外文翻譯--搜狐視頻在中國網(wǎng)絡視頻市場中的發(fā)展研究（節(jié)選）

1、<p>　　中文5700字，3500單詞，18500英文字符</p><p>　　出處： Hong Kong Baptist University：13-41</p><p>　　Studies on Development of Sohu Video in China’s Online Video Market</p><p>　　Guo Haofan,

2、 Mai Kaiqi, Ren Simin, Wu Ziwei, Zhen Ni</p><p>　　Exclusive Summary</p><p>　　Sohu Video (tv.sohu.com) is an online video website operated by Chinese Internet company Sohu.com Inc. Established in

3、 2004, Sohu Video is committed to implement a 100% of genuine high definition long videos covering films, TV series, variety shows, documentaries, etc. Today, Sohu Video is a leading brand in the Chinese online video in

4、dustry with the title of “No.1 U.S. drama provider”.</p><p>　　Success in the highly competitive online video industry depends on multiple factors among which content is the most critical resources. While lic

5、ensed content remains to be the primary segment of online video, original content, which is produced and exclusively owned by a online video operator, has increasingly become a significant part of video operators’ strate

6、gic landscape.</p><p>　　This study focuses on Sohu Video’s current performance on the development of its content resources for gaining competitiveness. By analyzing the general environment, industrial compet

7、ition, the target customer as well as the internal environment of Sohu Video itself, we found that developing original content is an effective way for Sohu Video to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Based on our fi

8、ndings from previous analysis and interviews with insiders, we offered two recommendations on how</p><p>　　Chapter 4: Online Video Industry in China</p><p>　　4.1 Five Forces Analysis of China’s

9、Online Video Industry</p><p>　　The Intensity of Competitive Rivalry</p><p>　　Market Background - A Constantly Growing Market</p><p>　　According to IResearch, China's online vide

10、o market has reached 12.81 billion yuan in 2013, which saw an annual increase of 41.9%. The number is predicted to grow in a few years and it is estimated to reach 36.6 billion yuan in 2017. The online video industry is

11、 experiencing a more comprehensive commercialization on mobile platforms in 2014 and the coming years, with the effort of the video websites to enrich the variety of licensed contents and with the development of original

12、 contents, the sc</p><p>　　The Changes of the Players in the Market and Their Market Share</p><p>　　A few years ago, there were more than 300 players in the online video market, within years, 90

13、% of the players were eliminated. The unclear profit model, high cost and lack of attractive content are thought to be three main obstacles for the development of video websites.</p><p>　　According to "

14、2013 Q3 China online video market quarterly monitoring" from Enfodesk, in the third quarter of 2013, YouTu, Iqiyi, Sohu video were listed in the first 3 places of the market in terms of advertising revenues, the ran

15、king is considered to be stable and the online video market will continue to be split up by several influential players. Oligopoly will not occur in the market for a short time.</p><p>　　c. The War of Copyri

16、ght Purchasing and Changes of Content Strategy</p><p>　　The price of copyright used to be higher than 100 thousands yuan per episode, it was normal for video websites to purchase one drama with more than 10

17、million yuan. Nevertheless, with the merger of Youku and Tudou and the “Cooperation organization of video content” found by Tencent, Sohu and Iqiyi, by jointly purchasing lisenced contents, the market started to cool dow

18、n from 2011, it is said that the price of copyright has been reduced by 60% by the end of 2012.</p><p>　　Whilst, within less than one year, the “Cooperation organization of video content” was almost broken

19、apart, the purchase of exclusive rights of variety shows became a new battle field. In 2014, the exclusive online broadcasting right of “The Voice China Season 2” was bought by Tencent Video with a price of 250 million y

20、uan, which is 250% higher than the price of season one; With 200 million yuan, Iqiyi also owned the exclusive broadcasting rights of “Dad, where are you going?” accompanied with </p><p>　　For video websites

21、which is facing a serious homogenization situation, which means players who provide very similar contents and have a high user overlap ratio with competitors, whether do they own exclusive contents became their key compe

22、tence, video websites would not be able to maintain their users if they do not own exclusive contents.</p><p>　　To fight for the souring price of copyright, some video websites start to develop an alternativ

23、e business model by buying copyright while increasing the investment on original content at the same time, with a wish to attract more users and to enhance the control on their contents by producing original content whic

