Bilibili’s vertical screen “Rashomon”: Is it more about “money prospects” or ecology?

Now Bilibili has launched a vertical screen mode, changing its usual cultural style and breaking the traditional horizontal screen style. On one hand, there are the user preferences and platform style that the platform has cultivated for a long time, and on the other hand, there is the vertical screen content that creates new volume and commercial value. In the "balance" of long and short videos, which side should Bilibili lean towards?

Horizontal screen, long duration, and depth are the intuitive feelings that B station has always brought to users, and are also the unique differentiation symbol of B station. However, with the launch of Story Mode (vertical screen mode) by B station, this culture is quietly changing.

From the earliest unlimited flow of vertical screen, to the later unlimited flow of recommended positions, and then to the creation of recommended positions that are the same as the homepage list, Bilibili's determination to develop the vertical screen mode is evident. However, the layout of long and short content is determined by the user habits that the platform has always cultivated. The continuous "short videoization" has had a significant impact on the user atmosphere and creative ecology. On social platforms, many loyal users of Bilibili complained about the vertical screen mode, and some users even spontaneously posted videos to teach how to turn off the vertical screen mode for submission.

Even so, with the encouragement and support of the platform, more and more UP hosts are still engaged in the content production of vertical screen videos in order to obtain new traffic growth. Some small and medium-sized UP hosts and vertical categories that once performed mediocre on Bilibili have gained new development opportunities.

For example, in the gaming vertical category, which is highly homogenized, the tonality of the two-dimensional platform of Bilibili naturally has the gene to spread gaming content, which has led to a large number of gaming anchors opening live broadcasts and creating content on Bilibili. As more and more anchors flock to the platform, similar live broadcast styles and content have caused various types of gaming anchors to reach a development bottleneck. However, with the emergence of the vertical screen mode, many anchors have begun to change their thinking and create shorter content through eye-catching special effects, aiming to capture users' instant attention and bring themselves new fans.

On one side are the user preferences and platform style that the platform has cultivated over a long period of time, and on the other side is the vertical screen content that creates new growth and commercial value. In the "balance" of long and short videos, which side should Bilibili tilt towards?

1. Games fired the first shot in vertical screen content

Whether it is content or product creation, the gaming field has always been the focus of Bilibili's layout. As early as when Bilibili entered the live broadcast field, game live broadcast was the "first shot" fired by Bilibili. Coincidentally, with the start and development of the vertical screen mode, the game vertical category also reaped the first wave of "bonuses".

Games are a large vertical content category, and it is also difficult to differentiate them. The vertical screen mode provides a new content entry point for game anchors, creating an opportunity for anchors to overtake others. For example, the well-known game anchor @阳光男孩笑话熊 on Bilibili will slice up the high-energy and funny moments during the live broadcast and add humorous commentary dubbing to attract the attention of game users with wonderful clips. The highest number of views for a single video has exceeded 2 million. Vertical screen content not only attracts a large number of new fans, but also brings public domain traffic into the live broadcast room, increasing the commercial income brought by rewards and delivery.

Different from the form of Sunshine Boy Joker Bear, the vertical screen content of the official commentator of League of Legends @解说Mage is more about himself, attracting users' attention through his popularity and appearance. The vertical screen video content such as daily life and cross-dressing complements the horizontal screen long video, which improves its own content form and also allows the content to reach interested users outside of the game vertical category.

The advantage of vertical screen content is its ability to capture the user's interest in a short period of time. Entertainment content such as games and dances are more easily presented in a vertical screen format. This type of content meets the recreational needs of quick browsing, and users are more likely to like, comment, and forward content during browsing, which happens to be a relatively weak link in the current B station ecosystem.

In addition, for native anchors and UP hosts who have been deeply involved in the Bilibili platform, they understand the content preferences of platform users and can easily find the most attractive entry points for users. Most anchors and small and medium-sized UP hosts are not good at creating professional videos, but vertical screen videos are relatively easy to create, and they mainly rely on big data recommendations to gain playback volume, which makes it easier for them to produce content and improve their own dissemination efficiency, thereby getting rid of the traditional way of increasing fans that relies on recommendations from editors of the main site and rankings.

However, for top UP hosts who have been deeply engaged in a certain vertical category for a long time, short-duration vertical screen content does not conform to the professional content style, and they themselves lack experience in producing short video content. Rashly creating vertical screen content with the logic of long videos may lead to the loss of their own fans.

Therefore, Bilibili's vertical screen mode is more like a new traffic entrance created for anchors and mid- and low-level UP hosts, while more professional UP hosts need to consider the impact of changes in content format on themselves.

2. Losses are reduced, but the pressure of "money prospects" remains

If whether to create vertical screen video content is a difficult decision for UP hosts, then for Bilibili, developing a vertical screen mode is a "self-rescue" measure that it has to take.

On January 10, Bilibili announced in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that its net turnover in the first nine months of 2022 was approximately 15.757 billion yuan, gross profit was approximately 2.6 billion yuan, and net loss reached 6.011 billion yuan. According to the financial report for the first three quarters of 2022, Bilibili lost 2.284 billion yuan in the first quarter, 2.01 billion yuan in the second quarter, and 1.716 billion yuan in the third quarter. Although the figures are decreasing, it is still experiencing continuous losses.

