He Xiaowu has always had a calm mind and a clear plan for his life, from studying for MBA in Canada to working for a top international enterprise, to deciding to return to China to set up Scienjoy. Under his leadership, Scienjoy landed on NASDAQ in May 2020 with a lot of cutting-edge Internet technology application experience and outstanding achievements, achieving a milestone leap. Clear positioning, unprecedented innovation, action after planning and far-reaching stability-years of deep cultivation made Mr. He a leading figure in the industry and win the title of Outstanding Entrepreneur in the 2020 Haichuang Model Awards Ceremony. Scienjoy was also selected as "Outstanding Contribution Enterprise for the 25th Anniversary of the Construction of Pioneer Park for Overseas Students in China" in 2019.
From a pan-life era symbolized by single shows and games to the all-inclusive "live+" era, the continuous iteration in the live broadcast field is accompanied by the increasingly fierce competition. Data show that the number of users in China's online live broadcast industry has reached 587 million in 2020, and it is expected to rise to 635 million and 660 million in 2021 and 2022 respectively. As one of the earliest enterprises to enter the live broadcast industry, Scienjoy has worked hard for 7 years. Mr. He, the founder and CEO of the company, has contributed great efforts to making the company from nothing to a new star in the industry. In the so-called "Red Sea Era", the whole live broadcast industry is looking for a break and a new life. A few days ago, Mr. He talked freely about his prospects for the future of the company and his thoughts on the live broadcast industry.
Face up to difficulties and embrace opportunities
Modesty, prudence, and clear organization are the first impressions Mr. He left with people. When talking about the experience of starting a business since returning to China, Mr. He showed his tenacity: "I remember from 2012 to 2013, to save costs, I moved the office for six times and sometimes even borrowed space from friends for free. Sometimes I used offices with particularly low rents in the middle of nowhere to cut cost. The purpose was to use money in need." In the end, Mr. He decided to settle the enterprise in the Overseas Students Pioneer Park in Haidian, Beijing, which integrated a variety of resources to provide multi-faceted entrepreneurial services in the development of different stages of Scienjoy, helping achieve its progress.
Difficulties and hardships make you succeed. After struggling through hard time, Scienjoy developed steadily and was successfully listed on NASDAQ. On May 26, 2021, Scienjoy announced its financial results for the first quarter, with revenue and non-GAAP net profit far exceeding expectations, whose year-on-year growth are 68.8% and 121.8% respectively. In terms of the company's achievements, Mr. He said: "The net profit exceeded our expectations, which was due to the increasing number and proportion of paying users. In the future, Scienjoy will continue to improve R&D and user acquisition capabilities, improve the profit system, and expand market share at home and abroad. " As an entrepreneur who majors in science and engineering and has oversea study and working experience, Mr. He has his own in-depth insights and operational methodology for the mobile live broadcast industry, especially in data mining and technological innovation. Confronted with highly homogeneous live broadcast products, to seize the opportunity of the live broadcast industry in the 5G era, Scienjoy has invested a lot of money in technology research and development, accumulated a solid technical foundation, and attached great importance to the application of cutting-edge technologies in the product side.
All the above strategies not only enable Scienjoy to quickly identify new opportunities and trends, but also help it quickly adapt and launch new products, consolidate, and strengthen the "Second Life World" using virtual reality, and become a leader in the field of live entertainment combined with the new mode of mobile entertainment. According to Mr. He’s plan, Scienjoy will focus on live broadcast, enter more fields, expand its industry coverage and enhance its business ability. Meanwhile, the company will increase investment and build up upstream and downstream industries such as MCN, empower the company and the industry in terms of content creativity and production as well as streamer training, attract more technical talents, increase investment in R&D, seize the development opportunity of digital economy, expand market share through global layout, and tap new growth opportunities to generate long-term shareholder value.
Seize the advantage and keep moving forward
With capital emerging into the market, it is necessary to constantly expand advantages and ensure users' stickiness to survive in the highly competitive live broadcast field. After throughout analysis and judgment, Mr. He believes that in current competitive situation, Scienjoy should continue to strengthen its advantages in content, technology, and operation. In terms of content, Scienjoy insists on differentiated content output. It launches the second life world of virtual reality in the live broadcast platform, which enables users to get more extraordinary entertainment experience and strengthens the social interaction between users and streamers. Besides, many PGC contents such as "beautiful voice" and "you draw, I guess" are made by Scienjoy, bringing users a novel viewing experience and a close sense of belonging with wonderful live programs and rich interactive links. In terms of technology, Scienjoy strengthens the application of cutting-edge technology in the live broadcast context. At present, cutting-edge technologies such as AI, AR, and big data mining have been applied to the core business of Scienjoy. The use of AI and AR contributes to a richer content scene and higher user participation. Integration of real videos and virtual contents presents fans with a more streamlined and natural interface, with more creativity, immersion, and interest. "The use of technology can enhance product interaction, enable users to participate more actively in the live broadcast by interacting with streamers, and upgrade users to be participants rather than mere bystanders in the live broadcast."
