Editor's Guide: Pan Entertainment has always been on the cusp, and audio content based on the huge user scale is the guarantee of traffic and monetization. In the past few years, China's mobile audio market has experienced rapid development and has matured, and new tracks are accelerating and broadening. Under the premise of a simple analysis of the domestic mobile audio market, this paper understands the development of domestic mobile audio-related products through the comparison and analysis of Mao'er FM and Himalaya FM in product and commercial dimensions.
< h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > a very rudimentary analysis of the domestic mobile audio market</h1>
During the period from 2016 to 2019, the scale of China's Internet audio market generally showed a year-on-year growth trend, and the growth rate slowed down in the past two years but was still in high-speed growth.
From 2018 to 2019, the number of mobile audio active people in China has generally shown a year-on-year growth trend, and the market has been in a mature period of application.
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Mobile audio refers to the use of smart phones, tablet computers, car audio, wearable devices and other mobile terminals as a carrier to provide voice listening and other services, including traditional radio, music radio, cross-talk commentary, variety entertainment, encyclopedia knowledge, novels, film and television original sound, radio dramas, education and training, news and other audio content of the business general term. Under the mobile Internet, richer and more powerful audio media has been born.
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In 2019, the scale of China's Internet audio market was 8.772 billion yuan, an increase of 56.50% year-on-year, and the market revenue sources were mainly audio entertainment, content payment and advertising marketing, accounting for 95% of the total market size. As of March 2020, the number of mobile audio active users in China is 13,000, and the main mobile audio active users in China are Himalaya, Dragonfly FM, and Lychee, of which the scale of Himalaya active users is 86.61 million, much higher than others. In 2019, China's mobile audio listening users are mainly male, and the age is concentrated in 30-40 years old.
From 0.76 million active people in January 2018 to 11,100 people active in December 2018, to 11,800 active people in December 2019, the number of active people has continued to grow. As of March 2020, the number of mobile audio active people in China was 13,000. As of June 2020, there were 275 million domestic network audio users, and the usage rate among netizens was 29.3%. The audio market is already in the mature period of application, the business model tends to mature, and the revenue methods are more diversified.
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The first echelon - Himalaya FM, far ahead, sitting firmly on the altar;
The second echelon - dragonfly FM, lychee;
The third echelon - cat ear FM, penguin FM, fast tone, etc.
As of March 2020, the top mobile audio active users in China are Mainly Himalaya, Dragonfly FM, and Lychee. Among them, the scale of active users of Himalaya reached 86.61 million, accounting for 65% of the active users of the domestic mobile audio market; the active users of Dragonfly FM and Lychee accounted for 5.7%; the scale of users such as Cat Ear FM, Penguin FM, and Kuaiyin was less than 5 million people, accounting for 25.1%; Himalaya FM was far ahead and sat firmly on the altar.
<h2 toutiao-origin="h3" >4. Industry characteristics - fragment killer, sucking "time" sharp weapon</h2>
<h2 toutiao-origin="h3" >5. Development trend - buff blessing, wallet hollowing is no longer a dream</h2>
Policy level ✔
The Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China clarifies the copyright protection of audio products, coupled with the relevant departments' crackdown on online infringement and piracy, the gradual implementation of industry norms, and the improvement of the copyright environment in the industry; in addition, the state vigorously promotes the integration and development of cultural and creative service industries such as audio, online literature, and publishing.
Economic dimension ✔
Affected by the epidemic, China's overall consumption level began to decline in the first quarter of this year. As of August this year, China's total retail sales of consumer goods have returned to the same period last year, and it is expected to return to the normal growth range in the later period, and China's overall consumption willingness and consumption capacity have recovered to provide the basic conditions for the development of the online audio industry.
Knowledge paid concept ✔
With the improvement of the national consumption index, the monetization models such as content payment and live broadcast tipping have risen and been widely accepted, and more online audio users are willing to pay for high-quality content; the emergence of various trend cultures such as cross-talk, two-dimensional yuan, radio dramas, etc., while enriching audio content, has also gathered online communities based on the same interests and hobbies. Among them, the APP cat ear fm for the "original culture" directly created a precedent for commercial pure love radio dramas, and met the expectations of a large number of paying audiences with its high-quality creative content.
