Short Essay 2_Zhou Fengning

Freeminum of Jianying（剪映）

Jianying launched the mobile version in May 2019. In September of the same year, the "same style as the cut" function was launched, greatly lowering the threshold for video creation and attracting many creators to enter the short-video industry. In 2020, Jianying continued to exert efforts. In July, the Pad version was launched, realizing dual-terminal interoperability and cloud resource management and collaboration. In September, the "Creation Academy" was launched, providing a large number of course teachings and successfully upgrading from a tool to a creative ecosystem. In November, the Mac version was launched with built-in advanced functions. In February 2021, the Windows version was launched, realizing full-terminal coverage and serving professional users. In September, the first creation conference was held. In 2022, the Pad version was launched again in April to support more creative scenarios. In November, the enterprise version was launched to better serve enterprise users. At the same time, the web version was launched to realize online editing.

Jianying' s free basic version attracts a large number of users with its rich functions. Whether it is video cropping, splicing, adding filters, special effects and subtitles, users can easily create high-quality videos. The simple and intuitive interface enables people without professional video editing experience to get started quickly, covering a wide range of groups such as ordinary consumers, social media enthusiasts and small creators. Moreover, the continuously launched new functions and special effects maintain the freshness and competitiveness of the software, allowing free users to continuously experience the fun brought by innovation.

Jianying's paid advanced version provides more value for professional creators and business users who have higher requirements for video quality. More filters and special effects, higher video resolution and professional color adjustment tools meet their pursuit of professional quality. The ad removal function creates a refreshing editing environment for users who use the software for video editing for a long time and improves work efficiency. Priority support enables users to quickly solve problems when they encounter them.

Though Jianying made great progress recently with the development of We Media, there are still some problems that need to be solved.

Weak copyright awarenessn of users: In China, users generally have weak copyright awareness, which brings certain challenges to the free and paid models of Jianying. For some templates or audios that require payment, some users may choose improper means such as screen recording and illegal recording to obtain resources to meet their creative needs. This behavior not only seriously infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of creators, but also greatly damages the authority of the Jianying platform. At the same time, this also weakens the membership rights of the paid version, making those users who are willing to pay for high-quality content feel unfair. If this situation continues, it will affect the enthusiasm of creators on the Jianying platform, lead to a reduction in high-quality content, and then affect the ecological development of the entire platform.

Insufficient attractiveness of paid functions: If the advanced functions provided by the paid version of Jianying are not unique or practical enough, it is difficult to attract users to choose to pay for upgrades. For example, some advanced filters and special effects may also find similar effects in other free software, which makes users feel that there is no need to pay for the paid version of Jianying. For ordinary users, they may not use these advanced functions often. Or they may only need to use audio and other resources once in a while, but they must purchase at least one month's membership rights. Such cost performance is very low, which greatly weakens the payment enthusiasm of ordinary users. In addition, if the material library of the paid version cannot be updated quickly and cannot meet the constantly changing needs of users, users will also lose interest in the paid version.

Competition from similar software: At present, the competition in the video editing software market is extremely fierce, and other software may also adopt a freemium model or provide more competitive free functions. For Jianying, this is undoubtedly a huge challenge. Users of Jianying may be lost due to the attractiveness of other software, especially those users who are sensitive to price. For example, Bilibili's Bcut may be more suitable for the editing style of anime and comics. The Wink software has a picture quality restoration function. The Kuaiying software has rich filters. The DuJia video editor has AI editing. In this competitive environment, Jianying needs to continuously innovate and optimize its free and paid functions and improve user experience to maintain its competitiveness in the market.