The valuation of Stations A and B is climbing step by step, and two different bullet screen business models have emerged

On August 26, the listed company Palm Technology invested in another barrage video website, Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as Station B), with an investment of 12.2272 million yuan (US$1.92 million), accounting for 0.71% of the shares. The public valuation of Station B has exceeded US$720 million.

Note: On August 6, the domestic bullet screen video website AcFun (hereinafter referred to as Station A) announced the completion of Series A financing with a financing scale of US$50 million. The leading investor, Heyi Group (formerly Youku Tudou Group), had previously rumored that it had multiple copyright disputes with Station A and filed high-priced infringement claims. This round of financing could be said to turn hostility into peace; on August 26, the listed company Palm Technology invested in another barrage video website, Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as Station B), investing 12.2272 million yuan (US$1.92 million), accounting for 0.71% of the shares-the public valuation of Station B has exceeded US$720 million.

The valuations of Stations A and B are both high, and the core product forms are very similar, but the two platforms have completely different operating ideas:

as the post-90s and even post-00s have become active in the Internet world and have a certain say, the viewing method of bullet screen videos is accepted by more and more people. Based on this, bullet screen video websites are increasingly favored by capital.

In this era, content providers will find it difficult to obtain more users if they cannot grasp the preferences of the new generation. Gu Yongqiang, chairman and CEO of Heyi Group, attaches great importance to this group. He once said that in the future, he would cooperate with A Station in various fields such as self-made animation, film and television dramas, and IP entire industry chain development.

Station A, which strives to build a cultural service community based on original content, and Station B, which has established a Japanese branch and planned tourism projects, seem to have embarked on two completely different paths. The competition and synergy between the two platforms are pushing this bullet screen video originating from secondary culture to invade the mainstream cultural world of tertiary.

The unstoppable barrage culture

In 2007, a netizen signed by "chiborin" uploaded a MV called "Pink Snow" on the Japanese video website niconico. While watching this work, some netizens used a big move, making the original comment group flying across the screen from right to left feel their presence, so large that the number of them obscured the video picture-the appearance looks similar to the bullet light waves in shooting games, and is vividly called "barrage" by Japanese netizens. This is the origin of barrage videos.

After bullet screens entered China, they were first popular among young people who liked secondary culture. For this group, the content world of mainstream Internet users is "three-dimensional", including real-life movies and TV series, real-life photos, etc., all of which are three-dimensional content. The second dimension is a two-dimensional plane world, that is, a plane world composed of animations, comics, games, and light novels.

The domestic secondary video website has become the first platform where users gather. Many people are already familiar with this brief history: Station A, which first imitated niconico, was established in March 2008, becoming the first bullet screen video website in China; in June 2009, a well-known user of Station A, bishi, left Station A and established Station B.

The early AB stations were mainly based on secondary content. At that time, secondary content was a more niche and marginal culture than it is now. Friends gathered at AB Station to watch and produce secondary content. Now, in the eyes of many people born in the 1990s, 1995s and even 2000s, the second dimension is no longer marginal. They have grown up in an environment with increasing content in the second dimension, and the boundaries between the second dimension and the third dimension are no longer so clearly divided.

They not only watch anime, but also TV dramas on the AB station. They began to use more three-dimensional content to make ghost videos (a type of video that netizens are keen on producing, with a highly synchronized and fast-repeating comic effect), such as Jackie Chan's "duang", which is already well known to the mainstream population.

However, in the face of the menacing three-dimensional video, some guardians of the second-dimensional dimension seemed a little angry and even chose to leave. Maintain the status quo or choose to expand categories to meet the needs of an expanding user base? In the process of integrating and influencing the secondary and tertiary dimensions, AB Station has been thinking about its own positioning.

"We are not second dimensional, we are 2.5 dimensional." There was a sticker on one door "Gothic Loli. In the office of the "Attention to Ghosts and Animals" sign, the person in charge of Station A's operations told Titanium Media.

We hope that Station A will become more diverse and that there will be more novel and fun things around ACG (Animation, Comic, Game, i.e. animation, comics, and games). This novel culture may come more from the second dimension, because the second dimension is an imaginary space, and the imaginary space will definitely develop faster than the actual situation. Although it seems that Station A is a two-dimensional website, we hope that Station A will become more and more 2.5 dimensional.

With the second element as the core, the continuous expansion into the third element is not the result of the deliberate guidance of Station A, but because the audience of the entire bullet screen video is increasing. These second-dimensional users (watching animations or comics at least once a week in the past six months) and pan-second-dimensional users (watching animations or comics at least once in the past six months) are no longer just obsessed with ACG. They have begun to make third-dimensional related content into bullet screen videos and put them on Station AB.

