Tencent Video released a blockbuster lineup for the summer vacation

Author | Huang Yu

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

Fortunes change. After two years of downturn, Tencent Video, encouraged by Pony Ma at the annual meeting and the team's daring adventures, finally ushered in a year of explosive hits.

The trending drama "The Story of Roses" just ended not long ago, and on the evening of July 8th, Tencent Video released another summer blockbuster - "Eternal Love 2".

This costume mythological drama adapted from Tong Hua's novel caused a viewing frenzy when the first season aired last summer due to its excellent character development.

Tencent Video, which had mediocre performance in the past two years, has undoubtedly become the most glorious platform in the "Love, Tencent, and Mango" alliance this year. As expected by Pony Ma, Tencent Video is producing more hit series.

However, with the mobile internet entering a mature competition stage and the rapid rise of short video platforms, the growth of long video platform memberships has hit a ceiling. Tencent still has a long way to go to truly become the king of the video industry.

Explosion

"Tencent Video is winning big again." This year, as Tencent Video continues to release hit series, outsiders have frequently exclaimed in this way.

After a year's wait, "Eternal Love 2" did not disappoint Tencent.

Public data shows that "Eternal Love 2" topped the Maoyan drama heat ranking within half an hour of its premiere, with multiple related keywords trending.

Under high heat, "Eternal Love 2" also made a lot of money, with 11 advertisements in each of the first 4 episodes released on the first day, surpassing 70 joint advertisements, setting a historical record for TV drama advertising sponsorship at the start of the broadcast.

Previously, Wong Kar-wai's "Blossoms" as the opening drama of the year also had an average of only 10 advertisements per episode. Obviously, last summer's "Eternal Love 1" laid a good foundation.

In addition to "Blossoms" and "Eternal Love 2", Tencent Video's hit series this year also include "Phoenix Walks", "Joy of Life 2", and "The Story of Roses", totaling five.

Gao Dongxu, Chief Analyst of the China Entertainment Think Tank, told Wall Street News that Tencent Video has indeed performed well this year, daring to break through old patterns, improving in content innovation, script polishing, actor selection, filming production, and ensuring the quality of the series.

Various signs indicate that Tencent Video, which has long been stuck in the quagmire of ancient idol dramas, is finding its own rhythm after reflecting on 2022, focusing on high-quality content and cutting non-premium content.

At the 2024 Tencent Video Film Annual Conference, Wang Juan, Vice President of Tencent Online Video, pointed out that top dramas are showing a "high-heeled cup effect", producing content that is adventurous rather than boring.

At the beginning of the year at the Tencent Group annual meeting, Pony Ma also praised Tencent Video, saying it has made great progress over the past year. At the same time, Pony Ma pointed out that it is better not to produce mediocre dramas, but to concentrate resources on producing high-quality ones, clearly indicating the direction for video content In addition to achieving a "five consecutive explosions" in TV series, Tencent Video also poached Ma Dong from iQIYI to create the comedy variety show "Joyful and Wonderful Night", while officially launching the "Hong Kong Drama Plan" in deep cooperation with TVB, which used to be Youku's core content advantage.

Challenge

On the road to building a "Chinese version of Netflix", Tencent Video is constantly fighting with long video giants such as iQIYI, Youku, and Mango TV.

In the first half of this year, each platform has released high-quality works with both popularity and word-of-mouth, but in the context where blockbuster works are crucial to influencing the number of members and stickiness, long video platforms are shrouded in anxiety over blockbusters.

Whether from the perspective of user base or number of members, the growth of long video platforms has entered a bottleneck period. Tencent Video's number of paid members has roughly remained in the range of 110-120 million over the past few years, with a year-on-year growth of 8% to 116 million in the first quarter of this year.

At the same time, long video platforms need to break through the impact of short videos such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Bilibili.

Several industry insiders pointed out to Wall Street News that the loyalty of long video users is not high, and only by continuously and stably outputting original blockbuster content can they maintain and increase the number of users.

The difficulty lies in the fact that stable output of blockbuster series is not easy. On the one hand, there needs to be a mature original content production mechanism, and on the other hand, there needs to be strong financial strength.

Zhang Yi, Chief Analyst of AiMedia Consulting, told Wall Street News that for Tencent Video, its advantage in creating blockbusters lies in its strong financial strength, rich source of films, advanced technology, and comprehensive content layout, especially its rich source IP.

However, even though it is seen as having "financial capabilities" by the outside world, under the overall theme of "reducing costs and increasing efficiency" within the Tencent group, Tencent Video has also had to tighten its belt in recent years to further enhance its profitability.

The competition for major IP series sometimes feels more like "gambling". In order to diversify risks, Tencent Video's CEO Sun Zhonghuai stated that he hopes to promote a comprehensive transformation of the cooperation model with production companies—from the previous logic of "fixed price, buy and let go" to a co-creation model of "dynamic betting, post-incentive" oriented towards broadcast results, sharing risks and benefits.

Meanwhile, Tencent Video recently announced the iteration of a profit-sharing model, upgrading from the previous single evaluation system to a combined revenue model of "member viewing time + member acquisition incentives", placing more direct and realistic requirements on film quality.

In addition, under profit pressure, "nested charging", and a large number of drama advertisements can also cause user dissatisfaction. While Tencent Video is striving to explore blockbuster series, it also needs to maintain a balance.

The era of burning money to buy copyrights for territorial expansion is over. Long video platforms have long entered a new stage where content is king and revenue maximization is key.

Against the backdrop of "reducing quantity and improving quality", Tencent Video still faces significant challenges in becoming the "Chinese version of Netflix"