Zhou Xiaopeng, Vice President of Alibaba Entertainment: High-quality content is the core. Short Video are very popular but the methods of play are vague

Tudou, who originally fell behind in the video competition, returned to the competition again with the help of Short Video transformation. Through Big Fish, Tudou, Youku and UC have been connected. Currently, Tudou is the core Short Video PUGC platform.

On June 20, Alibaba UC held a resource promotion meeting in Shanghai for advertisers and self-media creators. Zhou Xiaopeng, who had not long taken up the post of vice president of Alibaba Entertainment Group, made his first public appearance and released the 2017 UC content core strategy.

The information market competition has entered the second half, and the competition pattern dominated by Alibaba UC, Today's Headline, Diandian Information, Tiantian Express, and several major platforms such as WeChat and Weibo has become increasingly clear. WeChat and Weibo appear in the form of "social + information". Among several other information platforms, today's headlines continue to follow the route of technology distribution. UC, Dianxin, and Tiantian Express are increasingly focusing on "technology + content construction". Dual drive.

Algorithms cannot solve everything, especially in the face of inferior content. Algorithms are often powerless, which makes UC and other information platforms pay more and more attention to the power of people. In October last year, Chen Tong, former editor-in-chief of Sina. com, joined Yidian Information as president; a month ago, Zhou Xiaopeng, editor-in-chief of Sina News, took up the post of vice president of Ali Entertainment, fully responsible for the content operation of UC, Tudou Short Video and Big Fish; this month, Ma Li, deputy editor-in-chief of Tencent. com, also became editor-in-chief of Tiantian Express.

Content operations are becoming increasingly important. Information platforms + former portal editor-in-chief seem to have become the standard.

According to data provided by UC, the current average usage time of UC is 98 minutes per day, with more than 600 million quarterly active users, and more than 500,000 registered in institutional media and self-media. "The core thing is who has the ability to redefine the content industry and reopen the industry," Zhou Xiaopeng told reporters. The new role UC has established for itself is the "organizer of content production", which means that UC, as an information platform, will actively guide the content production of institutional media and self-media in the future, rather than just a waiting person for content.

UC will be more like media

Zhou Xiaopeng joined Sina in 2007 and served as editor-in-chief of Sina News for 2 years. At the event site on June 20, he announced a new UC content strategy: "Big Ecology, Big Data, Big Perspective", which is a new stage for UC and Zhou Xiaopeng.

"The challenge for me is more on the technical level, and the future media platform is 'technology + art'." Zhou Xiaopeng said. Zhou Xiaopeng's work experience in portal websites has enabled him to have a keen judgment on high-quality content. However, the role of editor is no longer fully applicable. "There must be user awareness, product awareness and data awareness." Zhou Xiaopeng said that the portal is also playing the role of content organizer, but it is not very clear. UC can be deeper and have a media perspective.

At the New Tudou launch conference in March this year, Alibaba Entertainment officially announced the comprehensive transformation of Tudou into a Short Video platform. At the same time, the UC subscription account was upgraded and "Big Fish" was launched. One account realized multi-terminal content distribution of UC, Tudou, and Youku. The creative revenue generated by different users is also centrally extracted through Big Fish.

In the future, UC's new content strategy will also be mainly realized through the Big Fish system. Zhou Xiaopeng announced a series of specific strategies named "Big Fish" on the spot: Big Fish Platform, Big Fish List, Big Fish Academy, Big Fish Mission, Big Fish Plan, etc., among which there are many new ways to combine platforms and media. Play methods.

Dayu Platform has currently provided institutional media and self-media with means of production of pictures, text and videos. Next, it will further access Q & A and live broadcast capabilities, basically covering various production forms of content. The Big Fish List is the ranking of creators. It is launched every week, every month, and every quarter. In addition to launching vertical lists in more sub-fields, allowing high-quality self-media to be recognized by more people, more resources will also be invested in the new Big Fish. Big Fish Academy provides training for Big Fish creators to promote growth.

In addition, although Zhou Xiaopeng admitted that he personally disapproved of subsidies, the Big Fish Project will continue to subsidize creators. The difference is that in the future, a combination of supplementary investment will be adopted. In addition to subsidies, some outstanding creators will also be invested. Facing the demand side, mainly advertisers, Big Fish also launched Big Fish Tasks. When customers have content production needs, they can place orders on the Big Fish Tasks, and the creator will receive the order.

If the above measures still reflect the "platform" attributes of UC and Big Fish, then the following strategies will make UC and Big Fish more like a media company. "You can even understand it as media," Zhou Xiaopeng said bluntly.