In terms of operation, Scienjoy takes the lead in introducing gamification thinking into the live broadcast context, creating common topics between anchors and users through gamification, building strong social ties and realizing emotional links. At present, Scienjoy has adopted a multi-platform development strategy. It owns Showself, Lehitv, Haixiutv, BeeLive and Believe (the domestic edition), and effectively distinguishes people in different sections through the platform matrix to achieve better traffic matching between users and streamers; At the same time, the development of multi-platform also helps Scienjoy develop quicker, acquire users faster and expand more "live broadcast+"sections. In Mr. He's view, with the innovation of the live broadcast industry, a single live broadcast module can no longer meet the needs of users, nor can it match the development of the company. Mr. He said: "With the change of user habits, the drive of technology and the formation of new contents and new formats, the role of live broadcast will be redefined. It will be deeply integrated into various fields, becoming the standard of various industries, and even becoming the infrastructure." Based on this, Scienjoy has extended resources in a myriad of industrial chains including medical beauty and e-commerce. Also, it actively arranged business in content creation and streamer training, reflecting the whole ecology of mobile live broadcast with the business logic of "people-goods-field" and realizing the ecological closed loop of efficient output and self-growth. By being based on the current situation and focusing on the future, Scienjoy can explore new growth areas and create an ecological closed loop of live broadcast through the whole industrial chain layout and the accumulation and forward-looking research of high-tech such as data mining, AI\AR and VR, to constantly create new value for users and streamers.
The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility
With the development and application of 5G, AI, big data and other technologies, the tide of digital economy has not only been witnessed in cities, but also has gained a quicker developing speed in vast rural areas. Live broadcast has become an important structural force to integrate into the society. AI, AR, 5G and other technologies give live broadcast strong social value and innovative significance, which makes "live broadcast+agriculture" play an important role in promoting the development of new industries, new formats, and new business models in rural areas, and brings more benefits to farmers. Contributing to society and feeding back the countryside are what Mr. He has been thinking and doing as an entrepreneur. After the rural revitalization strategy was put forward, Scienjoy actively participated and contributed. At the beginning of this year, it launched the activity called "Welcome Beautiful Countryside and Moderately Prosperous Society", which covered all its live broadcast platforms, inviting all the streamers and users through multiple channels to participate in. Scienjoy depicted the rural revitalization exemplified by industrial revitalization, talent revitalization, cultural revitalization, ecological revitalization, and organizational revitalization for netizens by means of live broadcast, video, text, and pictures. In this April, Scienjoy launched the activities in the beautiful countryside in the homestay in Yingpan Village, Yanqing, Beijing to celebrate the happy life at the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC with immersive drama performance and revolutionary classic works. This cross-border live broadcast was a new attempt of Scienjoy to help rural revitalization and promote "live broadcast+homestay". Subsequently, Scienjoy participated in a series activity of "Wall Painting Boosts Rural Revitalization" with "Beautiful Village Wall Painting in the Spring of Aershan" as the main content, which reflected the rural area in the form of live broadcast. At the same time, bearing the main theme of the activity, Scienjoy donated publicity equipment and live broadcast equipment to the local area to better help publicize and display the beauty of local countryside. The donation has played an important role in stimulating the consumption upgrade of rural culture, promoting rural entrepreneurship and reemployment, and boosting the optimization of rural economic structure. Moreover, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, Scienjoy launched a series activity entitled "Centennial Celebration of the Founding of the CPC with Red Seal", in which "Centennial Singing" was collected from all streamers, who expressed their love for the CPC, all the people and a better life with songs. The deep feeling in their songs is moving. Mr. He firmly stated that it is because of the support from national policies that an entrepreneur as him could finally guide the enterprise to the current level. When living in an era of prosperity, people should make good use of it and never forget missions and responsibilities. Scienjoy will remember the tenet and provide more positive live content for the public. Keep abreast of the times. With the development of enterprises and in-depth understanding of the live broadcast industry, Mr. He has further determined his choice. Through his unremitting efforts, he will bring brighter development prospects for Scienjoy and better spiritual nutrition for the vast number of users.