On May 17, the 2023 Sohu Technology Summit successfully concluded.
The content of this summit discussion is forward-looking and full. The sharing content covers cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, cosmic civilization, astronomical satellites, human immortality, to looking forward to the future of human beings, nuclear fusion, 6G communication, brain-computer interface, and then to industry changes under the curtain of the era of general artificial intelligence. The topics of AIGC and GPT also have key discussions.
In the frequent sharing of golden sentences, there are suggestions of cutting-edge scientific workers on scientific and technological progress.
Bai Chunli, former president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that the next 5-10 years will be a critical period for the development of artificial intelligence. At this stage, my country's artificial intelligence needs to focus on solving three key problems: weak core technology and basic capabilities, unsound industrial development ecology, and serious shortage of high-end talents.
There are also front-line leaders in the industry's desire for technology to change lives.
Ye Jun, CEO of DingTalk, believes that every industry will have a relationship with AI in the future. With the increase of data accumulation, the improvement of tool capabilities, the enhancement of reasoning capabilities, and the support of computing power in place, I believe that every industry will change as a result.
For this summit, Zhang Chaoyang, founder, chairman and CEO of Sohu, and doctor of physics, introduced that the Sohu Technology Summit has been held since 2019, the first year of 5G commercial use, and has gone through five years. There are both unchanging traditions and constant evolution of content. In the field of science and technology, Sohu will serve as a long-term observer and recorder.
As a media, why insist on holding summit activities for many years?
Sohu's differentiated strategic route gives the answer - the concept of "activity is content".
01 Activity is content, innovative marketing
Sohu's concept of "activity is content" is to continuously innovate content marketing activities, keep pace with the times, and create influential original content IP. Only by combining content and marketing can we cater to the "big changes" in the current media business model.
In the media industry, the basic business monetization model is based on advertising marketing presented to users.
In the era when Internet information windows were dominated by PCs, portal websites were the mainstream choice for users to receive external information on the Internet. During this period, the dominant competitive logic is the amount of aggregated information. Occupying the right to push the information flow means that more information can be provided to users, which can be converted into more traffic accordingly. During this period, Sohu, one of the four major web portals, dominated the market, and people can still recall the excitement of watching the Beijing Olympics on Sohu.
At that time, the advertising logic was based on the exposure rate. As long as it is displayed enough times, it can be converted into more transaction intentions. Portals, as an inevitable part of Internet information channels, can provide advertisers with incomparable value.
However, with the popularization of the mobile Internet, the new Internet information browsing mode is no longer the previous "people looking for information", but switched to "information looking for people" based on algorithm distribution. The original model based on controlling the source of information flow and converting it into traffic has become inefficient. Superimposed with the recession of the economic cycle, the brand side began to care more about the specific effect of the launch, and more and more care about the opportunity cost. Reflected on the marketing side, there is an urgent need for innovation.
For business model innovation, economist Schumpeter only proposed five tangible elements of corporate innovation. And marketing innovation belongs to the category of intangible elements. This means that the innovation of intangible elements requires a new paradigm support.
For the commercial pricing of performance advertising, the brand side uses the estimated click-through rate and estimated conversion rate as the yardstick for calculating the cost of advertising. The former is related to content quality (creativity, professionalism), and the latter is related to distribution fit. Based on these two foundations, the commercial benefits of the overall advertisement can be revealed. The specific formula is as follows, eCPM (expected revenue per thousand impressions) = bid (Pbid) * estimated click rate (eCTR) * estimated conversion rate (eCVR) * 1000.
Sohu's choice of "activity is content" implies all elements of estimated click-through rate and estimated conversion rate.
Based on content marketing based on "activity is content", content can be combined with advertisements to reflect the value of the scene, allowing users to gain a sense of experience and gain. In August 2022, Zhang Chaoyang had a conversation with Xu Zhiyuan and Li Shuanke at the "Fresh Dialogue at 47 Degrees North Latitude" event. Taking advantage of the scenery of Asia's largest wetland and topics closely related to modern people, Sohu introduced Feihe milk powder in a poetic event production area.
