Many netizens recently posted roast that when Youku paused the video, it would automatically jump to the advertisement. When they click the pause button, Youku will still jump from the video interface to other platforms even though they have not performed any further screen clicking operations.
Interface News learned from insiders that this is a shake advertisement on the Youku platform. Users who accidentally move their phones or tablets will trigger the platform to jump from the video interface to other advertising interfaces or platforms.
Some netizens' roast also reflect this situation. For example, "pausing and gently lowering the tablet will directly redirect to advertisements", "accidentally moving the phone will redirect to other apps".
Interface News inquired with Youku official about this matter, but as of press time, they have not yet responded. However, according to the interface news, it is not only Youku that has launched the shake advertising, but also Tencent Video and iQIYI, which have been roast by users many times before. Some netizens have also created tutorials to teach how to turn off such advertisements in privacy settings.
A parent video platform practitioner told the interface news that the platform was also aware of the users' roast, but in terms of user experience and the platform's commercial benefits, the platform chose the latter, which was also a helpless move.
Behind the helplessness lies the fact that long video platforms have yet to find a reasonable business model that can both cater to user experience and generate sustainable profits for themselves.
The content cost of long video platforms has always been very high. On the one hand, producing high-quality content requires optimization in various details such as camera richness and props, which itself means very high costs. For example, the production cost of iQiyi's self-produced variety show "China Has Hip Hop" was as high as 250 million yuan. Moreover, self-produced content on long video platforms also faces the risk of not becoming popular content, and the platform needs to bear extremely high risk costs.
On the other hand, long video platforms also face high copyright costs when purchasing high-quality content copyrights externally. The head effect of long video content is very obvious, and various platforms want to purchase top content with higher traffic, which also increases the copyright fees of high-quality content.
According to iQiyi's financial report, the content cost of iQiyi exceeded 20 billion yuan from 2018 to 2021. After proposing cost reduction and efficiency improvement in 2021, the content cost will reach 16.5 billion yuan in 2022 and 16.2 billion yuan in 2023. The proportion of content cost to revenue will still reach 50.8% after continuous reduction.
At the beginning of the launch of the long video platform, the platform's business model was mainly based on patch advertising, but advertising revenue was difficult to cover the high content costs. After 2015, long video platforms have made some progress in content payment, and the proportion of membership payment revenue in revenue has gradually increased. According to iQiyi's financial report, the current membership payment revenue has exceeded the advertising revenue.
At present, both iQiyi and Tencent Video have turned losses into profits by reducing costs and increasing efficiency. However, the low migration costs and lack of stickiness for users on long video platforms have led to insufficient security for the platforms in terms of sustained profitability. Several platforms are exploring more ways to expand their revenue, but various issues have arisen in balancing user experience and platform revenue.
In terms of advertising revenue, there is a certain conflict between the advertising revenue of long videos and membership, as users usually choose to skip patch ads and play content directly after purchasing membership. Therefore, the platform also attempts to develop new product forms to consume advertising inventory and expand revenue sources.
In addition to shaking the advertisement, the interface news was searched on the "Black Cat Complaints" platform, and users roast that after purchasing members in Youku and iQiyi this year, the platform would force the insertion of advertisements in the title of TV series. A user said that they purchased a Youku membership in February this year. At the beginning of the purchase, there were no advertisements at the beginning and end of the TV series. However, since April, almost every TV series has suddenly cut off the opening credits, with about tens of seconds of advertisements appearing.
In terms of membership income, platforms often face the problem of users paying during the period of popular content and losing after the popularity ends. Several platforms have attempted to increase the proportion of continuous payments among paying users, but have also adopted some frequently criticized methods. On the "Black Cat Complaints" platform, the interface news also retrieved tens of thousands of complaints about three platforms' members' automatic deduction without prompts, inability to cancel automatic deduction, and other issues.
The practitioners of the aforementioned long video platforms stated that without sustainable commercial returns, it is difficult for long video platforms to provide good services to users, but currently there are not many solutions that the platform can come up with.