24、h cost relatively less.</p><p>　　According to Charles Zhang, the CEO of Sohu Video, in 2014, licensed contents will be still the company’s emphasis, while the investment of original content will be doubled c

25、omparing to last year; original content will become one of their core content next to authorized dramas, taking the place of variety shows. Moreover, original content may also become the first profitable product line of

26、Sohu Video.</p><p>　　The investment in content have been rising, although most of the players are investing more on original content, the expenditure on licensed content is still occupying a large part of th

27、e overall cost of the video websites at the moment.</p><p>　　d.The Leagues</p><p>　　In 2009, Sohu Video established an anti-piracy union with Joy.cn and Voole Technology. Youku, as one of the me

28、mbers of the union today, was sued by the union at that time and was claimed for a compensation of 100 million yuan, Youku</p><p>　　eventually paid the compensation of 450 thousand yuan accord

29、ing to the court decision.</p><p>　　In 2010, started with Youku sued Ku6, video websites were constantly sued by other competitors for copyright issues, as a consequence, the price of domestic dramas began

30、to surge unsually. In 2011, with the name of “the most serious infringement ever”, Tudou sued Youku for broadcasting “Kangxi Talk Show”, one of the most popular variety shows from Taiwan, of which the exclusive broadcast

31、ing right was owned by Tudou. Besides claiming Youku for a compensation of 150 million yuan, Tudou also insis</p><p>　　In 2012, an agreement was made by Sohu Video, Tencent Video and IQiyi, to establish a

32、“Cooperation organization of video content”. According to the agreement, three websites will be able to cooperate to purchase quality video contents. By signing the agreement, on one hand, the three websites hoped to dec

33、rease the cost of purchasing copyright by a collective investment; On the other hand to fight against YouTu, which is newly merged by Youku and Tudou.</p><p>　　e.The Tiers and Different Attributes of the Vid

34、eo Websites</p><p>　　In terms of the advertising market share, the current video industry can be divided into two tiers. YouTu, IQiyi&PPS, Sohu Video, LeTV and Tencent Video lie in the first tier of the

35、industry, dominating more than 60% of the market share. While PPTV, Xunlei, Thunder and Fengxing, etc. lie in the second tier of the industry, seeking a chance to survive with the big companies. </p><p>　　&q

36、uot;With the arrival of 4G, the popularity of WiFi, also along with the new features of the mobile technology, the entire video industry will be divided into sites of film and television content and sites of UGC", s

37、aid by the chairman of Miaopai Video, who is also the co-founder of Ku6.</p><p>　　Currently, except for Youku and Tudou who are regarded as applying the Youtube-model, other players in the first tier and the

38、 second tier do not have strong UGC background and are regarded as sites of film and television content.</p><p>　　In terms of the background of video websites, IQiyi&PPS belongs to Baidu, Sohu video, Ten

39、cent video are backed up by their portal websites, and are regarded as the "rich second generation” in the industry. Youku and LeTV are considered to be the remaining vertical and simple video websites.</p>&

40、lt;p>　　f.The Pursuit of Video Websites</p><p>　　Before the variety show “Dad, where are you going?” was broadcasted, there were only 3 advertising partners, with each of them sponsoring only 12 million fo

41、r a whole season. Things changed after the show was aired, according the data from Baidu, there were almost 40 million audiences watching the first episode of the show, also broke the records of the highest views on each

42、 online video platforms. The good rate also escalated the price of the season two of the show with the advertising sponsorsh</p><p>　　Thus, when competing for the resources of various contents, the players i

43、n the market are actually competing for quality content which can generate higher traffic, stronger user engagement and a higher commercial value.</p><p>　　g.The Acquisitions</p><p>　　Horizontal

44、 integration: In recent years, from the merger of Youku and Tudou, IQiyi and PPS, to Suning’s investment in PPTV, large-scale mergers and acquisitions in the online video industry are becoming the norm. According to Liu

45、Hong, the COO of LeTV, “There will be large-scale reorganization and acquisition in the future, only 3 to 5 online video companies can survive in the end.”</p><p>　　With the competition of the online video i

46、ndustry, players in the market also try to explore a broaden market. Vertical integration is one of their options to build the industrial chain.</p><p>　　Vertical integration: "We believe that vertical

47、integration is a multiplicative effect, and will create a chemical reaction among the industry", introduced by Liu Hong, different from other players who tend to apply a horizontal integration strategy, LeTV is dev

