The real temperature of the performance market: The national box office reaches 10 billion yuan, but corporate revenue hardly meets expectations

After adjustments in recent years, although the domestic performance market has gradually developed, the box office revenue of national performances reached 16 billion yuan last year. However, judging from the data released by Yongle Culture, which has recently been listed on the New Third Board and is known by the industry as "the No. 1 Ticketing Stock in China," it is not easy for companies to achieve good performance. At the same time, observing other performance ticketing platforms, we can find that in addition to the basic ticketing agency business, we are also trying to deploy in multiple fields such as upstream content in order to improve performance.

After adjustments in recent years, although the domestic performance market has gradually developed, the national performance box office revenue last year also reached 16 billion yuan. However, judging from the data released by Yongle Culture, which has recently been listed on the New Third Board and is known as the "No. 1 Ticketing Stock in China" in the industry, it is not easy for companies to achieve good performance. Among them, Yongle Culture's 2013-2014 net profits were in a negative state, and it was not profitable until January to October 2015. At the same time, observing other performance ticketing platforms, we can find that in addition to the basic ticketing agency business, we are also trying to deploy in multiple fields such as upstream content in order to improve performance. So, what is the current situation in the entire market?

The first share of ticketing intends to expand through pan-entertainment

According to the announcement of the National Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Share Transfer System, the listing application of Beijing Chunqiu Yongle Culture Communication Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Yongle Culture") has been approved and will be publicly transferred on July 7. Yongle Culture was established in 2003. It was formerly a pure ticketing company in fields such as performances. It then gradually expanded its business scope and expanded upstream content. Based on Yongle Technology's "Internet Ticket Sales Management System Platform", it built an "e-commerce +" pan-entertainment ecosystem.

According to industry sources, Yongle Culture currently ranks second in the industry in the field of performance ticketing, and ranks first in sports ticketing, especially in the field of football events. In view of the fact that no domestic ticketing company has entered the capital market before, Yongle Culture has been called the "No. 1 ticketing stock" in the fields of performance and sports after it was listed on the New Third Board.

Through observation, we can find that with people's increasing demand for spiritual and cultural consumption, the performance market is now receiving more and more capital attention. At the same time, performance-related companies are also embarking on or planning to enter the capital market, such as Yunnan, which creates many well-known performing arts works. Culture and Tianshi Culture, which mainly focuses on performance brokerage and performance services, have all been listed on the new board. Damai. com, which also has a certain market in the field of performance ticketing, has now completed four rounds of financing, and Jucheng. com has also completed several hundred million yuan in financing some time ago, one step closer to listing.

Yang Bo, chairman of Yongle Culture, said that after landing in the capital market, from the market level, it can make the performance industry attract more attention, gradually improve irregularities in the market and improve standards. From the enterprise level, with the help of capital, we can gradually implement our own strategic layout and continue to develop, allowing more capital to discover themselves and see the characteristics of the company, thus increasing more cooperation opportunities to a certain extent.

It's hard to say if the listing

is successful. According to the "2015 China Performance Market Annual Report", the overall economic scale of my country's performance market last year was 44.659 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.83%, of which the performance box office revenue (including sub-accounts) was 16.172 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.03%, which has led to the continuous emergence of voices of my country's performance market gradually picking up. Although the overall performance market is showing a better trend and capital's attention to the performance industry continues to increase, it is not easy for performance companies to achieve better operating results.

It can be seen from the public transfer specification issued by Yongle Culture that the operating income from January to October in 2013, 2014 and 2015 was 38.4166 million yuan, 46.7145 million yuan and 156 million yuan respectively. Among the net profits attributable to owners of the parent company, it was negative in both 2013 and 2014, at-16.832 million yuan and-22.3083 million yuan respectively. It was not until January to October 2015 that the profit was achieved, which was 15.0075 million yuan.

