In the era of the "information revolution", the search for reliable channels of information has become a trend that embodies people's desire to obtain knowledge effectively. The experience of bringing together professionals and easy access method, attracts many people to the “Pay for Knowledge” platform, in order to “charge” and develop themselves.
According to the ((Analytical Report on the Operational Development of the Payment for Knowledge Sector and User Behavior in China for 2020)) issued by the consulting group iiMedia research, the “Pay for Knowledge” sector in China has been booming since 2016. The volume of the sector reached 39.2 billion yuan (one US dollar is currently 6.4 yuan) in 2020, and is expected to reach 67.5 billion yuan in 2021.
The platform and its users meet halfway
Xiao Zhao, a young man who has been working in Beijing for two years, said: “The free time after work is less, and it is difficult to study regularly as it was in my college days, but I always feel that the competition in this era is strong. I should not stop Learning, more skills is beneficial." He added, "I had no idea about paying for knowledge before. After browsing the Qihu platform software on the Internet, I knew that information could only be obtained in it after payment, so I started learning about this field, paid for the live content of the Qihu platform, and started Pay for knowledge in this program." He also said: "The site includes a lot of specialists in different fields who give very useful lectures, and I can participate in the program anytime and anywhere, and this I like very much."
There are many pay-for-knowledge products launched from mature Internet platforms, such as the Qihu platform. The good user experiences and the lively gathering atmosphere, provides a fertile ground for its development, which attracts many users like Xiao Chao.
On the one hand, the platform has many users who love to learn and are interested in information, and it is easy for them to pay for knowledge. On the other hand, there are many high-impact respondents and excellent creativity, and It is easy for them to become producers of excellent information in various fields that attract users.”
Pay-to-Know products cover all forms of multimedia, including image, audio, video, live broadcast, and more. These formats are consistent with the different requirements and habits of users in gaining information in the age of the Internet. "As the first voice-to-knowledge payment platform, we are developing the audio content ecosystem," said Yu Jianjun, founder and CEO of Himalaya, a pan-knowledge voice payment platform. He added that seizing the unique accompanying feature of voice work to develop the knowledge service, is the key for Himalaya to grow in this sector.
The expansion of the pay-for-knowledge market size is associated with an increase in users' demand for information. "With the increase in business specialization, young people have a strong passion for acquiring more information, and they are endowed with the power of consumption, which promotes the rapid development of this service style," said Wang Weijia, a researcher at Peking University's School of Journalism and Communication.
“Information is becoming more and more rapidly, and many people worry that they cannot keep pace with the times, and this boosts people's passion and interest in information,” said Fu Qiang, a professor in the Department of Strategy and Policy at the Business School at the National University of Singapore. "Besides, as Chinese society's consumption expands, people's spiritual needs increase, and more people are willing to pay for immaterial products," he added.
Evolution depends on the quality of the content
If the attractiveness of the platform is what attracts the first batch of users, then the high-quality content that consistently meets their needs, is the support for the long-term development of the platform.
“There is no doubt that the new style brings a new feeling to the users,” said Xiao Lai, a student at Beijing University of Technology. “But, with the passage of time, the payment for knowledge will not be something new, and the number of similar programs may increase with the increase of their channels, such as some platforms that They are only interested in earning and generating revenue, their software is not good, and this disappoints users. Platforms should be worthy of users' investment and trust."
Fu Qiang believes that with the increase in users' interest in the platform's content, the threshold for entering the pay-for-knowledge market rises rapidly. The major platforms are gradually attracting the most users, a trend that is currently accelerating.
In order to produce and collect high quality content, there is a strong competition between the platforms.
Yu Jianjun said, "In 2020, the number of Himalayan content categories increased from 328 to 393. The new content covers several new fields, including electronic games, cartoons and other entertainment content, as well as famous speeches and technology history. Our content is diversifying day by day."
The effect of increased content is directly reflected in the platform's income. At the end of 2020, Himalaya launched the "123 Information Festival" activity, the volume of content consumption during this activity reached 1.08 billion yuan, and the proportion of new users reached more than 26 percent.
Qihu, as the largest online Q&A forum in China, continues to encourage respondents to create high-quality content, and at the same time, connects the contents with users' questions, which helps match high-quality content with users who want to explore the field.