Technical aspects ✔
The popularity of 4G technology makes the spread of online audio more rapid and convenient, and the application of 5G technology in the future will make the application of online audio have more room for innovation. The development of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things technology has created a good foundation for the content production of online audio platforms, and the continuous application of big data technology has realized personalized and intelligent recommendations for users.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > two, comparison and analysis of mobile audio products based on cat ear FM and Himalaya FM</h1>
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Cat Ear FM was founded in 2014 and was originally produced by a group of CVs who generate electricity for love and a free radio drama produced by the post-staff team.
In 2018, it was acquired by Bilibili for 1 billion yuan, and launched the large-scale costume radio drama "Kill the Wolf" produced by the well-known domestic studio 729 Sound Factory, officially opening the precedent of commercial radio drama.
As of the beginning of 2021, the third season of the fantasy costume radio drama "Magic Road Ancestor" produced by Beidou Penguin Studio has reached hundreds of millions of broadcasts on M station, reaching the top 1 of M station radio dramas. Station M opened the commercial radio drama mode jointly organized by the head IP and the well-known dubbing studio.
Founded in August 2012, Himalaya FM launched its website in November of the same year and launched its client the following year.
In 2016, with the help of the east wind of knowledge payment, Himalaya opened the first content consumption festival in China, the "123 Knowledge Carnival".
In the fourth quarter of 2017, the number of active people in the Himalaya app reached nearly 60 million, with a market share of more than half, leading the mobile audio market.
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Cat Ear FM is deeply rooted in the field of two-dimensional and radio dramas.
The leadership of Himalaya FM lies in its continuous deepening of content resources, while expanding more consumption scenarios, and strengthening brand value by building a full audio ecosystem.
Content deepening and expansion: Himalayan content focuses on three aspects: anchors, IP resources, and basic content. Anchor: Encourage user creation, mature anchor growth system, systematic recording guidance and operation promotion. IP resources: The use of IP resources has consolidated the cornerstone in the field of premium paid content. The integration of entertainment and knowledge can meet the diversified needs of users at all levels. Basic content: As a comprehensive audio sharing platform, Himalaya's basic content is complete and diverse. Multi-channel layout: Build a complete audio ecosystem through multiple channels. Launched the "Himalaya Inside" open platform, cooperated with downstream hardware manufacturers to provide audio content solutions for intelligent hardware products, launched intelligent audio, joined hands with 60 automakers such as BMW, Audi, Ford, and Volkswagen, and cooperated in the research and development of in-vehicle intelligent voice assistants.
Product comparison - based on the five elements of user experience: strategy, scope, structure, framework, performance
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Cat Ear FM as a whole is also a vertical community, mainly catering to voice control, two-dimensional enthusiasts, Japanese enthusiasts, original fans and other two-dimensional attribute users, focusing on providing ACG-related content. Mainly aimed at the original fans referred to as "rotten women", there are a large number of voice control enthusiasts, most of whom are female users aged 20-30. It has opened two-dimensional audio, audio comics, radio dramas and live broadcasts, and the main business line is to combine the popular big IP in the domestic market with voice actors to make audio comics and radio dramas, which are broadcast on the platform. In 2018, Cat Ear FM was acquired by Bilibili for 1 billion.
Himalaya FM is a multi-dimensional radio station that provides content production channels for audio producers and brings "PGC + UGC + social" through various forms of presentation of the platform. It is currently the fastest growing and largest online mobile audio sharing platform in China. Himalaya FM adopts the content production strategy of PGC + UGC, plays the role of audio ecological builder, is the content on the platform can cover a wider range of user groups, meet the needs of different users, use PGC and the introduction and support of high-quality UGC anchors to meet mainstream demand, and the rest of the free range UGC to meet the long tail demand. In this way, Himalaya FM has become the most concentrated and active platform for audio creators, accumulating a large number of users with massive audio content, and the number of active users is also in the industry.
<h2 toutiao-origin="h3" >4. Functional range comparison</h2>
<h2 toutiao-origin="h3" >5. Product structure comparison</h2>
M station uses PGC to meet mainstream demand, and to a large extent weakens UGC. In the early days of the M station, due to the excessive opening of the UGC led to the removal of the product, coupled with some characteristics of the user of the secondary element attribute, the M station was particularly cautious about the UGC, and the weakening of the UGC also directly led to the activity of the product can not reach the ideal state.
Platform roles: Creator (weakened), content distribution platform, consumer.
Role interaction: Creators produce content and provide it to the platform, the platform distributes content to consumers, consumers generate traffic and consumption, the platform rewards traffic for high-quality creative content according to consumer data, and creators get more traffic through high-quality creation to create better content.
