"Fast Forward" patch advertising controversy

Absrtact: When the Hot network video appeared in the overwhelming video ads, and the corresponding is the user experience decline. Since last year, the third party software to the video advertising encirclement and suppression has quietly begun, first of all, Jinshan under the Leopard browser screen Cool view

When the Hot network video appeared in the overwhelming video ads, and the corresponding is the user experience decline. Since last year, the "encirclement and suppression" of video ads by Third-party Software has started quietly, first of all, the Golden Hill Leopard Browser shield Youku video patch ads, after 360 of browsers have appeared shielding Baidu ads, two cases of Third-party software have been awarded a lawsuit, but this did not let similar actions stop.

Last week, proud of the browser to push the new version, the main "look at once" function, "support to watch online video free Fast Forward", users can click on the video play box on the Fast Forward button, quickly skip the video content of the patch ads.

Exactly, "Let the user choose" where is the bottom line, this will trigger a new round of browser and video site dispute?

"Fast Forward" patch advertising controversy

According to the Chinese online audiovisual industry white Paper disclosed that 2013 China's network audio-visual industry all segments of the market to achieve quality, of which the network video users up to 405 million, in the national total number of Internet users accounted for more than 68%; the whole year network video advertising scale over 9 billion yuan, the industry scale exceeded 12 billion yuan, Online video has overtaken social networking as the first big time service for China's Internet.

Youku, potatoes, Archie art and other video sites, have listed or walk on the way to the market. However, the video ads that have made a contribution to these sites are now facing the dilemma of interception after the previous pursuers. There are more and more kinds of ways to screen video advertising from code to software to hardware.

The browser industry is one of the fastest-responding industries, and various browsers have launched the advertising processing Plug-ins, claiming that users can handle video ads by installing the appropriate plug-ins. A few days ago, proud of the browser announced "and advertising dead knock", vigorously publicize its "immediately see" The new features, a pair of fight posture.

The so-called "immediately look" function, according to South reporters trial found that after opening the video page, just move the mouse to the video, the player will summon the upper right corner of the floating toolbar, press the Fast Forward button, video ads will be fast forward playback. After that, the user only needs to wait 3-5 seconds for the fast-forward to completely skip the ads in front of the video.

Proud Tour Browser CEO Chen Mingjie said, proud of the research and development "immediately see" the original intention is to give users a user is originally the right to choose. Proud tour of the video fast forward to the entire video fast forward, rather than just "advertising fast forward." "We have consulted legal experts before the introduction of the function." Our immediately look at the version is not for a single site, not a blunt deprivation of video site advertising profit opportunities, but the option to return to the user, let users choose their own. ”

South all reporters consulted it and intellectual property lawyers Zhao occupation, he said: "First of all, video ads belong to a business model, not the user said the Overlord clause, it is hard to say is mandatory, because the user has the right to choose." ”

As to whether this function is as proud as the CEO said is "to give the right of choice to the user", Zhao occupation believes that the core factor of several judgments is: "First, whether the function should be opened by the user active choice; The second is that the function should not be directed at a particular one or several enterprises; The third is that users should not mislead users when they use this feature, Should be entirely by the user's own choice. In this way, we can show respect for the user's choice and try to avoid the damage to the business model of other enterprises. ”

The difficulty of user experience and business integration

South reporters on the incident to the video companies interviewed, but most of them said no response. Only the Youku group responded that the move violated the provisions of article fifth of the "Ministry of Information Service 20th" on "The provision by Internet providers not to maliciously modify or deceive, mislead or force users to modify the services or product parameters of other Internet Information service providers".

As content providers, video sites spend a lot of money each year to buy, produce content, and most of them free to users, advertising revenue to recover costs, this is the current industry's core profit model. "Youku said that the activity of the tour has undermined the basic business model of the video site ecosystem."

The combination of user experience and business has always been a "paradox". From the perspective of the user experience, in the past few years, video site ads from 15 seconds to rise to the current maximum of 90 seconds, it does have an impact on the user experience, but on the other hand in the "pay" model is not prevalent in China, advertising or other business revenue model is to ensure the normal operation of the company's body.

In addition to installing a browser with fast forward or shielding capabilities, the current online processing of video site advertising methods also include the following: Modify the system H O St files, use the router with shielding function, install ad shielding software.

Among them, the simplest and most direct method is to modify the user's computer on the H O St file, in which to join the Internet to find the video site of the screen code, through the domain name map to the wrong IP address to make the ad ineffective. In addition, because of the popularity of mobile network and network TV, routers, intelligent set-top box manufacturers are also taking the opportunity to join. The pole route is the advertisement filtering function enters everybody's view, it declares the user to log on the video website under the user name the premise the router may automatically shield the video before the advertisement.

Video website Counter "shielding" advertising behavior

South all journalists from the video site learned that video sites, whether technicians or legal personnel each year spent a lot of time and money to prevent the above "shielding" advertising behavior.

And the formal skip advertising mode, is paid to become a member of the website, such as Youku's membership fee is 169 yuan/year, the senior member of the music as 49 yuan/month, Sohu's v IP membership is 9.9 yuan/month. But the model is still struggling.

In an interview with reporters from south Dublin, Analysys International analyst Pang Yi said since 2011, the video site's advertising volume increased significantly, especially in the first tier of the city's inventory in short supply, although the form from the front of the patch to expand to the middle of advertising, suspended advertising, after the patch, angle advertising, Time also from the earliest 15 seconds to the current maximum of 90 seconds, but the demand is still growing.

"Generally speaking, advertising revenue accounted for more than 70% of the video site revenue, copyright distribution, games and other modes are not mainstream, and the ' pay user ' model in the domestic implementation of difficult, so the next few years is expected to mainstream advertising, contradictions difficult to reconcile." "Pang Yi Ming said.

On the other hand, the current video site traffic is rapidly moving to the mobile end of the transfer, but the income has not been a proportion of the transfer. Some people in the industry to the South have said that the future mobile end will appear innovative revenue model, such as small pay relief for individual ads, a centralized download of a PP in exchange for skipping advertising rights and other models or will become a breakthrough to resolve the conflict.