This unique sense of participation and acquisition is completely different from the current common video pre-roll ads. In the combination of activities and marketing, Sohu has completed the continuous innovation of content marketing. Created an influential original content IP, allowing the brand to reach users based on user interests, and also bring more revenue to Sohu.
Sohu's first-quarter financial report for 2023 shows that Sohu's revenue is US$162 million. Zhang Chaoyang said: "In the first quarter of 2023, despite the seasonal impact, our brand advertising revenue still reached the upper limit of guidance expectations." Sohu will continue to increase investment in the future.
Zhang Chaoyang commented on the future strategy in the "Sohu News Snow Mountain Trip" activity: "Our characteristic is that we regard live broadcast as media and events as content, and live broadcast makes events into major events."
But live broadcast, Sohu is not limited to offline activities. In terms of online content, Sohu also has its own thinking.
02 Knowledge live broadcast opens a new round of growth curve
At the end of this Sohu Science and Technology Summit, there is a special edition of "Zhang Chaoyang's Physics Class". Zhang Chaoyang talked with Lou Yuqing, a professor of physics at Tsinghua University, a CUSPEA scholar, a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard, and a special expert of the Haizhi Project. The two brought a unique physics class to the audience.
It is reported that "Zhang Chaoyang's Physics Class" will start the first physics live broadcast class in November and May 2021. Up to now, "Zhang Chaoyang's Physics Class" has been broadcast live on Sohu Video for more than 100 episodes.
From the combination of knowledge and live broadcast, it reflects Sohu's "dual engine" strategy, focusing on original content and live broadcast of long and short videos, and deeply cultivating knowledge live broadcast and scientific live broadcast. In particular, the live broadcast of knowledge has allowed Sohu to find another way in the battle between the involuntary live broadcast and the long and short video.
After witnessing the effect of the launch of the physics class, Zhang Chaoyang pointed out at the 2022 World Internet Conference: "Live broadcasting is a way of communication in this era, and Sohu is committed to building a knowledge live broadcast platform."
The current trend of combining live broadcast and commerce has already emerged. How to make users willing to stay in the live broadcast room is a topic that every broadcaster must face.
According to the CNNIC report, the number of live webcast users in my country has reached 751 million. Among them, the number of e-commerce live broadcast users is 515 million, accounting for 48.2% of the total netizens; the user scale of game live broadcast is 266 million, accounting for 24.9% of the total netizens; the user scale of reality show live broadcast is 187 million, accounting for 17.5% of the total netizens The number of users of concert live broadcast is 207 million, accounting for 19.4% of the total Internet users; the user scale of sports live broadcast is 373 million, accounting for 35.0% of the total Internet users. It can be seen from this that the depth of the combination of live broadcast and commercialization determines the size of the basic audience for live broadcast.
Compared with the previous live broadcast, the knowledge live broadcast can only provide entertaining elimination time, and can achieve more focused and refined content sharing. Compared with "grocery stalls" and "Boren Yixiao", "content is king" is the general trend of the live broadcast industry. On this road, Dongfang Selection has fully verified the feasibility.
Dongfang Selection uses the anchor's own knowledge to explain the product, combines product knowledge, encyclopedia, outlook on life, values and golden sentences, establishes Dongfang Selection's model of carrying goods with cultural content as the carrier, and finally realizes the explosive development of the live broadcast room . In the future, with the main promotion of Dong Yuhui and various special activities, the per capita stay time of users will continue to increase, reflecting the extremely high willingness of users to pay for content.
It is different from Dong Yuhui's one-man knowledge in Dongfang Selection. Sohu started to launch knowledge live broadcast as early as 2019, and the coverage is wider and more professional. At present, Sohu has successively covered natural sciences and humanities and other disciplines, including basic mathematics, physics, astronomy, geography, biology, paleontology, botany, etc., and applied computers, optical engineering, aerospace technology, etc., and people The human body, psychology, food, sports science, etc. closely related to life, as well as ancient culture-related content full of humanistic atmosphere. Basically achieved full coverage of common knowledge areas.
