If Tencent Video, iQiyi, and Youku, which all hit the market in 2023, are indistinguishable from each other, then as of 2024, iQiyi is slightly lagging behind, and the competition in the long video battlefield is more like The battle between Tencent and Youku.
author | Yang Zhichao
editor | Yuanye
WeChat public account: slightly larger reference (id: hyzibenlun)
In 2016, LeTV’s capital chain problem broke out, symbolizing the end of the chaotic period of long video. Since then, the long video industry has entered a three-legged state that has lasted for eight years.
But in the business world, the "triangle" is never stable enough - the boss and the second child are at war, and the third child is often eliminated, such as Baidu Takeaway and Heqizheng Herbal Tea. In the
long video industry, signs of instability have also appeared recently.
iQiyi’s second quarter financial report showed a significant decline in net profit. Many of its drama series in the first half of the year did not meet expected results. At the same time, Tencent Video has produced four hit dramas, while Youku has only one White Night Theater and has released three well-received dramas: "Once Upon a Time on the Edge of Water", "Dark Fire" and "Rebirth". In the first half of this year, according to Kuyun's "2024h1 Drama Full-Terminal Viewing Volume Report", Youku's drama viewing volume rose to second place in the industry.
It’s hard to say who is better between Tencent Video and Youku. But for the first half of 2024 alone, iQiyi’s production capacity for popular products has temporarily fallen behind. It is not difficult to see that if this trend continues, then long videos will also enter a competitive landscape where two heroes compete for the throne - just like most tracks in the Internet industry.
1 Long video enters the final knockout round?Compared with the life-and-death e-commerce, automobile, and local life industries, the competition intensity of long videos does not appear to be that high. This industry has always had enough growth for the three platforms to have good performance at the same time.
But now, the long video industry has released a signal that it is entering the knockout round. An obvious change is that the business of long video platforms has begun to differentiate.
Last week, iQiyi released its second quarter financial report, with revenue falling 5% year-on-year and net profit falling 81% year-on-year. After the financial report was released, iQiyi experienced a 15.58% drop on that trading day, and another 10% drop on the second trading day.
Looking back in 2022, iQiyi achieved full-year profits for the first time, and the high-spirited Gong Yu released a "Letter to Investors". In the letter, Gong Yu mentioned: We have realized the transformation from "iQiyi can create hot products" to "iQiyi is a hot product manufacturing camp".
It is certainly true that iQiyi can create hit items, but the ability of the “hit making camp” remains to be seen.
From 2022 to 2023, iQiyi released 5 dramas with "popularity exceeding 10,000" including "Crazy". However, in the first half of this year, iQiyi only produced one such drama, namely "Storm Chaser" which was launched in the first quarter.
More importantly, iQiyi’s “Mist Theater” has a poor reputation this year and lost to Youku’s “White Night Theater” in the suspense brand war.
In the first half of 2024, dramas including "Dislocation", "The Boy Who Can't See a Shadow" and "The Unspeakable" did not replicate the myth of the hit dramas of the Mist Theater in the past.
On the other hand, in 2024, Youku’s “White Night Theater” will have three hits. "Dark Fire" received a high score of 7.6 on Douban. "Once Upon a Time in the Bianshui" has gained both box office and word-of-mouth success after its broadcast. The latest Douban score has risen to 8.2 points, making it the highest-scoring domestic online drama in Douban history. "Rebirth" once ranked first among pure online dramas, short-form dramas and suspense dramas in 2024 in terms of average episode views.
In terms of costume dramas, Youku's "Huajian Ling", "Xi Huazhi", and "Mo Yu Yunjian" experienced three consecutive hits in the first half of the year. Among them, "Sister Mo Yuyun" became the "drama queen" in the first half of the year. In terms of variety shows, "This is My Island" received more than 10,000 hits within 38 hours of its release, and "Wireless Beyond Class" received thousands of hot searches on the entire Internet.
Tencent, in the first quarter of this year, Tencent Video successively launched four hit movies: "Flowers", "Celebrating More Than Years 2", "Walking with the Phoenix" and "The Story of Rose". Among them, "Qing Yu Nian 2" became the "king of dramas" in the first half of the year.
