Kuaishou will no longer provide financial support to Station A by not renewing the contract with the UP host

Station A, as a control group of Station B, is now about to decline. Starting from the current situation of Station A, this article introduces in detail the current situation of Station A, the efforts it has made, etc. It is recommended for students who want to understand the operation of the platform.

In September 2021, Station A officially released a video titled "2021 AcFun Signed UP Masters Group Portrait", which is similar to the scroll of the Outlaws of the Marsh Heroes, recording the "shining moments" of many UP masters. A user left a message under the video: "I hope it will be longer next year."

Instead of seeing a longer video, the account that posted the video, "AcFun Production," stopped updating. This year, many UP hosts who appeared in this video have announced that their contracts with Station A have expired, and some have released their content online, some have taken a break, or some have just started live streaming. A UP host who signed with Station A told the power plant that it was not that they did not want to renew the contract, but that the platform did not provide a chance to renew. "This is basically the case for all UP hosts whose contracts expired this year."

Since being acquired by Kuaishou in 2018, Station A has gone through five years with it. From independent operation to unified management, its status has changed, and its layout has also changed. The two sides have not complemented each other in terms of users and content as originally envisioned. Signing contracts was once one of the most important measures in the UP host support policy. Therefore, when Station A no longer renews the contract with UP hosts, it is inevitable to raise speculation about business adjustments. The power plant asked Kuaishou for confirmation on this, but as of press time, the other party has not responded.

The future of A站 is still unknown, and "taking it one step at a time" is the most realistic state of some A站 contracted UP masters. There is a sentence in the introduction of the above-mentioned UP master group video: "I hope that in the future, all A站 creators can continue to find their own shining love in the sky of A站. AC is here, and love is always there." Now it seems that this is just a beautiful wish, and the more critical question is - if only love is left, will A站 still exist?

1. No longer renewing the UP host

"Is Station A no longer renewing contracts with UP hosts?" A Station A user discovered that another signed UP host she was following had left.

The word "leaving" may not be accurate. According to the contracted UP host, he is not going to other platforms, but he will no longer update at the same frequency as before. But for this user, "this is equivalent to a semi-stop, which is no different from a stop." Previously, A-station contracted UP hosts such as "Changan Yitiao Chai" with 506,000 fans, "Di Sheng" with 236,000 fans, and "Youguan Dalishi" with 127,000 fans all synchronized similar messages to users by publishing videos, articles or dynamics, mentioning that the contract with A-station has expired and the latter "has no plans to renew the contract."

A UP host who signed with Station A told the power plant that the contract was about to expire, and many UP hosts including him expressed their intention to renew the contract, but "the platform did not renew it." "I learned that since January this year, almost no UP hosts have renewed their contracts when their contracts expired. It is rumored that it is a funding problem on the platform. Although we have seen some screenshots of conversations with administrators, saying that it is only temporary, we can all guess that this is it."

He said that the paper contract signed with Station A came from Kuaishou. The power plant asked Kuaishou to confirm that it would not renew the contract with Station A UP host, but no response was received as of press time.

The so-called contract refers to a contract that binds the UP host to Station A and establishes a deep cooperative relationship. It is divided into two categories: completely exclusive and partially exclusive. The former means that all video content released by the UP host is limited to Station A exclusively and is not allowed to be synchronized to other platforms. The latter has a certain degree of room for operation, such as first release on Station A, upload to other platforms later than a certain time, or a combination of first release and exclusivity.

In August 2019, Station A announced that it would invest 570 million resources and funds to support UP hosts in the next year, with inclusive policies and contract policies as the implementation direction. An anonymous UP host of Station A revealed to the power plant that Station A took the initiative to contact many UP hosts at that time, and most of the current contracted UP hosts joined during this period. "There are hundreds of people in a group, and most of the UP hosts have signed completely exclusive contracts."

Normally, the duration of a contract signed by an UP host on Station A is two years. The contract fee can be understood as the base salary paid by Station A to the UP host. The specific figure is determined according to the field, account data, etc., corresponding to a fixed completion indicator.

"Actually, everything is negotiable. At that time, a completely exclusive UP host could earn about 100,000 yuan a year and update 3 to 4 videos every month. It's just a little money. They won't give you more because your video is good, nor will they give you less because it's bad. As long as you meet the standards, it's fine." said the aforementioned UP host.

