How will the future of paid video develop in my country's online video market soar?

According to statistics, the number of effective paying users of online video in my country exceeded 75 million in 2016. What has online video payment gone through in recent years? What causes the rapid development of online paid video? What are the trends in the future development of online video?

With the increasing popularity of online dramas and online variety shows, more and more video websites are currently incorporating content payment into the profit model they are focusing on developing. Correspondingly, there are also more and more users are willing to pay for content. According to statistics, the number of effective paying users of online video in my country exceeded 75 million in 2016. What has online video payment gone through in recent years? What causes the rapid development of online paid video? What are the trends in the future development of online video?

"There were one hit series after another in 2016. In order to follow the series, I filled up members of three video websites in one go." Xiao Lin, a student at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications,'s main entertainment activity every day is to watch the latest hit dramas on his mobile phone at night. "Some of these dramas can also be watched for free, but it's a week late, so I can't wait."

The online video industry, which is "burning money", is ushering in a wave of "payment waves". Watching competitions, chasing movies and television, playing live broadcasts, and surfing variety shows... The reporter learned that many of his friends have become paid members of major video websites.

The diversification of paid content has driven rapid growth of users

. Regarding the scale and growth rate of online paid video in my country, there are the following sets of data: According to relevant persons in charge of Youku, the total number of Youku members has exceeded 30 million; and according to reports, as of 2016 On June 1, the number of iQiyi members exceeded 20 million, increasing again by 100% in half a year. Yi En's "2016 China Video Industry Payment Market Research Report" shows that in 2016, the number of effective video payment users in China exceeded 75 million, becoming the world's third largest video payment market after North America and Europe.

Data shows that the scale of China's online video market will reach 60.9 billion yuan in 2016, with user payments accounting for 19.3%. It is expected that by 2019, user payments will become the second largest source of revenue for the online video industry.

Just three years ago, this scale was unimaginable.

Gong Yulin, deputy director of the program department of China Online Audiovisual Program Service Association, said that in 2010, major video websites began to try paid services, mainly involving online on-demand and member payment. The content is mainly Hollywood movies, supplemented by a small number of domestic new films. Before 2013, the copyright libraries of various video websites were small, coupled with long movie windows and slow updates, insufficient mature online payment technology and complex operations, which limited the growth of member payment services. After 2014, the country's efforts to crack down on piracy have continued to increase, and mainstream video websites have also joined forces with all parties to crack down on the piracy industry chain, creating a healthy film and television copyright environment for the industry. "Another important point is that the mobile payment market has developed rapidly in the past two years, providing a safe and convenient payment experience and prompting users to gradually develop payment habits."

In 2016, on the one hand, major video websites continued to attract paying users through differentiated arrangements of popular dramas; on the other hand, film and television copyright parties gradually shortened the window period, video websites became important distribution channels for films, and paid content developed in a diversified manner, driving rapid growth in users.

"The joint campaign to crack down on online infringement and piracy by multiple national ministries and commissions has achieved remarkable results. Especially after the closure of some influential pirated websites and apps in 2013, the online piracy situation has been greatly improved." Yang Xianghua, senior vice president of iQiyi, told reporters that in 2015, iQiyi launched a member first-time viewing of the complete works of "Tomb Robbing Notes" and a member exclusive model of "Shushan War", breaking through the content type boundary of China video members, which is mainly based on movies and documentaries. In the future, some major member dramas have gained good reputation and traffic, triggering a wave of viewing craze.

Content is the first driving force for payment, prompting websites to bring better services.

The "2016 China Video Industry Paid Market Research Report" shows that in 2016, there were 239 paid video dramas in China, a year-on-year increase of 564%, of which online dramas became the main force, accounting for nearly 50%.

"Watch it for free, there are not many good programs. The monthly fee for members is similar to that for cable TV, but it has a lot of exclusive resources and skips advertisements directly." Ms. Bai, who works for a foreign company in Beijing, simply bought an annual card."Now the patch advertisements are getting longer and longer, which is really a headache."

