Although the publicity data is not satisfactory, it is definitely a good move to choose Hugh, who has appeared in fine TV series such as Nirvana in Fire and Pretender and has become popular again. This is in line with the reading strategy of IP movies to some extent. Reading hopes to select the most suitable story for film and television adaptation through the paid data of hundreds of millions of readers. These two eye-catching advertising words "read IP, let the drama come" and "read IP, it must be a boutique", announcing the ambition of reading text in film and television.
To some extent, including? Well-known brands such as QQ Reading, Starting Point and Xinli Media are backed by Tencent Capital's Reading Group. The operation of IP film and television should be like a duck to water. Reading official website's introduction shows that there are1/kloc-0.7 million works, 7.8 million creators, covering more than 200 content categories, and the number of words added to the platform in the first half of 20 19 is about 20 billion. Successfully exported a large number of excellent web IP's such as Ghost Blowing Lights, Tomb Raider Notes, Nirvana in Fire, Full-time Master, Cyclone Queen, Night, etc., and adapted them into multi-format products such as movies, animations and games.
The "20 18 China Internet Literature Writers' Influence Ranking" released by Speedway Research Institute in February of 20 18 shows that in 20 18 China male writers' Internet influence TOP50, reading articles fully occupied 47 seats. According to the list of Baidu novels from 2065438 to June 2009, the top 20 online novels are heavy, and the reading platform 17 shows the influence of reading.
Although reading continues to maintain the leading position in China's online literature market, its performance in the stock market is extremely embarrassing. By the close of 65438+ on1October 29th, the latest share price of Wen Yue was only HK$ 3 1.2, which was nearly 70% lower than the highest price of HK$ 10. ?
The financial report for the first half of August 20 19 shows that Yuewen Group achieved revenue of 2.97 billion yuan in the first half of the year, up by 30.1%year-on-year; The operating profit under US GAAP was 528 million yuan, down 65,438+02.6% year-on-year; The net profit was 393 million yuan, down 22.4% year-on-year; The total assets are 26.232 billion yuan, and the asset-liability ratio is 28.4%. Among them, the revenue of online business (including its own platform, Tencent platform and third-party platform) decreased by 1 1.5% year-on-year, accounting for 56% of the total revenue as of June 30th, 20 19. Copyright operation and other income increased by 224. 1% simultaneously, and copyright operation and other income increased by 224. 1% year-on-year, accounting for 44% of the total income.
It's not surprising that online business revenue is negatively growing. On the one hand, the number of users has reached the bottleneck, on the other hand, the monthly income of paying users has declined instead of rising. The interim financial report of 20 19 shows that even if the free reading product "flying reading" is launched, the policies to promote innovation and activity in the channel will not fall but rise, and the monthly activity of self-owned platforms and self-operated channels will only increase by 1.7%. This shows that the traditional online novel platform has reached the growth ceiling in the post-Internet era when users pay close attention to it. In addition, the proportion of paying users also dropped from 5.0% to 4.5%, and the average monthly income of each paying user also dropped from 24.4 yuan to 22.5 yuan [2].
Poor realization of online business income is not the biggest crisis of reading, and the income from copyright operation is less than expected, which is the straw to crush the stock price of reading. 20 19 interim financial report shows that the revenue from copyright operation increased by 280.3% year-on-year to121500 million yuan, accounting for 44.0% of the total revenue. At first glance, it sounds brilliant, but this data combined with Sony Group's income data of 660 million yuan, the content cost and the production cost of film and television dramas are quite high, and reading articles does not eat much meat in copyright operation.
Reading at the beginning of listing was constantly questioned. At the peak, the market value of 70 billion was even dubbed as "a basket of eggs was valued as a chicken farm". Two years later, the capital tide receded, and online reading of reading articles was weak. After taking the diversified road of copyright operation, no money was made. Who will fall if the stock price does not fall?
IP does not exceed 100.
Today, the more difficult it is for users to concentrate, millions of words of online texts can't be compared with humorous short videos and short and pithy Weibo jokes in terms of communication, stem creation and frequency brushing. However, most of the online texts have congenital defects such as serious homogenization, excessive water injection and short popularity.
