Internet companies have cross-border film and television content, weak genes and low sense of existence

At a time when the environment is unstable and competition is becoming increasingly fierce, how can these Internet film companies with weaker content genes compared to Tencent and Ali really live a "sense of existence"?

Original title: Internet companies are busy making movies and television, how to create a sense of presence?

"Bosses in China seem to set up film companies whenever they have money. I don't have this hobby. We're determined not to shoot, just to be upstream." Dangdang CEO Li Guoqing said. In August 2016, the Dangdang Film project with a capital of 100 million yuan registered by Beijing Dangdang Information Technology Co., Ltd. was officially signed.

There are many Internet companies like Dangdang that are "not doing proper business". In recent years, 58 Tongcheng, Xiaomi, Jumei Youpin, Tuniu Travel, Douban, Baidu glutinous rice, Xiattech... these companies that seem not to be so related to film and television have all established their own film companies first or later.

Just last week, the "Three Squirrels", which started selling nuts on the Internet, also joined the film and television cross-border. The newly established Three Squirrels Pictures will cooperate with LeTV Pictures. "The implantation of film and television dramas is just the beginning. We also need to make our own Squirrel Pictures, make our own film and television dramas, and invest in big movies." Zhang Liaoyuan, founder and CEO of Three Squirrels, vowed.

However, it is not as easy as Internet companies want to succeed in the film market as imagined.

Take online movies, which are favored by small and medium-sized film companies, as an example. Although in 2016, the output of Netcom reached more than 2500, ushering in an explosion, according to quarterly reports from the relevant film and television industry, the number of online movies (Netcom) started in the first quarter of 2017 has dropped precipitously, and the number of Netcom Group News and the expected number of launches also decreased by 75% and 69% respectively compared with the same period last year.

Why do you have to do film industry?

Tuniu Tourism is one of the earliest Internet companies to "launch".

In November 2014,"Lao Yu Recommendation" was launched, introducing tourist routes in Singapore, Thailand, Mauritius, Reunion, Paris and other places. The team of Tuniu Film and Television Company also developed from the shooting team of the program "Lao Yu Recommended". In October 2015, Yu Dunde, founder and CEO of Tuniu, announced the establishment of Tuniu Film and Television Media Co., Ltd. at his 9th anniversary product launch conference. Initially, it will produce "Lao Yu Recommended","Let's Go","Lai Dazui","The Cow Man Comes" and "Reunion Journey". These programs are not only broadcast on Tencent Video, Youku, iQiyi and other video websites, but also broadcast on TV, terminals, subways, and trains.

"Tourism and film and television are closely related, and the driving effect of popular films and television on tourism has been proved." Yu Dunde said that the previous "Flowers and the Teenagers" has made Italian tourism products popular.

It is not difficult to see that Tuniu's film and television content focuses on tourism. Through film and television content, users can understand travel destinations and attract tourists to tourist destinations.

Tuniu is not the only company that uses film industry to assist its main business.

In January 2016, Jumei Premium established the film and television company Jumei Film and Television. The casting selection of its first work,"Warm String", produced by Jumei CEO Chen Ou, was completed on the show.

Chen Ou's relationship with film and television dates back to 2011. Chen Ou, who appeared on TV for the first time, rejected TV in his heart. But then, Chen Ou and his team discovered that since the launch of Chen Ou's "Speak for Yourself" series of advertisements, the popularity of Chen Ou himself and Jumei Premium Products has increased rapidly. After the outbreak of the miniseries "Women's Public Enemies" in the workplace, Chen Ou increasingly believed in the role of film and television entertainment on e-commerce: film and television attract attention and fans turn into traffic.

Chen Ou once told reporters that Jumei Premium has been deeply involved in film and television. The question he has been thinking about is that the so-called "Jumei Fashion" is not only as simple as selling cosmetics, but can well attract young users through entertainment marketing. He believes that Jumei has four advantages in doing film and television: Jumei has a lot of resources to help film and television works be implanted; film and television can be combined with e-commerce to realize it well; Jumei is doing a fashion industry and has more industry resources and can better access to resources; your personal influence and resources can also help film and television dramas spread.

In comparison, Film Industry and Douban Film Industry may have more content genes. Their purpose in doing film industry is probably not simply to assist their main business and increase user stickiness. The film industry is expected to be profitable.