At present, the video charging models for websites such as iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent are mainly monthly services and single on-demand services. Monthly subscription service means that after users purchase a member, they can watch all VIP dramas, movies, children and other content during the payment period; single-on-demand means that users can purchase a single-paid movie on the website platform separately.

Leng Song, secretary-general and associate researcher of the Center for World Media Studies at the Institute of Journalism, China Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed that when many viewers discovered that advertisements appeared in videos "everything", the quality was undoubtedly declining. In order to earn traffic, many online programs use "new and exotic" or even touch certain bottom lines to attract and cater to customers. "It can be said that a bad viewing experience will prompt some users to choose to pay, so that the degree of kidnapping by advertisements will be less and the quality of the program will be higher."

Survey data from China Online Audiovisual Program Service Association shows that the group aged 20-29 is the largest group of paid video users, accounting for 44.2% of paid video netizens; followed by the group aged 30-39, accounting for 23.4%; and those aged under 19, 23.1%. Only 9.3% are over 40 years old.

In this regard, Leng Rong believes that "Different from the post-50s and post-60s generation, young people are willing to pay for online culture and entertainment is an important turning point. They value audio-visual pleasure experience more than material consumption, which also helps the video industry improve its quality and bad. The current situation of vulgarization, the realization of high-quality strategies, and the elimination of overcapacity."

"Watching videos online has become an entertainment method for many netizens. Video websites have gradually increased their investment in homemade content and copyright introduction due to profit needs and brand value." Gong Yulin said that content is the first driving force for payment. Online dramas, online movies and online variety shows all target young netizens, and online content is more attractive to these users.

The paid video market is still in its early stages of development and has huge development potential

."The mainstream of paying users is ordinary Internet users, and their main consumption content is domestic film and television dramas that are close to life. Therefore, we have increased the purchase of domestic theater films and increased the production of domestic super online dramas., promote the development of big online movies. In addition, we continue to try new content categories such as variety shows, animation, children, etc. to meet the differentiated movie-watching needs of netizens; at the same time, we also introduce some excellent overseas film and television dramas as supplements." Yang Xianghua introduced it to reporters.

The relevant person in charge of Youku members said,"In terms of scheduling methods, Youku has adopted the simultaneous broadcast of high-quality program resources overseas for major dramas, members watch self-made online dramas such as" The Best Domestic Servants "and" Flying Knife Again "in advance, and shorten the network. The time difference between theaters and traditional theaters and satellite TV channels."

Major video websites are fighting fiercely. In addition to high-quality content, they are also competing for user experience. To this end, various websites have carried out technological improvements one after another to optimize image quality enhancement and audio effects.

So, how will the future of paid video develop?

"For the video website itself, its capital chain is under great pressure, and it will lose millions every day when it opens its eyes. Now, websites with some market share have cultivated a lot of loyal audiences, so we use payment to recover capital." Leng Song believes that the goal of payment is to focus, niche and high-quality products. "In the future, the payment strategy should first cultivate a benign payment market so that viewers can form a good habit of paying for high-quality videos; through the payment behavior of netizens, they can also analyze and study the public's consumption habits, thereby guiding content production, conducting focus marketing and improving quality; the website can further connect customer habits with advertisers, e-commerce, etc., so as to carry out precise marketing with the support of big data."

Compared with more mature markets around the world, my country's paid video market is still in its early stages of development. "The development of the online paid video business will extend the revenue cycle of movies and maintain a stable income for a long time after they are released in theaters; it will allow more high-quality series content to generate a higher revenue scale, which in turn will also promote The quality of production of series has been improved. Animation, children and other program content will also generate new income opportunities. The development of user payment habits will increase the revenue scale of other revenue models relying on film and television drama IP, such as games, derivative peripherals, parks and other businesses." Yang Xianghua said.

Editor: yvette