Capital, pan-entertainment and the Disney Dream: Internet writers usher in the peak of power

In the era of mobile and social interaction with more emphasis on influence, directors, actors, stars, screenwriters and other links in the industry chain are less and less restricted as individuals, and they seek to realize their influence. This led to a reversal of the power structure of the film market, with famous directors, writers and actors forming their own companies and becoming producers.

"The advent of the era of big IP has provided a broader stage for online authors. This will be the best of times, the soil of the industry is constantly irrigated, and this is an opportunity that every web author cannot give up." said Tian Xia Guiyuan, a contracted writer of Xiaoxiang Academy who represents "Queen Fuyao" and "The Power of the Phoenix".

The "best era" of online literature has arrived. In the past year, capital has hunted online literature. Many film and television drama works are adapted from online works, including "The Quest for the Dragon","Flower Thousand Bones","Nirvana in Fire", etc. "I've been trying hard to memorize the names and appearances of online writers off the stage so that I can make dinner appointments quickly." Wang Changtian, President of Enlight Media, in the "2015 Forbes. The speech at the "China Original Literature Ranking Awards Ceremony" undoubtedly conveyed a certain signal.

As the reporter said in his previous article, the general trend has changed due to different times. In the era of mobile and social interaction with more emphasis on influence, directors, actors, stars, screenwriters and other links in the industry chain are less and less restricted as individuals, and they seek to realize their influence. This led to a reversal of the power structure of the film market, with famous directors, writers and actors forming their own companies and becoming producers.

Online writers clearly belong to a group whose power is suddenly rising. As a result, the names of this group of people began to be mentioned more and more in capital and markets. Online writers such as Nanpai Third Uncle, Tangjia Third Young Master, Jiangnan, Tianxia Ba Chang, Jiang Shengnan, and Gang Wo Si Cun either started content businesses or intervened in the copyright operation of their works during this year, and appeared much more frequently than in the past.

In an exclusive interview with reporters on July 13, Nanpai's Third Uncle defined this group as "maneuvering among others" to describe the power structure and rich resources that online writers can leverage. Faced with the climax of capital and IP waves, how will these writers who once relied on their pens for a living "maneuver" in the game of thrones?

The rise of the great god: The division of IP wealth and control rights

, Bei Zhicheng, founder of the great god circle, a brokerage and operating company for online article authors, and whose Weibo name is "Master of Intention", said in an interview with reporters,"From the perspective of C, when IP is even in the ascendant, the price of the entire film and television industry is not particularly big. More importantly, the author puts his mind and (as long as) they can get in well, all those who contribute their strength can make money."

Online writers are becoming promising targets for capital. According to reports compiled by reporters, writer startups such as Nanpai Pan Entertainment, Linglong Culture, and Zhu Can Culture have all received high valuations. Writers such as Jiangnan, Nanpai Third Uncle, and Tianxia Ba Chang have become founders or executives of the company, forming a deep binding with them. Take Nanpai Pan Entertainment, founded by Nanpai's Third Uncle, as an example. The company's upcoming third round of financing is valued at 3 billion yuan, double that of a year ago.

All this stems from the fact that capital is racing towards online literature. According to reports compiled by Tencent Entertainment, through listing, acquisition, and shareholding, Tencent established the Reading Group, Alibaba established Alibaba Literature, and Kaiser Co., Ltd., which is engaged in clothing and game operations, acquired Fantasy Technology and Hunan Radio and Television, a listed company owned by Hunan Radio and Television, for 540 million yuan. The company Radio and Television Media invested 551 million yuan in Shuanyin in October last year, obtaining a 69.25% stake. The core of its layout is to bind authors.

Compared with other literary IPs, online literature undoubtedly has the advantages and business prospects of being more entertaining due to its longer length, grand world view, and strong fan stickiness due to the characteristics of online students. In May 2014, Tencent poached the role of online writer Cat Lin. The conditions included spending 50 million yuan to simultaneously produce the animation of Cat Lin's new book "Chosen Heaven", with an expected investment of over 100 million yuan. The reason why Tencent did this is on the one hand because of the "pan-entertainment" strategy that Tencent Mutual Entertainment has proposed many times, that is, multi-dimensional development for core IP; on the other hand, as Tang Jiasan said in an interview with reporters,"I think in the future, the market of China's film and television still wants to resume the development of Hollywood's serial-style fantasy movies, large-investment, large-production, and high-box-office movies. This will definitely be the case in the future." This market prospect is the basis for the judgment made by the third uncle of the Nanpai, the third young master of the Tang family, and Jiangnan that "works of our kind can only be photographed in a few years."

To a certain extent, online article authors are facing this era: the consumption structure and behavioral adjustments brought about by the pan-entertainment strategy have made them stand at the forefront of the times, and the online articles they hold in their hands have also shifted from the so-called paid "online article 1.0" model to the "2.0" model of copyright development. At a time when resources have obviously tilted towards online literature, online writers are faced with new choices about redistribution of power and whether to seek to realize influence. Good policies and the continuous promotion of readers and capital have deepened this trend.

