Text | Zhao Er's knife
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In the second half of 2023, Zhang Daxian, the host of the national mobile game "Glory of Kings", will stop broadcasting when the contract expires on the previous platform, and everyone is speculating that he will go to Douyin live broadcast;
However, the follow-up development is also unexpected, Zhang Daxian not only successfully settled in Douyin, but also became popular, becoming the 100,000+ live broadcast room of the Douyin platform, and at the end of January, the glory of the king can be livestreamed; And as Tencent gradually liberalizes the permissions of game live broadcasts such as DNF, King, and Peace Elite, Douyin's market share in the field of game live broadcast has grown amazingly. I believe this also surprised many practitioners, after all, the copyright of game live broadcast was once the "threshold" for Penguin to restrict Douyin's efforts in the e-sports market, which also responds to the saying that there is no lifelong enemy in the business field.
As a result, the game live broadcast track has really entered a new stage. Douyu and Huya and Station B still have a certain market share, but Douyin has the potential to attract more big game anchors to settle in, and Kuaishou seems to have become a "sour date" in the game live broadcast track, although the actual damage is not great, but the acidity is extremely high.
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Taking 2023 as the node, Douyin has undergone earth-shaking changes in the game live broadcast track.
Before 2023, Douyin's development in the game live broadcast track is not smooth. The reasons are not complicated, first of all, the performance of Byte's own game development and agency business is not outstanding. In November 2023, since Byte decided to shrink its game business on a large scale, its core game businesses Chaoxi Lightyear and Mutong Technology have been in a state of sale negotiations, and there have been rumors of buyers in the market. Secondly, most of the most popular terminal games and mobile games and e-sports events on the market are within the Penguin system, such as LOL, PUBG, KING, DNF, etc., Penguin and Byte have also had a long entanglement over the copyright of game live broadcast, and in the end, Byte can only get the live broadcast copyright similar to Dota events.
But at the same time, it must also be noted that Douyin is still very attractive to game live broadcasts, almost all game anchors will open Douyin accounts and maintain a certain update frequency, and there is a precedent for similar small groups to become head game anchors after the Douyin fire a long time ago. However, for a long time, Douyin was only considered a short video channel for game streamers, and it was similar to stealth in terms of game live streaming.
After the beginning of 2023, the situation has changed. After this period of time, almost all game anchors on other platforms will be rumored to have the possibility of signing a contract with Douyin after the contract expires, and the well-known game anchor Mozi once bluntly said that she actually wants to go to Douyin, where the live broadcast is very easy and it is easier to make money - but she still signed a contract with Huya after leaving Penguin Esports, after all, game anchors still have to broadcast games live. After that, it was a long waiting period after the expiration of the contract between Baby Xuxu and Douyu, and after Baby Xuxu confirmed the signing of Douyin, he also talked about it in the live broadcast that Penguin agreed to broadcast DNF live on Douyin.
At this time, it seems to the outside world that the freezing period of Penguin and Byte's live game broadcast has been greatly eased.
After the official live broadcast on Douyin, the popularity of Xuxu's baby live broadcast room has always remained at 100,000, which has also allowed many netizens and the industry to see that the popularity of game anchors on the Douyin platform is even comparable to that of Brother Xiao Yang and Dong Yuhui. But at this time, the penguin side is still wary of the live broadcast of the game, and there is also a threshold for the duration of Xuxu Baby's live broadcast dnf and hanging a small windmill to receive advertisements, and he has also explained to the public many times during the live broadcast why more live broadcast content is running karts and fighting landlords - of course, after that, he was also caught in the public opinion turmoil related to the former platform......
When Xuxu's baby was in trouble and stopped broadcasting, Zhang Daxian officially settled in Douyin, and the live broadcast effect was full. This also proves that the appeal of top performers such as Zhang Daxian and Xuxu Baby is indeed worthy of its name, and although Zhang Daxian has settled in Douyin, he cannot broadcast the glory of the king live, but there have always been rumors that he can broadcast live. Entering 2024, officially breaking the ice, on January 13, Honor of Kings officially announced: "From January 21, the Honor of Kings Douyin live broadcast will be fully opened." From January 18th to 20th, Zhang Daxian was invited to live broadcast on the official account to warm up, starting with Zhang Daxian Douyin's first broadcast of the king, and the king fully entered Douyin. After that, on January 20, Peace Elite E-sports officially announced that the Peace Elite E-sports event will be officially broadcast on Douyin. The PEL Resort Cup, the first PEL (Peace Elite Professional League) tournament in the series, will kick off on January 25, with PEL's top teams and influential streamers competing on the same stage.
