騰訊“三個(gè)百億計(jì)劃”重金打造用戶內(nèi)容平臺(tái)

Tencent has grown into a company with a stock market capitalisation of $470bn by building a social media platform that combines messaging, payments and other apps. Now it is taking a step into the world of YouTube, earmarking billions of dollars to amass a catalogue of user-generated content.

騰訊(Tencent)通過(guò)打造一個(gè)集消息、支付等多種應(yīng)用于一體的社交媒體平臺(tái)，已經(jīng)成長(zhǎng)為一家擁有4700億美元股票市值的公司。如今，騰訊正在向YouTube所在的領(lǐng)域進(jìn)軍，專門(mén)撥出重金用于匯聚“用戶原創(chuàng)內(nèi)容”。

The move follows a period of rampant professional content acquisition, spanning streaming rights to the US National Basketball Association to music from major record labels. Content is a key tool for keeping users within Tencent platforms but the current big-ticket purchases “just aren’t economic”, says one analyst.

騰訊也曾大肆購(gòu)買專業(yè)內(nèi)容——從美國(guó)男子職業(yè)籃球聯(lián)賽(NBA)的網(wǎng)絡(luò)直播權(quán)到主流唱片公司的音樂(lè)。一位分析師表示，內(nèi)容是吸引用戶留在騰訊旗下各種平臺(tái)內(nèi)的一個(gè)關(guān)鍵工具，但是目前的大手筆購(gòu)買“并不劃算”。

The push into user content, which Tencent calls “open media”, comes as the group flagged its lossmaking, but strategically important, video offerings when it unveiled third-quarter results on Wednesday that blew through analysts’ expectations. Net profits rose 67 per cent year on year to Rmb18.05bn ($2.72bn) on the back of a 61 per cent jump in revenues to Rmb65.2bn ($9.8bn).

騰訊宣布進(jìn)軍用戶原創(chuàng)內(nèi)容(騰訊稱之為“內(nèi)容開(kāi)放平臺(tái)”)之際，該集團(tuán)在周三公布第三季度財(cái)報(bào)時(shí)強(qiáng)調(diào)了雖然虧損但具有戰(zhàn)略重要性的視頻業(yè)務(wù)。騰訊第三季度業(yè)績(jī)超出分析師預(yù)期，收入同比大增61%，至652億元人民幣(合98億美元)，凈利潤(rùn)則增長(zhǎng)67%，至180.5億元人民幣(合27.2億美元)。

Mark Ren, Tencent’s chief operating officer, told app developers at the company’s annual conference this month that it had invested “a lot of time and money into open media and we predict next year we will invest Rmb10bn in this ecosystem”.

騰訊首席運(yùn)營(yíng)官任宇昕(Mark Ren)在本月舉行的2017騰訊全球合作伙伴大會(huì)上對(duì)APP開(kāi)發(fā)者們表示，該公司已經(jīng)向內(nèi)容開(kāi)放平臺(tái)投入了大量時(shí)間和資金，預(yù)計(jì)明年將向這一生態(tài)系統(tǒng)投入100億元人民幣。

The company says it will distribute the content across all of its platforms, handing wannabe stars potential exposure to WeChat’s 963m monthly active users — half of whom spent more than 90 minutes on the app every day.

騰訊表示，將在旗下所有平臺(tái)分發(fā)內(nèi)容，有志成為網(wǎng)紅的創(chuàng)作者將有機(jī)會(huì)讓微信(Wechat)的9.63億月度活躍用戶(其中半數(shù)每天使用微信的時(shí)間超過(guò)90分鐘)看到他們的內(nèi)容。

Tencent is also promising to protect their copyright, in an attempt to provide another attraction to would-be internet stars.

騰訊還承諾保護(hù)他們的版權(quán)，從另一個(gè)方面吸引想要成為“網(wǎng)紅”的內(nèi)容發(fā)布者。

Backing up these pledges is the so-called “3 x 10bn plan”, whereby Tencent will invest Rmb10bn a year in revenue sharing with content creators and devote a further Rmb10bn into resources such as start-up spaces and providing intellectual property protection. The third Rmb10bn relates to the traffic Tencent says it controls by counting the same user multiple times across platforms.

支撐這些承諾的是所謂的“三個(gè)百億計(jì)劃”，即騰訊將以“100億流量、100億產(chǎn)業(yè)資源和100億元資金”扶植內(nèi)容創(chuàng)業(yè)者。

The pledges underline the lengths China’s biggest tech groups are going to in the land-grab for content. In August, news feed app Toutiao poached 300 internet celebrities from Zhihu, an online question-and-answer forum similar to Quora. According to one microblogger who made the switch, they were signed “at a compensation higher than that of an average white-collar worker”.

這些承諾突顯了中國(guó)各大科技集團(tuán)在爭(zhēng)奪內(nèi)容方面都使出了渾身解數(shù)。今年8月，新聞推送應(yīng)用今日頭條(Toutiao)從類似Quora的在線問(wèn)答論壇知乎(Zhihu)挖走了300名網(wǎng)絡(luò)大V。一位轉(zhuǎn)投今日頭條的原知乎大V表示，他們簽約今日頭條的年收入比普通白領(lǐng)高。

User-generated content is important, says Matthew Brennan, analyst and co-founder of China Channel site, which trains companies to use WeChat. “Each of the big players is trying to say ‘Come to us and we will provide you with ways to get traffic and monetise it, and sometimes pay you directly as well’.”