However, when the box office revenue of performances nationwide has reached 10 billion yuan, people think that while the ticketing agency business can earn higher revenue, there is a big contrast in reality. Data shows that Yongle Culture's ticketing agency operating income in 2013 and 2014 was less than 30 million yuan, and from January to October 2015 it was less than 50 million yuan. The reason for this sharp contrast is that, on the one hand, the performance ticketing company only charges a small number of points for the transaction amount reached when conducting ticketing sales agencies. Among them, Yongle Culture charges it within the range of 8%-15% depending on the project scale, content, etc. If the cost is eliminated, the real profit will be less; In addition, Yang Bo said that ticketing in the performance industry does not have a unified platform like the film industry, and data is entered into. The ticketing sales channels and sales methods in the performance industry are diverse. Not only is there no unified system, but there are also manual tickets. At the same time, sales entities also include ticketing agents, project organizers, a large number of small ticketing companies, etc. The diverse sales methods make there a big gap between the overall market data and individual data.

It is worth noting that although capital is constantly entering the performance industry, it is still relatively small compared to the film industry. At the same time, performance companies also require a certain amount of preparation funds to implement projects, making it difficult for some performance companies to implement projects as planned, or there is a high level of debt. At this stage, many literary and artistic groups, especially social literary and artistic groups, have been disbanded due to lack of funds. Performance theaters have closed their doors due to excessive rent and other costs that are difficult to maintain operations. Yongle Culture also had a high asset-liability ratio at the end of 2014 and the end of 2013, reaching 101.19% and 132.43% respectively. It reached an appropriate level at the end of October 2015, reaching 78.33%. From January to October 2015, The net cash flow from operating activities in 2014 and 2013 was also-102 million yuan, 33.1587 million yuan and-99.2821 million yuan respectively. This has affected the development of the performance industry to a certain extent.

When the market is improving, profits are not easy and

high costs have now become the status quo in the performance market. At the same time, the entry of capital has also caused the industry to worry about whether there will be a market bubble in the performance industry and gradually erase the artistic nature of the performance due to the pursuit of profits by capital. According to Tian Jingquan, chairman of Jingqi Feifan & Tiantai Entertainment, as capital continues to be injected into the cultural industry, major investors compete to chase it, making costs higher and higher, and part of the costs are gradually passed on to consumers. However, too high fares will also make it difficult for viewers to spend. In addition, some popular concerts have higher expected profits, causing competition from all parties, resulting in an annual increase in operating costs. However, ticket prices have increased less, and the number of seats and concerts are relatively constant, making the concert's profit margin smaller and smaller.

Yang Bo also said that each performance project has costs in all aspects from creation to implementation, ticketing, etc., and the cost is high at this stage."We also hope to have lower ticket prices when acting as ticketing agents, so that sales will also be better. However, due to the cost, it is difficult to implement low-priced tickets. For this situation, many companies in the industry are exploring and trying to reduce costs as much as possible."

Take Yongle Culture as an example. Through comprehensive reform, Yongle Culture has now become a comprehensive cultural and entertainment enterprise, not just a ticketing company. It already has nine businesses: ticketing, performing arts, film and television, sports, technology, brokerage, mutual entertainment, public relations, and overseas. The business sector has layouts in marketing, content introduction and investment, IP incubation and operation, and industrial support. At the same time, in the future, Yongle Culture will also release a new IP creation model based on its own experience and data accumulation in the industry, and provide entertainment, Transformation into multiple fields such as film and television to reduce costs and increase profits. In addition, Jucheng.com has also returned to the field of performance production. It not only invested in the establishment of the Little Orange Castle Children's Art Troupe to seize the children's drama market, but also announced a joint investment with the Australia Opera House to produce musicals to expand overseas markets.

From the perspective of the industry, there will be more or less bubbles in all industries nowadays, but compared with movies, there are relatively few performance industries. At the same time, there is still a large market space in the performance market that has not been developed, which has certain growth potential and is expected to become the second cultural product after movies that can form a large-scale and be loved by consumers. The key lies in the future market development and the formation of norms.

Editor: yvette