A person's growth process is inseparable from learning knowledge and improving skills, and our exploration on the road to knowledge has never stopped. Since ancient times, human beings have made progress in the pursuit of knowledge, and how to acquire knowledge more efficiently is an eternal topic in the process of human development.
In our traditional impression, learning knowledge is boring and static. However, in the era of the information explosion, with access to tools becoming more and more convenient, knowledge is no longer just Chinese, mathematics, and English in schools, nor is it just scripted in textbooks. Knowledge is becoming ubiquitous.
The "blue ocean" of paying for knowledge is expanding at a dizzying speed
The phenomenon of knowledge payment mainly refers to the phenomenon that the recipient of knowledge pays money for the knowledge they read. Knowledge payment allows the acquirer of knowledge to indirectly remunerate the disseminators and screeners of knowledge, rather than allowing those who participate in the knowledge dissemination chain to obtain benefits through traffic or advertising.
Since the public account "Luo Ji Siwei" launched a paid membership system in 2013, the term "knowledge payment" has jumped into the public's field of vision. In the following 10 years, the "blue ocean" of my country's paid knowledge industry has expanded at a dizzying speed. 2016 has been called "the first year of paid knowledge". As different models of paid-for-knowledge products such as "Get APP", "Zhihu Live" and "Fence" have begun to emerge in the market, paying for knowledge has become an important development trend. Data shows that in 2021, the market size of my country's knowledge payment industry will exceed 67.5 billion yuan, with nearly 500 million users, and the growth rate will remain above 40% for a long time. Under the influence of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many people are passively stuck at home and have nothing to do, and their motivation to learn by themselves has also increased. Under this opportunity, the knowledge payment industry relying on the Internet seems to usher in a "little golden period" of development.
Whether due to curiosity or the need for professional development, people always want to learn more, but what hinders them is often the time cost of acquiring knowledge and the barriers to entry. The rise of knowledge payment is based on its characteristics of fragmentation, entertainment and interaction. Product makers “soften” relatively “hard” knowledge by combining video, audio, and picture presentations, enabling users to easily use fragmented time to learn knowledge.
With the convenience of the mobile Internet and the surging opportunity of all kinds of information in the Internet age, on the one hand, knowledge payment helps people make use of their spare time, accumulate sand into a tower, and integrate learning into life, so as to achieve "lifelong learning". On the other hand, users have strong demand for high-quality information, "information noise reduction" has become the consensus of brands and consumers, and knowledge sharing platforms have also become an important channel for consumers to make decisions.
Under such phenomena, major platforms scramble to deploy "knowledge zones" and compete for top scholars and experts, and payment for formal knowledge has gradually become highly "elite".
A new wave of lifelong education, or an "IQ tax" that sells anxiety?
On the other side of the knowledge payment boom, doubts about this paid industry have never stopped. Many people suspect that paying for knowledge is "cutting leeks", and some scholars believe that related companies are actually selling "placebo" disguised as knowledge by creating anxiety.
Recently, the industry leader in the field of knowledge payment "Thinking Creation" IPO review process was suspended again. This is the third time that "Thinking Creation" has suspended its listing review due to expired financial information. Previously, Tong Zhe, the founder of the well-known knowledge payment institution "Wanmen University", lost contact, and the mobile application and official website operated by the company could not be logged in and used normally.
This series of events has pushed knowledge payment to the forefront. One can’t help but ask: Is paying for knowledge a new wave to expand lifelong education, or an “IQ tax” that sells anxiety?
Although the original intention of paying for knowledge is good, from the perspective of the effect of people's learning, it is indeed not satisfactory. According to the statistics of "Get", the average completion rate of various paid courses on the platform is less than 35%, and the completion rate of courses in the field of natural sciences is only 8%. To a certain extent, this data is also a microcosm of the knowledge payment market.
After the early market dividends subsided, the low repurchase rate and the loss of users have become a huge problem for the knowledge payment platform. Many users have not completed or even opened the course after buying it, indicating that they are not really buying knowledge, but are paying to ease the knowledge anxiety that keeps emerging in their hearts. "Buying is equal to knowing".
In addition, discontinuation may also be a way for users to express dissatisfaction with the poor quality of paid content. Some studies have pointed out that among consumers who have paid for knowledge, less than 30% of users expressed satisfaction with the experience, and about 50% said that the experience was average, which means that there are many shoddy paid knowledge products on the market that make consumers dissatisfied. These products are either filled with content, have no "dry goods", or are scripted and lack guidance.
After getting the APP, Dong Chenyu, a lecturer at the School of Journalism, Renmin University of China, a communication course, a management course, Ning Xiangdong, a professor at the School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, and Zhang Xiaoyan, a deputy dean of the PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University. Although these contents are of high value, the threshold is relatively high, and it is difficult to meet the demand for unlimited and low-cost supply of public knowledge.
This is also what the paid-for-knowledge industry must think about after the “outdoor period”: when the content production of various topics is close to saturation, what is the core competitiveness of paid-for-knowledge?
Short videos accelerate the advent of the era of inclusive knowledge
Today, the rise of short videos is breaking the traditional pyramid structure of knowledge dissemination, and knowledge content has gained unprecedented fluidity. People only need to spend a few percent of the offline price or even pay to obtain professional knowledge.
Influenced by the emergence of the national learning boom and the spread of knowledge on Internet platforms in a more valuable way, in recent years, major short video platforms such as Station B, Douyin, and Kuaishou have increased the layout of knowledge content. More importantly, the epidemic has completely stimulated users' attention and demand for knowledge-based video content.
On the one hand, it benefits from the more intimate and convenient knowledge dissemination on short videos, which also makes it easier for people to reach them. On the other hand, the main body of knowledge dissemination has shifted from "that expert on the pyramid" to "everyone who is wise in the network node". The beneficiaries of the knowledge dissemination were able to descend into the more sturdy population. Everyone can be a producer, transmitter and beneficiary of knowledge.
In the process of the rise of knowledge content, the definition of "teacher" has also quietly changed. On Kuaishou, economist Fu Peng keeps up with the trend, hoping to increase the proportion of financial professionals through short video science popularization, and hope that through some financial cognition science popularization, the common people's awareness of preventing financial scams can be improved; Dai Shuxi, a professor of physics On the Internet, he made popular science videos, introducing physics knowledge and the latest domestic scientific research achievements; Shen Yifei, an associate professor of sociology at Fudan University, used vivid narration and contagious language in the live broadcast room to popularize how we should face love and marriage. intimacy.
Short videos and live broadcasts have broken the barriers between online and offline, so that knowledge is no longer limited to dozens of offline classrooms, and at the same time, it has achieved a balance between professionalism and popularity in the combination of knowledge and publicity.
The demand for high-quality knowledge videos is not only the needs of users, but also the needs of industry upgrading. From the 1.0 era of knowledge acquisition to the 2.0 era, knowledge can be spread equally and efficiently, and the threshold of knowledge acquisition has gradually lowered. With the continuous development of digital information technology, knowledge is no longer exclusive to privilege. With its unique advantages, short video platforms are gradually becoming an important source of knowledge inclusiveness.
Whether choosing elite paid knowledge or paying attention to short knowledge videos, there will always be people who find "pearls" in them. This "pearl" may be the first step to realize the ideal of life, it may be a tailwind in the journey of growth, or it may be a burst of ecstasy after learning new knowledge. No matter what the choice is, we must remember that growth or learning requires our own inner motivation, and choosing the most suitable learning method is the biggest driving force to achieve "lifelong learning".
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