Cheng Wu: The value of IP comes from co-construction rather than transactions,"first vertical and then horizontal" to promote IP value-added

Cheng Wu, vice president of Tencent Group and CEO of Tencent Pictures, said at the UP2016 Tencent Interactive Entertainment annual conference,"Rapid technological innovation in the Internet era has promoted the release of human emotions and imagination as never before, and promoted global cultural and creative industries. The vigorous development of. This has led to the fact that in the past year or two, the entire capital market has begun to shift from competition for user traffic to competition for content and copyright."

"The rapid technological innovation in the Internet era has promoted the release of human emotions and imagination as never before, and promoted the vigorous development of global cultural and creative industries. This has led to the fact that in the past year or two, the entire capital market has begun to shift from competition for user traffic to competition for content and copyright." On March 25, Cheng Wu, Vice President of Tencent Group and CEO of Tencent Pictures, said in his opening speech at the UP2016 Tencent Interactive Entertainment Annual Conference.

Tencent Mutual Entertainment proposed the concept of "pan-entertainment" five years ago, which is based on the multi-field symbiosis of the Internet and mobile Internet to create a fan economy for star IP, and has successively launched animation, literature, film and television based on the game business. New businesses are committed to building a new pan-entertainment ecosystem. At present, in addition to Tencent Interactive Entertainment's game industry leadership, Tencent Animation has also become China's flagship animation platform, and Reading Group has occupied an absolute dominant industrial position. Tencent Pictures, which was newly established last year, has also begun to use IP as its axis to explore greater value beyond box office.

Cheng Wu said that under Tencent's "connected" thinking and "open" strategy, pan-entertainment has gradually become Tencent's development idea in the field of "Internet + cultural and creative industry". At the same time, more and more industry partners have joined the pan-entertainment layout, which makes it truly possible to build an open, collaborative, inclusive and symbiotic pan-entertainment ecosystem.

In this process, Tencent Mutual Entertainment has not only gained growth in data and business, but is also giving more and more talented ordinary people the opportunity to show their imagination. The new value system built by the Internet is giving everyone more diverse and fairer space for expression. Cheng Wu believes that this is the most fundamental driving force behind the pan-entertainment ecosystem.

Cheng Wu also said that although the IP concept and even the pan-entertainment strategic thinking have quickly resonated with the industry, we must also see that China's creative industries still need to be improved in terms of polishing the quality of works and improving the industrial cooperation mechanism. For the future exploration of pan-entertainment, the entire industry needs higher consciousness and more consensus.

Based on this, he proposed three unchanging principles for Tencent Mutual Entertainment for IP exploration in the pan-entertainment era:

1. Awareness is not equal to IP, and IP is a carrier of user emotions verified by the market. High-quality works are just the starting point of IP. They need to experience symbiosis in multiple fields to truly form IP value that transcends specific platforms and forms, and to have infinite extended vitality.

2. IP value comes from co-construction rather than transaction, and "vertical first and then horizontal" promotes IP value-added. The real value of IP lies in the emotions behind it, the degree of fans 'love for this image, personality and story, and the fact that it always looks like what fans expect. Therefore, only under the mechanism of "co-creation, sharing, and win-win" and each demonstrates its strengths can we jointly build the value of IP.

3. The source of active IP is the fundamental driving force, and everyone has a talent that cannot be let down. IP originates from people's imagination and emotions. Imagination and emotions are no different from high or low. They have no family background, only feelings about life and the expression of talent. In the era of pan-entertainment, any ordinary person can realize their dreams and become the source of IP.

The following is the full text of Cheng Wu's speech at the UP2016 Tencent Interactive Entertainment Annual Conference:

Thank you for participating in today's conference!

A friend from the film and television industry asked me just now that I started making movies, what are the biggest challenges at the moment? I thought about it and wanted to say that the biggest challenge is my waist. Some time ago, I had to lie at home for two weeks due to lumbar spondylosis. I may have to sit down for a while later, so please forgive me. Here, I also hope that all old and new friends will pay more attention to their health.

