Technology

Content creation has seen immense growth in recent years, with a shift in focus from mainstream content providers such as traditional television studious to internet-era startups either seeking to expand their portfolios or seeking to increase premium user memberships through exclusive content introduction.

In America, this scene has been predominately owned by Amazon, Netflix and Hulu, introducing critically acclaimed titles such asThe Man in the High Castle,Orange Is the New BlackandThe HandmaidTale, respectively, with many other industry giants scrambling to catch up (with Apple already signing a deal with Steven Spielberg to produce anAmazing Stories-reboot, Facebook spending as much as $1 billion on originalcontent, Google announcingplansto potentially spend up to $3 million per drama episode and even Disney with their purportedstreaming service, among many others).

Similarly, in Chinagrowing television industry, a select few, namely Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, continue to dominate the marketplace in terms of original TV content production. However, the vast majority of Western consumers have never heard of these internet giants or their respective subsidiaries and series, although this is set to change very soon, particularly with Chinese content currently in the early stages of global distribution.

What distinguishes China from the rest of the Asian market

There are a variety of unique factors that distinguish China from other marketplaces around the globe, as well as in Asia. These factors include but are not limited to things such as increasing use of mobile devices for media consumption, increasing numbers in television consumption and a booming film/television industry primed for explosive growth.

According toeMarketer, Chinese adults will spend nearly three hours a day using their mobile devices, representing 41.6 percent of their total daily media time, with this same population spending nearly 40 percent of their daily media time specifically watching television. This heavy emphasis on mobile device usage, combined with an expected jump in digital video time in the next several years, creates a perfect environment ripe for increased video consumption by Chinagrowing population.

Furthermore, the Chinese television industry has experienced unprecedented amounts of growth in recent years. In fact, the Chinese television sector represents88 percentof the combined film and television industryeconomic contribution to China, beingvaluedat more than $35 billion dollars. Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) usage in China is also rapidly increasing,exceeding100 million users in 2017, further fueling growth in television content creation. Other indicators of Chinese TV industry growth include the December 2017 formation of the Chinese TV Drama Export Alliance, a conglomeration of Chinese entertainment studios aimed at growing the presence of the Chinese TV productions worldwide, as well as increasing Chinese-language content being acquired by popular internet video-streaming companies such asNetflix.

The Chinese TV content producing behemoths

Chinese internet conglomerate Baidu is one of the primary drivers of growth in terms of Chinese television content, particularly with its iQiyi video-steaming platform. Gaining enough traffic for a U.S.-based IPO raising more than$2.25 billion, iQiyi is one of Chinalargest and most popular video-streaming platforms, with more than 421 million monthly users and more than 126 million daily users. This high usage has allowed iQiyi to develop extremely popular original television content.

iQiyi has already developed TV hits such asRap of China,Street Dance of ChinaandHot Blood Dance Crew, three extremely popular reality series watched by millions of Chinese amidst agovernment banon hip-hop culture and tattoos on television. In fact, Western audiences may now begin to see these shows soon, particularly given a recently announcedpartnershipbetweenRap of Chinaand American hip-hop trio Migos.

Original content programming has also extended to scripted series, with detective dramas such asBurning IceandTientsin Mysticbeing renewed for second seasons while simultaneously beingpicked upby Netflix for American distribution just this year. Other extremely popular shows produced by iQiyi includeThe Lost Tomb,Evil MindsandUnforgiven, among countless others, with each of these shows being watched by millions of Chinese viewers. (Note:The Lost TombandEvil Mindshave since beencensoredby the Chinese government.)

Alibaba is another powerhouse driving growth within the Chinese TV content industry, with its Youku video-streaming service. Youku currently boastsmore than500 million unique users, along with a powerful distribution network that includes Youku-brandedhardwaresuch as tablets, routers and IPTV boxes. Youkuheavy daily presence in Chinese consumers& lives allows for Youku-produced original content to have a wide audience across China for distribution.

One of Youkumost popular series,Day and Night, partnered with Netflix fordistributionin late 2017, with this partnership being thefirst Chinese-language seriesto be distributed globally. Other popular content includes historical dramasThe Advisors AllianceandOh My General, as well as fantasy dramaRakshasa Street, based off of a popular comic. Youkuimmense popularity in both short video clips, as well as in original content, make it a leader in producing original Chinese television content.