Himalaya FM adopts the content production strategy of "PGC +UGC" and plays the role of audio ecosystem builder, so that the content on the platform can cover a wider range of users and meet the needs of different users. Use PGC and imported and supported high-quality UGC anchors to meet mainstream demand, and the rest of the free range UGC to meet the long tail demand. In this way, Himalaya FM has become the most concentrated and active platform for audio creators, accumulating a large number of users with massive audio content, and the number of active users is also in the industry.
Platform roles: Creator, content distribution platform, consumer.
<h2 toutiao-origin="h3" >6. Product frame comparison</h2>
<h2 toutiao-origin="h3" >7</h2>
M station visually:
The main station head figure KV uses the IP classic M niang, the black and purple tone is thick, and the white background forms a strong contrast, visually weakening the flat sense of the overall white background of the site. The visual impact from the second dimension comes to the face, the recognition is high, and the dimensional wall is eye-catching. It caters well to the audience's aesthetics and expectations of the "dimensional wall".
Graphic typography is the mainstay, as far as possible to echo the popularity of the content to attract users to enter. The cover picture is dominated by two-dimensional pictures, most of which are original illustrations, comics, and official posters, adhering to the M station to encourage anchors to show their faces on the site to better meet the user's expectations for a good voice.
Site elements cute Q style, cat ears, cats, M niang, loading GIF, main station floating windows and iconic start tones, etc., distinct and classic IP elements, details are pulled full.
M station content:
The content is mainly based on two-dimensional and radio dramas. Due to some characteristics of the two-dimensional attribute user, M station uses PGC to meet mainstream needs, and to a large extent weakens UGC, which directly leads to the activity can not reach the ideal state.
In the classification tab and recommended page content, radio drama tab and radio drama content occupy the main position, banner is almost all radio drama, as the largest ATM of M station, M station for radio drama naked love, give absolute quality resources.
M station function:
More intuitive functions and content performance, learning cost is low, but there is a redundancy phenomenon, content division compared with other similar products need to be improved. 【Home】【I Listen】【Listening】【Discover】【Mine】
Home: Search, business classification tab, recommendation
I listen: Downloads, Favorites, Purchased, History
Listening: Share, Like & Comment, Download Favorite Subscription, Tip, Bullet Screen, Details
Discovery: hot search, live broadcast radio dramas and other redundant business entrances, event topics, news stations, redemption codes, others
My: Personal Center, My Audio, Followers & Followers, Various Settings, Marketplace
Himalaya FM visually:
The main station has no KV, flat design, decent and fresh, in line with the visual style of most mainstream entertainment applications, and is relatively friendly to user groups of various attributes.
Graphic typography is the mainstay, the cover picture fits the content and the cover title is eye-catching, most of which are official pictures and official posters. Users can more accurately enter the detail page, reducing the cost of some "trial and error". It may be because the content itself is mostly a resource with high official popularity, and the content popularity is not echoed on the layout.
Himalaya FM content:
As a content-oriented tool, Himalaya continues to enrich the capacity of the audio library, the completeness of audio-related information, the audio quality and the encouragement of users to create audio content. The content is diversified, covering a wider range of user groups, meeting the needs of different users, and massive audio content has accumulated a large number of active users. The content production strategy of PGC+UGC uses PGC and high-quality UGC anchors introduced and supported to meet mainstream needs, and the rest of the free-range UGC meets long-tail demand. In this way, Himalaya FM has become the most concentrated and active platform for audio creators.
At the product level, the organization and distribution of content is mainly done in two ways: directly find the target content (search, personalized recommendation, leaderboard, subscription, etc.), and indirectly find audio content with the help of UGC content (audio album recommendation and search, and the dynamics of the friends and anchors that are followed).
Himalaya FM features:
More intuitive functions and content performance, low learning cost, for retail UGC content to provide a platform for creation, forming a "creator-platform-consumer" between the healthier ecology. 【Home】【I listen】【Listening】【Discover】【My】
Home: Search, business classification tab, recommendation, hot search list
I listen: follow-up, subscription, history, downloads, recommendations
Discovery: Attention, Square, Fun Dubbing, Video
<h2 toutiao-origin="h3" >8. Comparison of business operations</h2>
M station - CV drainage: encourage CV to authenticate on the platform, while adding an alarm function, which is a big benefit for voice control, the alarm contains a voice comic voice bar, a radio drama main voice bar, and a CV anchor voice bar.
