Internet 30 years and 30 things | Short video industry 20 years, from giant competition to national entertainment.
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In April, 1994, China fully accessed the Internet and became the 77th member of the international Internet family. This year is the 30th year of China’s full-featured access to the Internet, and it is also an important node of "half a child".
In just 30 years of development, there are many "things" worth remembering. In the past 30 years, the Internet in China has grown from scratch, from small to large, from large to strong, and many objects, applications or platforms have been born. The value of the above objects or applications is not only in business, but also a kind of feeling, which embodies people’s long-term memory of life and emotion.
To this end, Beijing News Shell Finance and China Internet Development Foundation China Positive Energy Network Communication Special Fund launched the topic "Internet 30 Years and 30 Things". I hope that by telling the story of the landmark objects, applications or platforms in the history of Internet development in China, I can outline the evolution of Internet in China in the past 30 years and see where it will go in the future.
A network cable 30 years ago connected China to the world. Nowadays, the Internet is half-baked and China is in the ascendant after the "Internet".
Art leader andy warhol said, "Everyone can be famous in 15 minutes" and "Everyone can be famous for 15 minutes". However, in the era of short video, it takes only 15 seconds for a person to become famous.
After nearly 20 years of development, the short video industry has experienced the evolution from the micro-film era to the mobile era, and then to the national era. It is generally judged in the industry that more and more short video platforms will begin to diversify, taking into account a variety of content and forms of expression; Industry players tend to be more concentrated, relying on the support of giants, and realizing the integration of Lian Heng through capital and resources. As a form of content expression and distribution, short video will be more and more integrated into various super applications. At the same time, with the strengthening of supervision and technological progress, the short video industry will also usher in a more compliant and broad development.
microfilm
In 2005, with the improvement of network speed and bandwidth, as well as the popularity of personal computers (PCs) and video recorders, the Internet began to enter the video era from the graphic era. Tudou, Thunder, VeryCD (electric donkey download) and other companies have been established.
It was also at the end of this year that an animator named Hu Ge edited the film "The Promise" into a short film "A Bloody Case Caused by a Steamed Bread" and detonated the network. The download volume even beat the original film "The Promise", which was considered as the embryonic form of a micro-movie. Micro-movies promote the grassroots of short videos, and inadvertently cultivate the awareness of netizens using fragmented time to shoot, make, upload and watch.
Established in 2006, Six Rooms introduced Hugo and launched his follow-up works, which brought huge traffic. With the gradual formation of video sharing atmosphere, Six Rooms, Tudou, Youku, Kuliuwang, etc. have stood in the ranks of domestic first-line video sharing websites.
Initially, these video websites were positioned as platforms for uploading and publishing original videos, which is quite similar to the concept of short video platforms today. However, at that time, user habits were still in the cultivation period, and shooting equipment and uploading costs were expensive. In 2010, Iqiyi, Youku and other players brought copyrighted content and capital into the market, and the wave of mobile Internet hit. At that time, the PC-side video sharing website was closed down or changed hands, and the six rooms gradually turned to the direction of performing arts live broadcast.
watershed
2016 can be said to be a "watershed" in the short video industry, and ByteDance’s entry is a landmark event. Before ByteDance announced "All-in Short Video", the number of short video platforms was close to 400, and Aauto Quicker, Second Shot, Watermelon Video, American Shot, Volcano Video, Tudou and other platforms quickly emerged and rushed into the first camp. They either seize the first-Mover advantage of segmentation and quickly accumulate a huge user base, or rely on Internet traffic giants.
Han Kun, one of the founders of Kuliu.com, and Zhang Hongyu, one of the founders of PPS, have been working hard in the field of short video for a long time. After Kuliu.com was acquired by Shanda.com, Han Kun founded a technology company in 2012, which is the parent company of Second Shot, xiaokaxiu and Live Broadcast, and entered the mobile video sharing. Zhang Hongyu joined Aiqiyi as PPS was acquired by Aiqiyi, and became an early investor of Second Shot. Secondhand relies on the strategic cooperation and investment relationship with Weibo, and has many stars and opinion leaders under Weibo’s banner. Most of the broadcast traffic is realized in Weibo.