If Tencent Video, iQiyi, and Youku, which all hit the market in 2023, are indistinguishable from each other, then as of 2024, iQiyi is slightly lagging behind, and the competition in the long video battlefield is more like The battle between Tencent and Youku.
2 The hot-selling continuation passwordIn the early long-form video industry, the differences between Aiyouteng were not obvious. They were all looking for a common optimal solution such as costume love dramas. A situation brought about by this is that users are more like "migratory birds". Wherever there are good dramas, they will become members of whichever platform.
But with the competition of long videos today, user loyalty is becoming more important - it is directly related to user quality. The platform is also striving for higher-quality loyal users through multi-dimensional efforts. The changes in
are reflected in many aspects.
Take Youku as an example. The core of its efforts is talent-this is also a common password in the global content industry. Youku has put forward a point: good content + good creators + actor adaptation are the only formula for Youku to increase the probability of hits.
Internally, Youku has gradually established a series studio system and a producer-centered system. The theme is the same: giving more flexibility and dominance to the content frontline. Zhang Yuanhuan, the producer of "Bianshui Past", mentioned in an interview: "If such an adventurous project can be successful, it must be that the platform and the creator's concepts are highly consistent." This kind of conceptual fit can bring creative security to creators.
Externally, Youku cooperates with outstanding creators such as Xu Hongyu and Zhou Munan, especially emerging creators who are on the rise. In the process of cooperation, Youku is good at discovering new actors, new directors, and new screenwriters. For example, before cooperating with Youku, Li Hongyi and Sun Zhenni were just emerging young actors - good creators are always scarce, so Only by having your own "blood-making ability" can you truly "own" high-quality creators forever.
Tencent Video also values creators. They give creators sufficient polishing time and creative freedom, allowing high investment, long cycles and innovation. This concept has been successfully verified in dramas such as "The Three-Body Problem", "Flowers" and "The Long Season".
iQiyi will also begin to change the online movie billing model in 2024, trying to optimize the relationship between the platform and content creators. But before the new model can see obvious results, iQiyi's troubles with creators seem to be more obvious - old friend Miwei Media defected to Tencent, and variety show producer Tan Na switched to Youku.
Good creators bring good content, and continuous good content will eventually settle into "brand mentality", that is, differentiation. After all, the former can only bring in migratory bird users, while the latter can bring continuous subscriptions.
3 Who will be out?The triangle is the most physically stable structure, but in business competition, binary competition is the norm. There can be many second-tier players in the
industry, but there are usually only two in the first-tier industry: for example, Meituan-Ele.me in the food delivery industry, Douyu-Huya in the live broadcast industry, Keke-Pepsi in the beverage industry, and PepsiCo in the payment industry. WeChat-Alipay, Douyin-Kuaishou in the short video industry.
Penguin Esports is a "victim" of this pattern. Under the premise that Huya and Douyu have taken away most of the game live broadcast users, the market cannot accommodate and does not need a third mainstream live broadcast platform. This platform was eventually shut down in June 2022.
"top2" is the norm in the Internet world.
The long video industry, which has been "three pillars" for many years, has become an outlier for a long time in the past.
iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video have always firmly occupied the first echelon position. In many cases, the performance of the three platforms "advances and retreats together". For example, in 2017, Youku launched "White Night", which can compete for the best online drama in the past ten years, which indirectly brought about the golden age of online dramas. The three platforms have all competed and launched a large amount of high-quality content. The three rivals look more like "allies."
Until this year, the existence of the "top 2" law in the long video competition has become more and more obvious.
The deep-seated reason behind this is that in the current environment, peaceful coexistence is always the appearance, and fierce competition is the norm. Tencent Video has the largest user base, and Youku is "shooting with multiple arrows" in categories such as suspense and costume. At the same time, iQiyi, which is facing a crisis of "over 10,000 hits" in half a year and high-quality creative resources, is obviously in this round. Showed weakness in competition.
At the 2023 iQiyi World Conference, CEO Gong Yu once lamented: The most difficult time for this industry has passed.
"It should be in the past." He immediately added, deliberately adding the word "should". Now it seems that the most difficult time for the long-form video industry has indeed passed, but for iQiyi, a new difficult script may be beginning.
