＂Stop＂ reveals the danger signal, and it is difficult for bilibili to stay in UP.
Interface journalist |
Interface news editor |
The "creator economy", which was once regarded as a long board by bilibili, has also begun to become its growing pains.
Different UP owners have their own explanations about the reasons for stopping the shift. "King Xu" said in the video that the stop was mainly due to two factors: first, it was difficult to make money or even lose money, and second, he wanted to take a long vacation. He said that he will continue to make videos after the break, but more will be regarded as hobbies. The departure of "Weird Jun" is related to the arrangement of the parent company and personal status.
It may not be comprehensive to attribute the recent "stopping the tide" of UP owners to the change of creative incentive mechanism. However, in the past year or two, it has indeed become a visible fact that it is difficult for bilibili to stay in the UP.
According to the interface news, since January 2023, many UP owners have released news of stopping the watch in bilibili, including those with millions of fans and tens of thousands or even thousands of fans.
Behind this is not only the commercialization problem that bilibili needs to solve, but also how a platform can balance its gain and loss.
The difficulty of realizing cash is the most direct problem faced by many bilibili UP owners.
In the last year, although bilibili spent 9.1 billion yuan on the income sharing of creators in 2022, the feeling of UP owners is still "it is harder to earn money".
In early 2018, bilibili launched the "Creative Incentive Plan", and eligible UP owners can get certain subsidies according to the flow and quality of manuscripts. In 2022, bilibili greatly adjusted the incentive system for creators. According to the interface news, the creative income gained by playing and praising the video itself was almost halved.
A person in charge of MCN, which focuses on the introduction of overseas bloggers, told the interface news that after the change, the overall income of the activity mechanism was indeed less than before, which had an impact on their introduction strategy. Some UP owners said that in the past, 10,000 broadcasts could earn 20-30 yuan, but now they can only be distributed to around 5 yuan at most.
The limited attention of advertisers makes the survival of bilibili UP owners more difficult.
In addition to the creator’s income, many UP owners make a living on the platform by cooperating with the brand to implant advertisements, commonly known as "just meals". According to public statistics, in 2022, China’s Internet advertising revenue decreased by 6.38% year-on-year, and the platform such as bilibili, which is difficult to realize direct transaction conversion, bears the brunt.
In 2021, bilibili’s advertising business achieved a year-on-year increase of 145%; But in 2022, advertising revenue increased by only 12% year-on-year. A person in charge of MCN told Interface News that last year, compared with Tik Tok and Xiaohongshu, the proportion of placing orders received by the same account in bilibili decreased significantly.
Bilibili, as a platform, certainly hopes his own UP owners can make money. But at the moment when it is eager to get rid of losses, it seems difficult to avoid the dilemma of paying attention to one thing and losing another.
In 2022, bilibili’s total revenue increased by 13% year-on-year to 21.9 billion yuan, but the annual net loss was 7.5 billion yuan, up by 10% year-on-year. In 2023, Rui Chen, Chairman and CEO of bilibili, put forward the goal of growth and breakeven. At the same time, the scale of users in bilibili has continued to grow. In the fourth quarter of last year, the average monthly active users in bilibili reached 326 million.
Behind UP’s departure, there are many changes that bilibili has made "from top to bottom" when achieving the above goals.
The rising tide of UP main stop has caused a lot of discussion in the station, and many users believe that the change of creators and platform atmosphere is also one of the reasons. An industry insider who is familiar with bilibili’s ecology believes that not only the material level, but also the service, support and attention to creators in bilibili are not as good as before.
In the transition from old to new, the platform environment is also adjusted together with the bilibili organization. A film and television UP owner has greatly reduced the update frequency in the past year. She believes that the current platform push mechanism is more inclined to short videos of the title party, the cover party and the professional day shift.
This perception is not groundless, and bilibili is practicing some guiding strategies. In 2021, bilibili launched Story-Mode, a short video with vertical screen mode. In Q1, 2022, the proportion of vertical screen video broadcast volume to the total broadcast volume exceeded 20%. By Q4, the amount of vertical video playback increased by 175% year-on-year. Bilibili once said that vertical screen video has promoted revenue.
In addition, there are also reports from the media that bilibili is considering changing the broadcast volume data displayed at the front desk to "user consumption time". In the eyes of the above-mentioned insiders, this is bilibili’s eagerness to show the commercial value of Chinese video to the outside world. Bilibili still has many choices to make after the UP main stop brings more danger signals.