Aauto Quicker was born in 2011. It was originally a tool for making moving pictures. In 2012, it transformed into a short video community and quickly accumulated influence among residents in third-and fourth-tier cities. However, Aauto Quicker said: "Aauto Quicker is not doing short videos or live broadcasts, but just wants to bring the ability of recording and sharing to everyone with technology. This technology can also be in other forms in the future. We hope that everyone can have equal opportunities for communication. "
The beauty shoot emphasizes the beauty function, the positioning is feminine and vertical, and the users are mostly women.
During the Spring Festival of 2014, hundreds of stars, including Lee MinHo, Fan Bingbing and He Jiong, gathered in Microvision to pay New Year’s greetings and broadcast them on TV in turn, which brought a small climax to Microvision: this application, which was launched in 2013, remained in the top five in the App Store for several days, with 45 million daily active users. From New Year’s Eve to the first day of the first year, millions of people released and watched short videos of New Year’s greetings through Microvision, with a total broadcast volume of hundreds of millions of times. Ten months after its launch, Microvision was established as an independent department.
ByteDance’s entry in the second half of 2016 became a watershed in the short video industry. In September 2016, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming announced "All-in Short Video", and successively launched three short video products, namely watermelon video, volcano video and Tik Tok. According to reports, the three products have different positioning. Tik Tok is mainly a short music video for young people, volcano video is a daily life sharing platform, and watermelon is a mobile short video platform, which uses AI algorithm to push content to users.
With the strong entry of ByteDance, the short video industry has entered a new competitive pattern, and mainstream Internet companies have focused their attention on the short video field, unwilling to miss the new outlet.
The battle of giants
The "war" was first burned on the subsidy. In September 2016, Tencent and ByteDance almost simultaneously proposed their own short video subsidy plans of 1 billion yuan; In the first half of 2017, Baidu and Ali followed up. Baidu announced that it would divide the accumulated content producers into 10 billion yuan, while Ali proposed to support content creation with 2 billion yuan subsidies; In November 2017, Tencent opened its platform with 10 billion yuan of subsidies and resources at its partner conference, focusing on supporting short video entrepreneurship and even opening its own copyrighted content for producers to use; ByteDance’s watermelon video immediately announced that it would pay 2 billion yuan as the creator’s advance production fee.
At the same time as the subsidy, the platform is built. At first, BAT (Baidu, Ali, Tencent) did not set up a separate short video aggregation platform, but chose to add short video functions to their original super applications, and encouraged content providers to settle in various "accounts" to realize "one account settled in" and multi-platform distribution. Tencent’s Penguin is responsible for such functions, and Ali’s Big Fish is responsible for such functions. Baidu, Netease and Sohu have also followed suit to open various distribution accounts.
In the second half of 2017, under the temptation of the powerful broadcast volume and duration of short videos, major Internet companies also launched their own single short video platforms. In November 2017 alone, the short video industry ushered in four new products directly hatched by Internet companies, namely 360′ s "Fast Video", Baidu’s "Good Video", Tencent’s "Microvision" and Weibo’s "Cool Burning". In the first half of 2017, Ali upgraded the acquired Tudou to a short video platform. Tencent emphasizes social relations, Ali focuses on e-commerce, ByteDance plots information distribution, and Internet giants make short videos in their own good directions.
In the field of short video, capital layout has already begun. The second shot was first incorporated by the giants. In July 2013, September 2014, November 2015 and November 2016, Sina Weibo Fund invested in the parent company’s technology for four consecutive rounds, and was the lead investor in at least two rounds. At the critical moment, Weibo took Secondshot as its exclusive short video platform, helping Secondshot win the tough battle with platforms such as Meipai and Xiaoying.
