互联网巨头将引领中国电影未来

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.

Youku.com, 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 Youku.com.

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日结束的第十七届上海电影节上，大家都在讨论的一个流行词是BAT，BAT指的是中国的三大互联网公司——百度，阿里巴巴和腾讯。

百度是中国最大的搜索引擎，阿里巴巴拥有中国最大的电子商务平台——淘宝，腾讯已拥有被网民广泛使用的多种产品，如社交网络和通信服务——微信和QQ。

网络巨头们正在转向电影制作。腾讯副总裁孙忠怀在上海国际电影节上宣布，腾讯公司将投资制作六部电影，包括由成龙和崔始源主演的《龙之刃》和由中国一线演员陈坤主演的奇幻大片《钟馗：雪姑娘和黑暗水晶》。孙忠怀没有透露具体的投资金额，但《龙之刃》制作费高达6500万美元。

6月13日，阿里巴巴在余额宝上推出了第二轮资金筹集，即为电影而做出的融资服务。在不到24个小时的时间里，16万的买家使资金筹集达到了1460万美元的目标，他们筹集的全部资金将用于五部电影的拍摄。

百度已成立了一个合资公司，总部设在洛杉矶，它的第一个项目将是《悟空》，是改编自中国文学名著《西游记》的一部动画片。

许多其他的互联网公司也进入了电影行业，并提供了多样化的产品和服务，包括使在线观众可在网上看电影，以及发售打折电影票。网上售票网站格瓦拉去年售出的电影票共值10亿元，比许多传统连锁影院多。

腾讯副总裁孙忠怀说，这些互联网公司对电影行业最大的影响将是在打击盗版方面。

“现在人们更习惯于在网上观看电影，”他说。”随着越来越多的视频网站的加入，相关部门已经建立了合理的版权定价系统。”

腾讯发布的观影包月套餐中包括1600多部的电影，售价仅为30元，这是五部左右的DVD盗版电影的价格。优酷网也有类似的产品。

“我们其实是在为观众消除盗版DVD，这样他们就能很方面地观看到实惠又合法的好电影，”优酷副总裁朱辉龙说到。

在线视频共享业务可以将一部电影推向更多的观众，中国互联网络信息中心的数据显示，截至2013年12月，中国有6.18亿的网民。

“一部电影通常在电影院里放映一个月。而在视频网站上放映的时间是电影院的七八倍长，”朱补充说道。

但传统的电影公司巨头们都注意到，互联网公司的雄心远不止是简单地播放影片。

博纳影业总裁于冬宣称，“在未来，所有电影公司都将为网络巨头打工”。

“随着‘大屏幕’数量的急剧增加，‘小屏幕’以同样的速度发展着，”于说，“用手机、平板电脑和客厅观看电影已流行起来。传统的电影公司面临着严峻的挑战。”

上海电影集团董事长任仲伦也表示赞同。

“现在的电影观众比以前年轻，”他说，“他们生活于网络之中，我们称之为‘互联网上的土著人’。互联网公司在学习和了解他们的偏好上具有先天优势。”

乐视影业的特别数据研究小组研究着各种各样从网络社区收集来的数据。2013年的电影《小时代》，是根据年轻作家郭敬明的小说拍成的。乐视影业首席执行官张昭说，对该电影粉丝团的分析大大促进了电影的成功。

“传统的模式是我们拍了这部电影，我们希望人们看它，但未来的模式是，我们发现人们想看什么，然后我们为他们拍，”张说。“在未来，网民融入（电影）故事的发展完全是有可能的。”

优酷副总裁朱辉龙认为，互联网也是新兴演员和导演的好平台。”通过在线短片或电视剧，我们可以很容易地收集来自观众关于新演员和制片人反馈，”朱说，“通过我们的平台，我们很容易就可以发现什么样的电影比较受欢迎，不同年龄段最喜欢的演员是谁以及观众讨论最多的话题是什么。”