At the beginning of 2021, Station A signed a group of UP hosts. However, at the next renewal node, the signing fee given by Station A declined, "there is only one option, which is completely exclusive, and the funds are greatly reduced."

Theme events related to content are also gradually disappearing. The aforementioned contracted UP host lamented: "Originally, we were supposed to update four episodes a month, but later they stopped caring about it, and there was no one to contact us. You can update as many episodes as you want, as long as you reach the number specified in the contract."

All the above signs indicate that Kuaishou has reduced its investment in Station A. The aforementioned anonymous UP host once exchanged home appliances and electronic products such as air conditioners and DJI drones in Station A's Banana Mall (bananas are virtual currencies obtained by ordinary users and UP hosts through sign-in, sharing, and posting). At that time, the Banana Mall regularly updated new products, including PS 4, iPhone, and TV. "But since around the end of 2021, the update frequency of redeemable products has continued to decline, and the categories have only been reduced to daily necessities such as electric fans and sun hats, and last month there were only rice dumplings."

2. Efforts under Expectation

In 2018, Kuaishou took Station A under its wing. At least at the time, this was seen as a mutually beneficial partnership. For the former, the user circle was expanded and the content ecology was improved. More importantly, the layout of the two-dimensional field helped it to supplement its business map, thus adding weight to the competition in the short video industry and even to the impact of listing. As for the latter, not only did it clarify the complicated equity disputes, but it was also finally able to get rid of the financial difficulties and enter a new stage of development.

In 2019, Wen Min, then general manager of Station A, mentioned that in the first year after being acquired by Kuaishou, Station A was "basically filling holes." According to Hedgehog Commune, in order to solve the underlying technical architecture problems of Station A, Kuaishou has successively transferred 40 to 50 technical personnel to assist, and most of them are experienced veterans with more than ten years of work experience. After the transformation, Station A has connected to more than a dozen technical platforms of Kuaishou, involving video cloud, recommendation, search, etc., and has also enabled personalized recommendations.

The same is true for content. With the support of Kuaishou and no longer worrying about money, Station A has launched the reward function "Peach Plan" and the UP host incentive list "熋榜", and the investment of funds and resources has also increased. If you search for the word "plan" on the official Weibo of Station A, you will find that in the first two years after being acquired by Kuaishou, Station A launched a number of UP host support measures.

Whether it is the "Burst Banana Plan" to increase the rewards for UP masters, the "Super UP Master Support Plan" that poured 570 million resources into incentives, or the "A-level Student Plan" for college clubs and UP masters, the "AVI Alliance Plan" focusing on virtual idols, the "Super A Freshman Plan" focusing on new UP masters, and the "28 Plan" that emphasizes the live broadcast profit sharing of signed UP masters, all were born during this period. In the impression of the aforementioned signed UP masters, after being invited to join, Station A often planned theme activities, the administrators came every now and then to communicate creative ideas, responded to messages quickly, and solved problems efficiently.

At the same time, people also talk about the unique vision of A station in purchasing animation dramas. From "Zombie Land Saga" to "Darwin's Game", to "The Secret" and "Rent-a-Girlfriend", a series of dark horse content have become the footnotes of A station's reputation as a "genius in purchasing animation dramas". A person in the game industry mentioned that A station chose to be close to the aesthetic preferences of users and took the route of purchasing copyrights in small quantities and high quality, "it really took some effort in operation."

As the content gradually becomes richer, the ecology of Station A becomes increasingly active. The aforementioned anonymous UP owner remembers that Station A was "very lively" at that time, and the data also showed a certain degree of recovery. Station A once announced a set of data at a UP owner exchange meeting held in 2020 - compared with July 2019, the production of core two-dimensional content on Station A increased by 85%, the cumulative number of authors increased by 90%, the cumulative number of manuscripts increased by 79%, the number of fans of all authors increased by 172%, the income from video rewards of Station A UP owners increased by 810%, and the income from traffic sharing increased by 345%.

Station A even has its first promotional video, and its brand positioning has been updated to "a hardcore 2D community that gathers young people", covering five major areas: 2D content, live broadcasting, games, virtual idols and IP derivatives, in order to "meet users' one-stop 2D entertainment consumption needs."

In Kuaishou's vision, pan-ACG (Animation, Comic, Game) short videos are a blue ocean, and the traffic dividend is worth exploring. In other words, whether competing for the present or betting on the future, entering the game is a good move to seize the initiative.