For a long time, Bilibili has not adopted the method of inserting patch ads in videos to realize monetization, but mainly relies on position ads and KOL video ads. The former is exposed through various points such as information flow and recommendation area, and the latter connects advertisers and creators through the Huohua platform. Bilibili's commission rate is about 5%-6%, which is relatively low in the industry. Problems such as saturation of position ads and poor conversion effect of information flow ads have limited the room for growth of Bilibili's advertising revenue.

Faced with the dilemma of irreversible losses, Bilibili had to explore new ways of commercialization, and the vertical screen mode became the "vanguard" of the platform.

Chen Rui has repeatedly expressed the commercial advantages of the vertical screen mode in the earnings conference call. Due to the continuous fragmentation of user time, today's advertising is gradually moving towards a vertical screen mode, and the commercial development of platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou has also verified the advertising advantages of vertical screen content. A relatively complete commercial model has been implemented. Vertical screen content can bring more advertising content insertion scenarios to Bilibili and UP hosts, thereby bringing more advertising revenue.

At the same time, the form of vertical screen content has also attracted more cross-platform content creators. These content creators from short video platforms are more familiar with the creative gameplay of short video content, and it is easy to quickly attract user attention and realize commercialization on Bilibili. For example, the well-known UP host Shuai Nong Niaoge first created content on Douyin, and then Shuai Nong Niaoge devoted himself to the creation of vertical screen content on Bilibili. In about ten days, his fans increased by more than one million, and he quickly realized the monetization of content.

Because of the participation of different content creators, the vertical screen mode can create new playback increments for Bilibili, attract more young short video users to the platform, and make the content browsed by users more inclusive. The shortened video length means that users can browse more content from UP masters in the same amount of time, and receive more diverse information, which means that more advertisements can be carried in the information flow.

Currently, Bilibili has designed an independent information flow mode for vertical short video content. Users can browse different vertical content by sliding down. The platform will push content that users are interested in based on big data, including advertisements and live broadcasts. As Li Ni, COO in charge of Bilibili's advertising business, said: "Story-Mode (vertical mode) has a significantly higher eCPM (advertising revenue per thousand impressions) than all the original video scenes, and the conversion efficiency is very high."

Overall, the fundamental reason for Bilibili to explore vertical screen video content is that the platform's revenue has been frustrated and it is in urgent need of exploring new business space, and the commercial advantages of short videos with shorter durations have been verified. Based on this starting point and the gradually shrinking loss value, the vertical screen mode has indeed achieved good results, but Bilibili must face the impact and influence of vertical screen content on the platform ecology.

3. The Game between Content Form, Monetization Model and Community Ecosystem

Today, Bilibili already has both long and short video content models, and has achieved phased results in commercialization. However, for traditional users of Bilibili, short videos are not attractive and may even affect their daily usage experience. Coupled with the pressure from existing short video platforms, the commercialization road of the vertical screen model is not smooth, and the contradiction between content ecology and commercialization still exists.

With the rapid development of major video platforms, users have formed their own unique perceptions of each platform. If they want to watch vertically to kill time, they can go to Douyin and Kuaishou. If they want to immerse themselves in more in-depth content, they can choose Bilibili. This makes it difficult for Bilibili to quickly divide traffic from short video platforms. At the same time, a large number of Bilibili's loyal users value the platform's professionalism and community atmosphere. Today, this platform differentiation is gradually weakening, and the "pure land" for these users to watch content is gradually being eroded.

From the perspective of content format, the current vertical screen content of Bilibili contains a large amount of horizontal screen content with a long duration. These contents are often horizontal screen content inserted into the vertical screen frame by the UP host, and are not short videos in the strict sense. Short videos do not require in-depth analysis and hard-core logic, but rather eye-catching special effects and unexpected twists. However, this type of content disguised as short videos is not only difficult to capture the user's attention, but also affects the user's perception of the vertical screen content of Bilibili and affects the overall platform ecology.

The reason for this phenomenon is that the traditional top UP hosts on Bilibili do not produce vertical content, nor are they good at producing short video content. At the same time, cross-platform creators often distribute the same content on multiple platforms, which leads to a large degree of homogeneity between the vertical content on Bilibili and other platforms. Under such circumstances, the stickiness of users to the vertical content on Bilibili has been affected to a certain extent.

In addition, in terms of the long-term commercialization, professional short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou are bound to affect the future commercial development of Bilibili. The users of Douyin and Kuaishou have formed a purchasing mentality, and the platforms have a relatively complete e-commerce business system. Short video advertising implantation and live streaming can all be linked to the small yellow cart for direct commercial conversion. For advertisers, such delivery effects are more direct and conversion is more convenient. In this regard, Bilibili has a sense of "using its own weaknesses to attack the other party's strengths".

Today, the game between B station's community ecology and commercialization has been put on the table. How to avoid or reduce the impact on the existing content ecology and user loss while developing the vertical screen mode is the fundamental problem facing B station's vertical screen mode. This not only concerns the platform attributes, but also affects the future survival space of the platform.

How to find a balance between content monetization and content ecology is a question that Bilibili needs to think about. If it chooses to give up its own style and tone for the sake of commercial monetization, will Bilibili still be the same Bilibili as before?

Author: Dake; Editor: Ji Nan

Source: TopKlout (ID: TopKlout), a self-media ecological observation account that combines good-looking and informative content