"Our platform is a market for answers, but we believe that different people have different answers. The Qihu platform includes scientists who explain the phenomenon of quantum entanglement in detail, and there are also ordinary users who answer the emotional problems of young people." He added, "Based on the real needs of users, we use the payment mechanism to encourage content creation; at the same time, we positively introduce external creative contents. Besides ensuring continuous production, we also need to strictly control quality and pay special attention to content specialization. Only if our software is good. Users pay."
Many platforms strive to develop their own superior resources. For example, the Chihu platform opened video lessons ((MindMap Teach You: How to Think to Increase the Effectiveness of Study and Work)) in cooperation with Mind Map founder Tony Buzan.
Wang Weijia said: “High-quality content is not only sought after by both the platform and users, but also is a new entry point for the development of social culture and education. In general, the role of payment for knowledge in the development of social culture and education is not great, and the improvement of public knowledge is still dependent on It depends on the national cultural and educational system and public mechanisms, and it is not realistic that it depends on commercial media. However, we can look forward to enriching the high-quality content of our programs in the future and coordinated development with the reform of the public education system."
Facing controversy and breaking the bottleneck at the same time
After years of rapid development, the pay-for-knowledge sector has faced growth problems. Mr. Chen Yazhu clearly recognized the development bottlenecks faced by the sector. He said, “The evolution of Pay-for-Knowledge to this day has clearly seen the phenomenon of ‘triple decline’, i.e. lower repurchase rate, lower completion rate, and lower uptime. This is a common problem faced by all platforms in this sector.”
Expanding the pay-for-knowledge market is always fraught with controversy. The "Analytical Report on the Operational Development of the Pay-for-Knowledge Industry and User Behavior in China for 2020" has shown that the goodwill of some typical online content producers in the "Pay for Knowledge" industry is not necessarily positively correlated with their popularity. For example, a content's popularity index may be 140, while its reputation index is less than 28. Conversely, some non-hot businesses may get a high reputation index. For example, the Spiritual Wealth Club's popularity index is only 4.8, but its reputation is 60; Hondon University's popularity index is only 0.5, but its reputation is 75.
On this phenomenon, Wang Weijia said that many platforms are new companies, relying on the Internet for commercial performance, when the overall demand for high-quality content is limited, inevitably prioritizing the pursuit of popularity and penetration. He added, "There is always a contradiction between popularity and quality. Even if the high-level market for paying for knowledge becomes mature, different publishing circles will form, and they will not be able to match quality with popularity. This is the basic rule of the commercial publishing mechanism."
The low rate of switching from trying lessons to buying lessons, “selling people anxiety” and “taking pay-for-knowledge as a shortcut”, and other criticisms, are also problems that all platforms face.
“The Qihu platform takes some measures to raise users’ desire to learn and enhance their concept of continuing to learn, including encouraging writers, encouraging the production of superior content, building a good atmosphere, etc. Since March 2019, Qihu has integrated membership business with the community,” said Qin Yazhu. Questions and Answers. In the process of active exploration, the user can ask himself whether he needs to buy a good answer by paying or not to help him stimulate more thinking, which helps in the marketing of paid content. Within a year, the number of users increased four times." He added that against the background of many companies starting to gradually transform the paradigm, Qihu continues to provide the best information service for users according to the logic of self-development.
According to Yu Jianjun, users' goal in paying for knowledge is not simply to focus on maximizing benefits. He said, “In many cases, users not only want to succeed by learning, but also want to make themselves happier, to satisfy their curiosity, to gain spiritual satisfaction, or to enhance their self-esteem. Therefore, Himalaya will provide richer content products as per their requirement. different needs to meet the spiritual needs of users."
Fu Qiang expressed optimism that the pay-for-knowledge sector will witness a healthy development. He said, “Most of these problems can be solved through the market, the wisdom of consumer groups must be fully trusted, and content providers have sufficient development capabilities. Compared to the past few years, we can find changes in the content. For example, the content of “chicken soup” (inspirational article) Gradually withdrawing from the market, more practical and organized content is gaining more and more attention. This is the result of the interaction between supply and demand in the market. The time for change will come, and the changes will come very quickly." According to Wang Weijia, the pay-for-knowledge business is a commercial market mechanism, which also requires solving a series of problems, such as supervision restrictions and relevant laws and regulations. As the market expands further, a mature supervision system must also be established.
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Tan Han Wen is a journalist for the overseas edition of the Chinese People's Daily.