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Long video is still difficult to make money
“Meng Hualu”, which was broadcast on Tencent Video for nearly a month, was once called “the spring of ancient puppet dramas” with a high score of 8.8 on Douban.
With such a rare explosion in hand, Tencent Video is also making new moves at the end of the season. VIP members spend 18 yuan to purchase “Viewing Coupon for the Live Screening Ceremony (Including Replay)”, and can watch the screening ceremony of “Fortunately Meet, Together with Dream China”, and can watch the big screen together with the starring group of “Meng Hualu” through the live room. ending.
Although the planning of this event was directly pointed to as a “resurrection” advance on-demand, many “recording people” still scolded and paid quickly, and met Liu Yifei with a cup of milk tea money.
Since the advance on-demand video withdrew from the stage of history amid verbal criticism, long-form video sites have not had any new revenue-increasing plans, and the issue of profitability has still not been resolved. If the profit model of the screening ceremony of “Meng Hualu” is indeed feasible, then it is very likely that long video websites will follow suit in the future.
But between this kind of gameplay with limited revenue and the complaints of netizens, there are probably more than ninety-eighty-one difficulties in the development of long-form video websites.
I want to receive “member money” from fans, but my sincerity is not enough
Zou Yingzhi, who has not pursued domestic dramas for a long time, has been a “recording person” for a whole June. The reason why “Menghualu” attracted her is very simple – Liu Yifei. “A cold knowledge, “Meng Hualu” is Liu Yifei’s first TV series broadcast as an adult.” Zou Yingzhi said that for this point, “Meng Hualu” must also be watched.
In fact, “Menghualu” has indeed received a lot of attention from the beginning of its broadcast. Douban scored 8.3 points, and then rose all the way to 8.8 points. As of the time of writing, although the score has dropped to 8.5 points, more than 55.8% of the audience gave 5 stars based on the scores of nearly 600,000 people. This result also makes “Meng Hualu” regarded as a late puppet drama. come spring.
Some people in the Douban group of “Menghualu” even said, “Starting today, “Menghualu” has officially become the standard. It is big enough to burst, and small to props. Those who do not meet the standard of “Menghualu” cannot be played. Explosive.” It is not difficult to see that in the somewhat boring film and television drama circle recently, “Meng Hualu” has indeed become a hit.
Seeing this, Tencent Video naturally also smelled the business opportunities. On June 23, Tencent Video announced the launch of the finale screening ceremony of “Meng Hualu”, and on the 26th, through live broadcast, the starring team of Meng Hualu will accompany them to watch the finale together with all the “recording people”.
“Dream Records”As soon as the news came out, Tencent Video was immediately criticized by netizens, “Goose, I have no heart, I just want money. I’m afraid it will affect the popularity of your July summer vacation file”, “You record Menghua up and down to make money. “I’m bald”, “Aren’t you afraid that someone will report you ahead of schedule?”, “Can you fight back after you make money, what are the leading actors being scolded for?”… Negative comments such as these have almost drowned out Tencent Video’s official WeChat account. Bo’s comment section.
However, on June 26, the “recording people” who “disliked the integrity of the mouth and body” still bought tickets for the screening ceremony for Liu Yifei, Chen Xiao, and the finale, which can be regarded as a CP for “Gu Panshenghui” “According to the members.
From the content point of view, the 18 yuan screening gift viewing coupon can not only watch the live broadcast of the screening, but also watch the remaining 8 episodes in one go. Compared with the previous unit price, it has dropped. “Anyway, it takes money to buy online disk resources. You can still see the fairy sister in the genuine version. This wave is not a loss.” Zou Yingzhi said.
However, Tencent Video, which was promoted as a gimmick with the live broadcast of the starring group, still encountered constant scolding. “Liu Yifei didn’t stay for a long time and left. It is said that it was because of work and filming. Moreover, when several leading actors were together, it was as embarrassing as a group online class, and the arrangement of the interaction was particularly boring.” Many viewers complained after watching the premiere. , “I originally went for a few leading actors, but I don’t know if it was because the schedule couldn’t be adjusted or for some reason, they all left one after another, which is fundamentally different from the original promotion.”
Amid the calls for “additional updates”, Tencent Video rekindled the dead ashes of advanced on-demand by way of screening ceremony + unlocking episodes. But from the final effect, the audience does not seem to be very satisfied with this.
Similar models, but the benefits are vastly different
After the infamy, did Tencent Video really make a lot of money?
There are nearly 800,000 reservations for the screening of “Menghualu”, and some industry insiders said that the conversion rate from the number of reservations to the number of paying people is about 10%, that is to say, the revenue of the screening gift package is estimated to be about 1.4 million yuan.
In addition, Tencent Video also set up the “Menghualu exclusive peripheral debut” on the screen of the screening ceremony, including the Double Butterfly Love Necklace priced at 158 yuan, the final blessing bag priced at 19.8 yuan, the white-headed bookmark priced at 25.9 yuan, Official customized group fans priced at 59 yuan, Pillow Dream bookmarks priced at 35.9 yuan, and various “Menghualu” peripheral products such as umbrellas, badges, masks, and keychains.
