Behind the explosion of online performances： two platforms compete for ＂future＂ business
Author | Stanley
Cui Jian, Luo Dayou, Stefanie Sun… and now Zhou Huajian, online concerts have changed from commercial marketing live events to large-scale concerts that now stimulate DAU feelings. At 8 o’clock on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival on September 10, Tencent Music Group TME opened Zhou Huajian 2022 online concert on WeChat Channels, QQ Music and other platforms. Less than two hours of live broadcast, a total of 39.56 million fans spent the Mid-Autumn Night with Zhou Huajian’s songs.
From 2020 to 2022, online concerts have gradually become a part of many people’s lives during the epidemic. On September 2 this year, Li Jian started "Yearning" at the Anaya Valley Concert Hall. On September 3, Andy Lau "Sing Me to You" in the Douyin live stream. Earlier, Luo Dayou and Sun Yanzi held online concerts on the same day. Cui Jian, Chen Yixun, Han Hong, Mayday, Yuding Ito, Zhang Huimei, Chen Li, Zhou Shen, Liang Jingru, Rainie Yang, Xicheng Boys, etc., whether it is industry legends, popular singers or pop bands, they have all met millions or tens of millions of fans at one time through online concerts in the past two years.
How eager are the audience for concerts? Even the recording of past concerts can become a "hit". On April 1, the live broadcast of Leslie Cheung’s "Hot Love" concert was ultra-clear and restored, and a total of 17 million viewers watched. On May 20 and 21, TME conducted a live online replay of Jay Chou’s two concerts on WeChat Channels and other platforms. The cumulative total viewing volume was nearly 100 million, and nearly 100 topics were listed on Weibo’s trending topic list. It is hard to imagine how many music fans would be attracted if Jay Chou himself conducted a brand new online concert.
WeChat Channels or Douyin?
The form of online live concerts has been carried out since 2014, but the popular online concert brand TME Live was actually officially announced on March 10, 2020. At that time, it was envisaged that this was a product presented in the form of "offline preparation + online live broadcast" and "pure online". However, until now, the pure online concert form is still more recognized.
Just 4 days after the official announcement, TME Live ushered in the first online concert singer Rainie Yang, 1.50 million online audience Although this data is not bright this year, it has achieved success beyond expectations at that time, and also laid the foundation for the future development of online concerts.
According to TME’s financial report, only in 2020 and 2021, TME live held 55 and 56 games respectively, and its viewing channels not only include TME’s own QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music and other platforms, but also Tencent Video, WeChat Channels and other Tencent Group internal video products.
In 2022, the audience of TME live has hit new highs several times. At the end of last year, only 27 million people watched the online concert of Xicheng Boys, and only 14 million people watched the New Year’s Eve concert on December 31, but this year, Luo Dayou’s online concert and Cui Jian’s online concert attracted super 40 million and super 46 million people respectively. Coupled with the previous online live broadcasts of Jay Chou’s "Mo Tianlun" and "The Strongest on the Surface" concerts, a total of nearly 100 million people watched. At present, the highest volume of a single TME live has touched the level of 50 million people.
Nowadays, online concert brands are not only dominated by TME Live, but Douyin is also the most powerful competitor in this market. Also in the first half of 2020, TikTok launched a series of online concert brands such as "DOU Live Sofa Concert" and "DOU Live Live Live", and launched a new IP "Summer Song Club" in August 2021. However, at present, Douyin does not place too much emphasis on the brand IP of online concerts, and many are dubbed "Fan Club" and "Singing Chat".
At the beginning, Douyin’s online concerts did not gain a high influence. According to the official data released by Douyin in 2021, the Douyin platform held a total of 124 official online concerts in 2020, but the harvest was very small. Even in the "summer song party" in 2021, the 7 games added up to 40 million.
Perhaps because of product iteration, better content production, more audience adaptation to this model, and greater influence of invited singers, in 2022, Douyin’s online concert suddenly achieved a very amazing data performance. On May 27, Stefanie Sun’s online singing chat was Douyin’s first online concert this year, which attracted an astonishing 240 million people to watch. At present, the highest data is Andy Lau’s "Sing Me to You" online concert on September 3, which received 350 million views. In addition, the online concerts held by Eason Chan, Liang Jingru, Zhou Shen, Wang Sulong and other singers in Douyin this year have received over 100 million views.
At first glance, it seems that there is a huge gap between TME live’s WeChat Channels viewing data and Douyin’s online concert data, but in fact, according to Red Star coverage, WeChat Channels and Douyin’s statistical data logic are different. WeChat Channels statistics are user visits. Even if a single user visits multiple times, it can only be recorded as once, but Douyin statistics are page visits, and each time a single user leaves and enters will increase once. According to industry rules, there is generally a 5 to 10 times the difference between the two. After removing the multiple clicks of repeat users, WeChat Channels and Douyin are almost on par in the current average traffic of a single online concert.
