Live streaming content has reached new heights, is there still dividends for the industry?

In the past year, competition in live streaming content has become increasingly fierce, industry standards have been continuously improved, and the participation of professional entertainers has promoted the development of live streaming content towards high quality and professionalization. This article will take you to review the new changes in the live streaming industry, explore the shift in the industry's direction, the impact of the professionalization trend on practitioners, and how to capture the dividends of industry development under the new trend.

2024 is about to pass, and it’s time to review the new changes in the live entertainment industry.

Looking back over this year, we have seen that traditional live broadcast practitioners have been cultivating their internal strength and competing in content: more and more high-quality live broadcast rooms have appeared in the industry, such as group broadcasts and large stages, and new heights have been reached in scenes, costumes, props, etc.

We also see that the industry continues to absorb professionals from the performing arts industry, further raising the ceiling of the live broadcast industry.

So, what are the manifestations behind these changes? What new thoughts have they brought to practitioners?

01 The industry trend has changed

The direction of the entertainment live streaming industry has changed.

Last year, high-quality content tracks represented by group broadcasts and big stages became popular in the industry and became the focus of many guilds. Since this year, this type of high-quality content has become more and more professional after being polished and accumulated, and has exploded with stronger vitality.

For example, group broadcasting, according to observations from the new broadcast field, has reached a new height this year.

The popular group live broadcasts on Douyin, such as "1919", "Joy 023" and other girl and boy groups, not only have good looks and costumes, but also the scenes and talents are comparable to stage performances; and ancient style group broadcasts such as "s-shine" and "Yaoguang 003" not only add role-playing and plot interpretation in addition to dance, makeup and scenes, which are comparable to large-scale song and dance performances and amazing.

For example, the big stage has become the preferred form for many guilds to create high-quality content.

Compared with traditional individual broadcasts, the live broadcast room in the form of a large stage has the characteristics of high-quality scenes and diverse content modes, such as covering singing and dancing performances, talent selection, team PK and other content forms. These diverse forms provide a platform for anchors to showcase their talents and personalities, and also meet the entertainment needs of different audiences.

Recently, the "Musen Grand Stage" created by the top anchor Musen has attracted much attention in the industry, setting a record of 5 million followers in a single month. The live broadcast of this grand stage is mainly folk song and dance programs, and incorporates a competition mechanism. Both the form and content are aligned with professional-level stage performances; another top-level high-quality grand stage "Tangyi Grand Stage" has become popular due to Tang Yi's personal high-quality talents, and is still continuing to discover many high-quality talented anchors.

The recently released "2024 Tik Tok Performing Arts Live Streaming Data Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Data Report") shows that 85,000 big stage anchors are active in the live streaming rooms, bringing 7.44 million performances throughout the year.

In addition to group broadcasts and big stages, traditional individual broadcast formats are also being upgraded, from the previous focus on interaction and PK to the focus on content. The anchor is no longer required to have good looks and eloquence, but also needs to undergo systematic talent training.

Cai Qi, president of Caihong Tang Gong, once said: "If you want to achieve long-term operation of the organization, you must choose the content track. Moreover, high-quality content can form a good currency to drive out bad currency, which makes us insist on doing content live broadcasting."

On the one hand, traditional live broadcast practitioners are cultivating their internal skills and competing in content; on the other hand, the industry is also continuing to absorb professionals from the performing arts industry, further raising the ceiling of the live broadcast industry.

Since last year, more and more performing artists have flocked to live streaming. National-level art troupes such as the China National Orchestra, grassroots troupes such as Changde Song and Dance Theater, Ji'an Pingju Troupe, Yanbian Song and Dance Troupe, and national first-class actors such as Feng Xiaoquan, Zeng Gege, and Gao Zitong have also started regular live streaming on Douyin.

The "Data Report" shows that in the past year, 3,446 actors from art troupes presented 230,000 performances in live broadcast rooms; a total of 213 national first-class actors entered the live broadcast rooms and presented 32,000 world-class performances.

This storm, which started with content upgrade and evolved towards professionalization, has swept the live broadcast industry violently.

02 Only professionalism can help you break through

In fact, practitioners have already had a very clear sense of the coming storm.

Since the beginning of this year, when Xinbochang talked with many guilds, it found that the operating ideas of many guilds had changed.

The first change is to increase investment in scene construction.

Houhai Times Guild, which owns many high-quality groups such as "HH.KDA (Star-Making Plan)" and "Goodbye, My Love", signed a new venue at the beginning of this year and raised the floor height of the live broadcast room to 5 meters, so that more content and more themes can be displayed in the live broadcast room scene. Moreover, the construction of a single live broadcast scene may cost 400,000 to 500,000 yuan.

