Why are you being scolded for always having long videos?

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Author | Editor Li Qiuhan | Wei Jia

Source: Shenrancaijing

“Don’t look too ugly”, “I won’t watch dramas in the future”, “Obviously you can grab money, but it still has to give VIP”…

The long video platform was scolded again.

This has to do with two recent events. First, the price of Tencent Video members will increase. Starting from April 20, the VIP continuous monthly subscription price will increase from 20 yuan to 25 yuan, the super film and television VIP continuous monthly subscription price will be adjusted from 30 yuan to 35 yuan, and the VIP annual card price will be adjusted from 253 yuan to 258 yuan. Yuan, only some prices remain the same.

Second, Youku caused controversy due to the way new dramas are updated. Youku’s new drama “My Name is Zhao Jiadi” is trying a new update mode. VIP users need to invite 5 friends to help unlock the latest episodes 23 and 24 on the basis of members’ first viewing.

As a result, #TencentVideo once again announced a price increase# on Weibo, and netizens complained. The long video platform was once again pushed to the forefront.

But on the other hand, from the consumer point of view, the opinions of users are not unified.

There are users who complain about the update method of the platform, and there are users who want fancy updates for the drama they want to watch, and even express their willingness to pay extra. The recently hit “The Story of Yu Shark: Like the Return of an Old Man” is updated three days a week and two episodes a day. It is approaching the finale. It has been called by netizens to add more updates, and more topics have even rushed to the hot search. Some netizens ridiculed, “If I cut a knife, can you give me the finale of “Just Like the Return of the Dead” this week?”

How should video platforms satisfy users, how much users can pay for video products, and the acceptance of different groups is different.

Some people in the industry complained about the video platform, “For long video platforms, content is a heavy asset. When satisfying users, it is necessary to consider whether the cost can be recovered.” In his view, since some users are eager to urge more popular dramas, The phenomenon of requiring more updates does exist, so on the premise of respecting and guaranteeing user experience, video platforms should also have space for users to operate in layers and look for value-added services. will last.” However, he stressed that the premise is that the quality of the content is worthy of the price.

Every time the membership price increases, or the membership business is adjusted, the long video platform will fall into the whirlpool of public opinion. This time, is the long video platform wronged?

Why are you being scolded again?

It is not new for long video platforms to be scolded.

In 2021, the collective price of video platforms will increase, and users will already be dissatisfied. Take the subscription fee for continuous monthly membership as an example. On April 10, 2021, Tencent Video increased the price for the first time. The continuous monthly membership fee rose from 19 yuan to 20 yuan, and now it has risen to 25 yuan. On December 15, 2021, iQiyi announced that the continuous monthly price would be increased from 19 yuan to 22 yuan; on December 22, 2021, Mango TV announced that the continuous monthly price would be increased by 1 yuan, from 18 yuan to 19 yuan.

The increase is not large, and the complaints are not small.

A larger scale of dissatisfaction occurred with the advance on-demand event that became popular in 2019. This is a value-added service of the video platform. Users need to pay extra on the basis of membership to unlock the content of episodes in advance. The price of an episode is about 3 yuan. This led to a number of members suing the broadcast platform, and the model was eventually cancelled after being named by the Consumers Association.

After the resumption, users will spend more money and spend more money to chase dramas, which will cause a storm of public opinion.

Same this time. Whether it is the price increase of Tencent Video members or the fancy update of Youku, it can be attributed to the pull of buyers and sellers.

If the video platform is regarded as a seller, the user is regarded as a buyer, and the content of the episodes on the platform is regarded as a commodity, this incident is equivalent to that the seller has adjusted the pricing strategy of the commodity due to revenue pressure. The high content cost of video platforms cannot be ignored. For iQiyi alone, the content cost in 2021 will reach 20.7 billion yuan. However, if the buyer pays more costs, and the experience is not significantly improved, it is regarded by some users as not talking about “virtue”.

Shen Ran communicated with many people in the industry, and everyone has different opinions.

Some station users. She has worked in the industry for more than 20 years. Senior producer Sun Wenji has worked with the actors in “I Am Zhao Jiadi”. “Their acting skills are remarkable.” She said that ordinary stars and Internet celebrities can no longer make the audience pay. In production, it is returning to the essence of content. She admits that users have the selfish intention of “saving the better”, but in her opinion, “the actions of the platform are commercial behaviors. After the user pays the bill, the important thing is whether they can get a better user experience”. At present, the overall domestic drama series The production quality has not improved significantly.

