17 Live broadcast financing of 150 million yuan returned to the mainland to build a comprehensive Mobile Live Video Broadcasting platform

Taiwan's well-known live video application 17App officially announced that it will join forces with Beijing Moyou Century Technology Co., Ltd. to establish a China company in the mainland, launching 17App's strategic plan to fully enter the mainland. In addition to establishing a China company, 17App China also announced that it has received 150 million yuan in financing from Lesi Ventures and Unnamed Capital.

Original title: 17 Live broadcast established a mainland company and received 150 million yuan in financing. It needs to change the game

. Moyou Century CEO Song Xiaofei has been very busy recently and frequently flies between Beijing and Taiwan.

As a veteran with more than ten years of experience in the game industry, he now has another title-head of 17 App China.

Not long ago, Taiwan's well-known live video application 17App officially announced that it would join forces with Beijing Moyou Century Technology Co., Ltd. to establish a China company in mainland China, launching 17App's strategic plan to fully enter the mainland. In addition to establishing a China company, 17App China also announced that it has received 150 million yuan in financing from Lesi Ventures and Unnamed Capital.

The 17 App, which was once invested by national husband Wang Sicong and was even promoted by Wang Sicong on Weibo, became a hit last year. However, it was later removed from the shelves of major stores due to its involvement in pornography and almost disappeared in China. So can the comeback 17 App still make a way in the highly competitive domestic live broadcast market?

The 17App 17App, which was once popular

around the world, was co-founded by Taiwanese artists Huang Licheng and B2 (Chen Yanming). In his early years, Huang Licheng formed L.A. Boyz with his brother Huang Lixing and his cousin Lin Zhiwen to bring American hip-hop dance to Taiwan. B2 (Chen Yanming) was once the producer of Taiwan's famous variety show "Kangxi Comes".

The founding team's variety background, coupled with Wang Sicong, who was rumored to have decided to invest a million US dollars in 17 apps in 10 minutes, became the two biggest killers of his popularity in mainland China.

In addition, the biggest feature of 17 is that live broadcast users can participate in advertising sharing. On average, 1000 people watch the live broadcast can earn 1 US dollar in revenue, and if they accumulate to 100 US dollars, they can apply for withdrawal, which is a great incentive for users to participate.

After being launched in June 2015, 17 Apps have topped the list of App Stores in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the United States, and on September 25, 2015, they have topped the free list of App Store in China.

However, popularity and pornography intersect. In order to attract popularity, some users often use large-scale content as live content. First, boys live streaming their younger sisters taking a bath, and then men and women live streaming the process of sex.

Subsequently, 17 App was removed from shelves in various countries. Its founder Huang Licheng was even summoned by the court in Taiwan to assist in the investigation due to pornographic live broadcasts.

After encountering the storm of being removed from the shelves, the barbaric 17 App began to slowly move towards a dull period. This is even more true in mainland China. As Song Xiaofei admitted,"17 App China has not yet officially started operation, and the current version just rebuilds the overseas version into a new environment."

Since the servers of 17 App are overseas, they are often blocked in mainland China, or the network is unstable, the user experience is very unfriendly. If you open the current China version of 17 App, you will find that its anchors are basically Taiwanese, and the number of viewers in the live broadcast room recommended on the home page is only a few hundred at most. This is in sharp contrast to its popular era.

Back again, but the mainland market has long changed.

Moyou Century was established by Song Xiaofei in 2010 and is mainly responsible for distributing mobile games. For Song Xiaofei, who has been working in the game industry, the establishment of 17 App China is actually a re-start.

Song Xiaofei revealed that Moyou Century became involved with 17 App because the two companies have the same investor-Japan Venture Capital Infinity Venture Partners (IVP)."In addition, 17 App also wants to start business in mainland China, so the two parties hit it off."

The reporter inquired through the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System that the term "engaging in Internet cultural activities" was added to the business scope of Moyou Century on March 30, 2016. Song Xiaofei also said that in the future, Moyou Century will be renamed 17 China, and his focus will also shift from his old game to 17 App China, and the game business will be handed over to previous partners and teams to do it separately.

However, during the period between the 17 App's removal from shelves and the announcement of its re-entry into the mainland market, the mainland's live broadcast industry has already undergone earth-shaking changes.