It is precisely because WeChat Channels relies on WeChat and Douyin to have become "national-level applications" that it is possible to achieve such a size of online concerts respectively. The two platforms have their own advantages, and they compete with each other in terms of singers, duration, feelings, playlists, and stages.
In the battle between the two heroes, NetEase Cloud Music, which clearly has more music resources and competes head-on with TME in various fields of music, has never found a way to make online concerts. After launching the "Cloud LIVE" brand, it did not cooperate with the national-level video application with a large number of users. Most of the invited singers like Wei Ruxuan are more niche literary and artistic singers. The overall traffic is far from WeChat Channels and Douyin, and the competitiveness in this field is very limited.
This is a business about the "future"
The Internet is a traffic business. Since online concerts can generate huge traffic, they will naturally become the target of competition among major brands.
Titling is the most common way to earn revenue for online concerts. In public reports, the highest title price for a single online concert that can be referenced at present is the online concert "Continue to Sprinkle Wild" held by Cui Jian on April 15. According to the weekly report of "Financial World", as the total title of Extreme Fox Auto, its LOGO has been reached by users with a cumulative 90 million, and the total investment in a single game is as high as tens of millions of yuan. On July 27, Extreme Fox Auto, with a similar budget, also named Luo Dayou’s online concert. Jay Chou’s concert replay online live broadcast, and Zhou Huajian’s online concert, also have Pepsi and Ping An Bank credit card exclusive titles.
In addition to the naming fee on the B-end, online concerts on the C-end can also earn income through tickets, joint products, etc. For example, in WeChat Channels, you can buy "WeChat beans" to buy virtual gifts and "tip" singers. There are also similar to NetEase Cloud Music’s TFBOYS "Daylight Travel" seventh anniversary concert, fans need to pay for tickets to watch, and even divided into three gears of 30 yuan, 158 yuan and 860 yuan for fans to choose from.
Unfortunately, although the C-end payment has more imagination and richness, there is a huge gap in the willingness to pay generated by different singers, and the highest can only reach the order of one million, making it difficult to become a replicable business model.
In addition, the cost of online concerts themselves is also constantly increasing. From last year’s New Year’s Eve, to this year’s Cui Jian, Luo Dayou, Zhou Huajian, the layout of multiple stages, the size of the band, and various technical support have all made online concerts move towards high quality and high cost. Whether it is WeChat Channels or Douyin, they will face a choice about "profit margin" – to ensure quality or to ensure profit?
In this online concert battle between WeChat Channels and Douyin, each has a lot of advantages. WeChat Channels is bound to TME, which has many innate advantages in music copyright, singer resources and industrial operation. Especially in the field of online concerts, which is still the field of traditional music superstars. The business model of "Douyin Divine Comedy" that Douyin used to specialize in is currently invalid.
As for Douyin, in addition to having nearly 700 million DAU, its users are also accustomed to accepting its strong recommendation algorithm. Even if they don’t have any understanding before, many users will be directly recommended by the system algorithm after the concert starts online, which directly brings effective views.
However, as a product that has just obtained the traffic password, online concerts are extremely dependent on the popularity and scarcity of the artists themselves. Cui Jian, Luo Dayou and Sun Stefanie are also rare to appear on variety shows, and it is rare for the audience to see them through online concerts. It is rare in itself. With the mentality of watching old friends for free, why not do it? As for Jay Chou, it is a special case among special cases. As fans have described, "there is only one Jay Chou in the Chinese music world," and other people’s live concert videos are far from being able to achieve such influence.
There are not many singers in the Chinese music scene who are popular, have works, have feelings, and are willing to meet the audience through live broadcast. However, if some singers who were originally rare appear frequently, it will reduce the mystery and the scarcity of the concert itself. It will also consume the feelings of the singers themselves, and will not form a virtuous circle.
What’s more, when the COVID-19 pandemic passes in the future, offline concerts will still be hot again. No matter how exquisite the stage and advanced the production of online concerts are, they still cannot replace the ultimate experience brought by offline audio-visual and participation. If there is no further iteration in product types, online concerts may fall into an awkward situation in the near future – first-class singers can use their traffic to promote new songs, and the traffic and feelings of second- and third-tier singers cannot support profit margins. For WeChat Channels and Douyin, who can redefine the music performance market through updated online concerts will have the opportunity to gain the future dominance of this industry.