However, Guild President Canghai also said that even if a new scene is built at great expense, if it does not have good traffic effect and fails to meet expectations, they will tear it down and rebuild it. The purpose is to ensure that a good live broadcast scene can truly empower the anchor and bring professional-level effects.

The second change is the emphasis on recruiting high-quality anchors, and even setting up a recruitment team to strictly screen the anchors in the early stages, seeking quality rather than quantity.

Mailang Culture is a guild that focuses on incubating talented anchors. Its guild president said that they have very high requirements for anchors. Two years after the company was founded, the number of talented anchors has not even exceeded 100. "We are very strict in selecting talented anchors. We will at least give a comprehensive score to the anchors from multiple dimensions such as image and temperament, professional skills, performance ability, emotional intelligence, quality and cooperation. Only when the score reaches 60 points or more, can they have the foundation to become high-quality content anchors, and the company will invest more time, energy and cost."

The third change is to focus on anchor incubation and content iteration and upgrading, and pursue content innovation.

In fact, due to factors such as location and company genes, not all guilds can recruit professional anchors. Most guilds recruit amateurs in the early stage. Therefore, some guilds have gained a firm foothold in the industry by relying on their excellent ability to incubate amateur anchors.

For example, Sun Entertainment, after entering the amateur anchor track, achieved a breakthrough with its excellent incubation capabilities. Specifically, after Sun Entertainment built an excellent operation team, it conducted one-on-one live broadcast content research and development for amateurs, allowing the content capabilities of many amateur anchors to continue to improve.

The fact that the guilds are so competitive is actually a response to the trend of professional development in the industry.

First, the role of the guild has become increasingly vertically segmented. This year, professional troupes such as art troupes have entered the market and explored guild-based operating models.

The "Data Report" shows that 150 provincial and municipal art troupes have settled in as brokerage agencies to explore the online business model of the troupes. As art troupes transform into guilds and become important participants in the live broadcast industry, the role of guilds has become more vertically segmented and professional. Moreover, compared with traditional guilds, troupes are deeply rooted offline and have concentrated anchors, which can better play the advantages of offline resources and standardized management. Then, as professional anchors compete with traditional talent anchors on the same stage, it will undoubtedly force the guilds to upgrade their operational capabilities and enhance their own professional capabilities.

Secondly, the advantages of professional talent anchors are becoming more and more obvious.

First, professional talent anchors can make more money and earn higher incomes.

With the professional development of online anchors, professional content is more popular in live broadcast rooms. The "Data Report" shows that talented anchors with professional qualifications have higher incomes, and their reward income is 3.68 times the average level of talented anchors. Therefore, the guilds are now incubating anchors and are moving closer to professional anchors.

Secondly, the ceiling for professional talent live streaming is higher, and it can form its own barriers, making it difficult to be imitated or copied.

Taking group broadcast as an example, some guilds said that the changes were huge and the gameplay model was easy to be copied. In this regard, Canghai, the leader of Houhai Times Guild, said: "The most important thing is to raise the threshold of group broadcast and form your own core competitiveness. Because the threshold is high enough, there is no need to worry about being copied."

Those who have seen the professional development trend of the live entertainment industry have already reaped the benefits. For the entire industry, more far-reaching impacts are still taking place.

03 New trends bring new dividends

As practitioners become more and more professional, professional anchors can earn more money, which is undoubtedly beneficial to the long-term development of the industry.

However, for practitioners, as the live streaming entertainment industry strides into a new era of professionalism, challenges and opportunities coexist under the new trend.

The arrival of the specialization trend means that the previous "one model" methodology no longer exists. For the guild, it is necessary to continuously iterate its own capabilities, maintain industry sensitivity, and continuously deepen its operational management capabilities.

"At this stage, the ecosystem of Douyin group broadcast is no longer something that anyone can do. The current group broadcast actually requires more professional people to do it, and those institutions that lack iteration capabilities will hardly have a chance to break through." said Canghai, president of Houhai Times Guild.

For anchors, they need to focus on both live broadcasting capabilities and professional talents. For example, traditional anchors need to cultivate their talents, while professional anchors need to improve their live broadcasting capabilities and better combine this new form of live broadcasting with artistic performances.

So, under the new trend, whoever can continue to innovate and create high-quality professional content will be able to better seize the dividends.

For example, new content formats such as group broadcasts and big stages have helped many guilds achieve new growth, but how to achieve sustainable growth is also a direction that many guilds are still exploring.

"Since last year, we have made successful cases through group broadcasting, so we have also been thinking about whether the successful experience of group broadcasting can be replicated to other live broadcasting content to help us find new growth fulcrums." said Yuan Peng, president of OST Media.

In the long run, trying to incubate other live broadcast content and constantly innovating forms will be the key for the guild to maintain its vitality and seize dividends, and will also be the most important competition of capabilities in the future.