Baidu has another new move.
According to media reports, Baidu will acquire the domestic business of Huanju Group (YY), which will be officially announced in November. It is understood that after the completion of this acquisition, the YY client will remain, and its content, technology and live broadcast team will be provided to Baidu simultaneously.
At present, the two parties have not made a positive response to this matter, but from the information disclosed by comprehensive media, Baidu's acquisition of YY is very likely.
01
Acquiring YY, Baidu's live broadcast strategy is further implemented
After the news of Baidu's acquisition of YY came out, many people were amazed. They felt that Baidu was on a whim, so they wanted to buy YY for live broadcast.
From a business perspective, Baidu is mainly engaged in search and AI, while YY is mainly engaged in live broadcasting. The two companies do not seem to have much overlap, but Baidu's acquisition of YY is not a whim.
Video and live broadcasting have been Baidu's key businesses in the past two years. Baidu began to deploy short videos in 2018. In March 2019, it provided 1 billion bonuses to encourage users to create. In May 2019, Baidu launched the "Vlog Dandelion Plan", providing 500 million cash subsidies and 2 billion traffic support to fully empower Vlog creators In May 2019, Baidu also opened up the Haokan Video and iQiyi account, further enhancing Baidu’s right to speak in the video field; in terms of live broadcast, Baidu tested the water in Tieba as early as 2018. It's a pity that I couldn't persist. In 2020, Baidu will start live broadcasting again. In March, Baidu’s Baijia account launched its live broadcast function, and the anchor can use Baijia’s live broadcast to achieve real-time sharing and dialogue with fan audiences. From April 13th to April 30th, Baidu Live launched a series of self-made premium live broadcast columns: such as "Cloud Roaming in the Earth Wandering Plan", "Master Please Enlighten me", "Super Alignment", "Learning to Be a National Treasure", etc . On May 13th, Vientiane·2020 Baidu Mobile Ecological Conference, the "Baidu Live Streaming Energy Concentration Program" was released. Baidu announced that it would spend 10 billion traffic and 500 million subsidies to discover and train high-quality live broadcast creators, and create 1,000 monthly income. Wan’s anchors make live broadcast an important way of content creation and personal expression. On May 14, Robin Li, the chairman and CEO of Baidu, opened the live broadcast debut and personally stationed Baidu Live. At this point, Baidu's decision to upgrade live broadcast to the key development direction of 2020 has been thoroughly clarified.
From Baidu's frequent actions in the field of video and live broadcasting in the past two years, it can be seen that Baidu is serious from the top to the business level when it comes to live broadcasting. Therefore, Baidu's acquisition of YY is by no means a whim, but a further implementation of its live broadcast strategy.
The acquisition of YY also further highlights Baidu's determination to do a good job in live broadcasting.
02
The internal logic of Baidu's acquisition of YY
Baidu + YY, search + live broadcast are the best partners.
What is the most expensive live broadcast? Naturally it is traffic. Take the current hottest live broadcast e-commerce as an example. E-commerce platforms such as Tmall, JD, Suning, and Pinduoduo, and brands, merchants, and personal anchors are all desperate for traffic.
As the world's largest Chinese search engine, Baidu's traffic advantage is very obvious. According to data released by Baidu, by the second quarter of this year, the daily activity of Baidu App has exceeded 230 million, the per capita usage time has increased by 30%, and the number of services has increased by more than 30%. According to statistics from the third-party research organization QuestMobile, Baidu occupies up to 73% of the domestic search engine market. In the more critical mobile web search field, Baidu's share reached 86.54%. In the first quarter of this year, the number of monthly active users of Baidu App reached 536 million. Especially under the influence of the epidemic, the number of users who obtain information through Baidu search and information flow every day exceeds 1 billion.
One hand holds huge traffic, and the other naturally needs traffic. The combination of the two cannot be more natural.
To say that search + live broadcast is the best partner is not only the supply relationship between the two, but also that the combination of the two can produce an effect of 1+1 greater than 2.
We know that the Internet has three profit models, e-commerce, advertising and games. In fact, in addition to e-commerce, advertising and games, live broadcasting is also one of the most profitable models.
According to the "2020 China Live Broadcast Industry Insights" released by the Mob Research Institute, as of March 2020, China's entertainment live broadcast YY live broadcast users reached 41.204 million, ranking first in the industry. Although YY users are only about one-tenth of Kuaishou Douyin's, their receivables can reach one-third or more of their counterparts.
Such a powerful monetization ability is a great revenue tool for Baidu, which holds huge traffic. It is foreseeable that once YY is successfully incorporated into the Baidu system, Baidu's ability to attract funds will be greatly enhanced.
Seeing this, you should understand why Baidu is doing a good job in its own live broadcast, and the short video is also good, but it will buy YY, because YY has a mature live broadcast management team, experienced anchor talent group, and brand. The influence and mature operating system will quickly make up for Baidu's shortcomings and find the best way to realize Baidu's huge traffic.
Baidu's acquisition of YY should be most important to YY's rich operating experience in the field of live broadcasting and a user-paid conversion system.
03
Baidu's acquisition of YY is not only for live broadcast
Xi Ge believes that Baidu's acquisition of YY has multiple values in addition to deepening the live broadcast and making it bigger and stronger.
First, the acquisition of YY will help Baidu strengthen its live broadcast e-commerce layout. On June 15, 2020, channel 618 was launched on the homepage of Baidu APP, focusing on content delivery and live broadcast delivery. On this Double Eleven, the Baidu APP launched the "Shopping" channel, and set up the "Daren Live" and "Find Goods" sections in the discovery carousel. Users can also browse "Guess you like" under the above two sections. , "Live", "Cheap Goods" content, with "Order", "Collection", "Footprint", "Search" and other electronic trademark distribution functions, officially entered the live broadcast e-commerce.
The acquisition of YY will help Baidu jump out of the category of "knowledge live broadcast" and enter the live broadcast e-commerce company that leads new consumer trends.
Second, the acquisition of YY will help Baidu deepen and consolidate its search foundation. In China’s Internet from the PC era to the mobile era, from graphics to video, and then from long video to short video, users’ behavior and habits have repeatedly changed. Nowadays, global search and video visual search have become new habits of users. It is understood that currently 70% of search results on Baidu APP point to short video content. The live broadcast will further complement the shortcomings of Baidu entertainment and game live broadcasts, improve the content ecology of Baidu, and consolidate the foundation of search.
Third, in order to better optimize the revenue structure. Xi Ge believes that the acquisition of YY to deepen live broadcast may become a landmark event in Baidu's transformation. For many years, search giants and AI pioneers have been Baidu's most prominent labels. Correspondingly, Baidu's revenue model is search advertising. After the acquisition of YY, Baidu's revenue model may form a two-legged walking model of live broadcast + search, which will go faster and more stable. Correspondingly, Baidu's revenue will enter the stage of refined operation, which will help Baidu to tap more revenue points.
If Baidu really acquired YY, it would be a good move.