There are also station platforms. Although he does not fully agree with the operation mode of the long-form video platform, the boss of a film and television company complained about the long-form video industry, “Just like passengers flying on a plane, they are divided into first-class and business-class, and they spend different prices and enjoy different services. There is no difference in the case of video platforms, but everyone wants to spend less.”

Wang Ke, a person from a video platform, felt incomprehensible, “The cheapest one costs 30 yuan to order a cup of Starbucks coffee, and the price of a monthly card on the current video platform is not as good as a cup of coffee.” In theme parks such as Disney and Universal Studios, in order to reduce queues, tourists buy tickets, and some people choose to buy fast-track tickets and fast-pass cards. “I don’t understand why it doesn’t work in the video industry,” he said.

The platform and users are full of grievances. What is the fundamental reason behind this?

Hu Shicheng, an investor in Far East International, explained that the domestic video platform started the payment model to follow the example of the foreign platform Netflix. But the difference is that foreign users have always had the habit of watching premium channels on TV. Netflix only needs to complete the migration of user habits, but in China, users have been accustomed to obtaining content for free for a long time, and the video platform must not only complete the user habits Migration, but also to cultivate users’ awareness of payment, “Just to cultivate awareness of payment, you have to do it little by little.”

How to cultivate?

Due to the different payment environments at home and abroad, the charging model of domestic video platforms has been adjusted locally. Hu Shicheng concluded, “If a video platform sets prices in a way that can earn back the cost, users will be scared away. They can only attract users with low prices, and then continue to make them pay or pay other prices.”

Judging from the results, the over 100 million members of the video platform are the result of the growth of users’ awareness of paying, but in the environment of long-term free content consumption, users’ understanding that content is also a commodity and has high costs also needs to be strengthened.

At the same time, the quality content provided by video platforms to satisfy users is limited. “Users’ paid consumption habits are lagging behind, and high-quality content production is also relatively backward. Both the supply side and the consumer terminal have deficiencies,” said Hu Shicheng.

As a result, membership pricing in the video industry has formed the current state, and “layered operation” for users has become an inevitable step.

Different user needs, is it wrong to operate in layers?

At present, it seems that compared with foreign video platforms, domestic video platforms play a bit “flowery” in terms of payment methods. This is also the hardest hit by users.

Zhang Feng, a senior industry person familiar with the membership system of the video platform, introduced to Shen Ran that the operation logic of the domestic membership system was born in step-by-step exploration.

In the early years, iQIYI was the first to explore the membership model. He recalled that at that time, a pirated CD was 5 yuan per piece. Assuming that users watched a movie on four weekends a month, it would cost 20 yuan. At the same time, iQIYI conducted a user survey and asked users to fill in how much membership price they could accept. The final answer was 15 yuan a month.

“Users must have written down, and later decided to set 19.8 yuan. This number can be attacked and retreated. If the market thinks that 19.8 yuan is set high, it can be discounted,” he said.

The membership price of Tencent Video and Youku is similar to that of iQiyi. The membership price is about 20 yuan. The long video platform has been maintained for 8 years. Such a price is clearly not enough to cover the cost.

On Netflix, only subscribers can consume content, and can watch the full episode at a time. From 2013 to 2015, the price of its most advanced membership was US$11.99, which is 77 yuan in RMB. In China, there is a lack of paid soil. From 2012 to 2014, long video platforms rely on movies to attract users to pay, but the results are not good. Zhang Feng introduced that the platform has been trying to pay for episodes since 2015, and was worried that payment would lead to the loss of users.

“Since paying for TV dramas, the number of members has skyrocketed,” Zhang Feng said. The most typical case is the popular “Tomb Raiders” in 2015. In the mode of members watching the complete works, users squeezed and crashed iQiyi’s server. From 2015 to 2016, the number of iQiyi members increased from 10.7 million to 30.2 million.

This model is extended by video platforms. But this is not the end of the payment method, and the model of releasing all the works at one time did not fully expand on a large scale later.

During this period, various platforms have carried out different degrees of exploration.

In 2019, Tencent Video launched the advanced on-demand mode on the hit drama “Chen Qingling”, and the filmmaker stated at the celebration banquet that the advanced on-demand profit was 156 million. This has been widely used on platforms such as iQiyi, Youku, Mango TV, etc., but due to the controversy over this model, it was later cancelled by the platform.

Youku’s practice of “inviting friends to help unlock” has also appeared on other platforms before.

In 2019, the youth love drama “Exclusive Memories” hit the air. When the update reaches 12 episodes, non-members will follow the drama at normal speed, and members can watch all the remaining episodes that have not been released publicly, provided that they need to do the task and invite 5 friends Unlock.

