Can video ringtones become a phenomenal application in the 5G era?

The latest data: The number of video ringtone users has exceeded 400 million, and the number of video views exceeds 20 billion per month.

So, in the 5G era, how far can video ringback tone go? Is it the next wave of "traffic gold mine" for operators?

Video ringback tone realizes the intercommunication of three networks

The three major operators started commercial use of video ringback tone at different times. China Mobile was the first to launch the video ringback tone service in 2018. As of now, the scale of China Mobile's video ringback tone users has reached 220 million; China Unicom's video ringback tone was put into trial commercial use in November 2019. On May 17, 2020, it was announced that the number of video ringback tone users exceeded 10 million, and the official commercial use was launched nationwide. On December 22, 2020, China Unicom's video ringback tone was officially commercialized for 162 days, and the scale of users exceeded 100 million; China Telecom was the last to commercialize it, and on May 16, 2020, it launched the 5G video ringback tone online for commercial use.

Of course, the biggest problem facing us is: interoperability.

In August this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom to carry out IMS network interconnection work, and completed the deployment of IMS network interconnection across the national mobile communications network in August 2021, officially providing services to users.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that after the IMS networks are interconnected, the inter-network communication experience of 4G/5G users will be significantly improved: first, it will effectively reduce the inter-network call delay and reduce the waiting time for users to communicate across operators; second, it will significantly improve the quality of inter-network calls, with higher audio restoration and more realistic sounds heard by users; third, it will support richer multimedia applications, and users can use services such as video calls and video ringback tones across operators.

At this point, video ringback tones have achieved interoperability among three networks.

Three Hurdles

However, we should pay attention to three points: First, you can see the video ringback tone only after a voice call is established, but the current development trend is that the proportion of operators' voice business is continuously shrinking. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: In the first three quarters, the three major operators completed fixed voice and mobile voice business revenues of 17.4 billion yuan and 88.5 billion yuan, down 7.4% and 5.9% year-on-year respectively, accounting for 9.6% of the total telecommunications business revenue, a year-on-year decrease of 1.5%.

Secondly, part of the motivation for users is that it is free. If we get income from individual users, I am afraid that we cannot continue to develop video ringback tone. So, what market should we explore to increase revenue?

Third, the terminal device must support it. It is reported that Android phones launched in 2018 and later can basically support the video ringback tone function, and Apple's related models are also implementing the adaptation support for video ringback tone.

In particular, on June 24, 2020, at the 22nd plenary meeting of the Mobile Internet Application and Terminal Technology Working Committee (TC11) of the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom jointly proposed that the industry standard "Technical Requirements and Test Methods for Mobile Smart Terminals to Support Video Ringback Tones" was officially reviewed and successfully approved. This is the first terminal technology industry standard that the industry has welcomed since China Mobile's video ringback tone service was first launched globally in 2018.

Content is continuous motivation

In addition to tariffs and terminal support, the attractiveness of content is also the driving force behind users' use of video ringtones, and the three major operators are each looking for explosive points to "ignite".

Since China Mobile started commercial exploration relatively early, it has laid out various aspects of the ecosystem. In 2019, China Mobile, Migu, Xinhuanet, People's Daily Online, CCTV.com, Huawei, Samsung and other units jointly initiated the establishment of the 5G+ Video Ringback Tone Industry Alliance. Recently, the alliance has also released the "Video Ringback Tone Content Ecosystem Co-construction Plan", which will mainly target members of the 5G+ Video Ringback Tone Industry Alliance and partners in various industries. The content covers cooperation model innovation, IP co-creation and upgrading, support and incubation of original content authors, commercial realization model innovation, terminal cross-border win-win, etc., to comprehensively carry out value co-creation.

Especially for the innovation of commercial realization model, video ringtones will empower the Internet head platforms in both directions to build a new channel for commercial realization. At present, video ringtones have cooperated with more than 100 Internet head platforms such as Douyin, Tencent Video, Youku Video, Mango TV, Bilibili, etc., covering long, medium and short head Internet video platforms, and building Internet exclusive subscription services from the dimensions of featured content services and member rights and interests coordination. It is expected that the number of subscribers will exceed 10 million and the industry revenue will exceed 1 billion. In terms of content, in cooperation with S-level IPs of various platforms such as "Brothers Who Break Through the Thorns", "Actors Please Take Your Place", "Douluo Continent", and "Creation Camp 2020", the exposure of video ringtone content has exceeded 5 billion. In the future, video ringtones will continue to deepen the "IP and Creation" model and evolve to a composite multi-dimensional cooperation model of "content + product + rights and interests".

China Mobile even supports and incubates original content creators. The 5G+ Video Ringback Tone Industry Alliance will invest hundreds of millions of resources to create an original incubation "shell-breaking platform" by launching an "N+1+1+N" incentive and support plan: hundreds of billions of video ringback tone playbacks, tens of billions of MCN traffic, and nearly 10,000 offline hall touchpoints "N-fold" traffic support; "1-way" growth assistance such as mentor training plans and 1 million+ music copyright support; "100 million+" cash subsidies such as original participation incentives, multi-level usage incentives, and special incentives for theme solicitation; "N billion+" CP income sharing such as long-term profit-sharing mechanisms and industry resource sharing to develop more outstanding independent video creators.

In addition, in order to better integrate into the ecological co-creation, the latest content standards for video ringtones have also been released. Different video ringtone versions of 9 seconds "highlight moment", 15 seconds "golden time", and 45 seconds "network carrying" are designed specifically for call scenarios to meet users' full-scene audio-visual entertainment experience from "seeing to showing".

China Unicom has introduced short videos into the ringback tone setting stage, encouraging users to use their creativity to DIY their own exclusive video ringback tone and create a unique new call interaction experience.

By deepening product innovation and IP operations, China Unicom is accelerating the exploration of the infinite possibilities of video ringtones.

We are currently gradually launching a number of innovative product applications such as calling ringback tone, HD ringback tone, hotline ringback tone, AI scenario ringback tone, media ringback tone, etc., to fully meet the diversified needs of different users such as individuals, government agencies, and corporate units, and bring users more innovative, more convenient, and more immersive product applications and service experience.

China Telecom AiMusic, together with Huawei and iFlytek, has officially established the "Video Ringback Tone Innovation Laboratory". In particular, the "AI Video Ringback Tone" has been developed for scenarios such as long-term unanswered calls. Users can set up video ringback tones for corresponding scenarios in advance through convenient channels such as the AiMusic APP, so that lively and interesting AI video ringback tones can replace boring and monotonous mechanical prompts. At the same time, in the form of a real-time status wall, effective information can be delivered to callers at any time. Not only that, the AI ​​smart ringback tone assistant can also collect the intentions of hung up, missed, and unanswered calls in advance while preventing harassment and fraudulent calls, so as to prevent users from missing important calls.

It also launched the "Meiling Master" plan, through copyright cooperation with content producers such as short video influencers, live broadcast managers, corporate institutions, etc., to collect excellent works, cut in from the upstream, and build a content production platform.

According to a report released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, from January to September 2021, domestic 5G mobile phone shipments reached 183 million units, a year-on-year increase of 70.4%, accounting for 73.8% of mobile phone shipments in the same period. At the same time, as of September this year, the user penetration rates of 5G packages of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom were 42.08%, 34.66% and 43.40% respectively, and 5G has entered a period of rapid development.

So, can video ringback tone become a phenomenal application in the 5G era?