A fierce internet card war

Liu Jia Li Sijia

Early in the morning of July 1, the busy Zhongguancun day and night gradually entered the quietest hour of the day.

Located on the 18th floor of Sohu Media Building, South of the Academy of Sciences, a party based on the World Cup has just kicked off. Here's the owner, Zhang Chao Yang, Sohu CEO is raising the hands of the beer, and his stars, models, designers, friends watch, chat. Every time the game is tight, a group of people from time to time stand up for the likes of the team and the players applause.

"Charles (Charles Zhang English name) is not a fan, but every contest, he became a fan." A person close to Charles Zhang told the "First Financial Daily" reporter.

Regardless of the authenticity of the fans, each World Cup, the Olympic Games behind, are a fierce Internet Card War.

From 1998, the first time covering the French World Cup in 2010 to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, all the portals have attached great importance to sports competitions. By the time of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, social media represented by Sina Weibo dominated the London Olympics When the four major portal sprint news client. By 2014, it was the turn of the media outbreak. On the one hand, the video users shifted from the PC side to the mobile side. On the other hand, the traditional TV media who did not want to "wedding dress" commercial video websites began to fight hard.

In the name of football

Sohu away from the party 20,000 kilometers away from Brazil, Sohu Sports sent a team of 14 people in-depth coverage of the World Cup.

However, for Zhang Chaoyang, the World Cup is a prelude to a major reform Sohu. "We now have to get through all the context, including the World Cup, for advertisers, the entire group of Sohu's resources for a unified delivery are possible." Charles Zhang told the "First Financial Daily" reporter.

In other words, borrowing the World Cup, Zhang Chaoyang even hope Sohu portal and Sohu video and Sohu mobile products such as Sohu news client, Sohu video client, mobile Sohu, and Sogou and other products get through to achieve internal reform. This integration may also involve the adjustment and changes of different departments and personnel and is currently under way.

Different from the past, the last World Cup, the video site through the nesting of the way the live broadcast, but now, CCTV has begun to worry about whether the live video broadcast will impact on live television this year is no longer on the commercial video distribution World Cup live Copyright, including Sohu, including a number of video sites, can only win this year's World Cup broadcast rights.

Another difference is that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, more like a micro-Bo opportunities, when the video did not form such a large audience, the mobile Internet has not developed today, but this time, Charles Zhang believes that "the obvious video opportunities , But also from the media opportunities. "

Sohu video played cards, is a series of home-made programs around the World Cup. "Breakfast from the stars", "Hello! World Cup, Secret and Great, Crossing, Cross Talk, Hurried Year (cross-over) From the 13th to the 14th July, the 32 days start to realize the seamless live video of two hours a day at 8 am every day.

Free flow feast is Sohu play another card. During the World Cup, Sohu video jointly announced with China Telecom, China Telecom mobile phone users through the Sohu video client to watch the World Cup, you can choose the entire flow-free activities.

In addition to content and product improvements, the new version greatly improves the playback performance and loading performance, Sohu sources told reporters that, for example, the video loading time is shorter than in the past 50 %the above.

Homemade craze

Different from Zhang Chaoyang, who hopes to become a "true fan" after this World Cup, Youku, the president of Youku, is regarded as a hardcore fan. After each exciting game, he will be the first time in the circle of friends to share insights. After Italy suffered a tragic Uruguay knockout, tragic farewell to the game, he wrote in the circle of friends: "Say goodbye to farewell to Baggio."

Winning and losing on the pitch unpredictable, but around the World Cup video competition, no one who wants to be a loser.

In response to the World Cup, Youku launched the "1 + 4 + N" content matrix mode while offering on demand for 64 race events: 1-generation home-made program and 4-stage PGC program (Professional Generated Content, Video sites continue to broadcast the content of professional video producers / agencies), massive UGC content, matching is PC, mobile phone, Pad, TV multi-screen experience.