"As a hardcore 2D website, A站, and as a pan-2D website, Kuaishou can complement each other in terms of users and content. A站's rich 2D copyrighted content and high-quality long video UP hosts can become the source of Kuaishou's high-quality 2D content. And Kuaishou's huge potential 2D audience can be converted into A站 users through these contents." At that time, Kuaishou regarded the integration of the main site's 2D vertical categories with A站 as one of its main development directions in the future, but reality proved that this was an unsolvable problem.

3. Decline, lingering and abandonment

Including the aforementioned UP host, many UP hosts on Station A have uploaded videos on Kuaishou simultaneously, but the number of views did not meet expectations because "the focus of users on both sides is completely different and the content is too mismatched." Although there are UP hosts who have hundreds of thousands of fans on Kuaishou, "the numbers are just numbers, there is no income at all," the aforementioned anonymous UP host added.

In other words, the advantageous ecological niche of Station A cannot bridge the gap between Station A and Kuaishou due to the difference in platform tonality, and the poor video data directly affects the creative enthusiasm of UP hosts. As a result, some UP hosts who have stepped into Kuaishou have gradually returned to Station A. However, as Station B is "breaking the circle" with great momentum, Station A, which only exists as an accessory and cannot grow further, can hardly meet Kuaishou's expectations for return on investment.

At the beginning of the acquisition, both Station A and Kuaishou made it clear that the former would maintain an independent brand, maintain independent operations, keep the original team, and develop independently, while the latter would provide support in terms of funds, resources, technology, etc.

However, according to the Beijing News, in August 2020, Kuaishou put Station A and game live streaming under the management of the game team and no longer set KPIs for the development of Station A. Wen Min reported to Tang Yuyu, the head of the game team. A year later, Wen Min resigned.

In the view of the aforementioned anonymous UP host, this is the starting point for Station A to decline again. On the one hand, under the policy background of "review before broadcast" for animation, Station A's advantage in the selection of animations has disappeared - compared with other platforms that are wealthy, hold multiple certificates, and can submit for review in multiple places, Station A loses more time. On the other hand, Kuaishou has tightened the resources given to Station A, and the positive cycle between the platform, users and creators is unsustainable. The aforementioned anonymous UP host and the contracted UP host both mentioned that familiar administrators have resigned one after another, and the docking work has been taken over by Kuaishou employees, "maybe they don't know so much about the ecology of Station A."

The UP hosts active on the homepage and the users active in the comment area have formed a subtle tacit understanding. "Users generally choose to watch familiar UP hosts. If you look at any video comment area, it is basically those users." The aforementioned anonymous UP host found that the number of video playbacks on Station A has dropped significantly since this year. "It's not just that it has not attracted more users, but it has lost existing users. Unless there is a turmoil in Station B, the user migration in this case is also unsustainable."

UP hosts often have deep feelings for Station A, describing it as "harmonious atmosphere and friendly environment". Users will seriously discuss the content in the comment area and cheer for the business orders in the barrage. "You know he may not buy it, but he hopes you make money, because he understands that you can keep updating if you make money, so that he can keep watching the video." said the aforementioned anonymous UP host.

Regarding the failure to renew the contract, regret and sadness became the common voice of the UP hosts of Station A. One UP host who signed a contract wrote: "Although I knew it was coming a long time ago, I still feel bad after posting this. This website carries too many memories of mine. It is really hard to watch it become depressed and there is nothing I can do about it."

"Every year is the last year of A站" seems to have become a prophecy. Kuaishou brought a star of hope and several waves of food to A站, but failed to "take what each needs". The aforementioned gaming industry insider analyzed that A站 should exist as a strategic investment target, but Kuaishou needs it to grow quickly into an important business branch and then create value - in fact, such business expectations are not conducive to the operation of A站 itself.

The current "strategic abandonment" is not unrelated to the input-output ratio. An unnamed UP host of Station A told the power plant that in general, there is not much difference between each video platform, "the industry is in a cold winter, and cash is running out. It's no secret."

Even so, the special thing about Station A is that its value may never have been truly tapped. Before being acquired by Kuaishou, Station A changed hands several times and its top management was shaken, precisely because it was only regarded as a commodity that could be traded.

To this day, it can still survive in a state that is neither good nor bad, in the form of a control group of Bilibili - after all, Kuaishou has not completely shut it down. But there are too few people who care about, understand, and pay attention to what Bilibili itself is.

Author: He Chang

Source: WeChat public account "Power Plant (ID: wonder-capsule)"