Among the reading works of 1 1.7 million, only a few hundred can be called IP. 20 19, 1 June, Reading released the first value list of top movie game adaptation. The book list is ranked according to IP data, and 158 works (including unfinished works) are selected from five dimensions: editor's peer review recommendation, top screenwriter evaluation, platform procurement demand and expert policy control. Super IP has been divided up, so it is not easy to launch 158 at one time.
Although the number of words added in the first half of 2065438+2009 is 20 billion, most of the works are only small-scale and only spread in small online circles. There are very few online articles that can spontaneously let readers recommend circles and whose quality can stand the test. To build IP, we must rely on reading the text and playing resources on the spot. Limited resources mean that only the first posts that kill their way through the major lists and data are eligible to become IP.
Gamification censorship is pathetic, and the way of film and television money is unknown.
It is difficult to create IP, and it is even more difficult to realize IP. Male frequency IP based on fantasy theme is even more difficult to realize. At present, the mainstream IP realization includes comics, movies (divided into dramas and movies), gamification, derivatives, and others (such as advertisements, commercial licenses, theme parks).
Gamification is a way out for network IP. According to the gamma data 20 18 China Game Industry Report, the actual sales revenue of China Internet IP adaptation games is 20 130 1 100 million yuan, accounting for about 6. 1% of the total market. According to the latest survey of gamma data, reading works account for 75% of the total market of online literature IP adaptation games; In the IP adaptation of game head works, reading works account for nearly 60%; Among the top ten most IP-adapted game works, reading works account for 60%. The market size of novel IP mobile games is less than10 billion yuan, and there is still great growth potential. On the other hand, however, strict censorship also increases the difficulty of network ip in gamification, which will not be discussed here.
Because film and television dramas have the widest audience, the richest production experience and the richest profits, they are favored by capital. It is the first choice for IP operation to make the network text IP film and television.
However, on the male frequency IP that I am most proud of, the road to film and television is not easy. In the eyes of ordinary viewers, male high-frequency IP+ traffic stars are the standard bad film configuration. Zhu Xianqing, Ji, Wu Donggan Kun, fighting against the sky, and the wilderness era were either ridiculed to the forefront or silent. Some people joked that the martial arts can't fight the sky. Crimes such as excessive plot, chaotic rhythm, chaotic editing, improper casting and worrying acting have been committed. No matter how high the configuration, no matter how much investment, the audience just won't buy it.
In 2065438+2009, Kyushu Dimly Recorded, which received much attention, could not escape the male IP curse. The huge investment of 500 million yuan and the gorgeous cast can't change the fact of jumping off the street. Douban's score of 6. 1 and the broadcast volume of 2.09 billion (The Untamed's broadcast volume of 6.46 billion) as of press time all mean that this IP operation is a failure. The TV series "Full-time Master", also adapted from male frequency IP, performed slightly better. Douban's score of 7.4, with 310.7 billion plays, is barely enough to complete the task, and there is still a big gap with popular TV series such as Dear Love.
Some analysts directly pointed out that male-frequency IP is not suitable for film and television, because one of the great charms of male-frequency works lies in the complicated world outlook and the disputes and enmities of various families and forces. The restoration of these scenes is not easy to achieve under the existing technical level and investment environment. In order to expand the audience of film and television dramas, producers will let traffic stars play the leading role to attract female audiences. However, most male viewers don't want to see small fresh meat, and female viewers are not interested in the story of escalating monsters. As a result, they don't like both ends, and they only have to jump around in the street.
In the choice of film and television works, capital is much more rational than in the past. The male frequency IP with fantasy theme has long been less popular than before. Taking Reading's promotional film as an example, Ling Ran, a great doctor, said nothing about the fantasy elements such as "system" and "task" set in the original text, which seems to be an inspirational story of doctors aiming at saving lives. "Shanghai Prosperity" is about taking over state-owned enterprises, engaging in real estate and selling houses online, which is simply a hymn of businessmen in the era of reform and opening up. "The First Sequence" hardly touches the elements of science fiction. After the Big Bang, the wandering earth can be pulled out to try the water (of course, because the author of The First Sequence is a great god who mainly promotes reading. )
Immature derivatives
The realization of film IP is still unknown, but the realization of income such as derivatives is not mature. In the summer of 20 19, the derivative sales of the animated film Nezha exceeded180,000 yuan, which set a new record for the total amount of film derivatives in China. However, compared with its 4.9 billion box office, the proportion is not high. Compared with the world-famous IP, China's performance in the derivatives market is really immature.