So, why do a large number of viewers like to watch bullet comments? The original needs of Internet users can actually be summarized in two words-loneliness, users want to find resonance and recognition. When you post a bullet screen, you are communicating with netizens who see the same time.

In addition, the bullet screen may also satisfy some people's vanity and may even become a powerful weapon to attract powder. The person in charge of Station A said,"We will teach users to send some graphical bullet screens. These bullet screens are not text or emoji characters. Some suddenly occupy the entire screen, and some are integrated with the video. When you turn off the bullet screen, you will suddenly find that the graphic is missing, and you will know that it is a bullet screen." It takes a certain amount of skill to make this kind of magic bullet screen. If you do it well, you may be admired by people in the station and attract some fans.

More importantly, the form of bullet screens can complement the content. Some people who have already watched a certain video will want to go to the AB station to scan the bullet screen again, because the bullet screen contains a lot of baggage. The video conveys the intention of the producer, and the bullet screen conveys the feelings of millions of viewers.

Well-known screenwriter Ning Caishen once told the media,"At most, tens of thousands of people were online at the same time (watching together). Watching everyone dig out every hidden slot, the sense of accomplishment is really indescribable." Ning Caishen even planned to re-edit a version of "Dragon Gate Escort Agency" based on the opinions in the bullet screen.

As more and more users start to play bullet screens, AB Station just provides them with a platform. Although mainstream video websites currently also provide bullet screen functions, they lack experienced players and a sense of community, and the user viscosity is far less than that of AB. A Japanese teacher in his 20s told the Ti Media editor,"Recently, there are no anime that I particularly like on Station B, but even if I watch TV dramas, I still go to Station B to watch it. The bullet comments on those mainstream video websites are at the level of primary school students."

The total number of users of bullet screen videos continues to grow, bringing many opportunities to the development of AB Station. According to the "China Secondary Industry Report" released by iResearch in 2015, the number of core secondary users reached 50 million in 2014. Including pan-secondary users, the total number was 149 million, which is expected to increase to 219 million this year.

Faced with such a large group of potential users, AB Station is also racking its brains to find a path to development.

Station A: Before the development of "I don't want to be a good land"

, we must first solve a long-standing problem-the copyright issue.

When niconico first established its website, it also obtained videos on YouTube through stolen links and was once forced to shut down the service. But then niconico used the animation sharing service of its holding company Dwango, and the chain theft problem was solved, but AB Station was still struggling in the quagmire of copyright disputes. In December 2014, Station B was sued by iQiyi for copyright issues and was involved in nine copyright litigation disputes. At the beginning of 2015, rumors of copyright disputes at Yoututong Station A also became a hoot.

Only by financing, seeking monetization methods, and purchasing more copyrights, or by making original content yourself and developing independent IP can we ensure a steady supply of content. Judging from the current situation, Station B took the previous path, while Station A chose the latter.

After obtaining investment from Heyi Group, Stand A reached a sharing of some related video content with Youtu. However, Youtu also started out with UGC. It cannot give too much support to Station A in terms of genuine content. On the contrary, it can make people look forward to the production of original content. Gu Yongqiang once said that in the future, he would cooperate with A Station in various fields such as self-made animation, film and television dramas, and the development of the entire IP industry chain. In the next three years, Heyi Group will also invest 10 billion yuan in cash and resources to support online content.

Station A itself is also making efforts to be original. Liu Yanyan, an expert in the ACG field who has worked in the journals "Anime Vendor" and "Electronic Games and Computer Games", joined Station A this year. He said that Station A's primary goal in the future is to be original. Online dramas, animations, and movies are all possible, and he hopes that new IP will be born in these original content. Liu Yanyan told Titanium Media that the original content of Station A now accounts for roughly 50%, and in the future, more emphasis will be placed on originality, cultural construction, and Station A's service functions as a community.

"I never think that Station A is a video website. Station A is a cultural community serving young people. It just happens to have the function of playing videos. We don't even want to be a good place. Now that we are connected to the ecology of excellent soil, we have no intention of doing the biggest thing, we just want to do the most special thing and find our right place in a large system."

A staff member of Station A told reporters that due to historical reasons, the age group of Station A users is about 2 to 3 years older than Station B, which was established a year later. These "old users" like to discuss in the article area. This kind of community culture is Station A cannot abandon.

On the other hand, Station A also hopes to produce more fresh content to attract young audiences, especially users born in the 2000s. In Liu Yanyan's view,"The post-00s generation is the most believing generation after the post-70s generation like him. They do not succumb to the mainstream voice and have the courage to express their own positive energy thoughts. I hope Station A can provide them with such a platform."