However, from the perspective of sales, only the sales of the final blessing bag, the welfare bag and the mask that sell for less than 20 yuan exceeded 1,000 copies, and the sales of other peripheral products were really bleak. Therefore, it may be difficult for Tencent Video to use the popular IP of “Menghualu” to achieve the hot sale of peripheral products.
The sales of “Meng Hualu” sold by Tencent Video were mediocreTherefore, Tencent Video’s move seems to rekindle the fire of advance on-demand, but it has not actually started.
Rewind the timeline back to 2019, when Tencent Video launched the advanced on-demand mode for the first time through the smash hit “Chen Qing Ling”. Perhaps because of its novelty, or because “Chen Qing Ling” was popular enough, the final advance payment revenue of the show was as high as 156 million yuan. This figure is obviously beyond the point-blank mode of “Meng Hualu”.
After that, the advanced on-demand model began to be implemented on major long-term video websites. According to the “Webcasting Performance and User Analysis of Serial Drama Market in the First Half of 2021” released by Yunhe Data, the number of “advanced on-demand” dramas online in the first half of 2021 reached 67 Department, accounting for 33% of the total new drama.
Among them, iQIYI launched 10 episodes on-demand ahead of schedule, with an on-demand ratio of 11%; Tencent Video and Youku launched 24 episodes on-demand ahead of schedule, with an on-demand ratio of 30% and 34% respectively, while Mango TV There are 21 episodes that are on-demand ahead of schedule, and the on-demand ratio is as high as 47%.
The unspoken rule that “every popular drama must be on-demand ahead of time” prevails in long video websites, but consumers are complaining about it. One is dissatisfaction with this kind of secondary consumption after recharging members, and the other is dissatisfaction with the rules of advance on-demand being quite “overbearing”, such as the inability to voluntarily choose which episode to pay for, but need to be unlocked episode by episode.
After receiving a large number of consumer complaints, the China Consumers Association issued a document pointing out four points that video website VIPs should abide by: 1. Advance on-demand re-voluntary, and the episode-by-episode restriction should be cancelled; 2. Advertising privileges should be guaranteed, and illegal push should be eliminated; 3. , The automatic renewal routine is deep, and the billing rules must be fair; 4. The agreement cannot be changed at will, and user rights and interests must be implemented.
By October 2021, iQiyi, Tencent, Youku and other video sites announced the cancellation of advance on-demand. The mechanism of this rescue video website, which attracted countless infamy for a while, finally came to an end.
At present, although the mode of the gift package for “Meng Hualu” is somewhat similar, it is not as good as before in terms of revenue and attractiveness to consumers.
Quit the “three highs” and rethink the profit problem
It has been less than a year since the cancellation of advanced on-demand video, and Tencent Video has urgently launched the video-on-demand gameplay. Behind this is the old-fashioned profit dilemma.
Since last year, iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Mango TV have successively raised membership prices. “Monthly subscription” and other membership services have seen a price increase of 5 yuan to 20 yuan. iQiyi and Mango TV saw similar increases, while Youku announced price hikes ahead of the launch of various blockbuster dramas and variety shows this summer.
The strategy appears to be working, although every price hike on long-form video sites creates a storm. According to iQiyi’s Q1 financial report in 2022, ARM (monthly average single-member revenue) in the quarter was 14.69 yuan, compared with 13.64 yuan in the same period last year, an increase of 7.69%.
The advance payment revenue of “Chen Qing Ling” is as high as 156 million yuanBut this is not a solution that can fundamentally reverse the situation, which can be seen from the gap between the popularity of “Meng Hualu” and the final screening effect. Some viewers pointed out that when Tencent Video chose the wrong point, “”Menghualu” can be regarded as high and low. The first half is really good, but some of the plots have collapsed later, and at this time, people will spend extra money. Buy the ending, no wonder the effect is not good”.
In the final analysis, the most important consumption reason for the audience is still whether the products have excellent quality. For the long video industry, it is to test whether the platform can continue to produce more sophisticated film and television works. Zhang Xiaorong, Dean of Deepin Science and Technology Research Institute, once said to the media, “Long video platforms lack core competitiveness, the industry lacks a healthy business model, and it is difficult to form a positive cash flow. Under the competition of short videos, the IP of long video platforms The ability of publicity and distribution has further declined, the industry has entered a downward channel, and there is no sign of a rebound at present.”
For a long time, the high cost of high-quality content acquisition, the high investment cost of platform operation and maintenance, and the high cost of traffic acquisition and maintenance have always weighed down long-form video websites, and even spawned the chaos of sky-high prices for copyrights of popular dramas. But with the passage of time, long video websites have gradually reached the stage where they must explore profitability, otherwise they will just become IP agents and advertising platforms.
After “Meng Hualu”, perhaps the mode of opening the screen will be popular on the long video platform again, but the audience is not stubborn, just need to see the sincerity of the platform. On the one hand, long video platforms need to stop their pursuit of popular IPs and spend a lot of money and energy. Instead, they devote themselves to creating unique IPs and creative capabilities to enhance their stickiness to users; I hope that every penny spent is worth the money. How many tricks can be played in this is still a question for the platforms to think about.
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