Behind the "shot screen charging" and price increase, is Youku "miscalculated"?

"Try to see 6 minutes, upgrade Cool Meow VIP to watch the whole film." Youku, who has always been quite low -key in the long video field, did not expect to be "scolded" in this way -as a "head bird", Youku took the lead in the video in the video first in the video Toll on the screen and tear up a shame in the field of online video.

One stone stirred up thousands of waves. After the sound of Youku and the discussion of the industry, this change does not seem to constitute infringement, but it has attracted the "criticism" of users and is considered "unpalatable to eat."

This is also the last time Youku announced the "price increase" of members on June 21, although it was the last "price increase" compared to the iQiyi and Tencent of the "first echelon".

According to media reports, under the Weibo that Youku announced the increase in membership price, Gao Zan commented that in addition to fans' broadcast, it was a talk about the service: "In the past few years, watching major video membership fees rose from 15 to 30 to 30 in the past few years. As a result, the benefits that members should enjoy are not perfect. Advertising is still the same as members.

Although there is a privilege for "patch advertising", members still cannot escape the "small theater advertisements", "Chuangtai ads" and "suspension of advertising".

Youku was once the "leader" of China's long video field. After the long video starts to make self -made competition, it has always played the role of followers. For users who have no loyalty, the lack of "explosive drama" is Young users do not choose Youku's direct reasons.

Behind the price increase and price increase, it may be the pressure of Youku increasing income and profit. However, after various innovative charges, including advanced on -demand, several major head platforms have frequently encountered a crisis of trust. After this battle, is Youku's "misconduct" of "reputation"?

Following another set of "advanced on -demand"

"There are advanced on -demand, and there is a screen charging in the later screen. There are so many members to buy members?" Youku was criticized by netizens the most sharp point.

It has been ten years for the payment subscription model of long -term videos in China. For a long time, a stable low -cost strategy has been implemented to cultivate users' payment habits and melon markets. In the words, as long as you become a "noble" member, you can enjoy "privileges". At that time, the greatest attention of users was how to "eliminate" the advertisement before the video began.

Later, the "member" rights and interests not only increased, but also had a level, such as the division of ordinary members and gold members. Later, in order to harvest traffic, the cost of increasing costs innovatively "advanced" and successfully cut a wave of "leek".

After two years of playing with users, in 2021, "advanced on -demand" was canceled by several major platforms.

This time, Youku's "screening and charging" was considered by netizens to be "full of routines" after "advanced on -demand".

Hao Jianguo, a lawyer of Beijing Kangda Law Firm, said in an analysis of iQiyi's advanced on -demand case that the key point of losing the case was that the court believed that advanced on -demand damaging the advanced drama experience of the gold VIP member. The court believes that the "Gold VIP Member" agreement has already agreed: "You can enjoy watching in advance, no longer waiting for the speed of snail -like update. When others are still waiting for update, you have read the finale."

And Youku's "shot screen charges" is different.

In response to the bad reviews of netizens, Youku responded: "Youku VIP membership service can be used on mobile phones, tablets, and computer. The "Youku VIP Member Service Agreement", which takes effect on November 24, 2021, shows that Youku VIP membership services can be used on the mobile phone, tablet computer, and computer end, and cannot be used on the TV.

In fact, the online video platform has always been equipped with a large -screen member service, but before, users can bypass the large -screen payment through "casting", and the platform is acquiesced to this.

To this end, Red Star News interviewed the response after interviewing the relevant regulatory authorities: there is no infringement.

Clarifying the membership system of viewing the screen is the focus of the dispute. So, is it a feature of the mobile app to the mobile app, or is it used to use it based on the broadcast terminal?

In an interview with the media, Hao Jianguo believed: "Because the video platform provides audiovisual services, it is limited by factors such as file size, network transmission speed, and playback hardware quality. Different broadcast terminals will have different audiovisual effects, so I personally think that It is more suitable to determine the use of the use of the final broadcast end. "That is, although the screen is the function of the mobile app, it is eventually broadcast on the TV through the APP built -in screen. Essence Hao Jianguo said that if the "Youku VIP Member Service Agreement" has always clarified the scope of the use of Youku VIP membership services, then some episodes need to upgrade members to enter the screen.

In the actual operation of the Xinyao River reporter, Youku's shots are currently only aimed at the episodes with the "VIP" label, not all. Some netizens said that after contacting Youku customer service, the other party said that "can give a month of cool meow members to watch the content you want to watch."

