Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2073 The end of the music platform is the radio station
However, Zhou Buqi didn't dare to be too sure about this matter. People must have self-knowledge.

He really doesn't know enough about the audiobook market.

Even if there is a little foresight, it is very limited, and the scope of action is only in the domestic market.

Maybe the foreign market is different?

Just like Spotify's model can flourish overseas, but it doesn't work in China.Domestic audiobook products can’t be played well, but the model of overseas audiobook products may not work.

The most typical example is Netflix.

This kind of model is useless in China, whoever engages in it will die, but it can be popular in overseas markets, killing all the way.

In fact it is.

The trend of audiobooks has been brought up in overseas markets in the past few years, and then spread to China. The root cause of the inability to play this game in China is that domestic consumption power is relatively weak.

With a membership fee of $30 a month, you can live well on Himalaya and Dragonfly FM.

The country cannot afford it.

For those overseas audiobook apps, the membership fee is really higher than the other, and the annual subscription fee may reach 300 US dollars.Even with such a high fee, there is still a huge market, and even later, there has been a trend in the industry that "the end of the music platform is the radio station".

Of course, the reason why these overseas listening apps can charge so much is also because the quality is too high.

For the audiobook services of the top products, the reader is either the author of the book, or he is looking for a well-known Hollywood actor, or he is a top voice actor.

Then you can create a series of high-quality listening books, which are attractive enough.

It can even be listened to as a course for learning English.

This is actually a virtuous circle. The higher the fee, the more income; the more income, you can invite top voice actors and reciters to record; the better the product quality, the more users you can attract; the more users, the more income. will be further improved.

Similar domestic products are not good, and the first step cannot be done.

It can only guide some amateur folks to read, and the level will be uneven. A good book will also be abandoned by the audience because of the poor level of the reader.

If it is a professional reader with a rich voice, even a not-so-good book, the audience will be intoxicated by their voice.

Zhou Buqi didn't really know what was going on here.

Personally, he is not optimistic about the mode of listening to books.Listening to cross talk and talk shows is okay, but the mode of listening to books feels logically unworkable.

If it’s saliva, how fast it is to read, you can read ten lines at a glance, and listening to the book is too boring; if it’s a book with depth, it’s hard to understand the truth when listening to the book at a constant speed, and it’s useless to listen to it.

Daniel Eck is very concerned about this, "Not only audiobooks, but also podcasts. In the past few years, podcast products were difficult to succeed because everyone had to use computers to listen or search for radio stations. It’s more troublesome. In the era of mobile Internet, you can have apps with integrated functions. You can listen to them while driving, traveling, or walking.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "That's a reason."

Daniel Eck said with a smile: "If we listen to music, in addition to paying a fixed copyright fee, we also have to pay the copyright owner according to the number of times the song is listened to. Podcast programs are different. The potential for expansion. For example, if you invite Tom Cruise and his wife to do a podcast, you only need to pay them an appearance fee. As for the audience of 1, 10 or 1 million, it has nothing to do with the Cruises. It allows the product to have the ability to be copied infinitely.”

Zhou Buqi agrees with this point of view, "To be a platform, self-operated products are indispensable. Use music to attract a huge audience, and then earn income through more other self-operated services."

Daniel Eck sighed, "It can only be like this. Among audio products, there are only podcasts and audiobook services left."

Zhou Buqi said: "This will be a big investment."

Daniel Eck said: "Well, so we need the support of Ziweixing. As early as two years ago, Amazon acquired Audible, the largest podcast product in the United States, and spent a total of 3 million U.S. dollars."

Zhou Buqi was startled, "Amazon?"

Daniel Eck said: "Yes, Amazon wants to build a huge membership system, and they have been working hard in this direction, including music, video, and e-books. The acquisition of Audible is mainly to create an audiobook service, which has been launched. The mobile app is very popular in the market.”

"Is that so..."

This time, Zhou Buqi had to pay attention.

It's okay for others to say, this is Amazon!
Regardless of the fact that Amazon is now an e-commerce platform and the world's largest e-commerce giant.But in a few years, Amazon's core business positioning has changed. Amazon Cloud has become Amazon's most important business, putting e-commerce in a secondary position.

Coincidentally, Ziweixing International also puts cloud computing as a top priority.

There is a competition between the two companies on the "road".

And some time ago, Ziwei Star International also gave feedback that a large membership system should be built to link many fee-paying products.

This is very similar to Amazon.

Amazon is the number one competitor of Ziwei Star now.

Zhou Buqi is not very familiar with the market of podcasts and audiobooks, but I heard that Amazon followed up early, and even spent 3 million US dollars to acquire Audible...

