Wang Wei: Tencent Video is more than just Tencent Video.

In early October, Tencent's unique "Tencent IP Film and Television Concert" made "#鹅厂IP集体复工#" trend on Weibo. 

In mid-September, Tencent's rose was still in full bloom. At that time, "The Story of the Rose," which had ended for several months, was broadcast on VTV Channel 1, the national television station of Vietnam, which is also the most important television channel in Vietnam. Soon after, the relevant topic once again trended on Weibo; In early September, Tencent Video's "Amazing Night of Comedy" ended, achieving an in-platform popularity of over 25,000, ranking first among all comedy variety shows on the platform. 

And these are just a microcosm of Tencent Video's achievements this year. 

So far this year, Tencent has continuously presented hit works such as "Blossoms," "The Legend of Shen Li," "Joy of Life Season 2," "The Story of the Rose," "Amazing Night of Comedy," "Talk Show and Its Friends," and almost every month there is a hit. While finding hit works may be difficult to predict, Tencent Video has embarked on its own path of creating high-quality drama and variety shows, ensuring that customers no longer feel like they are blindly choosing. 

With high-quality content as the cornerstone, Tencent Video has also achieved fruitful results in monetization. 

Tencent's financial report states that in Q2, the number of paying members of Tencent Video reached 117 million. Video accounts and long videos, as the two driving forces, jointly promoted the growth of revenue in the second quarter. 

Brands that have collaborated with Tencent Video have also reaped significant benefits. Within one month of the broadcast of "Blossoms," the mobile exposure of Pechoin exceeded 24.4 billion, and the e-commerce search rate increased by 74%; In "The Story of the Rose," the IP-customized milk card became the top-selling milk card for the brand, and so on. 

Wang Wei, Vice President of Tencent Online Video

Behind the numbers lies a fascinating story. At the scene of Tencent Video's 2025 V Vision Conference, we met Wang Wei, Vice President of Tencent Online Video, and had a chat with him about content IP, commercialization, and Tencent Video.

"Tencent Video Is More Than Just Tencent Video"

The path of creating high-quality content was not initially a consensus among all long-video platforms. For Tencent Video, the more well-known transformation was a few years ago when Ma Huateng stated directly at an internal meeting, "We would rather have only one high-quality drama per month." 

Three or four years have passed since that meeting, and Tencent Video has fully embarked on the path of creating high-quality content. From casting a wide net to focusing on excellence, the content quality of the platform has been improving. Under the basic logic of creating high-quality content, Tencent Video has gradually formed a systematic content production process. 

As the person in charge of Tencent Video's commercialization, Wang Wei is very familiar with this systematic process. Specifically, in terms of content themes, the platform needs to control the emotional value of the public from the very beginning of selecting topics, and integrate the refined content into specific and different subdivided tracks; In the specific creation process, the audience's emotions should be released; In the promotion and distribution stage, Tencent Video can leverage the advantages of the entire Tencent ecosystem to maximize the marketing effect. 

Under this process, the Tencent ecosystem plays a crucial role and forms the differentiated competitiveness of Tencent Video. 

When mentioning partners such as Yuewen Group and New Classics Media, Wang Wei's tone is very familiar, "Whether it is Yuewen, New Classics, or Tencent Video, we are all relatively close colleagues, and it is easier and more efficient to achieve unity in the overall linkage." 

This efficient linkage makes it easier to increase the probability of creating hit works. The hit works "Joy of Life Season 2" and "The Story of the Rose" since 2024 are good evidence of this. 

However, ensuring the stability of high-quality or even hit content is not completely equivalent to ensuring the maximization of the marketing benefits for brand partners, and the diverse product matrix behind Tencent Video can bridge this gap. 

2024 is a big year for sports, and the integration of the Tencent ecosystem is more evident in the grand event of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Within the Tencent ecosystem, eight platforms including Tencent Video and Tencent Sports joined forces to maximize the heat of the Olympic events beyond the regular broadcasting of competitions and news. Brands like Yili and Mengniu have also achieved exposure in the hundreds of millions through collaborations with many content IPs within the Tencent ecosystem, giving the brands a national-level popularity. 

