147: Chapter 147 Douyin Launches Live Streaming Function, Officially Entering the Live Streaming Market

As the news spread that Douyin had enabled its live streaming feature, all the mainstream live streaming platforms were once again in a state of panic.

Traditional live streaming platforms like Maoya Live, Dou-sha Live, and Xingqiu Live cried out that they were doomed!

They were already feeling miserable enough after having a significant portion of their traffic siphoned away by Panda Live.

Now, they were facing major operational difficulties, each one just barely hanging on, hoping to survive a little longer.

And now, along came Douyin!

Douyin already had massive traffic on its own, and now that it was enabling live streaming and wanting a slice of the live streaming market, they felt like they were better off dead.

Bai Jingqing held shares in Maoya Live and Dou-sha Live and could be considered one of their own, so they really couldn't fathom why he would stab them in the back.

Both Maoya Live and Dou-sha Live were backed by Tencent, so naturally, Tencent was feeling quite anxious at this moment.

They were already finding it difficult to cope with just Panda Live; if Douyin were to join the fray, those two platforms might as well close up shop!

Therefore, in a desperate move, Tencent made a truly disgusting decision: to revoke some of the game live streaming licenses for the Douyin platform!

This included the hit mobile game honor of kings this year, as well as the PC game league of legends, which had a long history and remained extremely popular.

This was the first time Tencent had targeted a live streaming platform in this manner; one had to realize that even Panda Live had licenses for Tencent games like honor of kings and league of legends.

It seemed that Tencent regarded Douyin as its greatest enemy!

Upon learning this news, Zhang Yiming, the current head of Douyin, was initially very dejected and felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.

If even these two games with the largest player bases couldn't be streamed, then it would be very difficult for Douyin Live to get off the ground!

After all, looking at the current market, basically all live streaming platforms started out by doing game live streaming, and the vast majority of their streamers and users were centered around these two games.

However, he felt he couldn't solve this problem on his own, so he went to talk to Boss Bai, hoping Boss Bai would negotiate with Tencent to have them reopen the live streaming licenses for these two games.

However, Bai Jingqing remained unimpressed: "Yiming, you are still a bit young, and you are thinking too simply."

Bai Jingqing patted Zhang Yiming on the shoulder as he said this.

This made Zhang Yiming feel quite uncomfortable, because the person calling him young was clearly even younger than him.

However, Boss Bai had almost never made a wrong decision, so he knew there must be some other perspective he hadn't considered.

He was long accustomed to being crushed by the dimensional superiority of this young man before him, so he spoke humbly: "Yiming is dull-witted; please enlighten me, Boss Bai."

Bai Jingqing narrowed his eyes: "Think about which major live streaming platforms are currently in the country?"

Before deciding to launch the live streaming feature on Douyin, Zhang Yiming had already conducted research and could be said to have a thorough understanding of the current landscape of the domestic live streaming industry.

He immediately replied: "The current major live streaming platforms in the country are Panda Live, which holds a 53% market share; Dou-sha Live, which holds a 20% market share; and Maoya Live, which holds a 17% market share."

"Xingqiu Live is currently in decline and is fading out of the mainstream view. With many popular streamers jumping ship, it might not be long before it faces bankruptcy."

"I think if we want to do live streaming on Douyin, the first thing we should do is snatch up all of Xingqiu Live's current market share, so I believe game live streaming is a very important part of that."

Bai Jingqing shook his head: "That idea is fine, but it doesn't stand high enough. Yiming, you need to think more!"

"Just as you said, the current mainstream live streaming platforms are Panda Live, Maoya Live, and Dou-sha Live. Think about it, what do they have in common?"

"They all basically started out by doing game live streaming, right? While it's true that focusing on game live streaming is the safest path for a live streaming platform to grow big and strong, we are better off not taking a path where we are controlled by others!"

Zhang Yiming suddenly realized: "In other words, they really did start out with games, and it's basically just those few mainstream games, all of which are monopolized by a few major domestic internet giants."

"If any of them fall out with these internet giants, and the giants revoke their game licenses, then they can basically prepare to go under."

Bai Jingqing nodded: "That's the logic, but take Maoya Live and Dou-sha Live, for example; their major shareholder is Tencent, so it's unlikely they will go under."

"But we are different. The major shareholder behind Douyin is Huayao. No matter what, even if Huayao and Tencent are in different tracks, they are essentially in a competitive relationship, so Tencent certainly doesn't want to see us succeed."

"Under these circumstances, if we want to do live streaming, we have to carve out a different path; we can't rely solely on game live streaming to make money. It can be said that not focusing the live streaming content on games is a strategy, but also a move out of necessity."

Zhang Yiming nodded: "I understand the logic, but if we don't rely on game live streaming, can we make money?"

Bai Jingqing smiled and said: "It's well worth a try. Anyone can start a stream; give the power of choice to the users, and trust that users can create miracles!"

"They will research the various tracks themselves and will compete to find the profitable ones. After all, Douyin has massive traffic, and people will definitely rack their brains to think of all sorts of ways to make money."

"As I said, as long as you have enough traffic, you can do whatever you want."

Zhang Yiming carefully pondered the meaning behind Bai Jingqing's words, and finally said respectfully: "I have learned much." He then went back to his work.

It could be said that no one could stop the pace of Huayao's rise. On the surface, Huayao and Ideal were still evenly matched competitors.

Although Huayao currently had the largest market share and held the short video platform Douyin, Ideal still had a significant share and also held the extremely popular Panda Live platform.

Now that Douyin could also host live streams, Panda Live followed suit very quickly, announcing that Panda Live would vigorously develop its gaming ecosystem, allowing players to upload their own videos on the Panda Live software and play them in the same short video playback format as Douyin.

In other words, Panda Live had also started doing short videos, and the two had completed a mutual convergence, once again becoming competitors.

From this perspective, the two seemed to have the same development strategy, and it was really hard to say who would come out on top.

But in reality, the pace of Huayao's advancement was already unstoppable!