Baidu is using Qutoutiao’s model to “mass-produce” its own Douyin.
Ma Huateng’s short video dream was not realized, and Robin Li is taking over. But Baidu may also inherit Qutoutiao’s nightmare.
1. The rise of "accepting apprentices and doing tasks" has emerged in the short video industry
Hydrogen Media Finance found that multiple short video APPs owned by Baidu have embedded the "accepting apprentices and doing tasks to earn cash" model, including but not limited to Baidu Express Edition, Haokan Video, Quanmin Video, and iQiyi's Natou Video.
Some people may think it is LOW, but the power of this model should not be underestimated.
It’s easy to use for good-looking videos. According to media reports, in September, Haokan Video’s daily active users reached 12 million. QuestMobile data shows that in the past three months, Haokan Video has been the fastest growing app among domestic apps with more than 5 million daily active users. Baidu CFO Yu Zhengjun recently said that Baidu App’s information flow business model will be copied to Haokan Video.
It can be seen that Baidu is constantly increasing the number of short videos.
In fact, not only Baidu, Hydrogen Media Finance found that in the entire short video industry, this "accepting apprentices to do tasks" model has become a common practice, such as 360's Kuai Video and Xiaomi's Xiaomi Kuai Video (yes, they had a conflicting name, and then 360 changed its name to Kuaikan Video). In addition, there are some less well-known ones, such as: Huoniu Video, KAA Short Video, Aishang Short Video, Peanut Diary, Qutui, Haha Short Video, Youliu Video, Bobo Video...
When you open this type of short video APP, although the video content is diverse, the mode of "accepting disciples and completing tasks" and even the beautification design style are highly unified. Task types generally include inviting disciples, signing in, watching videos, sharing videos, sharing income, playing games, commenting, viewing push notifications, etc.
In short, these short video APPs have inherited Qutoutiao’s routines one by one. The industry euphemistically calls it: online earning.
2. If short video APP wants to break out of the tight encirclement, the online earning model has become a must-have?
As we all know, Tencent’s short video failed miserably, but looking at the recent sudden rise of Baidu’s good-looking videos, we may be able to make a basic judgment: the traditional traffic diversion model or the extremely strong short-sightedness of the duopoly It is difficult for the video industry to form a third pole, even if traffic giants like Tencent take action. The two-wheel drive model of "traffic diversion + online earning model" used by Baidu, 360, and Xiaomi may have a stronger impact on Douyin and Kuaishou.
Hydrogen Media Finance consulted iResearch data and found that among the top ten apps in the short video section in terms of monthly independent devices (similar to monthly activity) in September, three adopted the "accepting apprentices to complete tasks" model - Baidu's Haokan Video, Bobo Video, and 360 Kuai Video. Among them, Bobo Video and Haokan Video have even ranked fifth and sixth.
Among them, Baidu’s Haokan Video has the most “ferocious” growth. From October last year to September this year, the number of monthly independent devices surged from 3.56 million to 49.24 million! It has grown nearly 13 times in less than a year.
But good-looking videos have not always been smooth sailing. Looking through its version update log, we found that since its launch in April 2016, it has been a stumbling "failure" product.
This APP was originally called "Baidu Haokan", and it was engaged in graphic and text information, just like the early days of Toutiao.Emphasis on algorithms, and the (wild) way of promoting photo albums of beautiful women, I played red envelope rain, changed LOGO 4 times, SLOGEN 4 times, cooperated with "Speed Challenge", and played answering questions and throwing coins...
It was not until the 3.7.0.13 version update on May 1 this year that Haokan Video officially launched the task system, which can be regarded as starting to embark on the path of "accepting apprentices to do tasks".
In short, following the successful experience of Qutoutiao, which was just launched, Baidu, 360, Xiaomi, etc. have made some small achievements in the short video field. I have to admit that this coin-spending method of “accepting apprentices and completing tasks” can indeed help the short video APP’s sudden rise to a certain extent.
The reasons behind this are not difficult to understand:
1. Qutoutiao's "accepting apprentices and doing tasks to earn cash" model is quite mature and perfect, and has educated users in lower-tier cities. Short video APPs can just copy it;
2. Hydrogen Media Finance found that some users of information APPs with online earning models are switching to short video APPs (many netizens are sending invitation codes to two or more APPs at the same time on Weibo).
Hydrogen Media Finance contacted a "senior wool party" who sent invitation codes everywhere in the name of becoming his apprentice. He praised Qutoutiao as "not even a dollar for watching it all day", while another similar information APP "has at least two dollars", "you can earn (a day) 1 yuan for a good video, Baidu Express Edition 1.5";
3. Short videos are easier to understand than graphic information. , more interesting and easier to spread, so it is easier to sink. You must know that the cultural level in low-tier cities is generally not high. If you can watch short videos, you will never look at pictures, and if you can look at pictures, you will never read words;
4. Companies that are not short of money, such as Baidu, iQiyi, 360, and Xiaomi, are more capital-savvy than Qutoutiao and Hui. Startups like Toutiao have greater advantages, and the model of "taking on apprentices and doing tasks to earn cash" is proven, and it is easier to get money for short video projects;
5. At present, various short video contents are still in a mess of "either plagiarizing each other, porting them to external networks, or editing film and television program clips" In the chaotic stage, there are almost no issues such as copyright protection and content barriers;
6. Douyin, Kuaishou, Huoshan, and Xigua, which are currently ranked high in the industry, have not launched similar gameplay. Since the industry leaders have not yet reacted or do not pay attention to it, this is the "golden window period" for catching up from behind.
In addition, there are well-known reasons such as the popularity of mobile Internet, 4G, and mobile phones, which will not be discussed here.
