China Audio, Video and Digital Publishing Association recently released the 2017 Annual Reading White Paper at the 2018 China Digital Reading Conference. The report shows that the size of China’s digital reading market reached 15.2 billion yuan in 2017, with a year-on-year growth of 26.7%. The number of digital reading users in China also reached 378 million, up 13.37 percent year-on-year. China’s mobile reading transactions are expected to reach 33.5 billion yuan in 2020.
The pattern of mobile reading has been basically formed, migu reading is in the top3 position in the industry, the former is far ahead of yichao QQ reading and a strong palm reading, migu reading is very difficult to further; After the second echelon of tower reading, book flag novels and other several reading platform entangled with migu, a little slack will be surpassed, quite anxious.
Behind the 9.9 yuan monthly package: Migu reading arrogance and blindness
Migu reading has been the TOP3 in the market share for a long time, but backed by China mobile, migu reading, the predecessor of “he reading”, has been the TOP3 in the mobile reading for four years, and is not willing to be the third and the second tier. Migu also wants to improve the influence of the platform through some measures.
Migu Reading, which wants to give a big blow to the industry, first released migu customized Kindle with Amazon last year, and then launched the monthly subscription service of 9.9 yuan free reading platform for all books, trying to reform the industry from the reading experience and content experience. However, yuewen, the largest IP source of web articles, waved his hands and turned away, saying that he did not want to play with Migu and cut off the update.
Migu reading of 9.9 yuan member monthly business continues today, no doubt be Migu as the future development strategy, although the incident is over a period of time, but does not hinder us to look back on the past, and to understand Migu reading through this understand his arrogance and blind, and the analysis of the triple mountains that stand before his path.
A mountain: can not go out of the flow of thinking, not the heart of the author
Migu Reading’s advantage is the traffic of China Mobile, but the arrogant Migu Reading has become blind instead of going out of the traffic thinking mode. The 9.9 yuan monthly subscription business is also an example of the flow thinking that seems to be for the sake of users. Users only need a small amount of money to read a large number of web articles and published books. Why not?
However, from the perspective of the original author, it is a different look. Paid reading promotes the creation of upstream content, while for content creators, the paid model is a virtuous cycle. Under the 9.9 yuan monthly subscription business, authors’ creation income also decreases, and creation is not guaranteed, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the platform.
This move also does not conform to the development law of paid reading, data shows that in 2017, the number of users willing to pay is 63.8%, which will continue to grow. However, the reading time of users is fragmented, concentrated in the time period before going to work and going to bed, etc. Mobile reading users are no longer concerned about free or not, but quality content and reading experience. They are willing to pay for high-quality content, but Migu still thinks that users like books are cheap.
Many people compare this service with Kindle Unlinited, but one of them focuses on web articles while the other focuses on published books. The sales models behind the two are completely different, and the degree of overlap between user groups is not high. According to data from netease Cloud Reading, the degree of overlap between users of online literature and published books is not more than 10%. As a result, the pay-by-time model works better with products like Kindle and SnailRead, which promote quality reading.
Erchongshan: the industrial chain resonance is difficult to achieve, the waist author is difficult to realize
From 9.9 yuan per month to further discussion, migu wants to help the author realize cash through two ways. One is to rely on users to reward, but due to the immature content payment consciousness of domestic consumers, the pure reward model in the content industry has not been able to form a sustainable business model, which is also the transformation of Music.
The other is to operate through IP, relying on the long tail effect to ensure the author’s creative income. However, the weak linkage of industry chain is a problem facing the whole cultural and entertainment industry in China.
Although migu is backed by China Mobile, the industrial chain layout of Migu is very complete, including migu Music, Migu Video, Migu Digital Media, Migu Interactive Entertainment and Migu Animation, but migu Digital Media’s reading platform migu Reading is difficult to achieve resonance with other industries.
From music, games, animation and so on several niche market share distribution, market share is mainly divided BAT, Migu its industry more than in the middle in the industry, while the development of IP initiative in the hands of downstream films and games, Migu industrial chain in the literature based on cartoons or TV works of liquid ring has yet to appear in the great heat flow, There is a big difference in strength between Migu reading and BAT. Migu reading’s IP operation needs cannot be supported by migu Reading’s industrial chain.
Text reading group is the current cultural industry chain layout is one of the most complete enterprise, such as “full-time masters”, “the celebration of years” multiple IP are already mature development mechanism, but read income still is given priority to with pay, accounted for 84.9%, the palm reading has accounted for 94%, visible across the industry through the long tail to help the author to liquidate the business model is not yet mature.