When I was in bed at home, in addition to reading books, reading comics, and watching movies, I was watching the Go game between Alphago and Li Shishi. Although Go is regarded as the last fortress of human intelligence, did we really panic after Li Shishi's defeat? I found it wasn't. Because we know that even if artificial intelligence surpasses humans in logic and calculation, it cannot replace two things, that is, our emotions and imagination.

In fact, the rapid technological innovation in the Internet era is not only giving birth to artificial intelligence such as Alphago and self-driving cars, but also promoting the release of human emotions and imagination as never before and promoting the vigorous development of global cultural and creative industries.

A recent report released by UNESCO shows that cultural and creative industries are developing rapidly and have now become pillar industries of the global economy. Both developed countries and emerging economies regard cultural and creative industries as strategic assets.

Among them, the digital cultural and creative industry, represented by movies and games, has developed rapidly and has become an important carrier of global popular culture. The theme of this year's World Intellectual Property Day has been designated as "Digital creativity reshaping culture." How digital technology changes the creation, distribution and consumption of culture in the global market is receiving more and more attention.

Specifically in China, the world's largest mobile Internet market, the digital cultural and creative industry is developing particularly rapidly. In 2015, our total game revenue ranked first in the world, exceeding 140 billion yuan. The total box office of the movie also reached 6.87 billion yuan in February this year, surpassing North America for the first time and becoming No. 1 in the world.

Looking at our online literature, my colleague was particularly troubled a few days ago, saying that online literature is almost unique to China and no global data can be found. I comforted him and said, it's okay if he can't find it. This in itself is more convincing than the data, showing that China has its own advantages and innovations in this field. Similarly, China's online animation is also rising rapidly, and the huge secondary consumer market behind it is obvious to all.

Driven by these core industries, China's digital cultural innovation is forming a new industrial pattern. This has led to the fact that in the past year or two, the entire capital market has begun to shift from competition for user traffic to competition for content and copyright. This not only promotes the growth in volume in various vertical content areas, but also brings about changes in thinking. Therefore, the IP concept we previously proposed and even the strategic thinking of pan-entertainment have quickly aroused strong resonance in the industry.

Therefore, looking back on the past, we feel very fortunate that we began to think about how to create a fan economy for celebrity IP based on the multi-field symbiosis of the Internet and mobile Internet five years ago. I remember that it was also on this occasion to talk about our pan-entertainment strategy, and then the animation, literature, film and television businesses were launched one after another. At the annual press conference basically every year, our business matrix was constantly improving.

Under Tencent's "connection" thinking and "open" strategy, pan-entertainment has gradually become Tencent's basic thinking for exploration in the field of "Internet + cultural and creative industries", promoting business growth. In addition to the game business that continues to maintain its leading position in the industry, Tencent Animation has also become China's flagship animation platform, and Reading Group has occupied a very dominant industry position. Tencent Pictures, which we newly established in September last year, has also begun to use IP as the axis to find greater value for movies in addition to box office.

At the same time, we are also focusing on works and IP, vigorously promoting symbiosis and integration between businesses, as well as extensive cooperation and connections with the world, hoping to gradually build an active content ecosystem.

In this process, we have not only gained growth in data and business, but more importantly, we have seen that this practice is giving more and more talented ordinary people the opportunity to show their imagination.

There are about 100,000 online article creators who have received their first contribution fees on Youwen's website. Among them, there are many platinum writers like Tang Jiasan, Ma Tong and Luan who earn more than 10 million a year; there are also about 50,000 comic book creators who create on Tencent Animation. Just like online article writers, they also have different identities. They include teachers, students, doctors and company executives, as well as drivers, security guards and chefs.

And for some reason, I always feel that the proportion of chefs is quite high. Comic artist Miji, I heard that he used to be a chef and is now ranked among the top 10 richest comic writers. Another example is Qidian's platinum author,"Cangtian Baihe", who was also a chef. He found that other people's works were too slow to update, so he started writing it himself, and as a result, he became a god-level figure in the online literature circle. Therefore, many friends are joking that if you want to succeed, you should first become a chef.