It is particularly worth emphasizing that with the rapid rise of this group of short video APPs based on the "accepting apprentices and completing tasks" model, a series of problems caused by this model may be more worthy of attention.
3. Qutoutiao has fallen into the pitfalls. Do you have to go through all the short videos in the online earning model?
History is always surprisingly similar. Pinduoduo fell into all the pitfalls that Taobao fell into back then (copycats, fakes, LOW, poor service, etc.), and was criticized verbally and writtenly as soon as it entered the public eye; Qutoutiao also fell into almost none of the pitfalls that Toutiao fell into (plagiarism, vulgarity, LOW, pornographic, etc.), and similarly, it was criticized verbally and writtenly.
So here’s a sub-question: Are short video apps that imitate the Qutoutiao model less likely to cause pitfalls and verbal criticism?
The answer is of course: not one less.
Joke aside, let us take a serious look at the problems with this model of short video APP. This trend of comprehensive learning, testing and implementation of "accepting apprentices to complete tasks" will have a negative impact on the short video industry.What is the impact?
1. Financial Difficulty
This currency-spreading model is essentially a user subsidy, which will inevitably bring pressure to companies to significantly increase customer acquisition costs.
Let’s take Baidu and iQiyi, which just released their financial reports, as examples.
Baidu’s content costs in the third quarter were RMB 6.7 billion (approximately US$981 million), an increase of 73% over the same period last year. The year-on-year increase in Baidu's content costs was mainly due to the increase in iQiyi's content costs and, to a lesser extent, the increase in investment in Baidu's information flow content network Baijiahao.
Baidu’s traffic acquisition cost (TAC) in the third quarter was RMB 3.1 billion (approximately US$450 million), an increase of 25% over the same period last year.
It can be seen that Baidu and iQiyi spend astronomical amounts on content costs. So what about short videos specifically?
As mentioned earlier, with the Haokan Video APP alone, ordinary users can currently earn one yuan a day watching it. iResearch data shows that the number of monthly unique devices for Haokan Video in September was 49.29 million. If the subsidy was one yuan a day at that time, a simple calculation would theoretically suggest that this APP could burn up to nearly 50 million yuan in September alone!
The situation on iQiyi’s side is even more severe. As we all know, it already needs to bear a large content cost. According to the financial report, iQiyi’s net loss in the third quarter was 3.1 billion yuan, which was significantly larger than the loss of 1.1 billion yuan in the same period last year.
The "senior woolist" mentioned above told Hydrogen Media Finance that although withdrawals from iQiyi's Natto Video APP are relatively stable, "the main reason is that the income is low, only a few cents a day."
Other short video apps that can make money online, such as 360 Kuaikan Video, Bobo Video, and Huoniu Video, are not very stable with cash withdrawals.
2. Mattress wool is a trend
What is called a subsidy will be rampant.
The proliferation of short video APPs and information APPs surrounding the online earning model is nothing new. But Hydrogen Media Finance still discovered an even more bizarre phenomenon: the regular army among the Wool Party!
The so-called regular army of the Wool Party is the APP formed by the task of distributing online earning APPs. Through it, you can spend a few yuan to let other users on the platform complete the tasks you need to complete, such as recruiting disciples, sharing, and likes, etc. Typical examples include Zhongrenbang Browser and Shanduobao APP. It is equivalent to you acting as a middleman, helping other people to perform tasks on the platform, and you earn the price difference.
For example, the following apprenticeship task posted on Renrenbang: download a good-looking video, enter the apprenticeship code, and watch 7 videos to get 2.27 yuan. You must use screenshots as proof.
It is worth noting that 1,633 people have earned 2.27 yuan from this task! There are only 5 places left!
There are many such tasks, and the amounts are mostly in single digits. Including but not limited to short video APPs and information APPs with online earning models, Haokan Video, Quanmin Short Video, Dongfang Toutiao, Phoenix News, Mango Kandian, Zhongqing Kandian, Tao News and even Alipay are all "frequent users" on it.
3. Low advertising conversion rate
Because users are all looking for small profits, almost no one cares about the quality and value of the content. This type of short video APP is more like a micro-business platform cloaked in content, a money-making machine.
This aspect isThe moral hazard of being questioned as a "pyramid scheme", on the other hand, and more importantly: such platforms often have low advertising conversion rates. After all, readers do not really read the content and have low purchasing power. Do you expect this group of people to buy products through advertising?
So, if you rely on advertising to make money (which is what peers in this type of APP do), the business model will inevitably be unsustainable.
4. Low threshold and easy to copy
Short video APPs with this type of online earning model originally imitated Qutoutiao, which shows that this model is very easy to copy.
The previous article also mentioned that in addition to Baidu's Baidu Express Edition, Haokan Video, Quanmin Video, and iQiyi's Natou Video, 360's Kuai Video, Xiaomi's Xiaomi Kuai Video, and various Huoniu Video, KAA Video, Aishang Video, Peanut Diary, Qutui, Haha Video, Youliu Video, Bobo Video, etc. are all making the same products.
Content is moved around, the model has no threshold, and the product has no features, so the short video APP in the online earning model only competes for money and speed.
4. Write at the end
The short video industry is experiencing a wave of "using the Qutoutiao model to create Douyin". Baidu, iQiyi, 360, and Xiaomi are all involved in this trend. Judging from the customer acquisition data alone, this type of short video APP with an online earning model can be said to be a small success.
It is not a problem to spend money to acquire customers, but it is a big problem to waste money, acquire low-quality customers, and fail to produce a product with threshold, viscosity and soul.
This is a kind of mature, pathological, and borrowed sub-healthy state of the short video industry.
This is a disease.