strengthening of national supervision of the live broadcast industry, hundreds of small live broadcast platforms went bankrupt.
By 2018, there were more than 200 live broadcast platforms of all sizes, and only a few led by Douyu and Huya remained, and Wang Sicong's Panda Live broadcast also reported news of salary arrears and bankruptcy one after another.
In the end, Douyu and Huya collectively "captured" 70% of the game live broadcast market share, as well as 60% of the number of anchors on the market.
The two, like KFC vs McDonald's, have become the only two giants left after the thousand-broadcast war.
And Douyu has 160 million active users in a single quarter and an annual revenue of 7.283 billion, stabilizing Huya and becoming a real brother in game live broadcasting.
In July 2019, Chen Shaojie took Douyu Live to ring the bell on the NASDAQ in the United States as a winner.
The complacent Chen Shaojie also declared: "The listing is the highlight moment of Betta, but it is not the peak moment of Betta." ”
But no one could have imagined that this might be Chen Shaojie's last "highlight moment".
Bet on the wrong era,
Chen Shaojie's pot can only be carried by himself
Just when Chen Shaojie was busy with the "Thousand Broadcast War", the Internet rivers and lakes had already quietly changed.
Chen Shaojie's former "little brother" Bilibili completed a counterattack and even squeezed out Station A, while Kuaishou and Douyin also swept the country with a short video model, quickly attracting users.
Game live streaming is gradually declining, and it is slowly being squeezed into the corner by a more diverse and extensive content ecology.
Chen Shaojie is not completely unaware that the tuyere is changing, and he has also led Douyu to make different content attempts.
For example, Douyu once live-streamed the behind-the-scenes of Wang Baoqiang's "Havoc in Tianzhu", and also live-streamed Vanke's shareholders' meeting.
Later, Douyu and Ma Dong also teamed up to do a variety show called "The Temptation of Dinner".
However, in the era when game live streaming is in the limelight, Douyu's "side business" is not outstanding in terms of data and influence, and these attempts have failed to break the circle.
Chen Shaojie, who has always been a good gambler, naturally chose not to bet anymore in the face of this tepid content direction.
The turning point occurred in 2020, when Chen Shaojie entered the "Hurun Report" with 5.5 billion personal assets, but the wealthy Boss Chen couldn't stop his head anchor from leaving.
Betta top anchor Feng Timo moved to station B, and the head anchor of "Dungeons and Warriors" Xu Xu Baobao also jumped to Douyin, and even a large number of users also flowed out of Douyu.
At this time, under the leadership of Tencent, Douyu and Huya planned to merge, but in the end, due to anti-monopoly and many other reasons, the merger collapsed, and Douyu still had to face the dilemma by itself.
In 2021, Chen Shaojie's original partner Zhang Wenming chose to resign, and the Douyu founder team began to split.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, there were still 62.4 million monthly active users of Douyu, and in the fourth quarter of 2022, there were only 57.4 million left.
Douyu's revenue has also declined for six consecutive quarters, and after 2020, Douyu's net profit has also turned from a profit to a loss.
Under internal and external troubles, Chen Shaojie had to choose to find ways to improve the activity and turnover of the live broadcast room.
But he bet in the direction he shouldn't bet on: gambling and rubbing content.
Before Chen Shaojie "disappeared", someone discovered that the betta platform gradually became "strange".
After 11 o'clock, the painting style in the Douyu live broadcast room began to mutate, not only did there increase the number of color-wiping anchors, but also a large number of "gambling" anchors wearing "outdoor" skins.
The Douyu live broadcast room adopts the "lottery rebate" model to quietly gamble.
In fact, it means that users give tips in the live broadcast room, and after reaching a certain amount, the anchor will conduct a lottery rebate.
In addition, the anchor can also use the origin of the game to open a "handicap" to operate, and the variety is convincing.
As early as 2020, some users lost 1.4 million because they participated in gambling in Douyu, and they took Douyu to court in anger.
This case was finally closed because Douyu compensated users with 120,000 yuan.
According to statistics, in 2020 alone, the anchor Ganggang Jiu's outdoor income will exceed 100 million yuan, and another gambling-related anchor Changsha Rural Death Squad will have a turnover of 177 million yuan.
Chen Shaojie is also "good betting", and losing is also "good betting".
When he decided to turn a blind eye to illegal content, he was getting closer and closer to the edge of the law.
He single-handedly turned Betta into a big "casino", and as a dealer, he had to take responsibility for all this.
Epilogue:
It is not so much that Chen Shaojie "gambles on good luck", but that he can step on the stroke every time.
From the initial game platform, to the introduction of the Niconico mode at station A, and then to leading Douyu to win the "Thousand Broadcast War", Chen Shaojie, a veteran networm, can always accurately discover the hottest trend and enter the game decisively.
Chen Shaojie's failure is also from indulging in the victory of the "Thousand Broadcast War" and ignoring the rapid iteration of the Internet.
If you don't respect the outlet, the tuyere will abandon you.
Chen Shaojie's old rival Wang Sicong, today it is also rumored that the "prodigal son turned back", gave up the Internet industry, and devoted himself to traditional cultural tourism projects.
missed the outlet, and the once craziest rich second generation had to rein in.
"Gambling" does not exist, only stepping on the wind, or being abandoned by the times.
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