Expansion roadmap in the lithography era: Using capital to seek group layout

The high-yield box office of 44 billion yuan a year has catalyzed the emergence of hot money in the film and television industry. As the surge in box office capital continues to increase, the pan-entertainment industry, which has focused on the layout of film and television since the second half of last year, has also become a new investment outlet.

Original title: A movie ticket company's expansion roadmap.

The high-yield box office of 44 billion yuan a year has catalyzed the emergence of hot money in the film and television industry. As the surge in box office capital continues to increase, the pan-entertainment industry, which has focused on the film and television layout since the second half of last year, has also become a new investment outlet. In the first four months of this year alone, there were more than 150 entertainment investments. Among them, the rapidly rising industry upstart microfilm era (hereinafter referred to as "micro-imaging") is also very active in capital investment, and the amount of investment has already surpassed that of film and television industry giants such as Light Media, Huace Film and Television, and Aofei Entertainment.

The four companies raised approximately 500 million yuan

. Yien data shows that from January to April this year, a total of 158 institutions participated in investment in the entertainment industry. In terms of the amount of investment, the active institutions include Chuangfeng Capital, Enlight Media, Jingwei China, Jiuhe Venture Capital, Microfilm Capital, Aofei Entertainment and Huace Film and Television, etc. Among them, Microfilm has invested in Warm Current Culture, Orange Sky Golden Harvest, White Culture Media, and Laike Yingxiang Media, with a total financing amount of about 500 million yuan.

In the same period, Enlight Media invested in Tiexue. com, Orange Image, Xitian Film and Television, and Domi Music, focusing on the layout of film and television, artists and music. Huace Film and Television invested in Hotcast Technology, Qingdao Wanda Film and Television, Lanting Digital, and Aofei Entertainment invested in Linglong Culture, Interactive Vision, and TVR Time Machine. Huace Film and Aofei Entertainment focused on VR content production. Different from the focus of the three film and television industry leaders, Microfilm pays more attention to theaters and film and television companies, indicating that on the basis of the ticketing platform, the pace of seizing cities and land upstream and downstream of the film industry chain is faster.

Up to now, Microfilm has participated in investing in more than ten high-quality companies in the field of content production, including Kaixin Mahua, Junshe Culture, Shanyuyue Film and Television, Great Shenquan, Blank Film and Television, Laike Media, and Warm Stream Culture; in the field of distribution and marketing, it has invested in companies such as Microfilm, Lingsi Legend, and Beike Culture; in the field of entertainment consumption scenarios, it has invested in theaters such as Bingao, Zhonghuan, Orange Sky Jiahe, and animation industry-related companies such as Huaqiang Culture, Force Animation, and Mengai Animation.

The

lithography era, which was officially founded by capital giants such as Wanda Tencent in 2014, has since developed into the forefront of online ticketing platforms. With ticketing as an incision, lithography has continued to deepen its efforts in the field of pan-entertainment, allowing lithography to connect many upstream and downstream industry chains. Resources have formed a complete industrial layout from original content, development and production, distribution and marketing to derivative sales. The rapid growth of lithography is inseparable from the huge capital power behind it.

Starting from the A round led by Tencent and China Cultural Industry Fund, to the completion of US$105 million in Series B and US$1.5 billion in Series C financing in April and November last year, the number of shareholders of Microfilm has reached more than a dozen. In April this year, Microfilm completed C+ financing, with an amount of up to 3 billion yuan. Moreover, Microfilm's total microfilm capital is nearly 6 billion yuan. In the three major fields of film, performance, and sports, it has invested in nearly 40 companies, with a total market value of more than 30 billion yuan. Coupled with the latest 3 billion yuan in C+ financing, Microfilm will take 10 billion yuan in capital to deeply deploy the pan-entertainment market.

At present, Weibo has completed four rounds of financing and already has many heavyweight shareholders, such as Tencent, Wanda, Chinese Holdings, China Cultural Industry Investment Fund, Cultural Capital China, etc., and has gathered many Internet and entertainment industry leaders such as Ma Huateng, Wang Jianlin, and Li Ruigang. Wei Pengju, dean of the Institute of Culture and Economics at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that most of the capital integrated into lithography has cultural industry genes, which is a major accelerator for the integration and development of lithography resources.

Using capital to seek group layout,

lithography, which relies on big shots, does not want to just sell tickets. Lin Ning, CEO of lithography era, said,"The lithography era's unique advantages in the fields of mobile social marketing and user big data can help the investment projects in the market. Good growth has been achieved; and through the layout of capital in the pan-entertainment industry, the lithography era deeply connects high-quality content and industry resources."

At present, online ticketing platforms mainly include Cat Eye Movies, Taobao Movies, Baidu Nuomi, Douban Movies, Shiguang, etc. As there are more and more players on online ticketing platforms, the competition in this industry is becoming more and more fierce. As ticket subsidies can no longer meet the market expansion, various platforms have also begun to make efforts in the upstream and downstream industries, and the microfilm under Guevara's income has already begun to be deeply deployed in the pan-entertainment industry. This also means that more group cultural companies will enter the oligarchy era in the future.

Wei Pengju said that cultural enterprises are segmented into fields, the scale is too small, and the business model is not good. Cultural companies have typical economies of scale and scope effects. The collectivization development of the entire industry chain is a trend and a basic model. This is for asset-light cultural companies. For companies, it can not only avoid risks, but also be more beneficial. The film and television industry has always been favored by capital, and film and television + the Internet has the most future. From the perspective of the development of the cultural industry,"content is king, channels are hegemony." Microfilm, which originated in Internet channels, can easily be built into cultural groups based on the use of content.

It is true that the industry frequently increases capital at high temperatures and is difficult to reduce

capital to promote the rapid development of the film and television industry. However, too much capital intervention will not only increase competition, but also lead to the phenomenon of capital interfering in film and television works and the capital game of using star IP to raise the stock price of A shares. Since Tangde Film and Television announced the acquisition of a 51% stake in Fan Bingbing's subsidiary, Aimeshen, there have been constant voices questioning its stock price speculation. Some industry insiders pointed out that "film and television capital is a little scary." Moreover, data shows that in 2015, the film and television industry set off a wave of mergers and acquisitions, with 76 M & A cases involving 200 billion yuan in capital. However, there are also many M & A incidents that cannot be completed and bet on performance.

"Although platforms such as lithography have great advantages in Internet channels, there are also many uncertainties in IP content development." Wei Pengju believes. With the competition for capital, high-quality IP has become a scarce resource, which has further exacerbated investment risks. Moreover, there are many cases where IP copyright has increased 10 times or even 100 times in three years, and copyright fees often cost millions or tens of millions of yuan. Let a bubble emerge in this industry.

According to Fu Kun, managing partner of Shengshi Huayun, although the popularity of capital to the film and television industry will be difficult to cool down in the short term, you should not gamble on an investment event with a gambling mentality. Too much capital is injected into film and television and other fields, which is particularly easy to cause start-ups. Companies are expanding rapidly, and overheating capital will have a counter-effect. What is most feared is irresponsible and low-quality film and television dramas. Good projects require resources, and money cannot be blindly wasted.

Editor: vian