At present, more and more authors choose to actively enter this trend. On the one hand, this is out of the attitude of being responsible for their own works, and on the other hand, they are also seeking to realize their personal influence. Nanpai Third Uncle mentioned in an interview with reporters that Nanpai Fan Entertainment was born when he discovered that he had "no power." "It's a gradual, vague feeling. At first, the copyright didn't belong to you and you had no way to deal with it, you were very happy when others talked to you about the project.(But) when your ideas couldn't be implemented, you found that you had no power."

After experiencing the public reputation failure of the first season of "Tomb Robber Notes"(Nanpai Fan Entertainment did not participate in the development of this Huanrui online drama at the time), today's Nanpai Fan Entertainment is closely controlled on various IP projects written by Nanpai's Third Uncle. Including movies, mobile games and corresponding derivative products, its deputy director Ye stated in Feidu that the project must be intervened or led by Nanpai Pan Entertainment. When "Tomb Robbing Notes" was released during the summer, Nanpai Pan Entertainment appeared as an investor alongside Shanghai Film and LeTV Pictures.

What is even more tempting is that the restoration of copyright will not only bring the rewards that writers deserve, but also have broader capital prospects. Tang Jiasan said in an interview with reporters,"I am the first (IP adapted mobile game). When I was doing it, a mobile game copyright could only be sold for 100,000 yuan. For writers at our level, a mobile game copyright can be sold for 10 million yuan, which is a 100-fold increase."

This strengthens the author's emphasis on and good use of his own power. Today, because of the idea that "the sooner you sell, the greater the loss you will lose", Tang Jiasan said that his attitude towards IP is to try not to "sell indiscriminately" as much as possible, and instead hand over this part of the rights to his old friend Bei Zhicheng for operation. Seeking more generous market returns and a say in specific development.

Game of Thrones: Mediation and Wandering Sword

Reading Group CEO Wu Wenhui once said in an interview with China Economic Weekly,"Capital is a double-edged sword, because commercialization is a double-edged sword for literature itself. To this extent, it has grown thousands of times or tens of thousands of times compared with the scale of that year. The question is how do you make choices in this process."

To a large extent, creators have difficulty grasping the direction of IP development. The creation of online articles is usually one-way and non-in-depth, while the adaptations of films, games and derivatives are often based on points, requiring dozens or even hundreds of creators to be activated. In addition, capital sometimes conflicts of interest with the author's desire to intervene in front-end and back-end division, and these factors will greatly reduce the author's right to speak in project development.

In fact, in the past year, Jiang Shengnan and director Zheng Xiaolong and his wife went to court over the script conflict of "The Legend of Mi Yue"; Tianxia Ba Chang and Lu Chuan filed a lawsuit over the authorship of "The Nine-Layer Demon Tower". Writers Gang Wo Si Cun and Purple Crystal Spring Culture filed a lawsuit over the adaptation rights of the novel "Besieged by Fog", exposing the current situation of the industry where capital and the author conflict with their respective interests to the market.

However, as the Third Young Master Tang expressed his attitude when responding to this matter during an interview,"It's actually a good thing." He believes that this is one of the manifestations of the progress of the industry and the continuous standardization of the market: that is, authors have begun to stand in the spotlight more and more, using means that pay equal attention to law and public opinion to safeguard their rights.

Although the lawsuits of Jiang Shengnan and Gang Wo Sicun are still in the trial stage, in the long run, any lawsuit is of great significance, which marks that online writers have gradually moved towards business and power awareness in the process of mediation with different partners, and gradually born a set of their own code of conduct, that is,"do IP as well as possible" on the premise of ensuring the right to speak.

Many writers have developed a business logic as a result. According to Jiang Nan, a writer who has created works such as "Dragon Clan" and "Jiuzhou·Misty Lu", the solution to IP and solve these problems is to transform into a member of the producer. Jiangnan officially established Linglong Culture at the end of December last year to lay out the copyright development of its own works. The answer he gave was to cooperate with Ning Meng Pictures and others to develop projects such as the TV series "Jiuzhou Misty Record", rather than simply selling copyright.

Although we have obtained a billion-yuan Series A financing from Aofei,"our own capital and capabilities are undoubtedly not enough to eat these giant projects, so we are all sharing cooperation." Jiangnan said,"Creation itself is a slow matter. We operate the largest film and television project in the industry. We can't complete all the work ourselves, so we must share it. This is an era where you can only get it by sharing it."

Nanpai Third Uncle proposed to control the secret weapon behind IP fans to ensure that he would not be at a disadvantage when negotiating with partners. "You must have fans, and I hope your fans can support your ideas; gradually, you will need the ability and knowledge to truly communicate with the film and television producers."

