Text/great entertainer
After a year, in the long-awaited event, Iqiyi’s Misty Theater finally returned again. It can be said that similar feelings used to appear only in dramas such as Game of Thrones or Strange Tales, which were unanimously regarded as content benchmarks. However, the streaming media industry has developed rapidly to this day, and how to provide the ultimate content simply and effectively is still the greatest value of this industry to the audience.
Of course, technology is one of the factors that make streaming media successful, but the foundation of living is still content.
In fact, from the traditional era of public television to cable television, and now the era when streaming media takes over the discourse power of film and television content in an all-round way, the audience has chosen not so much the platform itself as the innovation of the content paradigm represented by the platform. At present, streaming media represents more global and differentiated content, and these are the core competitiveness that constantly attracts users to spend money to subscribe.
Wang Xiaohui, President and Chief Content Officer of iQiyi Professional Content Business Group (PCG), is acceptingYiyuguancha (ID: yiyuguancha)When interviewed by many media, I mentioned the "content pyramid" of iQiyi-85% of the works are commercial, with relevant elements such as resonant topics of the times, skilled commercial narrative structure and excellent production; 11% is the expression of platform value proposition, such as using theater to bring out the temperament of iQiyi, that is, to have deep insight and expression of society; The remaining 4% is an attempt to bet on big IP and epic content at the top of the pyramid.
The "content pyramid" is also the best answer to the era of content focus.
Create a pyramid of focus content in innovation that is not afraid of failure.
The market influence of the content industry often lies in the continuous innovation of excellent works and the occupation of quality word of mouth.
For today’s film and television industry, explosions are hard to come by. Even the recent "Squid Game", which swept the world, is far more popular than Netflix executives imagined, but despite external influences, this drama still maintains Netflix’s consistent Hollywood-level production quality. In the final analysis, it is only when the lower limit of content quality is guaranteed that it is possible to touch the upper limit of explosion.
Stills of Squid Game
Nowadays, the self-made strategy of streaming media platform is actually forming a pyramid-like structure. A large number of works have just crossed the quality line, and a small number of big-name producers or directors may spend some thoughts on creation. In fact, there are only a handful of works that can really be "out of the circle" or have the quality of winning prizes.
For a long time, high-cost costume idol dramas have always occupied the main stage of competition among major streaming media platforms. However, this "arms race" has not brought reasonable benefits, but has caused considerable waste of resources and chaos in various industries. In order to ensure the consistency of content quality, in addition to continuously maintaining investment and improving the degree of industrialization, the most important thing is actually the skillful use of typology.
in factNot blindly pursuing a single explosion, but focusing on improving the whole content level is exactly the direction that iQiyi chooses now.In the end, it will always be invincible in such cruel competition in the domestic market, and it will also be able to further launch an impact on overseas markets.
For a long time, although there seems to be a lot of content on the market, it seems that the focus of each platform’s work every year is still trying to get a new online content on the hot search in Weibo. Of course, under the influence of the right time and the right place, there will be several works with good reputation and popularity in a year.
In the first half of 2021, the popular drama "My Husband"
However, the executives of various platforms will always say on various occasions that the operation of the platform is not easy. On the one hand, the high content cost, and on the other hand, the users who have no platform loyalty, and the price that has been delayed, all make domestic video streaming media unable to get rid of the dilemma of loss.
For users, after a long paid education, it is not difficult to pay for the content. This is also the source of more than 100 million subscribers on iQiyi and Tencent videos. The problem is that for these users,In fact, they need more mature commercial works that pass the exam and can be continuously supplied for a long time than they are always waiting for the explosion.
Subscription system is more like an investment in essence. If users have confidence in the supply capacity of the platform, this kind of investment is naturally easy to go long-term, because most of users’ expectations can be met. However, for a long time in the past, domestic streaming media platforms actually lacked this ability to meet users’ expectations. The simplest example is how to finally realize the luxury film list released every year.