Followed by Aauto Quicker, in March 2017, Aauto Quicker received $350 million in financing, and Tencent led the investment; In its tens of millions of dollars in financing in March 2016, Baidu Investment Department appeared. The veteran player "Mei Pai" belongs to Meitu, a Hong Kong-listed company. Watermelon video, volcano video and Tik Tok are big trees backed by ByteDance.
China’s Internet giants completed the power assembly of the short video sector in early 2018. From the perspective of capital, various short video platforms have embraced the giant’s thighs and "achieved each other" with resources and capital. From the perspective of application attributes, there may be few independent short video platforms in the future, and most of them are integrated into super applications as tools to attract traffic and distribute content.
Move forward in adjustment
By the end of 2019, short video traffic has basically been divided. QuestMobile data shows that as of June 2019, the number of newly installed users in the short video industry was close to 100 million, and the total monthly active users were close to 821 million, basically covering all netizens in China at that time. Among them, ByteDance (Tik Tok, Watermelon and Volcano) ranks first with nearly 600 million monthly activities after weight reduction, while Aauto Quicker ranks second with nearly 350 million monthly activities, followed by Tencent (micro-vision, hot pot) and Baidu (good-looking, all-people) with huge traffic portals.
Many commercial actions have been carried out almost simultaneously, and almost all the means of realizing advertisements, e-commerce, live broadcasts, enterprise numbers and short videos have been opened to content producers this year. Many content entrepreneurs bluntly say that it is precisely because of the "attack" of Tencent Microvision and Baidu’s good-looking videos that Tik Tok and Aauto Quicker are willing to open all these original platforms, such as e-commerce and advertising, to content entrepreneurs, so that they can get more shares in the ecology.
It can be said that short video has become the biggest outlet in the 4G era, and no giant wants to be absent. Although Tencent and Baidu were behind Aauto Quicker and ByteDance at that time, they all hoped to stay at the poker table and wait for the next outlet in the 5G era. Just one year later, "lucky" Tencent and others came to the WeChat video number, while Baidu "hastily" announced at the end of 2020 that it would acquire YY live broadcast under Huanju Group for over 3 billion yuan.
While the short video industry is in sturm und drang, the industry supervision is becoming stricter. In 2018, short video platforms such as Aauto Quicker, Volcano Video, Meipai and Tik Tok were successively ordered to be rectified by relevant departments. At that time, Tik Tok initiated the initiative of all sectors of society to jointly draft the Tik Tok Community Convention on the platform to strengthen self-discipline; At the beginning of 2019, China Network Audiovisual Program Service Association issued "Management Specification for Network Short Video Platform" and "Detailed Rules for Auditing Network Short Video Content" to guide the standardized development of the industry; In 2020, xiaokaxiu and pear videos were successively removed; The year 2021 coincides with the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan, and the short video industry is facing the "strongest supervision in history". The China Network Audiovisual Program Service Association issued the Detailed Rules for the Audit Standards of Network Short Video Content, which regulated and restricted the short video content in more detail.
According to the latest data, in 2023, 112,918,700 hours of Internet video programs were added, including 547,462,600 hours of short videos. Internet users watched Internet audio-visual programs (including short videos) for about 3 hours every day, and more than 750 million users uploaded short videos.
It is generally judged in the industry that more and more short video platforms will begin to diversify, taking into account a variety of content and forms of expression; Industry players tend to be more concentrated, relying on the support of giants, and realizing the integration of Lian Heng through capital and resources. As a form of content expression and distribution, short video will be more and more integrated into various super applications. At the same time, with the strengthening of supervision and technological progress, the short video industry will also usher in a more compliant and broad development.
This activity is supported by China Positive Energy Network Communication Special Fund of China Internet Development Foundation.
Beijing News Chief Reporter Bai Jinlei Editor Yue Caizhou Proofread Liu Baoqing.