Picture source @Visual China
text | Node Finance, author | Qigong
As the end of the year approaches, the long-form video battle between Youaiteng has become increasingly fierce. iQiyi’s “Yi Nian Guan Shan” and “Three Brigades”, Tencent Video’s “God” "Hidden", "Flowers", Youku's "News Queen" and "Song Ci Shao Hua Lu", each has its own star, each has its own excitement, setting off waves of ratings.
But under the water, the three giants are quietly dividing, and this is intuitively reflected in their performance: iQiyi and Tencent Video have made profits one after another, while Youku has not yet escaped from the "suffering sea" of losses.
Frequent personnel changes
Tencent Video has been very popular in recent years. With a series of hit dramas, it was the first to end the situation of not being able to make ends meet. According to "latepost", Tencent Video's annual revenue in 2022 will exceed 10 billion yuan, and it began to make money in October of that year.
iQiyi followed closely, and also waited for the good news of "iconic reversal". It had a surplus in the fourth quarter of 2022, with single-quarter revenue of 7.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 304.3 million yuan, compared with a loss of 1.8 billion yuan in the same period last year.
In comparison, Youku, which was once a top student, has become a laggard.
Alibaba's financial report shows that in the six months ended September 30, 2023, the revenue of the Dawenban Group was 11.16 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21%; the adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was a loss of 138 million yuan , a loss of 1.269 billion yuan in the same period of 2022.
After the biggest transformation in the history of "6+1+n", Alibaba Entertainment now includes three core sectors: Alibaba Pictures, Damai.com, and Youku. In the interim report for fiscal year 2024, Alibaba attributed the progress of the Great Entertainment Group to Damai.com and Alibaba Pictures. In particular, it praised Damai.com during the investor conference call: Q3 achieved strong three-digit growth in GMV. But he only regards Youku as a "little transparent" and never mentions it. The unspeakable secret deep in his heart is already clear.
Indicators in other dimensions also confirm Youku’s lag.
Analysys Qianfan data shows that from 2020 to 2022, Youku MAU (monthly active users) were 326 million, 239 million, and 163 million respectively, declining year by year. In December 2022, the MAU of iQiyi and Tencent Video were 507 million and 396 million respectively, occupying the top and second positions in the industry. Mango TV and Bilibili ranked third and fourth respectively, and Youku has been squeezed to fifth. .
According to questmobile data, the average monthly usage time of the domestic online video app industry in 2022 will be 15.1-18.5 hours, and the usage time of long video platforms are: Bilibili (18.8 hours), iQiyi (8.9 hours), Tencent Video (7.2 hours), Mango TV (5.7 hours), Youku (5 hours).
It is not difficult to see that Youku is gradually declining in terms of user scale and user stickiness. The reason behind the
analysis must be mentioned is the turbulent high-level architecture.
After being acquired by Alibaba in 2016, Youku changed three heads in 7 years - from Yu Yongfu who pursued integration, to Yang Weidong who aggressively participated in the war, and then to Fan Luyuan who pursued stability. The king's flag frequently changed at the top of the city, allowing them to It is difficult to maintain a unified direction and style, and it seems difficult to concentrate on content.
Especially at the end of 2018, CEO Yang Weidong was criminally detained for corruption. This not only disrupted the company's established rhythm, but also seriously affected its external image. As a result, there were very few good dramas and variety shows, and we could only watch iQiyi. , Tencent Video built a high-rise building and hosted a banquet for guests.
Some people in the industry also said that the reason for Youku's decline is that Alibaba has transplanted e-commerce culture and ideas into content, and the logic does not work. The e-commerce model pursues reshaping links, optimizing efficiency, and expanding GMV. The goals are clear and simple, and the implementation is simpler and more direct. However, the content is both rational and emotional. It must keep up with market trends and consider the audience's preferences, but it must also be slow. Careful work is done.
Currently, Youku is helmed by Fan Luyuan, president of Alibaba Entertainment Group. Fan Luyuan joined Alipay in 2007. He was the leader of Alipay’s fast payment products and one of the founders of Taopiaopiao. Judging from my experience, I am better at making products than content.
So far, Youku’s organizational transformation seems to have no sign of completion.In 2021, Zheng Wei, the former vice president of Youku, resigned; in 2022, Lin Zhiqiang, the former head of Youku variety shows and vice president of Youku, who had been in charge of Tmall's "Double 11" party for three years, resigned, and business executives were replaced; in 2023, many people in Youku's long-standing project team was laid off.
