Our reporter Li Yuyang and Li Zhenghao reported from Shanghai
Recently, it is reported that the live broadcasting business department of station B (09626. HK) plans to lay off staff, and has preliminarily drawn up a list, which will affect the whole live broadcasting department. In this regard, station B urgently responded that the live broadcasting business is in good condition, the gross profit has increased for three consecutive years, and is actively recruiting more than 40 posts.
“I have been at home for more than a month, and the basic salary is still paid normally.” An internal employee of station B told China Business Daily that station B was basically optimizing personnel during this period. Although it was unclear whether the live broadcasting Department of station B was laying off staff, it was almost impossible for the whole department to be terminated. The reporter then asked other staff of station B to verify the relevant information. The other party said that it was heard that the relevant departments were laying off staff, but the specific number was not clear.
As for the reasons for personnel optimization, a widely discussed argument is that the live broadcasting Department of station B may brush the water with unlimited rebate higher than the industry standard for entering the guild, resulting in the ecological imbalance of the live broadcasting area. For this statement and related questions, our reporter contacted station B, and no reply has been received as of press time.
In the past three years, station B has accelerated the breaking of the circle and sought the business realization mode outside the game while pursuing the growth of users. According to the financial report, the monthly live users of station B reached 272 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, with a year-on-year increase of 35%; In 2021, the operating revenue reached 19.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 62%, of which the operating revenue of live broadcast and value-added services reached 6.935 billion yuan (mainly from membership fees, virtual gifts brushed by live channels, paid content and virtual items sold on video, audio and cartoon platforms), a year-on-year increase of 80.33%, accounting for 35.78% of the total operating revenue, and has become the largest business of station B.
The above-mentioned sources said that they are no longer interested in the personnel optimization of the live broadcasting Department of station B. after all, many large Internet manufacturers are personnel optimization and have been numb. The reporter noted that at the 2021 financial report meeting, Chen Rui, chairman and CEO of station B, made it clear that station B should enter the stage of cost reduction and efficiency increase, “control all the money that should not be spent, and improve the efficiency of the money that should be spent”.
While large factories reduce costs and increase efficiency, the supervision of game live broadcasting is becoming more and more strict. On April 15, the online audio-visual program management department of the State Administration of radio, film and television and the Publishing Bureau of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee jointly issued a notice to strengthen the management of game live broadcast on the online audio-visual program platform, requiring that it is strictly prohibited to spread illegal games on the online audio-visual platform, and it is strictly prohibited for illegal and immoral personnel to make use of the live broadcast to appear on the camera.
Ecological change
It is understood that the aforementioned settled guild usually refers to the anchor guild or live broadcast guild, which is an emerging industry with the rise of the live broadcast industry. The guild makes profits by recruiting and signing contracts, cultivating anchors, and then transmitting them to various live broadcast platforms. Some guilds will also brush the water in the live broadcast to improve the popularity of anchors.
A “little transparent” anchor in the host game area of station B said that as the anchor at the bottom, he has not joined the guild, but no one will brush his popularity without adding the guild. It takes several pages to see his live room in the host area. In fact, it is a common operation in the live broadcasting industry for the guild to brush the list and popularity of signed anchors.
The financial data of station B also seems to be reflected. According to the financial report, in the fourth quarter of 2021, the operating cost of station B was 4.683 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 62%; Among them, the revenue sharing cost accounted for 2.428 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 91%. The explanation given by station B is “due to the increase in revenue share paid to live broadcast hosts and content creators, as well as the increase in payment to distribution channels when expanding mobile games and value-added services”.
Although live broadcasting and value-added services are the largest revenue source of station B, the growth rate began to slow down. According to the data, Q2 and Q3 increased by more than 95% year-on-year in 2021, but Q4 has decreased to 52%.
In this context, it may be groundless for station B to adjust the live broadcasting business department.
Unlike many other platform anchors, the anchor identity of station B has another important role - up host. In February 2018, station B launched the “bilibilili creative incentive plan”, according to which up owners can obtain income to support themselves. However, since this year, many up owners have said that their creative incentives at station B have become less, and some full-time up owners have said that their income has “decreased by 80%.
In February this year, station B was exposed to layoffs in the game department, calling the layoffs “graduation day” and the resignation process “BiliBili graduation day”.
“If the signed up main contract is not changed, it is to mess with the heads of some guilds and live broadcasting departments.” There is such an analysis. By 2021, more than 70% of the millions of fans of station B are also anchors.
A live broadcast user of station B said that he would brush gifts for his favorite anchor at the BLS award ceremony in the past two years. With the massive entry of the guild, he basically wouldn’t brush gifts; Another user said that the guild’s captain for the anchor (the privileged service launched by station B, similar to member subscription live broadcast) is a daily operation. He has witnessed the anchor of several 200 ships turn into 2000 ships in a few days, but there are few bullets at ordinary times.
decide on what path to follow?
Since its launch in 2015, the live broadcast of station B has not been outstanding in many live broadcast platforms such as Betta, tiger tooth and Yingke. However, the situation ushered in a change in 2019. Station B began to vigorously explore the field of live broadcasting. It paid a high price to invite Feng Timo, the former “first sister of fish fighting”, to settle in. It was also said that it spent a lot of money to win the three-year exclusive live broadcasting copyright of the global finals of League of heroes in China.
Live broadcasting is the main force field of station B in 2020. At the beginning of 2020, Wang Yuyang, former CEO of geese culture, and Wang Zhikai, COO, joined the live broadcasting Department of station B; During the COVID-19, station B attracted many new KOLs and anchors through cloud music festival, cloud exhibition, cloud performance and other activities, and the related live broadcast categories were also expanding. In July of that year, the live broadcast of station B signed the first up master “old tomato” with tens of millions of fans, which is a moment worthy of being remembered by the majority of station B users.
Public data show that in 2021, the number of monthly broadcasters of station B increased by 50% year-on-year, the number of revenue anchors increased by 59% year-on-year, and the per capita income of anchors increased by 38% year-on-year. Among them, the growth in the field of game live broadcasting is obvious. In the field of game live broadcasting in 2021, the monthly broadcasting volume of station B increased year-on-year