UC will focus on information streaming business as the core of its operations, launch hot topics, create joint reports with high-quality media and self-media, and output high-quality content through live broadcast alliances and content IP studios. Zhou Xiaopeng revealed that it also includes some media sponsored by Ali.

It is understood that the content IP studio is currently preparing, including topic operations, pictures, data news and other products, which will more showcase UC's own content quality and tonality and accumulate IP resources for UC,"similar to the concept produced by UC."" Combined with the "UC Famous Masters" launched in March this year, UC hopes to actively participate on hot topics and organize content production in the future.

Potato Transformation Short Video Returns to the Competition

Potato, which was originally lagging behind in video competition, has returned to the competition again with the help of Short Video transformation. Through Big Fish, Tudou, Youku and UC have been connected. Currently, Tudou is the core Short Video PUGC platform.

Compared with platforms such as Fast Hand, Second-Shot, and Meipai, Tudou enters the game later for Short Video. Yang Weidong, president of Alibaba Culture and Entertainment Group's Youku Business Group, once said: "In fact, when Youku Tudou began to integrate into Alibaba Entertainment, we began to re-discuss Tudou's future. We believe that the release of the Short Video strategy on Tudou is a very good opportunity."

Zhou Xiaopeng told reporters that although Short Video seem very popular at present, many of the methods are still vague and the pattern has not yet been determined. On the other hand, Tudou's Transformation Short Video platform has strong resource advantages. Youku and Tudou have accumulated a large amount of copyright video resources over the years, and the advantages are even more obvious after opening up with UC. Secondly, Tudou is well known to users and has brand advantages. In addition, Tudou has algorithm advantages. Alibaba Entertainment and UC are both building algorithm capabilities, so Tudou does not need to make another set by itself. The current focus is on Tudou to embark on its own differentiated route and focus on "interesting Short Video."

Xie Rui, general manager of Tudou content operations, once said that although various platforms are now clamoring to support self-media people and PGC, few are really effective. The lists on major platforms have long been occupied by old faces, which is good for the development of the Short Video industry. It is not a good thing. "We hope that more people above the waist can go up. This is the purpose of our big fish plan." It is understood that Tudou will use the platform's data and various methods such as Big Fish Academy to guide creators and accelerate vertical development.

Alibaba Entertainment is still in the internal opening stage.

Jack Ma once said: "In the next 10 and 20 years, what China people lack most are two H's: Health and Happiness." Alibaba Entertainment is undoubtedly the main carrier of the strategic goal of "happiness".

In June last year, Ali officially established the "Alibaba Entertainment Section", with Gu Yongqiang as the chairman of the Industrial Development Committee and Yu Yongfu as the leader of the Alibaba Entertainment Work Leading Group. This segment includes Alibaba Pictures, Heyi Group (Youku Tudou), Alibaba Music, Alibaba Sports, UC, Ali Games, Ali Literature, and Digital Entertainment divisions under Alibaba Group.

Yu Yongfu said in his subsequent exchanges with employees: "The focus of our first phase is to complete the 'three links' first, that is, information communication and human relations communication, and ultimately achieve strategic communication."

In 2017, Alibaba Entertainment will adopt a one-stop access to a unified open platform model with multi-product platform traffic support. In the first phase, the platforms accessed are Youku, Tudou, UC Headline, Shenma Search, Pea Pod, etc.; in the second phase, it is expanded to Taobao, Tmall, Alipay and other platforms. In the next three years, Alibaba Entertainment's investment will exceed 50 billion yuan. The entire entertainment ecosystem will be grafted with Ali's e-commerce ecosystem, payment + logistics ecosystem, and cloud ecosystem.

At present, the Alibaba Entertainment sector is still in the internal opening stage. UC has positioned itself as the core flagship of Alibaba Entertainment, and Big Fish has opened up UC, Tudou, and Youku. It can be said to be a phased achievement. Among the various content forms covered by Alibaba Entertainment, it carries content aggregation and distribution in three forms: graphics, videos, and Short videos, and may include questions and answers, live broadcasts and other forms in the future.

At present, UC, as a platform, organizes content production on the one hand, strives to promote the growth of high-quality content and provide creators with more revenue channels; on the other hand, it provides advertisers with more precise and diverse services. For example, advertisers can send orders to creators through Big fish tasks. In Zhou Xiaopeng's words, UC plays an intermediate role in the entire content industry chain."We hope to move forward on the one hand and take a step back on the other."

This is similar to the three major film infrastructure constructions of "user access, commercialization and content industrialization" announced by Alibaba Pictures a few days ago, and also highlights the concept of "empowerment" emphasized by Yu Yongfu. This may give you a glimpse of the future business route of Alibaba Entertainment.

Editor: jessica