However, writers such as Nanpai Third Uncle and Jiangnan who were former entrepreneurs and thus developed a set of business logic have different ideas. Writers such as Tianxia Ba Chang and Tang Family Three Young Masters choose the brokerage model. Writers such as the Tang Family Three Young Masters, Gang Wo Si Cun, Gu Man, and Skeleton Fairy joined the Great God Circle, while Tianxia Ba Sing is the chief content officer of Shangshang Pictures. However, within this form of cooperation, the two sides retain stronger autonomy than traditional brokerage models.

Bei Zhicheng told reporters that the function of the Great God Circle is to make demands for authors to developers, which is quite similar to the entertainment industry. "What actors should do, what agents should do, and what your company should do should be very mature. The vast majority of actors should finally concentrate on being good actors after the market rules are clearly formed. There are various teams and different companies to help them maximize this value."

Advances in power: A more obvious trend for Disney or nuclear reactors

is that after going through the early stages of early rights protection, emerging online writers have begun to expand the boundaries of the power landscape.

Among them, the Southern School of Pan-Entertainment and Linglong Culture are the most obvious. At the press conference held in February, the Linglong Culture confirmation meeting would develop VR versions of Jiangnan's novels, film and television works; and according to an interview with Ye Fangcang, chairman of Nanpai Pan Entertainment, Nanpai Pan Entertainment will not rule out the possibility of getting involved in real-life entertainment. Now, Nanpai Pan Entertainment has developed multiple versions of online dramas, movies, stage dramas, etc. around the core IP of "Tomb Robber Notes". In the future, it will also develop films, television and game directions for IPs such as "Lao Jiumen" and "Sha Hai". development.

Therefore, Nanpai Third Uncle regarded Nanpai Pan Entertainment as Disney thirty years later. He pointed out that his goal is to "make IP very popular" and Nanpai Pan Entertainment should also be a company that "I can make IP if I want to make IP." To a certain extent, Disney, which holds a large number of IP images from Marvel, Disney Animation, and Pixar Studios, and is constantly empowered by movies, TV series, and derivatives, has become the benchmark for Nanfang Pan Entertainment.

In contrast, the intentions of Bei Zhicheng and the Great Shenquan are more in line with the original dynamic attributes. He believes that China will definitely emerge in the future with single-digit entertainment aircraft carriers, even larger than those great film companies in the United States, because it will have films, games, and pan-entertainment. "I hope to be able to participate here. If you stand on an aircraft carrier, the Great Sphere can be a nuclear reactor."

At present, how to have large-scale IP creation capabilities has become an urgent need to strengthen the companies of Jiangnan and Nanpai Third Uncle. Before the interview, the third uncle of Nanpai had completed the signing ceremony with science fiction writer Wang Jinkang and Xianxia online writer Fresh Guoguo, and jointly established a joint venture with the two of them to establish the Mercury Culture and Fruit Pai Alliance to discuss the works written by the two. A series of works are developed in the direction of film and television or movie and game linkage.

In an interview, Jiangnan responded to his previous decision to sign up writers with a 1% agency fee."The writer group should receive enough living security so that they can create better works. This is not to commercialize writing, but rather, the writer group receives enough protection and is not sold as a capital tool in the market. Instead, they become the managers of their own works. Earning this money is the model of Linglong culture."

On the other hand, expanding brand influence is also a way for online writers to continuously enhance their self-influence. This method is divided into finding well-known partners or investors and endorsing them with their resources; the second is to carry out in-depth and breadth multi-dimensional operations for IP projects.

Nanpai Pan Entertainment has received investment from Xiaomi and LeEco, and participated in the Series A financing of Taobao. It has a good cooperative relationship with iQiyi and Huace Film and Television, so the "Lao Jiumen" mobile game has won iQiyi and Xiaomi's channel endorsement. Nanpai Third Uncle called this a method and strategy of IP operation. "IP must be operated. It's not that wine is not afraid of deep alleys. In the same era, there is a limit to the number of IPs, and China people do not need so much IPs. The competition for IP is unprecedentedly fierce. What should we do in this situation? You can only operate because if you don't attack others, others will attack you."

At the same time, continuous writing is also one of the ways this group of writers uses to gather fans. Intentionally or unintentionally, these writers are also avoiding excessive erosion of capital and realizing that creativity and IP are their greatest value. Jiangnan describes himself as a "first-class creative person." The three young masters of the Tang family said,"In fact, everything I do is what the readers like most, I do. Making the IP as good as possible may be the most important to me."

Because this kind of layout is to some extent "slow work leads to detailed work", the project is not progressing fast. The third uncle of the Nanpai emphasized the results to be achieved after this process. "Look at the past thirty years and the next thirty years. You have to look at it. If you don't look at the first thirty years, if you don't look at the next thirty years, you can't do it with IP. But if one (such a person) comes out, he will maneuver around."