someone cools down

　　According to the "Top 30 Chinese Knowledge Payment Platform Rankings in 2021", Luo Zhenyu ranked 12th.

The industry is faced with the gradual reduction of financing, the decline of indicators such as payment rate and repurchase rate, and the lack of traffic dividends.

　　someone added code

　　Internet platforms such as Zhihu, Himalaya, Douyin, Kuaishou, Station B, Sohu, and Tencent have successively made efforts in the field of knowledge payment. They use their technological advantages to incubate knowledge-paying content producers and avoid the risk of over-reliance on super IP to a certain extent.

　　Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter Yu Yaoqiang Yaxian

　　■ "Everything is the best arrangement", recently, Chairman Luo Zhenyu said in an internal letter after pressing the stop button on the road to the listing of Mind Creation.

　　■ The termination of the listing of Mind Creation has also led to the market's re-examination of the "knowledge payment" track: on the one hand, Luo Zhenyu, Fan Deng and others have been on the track one after another, but so far there has not been a listed company that focuses on it; On the one hand, Internet platforms are constantly pouring in.

　　■ Different from over-reliance on personal IP such as Mind Creation, will Internet players on this track be more suitable for knowledge payment?

　　Douyin, Kuaishou, and Station B continue to increase the number of Internet manufacturers

　　After Luo Zhenyu and others "cooled down", there are still people pouring into the track of paying for knowledge.

　　Ren Zeping, an online celebrity economist, announced in April this year that he would pay for knowledge.

Earlier, there was "Zhang Chaoyang's Physics Class" launched by Zhang Chaoyang, CEO of Sohu (SOHU.US).

According to market analysts, Zhang Chaoyang was giving lectures, and he was aiming at the market of live broadcast of knowledge.

The Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that in the introduction of Zhang Chaoyang's program, there is obviously the purpose of "cooperating with Sohu Video to make the strategic layout of the knowledge live broadcast platform".

In recent months, Sohu Video has also launched the Space Live Broadcasting Bureau, the Sinology Live Broadcasting Bureau, and the Children's Science Popularization Bureau, etc., and continue to make efforts to live broadcast knowledge.

　　In fact, among Internet players who have stepped into the "knowledge payment" track, Sohu appears to be a little late.

Other players such as Zhihu (ZH.US), Himalaya, etc. have already entered the game, and the latecomers Douyin, Kuaishou (01024.HK), and Station B (BILI.US) are constantly increasing.

　　The market generally believes that 2016 is the first year of knowledge payment.

In April of this year, Zhihu launched a new function "Worth"; the following month, "Zhihu Live" was launched to provide online one-to-many interactive Q&A service.

In May 2016, the paid voice question and answer application "Fen Answer" was launched.

At the end of the same year, Himalaya FM held the "123 Knowledge Carnival" with sales exceeding 50 million yuan.

Weibo has also started a public beta test of the "Q&A function".

　　With the entry of Internet platforms, the paid knowledge market has expanded rapidly.

iiMedia Research mentioned in the report that since 2016, the scale of paying knowledge users in China has grown rapidly, reaching 477 million in 2021 and is expected to exceed 500 million in 2022.

　　However, the Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that after experiencing a rapid development stage, the knowledge payment industry has encountered development bottlenecks since 2017.

For example, industry financing is gradually decreasing, indicators such as payment rate and repurchase rate are declining, and traffic dividends are no longer available.

But at this time, short video platforms represented by Douyin and Kuaishou have begun to emerge in the field of knowledge payment.

　　In 2018, Kuaishou launched a paid knowledge class.

In March 2019, Douyin launched some support policies for knowledge accounts, and launched the "DOU Know Plan" short video popular science knowledge competition.

In October 2019, Station B launched a paid course in its app, and public data shows that by 2021, there will be 183 million users studying at Station B.

The short video platform has changed the interactive mode of knowledge payment to video and live broadcast, and the content has become more diversified, which has further lowered the threshold for knowledge creators.

　　Is it more suitable to pay for knowledge by going to a personal IP-based platform?

　　In a "Top 30 Chinese Knowledge Payment Platform Rankings in 2021" released by China Business Intelligence Network, Luo Zhenyu ranked 12th, while Internet platforms such as Zhihu, Himalaya, Tencent Classroom, and Dragonfly FM occupy the top 4 seats.

　　Unlike thinking creation and other models that rely too much on personal IP, on the Internet platform, amateurs with unique insights in a certain field may also become knowledge creators.

For example, Zhihu's salt-selected members, paid consultation, and paid columns, behind the columns are amateur "answerers" who come from various fields and output high-quality content.

　　Internet platforms can also take advantage of technology to incubate content producers, provide traffic support, brand packaging, etc., to a certain extent, avoid the risk of over-reliance on super IP.

　　An industry insider told the Red Star Capital Bureau that "excessive reliance on personal IP" is undoubtedly amplifying operational risks for listed companies.

Once the personal IP has negative problems or cannot continue to operate, the listed company will not be able to bring continuous and stable income to investors, which is why the capital market is always not optimistic about the "personal IP" company.

　　From the perspective of content producers, Internet platforms also provide them with more ways to monetize.

In addition to the traditional selling knowledge courses, various forms of realization such as advertisements, live broadcasts, and delivery of goods can also be added.

　　Knowing the million fans of the big V "Lan Daxianren" is one example.

According to CCTV Finance and Economics, after graduating from university, "Lan Daxianren" entered a chemical company to do product quality inspection with a monthly salary of only 3,000 yuan. Later, after answering questions in the digital field on Zhihu and accumulating a large number of fans, he began to accept paid consultation from users .

After Zhihu launched the "Recommended Goods" column, "Lan Daxianren" became a "cargo-carrying officer".

　　However, there are still some problems in the development of knowledge payment on Internet platforms. At present, Himalayas, Zhihu, etc. cannot escape the dilemma of loss.

From 2019 to 2021, the adjusted losses of Himalaya in the past three years were 748 million yuan, 539 million yuan and 759 million yuan, respectively.

Zhihu’s financial report shows that from 2019 to 2021, Zhihu’s adjusted net losses are about 825 million yuan, 338 million yuan, and 750 million yuan, respectively.

　　But the big cake of the paid knowledge market is still attractive enough.

In this context, new players such as station B are also accelerating the process of knowledge payment business.

In June of this year, the "pay to watch UP main video" function was launched on the B station. In the past, the free UP main self-made video, now you need to pay to watch it.

The Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that the paid video was viewed more than 19,000 times within 2 days of its launch.

UP master Liu Yi (pseudonym), who has more than 1.1 million fans at station B, told the Red Star Capital Bureau that paying to watch at station B will be a trend.