The products of Xiucai Technology include the live broadcast platform "One Live Broadcast", the Short Video platforms "Second-Shot" and "Little Coffee Show". Most of the users on these platforms are young people. Therefore, the content of the film industry is also youthful.

On the morning of July 8, 2016, the first original homemade workplace comedy "Intern" produced by Yi Yi Pictures was launched at Beijing Qishu Creative Park. Jing Liang, vice president of technology, broadcast the start-up process on "One Live Broadcast". The filming process of "Intern Man" will also be broadcast live throughout the entire process, and the signing process of Liu Mengmeng, the actress who plays Duanmu Mu, will also be broadcast live on "One Live Broadcast". According to Science and Technology, 650,000 live viewers watched the signing day.

In December last year, Ishijia Pictures launched the funny miniseries "Routine Your Sister", with a total of 15 episodes, each episode of 3 minutes, and updated every Wednesday and Friday. In March this year, Xixia Pictures and Photosynthetic Films jointly produced the online short drama "Adam and Eve". The first season has 10 episodes, each episode of 5 minutes. According to the company, the show has more than 100 million views on the entire network, and the highest number of clicks on a single episode has exceeded 12 million.

Compared with the relatively weak position of Dangdang Pictures and 58 Pictures in the entire company, the film industry is regarded as an important layout by the company's technology, and it is said that it will start from online short dramas and gradually expand to online long dramas, online variety shows, online big movies and even theater movies.

Douban Pictures 'commercialization intentions are even more obvious.

At the beginning of June last year, Douban Reading launched the "Film and Television Adaptations" column, hoping that by introducing creators such as screenwriters and producers, the works on Douban Reading will have the opportunity to be transformed into movies, thereby exerting greater commercial value. A typical case is "Thirty-Three Days of Lovelorn Love". Although this movie has little to do with Douban Pictures, it can prove the feasibility of Douban Pictures 'ideas: the story was originally a post on Douban recording the life of lovelorn love. This post was seen by director Teng Huatao, who contacted the author Bao Jingjing to buy the copyright.

The reporter learned from insiders that before the establishment of the film industry, some film and television companies and producers had already approached Douban to buy original novels. Currently, Douban has sold the film and television adaptation rights of many novels. Among them, the rights to the science fiction novel "The Man Chasing the Sun" are sold to New Liying for millions, and Douban Pictures will jointly develop it with it.

Profitability is a problem that has plagued Douban for many years. The original e-book sales model has become quite outdated, and Douban hopes to further gain revenue through copyright management.

In August last year, Douban founder A Bei issued an internal letter stating that after more than half a year of testing the water, he would now officially set foot in film production and establish a film company. In terms of specific processes, Douban Pictures will select good Douban reading novels, organize screenwriters, directors and creators, and participate in the investment and development of subsequent films.

In addition to the film industry, Douban has frequently tested other commercial areas in the past two years: shopping guides, paid audio, paid graphic columns, etc. However, regarding Douban's film industry, many users jokingly asked: "Will Douban Movies give Douban Pictures high scores?"

How to implement it: Investment and implantation are the highlights

. After the purpose is clarified, the behavior of the film industry naturally becomes easy to understand. Unlike Tencent Pictures, Penguin Pictures, and Alibaba Pictures 'investment in the entire industry chain, the actions of small and medium-sized Internet film companies mostly focus on investment and implantation.

Dangdang has a large number of reader comments and e-book reading data. CEO Li Guoqing said: "Dangdang is not just a second-party dealer who buys film and television adaptation rights and sells them to film and television companies. The way we make a profit is to participate in the investment and participate extensively. As long as we incubate, we participate in it."

58 Tongcheng Pictures was established on May 8 last year. After its establishment, it successively participated in the investment of two films,"Throne of the Elf" and "Teenagers". Affected by the sluggish overall box office of movies in the second half of last year, the box office fell short. However, 58 Pictures told reporters that it has achieved good returns on investment in the two TV series "Women Are Not Strong" and "Partner".

"In 2017, the investment pace of 58 Tongcheng Pictures continued to advance. The first things to meet with you this year were the movie" Miss Puffs "and the TV series" Partner ". At the same time, there are two or three films under production and development." The person in charge of 58 Tongcheng Pictures told reporters: "58 Tongcheng Pictures plays different roles in different stages of the project. There are many early project participation links, and it is possible to participate in the entire process from early project excavation and incubation, script direction to mid-to-late development, marketing, etc., for example, the "Juvenile" project, including scripts, actors, etc., all exerted their energy at the beginning of the project establishment. For development and mature projects, 58 Tongcheng Pictures will give full play to its advantages such as market publicity in addition to investment."