"When the World Cup was played four years ago, there was very little video watching on the mobile side, and mobile-side traffic now accounts for nearly 60% of all traffic and explosive growth on the mobile side at this World Cup." An insider at Youku "First Financial Daily" reporter said, therefore, in this year's World Cup content production and delivery, Youku more focus on suitable for mobile playback, such as the highlights of the video are also cut for short-screen mobile video viewing, etc. In cooperation with operators to attract traffic in the flow of users; OTT, Youku will also have all copyright content related to the World Cup made a major recommendation in the home page.

This year, from the hands of Youku "digging angle" Gao Xiaosong's love Fantastic Art, then with a talk show "Xiao Song Qi Tan," the crew went to Brazil to review the football match of hatred, ignite the enthusiasm of authentic fans.

Sina is not inferior to the traditional portal. More than half of the World Cup schedule, Sina video on demand play that day reached 101 million. Sina made by Huang Jianxiang presided over the "Laohuang enough to lie body," live broadcast on the show over 1 million, while the number of up to 300,000 online, on-demand segments daily average exceeded 3 million.

In addition, Sina during the World Cup and Hubei Satellite TV launched the "Yellow Braised World Cup", the average ratings of the same period in the country ranked 10th in the program, up to the sixth.

In fact, from the traditional ball game broadcast to the court news, lace news, to the original homemade star commentary World Cup and other columns, missed the live content, the World Cup homemade column to become a major highlight of Brazil World Cup video industry, trying to traffic, users and advertising Hold in your hand again.

The current statistics, Ichyuki World Cup related video traffic has exceeded 200 million; Sina World Cup daily video play 84.66 million, average daily UV breakthrough 32.3 million, Youku around the World Cup related video content 5 days in the start of the broadcast volume breakthrough 100 million ... ... As the event upgrade, on-demand volume will continue to refresh.

Competing road

Homemade video site craze, both the industry trend, but also revealed the helplessness. In response to the challenge of new video media, CCTV no longer distributes the rights to live broadcast of the World Cup on commercial video sites. This gives CNTV the exclusive live broadcast rights that have become a weapon of the traditional television media to fight back against video websites.

As FIFA's official new media partner in China, CNTV has exclusive live and on-demand copyrights for 64 World Cup matches in Brazil and exclusive live broadcast rights cover the PC and mobile clients.

CNTV first battle volume impressive record. According to relevant statistics, only the opening ceremony time, CNTV total station views than the World Cup increased by 1.7 times before the opener data show that CNTV at 0: 00 ~ 2: 00, 2: 00 ~ 4: 00, 4: 00 ~ 6: 00 three sessions, the page views reached the same period before the World Cup 2.72 times, 13.84 times, 26.66 times. CNTV sports page views reached the same period of the World Cup pre-channel 11.93 times, 112.67 times, 267.63 times.

Once in the video field tepid CNTV, because the exclusive broadcast rights to have a video site against the weapons, but after the World Cup, how many users really stay in CNTV, is still unknown.

"There may be a good performance in the short term, but it's very likely that once the World Cup is over, the traffic will be rapidly lost." According to Analysys International analyst Pang Yi-ming, the reporter of the First Financial Daily, "In the long run, Mainly content, brand and user experience in three areas, these areas, CNTV still have homework to make up. "

And the other issue that makes traditional television programs unavoidable is the re-emergence of video (web, mobile) traffic around the World Cup.

Public information shows that the World Cup opener China 46 million television viewers, online live audience of more than 500 million, reaching one-tenth. The iResearch survey data show that 86.1% of people said they prefer to watch the World Cup through the Internet, more than double the data 4 years ago.

However, in Pang's opinion, although the entire TV market, especially the startup rate and viewing rate, has declined, in some less developed networks, television is still the mainstream viewing channel as well as the rise of Internet TV and boxes, which means It still takes time for the video to really go beyond traditional television.

But it is undeniable that mobile phones and PCs have greatly diverted traditional television content and advertising cakes, especially the rise of network-made content and ongoing copyright input. For the traditional television media that has been shouting "wolf" It may not be much time left for them to fight back.