The biggest hit business was named by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and the market value of Weibo evaporated by more than 5 billion yuan

Weibo issued an announcement stating that only Weibo users who have obtained the "Information Network Communication Audiovisual Program License" can upload audio-visual programs, and uploading non-program videos will not be affected.

On the afternoon of June 22, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a document requesting Sina Weibo, ACFUN and other websites to shut down audio-visual program services. Affected by this news, Weibo's U.S. stocks fell more than 10% before the market and fell about 10% within half an hour of opening.

On the evening of June 22, Weibo issued a notice stating that only Weibo users who have obtained the "Information Network Communication Audiovisual Program License" can upload audio-visual programs. Users who have not obtained the "Information Network Communication Audiovisual Program License" cannot upload audio-visual programs. Weibo users uploading non-program videos will not be affected.

After Weibo issued the above announcement, the decline in U.S. stocks on Weibo narrowed significantly. As of 23:30 on June 22, Weibo's share price fell more than 5%, and its market value evaporated by about US$800 million (approximately RMB 5.5 billion).

In the document, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television stated that in response to websites such as "Sina Weibo","ACFUN", and "Fenghuang" that carry out audio-visual program services without the "Information Network Communication Audio-visual Program License" and broadcast a large number of audio-visual programs that do not comply with national regulations, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television recently issued a letter instructing the territorial management department to take effective measures to shut down audio-visual program services on the above-mentioned websites. Carry out comprehensive rectification.

It is understood that Internet audio-visual program services refer to the activities of producing, editing, integrating and providing video and audio programs to the public through the Internet, as well as providing services for uploading and disseminating audio-visual program services to others.

It is worth noting that live video is becoming the biggest "hot spot" for Weibo's performance growth. Weibo's recently released first quarterly report for this year showed that the average daily active users (DAU) of Weibo in March 2017 increased by 28% compared with the same period last year to 154 million. Among them, the number of users publishing Short Video increased by 40% month-on-month, while the number of video advertisers increased by 50% month-on-month.

In a conference call after the release of the first quarterly report, Weibo CEO Wang Gaofei said that this year the company will focus its products on UGC (user-generated content) video. On April 19, Weibo launched a "Weibo Story" with Short Video function. Wang Gaofei said that 10% of users have begun to use this function every day. He believes that compared with Instagram, Weibo has great potential in the Short Video business."Among Instagram's daily active users, 40% are using the 'Stories' product. In the next quarter or two, our content production in Short Video will mainly focus on continuing to optimize the product experience in this area."

Weibo's efforts in Short Video do not stop there. In March this year, Weibo spent tens of millions of dollars to reach a four-year cooperation with the NBA on Short Video content. At the same time, the world's top sports event organizations that have cooperated with Weibo in Short Video include La Liga and the NFL (Major League Football).

In addition to Short Video, live broadcasts are also the focus of Weibo layout. Xijia Technology and Weibo have cooperated to launch the Short Video product "Second Shot", the live broadcast product "One Live Broadcast", and the lip-to-mouth imitation product "Little Coffee Show". "We have never avoided our relationship with Weibo. Every live broadcast is a live broadcast on Weibo, and a live broadcast on Weibo is a live broadcast." Here is what He Yi, vice president of science and technology, said in an interview with Economic Observer Network. Previously, many internationally renowned investment banks, including Morgan Stanley, predicted that video and live broadcast products would drive both growth in Weibo users and profits.

Although the financial report did not release live broadcast data, Analysys released the report "Quarterly Inventory Analysis of China's Mobile Live Video Broadcasting Market-First Quarter of 2017" showing that in the first quarter of 2017, a live broadcast ranked first with a penetration rate of 26.7% of mobile network users.

Editor: jessica