Research On Development Strategy Of Youku's Paid Membership Business Model

The three largest domestic Internet video companies(Youku Video,iQiyi,and Tencent Video)successively launched their paid VIP membership service in 2011 and 2012.However,nowadays the entire video industry has stepped into a bottleneck stage of stagnant in membership scale and slower growth rate in income after ten years of development.As the earliest founded and most typical video platform in China,Youku has been working hard to explore new business opportunities of growth.This article analysed five profit models of video businesses in general and investigated the origin,development process,internal and external conditions of the paid membership business mode.At the same time,this article dug deep into Youku's paid subscribe-based value chain and every element and stakeholder of paid membership ecosystem.In the value chain of Youku's subscribe-based membership service,video platform,member platform,and VIP users are three key modules.Among them,the membership platform is the determining factor of commercial profit.The core elements of the paid membership ecosystem include:member brands,members' products and prices,and comprehensive experience of member privileges.The different strategies of these core elements determine the differentiated experience of VIP users.This article summarized the main problems that Youku's paid membership model facing based on the existing investigation and membership income calculation model.Last but not least,this article proposed suggestions on the development strategy and optimization of Youku's paid membership model from five major dimensions including expanding the incremental market,content attractiveness,interest attractiveness,matching of VIP products and needs,and existing member user operation,with the purpose of providing reference for Youku's further membership growth.