But with the constant change of user demands, the Internet flow package began to appear some variant of cooperation way, cooperation between the two parties into a tripartite cooperation, such as netease joint iQIYI and platinum card is China unicom launched a tripartite cooperation pattern, divided into small white gold, white gold card, platinum card three packages, in addition to netease is the free flow of products used, Iqiyi has also changed from outside the department to inside the department, becoming a member of netease platinum card streaming free ecology. As a matter of fact, there have been similar packages in the form of three-party cooperation before, but the concept is vague. For example, Aliyu card launched by China Telecom and UC supports browser streaming free, which to some extent also represents the streaming free package scene from within the department to outside the department.
So, what are the advantages of the tripartite model over the prevailing two-party model?
It can be said that from the perspective of ecological expansion of enterprise products, the three-party model of netease, IQiyi and China Unicom is obviously better than the two-party model of netease – China Unicom or IQiyi – China Unicom. And the advantage is inseparable from some forward-looking thinking on competition and cooperation.
1. A more perfect no-flow ecology to maximize benefits
The cooperation between netease and IQiyi is like visiting a rich relative. The family will not only grow, but the whole stream-free ecosystem will also be improved.
First of all, the richness of netease’s products is self-evident. It is proficient in news, games and music. For example, netease Cloud Music with 400 million users, Wild Recon with just over 100 million users and netease Mailbox with 960 million users are heavily used by users. It can be seen that netease has a large application user base and a wide distribution of users. On this basis, netease’s own product ecology has a certain radiating capacity.
By October 2017, the number of independent devices on iQiyi APP has reached 549 million. As video is a mainstream way of entertainment at present, the variety of users under its video ecosystem is also relatively rich, which is obviously not to be underestimated.
The cooperation between the two parties is a fusion and complementarity of product ecology. Iqiyi can bring addition effect by virtue of netease application ecology to complement iQiyi’s relatively single product ecology. With the help of iQiyi’s video ecosystem, netease can supplement entertainment content, further improve the use value of platinum card, and enhance user stickiness. Therefore, whether iQiyi chooses netease, or netease chooses IQiyi, the business will make no loss, and the effect is much higher than going it alone.
Judging from the combination of netease and IQiyi, the product ecology of the two parties will be more diversified after the other party joins, which will increase user recognition and reduce costs.
Second, the expansion of the operator’s territory is accelerated and its competitiveness is greatly improved
On the other hand, the layout of operators expanded, market competitiveness significantly improved. The three carriers are China Unicom, which has the highest penetration rate this year, and Internet data plans are now more like a killer card for China Unicom, which is gradually helping it to erode the telecom and mobile markets. I believe that the participation of the tripartite cooperation of China Unicom is certainly happy, for China Unicom, a win two Internet giants seems to be more sense of achievement, but the cooperation must be based on two hard standards.
First, accelerate the expansion of their territory. By cooperating with Internet enterprises with hundreds of millions of users such as netease and IQiyi, China Unicom can quickly convert some users, which is a shortcut for business development. Compared with the two-party model, when the conversion rate is fixed, the three-party model involves more Internet enterprises and covers a wider range of users, resulting in a larger incremental number of users that can be converted and a more obvious increase in market share. Simply put, the three-way model wins in numbers.
Second, give full play to their network advantages, improve the inherent impression of users, enhance the brand image. It is reported that China Unicom has certain advantages in 4G network, download and upload rate is also higher than the industry average. With these continuously improving data, China Unicom has the confidence to provide more users with better online experience.
Third, users get more cost-effective services
The soil of enterprise survival is users, so it is more important that tripartite cooperation enables users to enjoy more high-quality Internet products and services at the lowest cost, which is an advantage that is difficult to surpass under the same dimension of cooperation between the two parties. For users, more generally speaking, a netease platinum card can not only use netease products, but also watch iQiyi videos, with higher cost performance. Especially for netease and iqiyi cross users, is a good news. If it is a partnership model, cross-users may need to buy two cards, which obviously requires a bit more effort, and the experience is not as good as the integrated streamless app ecosystem.
