Wen | Gao Haibo
Watermelon video is getting longer and longer, although it has repeatedly emphasized the positioning of the pugc video platform.
On October 11, it quietly launched a new program by financial writer Wu Xiaobo, "70 Years of Landmarks", a financial program with a commercial geography nature that lasts about 40 minutes each. Last year, Wu Xiaobo's business history personality program "Ten Years and Twenty People" was broadcast exclusively on iQiyi.
A program with its own IP attribute changes the broadcast platform often implies the appeal and power transfer of the new platform, just like Gao Xiaosong from Youku to iQiyi. Although Wu Xiaobo does not have the mass influence of Gao Xiaosong, he still has a large audience in the vertical business field.
Wu Xiaobo's program is divided into the category of watermelon video self-made variety shows, and homemade variety shows, movies, and TV series are concentrated in the tab of the screening hall. To some extent, with the existence of the screening hall section, the growth path of watermelon video cannot be defined by a single short video platform, and it may also be a long video website like iQiyi and Tencent Video.
Watermelon video screening hall
At the Golden Pupil Award Watermelon Video Session held in May this year, Xie Dongsheng, general manager of Watermelon Video Marketing and Entertainment Center, emphasized the platform positioning of Watermelon Video: pugc video platform. It's a non-aggressive vague statement that also fits into a watermelon video that's changing.
After experiencing the popularity of video media and the life and death of various video platforms, there are only two independent video platforms in the Chinese market, one is a long video platform with many episodes and variety shows such as iQiyi and Tencent, and the other is a short video with a duration of less than one minute, such as Douyin and Kuaishou.
Earlier, pugc content was first distributed on long video platforms such as Tencent Video and iQiyi, and with the emergence of short video platforms such as Second Beat and Watermelon Video, pugc content began to be distributed to short video platforms. However, these 3-20 minutes of pugc content are basically occupied by weibo or news information platforms, becoming tools and supplements for information platforms, and independent video ecology has not been established.
With the emergence of shorter video platforms such as Kuaishou and Douyin, the video platforms such as Seconds Beat and Meipai, which once tried to become China's Youtube, have almost lost their living space.
Both Weibo and Today's Headlines are YouTube's Chinese apprentices in terms of short videos, but they are better integrated with China's actual integration and effective integration of videos and information.
But this is also the embarrassment of watermelon video, if there is no traffic today's headlines, watermelon video as an independent platform is difficult to exist, such a relationship is like the Weibo and second beat of the year.
The awkward position of the watermelon video is determined by the attributes of the pugc content. Pugc content can attract user time and create traffic, but its development process is not smooth, Weibo has tried to learn video sites in front of short videos to insert patch ads, but the effect is not ideal, mcn agencies pay more attention to new traffic such as douyin, capable creators will do longer content.
In addition, the exclusivity of these contents is almost non-existent, and consistent content exists across multiple video platforms. Foodies like Wang Gang, Teacher Li Yongle and others can find their content on multiple platforms.
If it does not change, the uniqueness of watermelon video in this market does not exist, it is more like the built-in video of today's headline application, and the independence will be greatly reduced.
The way to change is self-control.
In August 2018, Watermelon Video announced that it would invest 4 billion yuan to enter the field of self-made variety shows and create mobile native variety shows, and the first program was "The Number One Task" hosted by Wang Han. Self-production has also become an alternative existence of watermelon video in the short video market, and its exclusivity and boutique enhancement are the attraction of the entire TDD Byte to brand advertising.
Taking "70 Years of Landmarks" as an example, the title of the program is Wuliangye. 36Kr found that Watermelon Video has launched a number of self-made programs, including Guo Degang, Meng Fei, and Tong Dawei's "Uncle Xiaoguan", each episode is more than 60 minutes long, and the title is the old village chief. In fact, there is not much difference between such a length of time and star lineup and mainstream video website variety shows.
Self-made variety shows can get more brand advertising, but also show the IP attributes of the platform, and continue to produce content. At the same time, the entry of brand advertising will enrich byteDance's advertising ecology and make it easier to achieve linkage in platform advertising and marketing.
"Uncle Xiaoguan" and "Top Mission" both have good star resources, but the show itself has not attracted much attention. Watermelon video as a novice in this field is still in the process of trial and error, the industry's first-line variety show production company cooperation platform is also concentrated in iQiyi, Tencent, watermelon wants to come up with a blockbuster, in addition to cooperation with more head production companies also need to have more content-aware managers and clear their own needs. In this regard, the watermelon video also needs to make up lessons.
According to the data released by Watermelon Video this year, it has 350 million users, 4 billion daily plays, and 80 minutes of daily users. Compared with last year, the number of users increased by 50 million, and the usage time increased by ten minutes.
Behind the growth is not only the visible hand of self-made variety shows, but also the invisible hand. Watermelon Video has been low-key in copyright procurement, covering different categories such as movies, TV series, variety shows, and children's, including TV stations' variety shows, animations, etc.
The screening hall has become like a small long video website, although the copyright inventory is not as much as that of iQiyi and Tencent Video, but there is always a process of accumulation. At present, the copyright procurement strategy of Watermelon Video is not radical, and the copyright of the purchased movies and TV series is not the latest online content, but more of a classic resource.
For classic blockbuster dramas such as "Bright Sword", Watermelon Video has purchased it. "Bright Sword" is only copyrighted by Youku on other video websites, and classic TV series such as "Six Groups of Serious Cases", "Divine Eagle Hero", "Jade Guanyin" and so on are all launched on Watermelon Video in the form of solo broadcasts. For now, exclusive content is still limited.
In terms of specific operation, Watermelon Video also pays more attention to using short video clips cut by film and television to attract users to watch the complete film. Although there are currently no pre-patch ads for movies and dramas, and there is no need to pay, when the copyright content accumulates to a certain extent, a business model similar to a video website is naturally established.
Self-production and procurement are also the most important business means for long video websites at present, and Watermelon Video is secretly working in these two areas. A long video founder told 36Kr this year that ByteDance will continue to expand in the video field. At present, the fields of dramas and movies have begun to penetrate by watermelon videos.
Watermelons are going to get longer and more, and the road to expansion is progressing. So, if one day, Watermelon Video is going to do a web series, you must not be surprised.