On the one hand, this test is the degree of film and television industrialization, on the other hand, it is the platform’s insight into users’ tastes and social thoughts.And more counterintuitively, the so-called "burning money" is actually far from enough, because users’ pursuit of good content is almost endless. When we discuss the content of Netflix, even the most basic or poorly evaluated content still reflects Hollywood’s guaranteed production ability, and despite the shortcomings of the play, Netflix obviously invested enough money in the lineup and audio-visual experience.
The problem that domestic platforms need to face now is far from being obsessed with making several 90-point works a year, but it is precisely that more energy should be concentrated on the stable production of a large number of 60-and 70-point content.
There is no doubt that Iqiyi has recognized this problem and is also giving its solution. The "content pyramid" mentioned by Aiqiyi Wang Xiaohui is the best answer at this stage.
President of iQiyi Professional Content Business Group (PCG)
Wang Xiaohui, Chief Content Officer
At the same time, in an interview, Wang Xiaohui further stated that the corresponding content methodology is taking shape.Including user insight, policy insight, and insight into the law of creation. If a big drama is filmed for three years, it is the methodology of future insight to find out where the user’s aesthetics will be in the next three years and where the future society will change.
It can be said that it is precisely this insight into the content strategy in the streaming media era and the rapid iterative content innovation attempt that has enabled Aiqiyi to maintain its position as a leading industry in the past year or two.
According to the third-party Yunhe data, in 2020, the effective broadcast market share of iQiyi drama feature films will reach 40%, and the effective broadcast time share of variety market feature films will reach 38%, both of which rank first in the industry, highlighting the strong original content production capacity. It has become an unrepeatable advantage of the platform.
This upgrade of original self-control ability can also be reflected in each film list. According to the film list just released by Iqiyi, with its multifaceted coverage of industrial content and diversified content layout, it once again shows the order of magnitude advantage and hierarchical permeability. In addition to continuing to stick to the three major brand theaters, Iqiyi also launched four major types: Times Songs, Heroic Songs, Fengyun History and Love Poems, looking back on the historical and cultural changes, paying attention to the growth of the national spirit and paying tribute to heroes. The dramas such as "In the World", "Living in My Heart" and "Dear Children" will visit iQiyi one after another to meet users.
Poster for the series "In the World"
At the same time, "Misty Theater", "Love Theater" and "Little Funny Theater" featuring comedies will continue to bring more brand-new content through "Theater Brand".
The suspense brand "Misty Theater" will launch Fatal Desire, Who is the Killer and Gold Rush, which will integrate emotions, cases, adventures and other elements to meet the needs of users for exciting stories. The "Little Funny Theater", which focuses on comedy content, released reserve drama lists such as Deyun Wasshe, Monthly Girl, Doctor is Doctor, Second is Second, and Broken Elite.
In terms of production, broadcasting and operation of innovative content, iQiyi actively uses the value-added services of film and television works to enhance the willingness of members to pay, thus shaping the in-depth innovative exploration of film and television production and broadcasting mode and operation concept.
It can be said,It has become the most critical barrier for iQiyi to learn from the model innovation of American TV series, which consists of high-quality production and broadcasting mode, theatrical operation and differentiated broadcasting.Obviously, in addition to technology and content, the emphasis on the core values of members is becoming another "moat".
The "Metauniverse" is coming, and the content and members are still the core.
Good content must have a high premium market share, and the high premium market mechanism is also bringing the positive effect of "good money driving out bad money" for good content. At the same time, these contents are further involved in the benign interaction of improving the audience’s aesthetic taste.
Wang Xiaohui is acceptingYiyuguancha (ID: yiyuguancha)Many media interviews expressed the current iQiyi’s view on content self-made: "The self-made content is exactly the same as the original intention we just started.The first is copyright ownership, and IP can be developed in multiple dimensions; The second is that you can control the quality without so many links; The third is to control costs.It is based on these three dimensions that can reduce the overall cost. Now we say that the self-made growth rate will increase in the future for these reasons. When this goes up and down, the content of pure procurement in the market will decrease and customization will increase. "
Streaming media and the algorithms behind it are oriented to a huge user base. They may be interested in the public’s broken works at the same time, but they will have different interests. To meet these interests, streaming media does not need to invest huge production fees and publicity fees, and film and television division has become an inevitable trend.
