Former CEO of Baidu Literature Liu Feng is in charge of Cat Film: The core of IP operations is users

As an Internet company manager who was born as a product manager, Liu Feng entered the public eye with the aura of "the first CEO of Xunlei Watch Video" and "the first CEO of Baidu Literature Group". "Like Marvel, making IP into a series and creating a worldview is the original fundamental point, not to hoard IP to make a difference." This is Liu Feng's attitude towards IP operations.

June in Beijing this year was cooler than in previous years. The reporter came to the reception room of Liu Feng, the new CEO of Cat Film, a leader in the IP operation industry, and met this figure who left many "legends" in the industry. Liu Feng was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, more like an Internet IT person than the fashionable media people interviewed by the reporter in the past.

When the reporter was doing his homework before the interview, he learned that Liu Feng, as an Internet company manager who was a product manager, entered the public with the aura of "Xunlei Watch Video, the first CEO of Baidu Literature Group".

Now that he has left the familiar industry and came to Maopian, a field that arouses infinite curiosity from the company name to the industry (IP operation). What prompted him to choose such a new direction? The reporter began his interview with Liu Feng with a series of questions.

Liu Feng, CEO of Cat Film

, was born from the preferences of users, and the development of the industry came from the integration of resources

. As the earliest generation of Internet users in China, Liu Feng has always liked to read novels on the Internet since the birth of online literature. He has also written novels himself, and he has a lot of knowledge about the development and evolution of the domestic online literature market.

In the three years he led Xunlei to become a pioneer in the video industry, he noticed the role of online literature as a bridge connecting the cultural content market and the Internet market.

In 2013, he discovered that derivative products expanded around literary IP (intellectual property rights) would be a major trend, so he joined Baidu after leaving Xunlei and served as the first CEO of Baidu Literature, and achieved good results.

Later, when Liu Feng met Wang Yuren, the founder of Cat Film, he had two people who had exchanged and cooperated as early as the Thunder era. After a long conversation, he found that their ideas for IP development coincided. Therefore, in the pursuit of many "next home", he parachuted "Cat Film" as CEO.

Regarding IP operations, a term that has been very active recently, Liu Feng has a different understanding from most people in the film and television industry. In this regard, the reporter specially selected several hot topics to discuss with Liu Feng.

The linkage between popular IP movies and games has been very successful, but the subsequent undirection

explanation for the IP operation routine is probably to use the current popularity of IP to purchase and invest in some excellent works, support authors, explore screenwriters, directors, and cooperate with game makers. Together, create an industrial chain centered on IP.

But in fact, Liu Feng also admitted that this goal is not easy to achieve:

"Difficult. The rise of smartphones and the popularity of the mobile phone novel reading model have indeed caused IP to become popular in recent years, especially in 15 years. If in the past few years, it was only games that saw this gold mine, in 15 years, it was film and television, games, animation, and capital that have all begun to engage crazily and comprehensively, even making IP a must-have strategic reserve resource for content producers."

"But most manufacturers are basically hyping up the concept of IP. IP has become a means of capital operation, and it is difficult to form a situation where novels, games, films and films are integrated and blossomed from multiple points."

This is indeed the case. Previously, some film and television dramas adapted from popular novels on the market had mediocre results, or after the adapted film and television dramas sold well, no one cared about games. For example, last year's "Nirvana in Fire" was not good at games, and there was also the game "The Great Ruler". The games were booming, but the films and television were mediocre.

"With the popularity of literary IP, a large number of games, novels, and films have changed each other. There are always successes. For example," Hua Qian Gu "has made great achievements in film, television, novels and even games. How do you explain this?" The author defeated Liu Feng in a "timely manner".

Liu Feng smiled,"This is the second difficulty I want to talk about."

"Flower Thousand Bones" appeared when audiences were tired of magic dramas adapted from a large number of old themes such as "Feng Shen Bang" and "Journey to the West". In this way, the fantasy themes with women as the protagonists quickly attracted female otaku fans; before the launch, the show's game offline promotion was also done well, driving traffic.

"But what we want to achieve more is that even if the TV is over, the game can continue to develop well, rather than when the TV is over and the game will fall into a trough."

"In addition to the superficial prosperity, the linkage effect of IP's cinematography and tourism depends on whether the subsequent development can be sustainable. It looks good, but IP with weak follow-up, like fast food, does not have long-term impact."

Cat Film's Purpose: Operationalize users and form a series of products.

"So, when you become CEO of Cat Film, will you pay more attention to the user's subsequent experience in IP projects?"

"Yes. In fact, a big problem in the literature industry is that there is no user concept, nor does the traditional film and television industry, because the traditional film and television industry does not have its own platform, so there is no so-called concept of circle users. Games do have user concepts, but they are not integrated with film, television and literature. These three are isolated from each other and cannot combine their strength."

When talking about the planning of the Cat Film IP project, Liu Feng began to talk eloquently: "The planning of Cat Film is to operate customers, rather than using IP as a reselling tool like other manufacturers. How to do it specifically?"

Liu Feng obviously has his own answer to this question:

First, make a special APP. Take "The Gate of the Mysterious World" as an example. There must be tens of millions of users who have read this novel, but they are all distributed in different applications, such as starting point, palm reading, post bar, etc.

"Based on the book content, we create an APP to organize these core users together, provide you with more content outside of books, select some topics to run activities for users to communicate with each other, and then wait for games or movies to go online. When it comes, it is easy to guide them and gain popularity almost without advertising."

Secondly, when a movie drama or game is launched, other series of products will inevitably be launched based on the content. For example, fan comics, film and television reading, radio dramas and even more exclusive analysis and reviews, as well as surrounding products. Let users enthusiastically participate in it after watching movies and TV dramas and playing games.

The planning of cat films is different from all current literary websites, film, television, and game companies. Cat films value users more. Only the users that they can seize can they unite with all platforms on the Internet. When the "Gate of the Mysterious World" APP that Cat Film is working on will have millions of activities a month, and it will be easy to finalize it when negotiating film, television or game cooperation with front-line downstream content producers.

From this point of view, the IP project planning of cat films is indeed very different from that of traditional manufacturers. Whether it is a novel, a game or a film and television, cat films start based on users 'interests and end with users' continuous attention. The whole process is only operating users rather than operating IP hype capital. After this cycle, it may be an effective operation model for the entire IP industry.

IP's biggest enemy:

The entire communication process with Liu Feng was very easy. Liu Feng seemed confident when talking about his family's unique user operation concept. But when the author asked "Why is the IP that capital poured into is not thriving, but is still groping for progress?" Liu Feng began to become serious.

"In the final analysis, it is still because capital is growing crazily and the industry is impetuous." As we all know, the entire market economy is not very good at present, various indices are not satisfactory, and capital cannot exist in banks. Suddenly, when a counterattack case was encountered, capital began to be invested in IP without any serious planning. How should this industry operate step by step?

Finally, Liu Feng stood up and said meaningfully:

"When a good IP is incubated, we must not only stir it up, but also use users to run the company with users, rather than reselling IP. Cat tablets are in this regard. It has been running for a long time. The team and I both feel that we need to settle down to make IP. Like Marvel, we need to make IP series and create a worldview. This is the original fundamental point, not to hoard IP to make a difference."

Editor: vian