Therefore, whether from the point of view of Internet companies or operators, tripartite cooperation not only represents greater benefits, but also benefits users. Strictly speaking, the tripartite model is a win-win cooperation based on the expansion of interests of all parties.
The tripartite mode urges the industry to move towards also competes also closes
From carry-over to stream-free usage, Chinese consumers are stepping into an era of free traffic jointly built by Internet companies and operators. The emergence of the tripartite mode, to a certain extent, also indicates that there may be some changes in the way of stream-free cooperation.
First, the arrival of operator dogfight era, diversified competition pattern appears. According to the number of users, China Mobile still maintains a certain advantage. But Now China Unicom has the feel of an up-and-comer, with net additions of 2.103 million mobile subscribers in November, according to the latest figures. One-month incremental momentum fierce, it can be seen that China Unicom is ushering in its own golden period of development, jumping from the radius of traditional enterprises.
Moreover, in the current prevailing mode of both sides, the tripartite cooperation with netease and IQiyi has promoted itself to a higher level. Under such pressure, China Mobile and China Telecom will not sit idly by, but must fight back and defend their positions. Therefore, it is foreseeable that with the rapid growth of China Unicom users, China Mobile may further dig into the gold mine of Internet data package, and the three-party or multi-party cooperation mode may become its first choice due to its wider coverage of users and richer ecological coverage.
The current tripartite cooperation model of netease may be just the beginning. Operators and Internet companies in the stream-free cooperation model are all variables, and the tripartite or multi-party cooperation will bring the greatest ecological benefits. In other words, the tripartite model of netease, IQiyi and China Unicom will continue to trigger the catfish effect, making streaming free cooperation appear more diversified competition pattern.
Second, the three-party cooperation can not only arouse the nerves of the operators, but also the Internet enterprises may start to form alliances to develop new ways of streaming free cooperation in the form of the foreseeable increase in users and other favorable factors. Taking netease and IQiyi as an example, users who like playing games may have a strong demand for entertainment, and they are highly likely to become iQiyi users after obtaining netease platinum card. Moreover, based on the hundreds of millions of users on both sides, the increment of users brought by a certain probability is also considerable.
Internet enterprises are not stupid. As the cost of acquiring online customers continues to rise, building a stream-free ecosystem with other Internet enterprises will undoubtedly increase the opportunity to obtain high-quality users and improve their exposure rate, thus reducing the pressure of increasing costs. So, the tripartite partnership model may be just the beginning, and we may see more Internet consortiums building app ecosystems in the near future. Moreover, under the benefit mechanism of 1+1>2, future Cooperation between Internet enterprises may tend to be multi-application mode in order to maximize ecological benefits.
The era of stream-free cooperation is not far away
Tripartite cooperation in a certain sense represents the idea of unity, and this unity is based on the premise of ecology. It has long been a fact and a phenomenon that users are likely to become more demanding in terms of streaming free, with one of the strongest features being breaking down the barriers between applications, or even using all of them at once. For example, future users will be able to use netease platinum card to access Tmall and Jd.com.
Of course, at present, this is a relatively long-term thing, after all, there is competition in the market, competition will be estranged. But from the perspective of tripartite cooperation, it is a clear trend to weaken the estrangement. There are tens of thousands of Internet companies, which have also made some ecological cooperation a reality. Tencent, Jingdong and Suning ali are examples of ecological cooperation.
And, when free flow become unified standard, that is to say, the user is no longer with now so eager to avoid flow demand, after the Internet flow package will enter homogeneous phase, meanwhile, Internet companies and operators, are also constitute a huge free flow network of cooperation, such as the three carriers may and an Internet business cooperation at the same time, it also can form the ecology in the broadest sense of the term.
At the same time, driven by stream-free cooperation, Internet enterprises began to share user traffic, and users in the same ecosystem also began to partially converge in demand. Since users cannot only use the application of a certain Internet enterprise, the physical barrier between ecosystems still exists. In order to improve their service capabilities and continuously improve user experience, it is inevitable for enterprises to focus on partners outside the ecosystem. By then, the streaming free ecosystem will be bigger and more inclusive. Internet companies will enjoy it, operators will enjoy it, and the era of streaming free cooperation will not be far away.
Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110