If this is the case, it is really necessary for Ziweixing to launch a tit-for-tat product.

Arrange early and end early.

It doesn't matter if you fail.

If it fails, Amazon will also fail, and the two sides are still on the same level; if Amazon succeeds, but Ziweixing has no similar competing products, then Ziweixing will have a shortcoming in this field, and it is possible A magnification effect occurs.

Now, Netflix of "Ziwei Galaxy" is better than Amazon Video, and Spotify is also shaking ahead of Amazon.Amazon has IMDB, and Ziweixing also has a complete set of film ecological products such as Rotten Tomatoes and Flixster.

In addition, Ziweixing also has knowledge service products such as Quora and Knol that Amazon does not have, as well as some membership products of Ziweixing Digital Media that revolve around football.

From a structural point of view.

Ziweixing’s big membership service is much better than Amazon’s. The only thing that’s worse is that Amazon has its own e-commerce service, and Amazon members can get free shipping.

E-commerce can't do it here.

Therefore, Ziweixing must firmly grasp the big advantage of "streaming media" planned by Zhou Buqi early on, and must be far ahead of Amazon in the field of streaming media, so as to make up for the disadvantage of not having e-commerce services.

After a few years, the market will become more and more mature, domestic Internet companies will become more and more powerful, and many e-commerce companies will even be able to take root in Europe and the United States... By that time, Ziwei Star's big membership system may not be able to follow up On e-commerce services.

From this point of view, the podcast service and audiobook service that Daniel Eck mentioned should really be done.

Podcasts and audiobooks, streaming too!

Daniel Eck further said: "After Amazon acquired Audible, it began to focus on launching audiobook services. It seems that it wants to lead the second transformation of the book era. From paper books to e-books, this time it is audiobooks."

"How does Audible charge?"

"There are very few audiobooks now, and the fees are relatively low. It seems to be only 15 dollars a month."

"$15..."

Zhou Buqi twitched the corner of his mouth.

It's so dark!

Netflix now costs only $10 a month.This is still the case that there are relatively few books on Audible. When there are more and more content in the future, the membership fee does not know how much it will increase.

Daniel Eck seemed to see something, and simply explained: "What they do is high-quality content. In addition to buying the copyright of the book at a high price, they will also invite some Hollywood stars to read it."

Zhou Buqi took it seriously, "Well, this is a good operation idea, which can be used for reference."

He already knows a lot about Hollywood.

Hollywood actors, especially well-known actors, are very particular about their personal image. It will be very difficult for them to advertise, let alone appearing on variety shows, conducting live broadcasts, and selling goods.

Generally, female celebrities can accept commercials, while top male celebrities do not even accept commercials, thus demonstrating their "noble" status.Only when the status is lofty can it carry the box office.

However, books are different.

If you get involved with culture, not only will you not lose your identity, but it will be more compelling.

So it is very easy to invite some well-known actors to come to read.Celebrities like to get involved in culture to improve their personal level and make money, so why not do it?
For the platform side, it can also rely on the star halo to win over the audience.

I have to admire Amazon's operation team, the level is really high.

Much better than Google.

Daniel Eck thought for a while and said carefully: "I found that Amazon's product synergy ideas are similar to yours, and they are also complementary and mutually reinforcing. If users open an Amazon membership, they can listen to three Audible books for free. This is a benefit for Amazon members. At the same time, it is also a way to audition and attract traffic, guiding Amazon users to become Audible members."

"Well, it should be like this."

Zhou Buqi nodded. This operation idea is correct, just like what Kurian said about operating Knol before.

If you want to make Knol a product, you can’t do Knol alone. You need to cooperate with platforms such as Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, and MSN News to provide users of those platforms with opportunities to “try it out.”

"Okay, let's do this." Zhou Buqi didn't need to know more, no matter whether this new project succeeds or fails, it is right to follow Amazon to enter the market.Moreover, he has a new idea, "The number of books is too large. If Hollywood actors and voice actors are invited to read them aloud, the cost will be too high."

Daniel Eck thought he wanted to introduce folk readers, so he was very worried, "It's better to create a boutique."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "The future is the era of artificial intelligence."

"AI reading?"

"The current AI reading is definitely not good. It's too fake. You can tell it's a machine reading. But with the development of technology, I believe... In 15 years, Ziweixing's artificial intelligence team will be able to launch a whole A reading tool that simulates the human voice. By then, the spring of audiobooks may really come. Now it’s over, it’s good to make arrangements in advance.”

(End of this chapter)