IP is popular and sought after by investment. Why does the pan-entertainment industry always call IP?

IP is a market-oriented high-quality copyright with potential for product system development;IP is a special product of my country's contemporary consumer economy and Internet economy era;IP industry is part of the copyright industry and content industry;IP industry finance has certain particularities and needs to be clarified. The financial logic; promoting the development of IP industry finance can promote the maturity and progress of copyright finance and content industries.

? Some people say that 2015 is the first year of China's IP (Intellectual Property Intellectual Property). IP is king and IP is rampant. Various views are fighting fiercely and bringing disruptive changes to the entire pan-entertainment industry.

At the recent Shanghai Film Festival, Wanda stated that it would invest heavily in developing strong IP at home and abroad. Hong Kong's veteran film industry Huanya Group announced that it will launch "Hunting","Apostles","Three's Company" and "The Legend of the Pearl". The first two films are called popular IPs; the "Warcraft" movie earned 1 billion yuan in box office in five days after its release, and is also known as the "Most Influential IP"; the media feature "Self-Statement of the Victims of the Pacific Escape" was bought at a high price by LeTV Pictures, which is considered by the industry to be the discovery of the value of news IP.

What is IP? What new cultural development model will IP open up together with finance? At the recently held Summer Summit of the China Cultural Finance 50 Forum, many experts had a heated discussion on "IP investment and development."

The prerequisite for development is to face up to the essence of IP.

Xu Yuanxiang, founding member of CCF50, deputy secretary-general, and former vice president of Alibaba Pictures Group, pointed out that to understand the concept of IP and discuss the topic of IP entire industry chain development, we must first distinguish between "IP text" and "IP attribute". The essential difference between the two concepts.

Xu Yuanxiang believes that in the strict sense, in addition to various original classic literature works and excellent original scripts, IP texts mainly cover areas such as online literature, popular games, super anime, stage dramas, etc. The reliance on these IP texts has become an unavoidable fact for the R & D teams of major Hollywood production companies and major domestic film, television and entertainment institutions; and the elements that constitute the IP attributes mainly include those big directors, stars, gold medal producers, and screenwriters with considerable say rights, as well as R & D entities in various fields, as well as various conceptual cultural and creative ideas.

Jin Wei, Secretary-General of CCF50 and a researcher at the Institute of Cultural Economics at Communication University of China, believes that no matter how "unreliable" it is considered, the topic of IP is still unavoidable. He said that recently "Warcraft" has attracted more attention to IP, and the industry must call it IP. He said that his attitude towards IP is cautious and does not agree with pan-IP. "Everything is IP, so we can't talk about this topic."

Jin Wei pointed out that finance and economics are logical and rigorous. Without a relatively clear definition, there would be no IP industry and no IP finance. He believes that IP is a market-oriented high-quality copyright with potential for product system development;IP is a special product of my country's contemporary consumer economy and Internet economy era;IP industry is part of the copyright industry and content industry;IP industry finance has certain characteristics. Sex, it is necessary to clarify the financial logic; promoting the development of IP industry finance can promote the maturity and progress of copyright finance and content industries.

Investors tend to develop "super IPs" that have been tested by the audience

."The ability to select and develop IP texts is undoubtedly the first hurdle that must be grasped in financial investment risk control." Xu Yuanxiang emphasized that in order to realize the possibility of IP monetization, we must face up to the pan-entertainment ecological pattern with China characteristics.

Xu Yuanxiang pointed out that today, IP is popular, and the traditional film industry's "script pre-script" model has considerable investment risks. Unless it is developed by a team of big directors or stars with strong IP attributes, the risks may be controllable. In the face of an ordinary text without a deep mass base, it is difficult for investors to find or accurately locate your audience. However, those super IP texts that have been tested by the Internet have the psychological basis for the effective dissemination of information from fan groups. Therefore, the first principle of IP investment and development is to find suitable IP text, rather than combining various elements with strong IP attributes into a self-IP text that has not been tested by the audience.

In 2015, the total box office revenue of China films reached US$7 billion, equivalent to 63% of the entire North American market, a year-on-year increase of 48.7%, the largest increase in five years. Domestic films also generated overseas revenue of 2.77 billion yuan. China has firmly ranked as the world's second largest film market. Hou Guangming, a founding member of CCF50 and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Beijing Film Academy, pointed out that accompanying the rapid growth of movie box office is a surge in risks and a large influx of hot money, creating prosperity but also creating a series of problems.