Internet giant Tencent is a third organization driving television growth in terms of creating original content in China. With Tencent fame originating from the ever-popular WeChat platform, Tencent Video currentlyclaimsan average of more than 137 million daily active users, making Tencent-produced content important as this original content arms race develops.

Popular shows produced by Tencent Video include action-adventure dramaCandle in the Tomb, with a record 200 million views inone dayand billions of views since, as well as historical romanceRule the World, based off an already extremely popular book of thesame name. Tencent Video has even played a role in producing popular variety shows such asThe Tomorrow Children. Television series slated for Tencent Video production in the immediate futureincludeTV-adaptations of novelsThe Tibet Code,Mystery of the Antiques and mangaPrince of Tennis. Tencent has committed toinvestingin further original content production, growing its portfolio of television content in the years to come.

However, the Chinese market does not solely consist of productions by iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video. Popular content provider Sohu TV has also forayed into the original content sphere, producingpopular dramaIndelible Designation anddetective seriesMedical Examiner Dr. Qin,as well as attempting todevelopa Chinese version in a Saturday Night Live-style format.

Mango TV, another popular Chinese video platform, has also self-produced a variety of shows, including comedyFashion Riversand dramaGold Matchmaker, as well as an interactiveBig Brother-styled show calledPerfect Holiday. These two content providers, Sohu and Mango, and their respective offerings are simply additional examples of how original television content growth is playing a huge role in enhancing digital China.

Elsewhere in Asia…

However, China is not the only country that has invested significantly in original television content infrastructure (although it certainly is the largest). Other Asian countries have also taken a mobile-first approach to internet access, and, thus, also have rising rates of television viewership by mobile device.

In Thailand, LINE appLINE TV has dominated the mobile television landscape, launching a video-streaming service with original content developmentplansalready underway. In addition, LINE TV has already secured partnerships with local television production studios and channels, marking a shift from its roots as a streaming service akin to YouTube to one more similar to Netflix and Hulu.

In Indonesia, even transportation giant Go-Jek is entering the content creation landscape,announcinga content creation production company called Go-Studios to support their content subscription model named Go-Play. In fact, Go-Jek evenannounceda partnership with VICE Media to produce original content, in light of a successful collaboration set for debut in 2019, entitledWhen We Dance by Joko Anwar.

Implications of original content growth for startups

The growth of original content, particularly in China, has huge potential for other technologies such as virtual reality machines and artificial intelligence. With Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent making known investments in these specific industries, it would not be a far reach to see both hardware and software integration within a television program for individual home consumption. Such examples might include a virtual reality headset to view a characterperspective in a television series, or an artificial intelligence automatically suggesting a specific Halloween clothing outfit based off of a consumerpreference of television series.

These implications make the increase in Chinese original television content a milestone, emphasizing both the strength and reach of top Chinese internet conglomerates, as well as the growing Chinese television industry.

Conclusion

There is immense potential in the original TV content sphere, with this ecosystem growing increasingly large in parallel with the rate of television being watched on mobile devices in Asia. This has resulted in Chinatop internet conglomerates being forced to not only pay attention, but participate in the original content creation sphere, releasing high-quality episodic content in order to attract more viewers.

The release of online-exclusive series and their expanding Chinese audiences have grown to astronomic proportions, with hundreds of television shows being released yearly, with billions of views to match. Only time will tell if these Chinese dramas will achieve the same levels of popularity they enjoy at home, but for now, original Chinese television content is here to stay, and represents huge monetization potential for Chinese companies on a global scale.

The right music can make a boring photo or video epic, so Instagram is equipping users with a way to add popular songs to their Stories. TechCrunch had the scoop on the music featureprototype in early May, and now itlaunching to iOS and Android users in 6countries including, the U.S. Thanks to Facebookrecent deals with record labels, users will be able to choose from thousands of songs from artists includingBruno Mars, Dua Lipa, Calvin Harris and Guns N& Roses. The launch could make Instagram Stories more fun to post and watch in a way that copyrights won&t allow on Snapchat, while giving the app a way to compete with tween favorite Musical.ly.

And just a week after revealing its app has 1 billion monthly users, the company also announced today that Instagram Stories has 400 million daily users, up from 300 million in November and 250 million a year ago. That means Instagram Stories is growing about six times faster than Snapchatwhole app, which only added 13 million daily users over the six months of Q4 2017 and Q1 2018 to reach 191 million.