"Tencent Video Is More Than Just Tencent Video," Wang Wei always keeps this statement in mind. Tencent Video, which has integrated the Tencent ecosystem, possesses a full-link marketing capability from content production to content marketing. 

Especially in marketing channels, according to the needs of different brand customers, Tencent Video can provide marketing paths for mini-programs and video accounts through video accounts. In the collaboration between Chunzhen and "Love You Seven Lives," Tencent Video launched a 1V4 voting form within the platform based on the characteristics of the drama series, while binding the welfare mechanism of the brand's mini-program, thereby triggering the audience's willingness to interact and their favorable perception of the brand. 

In addition to the guarantee of content quality and the Tencent ecosystem, the thinking entry point for Tencent Video to provide marketing services for brands is also constantly evolving.

Becoming "Business Partners" with Brand Partners

In 1979, China's first television advertisement was born. "Shen Gui Yang Rong Jiu" aired a 95-second commercial on Shanghai Television Station at a cost of 300 yuan. That might be the origin of the commercialization of long videos in China. This business has endured but not without difficulties. 

The clock has ticked to 2024. For brand partners, it is more important to better maximize the potential of IP, have a clearer conversion path, and see more definite marketing results. 

In this regard, the path chosen by Tencent Video is: from "the commercial operation of IP" to "embedding IP into the brand content asset operation". 

This statement might sound a bit convoluted. Wang Wei further explains, "Traditionally, everyone thinks that IP belongs to the platform, but in the future, we hope that this IP belongs to the customers, or at least is shared by the platform and the customers. This is a relatively big change for us." IP is one of the core competencies of Tencent Video, but it is giving up the space for IP creation. 

"We are not the Party A and Party B, but 'partners' to achieve the same marketing goal." This is a statement that Wang Wei often mentions. He also adds, "In the past, we might directly package a resource package for the customer, including several options like ABCD, and ask if they want to buy it. Now, we come up with an IP and see what we can do together." 

Precisely because of the change in the subjectivity of IP, Tencent Video can provide more customized services for more brand users, allowing for a deeper integration of the brand and IP to achieve a better reach effect. 

How can Pechoin's face cream and a costume drama be integrated? When asked how to provide customized services for brands, this is the first case that Wang Wei recalls.

At that time, the team met with the client, had in-depth discussions, and combined with the classic character Wu Zhu in "Joy of Life," and gave the answer to the above question.

In "Joy of Life," Wu Zhu is set to never age, which happens to align with the anti-wrinkle and beauty care product efficacy that Pechoin focuses on. Starting from this point, Tencent Video and the brand jointly created a short film. In the short film, the shadow master in the drama realizes the wish of fighting with the idol Wu Zhu, and while seeking the martial arts secret manual, unexpectedly discovers Wu Zhu's "secret of youthful appearance". At this point, the plot cleverly responds to the plot梗 in "Joy of Life Season 1" where Haitang Duoduo first met Wu Zhu and asked why his skin is so smooth. Through this content linkage between Season 1 and Season 2 and character linkage, the Pechoin product is introduced. This series of surprising content designs immediately sparked enthusiastic discussions among drama fans upon its release.

When it comes to the effects achieved for customers, Wang Wei talks non-stop. He mentioned that during the broadcast of "Joy of Life Season 2", Dong'e Ejiao Xiaojin Tiao became a new product that made a strong debut on Tmall 618, with sales increasing by more than three times; Meituan Group Buying, which sponsored "Amazing Night of Comedy," and Golden Deer, which sponsored "The Story of the Rose," have also become deeply rooted in people's hearts along with the popularity of the drama and variety show, and so on. 

Among them, the collaboration between Meituan Group Buying and "Amazing Night of Comedy" can be regarded as the "reference answer" for "marketing growing within the content". "Amazing Night of Comedy" is undoubtedly one of the most popular variety shows this year, and works such as "The World of Skits" and "Eighty-One Difficulties" have even become the social currency of young people. Just as rare as the success of the program is the success of the brand. Meituan Group Buying naturally integrates the brand information into the entire competition stage of the program. Taking the appropriate sense of presence as the premise, it creates a "work box" that suits the audience's taste and Meituan Group Buying's business scenarios, turning brand implantation into a catalyst for laughter points, releasing a happy mood while driving brand exposure, proving that "making users love watching advertisements" is not impossible. 

