On October 15, the "Star Daily" (Reporter Zhang Yang) recently, the issue of video platform compressing image quality and reducing video clarity, as revealed by well-known blogger @影视飓风 in a video, stirred up waves of discussion among netizens on the current issue of video quality decline.

"Why did the videos I watch suddenly become blurry?" "Why is the current 1080P video not as clear as the 720P videos on foreign video platforms?" Similar questions have sparked doubts among many netizens.

So, has the video quality really been lowered now? If so, why has this situation arisen? Is the video platform just trying to reduce costs?

▍Why does video quality decrease?

According to the explanation of @影视飓风, video platforms compress the uploaded video quality by reducing video bitrate, changing encoding formats, etc., in order to reduce traffic cost expenditures.

In fact, some video websites will dynamically adjust based on the number of video views. When the number of viewers is low, a higher bitrate will be provided. Once the video becomes popular and the number of viewers increases, the bitrate will be lowered to adjust the format to save on traffic expenses.

In order to minimize the impact of reduced clarity on the viewing experience, video websites will actively enhance the sharpness of videos, leading to deviations in the content of creators and even affecting the expression of creator's content.

To understand video clarity, you first need to understand what factors determine it.

Fen Miaoframe founder and CEO Cheng Gang analyzed in an interview with "Star Daily" reporters that a video is mainly composed of indicators such as resolution (such as common 720P/1080P/4K), bitrate, bit rate, frame rate, etc., these indicators can be combined with high or low values to form videos with different attributes. If you want to lower the video quality, it is actually done by choosing different encoding methods to lower the values of these indicators.

According to Cheng Gang, the most commonly used video encoding methods in the industry are H.264 and H.265 as well as the Apple iOS encoding system, because they have a wider range of compatible terminal devices and more stable effects. Currently, the most common one is still H.264.

Has the platform tampered with the video quality?

Returning to the core of this discussion, has the video platform lowered the video quality?

Regarding this issue, as of the press deadline, Tencent Video and Bilibili have not responded to "Star Daily". IQIYI customer service responded that they are temporarily unable to answer due to the complexity of the issue and will arrange for specialists to verify and provide accurate answers.

Cheng Gang told "Star Daily" reporters that higher quality means higher costs, and the video platform's video quality adjustment strategy is generally based on the balance of user experience, creator experience, and cost control. The platform needs to ensure that the uploaded content is of original quality, while also ensuring that all users can smoothly play videos. However, considering the diversity of different user terminal devices and network environments, the platform will automatically adjust various video parameters in different network environments through technical means to optimize the user experience.

The most commonly used strategy is to provide low bitrate, low resolution, and low bit rate video content to non-paying members, and vice versa for paying members.

There are doubts about the practice of dynamically adjusting the format based on the number of video views on video websites, known as 'source switching.' Cheng Gang stated that there is now the latest encoding technology that can reduce the code rate and costs without significantly affecting the clarity. All video platforms have the capability to use this new technology to solve the problem.

In addition, there are concerns among some consumers that even after recharging memberships on video platforms, the video quality may still be lowered. Cheng Gang mentioned that according to the domestic practice, resolution is generally used to show and describe the video playback quality. For example, promises made by 'You Ai Teng' to paying members are usually expressed as 'enjoy 4K, ultra-clear 4K,' which is a vague description.

"However, there are many factors that affect video quality, including resolution, bit rate, frame rate, etc., and the country has not set strict standards for video quality, let alone legal standards. Therefore, platforms have a large operating space. Although the resolution displayed to users is 4K, 1080P, the bit rate can still be compressed very low," said Cheng Gang.

High costs and difficulties in profitability dilemma.

Of course, behind the discussion of this topic, the more fundamental issue is the reflection of the current dilemma faced by domestic video platforms of high costs and low profitability.

One of the core costs of this event is broadband costs. As of December 2023, the scale of network audiovisual users in China reached 1.074 billion, with a 98.3% Internet user penetration rate. With user growth and increasing traffic scale, due to the close relationship between bandwidth usage, user viewing time, concurrent access, etc., video platforms have to pay more bandwidth fees to operators.

From publicly available data, bandwidth costs have always been a major cost expenditure for various video websites.

In 2020, iQIYI's expenditure on bandwidth costs was 2.4 billion yuan, while server and bandwidth costs have decreased since 2021 but still account for nearly 10%. Bilibili's bandwidth and server costs from 2018 to 2022 were 0.62 billion, 0.92 billion, 1.14 billion, 1.57 billion, 1.75 billion respectively, also accounting for about 10%.

An employee of a leading video platform told the Star Daily that as 5G is being promoted nationwide, operators also need to purchase expensive equipment, leading them to raise prices for corporate traffic, thus increasing the overall bandwidth operating costs of video websites. It is difficult for platforms to achieve a perfect balance in technology, cost, and user experience, so they can only pursue the most cost-effective solution, and reducing costs and increasing efficiency is the general trend.

In Cheng Gang's view, for there to be a positive relationship between the cost and user experience of a video platform, the most ideal scenario is for the platform's profitability to ensure continuous investment in infrastructure construction.

However, the reality now is that the vast majority of domestic video platforms have just crossed the threshold from losses to profits, or are still mired in losses.

Looking at the publicly available financial data, in 2023, iQiyi truly achieved profitability for the first time after more than a decade of continuous losses, and Kuaishou also just turned losses into profits in the same year. This limits video platforms from making more investments in costs.