The quality is uneven, and more than half of them are difficult to return. Where is the road for big online movies?

This blue ocean of investment, which is optimistic in the industry, is compared to the "Hollywood B-rated film market", but it still gives people the feeling of "shoddy and shoddy films are in the ascendant." At the same time, the lack of a mature and reliable profit model makes it difficult for more than half of NetU companies to recover their investment costs.

It seemed that overnight, the film and television industry began to prepare for "big online movies." In various WeChat friends groups in the industry, you can often see bosses holding funds in their hands to find scripts, directors, and actors for the "Netda" project. Even Hong Kong's famous comedy director Wang Jing has quietly separated himself to shoot big online movies. His first Internet University movie "My Best Goddess" even invited Zheng Yijian to star.

In 2016, the development trend of big online movies was extraordinary. The number of films produced throughout the year exceeded 3500, and the film market value has exceeded 1 billion yuan. However, this blue ocean of investment, which is optimistic in the industry and compared to the "Hollywood B-rated film market", still gives people the feeling of "shoddy and shoddy films are in the ascendant." At the same time, the lack of a mature and reliable profit model makes it difficult for more than half of NetU companies to recover their investment costs. At the Internet Film Forum at the Beijing Film Festival on the 21st, industry leaders from iQiyi, Tencent and Youku shared their views on the prospects of China's Internet market.

Perhaps because it has a similar name to Chen Kaige's movie "The Taoist Goes Down the Mountain", in 2015, a big online movie called "The Taoist Goes Down the Mountain" became popular. This film, which invested only 280,000 yuan and took 8 days to finish filming, finally earned 26 million yuan in box office on iQiyi via pay-on-demand.

This low-investment and high-yield model has attracted a large amount of capital. Last year, our State Grid's large market showed explosive growth, with more than 3500 units produced throughout the year, and the market value has exceeded 1 billion yuan.

So what exactly is "Netda"? The usual definition is: online audio-visual content distributed through the Internet, lasting up to 60 minutes, and having complete content and basically conforming to the rules of film narrative. Liu Kailuo, president of Youku Heyi Pictures, does not fully agree with this. He believes that the Internet is just a transmission channel and cannot classify movies. However, the mobile, fragmented, and relaxed movie-watching habits do make NetDa's content selection and shooting methods different from traditional big-screen movies. Therefore, Wang Jing, who started as a comedy director, unsurprisingly became the first big-screen director to try a big online movie. "My Best Goddess", which was produced by him and starred by Zheng Yijian, set a new record for online theaters with 10 million traffic every 24 hours.

Liu Kailuo analyzed: "If one day, the projector of theater movies retrieves data from the Internet, will the theater show also be called online movies? I prefer to use terminal scenes or users to use different methods to distinguish the types of movies. Users 'needs for content may vary according to scenarios. I can chat and watch while eating at home, and my needs for content will be different. In addition, different terminals will make the creator's methods different. The technical content of scenery, props, and lighting requirements is different."

According to Dou Lili, general manager of iQiyi Online Film Development Center, like many Internet products,"sharing and interaction" are the core needs of users for Netcom, which is also the vitality of Netcom that distinguishes it from traditional movies. At present, platforms like AB Station and the method of bullet screens do meet some of the interactive needs of young users, but there is still a lot of room in the future.

Dou Lili pointed out that users born in the 1990s and 2000s have become the backbone of movie-watching forces. They do have a need to complain and share, so how should they adapt? Just mentioned "In the Name of the People". This drama has many people born in the 1990s and 2000s who participated in it, forming "Sha Li CP","Han Dong boys","Secretary Dakang emoticons", etc., which can spread among the post-00s. It can be seen that they have a need for sharing and interaction on the Internet. However, what we have done so far is just "complain", and there is still a lot of room for development in the future.

Although its name has successfully caught the popularity of "The Taoist Goes Down the Mountain", the "Taoist Goes Down the Mountain" series has still laid the negative tone of Netcom's "Internet piracy, copycat, and homogeneous content." For a time, zombie and tomb robbing themes similar to this series became rampant. Surveys show that currently more than 40% of online movies are thriller and suspense themes, and more than 30% of comedy and love themes. Taboo themes in traditional films and television such as "gang fighting and soft pornography" have become good helpers for Internet University to make money.

In Dou Lili's view,"big data" is the driving force behind this phenomenon. User habits and preferences held by Internet platforms are a double-edged sword. If we blindly use big data as the highest baton of creation, it will inevitably form an "endless cycle". The current swarm of zombie and Taoist themes in the market is a good example.

What kind of content is the most profitable based on big data? Dou Lili said: "I tell everyone that erotic content must be the most profitable. But can we do it? No. We have accumulated a lot of data, including user gender, source, age, including peak viewing in the movie, and which point is most sensitive to. We all have very detailed data. But this data cannot be used as our creative guidance. Whichever type is good, we will produce it in a swarm. What is the reference significance of the data? Based on the user's awareness and preferences, let the video be accurately hit to the target user after it comes out."

In addition to the low threshold for shooting, the rapid return of investment is the reason for the outbreak of the Internet market. Optimistic people believe that today's domestic "Internet Media" is comparable to Hollywood's "B-rated film" market. For a long time, Hollywood's low-cost, crude production, and voluntary abandonment of mainstream theaters have indeed filled a large market gap because of their clever positioning of specialized CD-ROMs and paid channels. However, one fact that cannot be ignored lies here: in 2015, at least half of the major Internet studios were unable to recover their profits at all.

Chang Bin said that some companies produce 7 or 8 Netbus units a year, and the cost of each unit is strictly controlled within 500,000 yuan. It is a small production. Of course, the needs for directors must meet the needs of stories and scripts, but the KPI is not to exceed the budget, because budget overruns may lead to many directors. But the 500,000 (red line) did make money, and this model can make money.

Advertising placement, pay-on-demand split and patch advertising split are currently three fixed ways for NetDa to recover capital. Among them,"pay-on-demand split accounts" is a profitable model for Netcom that the industry is generally optimistic about and considers to be quite developable. Take iQiyi as an example. The on-demand price of a Netcom is 5 yuan. If viewers watch for more than 6 minutes, the backstage will be regarded as a valid click, and the producer will receive revenue ranging from 1.5 yuan to 3.5 yuan. At this stage, this kind of split accounts is actually more regarded as a subsidy from video platforms to NetDa producers in order to cultivate high-quality content.

Liu Kailuo believes that in the future, it is expected to introduce more dimensional data to expand the current revenue structure consisting of "one-piece on-demand, member income, advertising, and rewards". "These several charging forms will also have different requirements for content. For single points, you need to have stronger means to promote users 'desire to purchase; for members, you need to have stronger means to hold users' stickiness; for rewards, you really need to do a good job and impress others. Next, we will also make new attempts in the split account model and introduce other new dimensions of data such as duration to make the split account more scientific."

Editor: Nancy