The "Fog Theater" can maintain a high degree of popularity, which is precisely because of its perfect correspondence to suspense audiences.
The sixth series of "Mist Theater" "The Mystery Fog of the Octagonal Pavilion"
Of course, even many international streaming media platforms can’t be as big and complete as Netflix. For example, Disney+ needs to give up some adult content that is too violent and explicit for children users. HBO Max itself wants to rely on the golden signboard of "HBO production" to attract users. Although there are data to prove that streaming media platforms are not a zero-sum game,However, end users will still choose according to the content tonality and brand of a platform, rather than wandering back and forth between platforms in pursuit of a single hot content.
In the short term, the "Fog Theater" created by iQiyi is indeed a huge step in the quality and typology of content. On the one hand, its content can provide one or two works that exceed expectations while ensuring the average quality. On the other hand, this more subdivided content brand is gradually distinguishing Aiqiyi’s self-made content from other platforms.
While maintaining the current content strength and content brand tonality, iQiyi still keeps an eye on the future trend, especially in the case of its continuous investment and practice in VR and virtual production for many years, which makes them stand at the door of the "meta-universe" naturally.
At the beginning of this year, iQiyi provided its partial realization of "Metauniverse" through the XR "City of Reality" project: creating a general solution and expanding the existing content IP technology, so as to create an experience comparable to "Metauniverse" in a specific scene.
THE9 "City of Reality" Immersive Virtual Concert
Wang Xiaohui further stated that,Iqiyi is building two "cosmos" concepts-the universe of ancient Chinese city and the misty universe, one focusing on historical and cultural stories and the other deepening suspense track.In these two universes, a new relationship between users will be formed, and technology will also break down the barriers between universes, allowing people, scenes and stories in the universe to interact with each other.
In the future, these elements can be displayed in all dramas to a greater extent, so that all characters can form more consensus, and consumers are willing to enter the online and offline experience to find the foggy universe and provide him with more plots and stories.
In addition to the comprehensive content reserve and future layout, iQiyi recently took the lead in announcing the cancellation of "advanced on-demand". On the one hand, Tencent Video and Youku followed suit quickly, and on the other hand, this move also made the platform put enhancing the user experience at the core of the service system again.
It should be said that how to balance the user experience while pursuing commercial realization is always a question that needs to be answered continuously in front of the commercial platform, but at present, under the leadership of iQiyi,Short-term commercial interests are beginning to give way to a more essential user experience.This really requires courage. After all, the platform sacrifices real revenue, which means that the competition in the domestic streaming media industry has once again entered a higher level.Competitiveness is not limited to content and technology, and service experience will also become an important part of differentiation.
Weibo screenshot
Judging from the content layout in the coming year, the content direction and purpose of iQiyi can be described as quite clear, tapping the deep-rooted value of vertical themes and circle content, and gradually starting to provide more subdivided audiences with content that they love.
"We need to subdivide the user groups, do professional and in-depth research according to the needs of each user group, and then polish the content that this audience likes with the spirit of artisans. Of course, we also expect iQiyi’s works to break the circle and make users of different circles like it, but such works can’t be met. " Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQiyi, said, "We can’t just do one thing because we want to wait for a rabbit to die and eat meat. This is wrong."
In the case that the business model is extremely mature, what today’s streaming media needs to face is undoubtedly the cultivation of "internal strength", and any kung fu moves to the highest level can’t escape the word "avenue to simplicity".In the end, the same is true of content production, which can still maintain the attraction of creation without too many complicated routine designs.The audience is just willing to pay for these simple but deeply rooted stories in the complex world, which is the goal that the current streaming media platform should also be worth pursuing.