If Tencent Video, iQiyi, and Youku, which all hit the market in 2023, are indistinguishable from each other, then as of 2024, iQiyi is slightly lagging behind, and the competition in the long video battlefield is more like The battle between Tencent and Youku.
author | Yang Zhichao
editor | Yuanye
WeChat public account: slightly larger reference (id: hyzibenlun)
In 2016, LeTV’s capital chain problem broke out, symbolizing the end of the chaotic period of long video. Since then, the long video industry has entered a three-legged state that has lasted for eight years.
But in the business world, the "triangle" is never stable enough - the boss and the second child are at war, and the third child is often eliminated, such as Baidu Takeaway and Heqizheng Herbal Tea. In the
long video industry, signs of instability have also appeared recently.
iQiyi’s second quarter financial report showed a significant decline in net profit. Many of its drama series in the first half of the year did not meet expected results. At the same time, Tencent Video has produced four hit dramas, while Youku has only one White Night Theater and has released three well-received dramas: "Once Upon a Time on the Edge of Water", "Dark Fire" and "Rebirth". In the first half of this year, according to Kuyun's "2024h1 Drama Full-Terminal Viewing Volume Report", Youku's drama viewing volume rose to second place in the industry.
It’s hard to say who is better between Tencent Video and Youku. But for the first half of 2024 alone, iQiyi’s production capacity for popular products has temporarily fallen behind. It is not difficult to see that if this trend continues, then long videos will also enter a competitive landscape where two heroes compete for the throne - just like most tracks in the Internet industry.
1 Long video enters the final knockout round?Compared with the life-and-death e-commerce, automobile, and local life industries, the competition intensity of long videos does not appear to be that high. This industry has always had enough growth for the three platforms to have good performance at the same time.
But now, the long video industry has released a signal that it is entering the knockout round. An obvious change is that the business of long video platforms has begun to differentiate.
Last week, iQiyi released its second quarter financial report, with revenue falling 5% year-on-year and net profit falling 81% year-on-year. After the financial report was released, iQiyi experienced a 15.58% drop on that trading day, and another 10% drop on the second trading day.
Looking back in 2022, iQiyi achieved full-year profits for the first time, and the high-spirited Gong Yu released a "Letter to Investors". In the letter, Gong Yu mentioned: We have realized the transformation from "iQiyi can create hot products" to "iQiyi is a hot product manufacturing camp".
It is certainly true that iQiyi can create hit items, but the ability of the “hit making camp” remains to be seen.
From 2022 to 2023, iQiyi released 5 dramas with "popularity exceeding 10,000" including "Crazy". However, in the first half of this year, iQiyi only produced one such drama, namely "Storm Chaser" which was launched in the first quarter.
More importantly, iQiyi’s “Mist Theater” has a poor reputation this year and lost to Youku’s “White Night Theater” in the suspense brand war.
In the first half of 2024, dramas including "Dislocation", "The Boy Who Can't See a Shadow" and "The Unspeakable" did not replicate the myth of the hit dramas of the Mist Theater in the past.
On the other hand, in 2024, Youku’s “White Night Theater” will have three hits. "Dark Fire" received a high score of 7.6 on Douban. "Once Upon a Time in the Bianshui" has gained both box office and word-of-mouth success after its broadcast. The latest Douban score has risen to 8.2 points, making it the highest-scoring domestic online drama in Douban history. "Rebirth" once ranked first among pure online dramas, short-form dramas and suspense dramas in 2024 in terms of average episode views.
In terms of costume dramas, Youku's "Huajian Ling", "Xi Huazhi", and "Mo Yu Yunjian" experienced three consecutive hits in the first half of the year. Among them, "Sister Mo Yuyun" became the "drama queen" in the first half of the year. In terms of variety shows, "This is My Island" received more than 10,000 hits within 38 hours of its release, and "Wireless Beyond Class" received thousands of hot searches on the entire Internet.
Tencent, in the first quarter of this year, Tencent Video successively launched four hit movies: "Flowers", "Celebrating More Than Years 2", "Walking with the Phoenix" and "The Story of Rose". Among them, "Qing Yu Nian 2" became the "king of dramas" in the first half of the year.
