What is the significance of Alibaba Pictures’ efforts to create Internet + movies?

Since Alibaba Ventures acquired a stake in Huayi Brothers at the end of last year, Jack Ma's ambition to enter the film and television industry has become clear. After the announcement of the acquisition of Guangdong Science and Technology Software, Alibaba Pictures announced a plan to raise up to HK$12.1 billion to provide funds for potential acquisitions in the media sector in the future.

Alibaba's recent frequent activities at film festivals have aroused everyone's curiosity. From the perspective of Alibaba's main business, it is mainly content production, Internet promotion and marketing, entertainment e-commerce and globalization. At present, Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba Pictures, strongly recommended a new model of film promotion and marketing and film production at a new press conference. The most promising sector in the future may be film promotion and marketing.

From the perspective of film content production, as a "newcomer" that has just debuted, Alibaba has very little experience in film and television production. Although at the press conference, Alibaba CEO Zhang Qiang signed multiple film and television production agreements with many film partners, in an environment where a large number of industry resources are acquired, integrating and utilizing internal resources and monetizing film and television user resources are indeed the challenges that Alibaba Pictures needs to face next.

Judging from last year's figures, Alibaba Pictures' annual profit did grow last year. However, a careful analysis of these data reveals that the net profit of 466 million yuan actually attributable to the company's owners came mainly from two sources: 130 million yuan in revenue from Guangdong Science and Technology Software and 68.7 million yuan in revenue from last year's investment in Mission: Impossible 5.

Among the more than 400 million yuan in net profit, the profit contributed by Alibaba Pictures' content segment is not the main one.

The pain point of Chinese film capital: the mentality of capital to make quick money

  The Chinese film market ten years ago is very different from today. With the influx of a large amount of capital in the past two years, the Chinese film industry has shown a rapid development trend. According to professional analysis data, in 2015, the total box office of mainland Chinese films exceeded RMB 44.069 billion, a year-on-year increase of 48.7%, making it the second largest box office market in the world.

  In such an environment, the entry of capital has indeed brought changes to the creation of domestic films. In the past, directors and actors were big names, and film producers and investors had to make money around these people, but as the film industry continues to improve, this problem will gradually change. For capital parties who currently do not understand movies, entering this field with the purpose of making quick money not only violates the rules of the film industry, but also disrespects filmmakers. Such cooperation is doomed to not last long.

How much impact can Alibaba’s new Internet + movie model have?

  From the perspective of the Internet promotion and marketing model, as a company backed by the Taobao big data platform, focusing on user stratification and positioning, and comprehensively promoting movies through several well-known ticketing channels such as Maoyan and Yueke is indeed a favorable sales model.

In fact, the integration of Yulebao and Tao Piaopiao into Alibaba Pictures is one of Alibaba’s most important strategies in the ecological industrial chain. The outside world has also been looking forward to how Alibaba Pictures will integrate Alibaba’s important business segments such as e-commerce, social networks, interactive entertainment, and LBS value-added services.

From Zhang Qiang's introduction at the press conference, we know that Alibaba Pictures will share Alibaba Group's user big data information with cinemas, and manage Tao Piao Piao members through such cross-resources to help cinemas establish an efficient Internet ticketing system. At the same time, Alibaba will also shorten the ticket settlement cycle and promote the sales of cinema derivatives, especially through the new channel distribution of Yulebao + Taobao. At the same time, Alibaba will also establish a film production completion guarantee system to provide a safe platform for financing of small and medium-sized film companies and provide more efficient services for the promotion and distribution of film productions.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.