Alibaba and Tencent, the two Internet overlords, have also formed their own pan-entertainment ecology, and almost all the popular cultural and entertainment industries in recent years, such as online games, live broadcasting, animation, online novels and online dramas, have been acquired by them. The difference is that Tencent uses IEG to develop pan-entertainment, while Ali takes charge of the bureau with big entertainment.
Take a closer look, Tencent IEG bright surface put many hidden dangers
Tencent IEG owns four entity businesses, namely Tencent Game, Tencent Literature, Tencent Film and Tencent Animation. These four businesses rely on each other to form an overall industrial chain from creative IP to realization. On the surface, Tencent has the ability to achieve large-scale commercial output, but a closer look, there are many hidden dangers on the brilliant surface.
Firstly, the IP creative team collected by Tencent Literature has not been integrated into Tencent corporate culture, and is easily lost from Tencent system. On the one hand, Tencent is currently relying on IP creative teams that use high prices to retain super traffic, so these IP creative teams are vulnerable to poaching by other platforms offering higher prices. Tencent, on the other hand, the mode of operation of literary web sites easily be replicated, the starting point of its Chinese website attract readers is to perfect the system of welfare, if appear similar to the media mode, through the construction of mobile terminal platform, similar to WeChat products such as form, more great spirit level the authors will develop its own IP and choose to fly alone. So Tencent’s top priority is not just how to attract more novice authors and retain the master writers, but also how to keep their real income under its wing.
Second, although Tencent has a complete ecological chain, the commercial liquidity of IP needs to be improved. In particular, the confusion of film and television adaptation rights leads to content and traffic damage, as well as IP development mistakes and so on. Take the film adapted from The Tomb Raiders as an example. The original novel of the film already has huge fan traffic, and it also invited a new generation of super fans such as Lu Han to its platform. As a result, the film with an investment of only 100 million yuan has become a huge success at the box office. However, due to the huge gap between the characters and the content of the original work, a large number of fans of the original work changed from very excited to extremely disappointed. Such a huge gap made the fans’ resistance to the product adapted from the original work even stronger, which made the IP with huge development value fall to the bottom and lost the opportunity of follow-up second and third development.
Third, the lack of original vitality, lack of depth and can continue to explore IP. Although Tencent Literature has a large number of literary resources, its content is also highly homogeneous, and it lacks IP that is truly valuable to develop. However, literary resources can not be deposited in a day or two, because first, good creativity needs more profound writing skills to polish; Second, the small writers are not famous enough, and their creativity is difficult to be discovered and appreciated. Third, the profit model of web articles has great defects. Most authors can make money by copying the model, but it is difficult for innovative works to make profits in a short period of time, resulting in the lack of original vitality.
There are also some problems under the mature ecology of Ali entertainment
Tencent said finished to see Ali, and Tencent’s play is different, he is the traffic distribution of the road.
Alibaba Entertainment adopts the mode of creating content ecology by leading a series of professional teams on the basis of the three core flow platforms with the largest number of users. Ali is quite skilled in the promotion of reproduction products and the release and profit of IP products, but there are also many problems in the process of development.
First, whether Ali can turn IP into an industrial chain is unknown. For Alibaba, which has chosen to build its game and movie IP industry through acquisition, the development of games is just starting, and it remains to be seen whether it can shake Tencent’s game market. In addition, Alibaba’s ability to play the commercial value of IP needs to be improved. For example, films with hot IP changes such as “Three Lives Three Times Ten Miles Of Peach Blossom” earned enough box office but failed to open the market. For Ali, which has many IP resources, it is a challenge to maximize the commercial value of IP and quickly integrate into the industrial chain.
Secondly, The absolute advantage of Ali is that it has a massive database which can be used for user portraits, hobbies and so on. Its APP has been doing data cross-reuse and generated certain value. But that does not meet the cultural ecological resources distribution and distribution, to say the only when ali applications of big data can truly achieve entertainment and business integration, ali large recreational moat is complete set up, and during that time ali big cultural conflict of each plate can afford to secure development variables is very big still.
Third, Ali has a short entry time and less resources than Tencent. Ali’s entertainment direction is too broad, which leads to its IP polishing is not deep enough. Alibaba has lost its first-mover advantage, so whether it can grow quickly and catch up with Tencent is the key at this stage. And at present, ali in addition to the pressure of their own conditions, there are external pressure from Tencent layout. It’s a competition for time and resources, and alibaba is struggling.