If Tencent Video, iQiyi, and Youku, which all hit the market in 2023, are indistinguishable from each other, then as of 2024, iQiyi is slightly lagging behind, and the competition in the long video battlefield is more like The battle between Tencent and Youku.
2 The hot-selling continuation passwordIn the early long-form video industry, the differences between Aiyouteng were not obvious. They were all looking for a common optimal solution such as costume love dramas. A situation brought about by this is that users are more like "migratory birds". Wherever there are good dramas, they will become members of whichever platform.
But with the competition of long videos today, user loyalty is becoming more important - it is directly related to user quality. The platform is also striving for higher-quality loyal users through multi-dimensional efforts. The changes in
are reflected in many aspects.
Take Youku as an example. The core of its efforts is talent-this is also a common password in the global content industry. Youku has put forward a point: good content + good creators + actor adaptation are the only formula for Youku to increase the probability of hits.
Internally, Youku has gradually established a series studio system and a producer-centered system. The theme is the same: giving more flexibility and dominance to the content frontline. Zhang Yuanhuan, the producer of "Bianshui Past", mentioned in an interview: "If such an adventurous project can be successful, it must be that the platform and the creator's concepts are highly consistent." This kind of conceptual fit can bring creative security to creators.
Externally, Youku cooperates with outstanding creators such as Xu Hongyu and Zhou Munan, especially emerging creators who are on the rise. In the process of cooperation, Youku is good at discovering new actors, new directors, and new screenwriters. For example, before cooperating with Youku, Li Hongyi and Sun Zhenni were just emerging young actors - good creators are always scarce, so Only by having your own "blood-making ability" can you truly "own" high-quality creators forever.
Tencent Video also values creators. They give creators sufficient polishing time and creative freedom, allowing high investment, long cycles and innovation. This concept has been successfully verified in dramas such as "The Three-Body Problem", "Flowers" and "The Long Season".
iQiyi will also begin to change the online movie billing model in 2024, trying to optimize the relationship between the platform and content creators. But before the new model can see obvious results, iQiyi's troubles with creators seem to be more obvious - old friend Miwei Media defected to Tencent, and variety show producer Tan Na switched to Youku.
Good creators bring good content, and continuous good content will eventually settle into "brand mentality", that is, differentiation. After all, the former can only bring in migratory bird users, while the latter can bring continuous subscriptions.
3 Who will be out?The triangle is the most physically stable structure, but in business competition, binary competition is the norm. There can be many second-tier players in the
industry, but there are usually only two in the first-tier industry: for example, Meituan-Ele.me in the food delivery industry, Douyu-Huya in the live broadcast industry, Keke-Pepsi in the beverage industry, and PepsiCo in the payment industry. WeChat-Alipay, Douyin-Kuaishou in the short video industry.
Penguin Esports is a "victim" of this pattern. Under the premise that Huya and Douyu have taken away most of the game live broadcast users, the market cannot accommodate and does not need a third mainstream live broadcast platform. This platform was eventually shut down in June 2022.
"top2" is the norm in the Internet world.
The long video industry, which has been "three pillars" for many years, has become an outlier for a long time in the past.
iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video have always firmly occupied the first echelon position. In many cases, the performance of the three platforms "advances and retreats together". For example, in 2017, Youku launched "White Night", which can compete for the best online drama in the past ten years, which indirectly brought about the golden age of online dramas. The three platforms have all competed and launched a large amount of high-quality content. The three rivals look more like "allies."
Until this year, the existence of the "top 2" law in the long video competition has become more and more obvious.
The deep-seated reason behind this is that in the current environment, peaceful coexistence is always the appearance, and fierce competition is the norm. Tencent Video has the largest user base, and Youku is "shooting with multiple arrows" in categories such as suspense and costume. At the same time, iQiyi, which is facing a crisis of "over 10,000 hits" in half a year and high-quality creative resources, is obviously in this round. Showed weakness in competition.
At the 2023 iQiyi World Conference, CEO Gong Yu once lamented: The most difficult time for this industry has passed.
"It should be in the past." He immediately added, deliberately adding the word "should". Now it seems that the most difficult time for the long-form video industry has indeed passed, but for iQiyi, a new difficult script may be beginning.
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