48、eloping itself with a creative vertical thinking which aims to cultivate a whole industrial chain. As the key point of the competition among video websites, content has been always focused on along with the development o

49、f LeTV. After nin</p><p>　　h.Content Homogenization</p><p>　　Some of the video websites established a “copyright alliance” for a short time in order to resist the rapid increase of the price of

50、copyright by co-purchasing licensed contents. The action however, has led to a high degree of homogenization of their contents, which not only harmed the traffic and user improvement, but also hindered the growth of thei

51、r advertising business. Since last year, several first-tier video website tried to suspend joint purchasing and content sharing, on one hand to b</p><p>　　The Bargaining Power of Buyers</p><p>

52、;　　The Low Loyalty of Audiences</p><p>　　Since most of the online video contents are free to watch, the conversion cost of users is low. From the statistics of CNNIC, in 2012, the first tier video websites r

53、epresent a high degree of user’s overlap ratios which are over 30% approximately either on PC or mobile platform, indicates that users are more possible to switch from one website to another. While the users’ overlap rat

54、ios of video websites from the second tier are relatively low, from 20% to 35%. Nearly 90% of users watch online v</p><p>　　Compared with other Internet applications, the largest problem for video websites i

55、s the lack of users’ loyalty. Since content is the most important factor for video websites to attract users, the better content a website can provide, the more users it may have.</p><p>　　Nevertheless once

56、the input on quality content slowed down, users would immediately turn away to other content providers.</p><p>　　For video websites which is lack of users’ loyalty, free users can be stayed through conducti

57、ng data mining. With the support of big data, some video websites can now detect the users’ preferences, and then introduce relevant contents and shows to users according to their preferences, in this way, video websites

58、 begin to build the connection with their users.</p><p>　　Advertisers’ Increasing Confidence on Video Websites</p><p>　　In 2013, in the China's online video market, advertising occupied the

59、highest share of the market revenue, which is up 75.0 percent.</p><p>　　In 2013, the China's online video advertising market reached 9.62 billion yuan, representing an annual increase of 46.8%.In 2013, i

60、n the online video advertising market, the share of advertising revenue of comprehensive video websites is 86.3%.</p><p>　　With the growing importance of branding in the second and third tier cities such as

61、Nanjing, Changsha and Tianjin, etc., advertisers now concern more about how to affect the growing Internet users in these regions. Based on the data of a third-party’s research, 70 percent of Internet users from the seco

62、nd or third tier cities will watch hit TV dramas via the Internet. Tri-screen（screens of TV, mobile devices and PCs） users from these areas have also accounted for 26% of the overall users. The st</p><p>　　A

63、lso, the advertising revenue growth has been constantly doubled. As the online video industry entered a commercialized stage in 2009, the online advertising resource of hit dramas has been in short supply, especially for

64、 Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other front tier cities. In this case, all the video sites are constantly stretching the time of advertisements, it is now common to watch a 45 or 60 seconds of advertisement b

65、efore the video.</p><p>　　The main reason for video websites to extend the time of the advertisement is that the video websites need to increase the income, since the advertising resources of video websites

66、cannot fulfill the demands, extending the time of advertisement is considered to be a common solution.</p><p>　　Overall, video websites are and will continue to dependent on advertising revenue to survive, t

67、he needs for a higher advertising revenue will keep growing; for advertisers, the precise advertising technology provided by video websites do help them to get closer to their customers, with the growing influence of onl

68、ine video on the second and third tier cities, advertisers also need video websites to help them better reach their consumers in such areas.</p><p>　　Chapter 5: Task Environment Analysis</p><p>

69、;　　5.1Target Customer Analysis</p><p>　　Demographic Segmentation of Online Video Audience：</p><p>　　According to a 2009 Nielson report of China’s mainstream online video, the online video audien

70、ces are primarily young, well-educated individuals with relevantly high average income. The result showed that 63.2% of audiences are male and the other 36.8% are female. Young people are the main audience. The report sa

71、id that 82.2% of audience are under 30 and people aged 18-24 counted 43% of all the interviewed. The average age of online video audience is 24.5 years old. </p><p>　　As for the education level, 50% of onlin

72、e video users have college or higher degrees, 40% of total users are students. Online video users also earn considerable income. The average monthly personal income of the users is 2,000 yuan, average monthly household i

73、ncome is 7,000 yuan. In general, online video’s audience is an energetic and high-income demographic. They have a strong willingness to buy durable consumer goods and services and are most interested in digital products