According to a report released by Ai Media Consulting, the number of online live broadcast platforms in China was close to 200 in 2015, and the number of online live broadcast platform users has reached 200 million. From YY, Douyu, to national husband Wang Sicong's Panda TV, to 360, Baidu, Alibaba, Xiaomi, and Tencent, one after another, China's live broadcast industry has ushered in a "Hundred Broadcast War." In addition to entertainment and games, live broadcasts such as sports and even finance are also constantly emerging.

Data shows that the types of live broadcasts currently watched by netizens are still mainly entertainment and life live broadcasts, that is, the show mode.

However, behind the prosperous market, problems such as a single profit model and pornography are troubling players who want to get a chance to take off at the outlet.

This is especially true for the show model. The live broadcast platform mainly relies on users to reward and give gifts to the anchor to earn a share of revenue, which is difficult to cover the high broadband costs. Coupled with the contract costs of anchors, few platforms can achieve profitability.

The single profit model also has financing as a lifeline, but issues such as pornography directly attract strict government supervision.

From live broadcasts to female anchors, all three points are missing, various vulgar, violent and other content frequently appear, and rectification actions by relevant departments have followed.

In April this year, a number of online live broadcast platforms jointly issued the "Beijing Online Live Broadcast Industry Self-Regulation Convention" to clarify the responsibilities of anchors and platform parties. Later, the Ministry of Culture announced the investigation and punishment of platforms such as Douyu, Huya, and Panda TV.

After the live broadcast of Douyu, the Cybersecurity Corps of the Jiangsu Province Public Security Department once posted a Weibo saying,"If Douyu cannot review the content well, it can shut down the server for a few months to rectify it." There is no doubt that if pornography, violence and other content are not controlled, the platform will not only be investigated and interviewed, but may even face the risk of being shut down.

Regarding these, Song Xiaofei seemed confident."We have long known that the show venue will be rectified in China, so we have also determined the overall strategic direction and will definitely not regard the show venue as the core value of 17 App in China."

This new entrant to the live broadcast industry believes that the show model will not last long."As a quick way to monetize, the show is a good monetization method for platforms with traffic," but "the show can make money for a while. Money, you can't make money for a lifetime."

After all, 17 Apps have already stumbled heavily on pornography and regulation.

Do you want to play ecology with the support of LeTV Live Broadcast?

LeTV relies on its "Internet ecosystem model" to continuously expand into TV, mobile phones, automobiles and other industries. Although it is controversial, its ambition and courage are hard to deny.

The 17 App China, which is injected with LeTV genes, is also unable to conceal its ambitions.

Song Xiaofei revealed that 17 App China will undergo a comprehensive revision in mid-June. The content is no longer based on the show, but is divided by channels. His plan is to build 17 App China into a comprehensive Mobile Live Video Broadcasting platform.

At present, 17 App has only about thirty to forty employees in China, with operations, customer service, and business as the main body. It will gradually expand its technical team and content production team in the future. Song Xiaofei's expectation is to reach 200-300 people, which means that the scale of employees must be rapidly expanded to seven or eight times the current level.

In terms of content, 17App China will cooperate with LeTV on sports and variety shows in the future, and the content will be included in 17Sports and 17Variety Channels; 17App China will also integrate the stars and variety resources of Taiwan headquarters with LeTV's resources to increase self-made content. In the end, multiple channels such as 17 sports, 17 variety shows, 17 entertainment, 17 movies and television, and 17 games were formed.

Once 17 App's homemade content in China reaches a scale, its reach will further extend to IP production, distribution and derivatives.

In addition to content, 17 App China will also cooperate with LeTV on smart hardware.

According to Song Xiaofei, 17 App China will release a smart camera with LeSports in mid-June,"at least a professional-level dynamic camera like GoPro." He emphasized that the product's target users are many anchors who lack professional equipment during live broadcasts.

In addition, LeEco has also been deploying 360-degree panoramic live broadcasts and VR live broadcasts for a long time. As it is included in the LeEco ecosystem, 17 App China may have a lot of gameplay.

According to official data released by 17App, 17App currently has 4 million users in China and 10 million overseas. "In China, after we finish operating it, we will work hard in the second half of this year and early next year. Our goal is to achieve more than 20 million yuan." This means that its user size will increase to five times the current level in half a year.

Whether everything described by Song Xiaofei can be realized will not be known until the new version of 17 App China is launched in mid-June. However, it can be expected that under the dilemma of the show model, a change in the live broadcast industry will come sooner or later.

Editor: Nancy