When can Youku stabilize its management team? unknown.
returns to its essence and usher in a key node?
As the former "big brother" in the long video industry and the oldest player, backed by the commercial giant Alibaba, why has Youku fallen behind? What are the shortcomings of "Five Elements"?
returns to the essence and has to focus on the content. Take 2023 as an example.
According to the "2023 Drama Market Report" released by Beacon Professional Edition, in the past year, there has been an "explosion" of high-quality and high-reputation content. There were as many as 23 dramas with a Douban score of 8 or above, compared with only 6 in 2022. , soaring 283.3%
Among them, from high to low, "The Long Season" produced by Tencent Video scored the highest score of 9.4 points, followed by "The Three-Body Problem" produced by Tencent Video and Mango TV. "A Place Without Wind" both scored the second-highest score of 8.7; iQiyi's "Broker Elite Season 2" and "Once Upon a Time" jointly produced by iQiyi and Tencent Video were both ranked as "Third Prize" 8.5 points.
Picture source: Beacon's "2023 Annual Drama Market Report"
system sorted out, among these 23 good dramas, the majority were taken away by Tencent Video and iQiyi. Especially the former, in 2023, produced many solo masterpieces such as "Glory of the Fathers", "Legend of the Magpie Sword" and "Only Love", which have attracted countless fans; the latter also relied on "Horse", "Lotus Tower" and "Special Mission" Waiting for the continuous supply of hard goods, it shows its strong ability to attract money: in the first three quarters of 2023, revenue increased by 12.9% year-on-year to 24.17 billion yuan, and net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 431.29% year-on-year.
Youku has only four dramas shortlisted, "Three Years of Songs", "Days of Chasing the Light", "Under the Stranger" and "Time Like Fire", accounting for only 17.4%, and they are all works with relatively low ratings.
Judging from the timeline, at the beginning of the year, iQiyi had a good start with "Kurst", which became popular across the Internet. Tencent Video's TV series of the same name adapted from the super IP "The Three-Body Problem" also won a lot of applause; in the summer season, Tencent Video's ancient costume The drama "Sauve Acacia" and iQiyi's mystery drama "Lotus Tower" both aroused the audience's empathy with the characters and continued to dominate the top topics on Douyin and Weibo.
Although Youku also released "Who is He" starring Zhang Yi after "Crazy", the plot, rhythm, and editing were lackluster. In the end, it started high and fell low. It didn't even get a passing score on Douban, with only 5.6 points; In the summer season, Youku's "Days of Chasing Light" and "Under the Stranger" collided with "Sauvignon Blanc" and "Lotus House". Facing the fiercer offensive of competitors, they could only silently swallow "Others eat meat and I drink soup." "The bitter fruit.
At the end of the year, Youku finally released the popular and popular "News Queen". More than a month after the show was launched, the number of Douban ratings exceeded 100,000, and the score reached 7.8 points. It is one of the few popular movies in recent years. Hong Kong dramas that have gained both word-of-mouth and popular journalism, as well as the education-themed "The Young Man Who Calls the Dragon", also received widespread attention when they were launched. But overall, the total number of playable projects on Youku throughout the year is too small. And without a drama with national influence similar to "Knight" or "Sauvignon Blanc", it is naturally not enough to compete with its opponents and cannot continue to attract the audience's enthusiasm for chasing dramas and recharging.
For long-form video platforms, content is the starting point of all actions. Whether the C-side should be a member, or whether the B-side should advertise, all ultimately rely on content to support it. In other words, only good content and good stories can help the platform go far and jump high. Obviously, Youku’s basic skills still need to be vigorously consolidated.
is even more so. After Alibaba was split into six, breaking the "big pot rice", the six major businesses were responsible for their own profits and losses, and the pervasiveness of short videos, the strong rise of the short drama market, posing a big threat to long videos, leaving Youku no time to transform. too much.
However, the turning point is not without its consequences.In the latest 2024 drama documentary list released by Youku, top dramas such as "Shangganling", "The Code of Along the River During the Qingming Festival", "Snow Maze" and "Sea of Dreams" have aroused widespread expectations, and there are also Zhang Yimou, Liu Cixin, Zheng Xiaolong and Ding Hei. , Xu Hongyu and other ace directors, as well as the classic IP "This!" It is "Hip-hop 6", the all-star ost music program "Drama Good Song 2", etc.
In 2024, can Youku usher in an inflection moment? Wait for the market and time to give the answer.
