The opportunity of micro video in China

The significance of YouTube for Google is that the search corresponds to the small and medium advertisers as the main body of search advertising, brand advertising requires rich media forms.

Google's bid to buy YouTube at $1.65 billion trillion is a controversial industry. Some analysts applauded, but also a considerable number of people are not optimistic. For the development of video at home, some media still exclaim "video is a big bubble". Although people have a different understanding of the takeover, there is a consensus that YouTube's model of micro-video has a broad future.

The acquisition is strategic to Google. This is the largest acquisition ever made by Google, and, unlike Google's previous acquisitions, the acquisition was aimed at the platform/user/content rather than the technology acquisition (which used to be the goal of acquiring technology for Google's acquisitions). In a sense, this shows that Google, as a media, recognizes the strategic value of UGC (user-generated content) media. Controlling the huge UGC content is a strategic balance of the content of the copyright business to Google.

The Internet's entry into the video age from the age of graphics is an obvious reality. The backwardness of Google Video has led to the acquisition of YouTube, through the acquisition of Google can continue to lead the Internet in the era of videos. If the form of Internet advertising is generally divided into search advertising and brand advertising two categories, Google in the search advertising market occupies an absolute market share, and in the brand advertising or blank. The manifestation of the search-type advertisement determines its delivery, which is mainly the small and medium advertisers who face the sales and guidance of the final customers. Brand advertising requires rich media representation, in which video can most effectively express the impact of the brand, advertising audiences have a stronger, more vivid and lasting impact. As Google's assets, YouTube will provide Google's advertisers with a previously impossible brand advertising service, which is a huge, lucrative "gold mine" that can open up vast space for Google's future growth. This makes Google's future with Yahoo and so on in the next generation of Internet competition in a favorable position.

For YouTube, first of all, Google's current sophisticated advertising sales platform, technology and customer network, can help YouTube traffic in the shortest possible time monetization. Second, Google's experience in dealing with copyright disputes and its financial strength can effectively defuse the embarrassing situation in the past and now that YouTube has and is about to face copyright. Over and over again, YouTube will grow faster by leveraging Google's global presence and strong brand advantage.

In China, in addition to the micro-video already involved in the western market, micro-video opportunities in China may be even greater: (1) Unlike the United States, which has been in developed countries for many years, our traditional media is difficult to be user-centric for institutional reasons, More difficult to do so that grassroots users to video means to show themselves and their own creations. This makes the micro-video has a greater development space than the West. Youku and CETV recently held a "China Day" DV activity, is to mobilize ordinary people with unprofessional perspective and means to record their own life of the original ecology. For example, there is a friend called the Sweet Circle on the Youku, Sichuan, her self-portrait of a song, in just a few weeks, browsing the number of 100多万次 breakthrough. For her, this is undoubtedly an astonishing realization of self-worth, and this, in the past can not imagine, such attention and interaction, is very valuable. (2) The overall growth potential of China's advertising market is enormous. The advertising market has been growing faster than GDP in China, which is unthinkable in the US. and internet video advertising in China is still in the infancy stage, its growth rate will surpass any kind of advertisement form. (3) China has the world's largest wireless internet market, accompanied by the rapid pace of economic development of life, will certainly inspire people for short, humorous, innovative, convenient micro-video content on the mobile phone consumption needs. With the application and popularization of 3G in China, this market opportunity is exciting.

YouTube's success does not mean that simply replicating the YouTube model will make the same success at home. Google China today, Yahoo China yesterday and the Chinese Internet in less than 10 years of history, no one has proved that only the strength of the company successfully achieve localized products, to create value for Chinese users and rely on the Chinese characteristics of the marketing rules, only the chance of success. (Koo is the president of Youku, this article is the "Internet Weekly" column)