Mango TV:Never Was and Never Will Be A “Porter”of TV Intellectual Property

Internet video industry faces much fiercer competition than ever， not only because it creates new portal for users and various large hardware producers start contending for internet video related “drawing room strategy”， but also， more impor- tantly， because the rise of the culture industry chain has come. Thereby， there stands two choices for many internet video corporations， one is limited to being the “porter” of domestic and overseas movies and television， and the other is making their own intellectual property （IP） which could realize the differentiation strategy of real developments.

Some interviews have been made to Mr Liu， Standing Vice CEO of Mango TV， to explore the deeper reasons why it is difficult for internet video websites to make profits as well as Mango TV`s commercial logics and operation models. It is noteworthy that Mango TV is becoming an essential part of selfmaking IP. It was founded in 2014 and enters the first layer with growth rate of more than tenfold. By the time of editing， totally 286 million people have installed Mango TV APP in their cell phones and daily active users exceeds 39 million. According to Mango TV CEO Mr Ding， it will become such an internet platform of healthy developments and profitable business models within three years.

“Cook leftovers” is the root of difficult profit-making in the internet video industry and there are no internet video websites that can realize profitability in real sense. But why？ It is really hard to gain profits through pure VIP video subscription and advertisements and reasons are simple. Firstly， the advertisement position ID is seriously undervalued； secondly， cost of copyrights is uncontrollable， which is completely separated from producing costs. Mango TV， since its launch， has been making PGC （Professionally-generated Content） as its assignments.

In terms of cost controls， what does Mango TV do and what else can be done？ Mr Liu said it is closely related with self-made IP. Once IP is made and gains attraction from users， advertisement pricing could be differentiated and in the meanwhile it excludes the risk of copyrights. To control cost and have a sustainable development is one very important sector of Mango TV.

People may consider that Mango TV is the official website of Hunan TV and it only plays TV programmes from Hunan TV. But actually， Mango TV only plays less than 40% of Hunan TV， no matter vaudevilles， TV serious or documentaries， the rest of over 60% is from purchases， cooperation， customization， and self-producing. This path started preparation in 2014， steadily progressed in 2015 and completed in Q1 of 2016； it has made Mango TV rank fifth and proves its feasibility.endprint

What challenges is the internet video industry facing from the pure“porter” to self-made IP？ And what specific conditions does it have to meet？ Mr Liu said the first issue is license. TV terminal refers to the programme play via internet transmission models， and the State Administration of Radio Film and Television （SARFT） needs to check this. Licenses have approved to totally 7 TVs， and Mango TV is one of them.

Behind the license approval， Mango TV has strong ability of internet con-tents check as its basic checking principles of vaudevilles are the same as that of Hunan TV. All the programmes produced by Mango TV conform to SARFT and meet all the requirements of internet website administration； in the meanwhile， it takes initiative in inviting Editorial Committee of Hunan Broadcasting System to assist in content check and it has the strictest check pro- cedures in the market.

Undoubtedly， Mango TV owns unique competitive edges as an early IP producer in the internet video industry， especially under the background of tightening state policy. However， just like two sides of one coin， it also faces challenges. One internet video observer expressed that Mango TV programmes should be more open， or else it couldn`t attract young users born after 1990. For the generation between 1990 and 2000， their outlook of value has changed a lot compared with the generation of 1980s， and programmes catering to the 1990s generation could propel better development.

All of this is closely related with mobile terminals. When mobile terminals become so important， competitors` disadvantages might be converted into advantages in certain sense. Both LeTV and QIY forestall other competitors in mobile terminals.

What Mango TV should bear in mind is that， apart from establishing its own platform of producing contents， it also needs to seek for more efficient cooperation with more content producers and stimulates more popular programmes with its system operating capability， data mining and its grasp of users.endprint