In addition, in terms of long and short videos, Sohu has also maintained its competitiveness in creating original hits. In terms of long videos, Sohu is sitting on the IP of popular film and television dramas such as "Forensic Qin Ming" and "Wuxin Master". In terms of short videos, in the current era of national creation where "you can make a movie with the camera on", Sohu has also firmly established itself in the strong content field of "humorous and funny". Sohu will hold the second season of the "Humorous and Funny Short Video Contest" in 2022. Zhang Helun, Xiaolu, and Guan Ling appeared at the press conference as "Track Laughing Officials".
Through continuous content innovation on live broadcast and video, and adhering to the concept of "activity is content" and the strategy of "dual engines", Sohu has moved towards a differentiated development path.
03 "New" Media Road in the New Media Era
Whether it is Sohu's "activity is content" or "dual engine" strategy, it reflects that Sohu is moving towards a new media path in the new media era.
As a 25-year-old Internet veteran, Sohu has almost witnessed the development of the entire Internet in China. Zhang Chaoyang, known as the "Godfather of the Internet" at the beginning, directly or indirectly contributed to Zhihu, YY, Youku and other products that have changed people's lives to this day. For a long time, Sohu has been creating memories of Internet users of different ages.
Under the "dual engine" strategy and the concept of "activity is content", Sohu is on a differentiated and refined "new" media road.
As a frontier explorer, walking steadily is more important than running fast.
Reflected in finances, except for 2021, Sohu has generated positive cash flow from its business in the past five years. In 2022, when the traffic peaks, the dividends are exhausted, and the epidemic is superimposed. The total revenue of Internet and related service companies above designated size in China reached 1.46 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.1%, which is the first year-on-year decline in the past ten years. The industry as a whole is in a "cold winter", but Sohu continues to make profits. The financial report shows that Sohu's total revenue in 2022 will be US$734 million, and the non-GAAP net profit attributable to Sohu will be US$2 million, making it profitable for three consecutive years.
In addition to innovating in content, Sohu is also actively changing and exploring more media landing scenarios.
At this year's Shanghai Auto Show, the cooperation between Sohu and Huawei Hongmeng smart cockpit became the focus of the booth. Sohu Video has also become the first video product equipped with seamless streaming capabilities to land in Huawei's smart cockpit ecosystem. Entering the smart cockpit field is another important effort of Sohu in presenting channels to users.
With this kind of long-term persistence, it has not only created a steady stream of revenue for Sohu, but also brought invisible value.
Under the current wave of AI2.0 era caused by ChatGPT. In the face of the technological changes in front of us, some people are overwhelmed with anxiety, while others absorb knowledge like a gulp. And Sohu's online and offline activities frequently invite influential big names, from the perspective of basic science, to understand the essence of market technology in simple terms.
At the Sohu Science and Technology Summit in 2022, Zhang Chaoyang believed that the public's interest in the progress of scientific frontiers and basic scientific knowledge is on the rise. For humans in the 21st century, we believe that basic scientific knowledge should be a kind of general knowledge.
From this point of view, in addition to "Zhang Chaoyang's Physics Class", which is a hit on the Internet for the general public, Sohu launched "Sohu Video Science Open Class" one after another. There are also popular science contents on geology, biology, and physics such as "The Mysterious Kingdom of Ants" and "The Evolution Story of the Ocean" for teenagers. Experts and scholars in various fields share knowledge with netizens in vivid, interesting, concise and easy-to-understand words in Sohu live broadcast rooms and activities.
Just as at the 2023 Sohu Science and Technology Summit, Zhang Chaoyang said in his opening speech that "in recent years, the mass media has fully disseminated progress in the field of science and technology, which has inspired the next generation of young people to have a strong interest in science." In the end, the organic combination of these experts and interesting activities not only brought Sohu a steady stream of content creativity, but also built a professional barrier that other media could not reach, and formed a unique social value.
With the rapid development of science and technology, the era needs Sohu as a watchman.