In fact, 58's investment in film and television preceded the establishment of film industry. Around 2013, 58 Tongcheng began to gradually understand the operating model of the film and television industry through film and television implants and artist endorsements. Although 58 Pictures currently has no more than 10 members, it does gather the overall resources of the brand public relations department of 58 Group.

The person in charge of 58 Tongcheng Pictures told reporters: "Within the group, 58 Tongcheng Pictures is more regarded as part of marketing communication. On the premise of communication as the purpose, 58 Tongcheng Pictures pays more attention to the feedback effect that film content has on the communication and marketing of the business itself."

The same is true for Xiaomi Pictures.

On January 4, 2016, Xiaomi co-founder Li Wanqiang (Weibo) stated that he had ended his retreat and would be responsible for Xiaomi Market and Xiaomi Pictures in the future. In fact, Xiaomi Pictures has been very low-key in the year after its announcement of its establishment. At the beginning of this year, it even handed over the work of the publicity team to the company's marketing system. But this does not mean that Xiaomi will give up the publicity business, but rather allows the film industry to better contribute to the brand.

The police and gangster film "Bomb Removal Expert" released on May Day was starred and produced by Andy Lau, and Xiaomi Pictures participated in the investment. Tang Mu, president of Xiaomi Pictures, said: "We hope to help the" Bomb Dismantling Expert "through Xiaomi Pictures 'unique multi-terminal and multi-channel Internet advantages."

In other words, Xiaomi Pictures will use Xiaomi's resources to promote movies, and "Bomb Removal Expert" also confirms its "channel" identity in the film industry.

These resources include: Xiaomi mobile phones, Xiaomi TVs/boxes, MIUI systems, Xiaomi New Media Matrix (according to Xiaomi, the number of fans exceeds 200 million), and 60 Xiaomi Home flagship stores covering 25 provinces. Li Wanqiang once said that Xiaomi Pictures will not be involved in production in the future. He wrote in a circle of friends: "The film industry is a department of more than a dozen individuals. Its core function is to assist the Xiaomi brand, mainly doing investment and implantation work... Our publicity is to dispatch Xiaomi's own internal and new media resources to help the cooperative films expand among Xiaomi's nearly 200 million user base."

"Nowadays, more concepts proposed in film publicity are resource replacement and integrated marketing." A project leader of a film promotion company told reporters: "Common film and television publicity and marketing methods include hard advertising such as street signs, holding press conferences, organizing media interviews, Weibo and WeChat topic marketing, etc., but integrated marketing is actually the most affordable. For example, the protagonist of "Cosmetic Surgery Diary" appeared in a 7-Eleven convenience store and placed movie posters in various 7-Eleven chain stores. 7-Eleven played the role of a publicity channel."

A person close to Xiaomi Pictures told reporters that the cooperation method for each film is different. Small cooperation may just be to implant products in the film, promote them by both parties, and exchange resources. For large collaborations such as investment, Xiaomi Pictures will also be the producer of films.

The film industry mentioned above also has advantages in terms of channels. Nishipai, Yishipai live broadcast, small celebrity shows and Weibo connected by Nishipai are all important positions for artists to create and publicize films and films.

Fortune is always a disaster, and the main positioning of investment and implantation also portends an embarrassing situation: most Internet film operators are not professionals in the film and television industry, and the film industry itself plays more of a "brand" role within the group, and even belongs to the group's brand public relations department.

An Internet film company practitioner told reporters: "Many film industry investment businesses are actually inseparable from brands, and are always accompanied by resource replacement and brand implantation."

On the other hand, whether it is Xiaomi Pictures, Douban Pictures or Tuniu Pictures, their leaders, Tang Mu, president of Xiaomi Pictures, Dai Qin, vice president of Douban and head of Douban Reading, Geng Xipeng, general manager of Tuniu Films, are not film and television majors.

Internet film and television industry, which was born under these prerequisites, has difficulty living a sense of existence at both the internal company group level and the external film and television industry level.

Editor: Nancy