Rapid influx of capital into the domestic comic market IP into a gold-sucking weight

from the previous online literature to today's comics, the popularity of IP in the film and television entertainment industry has not diminished, which has also contributed to the favor of the capital market to the prospect of comics.

domestic comic consumption platform Quick look Comics recently announced the completion of D-round 's financing, with a financing amount of up to 177 million US dollars, setting a new financing record for the domestic comic book industry. With the rapid development of the Internet and the popularity of the "two-dimensional economy", capital has rapidly poured into the comic book market in recent years, and there are also Tencent Animation and Comic, NetEase comics, demon and other platforms that compete with the Quick look comic chamber, which shows the fierce competition. So why on earth is the money-earning momentum of animation so fierce?

< strong > Capital is pouring into two dimensions < / strong >

in December 2014, Chen Anne, a comic book author, posted her cartoon "Sorry, I only live a 1% Life" on Weibo, officially announcing the establishment of Quick Reading Comics. Three years later, according to the official data provided by Quick View Comics, the total number of users of the platform has reached 130 million, and the number of monthly active users is nearly 40 million. It has nearly 1000 cartoonists, including Xia Da, Ding Bing and Youying, and has signed nearly 2000 works.

Capital also makes no secret of its favor for this comic book company. The latest D-round financing is led by Coatue Management, followed by the Chinese Culture Industry Investment Fund and Xianghe Capital. In addition to the three rounds of financing that had been publicly announced before, the reporter found that so far, the cumulative financing amount of Quick look at the cartoon has exceeded 1.5 billion yuan, and the investors behind the scenes include Jinri Toutiao, Kunlun Wanwei and other enterprises, as well as investment institutions such as Sequoia Capital.

"the rise of the second dimension is closely related to the fact that the post-90s and post-00s have gradually become the mainstream consumer groups, and with the continuous expansion of the scale of the secondary market, the number of users and active users are no less than those of platforms such as video websites. Quick look at comics, comic content platforms such as Comic Island have been gradually recognized by investment institutions, in the current market environment. Investing in two-dimensional areas has almost become a business trend. " Liu Deliang, founder of Xinyuan Wenzhi, said.

in addition to quick reading of comics, App also attracts capital's favor of mobile comics such as Buka Comics, Comic Island, and Showtime Comics. Among them, long cartoons received Pre-A round financing and A round financing respectively at the beginning of this year, with a cumulative financing amount of 40 million yuan; Baotou Comics also received tens of millions of yuan of D-round financing this year; and Buka Cartoon received over 100 million yuan of B round financing as early as 2015.

since 2012, China Mobile, China Telecom, Tencent, NetEase and other companies have also launched their layout in the comic book market. For example, Tencent established "Tencent Animation and Comic", China Mobile established the "Migu Animation" brand, and NetEase officially launched NetEase cartoon App in 2015.

"from the previous online literature to today's comics, the popularity of IP in the film and television entertainment industry has not diminished, which has also contributed to the favor of the capital market to the prospect of comics." Zhang Zhiyi, deputy director of the Science and Art Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that high-quality original IP has become the target of market competition.

and at present, the cultural and entertainment industry is developing in the direction of integration and linkage, and the layout of the whole industry chain with IP as the core has gradually become the development trend of pan-entertainment industry in recent years. "Comics have become another source of IP incubation after online literature." Liu Deliang believes that these IP can not only be adapted into film and television works, but also develop into games, derivative products, layout, live entertainment and other fields, so as to stimulate more intrinsic value and gain market dividends.

in recent years, more and more animation IP works have begun to extend to film, television, games and other fields. Before that, popular IP works such as "once upon a time there was a Lingjian Mountain" and "Fox Spirit Matchmaker" on Tencent Animation and Comic's platform have been adapted into animation works. NetEase cartoons are based on the exclusive signing of popular works such as "panic God" and "Strange talks in China" to carry out activities such as McDonald's themed restaurants and online live broadcasts. Quick look comics, which are also aimed at pan-entertainment layouts, are also promoting the payment, publication, animation, games, film and television adaptations and peripheral development of derivatives.

according to the comic book's official website, the exclusive comic book "take my Brother away" has started a big movie and online drama project, which is developed and produced by Zhonghui Film and Television in conjunction with Wanda Pictures and Penguin Pictures. Animation development starts synchronously; exclusive works "Zero Idol" and "Hello! "muscle Girl", "time Seven" and other online dramas will be filmed.

< strong > profit model to be solved < / strong >

"it is not a huge amount of messy content, but I recommend, few but refined, the most beautiful mobile phone cartoons of all station types." The original declaration of starting a business is still in our ears, but with the continuous development of the platform, it is difficult to avoid the problem of "messy content" on the platform. "at present, most of the comics recommended on the main page of many comic platforms are very messy and the painting style is uneven, but it is difficult to find really good cartoons worth looking at." Wang Jia, a fan of comics, said.

in Zhang Zhiyi's view, as a platform, he is more likely to play the role of a collector, preferring to analyze users' preferences through big data and other ways, so as to carry out corresponding promotion. But at present, due to the immaturity of the entire comic industry, in this case, if there is a lack of professional and effective control, under the rapid expansion of the platform, the disadvantages of the content will also be highlighted, and the good content is easy to be flooded.

for the comic platform, it is always the cartoon itself that can eventually attract users, especially under the background that the comic platform begins to expand new business models such as paid reading, comic content has also become the core of the platform's profits. "like online articles, the business model of comics also has three main profit models: paying users, advertising, and copyright development. because mobile comics are in the early stage of development, the content is also in the stage of good and bad. Therefore, the development of the business model is not mature." Liu Deliang said, "however, with the expansion of the scale of users and the continuous progress of the industry, it will eventually develop in the direction of high-quality products like online video."

"only rely on users to watch comics to achieve cash, the commercial value that can be obtained is after all limited, the future comic platform around high-quality comics to carry out a variety of layout is an inevitable trend." Zhang Zhiyi said.

Edit: mary