Internet + Movies: It’s not just ticket sales that are changing

Internet+ is having a huge impact on the film industry.

In the Chinese film industry, there are four golden time periods for box office: "golden time, summer vacation, Spring Festival, and New Year's Day"; however, during the National Day holiday in 2014, which should have been the peak tourist season, a low-budget road movie became a box office miracle and set a record in Chinese films.

This movie is a classic example of the deep integration with the Internet. To use the hottest term now, Internet + Movie has begun to become a compulsory course in the film industry chain.

Many industry insiders therefore call 2014 the first year of the Internetization of movies. So, what can movies plus the Internet bring?

Internet + Movies: Not Just Cheap

The impact of the Internet on movies should start with the e-commerce of movie tickets. In the past, the traditional form of movie ticket sales was extremely unfriendly to the audience experience and was criticized by users, turning entertainment into a trouble.

In recent years, Internet companies represented by BAT have entered the film industry one after another. Internet business models such as crowdfunding, e-commerce, and video websites have been grafted onto the film industry. The entire Internet has begun a movie craze, and the film war has also spread to the Internet platform.

For first-time Internet users, price is definitely the aspect that they pay most attention to. For platform competition, is price really the most important aspect?

Xu Wu, the head of Maoyan Movies , said in an interview that price is not the first factor that affects users' movie watching. However, he did not deny the necessity of promotional means. According to the data released by Maoyan, Maoyan achieved a total box office of 5 billion in 2014. Now Maoyan has access to more than 3,000 cinemas, and the proportion of supporting online seat selection is about 20-30%. In his plan, he aims to achieve this proportion of 50% in 2015.

"Users not only want to buy tickets early, but also want to choose seats early," Xu Wu said. This is a win-win situation for both the hospital and consumers. "The overall efficiency improvement is very obvious."

The changes brought about by the Internet can also be seen in movie theaters. A NetEase Technology reporter investigated several movie theaters within 3 kilometers of his residence and found that there were not many people queuing at the traditional ticket windows. Relatively speaking, there were a constant stream of users picking up tickets at the ticket machines. According to the results of a random survey by NetEase Technology reporters, these users all bought tickets through the Internet.

In a random survey conducted by NetEase Technology, these users all believed that online convenience, price advantages and the quality of cinema facilities are the points they are most concerned about. "As long as transportation is convenient and the time is right, I will give priority to selecting seats online," one user told NetEase Technology.

Liu Yong, CEO of Gewara, who saw the opportunity in the movie ticket market early, told NetEase Technology that he used to be a die-hard movie fan and had a very clear understanding of the movie-watching experience. In his opinion, the price factor of the entire Internet movie market is gradually weakening, especially in relatively mature first- and second-tier cities. "Watching movies has become a lifestyle." As movies enter the lives of more people, Liu Yong began to think about whether the traditional movie promotion model is suitable for current Internet users.

Liu Yong emphasized that the traditional sales model is extensive, and the thinking on the industrial chain must be changed from the publicity and promotion model. He took the recently popular "Wolf Totem" as an example, "In the same period, there are many popular blockbusters. Guevara has achieved a continuous increase in box office through marketing on the entire network platform combined with the marketing of the film content."

Maoyan and Guevara have tasted the sweetness of Internet film distribution. Last year, several popular blockbusters were deeply influenced by the Internet.

But this does not mean that integrating into the Internet will lead to high box office results. Data mining of Internet users has become an important reference for major platforms and distributors.

Movies + Big Data, what will happen?

In the entire pan-entertainment market, the three BAT companies all started with movies as their entry point in 2014 and invested huge amounts of money. Each company claimed that they could tap into greater potential through data.

At the beginning of this year, Baidu Mobile used a low-price strategy to attract consumers to buy movie tickets on the Baidu Mobile platform. A relevant Baidu official told NetEase Technology that Baidu's ability to mine precise user purchasing demands from past general data is a huge incremental force for the entire film market.

"Generally, users of ticketing platforms often have clear movie-watching needs and existing knowledge of online seat selection, but in the film market, potential audiences with unclear movie-watching needs account for 61% (Entrepreneurship and Enlightenment data). They may not have downloaded any movie ticket sales apps, and will not actively use ticketing apps unless they have clear movie-watching needs. However, most of these people have general search needs, and Baidu sees this as an opportunity," said the person in charge of the Baidu Mobile Movie Project.