From the above analysis, neither Alibaba nor Tencent has a complete content ecology that can be replenished and recycled by itself. Tencent’s four major businesses are still in the state of independent operation, and Alibaba’s ecological chain also needs resource integration. On the way to generate super IP, Alibaba and Tencent still spend a lot of time and resources to adapt their industries, which is a long process.
How does Ali and Tencent play turn super IP?
IP literally means intellectual property rights. After the baptism of commerce and capital, IP can be understood as cultural products that generate commercial value at multiple levels. Super IP can be likened to a bellwether, driving the development of games, movies, music, theme parks and peripheral areas.
The value of super IP can be interpreted in three ways:
First, commercial liquidity ability
In the movie, in May 2016, the “iron man” movie box office income reached $318.4 million in the United States, global sales reached $585.2 million, through saved was on the verge of bankruptcy, other movies like captain America, iron man, thor series adapted from flood gateway IP 20 films, grossed over $5 billion in the United States, The global box office took in more than 12 billion dollars.
In terms of peripheral content, the box office of Star Wars: The Rise of the Force exceeded 2 billion yuan, including BB-8 robot, Star Wars special jacket, Star Wars sandals, and even the modification of star taxis in cooperation with taxi companies. The profits of Star Wars synchronous peripheral products are even higher than the box office, reaching 3 billion to 5 billion dollars.
On the theme park front, Marvel’s Shanghai Disneyland, which opened in China in 2016, saw more than 4 million visitors in the first four months of the year, with the park Posting $5.5 billion in revenue in its first full quarter. In the theme park, tourists are willing to experience a large number of scenes in comics, as well as many high-tech experiences, which improve the experience level of tourists and increase their return rate. Compared with last year, Disney saw a 5% increase in average customer spending, leading to a certain decline in visitor numbers, but the opening of Shanghai Disneyland boosted overall visitor numbers by 7%. The commercial value of IP lies in delivering high-quality content while driving the development of surrounding economy. Peripheral economic development will feed IP, increase its influence, resulting in a win-win situation. In this mutually beneficial mode will form a closed ecological business chain mode.
Second, a strong country exports its values
Take Disney as an example, most of its animations and superhero stories have a strong American culture behind them. During world War II, Hitler formulated the barbarosse Plan to invade the Soviet Union. Before attacking the Soviet Union, Hitler had occupied 14 countries in Europe and turned Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia into his vassal states. At that time, Captain America, a superhero representing the United States, was born. Captain America severely beat Hitler on the cover of the first issue. When Captain America launched an independent cartoon, captain America, full of Americanism, was immediately welcomed by the public.
The pricing power of culture is the most valuable and the foundation of a great power. China, at its peak, exported Chinese characters and other cultures to neighboring Korea and Japan. After becoming the world’s largest superpower, the United States has been exporting its culture.
Third, the precise control of human nature
Behind every superhero IP, hiding the weakness of human nature and sparkle, super IP is accurate operation these psychological, let more ordinary people can see their own shadow on a superhero, increase the sense to get the largest number of ordinary people chase after hold in both hands and support, to give the audience a kind of positive energy values. For example, in the iron Man series movies, Tony, the protagonist, has gone through ups and downs in his life from a playboy to a man who keeps growing and making progress in thinking and becomes a man who protects his lover and has a sense of responsibility. In the process of growing up with the main character, the Iron Man series also gained more fans and achieved unexpected huge success.
Disney, Marvel and other classic super IP provide us with a lot of models and skills to learn, but to build China’s super IP still needs to follow China’s national conditions.
On the one hand, it is the policy atmosphere. IP itself is a multi-cultural content carrier with communication effect. At the present stage, under the strategic guidance of “One Belt and One Road”, IP-led cultural exchange can better let Chinese brands go abroad and go to the world. On the other hand, in this era when China pays more and more attention to intellectual property rights, the PROTECTION mechanism of IP is gradually improved, and the development prospect is bright.
At the present stage, the export of Chinese network literature is in full swing and unstoppable. The fertile soil of The Times is also cultivating a number of enterprises producing high-quality content, which sows the seeds for the birth of Entertainment and culture giants in China.
It can be said that China is very hopeful to produce super IP surpassing Europe and America in the future, and the competition between Alibaba and Tencent will also become a huge push to produce super IP. However, only the company that produces super IP first can truly control the discourse power of the future cultural and entertainment territory of China and even the world. Therefore, Ali and Tencent also need to create IP with content sustainability based on the background of The Times and grind out a more mature pan-entertainment industry chain, which will be a long war.
Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110