In fact, the new value system built by the Internet is giving everyone a more diverse and fairer space for expression. I think this is the most fundamental driving force behind the pan-entertainment ecosystem.

Another important motivation comes from partners. I have always been very grateful to have partners like Nanpai Third Uncle and Pixel Software who worked with us to create the IP of "Brave Adventures" from scratch. I am also very happy to have partners like Guo Jingming unreservedly explore the full-platform cooperation of "Grand Ji". These already accomplished partners have joined us based on deep industry consensus, allowing multiple professional forces to be injected into the same IP and the same dream.

What is even more gratifying is that our understanding of IP construction is becoming the consensus of the industry. More and more industry colleagues are also making the layout and investment in pan-entertainment to jointly promote the development of the digital cultural and creative industry, making the construction of a pan-entertainment ecosystem truly possible.

Of course, this is only the beginning. I just watched "Zootopia" recently, and this work left a very deep impression on me. In contrast, China's creative industries still have many shortcomings and gaps in terms of polishing the quality of works and improving the industrial cooperation mechanism. For the future exploration of pan-entertainment, the entire industry needs higher consciousness and more consensus. For Tencent Entertainment, we will still adhere to several unchanged basic principles:

First, the core of Pan-Entertainment is IP, so we must recognize clearly what IP is. We believe that IP is not only a high-profile work on a single platform, but a market-verified carrier that can condense user emotions. High-quality works are just the starting point of IP. They need to experience symbiosis in multiple fields to truly form IP value that transcends specific platforms and forms, and to have infinite extended vitality.

Secondly, we believe that the value of IP is not equal to the price of the transaction. In the past year or two, IP has been very popular, with various transactions and competitions, various praises and criticisms. In fact, the real value of IP lies in the emotions behind it, the degree of fans 'love for this image, personality and story, and the fact that it always looks like what fans expect. One-time trading can only yield short-term benefits. Even if IP authorization is obtained at a high price, if there is no excellent creative ability and awareness and mechanism for co-construction, it will be difficult to help IP continue to grow, but will harm the value of IP. In recent years, such cases have not been uncommon.

Only under the mechanism of "co-creation, sharing, and win-win" and each demonstrates its strengths can we jointly build the value of IP. Therefore, Tencent Mutual Entertainment Association has the most open attitude and works with its partners to cultivate IP. It first creates a prosperous small ecosystem vertically in various vertical fields, continuously exports good works, and then links multiple content platforms horizontally to create a prosperous environment. Ecology, through the "first vertical and then horizontal" industrial mechanism, builds a star IP with great influence.

The third principle is to value everyone's talents. IP originates from people's imagination and emotions. Imagination and emotions are no different from high or low. They have no family background, only feelings about life and the expression of talent. Therefore, we saw that Luan, a college student who was still playing games in his dormitory, wrote an e-sports story that intertwined reality and the Internet, and became famous in one book; the above-mentioned chef Miji, who drew 40 to 50 comics but no one cared about Tong Yao, also became a legendary figure in the comic book circle because of his personalized comic works... There are many cases like this. Therefore, we firmly believe that everyone has another dream and everyone has a talent that cannot be let down. In the era of pan-entertainment, any ordinary person can realize their dreams and become the source of IP.

What I look forward to is that in the pan-entertainment ecosystem, everyone can release emotions, experience novel content, and also fully bloom their imagination and create interesting works. Then, based on multi-field symbiosis, achieve greater value release.

This is not just an idea and a wish. I believe that whether it is animation, literature, film industry and games, everyone will be able to directly feel the released talents and the value of these talents blooming in the next release. At the same time, we can also see that more and more partners with consensus are beginning to come with us to explore new possibilities for pan-entertainment.

Finally, I would like to thank you again for coming and look forward to continuing to walk side by side with you and UP2016 together!

Editor: vian