"Pan-entertainment" in Ma Huateng's proposal for the Two Sessions: IP value reassessment, content will become a "tipping point"?

"Brother Xiaoma" put forward the "Recommendations on Promoting the Development of my Country's Digital Content Industry Driven by Innovation"(hereinafter referred to as the "Recommendations"), and repeatedly emphasized the value of "high-quality IP" and is the core of the "pan-entertainment" strategy. The proposal has hit the circle of friends and major news portals in the past two days, because Brother Xiao Ma declared: "At present, we should be the one with the best conditions to do a good job in pan-entertainment in China."

In fact, Tencent proposed the concept of "pan-entertainment" as early as four years ago. The reason is very simple: entertainment and the Internet are inherently closely integrated, and the film and television industry is still in a stage of competition among others, and has not reached the level of Hollywood's six major monopolies like the United States, which means huge opportunities.

Over the past four years, the three BAT giants have begun to see the huge value of the integration of "entertainment + Internet" and decisively entered the entertainment industry. At this year's two sessions, Ma Huateng unexpectedly talked about the value of "high-quality IP" and said that "Tencent's strategy in 2016 One of the layout is literature and animation." This shows that as the source of literature and animation, the value of IP will be re-evaluated.

After four years of deep cultivation, what information did Ma Huateng reveal behind the "pan-entertainment strategy" proposed at this time?

The "value reassessment" of high-quality IP has made copyright a "entry" bargaining chip.

"The literary websites we now hold a controlling share have many good IPs. In fact, we didn't know the price in the past, and they sold it at a low price. Now we find that the film and television series were so popular that we developed from our side back then, but after seeing it developed over the years, its value has finally been reflected." Ma Huateng said when answering questions from reporters from the two sessions.

Ma Huateng believes that different cultural products are now becoming more and more integrated. From anime literature to film and television dramas, movies and even games, and even subdivided into stage dramas, performances, etc., they are all in the same line and were separated in the past. This trend is beneficial for developing IP.

2015 is called the "First Year of IP", and the successful film and television transformation of IPs such as "Tomb Robber Notes","Ghost Blows Out the Lamp", and "Thousand Bones of Flowers" have created a more insane flame in the IP market.

Now, everyone is sitting at the gambling table. Whoever has more high-quality IP will have more chips to win the "pan-entertainment" gamble.

Tencent has an advantage in this regard. While other Internet companies still need to buy to expand their IP inventory, Tencent has easily owned a large number of high-quality IPs.

For example, the comic book "Dead Brother", known as the myth of national comics, has more than 4.8 billion clicks, and the animation has more than 1.4 billion clicks. The Reading Group, which is formed by the integration of Tencent Literature and Shanda Literature, currently owns nearly 10 million literary works, covering all 50 major types of online literature. At present, there are about 4 million original creators in the reading ecosystem, which means that IP will be produced continuously. The reading group is equivalent to having its own "IP manufacturing factory."

After IP resources are re-evaluated, Tencent has a powerful "moat" that can be systematically and comprehensively developed and adapted into films, animation, videos, games, etc. For Tencent, now is the best time to build a lot of money.

BAT is rushing to the "pan-entertainment" battlefield, and content will detonate everything?

While Tencent is laying out "pan-entertainment", other giants are also promoting the "pan-entertainment" strategy conservatively or aggressively.

First of all, Ali's pan-entertainment layout is full of capital imprints. Jack Ma spent tens of billions of yuan investing in the film, television and media industries in one year. Today, there are many pan-entertainment companies in the "Ali Family", and how to integrate and coordinate with each other is still suspense;

as Baidu, the latest in the "pan-entertainment" strategic layout among the three BAT giants, also established Huace Iqiyi Film and Television in August 2014 to attack the film market in one fell swoop. Not long ago, Yanhong Li and iQiyi founder Gong Yu also acquired Baidu's stake in iQiyi at a valuation of US$2.8 billion and sought to go public; the establishment of Baidu's Film Division was also supported by the glutinous rice entrance.

Major traditional film and television companies are also transforming to "Internet +": Huayi Brothers has redivided the internal structure into three business divisions: the film and television entertainment content business group, the Internet entertainment business division and the real-life entertainment business division.

In contrast, Tencent Mutual Entertainment has entered a multi-entertainment ecosystem with video, music, and movies as the main battlefields from an Internet company with games as its deep genes. Tencent's biggest advantage over other competitors is "content"-Tencent has an IP production platform for literature and animation, which can continuously transform high-quality content into film, television, video and game projects. A good IP will bring hundreds of millions of users, such as the 2015 hit dramas "Nirvana in the Fire" and "Flower Thousand Bones", whose content was mainly born on online literature platforms.