At the same time, IP operation resources tend to focus on the head authors, and the works that enter Migu to read IP operation plan are also famous works, such as Guan Pingchao’s “Burning Soul” and Tang Jiasanshao’s “Embrace Lies and Embrace You”. These well-known authors have accumulated a large number of readers during the development of other platforms, and their dependence on the platform is very low. Users who follow the authors are not closely connected with the platform, while waist users who are highly dependent on the platform are difficult to realize the long tail through IP operation.
Three mountains: external dependence heavy, less exclusive resources
The fact that many users abandoned the 9.9 yuan monthly subscription service also reflects the lack of high-quality exclusive content to attract users. High-quality author resources mostly come from other literature platforms. Migu Reading’s generous offer is also the reason why copyright companies like Reading Literature are reluctant to cooperate.
Comparing the per capita behavior of Migu reading in the mobile reading market Q3 and Q4 released by Analysys qianfan, the per capita time of Q4 decreased from 22.55 hours in Q3 to 15.58 hours, and the per capita startup times also decreased from 111.75 times in Q3 to 86.91 times, indicating a significant decline in user viscosity.
This set of data is sufficient to show that migu’s 9.9 yuan monthly subscription business has not sustained appeal to many users, and what is needed to cultivate loyal users is social interaction and high-quality content. Migu naturally lacks advantages in social networking, and the lack of exclusive quality content will exacerbate migu’s shortcomings. Migu has less exclusive author resources than migu on other platforms, and lags behind in IP.
Migu Reading also lacks differentiation advantage in categories. It still continues to follow the line of reading and wants to become a large and comprehensive platform. It is difficult to compete with QQ Reading and other platforms only by relying on traffic advantages, and it cannot build its differentiation advantage by relying on other literature platforms in content.
Comprehensive, Migu reading reform train of thought still failed to get rid of the flow of thinking, but the content industry has developed to a new dimension, high quality creator resources is to retain users, and the power, to promote the development of platform headlines today, tencent, ali industry giant launched all the author support programs to retain the author, the reason. Due to the lack of resonance in the industrial chain and the lack of creator resources, Migu Reading needs to go further in terms of content and creator guarantee mechanism if it wants to break through or block the pursuit of competitors.
To protect one side of the soil and water, migu reading must vigorously support creators
Migu Reading needs to get out of the fixed flow thinking, start with content operation, and increase efforts to excavate and support excellent creators.
Inviting the great writers of qidian and other well-known web writing platforms to enter also belongs to flow thinking. Although it can increase the influence of the platform and a certain number of head works, once the head writers leave the platform, the foundation of the platform will be shaken. Therefore, the IP operation performance of such stationed authors does not represent the ability of a platform to support excellent authors. Waist authors are the foundation for the platform to rise steadily, so Migu should also support waist authors. For example, in addition to “Migu Cup” essay contest and “Heming Cup” potential IP value list, we can increase exposure opportunities for waist writers through online and offline linkage, thus promoting the emergence of high-quality INTERNAL IP. Moreover, the writer resources in stock are also a guarantee to build barriers.
If the creator needs to guarantee his life through other work to create, it shows that the business model of a platform is not mature enough, and may not be a benign business model. From the perspective of the whole cultural and entertainment industry, the linkage between industrial chains is not perfect. Unlike Japan, which has a complete industrial chain, a derivative developed by IP authorization can still bring considerable benefits to the author decades later. Therefore, in the case that the industrial chain cannot raise the whole cycle, a perfect writer training mechanism is a double guarantee to attract more excellent, already famous, or potentially powerful authors to join in.
Migu Reading is in a position of neither top nor bottom, so it is not wise to compete with Ireader and QQ Reading from a large and comprehensive aspect. However, literature platforms such as Jinjiang and Baixiong Reading have a low market share, but due to their clear positioning, users are very viscous, thus increasing the value of the platform. Migu reading in the Matthew effect intensified in the mobile reading industry, or need to start from the segmentation of the market, to create their own barriers, such as Douban reading by genre literature to fight a way out.
conclusion
Permeability in the third Migu reading, reading and palm reading gap with QQ are far away, and the waist platform competition is intense, Migu reading the future want to get rid of the entanglement of books on several platforms such as flag novel, after a strong shearing section.at, and game entertainment for the user the fragmentation of time or the Internet giant, with high-quality IP, a need to change the flow of thinking, Second, it is necessary to improve the author cultivation mechanism and support high-quality authors to increase the author stock resources and reduce the dependence on external platform resources. So, just a fight.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110