74、and services.</p><p>　　Results of another survey conducted in 2013 by Entgroup, a leading research center of Chinese entertainment industry, showed similar trends. The Entgroup survey in 2013 put more focus

75、on original content. Out of 1925 candidates, 49.92% of original content audiences are 18-30 years old. Audiences aged 30-40 years old are the second largest group, accounting for 24.41% of the total. 76.99% of the audien

76、ce own college or higher degree; 43.84% of the audience earn 3000-8000 yuan per month.</p><p>　　Target Audience’s Behaviors:</p><p>　　As for viewer behaviors of original content, the aforementio

77、ned 2013 Entgroup survey showed that Internet audience spend significant time on various contents available online. About 55% of audiences spend 30-120 minutes on online original content every time and 43% of audiences

78、watch 2-5 episodes each time. When asked if there is a specific time to watch the original content, 38% of the candidates said they do not have fixed time for watching while 32% prefer to watch original content in the ev

79、</p><p>　　Target Audience’s Preference of Content</p><p>　　Although online original content has the flexibility to choose content themes, the audiences showed interests mainly in a few categorie

80、s. According to the survey, 31% of audience like to watch comedy, 21% prefer romantic drama while 13% are interested in action theme.</p><p>　　Audiences also expect the original contents to be proper in leng

81、th. More than half audiences want the length of a single episode to be 10-30 minutes.</p><p>　　Target Audience’s Needs:</p><p>　　Need for information</p><p>　　The need for informati

82、on is the most basic need of people in this mass communication era.The bought content of Sohu video, including the foreign TV dramas, catered audience’s need for internationally popular cultural products. And by watching

83、 the original contents, of which the themes mainly came from hot issues of daily life, audiences can fill up their “blind point” of certain information in the brain.</p><p>　　Need for entertainment</p>

84、<p>　　While the hunger of information is the most basic need for people nowadays, need for entertainment is the most universal one. One of the major functions of online video is to entertain the mass public. Actua

85、lly, most of the online videos are entertainment-oriented.</p><p>　　Need for social connection</p><p>　　Besides, living in the society, people have the neutral need of socializing. Since online

86、video is easy to be shared and the prosperity of social media has made online video a part of it, people gained psychological benefits from sharing and commenting online video contents.</p><p>　　Need for sel

87、f-improvement</p><p>　　Through exaggerated performance of hot daily life issues, original content inspire people to think. The original content as a connection of cyberspace and the real world, provides the

88、audience a frame of reference of self-evaluation and behavior, and thus brought about changes in knowledge, attitudes and even behavior.</p><p>　　Chapter 7: Propositions</p><p>　　Original conten

89、t has huge potential.</p><p>　　In line with the discussion in previous chapters, we can conclude that original content has many advantages over licensed content. First, original content cost less but still g

90、enerates high traffic. Moreover, it is beneficial to brand building and content differentiation. Besides, original content allow different forms of online video advertising in addition to pre-rolls and after-rolls.</p

91、><p>　　The interview with insiders also indicates the advantage of original content over licensed cotent. “The advantage of original content is that it is either exclusive or</p><p>　　whol

92、ly owned. When you have complete control over your content you have complete power to exploit it for ad revenue any way you'd like as well as deploy additional monetization strategies around it”, said David Prager, o

93、ne of the founders of Revision 3, the successful online video content provider in U.S..</p><p>　　Today, the whole online video industry has recognized the importance of original content. Rapid increasing vie

94、wership motivates online video providers to invest more on original content. According to statistics, almost 1,000 episodes of original contents were aired in 2013. In 2014, the number of episodes is expected to be more

95、than 1,700. These facts further prove the potential of original drama.</p><p>　　Developing original content is more cost-effective than buying licensed content.</p><p>　　For many years, online v

96、ideo players rely heavily on purchasing licensed content to attract viewers. Sohu Video is no exception and it has cost Sohu a lot to get exclusive contracts of high quality licensed content. For instance, Sohu Video was

97、 reported to have spent more than 100 million yuan to become the exclusive new media displaying platform of Zhejiang TV’s sensational talent show Voice of China (Season 2).</p><p>　　Within the industry, lice

98、nsed content purchasing is in nature a competition of money. Those online video sites supported by wealthy parent company have obvious advantage over other video sites. This puts Sohu Video in an unfavorable position whe