Text | Hedgehog Commune, author | Chen Shoucheng, Editor | Chen Meixi
Where did the deep memory of the Olympic Games originate in the Chinese?
In terms of time, it was 2008; Geographically, it is Beijing; But in reality, it's the TV station. On August 8, 2008, when more than 60,000 viewers walked into the Bird's Nest to watch the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, more than 2 billion viewers around the world were watching simultaneously in front of their television sets.
McLuhan said, "The medium is the message. "When we talk about the Olympics, it's hard to really talk about the Olympics themselves – it's too far away for most people – but about the memories that the media message brings to us. In 2008, traditional media such as television, newspapers and even radio constructed the "real" beyond the real and shaped all our imaginations of the Olympic Games.
After leaving Beijing, the Olympics moved to London, Rio, Tokyo and Paris. In the past 16 years, the world has changed dramatically, especially in the form of media. People's access to information has gradually shifted from television stations and newspapers to the Internet and then to the mobile Internet. Even within the internet, portals, social media, and short-form video platforms are vying for attention.
On June 19, Tencent became the rights-holding broadcaster of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Prior to this, the three platforms of Douyin, Kuaishou, and Migu have officially announced that they have reached cooperation with China Central Radio and Television Station to become the rights-holding broadcaster of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. At this point, the rights-holding broadcast platform for the Paris Olympics has all been settled.
In the Olympic arena, the battle for the gold medal will have to wait for some time. Outside the Olympic stadium, the battle for attention about the Olympics has quietly begun.
The Evolution of Media in the Olympic Timeline
Although in 2008 television was still the absolute mainstream, the power of the Internet has quietly risen.
According to the 23rd statistics of CNNIC, the number of Internet users in China reached 298 million at the end of 2008, and the penetration rate reached 22.6%. According to the standard that a media user penetration rate reaches more than 20 percent, it can be called a mass media, and this standard has been reached by the Chinese Internet during the year.
In the same year, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Internet Communication Effect Research Report showed that about 82% of netizens would pay attention to the Olympics, and the average number of users who visited the Olympics every day accounted for 76%. Of course, at that time, users' Internet habits were still stuck in the portal and the BBS community.
At that time, Sohu.com, the leading web portal, even had the qualification of an Internet content service sponsor for the Beijing Olympic Games. Portals including Sohu and Tencent, as well as news websites such as People's Daily Online, Xinhuanet, CCTV, and the official website of the Olympic Games, were considered by People's Daily Online to be the "three main forces" of Olympic coverage.
"Sohu.com" 2008 Beijing Olympics topic
In the four years between the Beijing Olympics and the London Olympics, the Internet has developed even more rapidly.
In 2009, Sina Weibo was established. This product against "Twitter" quickly caused a "wrestling" of Internet giants in China, including Tencent, Sina's old rival in the portal era. Thanks to the first-mover advantage and the operation of celebrity effect, Sina Weibo "beat" Tencent Weibo and obtained the domain name of weibo.com in 2011. In the age of the PC Internet, a domain name is a fairly important asset.
In 2012, the London Olympics were held, and Sina Weibo almost became the brightest Internet product star in this cycle. Countless sports stars interact with netizens on Weibo, and any Weibo can cause thousands of fans to retweet. Even stars in the entertainment industry, including Yao Chen, Li Bingbing, Guo Jingming, etc., were keen to discuss sports competitions back then, and thus created a greater collective discourse.
Sina's London Olympics feature confidently wrote that as of 8 o'clock on August 13, there were 390 million topics related to the Olympics on Sina Weibo, and Weibo has truly become the first communication platform for the Olympic Games.
When the Olympic Games moved from the west side of the world map to the southeast corner, China's Internet world was further iteratively upgraded. In November 2012, Kuaishou transformed from a tool application to a short video community; In May 2014, Meipai was launched; In May 2015, the small coffee show was launched. China's Internet ushered in the first wave of short video entrepreneurship. Of course, there is still some distance from a real outbreak.
In 16 years, the Rio Olympics were officially held. One of the biggest changes from previous years is that the popularity of smartphones has led to a surge in the number of Internet users in China. According to CNNIC data, as of June 2016, the number of Internet users in China reached 710 million, of which 656 million were mobile Internet users, accounting for 92%.
The change in the crowd has also brought about a shift in public opinion. In that year, the hottest Olympic star was not Sun Yang or Zhang Jike, who had excellent results, but Fu Yuanhui, who shouted that he had exhausted the "power of the wilderness".
In September 16, not long after the Rio Olympics ended, Douyin was launched. In October 2017, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the number of 4G users in China reached 947 million. The combination of new technologies and new products has promoted the arrival of the next era of China's Internet.
The five years from the Rio Olympics to the Tokyo Olympics also happened to be the period of China's Internet "Shake Fast War". The two platforms compete on all fronts. From 2016 to the end of 2018, Kuaishou maintained its lead. In June 2019, Douyin had more than 320 million daily active users, surpassing Kuaishou's 200 million daily active users. In August of the following year, Douyin officially announced that its daily active users exceeded 600 million, completely throwing off Kuaishou, and the competitive landscape of China's short video platform was laid.
In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (actually held in 2021), although Douyin did not obtain the Olympic broadcast rights, 178 Olympians settled in Douyin, among which Yang Qian, a shooting athlete who won the first gold, also soared in popularity, gaining more than 7 million fans, becoming another top star successfully launched by Douyin on the Olympic track.
Although it is at a disadvantage in terms of the number of users, Kuaishou, which has more than 300 million daily active users, has also achieved remarkable results. Due to the acquisition of the Olympic broadcast rights, the total on-demand broadcast of Kuaishou's Olympic events in the same year exceeded 5.59 billion, and there were also 4 major Olympic IP self-made programs broadcast, with a total broadcast volume of more than 2.47 billion. At the same time, there was also a gold-winning season in collaboration with Olympic stars, with nearly 500 brands participating, including more than 130 brands with sales growth of more than 100%.
As of June 2023, the number of short video users in China has reached 1.026 billion, with a user usage rate of 95.2%. Short videos have become the most unquestionable "mass media" in the Internet era.
Broadcast rights battles: Migu and other video platforms
The first point in the battle for attention about the Olympics is the battle for broadcasting rights. At a time when television stations are gradually weakening and the Internet is gradually growing, the most pressing question for netizens who have become accustomed to looking for all kinds of information on the Internet during the Olympics is: Where can I watch the Olympics?
For content platforms, as long as they get the right to broadcast and meet the needs of users, and obtain the right to broadcast the content related to the Olympic Games online, they can get huge benefits accordingly. Take the Rio Olympics as proof. United States broadcaster NBC spent $1.23 billion to buy the broadcast rights, and before the opening of the Olympic Games, it has recouped its cost through advertising fees; in China, Tencent, as a domestic new media broadcaster, publicly said that it recovered all input costs, including 100 million yuan in copyright fees, before the start of the event.
Domestic Internet platforms need to obtain relevant authorization from CCTV.
According to the sports big business report, in the 2012 London Olympics, the CCTV advertising department found that the video column of the portal website will divert a large amount of advertising revenue from CCTV and local TV stations, in order to ensure that the advertising investment reaches the expected goal, they require CNTV not to sell or sell the broadcast rights at the last moment.
It wasn't until four months before the opening of the Olympic Games that CNTV began to sell the London Olympics broadcast resource package to domestic portals, which included three categories: Class A included live broadcast, on-demand and CCTV programs, with a price of 55 million yuan; Class B only includes live broadcast and on-demand rights, with a price of 35 million yuan; Class C only includes on-demand rights, and the quotation is 28 million yuan. Due to cost considerations, the four major domestic portals (Tencent, Sina, Sohu, and NetEase) finally chose to purchase a Class C resource package that does not include live broadcast rights.
As Internet platforms gradually become real "mass media", the competition and cooperative relations between TV stations and major Internet platforms have become more and more subtle, and with it, higher copyright prices and more and more copyright restrictions.
For the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, CCTV only distributed the on-demand rights of the tournament for the first time to ensure the exclusivity of the broadcast of the match. On July 20, 2016, it was not until 17 days before the official opening of the Rio Olympics that CCTV finally decided to distribute the new media rights, and Tencent and Youku both obtained the rights to broadcast the games with a delay of half an hour.
The competition for the copyright of the event has indirectly helped the development of a new platform and brought new variables to the existing pattern of long and short videos.
In 2014, Migu Culture Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Mobile, was established in Beijing. On May 29, 2019, Migu proposed the concept of "Flower of Ultra High Definition" to promote the true 4K standard for the industry, and has successfully practiced 5G + true 4K live broadcast in performing arts and major live broadcast activities for many times, and has been the first in the industry more than 50 times so far.
At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, when CCTV once again distributed broadcast rights to Internet platforms, Migu was prominently listed. In fact, Migu Video was the first to obtain the authorization of CCTV before Tencent and Kuaishou, and on December 8, 2020, CCTV reached a strategic cooperation with China Mobile on content copyright. The two parties will cooperate on copyright for the world's top events such as the Tokyo Olympics, the European Cup, the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Qatar World Cup.
That year, compared with Tencent and Kuaishou, Migu had an extremely obvious advantage, and users could watch the live broadcast of the Olympic events in real time on Migu Video, but Tencent and Kuaishou got the on-demand rights with a delay of 2 hours. The time difference of 2 hours is enough to push users to download this "Migu video" that may have never been heard of before.
