Long video overseas: those who roll outwards will enjoy the world first

As global cultural exchanges continue to deepen, the overseas strategies of Chinese long-form video platforms are becoming the focus of the industry. From the export of content copyrights to the deepening of ecological integration, long-form video platforms are undergoing a transformation from internationalization to localization. Facing the competitive pressure from international streaming giants, how to enhance the global influence of Chinese film and television content through localization strategies and technological innovation has become a question that long-form video platforms need to think about.

Overseas business has become a potential growth point for long video platforms.

In a market environment where new formats such as short dramas are stirring up the industry, long dramas are finding it increasingly difficult to become hits, and domestic video membership is struggling to increase, going overseas has become a new focus for long video platforms.

In October 2023, the female inspirational growth music program "Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves, Vietnam Edition" was broadcast on Vietnam's national television station VTV3; Tencent Video and Youku launched idol development variety shows for overseas markets, namely "Creation Camp Asia" jointly produced by China and Thailand, and "Asia Super Star Group" jointly created by Youku and TVB.

Now is the right time to go overseas. How can long video platforms take advantage of this opportunity and lead the direction of art and literature going overseas?

1. Breakthrough: From content output to ecological integration

In the past few years since long videos went overseas, the platform has gone through a "three-step" process from content output to ecological integration.

Copyright export is the first step for long video platforms to open up the overseas market.

Relying on strong products, long video platforms export their superior products such as dramas and variety shows overseas, and expand their overseas communication territory starting from the Southeast Asian market with similar cultural consumption habits.

Take Mango TV as an example. In recent years, the platform has successively released variety shows such as "Singer", "Chinese Restaurant" and "Sound of Life", and high-quality content such as "The Long River of the World" and "Love from Marriage". At the same time, through a copyright transaction with Netflix, a leading international streaming giant, Mango TV successfully released dramas such as "The Rational Life" and "My Dear Little Clean Freak". In June this year, it also successfully released the variety show "Chinese Restaurant 7", paving the way for going overseas.

In terms of region selection, long video platforms have chosen a model that runs parallel to "full platform" and "regionalization". On the one hand, they are expanding the global authorization scope of platform content, and on the other hand, they are developing key regions. For example, Mango TV regards Southeast Asia and Hong Kong and Taiwan as key distribution areas. Currently, its international version of the APP has the largest number of users in Indonesia, followed by the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. Mango already has a stable user base overseas.

The expansion of channels and platforms overseas is the second step for long videos to build their own harbor and help them sail far.

In 2013, Mango TV began to build a matrix account on YouTube. Relying on overseas social media, the platform currently has 30 YouTube channels. The number of views of the "Hunan Satellite TV Mango TV Official Channel" matrix account has always been at the forefront of Chinese content, with a total of more than 22 million subscriptions.

As the circle of friends of Chinese film and television dramas grows, long videos have gradually mastered the ability to "build ships and go out to sea" and started to create overseas versions of the APP, sailing the ship of Chinese culture to a broader world.

In March 2018, Mango TV's "self-owned, independent, and self-controlled" overseas new media platform, Mango TV International APP, was launched. As of today, Mango TV International APP has covered more than 195 countries and regions around the world, with over 180 million downloads. Through research and analysis of target users and overseas markets, the platform continues to introduce dramas and variety shows that meet the consumption habits of overseas users, and promote more Chinese film and television dramas to the international communication market.

The third step is ecological integration, from copyright export to joint program development with overseas, from content export to model export, and from diversity to symbiosis.

As a leading platform for variety shows, Mango TV has tried to incorporate international elements into its variety shows such as "Riding the Wind" and "Singer", inviting overseas guests to participate in the recording of the show, integrating the Chinese program model with the overseas ecosystem. For example, "Riding the Wind 2024" brings together international actresses such as Joyce from France, Sasha from the United States, Mary from Russia, Sun Xialing from Vietnam, and Korean-American Zheng Nicole, bringing sisters from different countries together on the same stage. They transcend identities and languages, fly in the wind in the beautiful China, and create a picture of all things blooming.

