互聯網巨頭將引領中國電影未來
Internet companies have become the latest change agents in China's booming film industry.
At the 17th Shanghai Film Festival which ended on June 22, the buzzword on everyone's lips was BAT, referring to Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, the three leading Internet companies in China.
Baidu is the largest Chinese search engine, Alibaba owns China's largest online business platform Taobao, and Tencent has multiple products widely used by netizens, such as social networking and communication service providers WeChat and QQ.
The online giants are now turning to filmmaking. Tencent vice-president Sun Zhonghuai announced at SIFF that the company will invest in six films, including Dragon Blade, starring Jackie Chan, and Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and Dark Crystal, a fantasy blockbuster starring Chinese A-lister Chen Kun. Sun would not reveal the exact sum of money, but Chan's film has a budget of $65 million.
Alibaba launched the second round of fund raising on Yulebao, a crowd funding service for films, on June 13. In less than 24 hours the funding target of $14.6 million was met by 160,000 purchasers, who have collectively financed five films.
Baidu has set up a venture based in Los Angeles, the first project of which will be Kong, an animated picture adapted from the Chinese literary classic Journey to the West.
Many other Internet companies have also entered the film industry, providing diversified products and services, including making films available to online viewers and discounted tickets. Gewara, an online ticket-selling website, sold 1 billion yuan ($158 million) worth of film tickets last year, more than many Traditional theater chains.
The biggest impact these Internet companies will have on the industry will be their influence in clamping down on piracy, according to Sun from Tencent,
"People are now more used to paying to watch a film online," he says. "With more and more video providing websites joining in, a reasonable pricing system for copyright has been set up."
Tencent releases a monthly package of more than 1,600 films on its website, priced at only 30 yuan, the cost of about five pirated films on DVD.
, a leading video sharing website, has similar products.
"We are in fact eliminating pirated DVDs from the options available to viewers, because they will have easy and economic approaches to legitimate films of good quality," says Zhu Huilong, vice-president of .
The online video sharing can expose a film to more viewers - China had 618 million netizens as of December 2013, according to China Internet Network Information Center.
"A film is usually screened in theaters for one month. It can be available on a video website seven or eight times longer," Zhu adds.
But the Internet companies are more ambitious than to simply broadcast films, and moguls from traditional film companies are taking notice.
Yu Dong, the chairman of Bona Films, a NASDAQ-listed studio and distributor which also owns theaters, claims that "all the film companies will work for BAT in the future".
"As the number of big screens increases dramatically, small screens are developing with equal speed," Yu says. "Mobile Internet, iPads and the sitting room have become popular ways to watch films. Traditional film companies are facing severe challenges."
Yu's words were echoed by Ren Zhonglun, chairman of Shanghai Film Group.
"Today's filmgoers are younger than before," he says. "They live online, as what we call as 'aboriginals on the Internet'. The Internet companies have innate advantages in studying and understanding their preference."
LeVision, the film arm of Internet company LeTV, has a special team studying data collected from various online communities. The analysis of the fanbase of Tiny Times, a 2013 Chinese film based on young writer Guo Jingming's novel, has contributed significantly to the film's success, says CEO Zhang Zhao.
"The traditional model is, we make this film and we want you to see it, but in future the model will be, we find what you want to see and we make it for you," Zhang says. "It is totally possible that netizens will be involved in story development (of movies) in the future."
Zhu from Youku believes that the Internet is also an excellent platform for rising actors and directors. "By online short films or drama series we can easily collect feedback from viewers on new actors and filmmakers," Zhu says. "From our platform we have easy access to find what kind of films are more popular than others, who are the favorite actors among different age groups, what is discussed the most by viewers."在6月22日結束的第十七屆上海電影節上，大家都在討論的一個流行詞是BAT，BAT指的是中國的三大互聯網公司——百度，阿里巴巴和騰訊。
百度是中國最大的搜索引擎，阿里巴巴擁有中國最大的電子商務平臺——淘寶，騰訊已擁有被網民廣泛使用的多種產品，如社交網絡和通信服務——微信和QQ。
網絡巨頭們正在轉向電影製作。騰訊副總裁孫忠懷在上海國際電影節上宣佈，騰訊公司將投資製作六部電影，包括由成龍和崔始源主演的《龍之刃》和由中國一線演員陳坤主演的奇幻大片《鍾馗：雪姑娘和黑暗水晶》。孫忠懷沒有透露具體的投資金額，但《龍之刃》製作費高達6500萬美元。
6月13日，阿里巴巴在餘額寶上推出了第二輪資金籌集，即爲電影而做出的融資服務。在不到24個小時的時間裏，16萬的買家使資金籌集達到了1460萬美元的目標，他們籌集的全部資金將用於五部電影的拍攝。
百度已成立了一個合資公司，總部設在洛杉磯，它的第一個項目將是《悟空》，是改編自中國文學名著《西遊記》的一部動畫片。
許多其他的互聯網公司也進入了電影行業，並提供了多樣化的產品和服務，包括使在線觀衆可在網上看電影，以及發售打折電影票。網上售票網站格瓦拉去年售出的電影票共值10億元，比許多傳統連鎖影院多。
騰訊副總裁孫忠懷說，這些互聯網公司對電影行業最大的影響將是在打擊盜版方面。
“現在人們更習慣於在網上觀看電影，”他說。”隨着越來越多的視頻網站的加入，相關部門已經建立了合理的版權定價系統。”
騰訊發佈的觀影包月套餐中包括1600多部的電影，售價僅爲30元，這是五部左右的DVD盜版電影的價格。優酷網也有類似的產品。
“我們其實是在爲觀衆消除盜版DVD，這樣他們就能很方面地觀看到實惠又合法的好電影，”優酷副總裁朱輝龍說到。
在線視頻共享業務可以將一部電影推向更多的觀衆，中國互聯網絡信息中心的數據顯示，截至2013年12月，中國有6.18億的網民。
“一部電影通常在電影院裏放映一個月。而在視頻網站上放映的時間是電影院的七八倍長，”朱補充說道。
但傳統的電影公司巨頭們都注意到，互聯網公司的雄心遠不止是簡單地播放影片。
博納影業總裁於冬宣稱，“在未來，所有電影公司都將爲網絡巨頭打工”。
“隨着‘大屏幕’數量的急劇增加，‘小屏幕’以同樣的速度發展着，”於說，“用手機、平板電腦和客廳觀看電影已流行起來。傳統的電影公司面臨着嚴峻的挑戰。”
上海電影集團董事長任仲倫也表示贊同。
“現在的電影觀衆比以前年輕，”他說，“他們生活於網絡之中，我們稱之爲‘互聯網上的土著人’。互聯網公司在學習和了解他們的偏好上具有先天優勢。”
樂視影業的特別數據研究小組研究着各種各樣從網絡社區收集來的數據。2013年的電影《小時代》，是根據年輕作家郭敬明的小說拍成的。樂視影業首席執行官張昭說，對該電影粉絲團的分析大大促進了電影的成功。
“傳統的模式是我們拍了這部電影，我們希望人們看它，但未來的模式是，我們發現人們想看什麼，然後我們爲他們拍，”張說。“在未來，網民融入（電影）故事的發展完全是有可能的。”
優酷副總裁朱輝龍認爲，互聯網也是新興演員和導演的好平臺。”通過在線短片或電視劇，我們可以很容易地收集來自觀衆關於新演員和製片人反饋，”朱說，“通過我們的平臺，我們很容易就可以發現什麼樣的電影比較受歡迎，不同年齡段最喜歡的演員是誰以及觀衆討論最多的話題是什麼。”