M Station-CV Interview: Since 2017, M Station has set up an [M Sound Broadcasting] column to conduct interviews with well-known CV.
M Station - Radio Drama Offline Meeting: The combination of online and offline, so that Kryptonian users and voice actors have close contact, and there is a chance to get the voice actor's signature and group photo, which is undoubtedly an excellent way to promote, and it is a win-win cooperation for the platform and professional voice and dubbing studios.
On December 7, 2019, Station M also held a large-scale "Cat Ear Voice Actor Festival" at the Baoshan Sports Center in Shanghai, which is undoubtedly a radio drama carnival, meeting the needs of many voice control and original fans, and inviting the platform to broadcast the popular radio drama "Magic Road Ancestor", "Peter Pan and Cinderella", "AWM", "Tianbao Fu Demon Record" related main cast CV for sound performances and stage performances. Well-known dubbing studios and popular CVs participate in the performance, and the price of a ticket ranges from 300-1500, which can almost catch the price of a concert.
M Station - Sales of Radio Drama Exclusive Peripherals: Opened online peripheral malls, derivatives of radio dramas, audio pendants, audio greeting cards and other audio products. But at present, the cat ear mall is still a bit of a chicken rib, the interface is simple and flat, it is difficult to attract the desire of users with secondary attributes to buy, and the content is scattered and scarce.
M Station - Offline Theme Store: At the end of 2018, "Kill the Wolf" released derivative crowdfunding, raising 7.71 million yuan in three days, and then its radio drama theme restaurant also began to operate in Shanghai in July 2020; in June 2019, Shanghai and Zhejiang opened new radio drama theme restaurants adapted from the criminal investigation theme "Broken Clouds"; in August 2019, in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Hangzhou, the radio drama theme offline dessert shop adapted from the campus theme "Sano" entered operation, and the radio drama had a broader commercialization model.
M Station - Cross-border cooperation: various dubbing contests co-branded with games and anime; cooperation with popular big IP, inviting well-known CVs to record voice packs and tidbits; cooperation with well-known manga websites such as "Manga Manga" and "Enchanted Manga".
Himalaya - encourage creation, attach importance to copyright: by the C-end users independent creation and B-end users settled and cooperation, on the one hand, enrich the variety and diversity of program content, to meet the needs of users in different preferences and fields; on the other hand, high-quality audio content comes from the creator's screening and content review, high-quality content is highly relevant, more accurate to meet the tastes ✔️ of interested users. However, with the growth of the number of users, more and more indecent content has aroused the disgust of many users, and even there have been copyright infringements, which have been leaked on other self-media platforms, causing a major impact, which not only makes some high-quality content removed from the shelves, but also leads to the platform having been removed from the app store. Himalaya has stepped up its efforts in content moderation and copyright protection to create a more comfortable atmosphere ✖️ for sharers, creators and listeners.
Himalaya-New Ideas activities emerge in an endless stream: whether it is the live voting activities with major popular variety shows, the 123 Knowledge Carnival pioneered by the platform in the field of knowledge payment, or the cross-border marketing that is continuously carried out online and offline, there is good feedback, and even many times it has brought hot discussions in the news media and search platforms. Irregular recruitment of platform anchors for different age groups is held from time to time, on the one hand, to encourage the creation and sharing of the whole people, on the other hand, to attract users of certain ages and certain fields, to continue to promote the generation of original audio, and to highlight the tone of the creation of the himalayan people.
Himalaya-Cross-border cooperation: On the Himalaya platform, we can often hear the high-quality audio programs of the authors of the co-platform and the original audio producers and anchors, and Himalaya gives them some traffic and increases exposure. High-quality audio programs are gradually recognized by listeners, and finally various head content producers appear on the platform, and head content producers bring users again, forming a virtuous circle. In addition, Himalaya gives full play to user sharing, self-created listening to the dynamics of the circle of friends, interactive friends of anchors, fan groups, etc., to know people with common preferences, and to add friends to understand the new situation and share through dynamics. The superposition of these two systems allows Users of the Himalaya platform to freely discuss and create around the audio content of interest.
< h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > third, the impact of the development of the mobile audio market</h1>
Under the "Ear Economy", the target groups of mobile audio products are highly overlapped, and the preemption of user resources continues.