Although due to the surge in the number of users at that time, Migu Video had a lot of bugs during the broadcast of the Tokyo Olympics, but because it solved the core needs of users to "watch the live broadcast of the Olympics", Migu Video still rushed to the top of the charts of many app stores, including the Apple Store, during the Olympics and successfully gained popularity.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, in addition to the old friends of the previous Olympics, Tencent, Kuaishou and Migu, Douyin has finally joined the battle. Among them, Migu still has the most rights and interests, and has the right to provide the 2024 Paris Olympic Games event programs in the form of real-time broadcasting, delayed broadcasting, on-demand broadcasting (including playback), short videos, etc. Tencent, Kuaishou, and Douyin have obtained related rights and interests such as on-demand, playback, short videos and self-made programs.
It is conceivable that the battle for the broadcast rights of major sports events in the future will continue to be maintained on the basic pattern of Migu and other platforms.
The battle for attention and business possibilities
Since the rights and interests obtained by Tencent, Kuaishou, and Douyin are far inferior to Migu, why are these three platforms still willing to pay a lot of copyright fees to obtain related rights and interests such as on-demand, playback, and short video content?
The answer may lie in the fact that the battle for attention to the Olympics has never been just about the competition. Watching the games is certainly the core demand of users, but there are still quite a few commercial possibilities worth exploring around the Olympic Games. Of course, the reason why these three won the broadcast rights is not only related to the high copyright fees, but also because these three Internet platforms have enough users to dilute the cost. At the same time, more users can bring more business imagination.
First of all, for Tencent, since channels including Tencent Video, Tencent Sports, WeChat, Tencent News, Tencent.com, QQ, QQ Browser, and Weishi can all obtain on-demand rights, it can actually achieve multi-platform and multi-business linkage.
Unlike most media claims that Tencent is a "long video platform", the biggest media change in the Paris Olympics is coming from WeChat. In the past few years, WeChat Channels has risen strongly. Therefore, Tencent has at least two trump cards in the Paris Olympics: Tencent Video and WeChat Video Account.
Therefore, although Tencent Video may still have to be delayed by two hours to broadcast Olympics-related content, Channels has the opportunity to compete with Douyin Kuaishou and further increase its influence with the help of public events that are of global concern. Previously, due to its unique social advantages due to its binding to WeChat, Channels has shown its unique energy in many public events.
For Douyin and Kuaishou, Olympic-related content is already a familiar thing.
The content is basically divided into two categories, one is UGC-style, inviting relevant Olympic stars or athletes to register accounts, encouraging athletes to publish Olympics-related content or event impressions and even daily life, and with the help of the platform's powerful algorithm mechanism to push popularity, at the right time to praise the players who are concerned by the whole people into "Internet celebrities". Before and after the Olympic Games, there will also be return visits, commentary, secondary creation and other content for sports events, and with the broadcast rights of sports events, we can meet the needs of this part of the anchors, or create explosive models and form some phenomenal anchors or topics.
The other type is PGC-style, where the platform takes the initiative to create Olympic-related programs and invites professionals to interpret the Olympics. For example, Kuaishou has launched a number of self-made programs, such as "Champion Viewing Group" and "The Champion is Coming", in the form of "live broadcast + live commentary + friend microphone + short video" and so on. Such programs can directly obtain revenue through brand naming, etc.
In terms of business transformation, the path explored by short video platforms is becoming more and more mature. With the national attention of the Olympic events, the relevant e-commerce live broadcast rooms are also likely to get more organic traffic. Sporting goods and the planting of Olympic stars are likely to be directly converted within the short video app, bringing revenue to merchants and GMV growth to the platform.
In addition, the combination of short drama + e-commerce and Olympic theme may also bring about an increase in consumer demand in a new scenario. This further brings new imagination to the commercial transformation of the platform.
The drunkard is not about drinking, and the broadcast rights are not just about watching the game itself. These platforms may have already figured out the bill before spending a huge amount of money on copyrights.
Of course, in addition to the war for broadcast rights, there will always be a platform that will definitely be able to benefit: Weibo. After all, in the era of algorithms, Weibo may be one of the few Internet spaces that still has a public nature. Users need to discuss the event, exchange emotions and even vent their emotions on Weibo, and form a "consensus" in the public content space, which is almost the core demand of users outside of watching the game.
From 2008 to 2024, the back side of the Olympic Games is the change of Chinese Internet media. As McLuhan said, the medium is the message, and the changes in these media are constantly influencing the way we perceive and understand the world. The change and shift of attention has created the rise and fall of different Internet giants.
In the future, will new media forms emerge and new media giants will emerge as a result? Let's look at 2028 and 2032.