Time comes to 2022. The recent video platform price increase and membership addition activities are also the way for the platform to explore users in layers. However, due to the need to improve the awareness of payment in the big environment, and because of the unstable supply of high-quality content on the platform, the long video platform has been exploring the payment method and is in a dilemma.

Although referring to Netflix and setting the payment model, the payment ecology and membership system at home and abroad are not the same.

In the eight years from 2012 to 2020, the cost of content has soared, and the price of video platform membership is still hovering at 20 yuan. On the other hand, the price of Netflix’s highest-level membership in 2012 rose from $11.99 to $19.99, which is 130 yuan in RMB, an increase of 66.7%.

Zhang Feng explained that around 2018, iQIYI had studied Netflix’s price increase method, raising about 15% at a time, trying to follow suit. “But I have no confidence, and I am worried that users will go to other platforms. In the first half of 2020, iQIYI felt that it was necessary to increase, but in the case of the epidemic, it was not suitable to announce a price increase, and it was postponed for a while.”

Until the end of 2020, iQiyi will take the lead in raising prices. Even in terms of price increases, there is an idea of ​​tiered operation for users. Referring to Netflix, in order to prevent the loss of members, old members who have already purchased members can continue to purchase for a period of time at the old price, while new members who enter the market need to purchase members at the new price.

“The content should be returned to a reasonable valuation, within the range that users can afford,” Wang Ke said. Zhang Feng still regrets the video platform, missed the opportunity to increase prices, and fell into the current passive situation.

What is the way out for the long video platform that is despised?

Lei Ming, CEO of Aimeng Pictures, said that what he is worried about is, “If the long-term video industry is losing money for a long time and cannot find a new business outlet, it can only cut the budget and quantity of the project, so that the quality will be difficult to improve, and the motivation to attract users to pay will be reduced. Further reductions create a vicious circle.”

The long video industry is facing multiple pressures. Video platforms are affected by short videos, advertising revenue has declined, and the growth of membership has slowed down, so they can only make efforts to increase prices and attract new ones.

Even Netflix, which is regarded as an industry benchmark, has not risen. The latest quarterly financial report shows that Netflix subscribers fell by 200,000 for the first time, and the user guidance for Q2 also stated that it “continues to decline by 2 million”, resulting in a 25% plunge after the release of its financial report.

Netflix is ​​also thinking about raising prices and pulling new ones. At the beginning of 2022, Netflix will increase prices in many places. The price increase ranged from 1 to 2 US dollars, which was reflected in the financial report. In the first quarter, in the first quarter, in addition to the Asia-Pacific region, many other regions had different rates of increase.

At the same time, Netflix, which has always been known for its lack of advertisements, is also trying to launch advertised membership subscription prices and set up tiered pricing packages. Read Hastings, co-CEO of Netflix, said in an earnings call, “If users can accept advertising in between viewing content in exchange for a lower paid price, that’s very reasonable.”

On platforms such as Disney+ and Hulu, a tiered pricing model is also being implemented. Membership on Disney+ costs $7.99 a month, but it costs $13.99 a month to watch Hulu and ESPN+ at the same time. On Hulu, an ad-supported membership is $6.99 a month, and an ad-free membership is priced at $12.99 a month. In March, Disney+ announced that it would launch an ad-inserted membership subscription service in the U.S. this year, with plans to expand internationally in 2023.

“Users are diverse, and their needs are becoming more and more personalized. It is difficult to meet them with a simple VIP service. Some people have high requirements for the quality of watching movies, and some people have high requirements for the progress of the release of episodes. The platform also needs some tools to serve them,” Wang Ke said.

Now, there are a lot of voices from users for some popular dramas. Under the pressure of growth, the platform’s user layered operation is not entirely a bad thing, but it needs to be respected. “It cannot be simply stratified for the sake of stratification. It is necessary to provide corresponding services to users of the corresponding level. When launching new services, the pricing, launch time, and update methods must be transparent, which can give users a sense of security. ”, he said.

In his view, when trying, the platform must first fulfill its obligation to inform in advance. “If the platform cannot serve multiple users in a layered manner, and the needs of some users cannot be met, both the platform and the users may lose out.”

Of course, producing high-quality content is the premise for the audience to pay the bill.

User consumption of long videos is essentially a commercial behavior. How to make the content more valuable, the platform and users need to run in, and it is also necessary to leave room for exploration for the long video platform.

*The title image is from pexels. At the request of the interviewees, Zhang Feng and Wang Ke are pseudonyms in the article.

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