In addition to adding international elements to local programs, local program models are going overseas, and co-developing programs has become a new direction for going overseas. Relying on the Riding the Wind IP, Mango TV has launched a localized cooperation with Vietnam TV to produce the Vietnamese version of "Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves". The planning, competition arrangement, and program shooting are all guided by Mango TV's professional team, and the program guests are composed of local Vietnamese artists. The program was launched on Vietnam's national television station VTV3 in October 2023. This is the success of the Mango model going overseas, and it is also a testimony to the integration and symbiosis of Chinese variety IP and overseas content ecology.

2. Establishment: From internationalization to localization

As international streaming giants such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime enter the Asian market with great fanfare, China's long-form video apps are facing strong competitors in their overseas dissemination, and both their internationalization and localization levels are facing new challenges.

Netflix has become the default international streaming platform, while the overseas versions of iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video, and Mango TV have limited user coverage. Although they have opened up a niche in the Southeast Asian market, their influence is far from enough. In addition, most domestic long-form video platforms regard overseas business as part of their growth, rather than being international platforms that directly produce content for the world. Therefore, there are few localized original works, and the platform has not yet seen programs such as "Zombie Universe" and "Call of the Siren" that have swept Asian streaming platforms. Overall, the overseas model of domestic programs is still mainly based on copyright exports, and it is still a bit immature in terms of overseas self-made programs and localization.

The other side of internationalization is localization. When the platform goes overseas to cover a wider area and expand to a wider dimension, only by implementing the overseas concept of "one country, one policy" can the long video platform gain a firm foothold overseas.

Localization means that the platform will adjust its price, products, channels and publicity according to the user needs and application usage habits in different countries.

Take Mango TV as an example. In order to attract overseas audiences, Mango has a differentiated strategy in the membership layout and free viewing settings of domestic and foreign platforms. For example, only the first and second episodes of the TV series "Fu Liu Nian" are free on Mango TV, and subsequent episodes require membership to watch. However, on Youtube Mango TV Youth Drama MangoTV Drama, users can watch all episodes for free.

In terms of product design, the international version of long video platforms is generally simpler and has fewer advertisements than the domestic version. This is exactly the localization choice made by long video platforms based on overseas regions, culture, supervision and other factors. For example, based on the usage habits of overseas users who prefer to "do only one thing at a time", Mango TV's international version APP tends to "give directly" in product design and user experience to promote user consumption of content. This year, the three core business lines of the App will also be optimized and upgraded as a whole: de-channelization of the homepage; integration of search library; and localization of on-demand content to better serve overseas users.

Channel localization is to use local channels to promote user viewing and consumption, such as cooperating with local film and television agents, operators, etc., or establishing independent overseas sites.

On the one hand, Mango TV International APP has joined forces with overseas manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Huawei, and Transsion to output content by leveraging the manufacturer's channel advantages. On the other hand, it has reached platform-level strategic cooperation with local operators such as Telekom Malaysia, Singtel, and Macau Telecom. The diversified channel layout has fully integrated domestic and overseas resources to attract users from different channels.

Based on the differences in user media habits in different countries and regions, long video platforms have been deeply involved in overseas social media, cultivating user habits through personalized content, precise advertising and diversified marketing activities. For example, Mango TV continues to increase content operations on overseas mainstream platforms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to enhance user experience and increase fan stickiness. Tencent Video's overseas version WE TV cooperates with well-known local UP hosts to re-create content and spread it on the platform. This approach has also attracted many local young users to watch Chinese content.

3. Xing: Inward growth in the external volume

Looking at the overseas expansion of long video platforms, we started from the Southeast Asian market and gradually moved to Europe, America, Africa and other places, and continued to expand outward. The overseas distribution of the science fiction work "The Three-Body Problem" has expanded from Asia to the Americas, Europe, Oceania and other regions. This year, Mango also launched the global "doubling plan", using Southeast Asia as a bridgehead to leap to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the United States, and gradually enter the mainstream communities in Europe and the United States.

