The transformation of independent online ticketing is under pressure for movie players outside BAT, making it difficult to sell themselves

Is it a profit dilemma or industrial integration? The truth that existence is reasonable is a reflection of film websites and traditional forces. Has the takeover of Internet movie entertainment become a trend? Destiny is not an easy answer.

Less than three months after Cat's Eye changed ownership of Light Media, Shiguang, which was established ten years ago, was also taken over by Wanda Cinema. Outside of BAT, independent film websites have begun to be divided up by traditional forces. Is it a profit dilemma or industrial integration? The truth that existence is reasonable is a reflection of film websites and traditional forces. Has the takeover of Internet movie entertainment become a trend? Destiny is not an easy answer.

The main reason why money is not being intensively harvested

is that Wanda Cinema Line (hereinafter referred to as "Wanda"), which holds a 20% stake in Shiguang. com, announced in an announcement last week that it plans to spend US$280 million to acquire the remaining 80% stake in Shiguang. According to Wanda's plan, after taking Shiguang, the latter brand will be retained, and the original Shiguang management team will remain in office. This is not the first large-scale acquisition by traditional movie players of the Internet faction. In May this year, Moonlight paid 2.383 billion yuan in cash and 2.399 billion yuan in Light stock in exchange for a 57.4% stake in Cat's Eye.

Before the two deals, so-called online ticketing sites had undergone drastic changes, making it even difficult for third-party data agencies to come up with a unified definition of the industry. Industry insiders told reporters,"Previously, websites such as Cat's Eye and Guevara were all defined as online ticketing websites, and many research reports still use this name. In fact, the business and ambition of these websites are no longer simple ticketing transactions. To be precise, these websites can be defined as movie O2O or Internet + movie entertainment companies."

According to data, in the first quarter of this year, box office revenue of Chinese movies in mainland China was 14.496 billion yuan, a month-on-month increase of 31.1% and 51.3% respectively year-on-year. During the period, online seat selection became the largest channel for Chinese movies with 69.08%. Traditional online group buying and offline ticket sales only accounted for 11.23% and 19.69% respectively. From the perspective of competitive landscape, Cat's Eye, Weibo, Baidu glutinous rice and Taobao are still strong among the top four in the industry, with market shares of 22.57%, 17.95%, 15.55% and 11.4% respectively. Time, which was won by Wanda, ranked seventh, accounting for 4.88%.

The acquisition of the first and seventh places in the industry seems to have no connection or commonality, but behind the continuous burning of money online ticketing, the industry's doubts about the industry's profitability is an undeniable fact. According to public information, Cat's Eye achieved net profits of 23,800 yuan and 80,800 yuan last year and from January to March this year respectively. Shiguang's net profit at the end of last year was-34.051 million yuan, and its net profit from January to June this year was-6.831 million yuan, which is a microcosm of the current situation of online ticketing websites.

"It is a fact that online ticketing websites are short of money, and the need to replenish funds is one of the reasons for being acquired, but this is not the main reason." Huang Guofeng, an analyst at Analysys think tank, believes that "the entire industry has completed the transformation from online ticketing to a comprehensive film company." Taking Cat's Eye as an example, its market share is relatively fixed. It cares more about user precipitation. What they want is extending upstream and downstream of the industry, and moving upwards is more in line with the logic of the Internet light model, which has promoted capital cooperation between the two parties. "

It is difficult for movie players outside BAT

to sell themselves. Looking back on Shiguang, it is not just because of luck that Wanda has absorbed it. Wanda said that this acquisition will open up online and offline resources of both parties and improve the company's film ecosystem service circle. Hidden under the official statement is Shiguang's accumulation of entertainment resources and derivatives. It is understood that Shiguang has the world's second largest film database and global film and television entertainment resources after IMDB, and has established long-term cooperative relationships with domestic and foreign film dealers. In terms of derivative development, in recent years, Shiguang has obtained legal derivative authorizations from Disney, Marvel, DC, Universal and other brands, and has rich experience in derivative development, design and online sales.

Unfortunately, however, it is unlikely that non-BAT Internet film companies will be acquired by traditional film forces. Huang Guofeng told the Beijing Business Daily reporter bluntly,"Similar acquisitions will not become a trend. Now it is a buyer's market rather than a seller's market. Except for the BAT faction and Cat's Eye, the remaining online ticketing websites have generally not completed the transformation from ticketing to comprehensive movie companies. The transformation of companies has been heavily squeezed by BAT in the C-end market, and they are not very competitive in other differentiated areas."

Another case that makes movie players outside BAT negative is the Online Ticket Online Commitment Light. Wangpia.com, the first batch of online ticketing websites in China, was controlled by Enlight in the second half of last year. The latter obtained a 68.55% stake in Wangpia.com for 130 million yuan. However, in less than a year, the light attracted the cat's eye again in a high-profile manner. This transaction case attracted far more attention in the industry than the transaction with Wangpiao.com back then. "Obviously, Wangpia.com does not have the ability to bear the resources of light." Huang Guofeng said,"Such an acquisition is very embarrassing and has little significance to itself and guidance value for the industry."

However, he also believes that the film market cannot be completely monopolized by large companies. The currently weak online ticketing website can cooperate with some small producers. If the two sides agree in terms of user positioning, marketing models, etc., it will be considered a small and beautiful one. path.

Independent online ticketing transformation is under pressure.

In fact, we can see the ongoing transformation efforts of those established independent online ticketing business settings. A reporter from Beijing Business Daily logged in to watch and buy movies and found that in addition to the movie ticket business, movie shopping is also trying to perform ticketing and e-commerce diversion. Among them, performance tickets cover 17 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, involving concerts, concerts, drama operas, dance and ballet and other performance forms. The cake business marked as "new" shows a total of 46 brands on the list, 37 of which have products on sale. However, this nine-year-old film veteran did not rank among the top 15 online ticketing market share of Analysys think tank in the first quarter of this year.

Spider.com, which originally focused on newspaper subscriptions, has now placed its movie ticket business ahead of newspapers and periodicals, and is also operating derivatives and performance ticket businesses. However, Spider.com only accounted for 0.43% of the online ticketing market in the first quarter of this year. In addition to seeking breakthroughs in derivatives and pan-entertainment ticketing, online ticketing websites are still trying to attack the B-end market after encountering encroachment by giants on the C-end.

Huang Guofeng affirmed these roundabout tactics. He suggested: "Small online ticketing websites should not focus on movie tickets, but should make differences. For example, they will mainly target users in third-and fourth-tier cities, complementing users with BAT and Cat's Eye, or High-end users who tend to pay attention to concerts, operas, etc., Guevara's case can be used as a reference." However, he also bluntly said that such a transformation will definitely not be easy."Take non-movie performance tickets as an example. Although there are no large companies in the form of performance tickets and sports tickets, some traditional offline performance ticketing companies are very resistant to online channels. It takes a lot of effort to gnaw down this bone." What is pessimistic is that it can be seen from the introductions of older online ticketing website companies that these film veterans are still emphasizing the forward-looking nature of their business models back then.

However, what is certain is that the blending of Internet factions and traditional film forces will continue. The industry generally believes that in the future, the Internet + film industry will be a complex competition product of the two factions. With the purpose of "fast", the highlights of both will be paid more and more attention to by the other side, and in this process, the pressure for players to be eliminated will also increase.

Editor: yvonne