Enlight Media joins hands with 360, everything starts with the transformation of the film industry to the Internet

The cooperation between Enlight Media and Qihoo 360 was officially finalized today! The two parties announced the establishment of a joint venture video company, which will mainly engage in Internet video business with a focus on movies.

On the road to the film industry's transformation to the Internet, famous film and television companies such as Huayi Brothers, Huace Media, and China Culture Media have successively leveraged the influence of BAT to complete the first step of the transformation, while Light Media, which just announced the news, is clearly a latecomer.

The rise of the “Internet film industry”

The biggest feature of Internet companies is their strong fund-raising capabilities and diversified financing methods, which is particularly evident in industry giants. For example, the three major Internet giants BAT often seek mergers and acquisitions to expand their business and extend their industrial chains.

Alibaba acquired China Culture Media for HK$6.2 billion and renamed it Alibaba Pictures; Baidu teamed up with CITIC Trust to invest in movies through crowdfunding; Tencent and Huayi Brothers New Media jointly launched an interactive platform - "Star Film Alliance", and are preparing to build a new film and television business platform.

In addition, at the beginning of this year, LeTV announced that LeTV Pictures would transform from a film company to an Internet company; in August, Youku Tudou Group announced the establishment of the film company "Huayi Pictures"; iQiyi and Huace Film and Television announced the establishment of Huace iQiyi Film and Television Company.

It can be said that it is inevitable that Internet companies are getting involved in the film industry, because the development of current communication media is constantly tending towards diversification and decentralization, stimulating the full arrival of the era of "content is king".

The most notable feature of the "content is king" era is that Internet users follow the content and their loyalty to the platform decreases. This is also the main reason why Internet companies have to shift from downstream to upstream and enter the film and television industry.

Similarly, Internet companies have unique advantages in entering the film and television industry. The film industry chain is divided into four links: production, distribution, screening, and marketing. The importance of "marketing" in the entire industry chain is increasing year by year, and Internet companies have a wealth of marketing methods. This is the embodiment of their greatest competitiveness and the key weapon for changing the film market structure.

The future of the Internet-based film industry

When asked why it chose 360 ​​as its partner, Enlight Media said that 360 not only has a large amount of Internet traffic and network video technology, but also has very considerable user resources; the cooperation between the two companies will undoubtedly give full play to the respective advantages of both parties.

In fact, whether it is for Light Media or other film and television companies, being able to leverage the powerful communication power of the Internet to expand film distribution channels so that they are no longer restricted by the number of screenings in theaters will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the film industry.

Zhang Zhao, CEO of LeTV Pictures, once said in an interview that with the integration of the film industry and the Internet industry, the entire film industry has entered the B2C stage from B2B. This Internet-based film industry recognizes that "users" are the real driving force and the true essence of different films, rather than directors or actors being the driving force.

In the Internet era where user experience is the dominant trend, Internet companies will no longer be content to just play the role of a platform, but will further extend the ecological industrial chain and consolidate the sustainable development of the company by laying out upstream content production.

On the contrary, for the film industry, which is in the early stages of development, cooperation with Internet companies can not only attract more social capital, but also reduce investment risks. In the future, the relationship between Internet companies and traditional film and television production companies should be more cooperative than competitive. Moreover, this cross-border cooperation is very likely to bring new development opportunities to the entire film and video industries.

Wang Changtian, founder of Guangguang Media, said that the new video website jointly established with 360 will focus on the pay-on-demand profit model and will not insert any advertisements.

The current video website industry is gradually entering a relatively mature stage. It is still too early to say whether paid videos will become the mainstream of the entire video industry in the future. Of course, it does not rule out the possibility that the decline of piracy and the maturity of online payment methods as Wang Changtian mentioned have brought this opportunity.

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.