Maximizing IP value from the acquisition of the copyright of the popular comic "Dragon Sakura" by Alibaba

There have been rumors of Alibaba's involvement in online dramas for a long time, but the news was finally confirmed the day before yesterday. It won the adaptation rights of the popular comic "Dragon Sakura". In addition, Alibaba will make the peripheral products in the drama appear on "Tmall" at the same time, and viewers can place orders for the peripheral products in the drama with one click while watching the drama.

It is understood that the copyright owner of "Dragon Sakura", Japan's Cork Company, sold the TV adaptation rights to Alibaba through Shanghai Yongzhi Business Consulting Co., Ltd. The Chinese version of "Dragon Sakura" will use Chinese actors, with a total of 40 episodes, each 40 minutes long, and the production cost is about 50 million yuan.

Can the adaptation of "Dragon Sakura" create a new model?

Regardless of what kind of complaints the Chinese version will have, let's first look at Alibaba's new marketing model of one-click ordering for peripheral products in the drama. Take "Dragon Sakura" as an example. As a work about the college entrance examination, it is definitely not inferior to other works in terms of resonating with people. The peripheral products of the Japanese TV series "Dragon Sakura", such as exercise books and pencils, have caused hot sales - selling things is Alibaba's main business.

Alibaba is not the first company to cross-border IP. LeTV, Sina and other companies have entered the trend of IP-adapted TV series long ago, but they are obviously not as good as Alibaba in terms of big data and peripheral purchases. To paraphrase the remarks made by Xu Yuanxiang, vice president of Alibaba Pictures, about the book buying theory of losers, for "Dragon Sakura", it is a mature IP, and now there is the concept of one-click shopping, and with some young and beautiful stars, it will be perfect.

Alibaba defines its target audience as “diaosi”. Although the words are a bit rough, the truth is that the real value of IP lies in “fans”. The main force of moviegoers nowadays are those who used to follow online novels or animation updates. They are willing to spend money to watch movies and TV shows adapted from IPs that grew up with them, and are even willing to watch them twice or three times to pay for the nostalgia. This is the real value of IP.

To give another example, this year "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" launched a remake version "The Legend of Sword and Fairy". A nostalgic fan bought five sets at once. In his words, he was paying for the sentiment.

IP is both a fan and a sentiment

After talking about the downstream of monetization, let's look back at the upstream of IP. On September 17, 2015, Tencent announced the establishment of a wholly-owned subsidiary, Tencent Pictures, which together with Tencent Games, Tencent Animation, and China Literature Group formed a new pan-entertainment business front for Tencent Interactive Entertainment. At present, China Literature Group has included nearly 90% of the original content and more than 90% of the high-quality original content authors in the market. High-quality IP can get a one-stop production and distribution from film and television, games, animation, etc.

Judging from the volume of original works from the IP source, it has already seized the opportunity of high-quality content aggregation platform. Looking at the domestic online literary works such as "Nirvana in Fire", "Ghost Blowing Light" and "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" that have been popular on the screen in the past two years, the value of high-quality IP has risen sharply. This time, Alibaba has taken a different approach and purchased high-quality foreign IPs to adapt them into its own film and television dramas with domestic characteristics. It has to be said that this is a great move.

Entering the era of big IP, the IP operation industry is so promising, but with the advent of the big IP era, the disorderly sale, resale and hoarding of IP will cause the risk of shrinking the entire original market. Seeing this, the bigwigs are no longer making a fuss about the price of purchasing IP, but are thinking more deeply about how to redefine the entire pan-entertainment cross-domain IP industry and the formulation of rules through the platform. On the basis of the original platform, the advantage of big data is added to make valuable IPs valued and highlight their value.

The topic then returns to the remarks made by Xu Yuanxiang, vice president of Alibaba Pictures, "You are not asked to write scripts, but just write stories. It's like a killing game where there are constant eliminations. The one who writes the best will be rewarded heavily, and he will be given the credit as the screenwriter and even the original author of the story." If you think about it carefully, although the statement has some problems, it is actually very correct. Only when new writers continue to emerge can there be a steady stream of good works and this industry can last for a long time.

At the same time, more and more viewers use mobile phones and tablets to watch dramas online. Combined with the transaction volume of mobile terminals during this Double Eleven, a large part of the users overlap. Cultivating users through mobile novels, comics, and online dramas, and monetizing movies and games is the same as free basic Internet services + charged value-added services. Audiences who are accustomed to this model will surely make IP monetization easier.

IP is fans and feelings. IP adaptation has Internet genes from the beginning, and it follows the route of fan economy. Gold has a price, but feelings are priceless. Now we have entered the IP era, and whoever has the IP will win the world.

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.