Outside the main program, Meituan Group Buying and the program also fully cooperate in areas such as live broadcasts and short videos. It is believed that as long as one has watched "Amazing Night of Comedy," they will have a memory of the Meituan Group Buying brand that is cleverly integrated with comedy works. Just like in the first episode of the program, Ma Dong involuntarily evaluated the performance of one of the groups of contestants - "I think Meituan Group Buying has made it this year."

In addition to providing customized services for brands, Tencent Video is also trying to extend and amplify the value of an IP as much as possible. 

On the evening of October 6, the Asian Contents Awards ceremony of the Busan International Film Festival was held, and Hu Ge won the "Best Actor" for "Blossoms". In addition, on various social platforms, Miss Wang and Bao are still being widely discussed. 

"Blossoms" is one of Tencent Video's hit dramas last year. At the end of this year, on the occasion of the first anniversary of "Blossoms", Tencent Video is expected to launch a series of IP derivative content around the first anniversary of "Blossoms". Tencent and the production team will create small IPs from the big IP to extend the life cycle of an IP as much as possible. 

Tencent Video's own marketing strategy is also being updated and iterated, and offline marketing planning has been added. 

Wang Wei said that at last year's Tencent V Vision Conference, Tencent Video emphasized IP + marketing, with content as the core, while following the logic of "one horizontal and one vertical" - "horizontal" refers to the marketing cycle throughout the broadcast of popular dramas, and "vertical" refers to the marketing channels not only being Tencent Video, but also integrating the entire Tencent ecosystem. 

Now, on the basis of "one horizontal and one vertical", Tencent Video has extended its marketing reach to offline, thereby attracting more B-end partners for brand partners. 

For example, since this year, in the collaboration around the IP of "Joy of Life Season 2", Tencent Video and Mengniu have created more than ten drama screening and star meeting events to empower offline distributors and effectively boost the brand's business. 

Within the IP, Tencent Video's commercialization has also strengthened the development and proportion of creative advertisements, developing innovative resources such as bullet screen and interactive types, such as the Blossoms New Year bullet screen product or the Joy of Life celebration moment, effectively increasing the interaction between the audience and the IP and the brand.

The Value of IP Has Not Been Fully Released

In the past two years, Tencent Video's ability to create hit works and its marketing ability have been verified, but long-video platforms still face challenges. 

According to QuestMobile data, in the first half of 2024, 17.1% of the dairy industry's advertising was invested in long videos, while the proportion in the same period last year was 24.5% - more dairy enterprises have chosen to advertise on short videos, which is a facet of the current competition in the video platform market. 

Long-video platforms, which rely heavily on advertising as an important source of revenue, are facing difficulties with the saturation of the advertising industry's growth and fierce competition from short-video platforms represented by Douyin and Kuaishou. 

As the person in charge of the platform's commercialization, Wang Wei can clearly sense this competition but does not feel anxious. He firmly believes that the value of long videos is being rediscovered, and still believes that the long-video industry has the potential for continuous growth: "The value of IP marketing has not been fully explored, and the empowerment of IP for customer marketing has not been released." 

Although some consumer electronics brands that originally favored long-video platforms have turned their attention to short-video platforms due to the rise of live-streaming e-commerce. However, low prices are a double-edged sword for live-streaming e-commerce. 

Wang Wei said, "Extreme channel competition has also caused considerable losses to the brand." Although live-streaming带货 promotes sales, it has a negative impact on the brand's revenue and the value of the brand itself due to the excessive rolling of channel prices. 

This year, we have also seen many brands returning. 

Tencent Video has become a more competitive marketing field because it can create hit IPs that can undertake and amplify the brand's influence, create customized marketing plans with brand partners, adapt to the brand image, and more easily move