Snapchatgrowth rate fell to its slowest pace ever last quarter amidst a despised redesign, while Instagram Stories has steadily added unique and popular features like Highlights, Superzoom and resharing of public feed posts. Instagram said last September that it had 500 million total daily users, so itlikely that a majority of community is now hooked on the Stories format Snapchat invented.

Instagram Stories music

&Now you can add a soundtrack to your story that fits any moment and helps you express how you&re feeling,& Instagram writes. To access the new music feature, users will be able to choose a special song sticker after they shoot a photo or video. They can search for a specific song or artist, or browse by mood, genre or whatpopular. Once they select a song, they can pick the specific snippet they want to have accompany their content. Alternatively, iOS users can switch to the Music shutter mode in the Stories camera to pick a song before they capture a photo or video so they can sync up their actions to the music. That will come to Android eventually, and the whole feature will roll out to more countries soon following todaylaunch inAustralia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK and the U.S. [Correction: The feature is launch in version 51 of Instagram, not in 51 countries.]

When friends watch a music-equipped Story, the song will post automatically. They&ll also be able to tap on the sticker to see artist and song title info, but for now these stickers won&t link out to a musicianInstagram page or their presence on streaming services — though that would certainly be helpful. I also suggest that Instagram should create deeplinks that artists can share with their fans that automatically opens the Stories camera with that songsticker added.

Iteasy to imagine users lip syncing to their favorite jams, adding clashing background music for comedic effect or earnestly trying to compose something emotionally powerful. Suddenly people ‘Gramming from home will be a new way to entertain themselves and their pals.

Instagram tells me that musicians and rights holders will be compensated for the use of their songs, but wouldn&t specify how those payments would work. Facebook secured deals with all the major record labels and many independents to pave the way for this feature. Facebook has since announced that users can also add copyrighted music soundtracks to videos on their own before uploading and they wouldn&t be taken down like before. Italso started testing a Lip Sync Live feature with a collection of chart-topping hits.

The big question will be whether the &thousands& of songs available through todaylaunch will cover what most users want to hear, otherwise they might just be disappointed. With a few enhancements and a widened catalog, Instagram Music could become a powerful way for artists to go viral. All those shaky phone camera clips are going to start looking more like indie music videos you&ll watch til the end.

Regardless of what you may think of Facebook as a platform, they run a massive operation, and when you reach their level of scale you have to get more creative in how you handle every aspect of your computing environment.

Engineers quickly reach the limits of human ability to track information, to the point that checking logs and analytics becomes impractical and unwieldy on a system running thousands of services. This is a perfect scenario to implement machine learning, and that is precisely what Facebook has done.

The company published a blog post today about a self-tuning system they have dubbed Spiral. This is pretty nifty, and what it does is essentially flip the idea of system tuning on its head. Instead of looking at some data and coding what you want the system to do, you teach the system the right way to do it and it does it for you, using the massive stream of data to continually teach the machine learning models how to push the systems to be ever better.

In the blog post, the Spiral team described it this way: &Instead of looking at charts and logs produced by the system to verify correct and efficient operation, engineers now express what it means for a system to operate correctly and efficiently in code. Today, rather than specify how to compute correct responses to requests, our engineers encode the means of providing feedback to a self-tuning system.&

They say that coding in this way is akin to declarative code, like using SQL statements to tell the database what you want it to do with the data, but the act of applying that concept to systems is not a simple matter.

&Spiral uses machine learning to create data-driven and reactive heuristics for resource-constrained real-time services. The system allows for much faster development and hands-free maintenance of those services, compared with the hand-coded alternative,& the Spiral team wrote in the blog post.

If you consider the sheer number of services running on Facebook, and the number of users trying to interact with those services at any given time, it required sophisticated automation, and that is what Spiral is providing.

The system takes the log data and processes it through Spiral, which is connected with just a few lines of code. It then sends commands back to the server based on the declarative coding statements written by the team. To ensure those commands are always being fine-tuned, at the same time, the data gets sent from the server to a model for further adjustment in a lovely virtuous cycle. This process can be applied locally or globally.

The tool was developed by the team operating in Boston, and is only available internally inside Facebook. It took lots of engineering to make it happen, the kind of scope that only Facebook could apply to a problem like this (mostly because Facebook is one of the few companies that would actually have a problem like this).