The transformation of 50 stores in three years to speed up the realization of Alpha Animation & Culture's IP ambition

original title: IP ambition of Alpha Animation & Culture, 50 stores in three years

"in the next three years, Alpha Animation & Culture will strive to open 50 children's parks," said Cai Xiaodong, president of Alpha Animation & Culture, when he opened his first children's indoor park a few days ago. With the intensification of market competition, Alpha Animation & Culture has been making continuous efforts to pan-entertainment in recent years, trying to tap the greater value behind IP. However, behind a series of actions and layout such as expansion and M & A, whether the continuous capital investment and the target of M & A can achieve business coordination has inevitably become a challenge that Alpha Animation & Culture has to face.

strong > Speed up the transformation of pan-entertainment / strong >

following the opening of the first children's indoor park in Guangzhou Utopia Olympic Sports Center on December 16, Alpha Animation & Culture's second children's indoor park will also be unveiled and plans to open in Chengdu this weekend, combining IP, intelligent technology, parent-child experience, education and social networking, to create an one-stop park of "parent-child interaction + IP experience + drama + themed catering + shopping".

throughout Alpha Animation & Culture's various actions in recent years, it is not difficult to find that pan-entertainment, which excavates the value of IP, is the company's main development goal, and around this goal, it makes multiple investments, mergers and acquisitions and other capital operations in animation, film and television, games, education, amusement parks and other fields. Especially in 2016, Alpha Animation & Culture's total investment reached 3.6 billion yuan, exceeding the annual operating income of that year, and as many as 67 subsidiaries were included in the merger, an increase of 25 over 2015.

and the successive opening of two stores this time, for Alpha Animation & Culture, who is constantly moving in the field of pan-entertainment, is not only a key link in realizing IP realization, but also means that the company is accelerating its transformation to pan-entertainment. The relevant person in charge of Alpha Animation & Culture said that the children's park has completed Alpha Animation & Culture's closed-loop operation in the industrial chain from content production, media, derivatives, film and television, authorization to terminal cashing. it is also an important consumption scene to support Alpha Animation & Culture's IP drainage and cashing. at the same time, it has improved the comprehensive operation capability of Alpha Animation & Culture's "IP+ industry". Moreover, the children's park industry gives Alpha Animation & Culture its own traffic entrance, and the company's diversified business can be promoted more efficiently: communicate directly with consumers face to face and master terminal data. the company's toys, babies, authorized products, film and television, education and other industries cooperate to promote, enhance the value of individual users, and directly share the growing terminal consumption cake of the children's industrial chain.

strong > debt pressure increases due to expansion / strong >

in order to achieve diversified returns and extend its own business chain, pan-entertainment has become the development direction of many companies at the present stage, and Alpha Animation & Culture has also invested a lot of money and energy here. And judging from the net profit growth rates of 85.42%, 14.26% and 1.92% from 2014 to 2016, Alpha Animation & Culture also needs to find a new direction to achieve his own steady development. Given that Alpha Animation & Culture has popular IP, including Pleasant Goat and Grey Wolf, Super Flash, Bacon Bear and cute chicken team, the layout of Pan-Entertainment on the one hand gives Alpha Animation & Culture the opportunity and channel to maximize IP realization, but on the other hand, it also brings challenges to Alpha Animation & Culture's performance.

according to Alpha Animation & Culture's previously released third-quarter report, due to the decline in the growth rate of film, television and games business, Alpha Animation & Culture achieved a year-on-year increase of 5.75% in business income in the first three quarters of this year, but net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies fell 27.96% year-on-year. And Alpha Animation & Culture estimates that the net profit attributed to shareholders of listed companies in 2017 will be between 349 million and 498 million yuan, with a range of-30% to 0%, mainly due to the adjustment of mutual entertainment business, new business type and the increase in international layout expenses.

in addition, under the frequent capital actions and business layout, it also brings a certain amount of debt to Alpha Animation & Culture. Data show that by the end of the third quarter of this year, Alpha Animation & Culture's current liabilities were 3.266 billion yuan, while current assets were 3.22 billion yuan. In addition, Alpha Animation & Culture's liabilities totaled 3.492 billion yuan.

from the practitioners' point of view, Alpha Animation & Culture's layout of pan-entertainment is still in the stage of investment and early development, and there will be profit pressure in the short term. Chen Shaofeng, deputy dean of the Institute of Cultural Industry of Peking University, believes that by starting with toys, Alpha Animation & Culture has gradually expanded his business to the field of pan-entertainment covering film and television, animation, games, and other businesses. on the one hand, the coverage of his products is relatively large, on the other hand, the market competition in film and television and other industries is more fierce, to a certain extent, it will inevitably produce financial pressure on the company.

strong > differentiation is the key / strong >

according to Alpha Animation & Culture's development plan, the company will continue its layout around the" IP+ industry "in the future, consolidate the competitiveness of the entire pan-entertainment platform, while maintaining a positive and open attitude. Cooperate with upstream and downstream enterprises by means of light assets and industrial cooperation, pry larger industrial resources, speed up the pace of IP development, further enhance the value of IP, and promote the diversified realization of IP.

take this children's indoor park as an example, in order to cut into the park project from a high starting point, Alpha Animation & Culture has been consciously absorbing and training relevant talents in the past three years. He Dehua, senior vice president of Alpha Animation & Culture, previously served as a senior executive in Disney China, and after joining Alpha Animation & Culture, he continued to recruit talents and training teams in the industry. In addition, in expanding the number of stores, Alpha Animation & Culture chose to cooperate with commercial real estate, such as obtaining better location conditions, cooperation in the industry, and so on. At the same time, Alpha Animation & Culture also drains the mall as a whole and creates a differentiated position. Alpha Animation & Culture said.

practitioners believe that although pan-entertainment is expected to bring more diversified benefits to relevant enterprises, as pan-entertainment involves a wide range of business, it is one of the keys to achieve a better layout in many aspects, from content creation to subsequent product development, from IP to real products, through intensive cultivation.

Edit: mary