Wang Yibo's costumes were cut into pieces and sold! The video website is using a new trick to cheat people

From attracting new users in a Pinduoduo-style manner and reviving advanced on-demand viewing in disguise, to selling Wang Yibo's "original" costumes in slices, video websites always make you look at them in a new light when it comes to "making money".

Recently, Youku’s official Weibo account announced that it would give big benefits to fans of the drama. The official reasoning game "Ice Rain and Fire: Script Game" was officially launched. The first 1,000 players will have the opportunity to obtain costume components of Chen Yu (played by Wang Yibo) and Wu Zhenfeng (played by Chen Xiao).

The so-called costume components are to split the actors' costumes into parts, each with a unique code. Among them, the denim jacket worn by Wang Yibo in the play was divided into about 100 pieces, and the T-shirt was divided into about 30 pieces. The official of the "Ice Rain and Fire" script game specifically emphasized that "the clothes were directly shipped from the crew to the factory for disassembly without washing." They also hope that fans will unite and restore the clothes in a certain city in the future.

It is not new for the production team to sell costumes. Previously, a costume of the protagonist Wen Kexing in Youku's hit drama "Word of Honor" was sold for more than 220,000 yuan, and the proceeds were donated to charity organizations, which made everyone happy. But this is the first time that the actor's costumes are cut into pieces and sold. Even fans are not buying it, and they have complained that Youku "does not promote the drama carefully, but makes money in a set way" and "eats in an ugly way". As of press time, Youku's official Weibo account has deleted the Weibo post.

In fact, it is not only Youku that has been criticized for its "ugly appearance". Tencent Video also received heavy criticism for holding a preview of the finale of the hit drama "Dream of Red Mansions" and reviving the "advanced on-demand" service in disguise. In the eyes of users, the membership fees of video websites have already increased, so why do they still have to come up with various excuses to "cut the leeks"?

Video websites use various tricks to “cut leeks”

At present, users on video platforms such as iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video are mainly divided into free users, member users and single-film paying users. Among them, single-film paying users are mainly for online movies, and members are divided into VIP and SVIP according to different rights and interests. The main target of video websites' "cutting leeks" is member users.

The tricks for harvesting VIPs include advanced on-demand viewing, "Pinduoduo-style" new user acquisition, and things like paying to watch exclusive, unreleased highlights of hit dramas, 3 yuan to unlock extra episodes and easter egg content of hit dramas, secondary charges for VIP screen projection, etc., all of which require additional payment on top of membership.

Take the most controversial advance on-demand service as an example. This is a value-added service launched by the video website. By paying on top of membership, you can unlock the content of the series in advance. In 2019, Tencent Video first tried this model in the hit drama "The Untamed". At that time, it was reported that Tencent Video earned 150 million yuan in revenue from the drama with advance on-demand service.

Although the data has not been officially confirmed, it is undeniable that Tencent Video has indeed tasted the sweetness of the advanced on-demand model, and has since launched this service in dramas such as "Celebrating Yu Nian" and "Sweeping Dark Storm". Platforms such as iQiyi, Youku, and Mango TV have also followed suit, extending from dramas to variety shows and animations. "The Legend of the Stranger", "The Heartbeat 2", "Signal of Love 4" and other dramas all have advanced on-demand.

This has caused dissatisfaction among more and more users, and disputes such as "suspected of infringing on members' existing rights" and "promoting piracy" have continued. In August 2021, the Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee named the "Sweeping Black Storm" advance on-demand service as suspected of bundled sales and ignoring consumers' right to choose. In September, the China Consumers Association called on all video platforms to conduct self-inspection and rectification and use fewer routines. In October, Tencent Video, iQiyi, Youku, etc. announced the cancellation of the series' advance on-demand service.

However, only 8 months later, the advanced on-demand service was revived in the form of a "finale preview ceremony". This model was introduced in popular dramas such as "Dream of Splendor" and "Starry Sky: Moon Rising Over the Sea" on Tencent Video, and "Incense Like Crumbs" and "Ice Rain and Fire" on Youku. Because of the addition of various membership gifts, the finale preview ceremony seems to be more cost-effective than advanced on-demand service, but in essence, it still requires additional payment on top of membership, and complaints about the "ugly appearance" of video platforms still exist.

In addition, in April this year, Youku's new drama "My Name is Zhao Jiadi" was also controversial for its "Pinduoduo-style" new user acquisition activities. VIP users, on top of the members' sneak peek, needed to invite five friends to help unlock episodes 23 and 24 of the drama, and the invited helpers could only successfully help once during the activity.

In other words, to watch each episode in advance, you need to invite different friends to help. "If a member needs to invite friends to watch a show, what's the point of this membership?" Many users cannot accept it.

From the users' point of view, since last year, the membership fees of major video platforms have been increased one after another, and some membership packages have increased by as much as 50%. Why do they have to charge more fees in various pretexts? Are the platforms so short of money? For the long video platforms that are going through the winter, the answer is yes. Video platforms don't want to "lose money to gain publicity" anymore, and now they want to see real money.

The reason behind “cutting leeks” is still lack of money

The frequent use of "cutting leeks" by video websites is related to their profit difficulties. In the first quarter of this year, iQiyi announced its first quarterly profit after 12 years of losses, and continued to make profits in the second quarter. Now the pressure is on Tencent Video and Youku.

Alibaba's latest financial report shows that in the first quarter of fiscal year 2023, Alibaba's entertainment business had revenue of 7.231 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 10%, and an operating loss of 1.215 billion yuan, compared with an operating loss of 1.01 billion yuan in the same period last year. The financial report pointed out that the decline in Alibaba's entertainment business revenue was mainly due to the decline in revenue from Alibaba Pictures, Youku and other entertainment businesses.

Tencent Video's performance was also not ideal. In the second quarter of this year, Tencent Media's advertising revenue fell 25% to 2.5 billion yuan, due to the decline in advertising revenue of Tencent Video and Tencent News. The number of Tencent Video's paid members fell 2.4% year-on-year to 122 million, which is the second consecutive quarter that Tencent Video's paid members have experienced negative year-on-year growth.

Currently, advertising and membership fees are the two main sources of revenue for video websites. Affected by the epidemic and the macroeconomic environment, the advertising business is under pressure, and harvesting members has become a common choice for video websites to increase revenue. Even for iQiyi, which is already profitable, the only sector that has maintained revenue growth this year is the membership business.

However, it should be pointed out that video websites have entered an era of stock competition, and the number of members has peaked. It is more difficult for the platform to increase the number of members. Therefore, raising membership prices and increasing the consumption frequency of existing members have become more common operations, and models such as advanced on-demand have also emerged.

However, if the "leek-cutting" routine is used too much, it will inevitably greatly reduce the user experience. How to find a balance between improving user experience and high revenue is still a difficult problem that long video platforms need to solve. As a user, I hope that video platforms can produce more popular content and fewer routines.