Data analysis of the impact of the suspension of rewards on WeChat public platform on iOS on self-media income

The iOS version of WeChat official account canceled the reward function (the reason is obvious), how big is the impact? Here we can use data to speak, and the conclusion is that although the reward plate is not large, it is a considerable income for many official accounts.

Since the emergence of Weibo, WeChat and other similar public account platforms, self-media has become a profession for many people, with many working full-time or part-time. As a profession, it is natural to pursue profit, and in order to retain these self-media content creators, public platforms also use various commercial means to increase the income of self-media, such as advertising, e-commerce, payment, rewards, etc.

According to a survey by Penguin Think Tank, 88.8% of self-media’s income comes mainly from advertising, 14.3% from reward income, and others include e-commerce income and membership subscriptions, which account for 9.1% and 4.5% respectively.

Data source: Penguin Intelligence (2016.12)

Compared with paid services and rewards, self-media prefer advertising models and e-commerce. Nearly 60% choose automatic platform matching of advertisements, 15.7% expect to realize profits through e-commerce, 12.3% choose native advertising, only 9.5% choose paid services, and the rest are 2.7%.

Data source: Penguin Intelligence (2016.12)

This also echoes the user-side survey, which shows that in fact only 9% of users have rewarded the authors of information.

Data source: Penguin Intelligence (2016.12)

WeChat public accounts, as the most influential content platform, have the highest user reward ratio, at 59%. WeChat public accounts have stopped iOS users from rewarding content, and iOS devices account for nearly 30% of active smartphone users in China. Obviously, this is bad news for public accounts that rely on user rewards. Considering that Apple users have a higher ability to pay, I am afraid that this action will reduce the reward income of many public accounts by half.

Data source: Penguin Intelligence (2016.12)

So how big is the tipping economy? Obviously, users are not as enthusiastic about tipping news content as they are about tipping beautiful anchors. Users may tip beautiful anchors hundreds or even tens of thousands of dollars, but for a poor scholar who never stops writing, he may only tip a few cents or a dollar. Weibo once disclosed a data that in 2016, Weibo self-media's tipping income was about 44 million yuan, paid reading was 28 million yuan, and advertising revenue was 128 million yuan. Obviously, the tipping income is far less than that of beautiful anchors, and is also lower than advertising income, but for Weibo self-media, it is also a big piece. I believe that for some public accounts, this is also a big income. How much income do you think WeChat tips can bring?