Therefore, last year, Tencent established two companies,"Tencent Pictures" and "Penguin Pictures", and their big efforts greatly shocked the industry. However, most people in the industry cannot understand the difference between the two companies. Some people even think that Tencent is "fighting against each other."

Ma Huateng also revealed for the first time at the two sessions this year the purpose of establishing two film companies: "Penguin Pictures" aims at strategic investment as film projects, while "Tencent Pictures" focuses on IP operations and integrates Tencent's own platform or Some high-quality IP from partners are incubated into film and television projects." Ma Huateng also specifically emphasized that the general principle is still "open platforms" and "cooperation rather than competition" with other film and television companies.

The "cultural community" also learned that "Tencent Pictures" develops film and television projects based on its own IP."QQ Dazzle Dance","Rock Kingdom","QQ Speed","Corpse Brother" and "Chosen Heaven" all have a huge fan base. After "Rock Kingdom" achieved good box office results this year,"QQ Speed" is expected to be launched on the big screen. This IP, which is completely "produced and sold" by Tencent Pictures, has high hopes and will also verify whether Ma Huateng's proposed strategy of "systematically developing IP" is successful.

In addition, Tencent has also accelerated the pace of cooperation with outside countries: for example, Tencent Pictures participated in the legendary Pictures "World of Warcraft" project as a co-producer, and the two sides jointly carried out film IP exploration cooperation; cooperated with Guo Jingming to develop "Jue Ji", which carries out cooperative development in all aspects from literature, comics, movies to online dramas, web games, mobile games, etc., and does not even rule out physical development in the future; Invite the Third Uncle of Nanpai to serve as the "worldview architect" of "Brave Adventures" to explore a new model of building IP from scratch.

"Legalization" of content is the core of the pan-entertainment strategy

. Protecting intellectual property rights is a highlight of Ma Huateng's proposal for the two sessions. Judging from Tencent's current main businesses, there are serious piracy and piracy in online literature, video websites, animation, music and other businesses, and "online literature" has become the "hardest hit" of piracy.

In his proposal, Ma Huateng called online piracy a "lingering haze of the industry". The continuous mutation of new online infringement and piracy technologies and methods has increased the difficulty of law enforcement. The cost of legitimate operations has increased year by year, and investment in rights protection has continued to increase. In addition, the statutory compensation standard for infringement damage is significantly low, which restricts the sound development of the digital content industry ecology.

The biggest victims of online piracy must be copyright owners. Tencent, as a major IP hoarder, undoubtedly has serious pain from online piracy. It is said that Tencent Animation spent more than 100 million yuan on introducing copyright in 2015, and the copyright revenue lost due to piracy of the more than 10 million works of its reading group is immeasurable.

But now, the industry has gradually reached a consensus: only by adopting the "genuine" model can an industry develop truly healthily. Video websites have proved this:

for video websites, high-quality IP has become a nuclear weapon that traps high-quality users: iQiyi's VIP members exceeded 10 million in half a year, achieving 100% growth. Before that, it had accumulated two and a half years. The number of VIP members is only 700,000. iQiyi's VIP membership growth curve vividly illustrates that the paid membership market driven by legal copyrights has ushered in a full-scale explosion in 2015.

Another angle also shows that the competition for video websites has completely transformed into competition for IP and content: Tencent Video and QQ Music have entered the fast lane of development after adhering to the path of legalization. According to iResearch's latest data, Tencent Video's monthly user growth rate is much higher than the industry average, reaching 61.3%, while QQ Music ranks among the top two in the industry.

After the living space of pirated content was suppressed, high-quality genuine resources became the object of competition. Ma Huateng also mentioned the issue of "industry competition" for the first time, starting from "copyright":"The competition for film and television is very fierce. In China, it is also BAT plus LeTV, Sohu, etc., and four or five companies are still competing fiercely. There are also several music companies competing, and they are also beginning to be legalized. The legalized literature has not yet begun, but the market and potential have just been mentioned. The source of IP is literature and animation, so we should pay great attention to it."

Last year, Ma Huateng mentioned at the two sessions,"Tencent only does two things, connectors and content industry." It has elevated the status of the "content industry" in Tencent Group to a strategic level. This year, Ma Huateng's layout for "pan-entertainment" has become more firm and clear. What changes will it bring to Tencent next?

It is reported that Tencent Mutual Entertainment will have "Ecology" as the theme at the 2016 Pan-Entertainment Conference held at the end of March this year, and will have a more detailed explanation of how to implement the "IP" and "Pan-Entertainment" mentioned by Ma Huateng.

Editor: yvonne