"Big Screen" becomes a new growth point

The content of the mobile phone cannot be cast to the TV, and it has always existed before. But it usually involves a special statement of the copyright party. For example, some Disney's films, "Soul of the Soul", "Crazy Animal City" and so on. After many years of being "free" by the platform, the "sudden" charging of the screen screening is indeed unexpected, but the reason behind it is also thought -provoking.

According to reports, the "Statistics of the National Radio and Television Industry in 2021" shows that as of the end of 2021, the number of Internet TV users was 1.083 billion, and the Internet video annual payment users reached 710 million. The "Living Room Watch Report" released by Zhongguancun shows that 44.8%of users connect TV through mobile phones and tablets.

The platforms laid out the large -screen field early. LeTV and Xiaomi entered through hardware. Online videos such as iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video also entered the game through the Galaxy Qiqi, Cool Meow, and Cloud Aurora.

The "2021 Smart Screen Industry Development White Paper" shows that in the second half of 2021, the top three of the cloud -listening of the Lights, Galaxy, and Cool Meow Film and Television occupied the top three of the video media, with 106 million, 105 million and 75 million. Compared with the monthly living scale of 200 million to 500 million, there is still a lot of room for growth.

In the stage of "small screen" members entering the stages of nearly saturated and weak growth, with the trend of large screen viewing, TV members are likely to become a new growth point.

According to reports, the price of the TV side is much higher than the mobile terminal. Youku and Tencent TV members have the price of 488 yuan/year, while ordinary VIP members are 258 yuan/year, and the price of iQiyi TV is also more than 400 yuan/year, which is 1.6 times that of ordinary members.

Behind the price increase is the pressure of increased income and profitability of Youku.

According to Alibaba's financial report, from the first quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022 (natural year), the revenue of Alibaba digital media and entertainment sectors was 8.047 billion yuan, 8.073 billion yuan, 8.081 billion yuan, 8.113 billion yuan and 8.05 billion yuan Yuan. There was almost no increase in a month -on -month, and in the first quarter of 2022, it decreased by 1.33%.

From the perspective of the year -on -year increase, compared with the same period last year, except for the main theme drama "Shanhai Love" and the short -term explosion "Shanhe Ling" launched in 2021, more than 10%of the year -on -year increase in the first quarter, until the first quarter of this year, this Some businesses have increased almost zero year -on -year.

Why did Youku lose "word of mouth"

A few days before Youku virtue of the heated discussion on the "shots of the screen", the news of long video cooperation with short video was also scrambled to discuss.

On July 19, Douyin and iQiyi announced their cooperation to explore the second creation and promotion of long video content. Among them, iQiyi will authorize long video content with information network dissemination and transfer to its content assets to Douyin Group, including many high -quality repertoires, including the "Mist Theater", for short video creation.

At the same time, the news of Tencent and Kuaishou's upcoming cooperation was also passed on. But the news was quickly rumored by Tencent.

According to the Securities Times, some people in the industry revealed that the cooperation targets selected by Douyin at the beginning were Youku. Youku senior officials once said that they could "talk", but the cooperation was unsuccessful.

Once, Youku was also the "leader" in the field of online video. According to public data, in March 2013, Youku Mobile's daily video playback volume reached 150 million, the traffic quarterly increased by 50%. The daily visit time is 70 minutes, and the monthly coverage of users reached 100 million. Some media compared the data of station B in 2021. In the first quarter, the average daily stay of users was 95 minutes. From this, it can be seen that in 2013, Youku users' residence time can exceed one hour, which can be described as the industry leader.

Including the merger of Youku and potatoes at that time, it made Youku the "leader" of long videos. However, with the rise of other video platforms, Youku lacking the lack of explosive dramas gradually fell. The platform characteristics holding a large number of classic old dramas and Hong Kong dramas contrast the problem of weak self -made capabilities.

However, for Youku, there is no good content to make the foundation, but the increase in membership fees for income may be able to narrow losses by increasing hair profits in the short term, but it is not a long -term durability.

With the rise of short video platforms, the long video platform has been dispersed with most of the attention, and the quality of the content will be "abandoned."

Although netizens still teased, "a" Zhen Huan Biography "retains the prosperity of Youku's life." However, only "Zhen Huan Biography" is obviously not good for Youku. In the field of "screening and charging", Youku has taken the lead in the first step, so will other platforms follow closely? There will be answers.

New Yellow River Reporter: Xue Dong

Edit: Han Luying

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