Hou Guangming recounted what he saw at this year's Shanghai Film Festival: "The Shanghai Film Festival scares me. All restaurants are full and crayfish are 380 yuan a plate. I had just returned from the Cannes Film Festival and didn't expect the European film market to be so depressed. Paris is the birthplace of movies, with an attendance rate of 4%. 3,000 to 5,000 movies are shown every year, but no one watches them. Young people still follow Hollywood, where 75% of the total box office belongs to Hollywood. And 40% of us belong to Hollywood."

Hou Guangming used several sets of data to reveal the risks of domestic film investment. First of all, as high box office gathers in a small number of films, the risk of film investment further increases. According to statistics, in 2015, 16 films with box office exceeding 500 million yuan created a total box office of 16.4 billion yuan, accounting for 60% of the total box office of domestic films. However, the market share of domestic films with box office prices ranging from 100 million yuan to 500 million yuan and below 100 million yuan has declined. In particular, domestic films with box office below 100 million yuan in 2015 produced 15 more films than in 2014, but the box office output was only 2.2 billion yuan, a decrease of 440 million yuan from 2014. The average box office of single films in this range in 2015 fell by 21% compared with 2014.

At the same time, the investment and output situation of films is not optimistic yet, and it is still high in investment and low in output. According to statistics, more than 1500 film projects are submitted for filing every year (2904 in 2015), but more than 600 films are obtained with the "Film Release License" every year, and only about 300 domestic films are released. It can be seen that blind launches are still relatively common, and there is an urgent need to introduce a risk assessment and control mechanism for film projects.

Is IP finance the best investment period?

Zhu Pengwei, deputy secretary-general of CCF50 and chairman of Shenzhen Zhongtoubang Co., Ltd., is full of confidence in China's IP investment. He believes that now is the best investment period and the best creation period. "In recent years, with the vigorous promotion of the government and the enthusiasm of various private investments, my country's cultural industry has achieved rapid development. Under the guidance of the Internet industry, the domestic cultural industry chain has taken shape. We have divided the details of IP into various aspects, including content providers. After being amplified by Internet games and our anime, we may eventually create some channels for IP monetization, which has formed a very good closed loop." Zhu Pengwei said.

He believes that although the film and television sector now accounts for the highest proportion in the entire IP field, music and literature may be seriously underestimated. He said that five years ago, Shanda Literature may have received little investment, but now literary platform companies are growing rapidly because literature and film and television have generated the logic of value improvement. Future games may also have a strong connection with film and television, and even variety shows may be developed.

Zhu Pengwei concluded that in the in-depth excavation in 2016, a very simple inspiration may be extended to an output value of 100 billion yuan. "Return of the Great Sage" is a new model." He said that this animated film is considered to be the best animated film in China. At first, it was just the idea of a few people sitting together and chatting. After the chat, it needed money, so dozens of people gathered it together. Then one person was enlarged to five people, and then to seventy or eighty people. The value generated extended from 500,000 yuan to several million yuan.

Therefore, Zhu Pengwei asserted that the development of China's cultural industry must leverage new financial models. The new IP finance model is the integration of Internet finance +IP. One is equity crowdfunding and the other is project crowdfunding.

However, Xu Yuanxiang reminded that the market investment risks of domestic films are quite surprisingly consistent with investment in China's stock market-80% of film and stock investors are losing money, and less than 20% of investment institutions and investors are actually making profits in the box office and stock market.

He pointed out that the movie-watching psychology of ordinary audiences is very similar to the psychological basis for choosing to buy a stock. What kind of audience and investors there are, there is what kind of film market and capital market, just like a successful movie requires super IP text, star lineup, and topicality to attract more than 80% of online ticket buyers to enter the movie theater. A stock that attracts retail investors must also have a good mass base, star institutions and investor platforms. Basic elements such as concept and theme hype.

"In our society with subsistence and subsistence with China characteristics, or the social structure in transition called the 'middle-income trap', respecting the market and market rules is probably a basic risk control strategy that both IP investment and financial investment must abide by." he said.

Editor: Nancy