[Game-Time special article, no reproduction without authorization]
Game-Time Report/The end of the year is approaching, and there are quite a lot of big news in the game live streaming circle.
On November 26, after being suspended for 104 days, the “next family” of the well-known anchor “Zhang Daxian” finally came to light. He officially announced on his personal Weibo that he would join the Douyin platform and start live broadcasting at the beginning of next month.
In fact, during the three months since Zhang Daxian was off the air, there were rumors that he would join the Douyin platform like Xuxu Baby. There were even voices saying that Xuxu Baby had joined in order to contribute to his own “Jing” “Nuclear” promotion, and Zhang Daxian’s entry is to build momentum for “The Final Victory”.
It is indeed possible to just look at the live broadcast content of the two. Zhang Daxian even “supported” Byte’s games earlier than Xuxu Baobao. When he was still in Huya, he had worked with the popular game under Chaoxi Guangnian. We have cooperated with the game “One Piece: Bloodline”.
But judging from the results, this is not the case. Below Zhang Daxian’s official Weibo post,The official Weibo accounts of “Honor of Kings”, “Yuanmeng Star” and Tianmei Studio Group came to interact and congratulate each other, saying that they will “continue to work together”. It is not difficult to see that Zhang Daxian will most likely continue to live broadcast after joining the Douyin platform. Related content of “Glory of Kings”.
You must know that before this, the relationship between Tencent and Byte was very subtle. The Douyin platform has always banned the live broadcast of “Honor of the King”. Even after Baby Xuxu came to Douyin, he was not allowed to post “Douyin” during the DNF live broadcast. “Yinxiaozhi” diverts traffic to other platforms.
The entry of Zhang Daxian this time is more like coming to Douyin with “Honor of Kings”, and he also got the official consent of “Honor of Kings”. In just a few months, Tencent’s attitude towards Douyin seems to have changed. Big changes, which also make this “marriage” more subtle.
Is the live streaming industry in decline?Dramatic changes in market structure
As mentioned at the beginning, in recent times, the game live broadcast track has been full of troubles.
As the arrest of the Douyu CEO gradually unfolds, many game anchors are panicking. Recently, many Douyu anchors or former Douyu anchors have chosen to stop broadcasting. It is unclear whether they are cooperating with the investigation or being involved in the case.
From the perspective of the general environment, as the industry structure has undergone tremendous changes, the live broadcast platform choices of anchors have changed. Especially for anchors whose contracts have expired, vertical game live broadcast platforms are no longer the only choice. For example, last week ” “Peace Elite” well-known anchor “Nan Yan” officially announced that he has joined the Kuaishou platform.
In the past, live broadcast platforms, especially vertical game live broadcast platforms such as Douyu and Huya, have always had close ties with game manufacturers. During new game releases or important operating nodes, many game companies will choose Douyu and Huya’s head anchors for promotion. , but today we can see that there are more participants in the game live broadcast track, such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili, etc.
In addition, Tencent, the previous largest participant in the game live broadcast track, seems to have some new views on the live broadcast industry.
In Tencent’s Q3 financial report this year, Tencent President Liu Chiping once pointed out that Tencent has entered a “high-quality revenue growth model”, that is, new high-quality revenue growth and the reduction of some low-quality revenue.
From the perspective of financial reporting business income statistics, Tencent pointed out that “Entertainment live broadcast revenue is calculated on a rolling basis, and revenue sharing is used as content cost“According to this revenue caliber, the gross profit margin of the live broadcast business is obviously low.
In contrast, Tencent said that this year’s hot mini-game track, “Mini game revenue does not include developer revenue sharing“Coupled with the regulations on the purchase volume of mini-games on the WeChat platform, the profit margin and growth rate of mini-games are significantly higher. This was also mentioned by Tencent CEO Ma Huateng at this year’s Q3 financial report meeting.
In other words, game live broadcasts may hardly be called “high-quality income” and have been classified as “low-quality” income by Tencent.
It is true that game live streaming is still one of the important means to promote new games and maintain the community of old game players. However, for giants, the direct revenue contribution it can bring is relatively limited, and it is difficult to change the industry structure and change the industry structure. The role of disrupting markets.
Tencent and Byte relations ease
On the other hand, the timing of Zhang Daxian’s official announcement of joining the Douyin platform is also very subtle.
On the evening of November 26, there was news that Byte’s Chaoxiguangnian would start large-scale layoffs, with the product team under development becoming the hardest hit area. There was also news that Byte may sell the previously acquired Mutong Technology.
On November 27, Byte also officially responded to this, saying that this round of adjustments does not involve online products such as “Crystal Core” for the time being, but mainly targets projects under development, and not all projects under development have been abolished, but Only individual innovative projects are retained.
With the adjustment of Byte’s game business, the original core conflict of interest between Byte and Tencent seems to have been alleviated a lot. It is gradually becoming possible for Tencent to allow its core game products to be broadcast live on the Douyin platform.
Moreover, Game-Time needs to remind that the easing of the relationship between Byte and Tencent did not happen suddenly, but had been foreshadowed for a long time. For example, Zhao Xi Guangnian’s new game “Crystal Core” which has achieved very outstanding results this year has been purchased heavily through Tencent advertising, and As we all know, “Crystal Core” targets Tencent’s ace client game DNF.
After the new changes in the competition and cooperation between giants, it will also affect the game anchor group in the future. After all, there are not many game live broadcast platforms in the industry, and they no longer spend huge sums of money to sign anchors like they did in the early years. The constraints imposed by the platforms on anchors are gradually decreasing. For example, some media said The Douyin platform does not have a signing fee. In the future, anchors may choose a platform based on their own wishes.
Of course, after Zhang Daxian, there is no definite news yet on whether Tencent will allow more anchors on the Douyin platform to live broadcast “Honor of Kings” or even other core Tencent game products. If it is feasible, then for the anchors on the Douyin platform This may be great news for Tencent. It may be a good thing for Tencent to leverage the byte-based traffic service game business in the future.