China Channel是一個(gè)為企業(yè)提供微信使用培訓(xùn)的網(wǎng)站，其分析師兼聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人馬修•布倫南(Matthew Brennan)表示，用戶原創(chuàng)內(nèi)容非常重要。“各大平臺(tái)都在傳遞這樣的信息，‘來(lái)我們這兒吧，我們會(huì)為你提供獲取流量和變現(xiàn)的途徑，有時(shí)候還直接付給你錢(qián)。’”

For Tencent, a company whose tech roots are defined by Pony Ma, its engineer founder and chief executive, the move marks an inflection point. Its user base is enormous but its heavily domestic slant is seen by some as approaching saturation.

新動(dòng)作標(biāo)志著騰訊走到了一個(gè)拐點(diǎn)。該公司的技術(shù)基礎(chǔ)是由其工程師出身的創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官馬化騰(Pony Ma)勾畫(huà)出來(lái)的。騰訊有龐大用戶基礎(chǔ)，但明顯偏重國(guó)內(nèi)，因此一些人認(rèn)為其市場(chǎng)正接近飽和。

“The mobile ecosystem in China is quite mature, so the products are all kind of similar,” says Mr Brennan. “What differentiates them now is content, so that’s the way to attract customers from your competitors.”

布倫南說(shuō)：“中國(guó)的移動(dòng)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)已經(jīng)相當(dāng)成熟，所以產(chǎn)品也都相似?，F(xiàn)在能把它們區(qū)別開(kāi)的是內(nèi)容，要從競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手那里吸引用戶就得從這里下手。”

Lin Songtao, Tencent’s vice-president said at last week’s conference that what was once an activity — such as shopping or gaming — is now something to watch others doing.

騰訊副總裁林松濤在上周的會(huì)議上表示有些事在過(guò)去只是自己的活動(dòng)，比如購(gòu)物和打游戲，現(xiàn)在卻能看著別人做。

“Watching people playing games was boring, but now people like to see how people play games,” he said, pointing to the growth of esports and online gaming tournaments. “It’s content of games, not games per se.

他說(shuō)：“在過(guò)去幾年我們很難想象有人看別人打游戲也會(huì)一直高興，這很無(wú)聊。今天很多人休閑的時(shí)候特別喜歡看游戲主播打游戲。”他指的是電子競(jìng)技和網(wǎng)游錦標(biāo)賽。

“Figures in July showed consumer behaviour has changed,” he added. “Today, ecommerce content-based consumption is growing rapidly. Consumers want more information behind products.”

他還表示今年7月份的數(shù)據(jù)表明消費(fèi)者的行為已經(jīng)發(fā)生了變化，他說(shuō)：“現(xiàn)在內(nèi)容電商的模式增長(zhǎng)非常快。越來(lái)越多的用戶不滿足你告訴我，這個(gè)是什么東西?你是不是有精美的圖片?而是背后有故事才能吸引我的購(gòu)買。”

YouTube and Facebook have already made big pushes into monetising user-generated content. The Google-owned video network pays influencers to make longer content especially for its subscription service YouTubeRed.

YouTube和Facebook已經(jīng)在大力推動(dòng)用戶原創(chuàng)內(nèi)容的貨幣化。谷歌自有視頻網(wǎng)絡(luò)開(kāi)始付費(fèi)請(qǐng)有影響力的用戶制作較長(zhǎng)的視頻，重點(diǎn)提供給其訂閱服務(wù)YouTubeRed。

Facebook recently launched Watch, a video tab within the site, and is paying some users to create entertainment videos.

Facebook最近在網(wǎng)站推出了“Watch”(觀看)視頻標(biāo)簽，并且付費(fèi)給一些用戶制作娛樂(lè)視頻。

Tencent hopes to woo YouTubers, setting up a studio in Hong Kong kitted out with dubbing and post-production facilities to enable US and other overseas celebrities to access the Chinese market.

騰訊希望能吸引YouTube主播，該公司在香港成立了一間工作室，有配音和后期制作設(shè)施，旨在幫助美國(guó)和其他海外名人進(jìn)入中國(guó)市場(chǎng)。

The company hopes attracting them on to its platforms will help keep users within its ecosystem for longer, adding up to bigger revenue streams.

騰訊希望通過(guò)將這些人吸引到其平臺(tái)上，從而幫助將用戶更長(zhǎng)久地留在其生態(tài)系統(tǒng)內(nèi)，增加收入來(lái)源。

“Once our partners become dynamic we are automatically the beneficiary,” said Elaine Wang, vice-general manager of Tencent’s open platform. “That’s the logic.”

騰訊開(kāi)放平臺(tái)副總經(jīng)理王蘭(Elaine Wang)表示：“一旦我們的合作伙伴變得活躍，我們就自然會(huì)受益。這是順理成章的。”

Additional reporting by Hannah Kuchler

漢娜•庫(kù)赫勒(Hannah Kuchler)補(bǔ)充報(bào)道