At this point, Penguin's two ace mobile games have officially started their cooperation with Douyin.
What's even more intriguing is that the front platform of Xuxu baby is Betta, and Zhang Daxian's front platform is Huya. This should mean that it is difficult for the game live streaming platform of the vertical track to retain the top anchors with hard power. The top anchor is the biggest high-quality asset of the game live broadcast platform, and the outflow of high-quality assets also shows that this track has really changed!
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On January 12, 2024, Chen Ze, a former well-known game anchor of Kuaishou, premiered on Douyin, and his popularity was also explosive, according to third-party statistics, at 9 o'clock in the evening on January 12, Chen Ze's live broadcast on Douyin reached 39.502 million times, with a cumulative total of 364 million likes, and 1.472 million fans, and his fans have now exceeded 10 million.
As of January 31, the number of Douyin fans of Xuxu Baobao, Zhang Daxian and Chen Ze were 16.396 million, 53.548 million and 12.726 million respectively.
Before the premiere, Chen Ze posted an indictment on Weibo (which has now been deleted), according to the indictment, Chen Ze is the defendant, and the plaintiff (the full name of the company is coded) asked the court to order him to continue to perform the "Kuaishou Live Anchor Exclusive Cooperation Agreement" and pay liquidated damages of 100 million yuan. In addition, according to media reports, Chen Ze once said in the live broadcast that in September 2023, due to the expiration of the contract, the two parties need to re-sign, but due to price issues, only Chen Ze signed the contract, and the other party has not signed it. Before Chen Ze started his live broadcast debut, the other party suddenly said that he had signed a contract and sued for 100 million yuan.
At the risk of default, Chen Ze still chose to broadcast live on Douyin, and Penguin's liberalization of the game live broadcast copyright is also one of the important factors. But why can't Kuaishou retain the top anchors? Is it not paying attention to entertainment content such as game live broadcasts?
Kuaishou has been making efforts in the field of game live streaming for a long time, and in 2019, it was once considered an important challenger to change the leading position of Douyu and Huya in the game track. According to the self-selected stocks, Tencent holdings Limited currently holds 15.58% of Kuaishou's shares, which is also one of the natural advantages of Kuaishou to focus on game live streaming and e-sports tracks.
It is understood that in early 2016, Kuaishou began to get involved in game live broadcasting, and in the summer of 2019, Kuaishou launched the "Million Game Creator Support Program", announcing that it would introduce no less than 500 head game content creators, which is regarded as the beginning of Kuaishou's official entry into the game live broadcast track - in 2020, Kuaishou announced that Kuaishou Games has more than 200 million daily active users, with an average daily comment volume of more than 300 million and a monthly active user of more than 400 million. "The total number of live broadcasts has exceeded the sum of Douyu and Huya", which is also the source of the saying that Kuaishou will become a new pole of game live broadcasting.
At the same time, Kuaishou began to work on the copyright of e-sports events, and successively won the copyright of KPL, LPL, LDL, KGL, PCL, PEL and other head e-sports events. Relevant data shows that on the League of Legends S9 event, a total of 72 million users watched the League of Legends S9 global event on Kuaishou, and on the night of the final, 25 million users witnessed FPX winning the championship in Kuaishou. In addition, the head anchors and e-sports teams of the Peace Elite have also emerged on the Kuaishou platform, and in 2020, Kuaishou completed the acquisition of the YTG team and became a part of the kpl league.
Also in 2020, Kuaishou announced the cancellation of the entry threshold for game anchors and guilds, the monthly turnover threshold for rebates was reduced from 200,000 to 50,000, the minimum monthly turnover in the S-level guild evaluation criteria was reduced from 1.5 million to 1 million, and the comprehensive share ratio of anchors + guilds was increased to 62%. This comprehensive share ratio is the highest among first-tier platforms. Kuaishou said that the future goal is to introduce 10,000 game guilds.
