2018 Report on Live-streaming: More Than RMB 10 Billion Raised
In the first half of 2018, eight live-streaming platforms in China raised approximately 10 billion yuan (US$11.6 billion). Among them, leading platforms HUYA Inc. and Douyu TV account for nearly 70% of the total.
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According to the latest financial reports from the four public live-streaming platforms under Momo Inc., HUYA Inc., Tian Ge Interactive Holdings Ltd., and YY Inc., the contribution of the live-streaming business to their total revenue has exceeded 80 percent. There were rumors earlier this month about Douyu TV filing for an IPO in Hong Kong at a valuation of $700 million. Momo Inc. is listed as one of the companies with a market value of over $10 billion for its fast growing business scale in live streaming.
After another year of competition and adaptation, the live-streaming industry has entered into a transformation phase. With more subdivisions popping up, and the competition from short-video platforms like Douyin (known as Tik Tok overseas) and Kuaishou (Kwai), the live streaming industry is bound for a transformation.
A higher threshold in financing amount in the live-streaming industry
The total amount of financing in the first half of 2018 was very close to the same period last year. The total is around 10 billion yuan, with the average amount raised per company to be 1.25 billion yuan. Comparing to the 17 cases in same period last year with an average amount raised of 588 million yuan, the bar has been raised following eliminations and aggregations.
Subdivisions Popping up, especially in game and audio live stream field
A noticeable phenomenon is that game and audio live streaming are taking increasing amount of market shares in the first half of this year.
In fact, since last year, audio live-streaming has become the new strategic direction. According to the data from iiMedia Research, a leading consulting agency in the mobile internet industry, online audio live-stream users are expected to exceed 150 million in 2018.
The IPO of HUYA Inc., a leading game live-streaming platform often referred to as the Chinese version of Twitch, is a good example of this trend. Its stock price has risen by more than 300% since its listing. As of July 1st, the market value of HUYA has exceeded $6.6 billion.
An integration tendency of Live-streaming and Short-video platforms
According to “2017 China Mobile Internet Annual Report” released by QuestMobile in January 2018, the number of users in the short video industry has exceeded 410 million last year, steadily catching up to live-streaming. It experienced a YoY increase of 116.5%, also surpassing the growth speed of live-streaming. Short-video platform Douyin revealed on June 12 that its number of domestic daily active users (DAU) has exceeded 150 million.
Faced with fierce competition from the short video industry, live-streaming platforms have been entering this industry by incorporating the short video recording function since last year.
At the same time, short video platforms are extending to the live-streaming field. In February 2018, short-video platform Kuaishou announced a new live-streaming feature that is available to all users, while its competitor Douyin is taking a more cautious approach by announcing a live-streaming host recruitment plan.
“There are prominent complementary advantages between live-streaming and short video. Integration of these two would generate a win-win result in terms of user interactions and content distribution.” says Han Kun, the founder and CEO of the short-video app services company YIXIA Inc., when asking about the future development of short-video industry.
Featured Image Source: Internet.