According to the article published by Rhino Entertainment: "Global ip Value Ranking: Marvel Universe just squeezed into the top ten, Poké mon won the championship", the world's top IP has earned billions of dollars or even billions of dollars in derivatives. Take the Disney Princess series, which is well-known to all ages, as an example. Its peripheral derivatives were sold at an astonishing high price of $44.6 billion. Compared with domestic figures, among the six derivatives-related companies listed on the New Third Board, only four companies can achieve year-on-year profit growth after deducting non-recurring gains and losses in the first half of 20 19? .
In Hollywood, derivatives and copyright development are already a part of the complete content ecology, and the box office revenue of movies only accounts for about 30%, and the rest comes from derivatives and other industries. Some analysts believe that the audience of pure novel derivatives is too small at present, and the domestic film industry does not have much energy to invest in the development of derivatives on the premise that the box office cannot be guaranteed. At the same time, the derivative licensing market in China is not perfect, and the popular IP has not got through the industrial chain in China, with rampant piracy and chaotic management. Derivative development is really hard to read, and I want to eat meat.
China's content field has a shortcoming that is difficult to solve: the differences in language and culture and the weak film and television industry production system make the film and television market in China too closed. Most of the production content is limited to personal use, and most of them are exported to neighboring Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia, making it difficult to share a piece of the global market.
It is rumoured that foreigners fall in love with China's online articles, and the young man actually exaggerates the influence of China's online articles overseas by reading China's novels of cultivating immortality and detoxifying. Although the cumulative number of international visitors has exceeded 20 million since 20 18, and the number of overseas authors has exceeded 12000, China's online articles are still a minority overseas, and their influence is far from the absolute hegemony of Hollywood movies.
Take Lord of Secrets, the most popular novel in 20 19, for example, its world outlook structure, story development and task fullness are definitely the top three in the online version. Excellent quality and western fantasy background are likely to spread around the world. However, due to the lack of overseas distribution channels, The Secret Master is only released internationally at the starting point, and its audience is not wide. The fantasy background in the west means that it is impossible to make movies in China, and it is difficult for overseas film and television companies to remake without enough overseas attention.
Although overseas income only accounts for about 1% of the total reading income, in the face of various difficulties, reading has to choose the road of bringing in and going out.
On 20 19, 10, Reading Group and Disney China announced the content cooperation on Disney's Star Wars brand. The cooperation mainly includes * * * jointly creating and launching the first officially recorded Star Wars Chinese novel (written by the reading writer "His Majesty the King") and launching 40 original Star Wars novels in Chinese. This is the first time that Star Wars brand has opened domestic copyright authorization. Disney wants to open the Star Wars market in China and learn from Disney's IP operation experience. This kind of cooperation is beneficial to both sides.
According to Disney's 20 18 financial report, among the four business segments, the revenue of media network (cable TV and radio and television) is as high as 41%; Offline Disney theme parks and hotels and resorts. 34%; Film distribution and DVD contribution17%; The residual income of derivatives such as intellectual property rights authorization is around 8%. Disney combines the real scenes of all novels, comics and movies in the entire IP upstream and downstream industry chain. From children's clothes and toys to adults' entertainment and leisure, money has been earned.
Although China readers may not buy Star Wars, an ancient IP in the United States, for Reading Group, it is the only way to solve the current predicament to learn from Disney's entire operating system, give a shot in the arm to the depressed stock price and seek a strong partner for going out to sea.
Can reading get out of trouble? Let's wait and see.
[1] Nirvana in Fire was produced and distributed electronically by the starting point girl network, and the original version of Dishes on the Beach by the Pretender was authorized by Netease (Hangzhou) Network Co., Ltd., and both books can be read at the starting point.
[2] The financial report for the first half of 20 19 shows that the payment ratio has dropped from 5.0% in the six months ending June 30th, 20 18 to 4.5% in the six months ending June 30th, 20 19, and the average monthly income of each paying user has dropped from 6/20 18.