At this point in time, the merger of Douyu and Huya seems to be on the verge of flying, and Station B has bought the live broadcast copyright of the S game with a large amount of money, and the big change in the live broadcast of the game is also considered to be the internal chaos of the penguin system. But in hindsight, after the merger of Huya and Douyu was denied, the vitality of the two has not been restored, and B stands on the game and e-sports live broadcast frequently, but there is never the spirit of a king, and Kuaishou, who is regarded as the next king of game live broadcasting, has never been supported.
Why is Kuaishou not attractive enough for top anchors?
In addition, in terms of investment in e-sports copyright, Kuaishou does not have the courage to break the kettle like Station B and Huya, and more participate in the live broadcast of e-sports events in the form of joint copyright, which makes it difficult for Kuaishou's game live broadcast sector to maintain sufficient growth.
It is more likely that the focus of the platform is not here. In the past year, Kuaishou's strategy has been more focused, and in May 23, Kuaishou CEO Cheng Yixiao made his debut on stage, saying that as CEO, he directly led the e-commerce business, reflecting the company's super emphasis on the e-commerce business and high expectations for the future of the business. In the past six months or so, the performance of Kuaishou e-commerce has been eye-catching, according to the performance outlook of Kuaishou annual reports of many institutions, Da Mo believes that Kuaishou e-commerce GMV is expected to achieve strong growth of nearly 30% year-on-year in the fourth quarter. In addition, the increase brought by shelf e-commerce is obvious, and it is estimated to account for more than 20% of the overall GMV. After the release of the third quarter financial report, Cheng Yixiao revealed that in the media and information industry, paid short dramas have the best growth, and the delivery consumption of the paid short drama industry has increased month by month this year. Kuaishou's consumption of paid short dramas in the third quarter increased by more than 300% year-on-year and nearly 50% quarter-on-quarter.
The business focuses on e-commerce and is optimistic about short dramas in the future, which may be the reason why Kuaishou Game Live has not maintained its previous rapid expansion.
But Kuaishou's strength in game live streaming should not be underestimated. According to the data, by August 2023, Kuaishou game live broadcast DAU (daily active users) will reach 118 million; from the perspective of user scale, Kuaishou game live broadcast users are still growing, but the proportion of active users has decreased, which means that the growth rate of this business has slowed down, and from the perspective of influence, Kuaishou has never become a top player, and from the perspective of Penguin's follow-up measures, Kuaishou's traffic support for Penguin Games has not maintained enough growth, which may also be another reason why Penguin and Byte are holding hands in games.
In addition, there are still a lot of head anchors on the Kuaishou platform, especially in the field of mobile games of kings and peace elites, Kuaishou still has e-sports clubs that sign up with kings and peace elites, and will still purchase the copyright of e-sports events - Kuaishou e-sports copyright, which is still quite competitive, but it is difficult to break the circle.
With the breaking of the ice of Penguin and Byte, Douyin's aggregation effect on top anchors is amplified, and Kuaishou's competitiveness in the market will gradually slow down or even be overtaken if it does not take more active measures at the game and e-sports levels.
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Entering 2024, the prospect of game live streaming and live streaming tracks is also indescribable, the rumors of the merger of Douyu and Huya are noisy again, and Baidu has given up the acquisition of YY - game live streaming and live streaming tracks have ushered in a new inflection point.
The changes in the live streaming track of the game first come from the changes of penguins. According to the data, in 2023, on Douyin, Watermelon Video and other platforms, games such as "Return to the Empire" and "Naruto" will be diverted; by the end of the year, Tencent's most heavyweight casual mobile game "Yuan Dream Star" was released, and nearly 4% of the advertising materials in the first month of its launch were invested in Byte's advertising platform "Pangolin", and only 12% flowed to Tencent's own "Youlianghui". This shows that the penguin has a strong demand for external traffic, and in the case of a very large market holding, the penguin can even shake hands with competing products in order to increase the market.
Bytes have traffic, Penguin has products, and the two hold hands to take what they need. But for Kuaishou, this is not a good trend, because it means that direct competitors are more attractive and have higher commercial value.
The wind has changed, the track has changed, and the value of the platform has changed. As the saying goes, "But when you see the newcomer laughing, you hear the old person crying", who do you think is the newcomer and who is the old man in the game live broadcast track?
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