The outward rollout relies on globally compatible narrative models and emotional expressions, and tells Chinese stories from an international perspective. Through local remakes and program ecosystem integration, Chinese stories also have more possibilities for writing. At the same time, as the overseas expansion of film and television has shifted from copyright output to the all-round upgrade of "content + platform", purchasing overseas local film and television copyrights and self-made local content have become the two driving forces for the outward rollout of long video platforms.

By analyzing user portraits, audience preferences and other data, the platform purchases overseas local film and television copyrights, which is an effective choice for the platform to expand its own film library and enter the local audience market. Tencent Video's overseas version WeTV acquired Malaysian streaming media Iflix, and reached cooperation with Malaysian media giant Media Prima and Thailand's CH3 TV channel to purchase their film and television copyright content, thus forming a strong content moat.

Producing localized content in overseas markets is the same as Netflix. For platforms such as WeTV, the overseas version of Tencent Video, and iQIYI, investing in TV series and movies in Asia is more advantageous than Western streaming media such as Netflix.

iQIYI's "The Young Gangster Loves Me" in Thailand, "Bad Devotion Remover" and "The Against the Graveyard" in Taiwan have all received good reviews. Youku's overseas version YOUKU seems to be developing in a differentiated way, focusing on Australia, Canada and other European and American regions. However, the cultural consumption habits that are quite different from those in Asia make Youku's road to opening up overseas markets more bumpy.

In the BrandOS 2024Q1 TOP 30 App (non-game) Overseas Brand Social Media Influence List, Tencent Video Overseas Version WeTV and iQIYI International Station iQIYI ranked first and second respectively, Mango TV International Version ranked fifth, and Youku Overseas Version YOUKU ranked ninth. This shows that the external competition among platforms is bound to be turbulent.

In the process of continuous outward expansion, insisting on inward growth and mastering the sailing direction is the key to the long video platform setting sail - while "seeking the truth outside", one should also "seek the truth inside".

Not forgetting the original intention, adhering to tradition, combining traditional Chinese culture with international narratives, spreading China's voice, being open and inclusive, and being harmonious but different: this is the philosophy of Chinese culture going global.

The stage of "Riding the Wind 2024" incorporates the theme of the 24 solar terms, and integrates traditional Chinese cultural elements such as opera, folk music, and fan dance into the performance, conveying the power of women and the beauty of oriental culture, and broadening the boundaries of the dissemination of Chinese culture. The documentary "Shining Ordinary" invites foreign guests to personally visit the stories of Chinese people, experience Chinese culture, and tell Chinese stories well from an international perspective.

Against the backdrop of the strategy of integrating culture and technology, we should actively deploy cutting-edge technology, empower overseas expansion with technology, and combine traditional cultural elements with modern scientific and technological means. This is the wisdom of Chinese culture going overseas.

Mango TV has been launched on Apple Vison Pro, and is currently building a state-owned digital intelligence super platform and a digital cultural platform, focusing on the development of AIGC products, launching AI director Ai Mang, and creating a large model of Mango. Hunan Radio and Television has positioned Ai Mang as "a new productivity in the field of program production and film and television production." This is a combination of content and technology for long video platforms, and it is also a new quality productivity in the new era of navigation.

With traditional Chinese culture as its core and technology as its driving force, long video platforms can open up the internal circulation of the industrial ecosystem and see new opportunities for going overseas, finding new growth curves, and further leaping upward and expanding outward.

IV. Conclusion No. 1

The overseas expansion strategy of long video platforms does not stop at the output of content copyrights, nor is it limited to the dissemination of program models. Instead, it moves towards a more panoramic and underlying narrative: strengthening content quality and internationalization strategy, deepening localized operations, and at the same time using technological innovation to enhance competitiveness, achieve a closed loop in the entire link of content creation and software and hardware terminals, and conduct more comprehensive market expansion and business layout.

As going overseas enters a new stage, we need to break the single overseas model, establish the brand image of long video platforms, and promote the entire overseas path of Chinese film and television. We expect our film and television cultural products to go through history, cross mountains and seas, and set sail towards a more distant future.