As for business other than content, Liu Yanyan said that he would "entrust it to partners to complete", such as another "godfather" Aofei Animation. This is a listed cultural industry group. Among the companies in which Aofei Animation has invested in, in addition to Station A, there is also the original animation platform "Youyao". It also invested in the game live broadcast platform Douyu TV and the mobile distribution channel Buka Comics, etc.

Aofei Animation is a model for the commercial operation of content IP. It has built a pan-secondary platform that "promotes and distributes original IP through channels (mobile terminals, video websites, comic platforms), adapts games and moneys movies." In the future, Station A's secondary derivatives business will be entrusted to Aofei Animation.

Station B: The path of commercialization of repeated trial and error

Compared with Station A's attitude of "doing the content first and handing over the relevant business to its partners", Station B has made many attempts on the road of commercialization. Among them, the revenue generated by game intermodal transportation has achieved considerable results.

"The game department is the revenue generation department of Station B, so we are under a lot of pressure every day, but the work content is very interesting. I try to play various games every day, screen out games that suit the tastes of users on Station B, and put them on Station B for users to evaluate. The criteria for screening are hard to say. The main thing is to have good painting styles and innovative gameplay, followed by character settings, music, etc. The overall situation may be Japanese and should be easy for users to accept. We bring traffic and share it with the game company. Shanda previously had a game "Lovelive! "Academy Idol Festival", 70% of the traffic was brought by us." On the other end of the phone in Shanghai, a staff member at Station B told Titanium Media.

Station B has also recently launched some nurturing games for women. Whether there is innovation in gameplay is one of the criteria, but it mainly relies on the personal experience of the staff.

Game intermodal transportation has become the main source of income for Station B. It is understood that the monthly flow of "Collapse Academy 2" games has exceeded tens of millions. Cai Haoyu, CEO of Mihayou and producer of "Collapse Academy 2", once told the media that more than 50% of "Collapse Academy 2"'s Android revenue comes from Station B, and its core data is 3 to 4 times higher than that of other Android markets.

In addition, for high-end users among the otaku group, Station B also launched a Tokyo tour and other tourism projects in April this year called "Exploring Akihabara and Traveling to the Second Dimension". "The cost is 7600, 5 days and 4 nights, mainly for free travel. Disadvantages: The price is expensive. Advantages: There are other groups that will accompany you to visit Akihabara for three days, go to the maid cafe (shop), and even take you to buy 18X books?" In Post Bar on Station B, a user used this sentence to summarize TA's trip to Tokyo. For second-dimensional enthusiasts, it should also be a kind of happiness to go to Akihabara with a group of fellow lovers in a group without aunts.

In October 2014, Station B also implemented the "New Fan Contracting Plan", which refers to the recently (or upcoming) released animations in Japan. The essence of this plan is crowdfunding to buy copyright. Call on everyone to pay for the purchase of genuine copyright, so that Station B can continue to not play advertisements in front of videos to earn copyright fees. It is understood that part of the funds were indeed obtained. For example,"Dry Girl! The 10th episode of "Xiao Mu" has 1.2 million views, with 176 people contracting it. Users can pay as much money as they want, but the total amount has not yet been disclosed.

In order to improve the user experience, Station B has removed many advertisements. After the proportion of advertisements in overall revenue has declined, Station B must plan the above-mentioned various monetization models. Other models also include the sale of peripheral derivatives.

However, excessive commercialization will inevitably arouse the resentment of some users. People from Station B have also said that the core purpose of continuously laying out new business areas is to continuously enhance user stickiness in order to achieve long-term and sustainable development. No matter which model is adopted, Station A will one day embark on the path of commercial operation. After all, it is not living in a secondary world.

Big Brother niconico's experience may be useful for reference. Niconico's revenue mainly comes from three parts: membership fees, advertising and direct sales (i.e. offline activities, where some peripheral products are sold, or tickets for live events of anime stars and actors). Today, niconico has developed into Japan's YouTube and has become one of the few profitable video websites in the world. Because of its influence among users, some important political events in Japan have also begun to choose to be broadcast live on niconico's website.

Although it is difficult to predict whether barrage will become the standard feature for young people in my country to watch videos in the future, barrage is entering the lives of mainstream people.

If you haven't seen "Return of the Great Sage" and "Get lost!" You might as well try the bullet screen versions of movies such as "Tumor King" and "Black Cat Sheriff". Looking at the bullet lines on the screen such as "233333"(to laugh) and "Go back to retaliate against society", you may complain that the movie is simply unwatchable-until you suddenly get used to it.

As Xiaomi co-founder Li Wanqiang said,

"After watching (the bullet screen video) for 30 minutes, he suddenly found that the feeling had changed. He found that the bullet screen and the video could be separated, and it became a state where you can read the text if you want. Text, watch the video if you want."

Editor: yvonne