China hits 1 billion online video users in 2020 but growth begins to slow even as companies find new ways to make money
- In China, Kuaishou and ByteDance are the two biggest players in the lucrative domestic short video content market
- Live streaming remains one of the fastest-growing areas of online video, reaching a market value of 150 billion yuan in 2020, up 42 per cent on the year before
The number of active users of online video in China surpassed 1 billion in 2020 but user growth slowed to 2 per cent as the sector begins to plateau after years of breakneck expansion, according to a new industry report.
However, the market value of online video reached 241 billion yuan (US$37.2 billion) in 2020, an increase of 44 per cent on the previous year, according to the China Internet Development Report published by the Internet Society of China on Tuesday.
Analysts say this is because new ways to make money from the medium are being found.
“The big opportunity for online video is monetising users through commerce, which is already relatively strong but still has plenty of room for growth,” said Mark Tanner, managing director at Shanghai-based consultancy China Skinny. “The penetration rate of online video shows the broad appeal as a source of entertainment and education, even among those consumers who are getting older, [there is] some room to grow, but the rate will slow considerably.”
In China, Kuaishou and ByteDance are the two biggest players in the lucrative domestic short video content market. Other streaming platforms include iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video as well as Bilibili. ByteDance-owned Douyin, TikTok’s sister app, recorded 600 million daily active users as of August 2020, while Chinese short video app rival Kuaishou racked up 295 million DAUs in the quarter ended March.