1) The content is homogenized, and there is still room for improvement in satisfaction
Mobile audio product content is king, user experience as the center is still an unbreakable truth.
From the perspective of producers, mobile radio program content is mainly divided into two categories: PGC (professional production content) and UGC (user-produced content). With the rapid development of mobile radio, the program content is developing towards the "PGC + UGC" model, and each company has its own focus. According to iiMedia Research, 12.5% of users said that the current mobile radio station has fully met their needs; 58.3% of users believe that mobile radio basically meets their needs; However, 29.2% of users are not satisfied with mobile radio, and mobile radio still has a lot of room for improvement in user satisfaction. Among them, Litchi FM ranked first in user satisfaction, followed by U-Listening and Himalaya FM, ranking second and third respectively.
2) The copyright bottleneck needs to be broken
With the increasingly prominent value of mobile audio "entrance", in order to consolidate their market position, the top few mobile radio stations in the market have also begun to have bad behaviors such as fighting and scolding, which has caused discordant voices in the market. In April 2015, Duoting FM and Litchi FM were forcibly removed by Apple due to copyright issues at the same time, and the spearhead of the two companies was pointed at Himalayas at the same time. At the same time, Koala FM also claimed that Dragonfly FM pirated its exclusive copyright content, and Dragonfly FM refused to remove the content in the name of authorizing the content for Tencent. Earlier, Himalaya was complained of malicious competition by industry competitors and was forced to take down the Apple Store twice. On June 30, 2015, similar incidents occurred again, Andhimalayas and Lychees were successively removed from Apple's shelves, suspected of being maliciously brushed by competitors. Himalayas, lychees and dragonflies are among the top three mobile radio stations and have been removed from the shelves several times. It can be seen that the copyright issues in the entire network audio field are more confusing, because the text copyright is easy to identify, but the audio must be listened to to know whether there is infringement, and it is more difficult to carry out copyright litigation, so the phenomenon of piracy is widespread.
Behind the mobile radio scuffle, the copyright bottleneck of the program content is highlighted, especially the pale weakness of UGC content in the face of copyright accusations. Therefore, including Dragonfly FM and Himalaya, they are building an audio ecosystem by promoting PUGC, clarifying the clear boundaries of content, copyright and business, hoping to promote the development of the industry with a better atmosphere.
3) New channel war, scramble for the entrance of life services
The in-vehicle market has become a must for mobile radio. The commercial potential of mobile radio is not only in the mobile phone side, but also in the future, there will be mobile radio space in various terminals such as in-vehicle, aviation, and wearables. According to statistics, in the relatively closed environment of the car, it is already a huge market for more than 200 million car owners to listen to 600 hours of audio programs per person per year. Nowadays, many mobile audio products such as Himalaya, Dragonfly, and Koala have established cooperative relations with automobile manufacturers. However, in cooperation with front-end manufacturers, only the in-vehicle entertainment of new cars has been attacked, and for the huge use market of 200 million existing vehicles, it must be solved by post-installation, such as combining intelligent hardware to allow car owners to listen to Internet radio programs. In terms of products, FM took the lead in launching the vehicle intelligent hardware "Multi-listen V Radio" among peers; Not to be outdone, Himalaya has launched the in-vehicle intelligent hardware "Listen with the Car". Koala FM already has plans to do its own hardware or work with hardware vendors as a content provider.
Mobile radio scrambles for more entrances to life services. On wearables, Samsung watches use the contents of Dragonfly FM. The Shuk intelligent fairy tale machine and listening book treasure developed by Himalaya have been launched one after another, so that high-quality content can be effectively delivered to users in need through various terminals, and the scene is extended. It can be imagined that the application scenario of mobile radio in the future is as follows, in the smart home, the lights, stereos, and refrigerators at home can listen to mobile radio. What is even more tempting is that every mobile radio station is an entrance to life services.
bibliography:
1. Chen Jianning, "The Impact and Enlightenment of Mobile Audio Applications on Traditional Broadcasting", China Radio and Television Journal, No. 6, 2015.
2. Tao Lei, "The Development Trend and Prospect of New Mediaization of Traditional Broadcasting", China Broadcasting, No. 7, 2014.
3. Ankang, "The Development Prospect of Broadcasting in the Mobile Internet Environment", Young Journalists, No. 1, 2015.
This article is originally published by @Lazy everyone is a product manager, and reproduction without permission is prohibited
The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol