On April 20, Eastern time, Naifei's share price fell 35.12%, and its market value evaporated nearly $54.4 billion, equivalent to 350 billion yuan. Some analysts believe that Naifei's share price fell sharply because it bid farewell to high growth. According to the financial report released by Netflix, the number of streaming media paying users decreased by 200000 in the first quarter. The decrease of paying users of the company is related to the continuous rise of prices. For example, in the first quarter of this year, Netflix launched a price increase strategy in the North American market. Radar finance noted that the domestic long video platform is also trying to increase the price strategy. On April 20, Tencent adjusted the prices of Tencent video VIP and super film and television VIP members. It is reported that this round of price increases ranged from 5 yuan to 20 yuan. After the price increase, "Tencent video VIP continuous package" increased from the original 218 yuan to 238 yuan, "Tencent video VIP continuous monthly package", "Tencent video VIP annual card" and "super film and television VIP continuous monthly package" increased by 5 yuan respectively. Tencent video is not the only video platform to raise the price. Iqiyi and mango TV also raised the member price one after another at the end of 2021. In the view of the outside world, membership and advertising are the main sources of income for long video. With the continuous decline of advertising, increasing member income and reducing content cost have become one of the few choices for long video platforms. Youku, which has not raised its price for the time being, recently offered the operation of "inviting five friends on the basis of VIP members to unlock the latest two episodes". When it is considered unable to "rob money", it can only make an article on "rob people". In recent years, video VIP users have experienced the experience of "cutting a knife" after going through advanced on-demand, paid gags and rising prices. In this regard, it has been commented that under the fancy operation of the platform, the three words VIP have become the object of "wool gathering" of the video platform from the past noble identity symbol. However, after canceling the advance on demand, can the price increase save the video? From the financial report, after the continuous rise of member prices, it seems that the loss momentum of major video websites has not been curbed. Many people in the industry worry that if the price increase strategy is not used properly, it may force away users who do not just need to chase the drama, and the loss will be more serious. In addition, the long video platform, which is deeply mired in losses, has recently adjusted the billing mode, becoming the main means to further control costs in addition to price increases. From "robbing money" to "robbing people" After the price increase notice on April 9, Tencent video officially opened the price adjustment of VIP and super film and television VIP members on April 20. Radar finance and economics noted that in this price increase measure, the monthly package for VIP selected by users was increased by 5 yuan, up 25% from the previous 20 yuan per month. In addition, the monthly price of super film and television VIP was adjusted from 30 yuan to 35 yuan, and the price of Tencent video VIP annual card was adjusted from 253 yuan to 258 yuan. Tencent video VIP monthly card and super film VIP monthly card, quarterly card, annual card and continuous annual package price remain unchanged. The price adjustment starts from 0:00 on April 20, 2022. Users who have been in the automatic renewal status of Tencent video VIP or super film and television VIP before this time will enjoy the renewal price discount before the adjustment until October 23, 2022 if they do not change the current automatic renewal status. To make complaints about this, netizens have launched Tucao, "even what The Legend of Zhen Huan has not been crazy about?" "If you don't buy it, take the money from members to make bad films and exclusive films for fans. If you don't have enough money, you can buy it." "If I don't continue, I have few video resources. Why do I continue?" It is understood that the last member price adjustment of Tencent video occurred in April a year ago. On April 10, 2021, Tencent video announced to adjust the price of VIP members. Radar finance found that before the first price increase in 2021, the monthly subscription fee of Tencent video members was 15 yuan, but in about a year, the fee rose from 15 yuan to 20 yuan and then to 25 yuan today. Similarly, members of consecutive package seasons have increased from 45 yuan before the price increase last year to 58 yuan, and then to 68 yuan at present; The number of consecutive annual package members has increased from 178 yuan before the price increase last year to 218 yuan, and then to 238 yuan at present. Other discontinuous members also increased in varying degrees. In fact, looking at the whole long video industry, the "rising voice" has continued in recent years. In November 2020, iqiyi took the lead in breaking the silence of video member prices for many years and officially announced the adjustment of member prices. Iqiyi adjusted its members to six grades, with the price ranging from the lowest 19 yuan of continuous monthly package to 68 yuan of continuous quarterly card, and then to the highest 248 yuan of annual card. According to the calculation that the continuous monthly card is 12 yuan, the continuous quarterly card is 58 yuan and the continuous annual card is 178 yuan before the adjustment, the increase range is between 17.2% and 58.3%. By the end of 2021, various platforms have followed up and started raising prices again. In mid December 2021, iqiyi updated the subscription price of gold VIP members. The price of ordinary users of monthly card increased from 25 yuan to 30 yuan, and the price of continuous monthly package increased from 19 yuan to 22 yuan, with price increases of 20% and 16% respectively. At the end of December 2021, the price of mango TV members increased by 1 yuan to 20 yuan. On February 1 this year, Migu video also adjusted the prices of Migu video Diamond members and pass through tickets. Among them, the price increase of diamond member annual card was the highest among all platforms, rising from 175 yuan to 218 yuan, an increase of nearly 25%. In this regard, Yuan Shuai, the relevant person in charge of the China Cultural Management Association, believes that "domestic video platforms need to buy a large number of copyrights every year. The high procurement cost makes the realization environment of the platform worse and worse. In order to survive, raising the price is an inevitable choice." However, Youku video, which has rarely heard the price rise, has found another way. It is reported that this time, Youku is in line with pinduoduo. In the independent play "my name is Zhao Jiadi", for VIP users, Youku has opened a new experience of "inviting five friends and unlocking the plot in advance", and each invitee can only help once during the event. Subsequently, the official customer service replied that the "invite friends to help" activity is limited to episodes 23 and 24, and the corresponding activities have not been launched in other episodes. But this also means that you need to invite different friends to help you watch each episode in advance, and you need to invite 10 friends after watching 2 episodes. In view of the fact that Youku's new operation with the help of the series is very similar to pinduoduo's "cutting a knife", kuduoduo is called "robbing people" by netizens. Some commentators also pointed out that there is no essential difference between letting members pay or pulling friends in the way of "first look". They are all on-demand broadcasts that have been intensively called before. However, Youku's innovative payment model is not so. According to media reports, the previously popular "mountain and river order" has made two versions of the ending, one is a sad positive and the other is a happy "3 yuan payment". After the finale, Youku also launched the exclusive unpublished gags [Langji Jianghu] series, which is updated once a day, a total of 7 episodes. Only 6 minutes of GAGs, 1 yuan per episode. Double edged sword effect of price rise The inventory of the long video's "wool picking" history for VIP users can be described as various. In the past, VIP members could watch movies on the online video platform for free, while ordinary members needed to pay for watching. Only some popular Hollywood blockbusters such as Avengers 4 and sea king needed extra payment from VIP members. Under the pay mode of "the first member of the world in 2019" and "the first member of the comedy, but pay for the first time in 2019" and "the first member of the world in 2019, choose the pay mode of" flying ". Moreover, even if users bought it, they only had the right to watch it for two days. Therefore, it triggered great controversy at that time whether it was worth spending money to watch domestic films on the Internet. This is also the first time aiyouteng has tried to charge VIP users twice. In August 2019, the new payment mode "advance on demand" was born, and the fire's "statement order" became the first water test advance on demand series. VIP users can unlock new episodes in advance through secondary payment (3 yuan per episode). According to media statistics, Tencent video recorded more than 75 million yuan on the same day. In December 2019, the popular drama "Celebrating more years" was popular in Tencent and iqiyi. The two platforms opened the advance on-demand service, and paid another 50 yuan on the basis of members to unlock the contents of 6 episodes in advance. At the initial stage of the "advance on demand" mechanism, the market did not set off too many boycotts, because most of the target audience of the "petition order" are members of the rice circle, and have been used to the consumption of "krypton gold". However, Wu Shengwei, a lawyer of Shanghai zhengce law firm, sued Beijing iqiyi Technology Co., Ltd. to the Beijing Internet court because he encountered "bad experience advertising" and "advanced on-demand" charges while watching "Qingnian". After the second instance, iqiyi was sentenced to compensate the plaintiff Wu Shengwei for the loss of 1500 yuan in notarization fees and provide the plaintiff with the VIP membership rights and interests originally enjoyed by the plaintiff for 15 consecutive days. In September 2021, the "advance on demand" of the famous video platform of the people's network, the professionals interviewed in the article said that the mode of automatic renewal and "advance on demand" is not desirable, which is contrary to relevant laws and regulations and business ethics. On October 4 of that year, iqiyi, Tencent and Youku issued a statement to cancel the advanced on-demand service of the series. After cutting down the "advance demand" this way of making money, adjusting the price of VIP becomes the common choice of all platforms. From the perspective of revenue, price increase can bring visible benefits to the platform. Take Tencent video as an example. According to the annual report of Tencent holdings, as of December 31, 2021, the number of paid members of Tencent video increased by 1% year-on-year to 124 million, ranking first in the number of paid members in the domestic market. According to the latest annual card member price increase of 5 yuan, the 124 million paying members of Tencent video can bring a new income of 620 million yuan per month, and earn an additional 7.44 billion yuan a year. However, at the same time, the negative effects of round after round of price increases have already appeared. The most obvious cost is the loss of users. According to the data, the number of paid members of Tencent video decreased by 5 million compared with 129 million in the third quarter of 2021. In addition, according to iqiyi's financial report, iqiyi paid 97 million users in the fourth quarter of 2022, a decrease of 7.7 million month on month. Although the decline in the number of members cannot be directly related to the price increase, the price increase will undoubtedly affect the willingness of members to renew. Some netizens said, "I don't object to the price increase, but I hate the lack of good content". In the long run, users will continue to pay for membership fees only if the platform provides content that matches the price. What else can I do for a long video? Loss seems to be the label aiyouteng can't get rid of. Iqiyi's financial report shows that in fiscal year 2021, the company's total revenue was 30.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3%, and the operating loss of non GAAP financial indicators was 3 billion yuan. Tencent admitted in its financial report that Tencent video will alleviate the loss of the video platform by reducing costs. As for Youku, another head video website, according to the latest data of Alibaba's financial report, the adjusted EBITA of digital media and entertainment in fiscal year 2021 was 6.118 billion and that in fiscal year 2020 was 11.446 billion. According to the data reported by the economic daily, aiyouteng burned out more than 100 billion yuan in ten years, and there is still no profit expectation so far. At present, aiyouteng's top priority is to move closer to profitability. In addition to Tencent video taking measures to optimize costs and reduce financial losses, iqiyi CEO also set "break even" as the operation goal for the first time. Radar finance noted that after layoffs, business contraction and price increases, the main long video platforms have recently adjusted the billing mode to "cut" their partners. Recently, iqiyi announced that,