Of course, Baidu sees the opportunity of sales. The importance of data to traditional movies has begun to play a role in the industry chain. Data is an important basis for the selection of more traditional film distributors and producers. These data can be Internet information data, social media data, etc. Recently, Aiman ​​Technology, which has just completed its A round of financing, has been building big data for the entire entertainment industry since its establishment. It is understood that several popular films last year, the "Tiny Times" series, have had in-depth cooperation. "We use keywords, tagged entertainment industry data, combined with social media communication and distribution strategy evaluation to provide decision-making for film discoverers," said Xia Zongliang, CEO of Aiman ​​Technology. He saw the potential of this market in 2010. "Hollywood has always had such a data system, but China is relatively backward." However, now a large number of film producers have realized the value of data and choose to cooperate.

Xia Zongliang believes that the ever-expanding transaction scale of online platforms is a win-win situation for the entire film and entertainment industry, because in the future these consumption data and early data will be an important foundation for the industrialization of the film industry.

On the consumer side, several Internet platforms have actually also sensed the value. Maoyan has connected with the backstage of the cinema to provide real-time feedback on the box office situation. Xu Wu pointed to the "Want to Watch" button on the mobile client and said, "Basically, the users who click on "Want to Watch" are the ones who will eventually buy tickets to watch the show."

In addition, on the distribution side, Maoyan has begun to cooperate with film companies for joint distribution. "We analyze the data and come up with a more suitable scheduling plan for the movie," Xu Wu said. "We believe that we should serve users throughout the entire process of watching movies, from when users learn when a movie is released, to when they pay attention to the updates of various information about the movie, to when they decide which theater to go to, and then choose a theater and seat, until they come back after watching the movie and write a review to rate it. This is a complete cycle, so what we have to do is not just sell tickets, we help users make the service closed loop of the entire process of watching movies more complete."

Of course, Xu Wu’s confidence is also because last year Maoyan achieved a very good reputation and received good box office feedback through "My Lucky Star" and "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy".

The use of data will also bring about other changes in the film industry.

New changes come from traditional film promotion model

China's traditional film promotion and marketing system has existed for more than 20 years. There is a lot of opacity in it, and each cinema is a closed system. The intervention of the Internet has begun to break through these limitations.

Liu Yong, CEO of Gewara, said that in the past, the traditional publicity and promotion system and content production system were very chaotic and had no clear boundaries. After the Internet came into being, the three major links of "users-cinemas-content" began to be bundled together, and all of this was supported by data.

However, the major movie ticket platforms are still in the process of encouraging competition. Liu Yong has his own plan for an important breakthrough in local life. From the perspective of movies alone, he believes that the key to the next step is to break through the price factors that cannot be avoided in past competitions, and to try more investments in content operations, consumption upgrades (to enhance users' movie-watching experience), and service links.

As for the platform competition, the future will not only be a competition for users, but also a competition for services. The data support behind it will become the key. Platforms are unwilling to just be "movie ticket porters" and will invest more in the front end of the film industry chain.

For traditional film producers and distributors, new models are also changing. Relevant personnel from LeTV Pictures said that future cooperation with e-commerce platforms will be a win-win cooperation, rather than just a form of resource exchange as it is now.

Distributors have also begun to pay attention to Internet platforms. Huayi Brothers has also improved its layout by acquiring "Maipiao.com". LeTV Pictures has even launched its own "Leyingke" and combined it with exclusive resources for promotion.

Reporter's Notes:

The power of Internet+ has once again been demonstrated in the film industry.

Internet ticketing platforms have begun to see the value of data to the industry chain. Products such as Maoyan, Guevara, WeChat Movie Tickets, Baidu, and NetEase Movie Tickets have all used their own technological accumulation to break away from the platform model of just buying coupons in the past. Third-party data organizations such as Aiman ​​and Enlighten have begun to provide services to the industry. Coupled with existing distribution and production organizations, the film industry has begun to grow in scale.

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.