Author｜Song Wanxin

Edit｜Yang Jin

After exploring for a period of time, at the beginning of this year, Chen Ning’s company gave up the short drama business. The reasons behind it are complicated. He feels that since the skit has become an outlet, the market is still speculating on the concept, and no one has run through the commercialization path. This somewhat illustrates a certain problem.

If you trace the origin of the skit, you may have to start with “Unexpectedly” in 2013. At that time, Douyin had not yet been born, and Kuaishou had not been out of the circle. “Unexpectedly” is defined as a mini comedy, but from the perspective of the content of the series, “Unexpectedly” also has the characteristics of today’s “mini-short drama”: 15 episodes per season, 5 minutes per episode, compact plot , The net is full, the pain points and the laugh points are intensive.

The early short dramas were mainly played in the horizontal screen mode of UAT. In the past two years, with the development of short videos, the short dramas have naturally grown in the short video ecology.

According to the “2020 China Internet Audiovisual Development Research Report” released on October 12 last year, short video users have reached 818 million, and the average daily short video product use time is 110 minutes. When the short video traffic dividend is about to peak, the content mode of short dramas has become a new direction for platforms to compete for user duration.

From mid-2019 to the present, Chen Ning has felt the tremendous changes in the skit industry, “No matter whether it is the production system or the budget, it is no longer the same.” At the same time, after a period of barbaric growth, regulatory forces also began to intervene.

At the end of last year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television added the category of “Internet short dramas” to the key online film and television drama information filing system. This category stipulates that the web short drama is a web drama with a single episode of no more than 10 minutes. This means that the “micro short drama” has been named and qualitative, and the market has formed a larger scale and has been brought into supervision.

A few days ago, Kuaishou and Douyin have held short play press conferences, and each published their transcripts. Douyin said that during the “New Fan Project 1.0” period, 110 MCN agencies and more than 1,400 Douyin creators participated, and a total of short play works have been registered. There are more than 5,000 units. Kuaishou announced that more than 20,000 skits have been included, of which over 12.5 percent of the episodes are over 100 million. Kuaishou users watch more than 210 million skits per day, and the total user viewing time has reached 35 million hours.

Various dimensions of data are prosperous, but behind the data, the skit is still in the early stage of being “defined”. Whether the platform, producers, and actors can achieve unification of interests in this process determines how big the entire industry can ultimately be. .

“Kaishou Little Theater” page “I want it to fire, but I also want it not to fire” The most obvious advantage of the skit is undoubtedly the “short and fast”. Compared with TV series and movies with high investment and unstable income, the lower cost and faster feedback of skits are the main reasons why traditional film and television companies favor it. At first, many companies made their first pot of gold in this blue ocean, but they were quickly hit. “When we started to do it in mid-2019, the cycle was very short, because it only needed to be reviewed by the platform, the production budget was also very cheap, and one episode could be controlled at 10,000 yuan.” Chen Ning told Sohu Technology, with the help of Douyin and Kuaishou. With the intervention of traditional video platforms, the budget of each video soared to 500,000 yuan in just two years. Costs are rising, but the business path is still immature, and many companies that enter the game later have begun to wait and see. At present, the business models of short dramas explored by all parties in the industry are mainly divided into three types: accounting, advertising and e-commerce. Let’s first look at the relatively popular split-accounting model in recent years. Before the short drama, in 2015, iQiyi first launched the “net big share account”. At present, long video platforms have generally begun to use this commercialization method. Different platforms have different accounting rules. iQiyi adopts content sharing, marketing sharing and advertising sharing, while Tencent Video and Youku only adopt content sharing. According to the effective viewing time of paying users, it is a kind of benign income model to make the big works of online drama and network directly face the C-end users, which will force the film party to be responsible for the quality of the content. There have been many high-income cases in online drama splitting. In 2016, “The Demon Out of Changan” with a production cost of only 4.5 million made more than 20 million in revenue, and the return on investment ratio reached 1:4.5; in 2017, the revenue of “The Chef of the Flower Pot” has exceeded 72 million in two years. Of course, as the industry passes through the initial stage of volume, the good days of relying on platform subsidies and account splitting will not last long. The producers of the skits asked by Sohu Technology all stated that “you can’t make much money by splitting the accounts.” At present, both Kuaishou and Douyin have avoided discussing the proportion of revenue sharing. Previously, the person in charge of Kuaishou short drama pointed out to the media, “Because of the lack of subsequent monetization channels, long dramas can only rely on a mode of sharing accounts. The special form of the video allows it to be monetized even if there is no account split. The monetization mode other than the account split is rapidly completing the video, and the follow-up will become heavier and heavier.” From the attitude of the platform, it is difficult for the account split to become the main film party. Source of income. The so-called “special form of short video” enables advertising customization and e-commerce to be applied more flexibly in the ecosystem. For example, in terms of advertising, Kuaishou and Wanglaoji’s “Auspicious Theater” have launched two short dramas “Niu XIII” and “My Contract Boyfriend” with over 100 million broadcasts. However, due to the unclear prospects of the short dramas, many advertisers are still cautious about the placement of most of the short dramas. “Everything depends on whether there are customers who want to place an order.” An insider of Happy Twist told Sohu Technology that although the short drama is a new direction for Happy Twist, the internal promotion is very slow. On the one hand, the current production process of the short drama It’s not much easier than a long drama. On the other hand, it’s not easy to find content that meets customer needs. “Of course we want to make our own IP, but there is no content at the moment.” Wang Yaou, general manager of Happy Twist Marketing Center, once said in an interview with Dongxi Cultural Entertainment: “The short play is very short, but how to balance the quality of the content and the commercial value of the brand is not easy at all. Moreover, this is a new field. How the content party and the platform party sign a commercial contract, how to determine the terms, how to sign, how to commercialize, how to share profits, there is no mature template, everything needs to be explored.” From advertisers to producers, everyone is still experimenting on their own. Although there have been many excellent cases of customized advertising dramas, it remains to be seen whether advertisers will continue to launch them. In addition to commercialization, film producers are also facing more and more difficulties in the production process. The first to bear the brunt is the gradual lengthening of the cycle. “Timeliness is the number one advantage of the short drama. It was originally possible to make two dramas a month, but now that the supervision is involved, the time period from production to launch is hard to say.” Chen Ning said, when the short drama is the biggest After the time advantage is gradually compressed, the future space will not be particularly large. Secondly, the “short, flat and fast” feature of the short drama has its own advantages, but correspondingly, this has also increased the pressure on the filmmakers to grasp the time window. “When we were making a short drama, we wanted it to be popular but also not to be popular,” Chen Ning described the mentality of the film party in this way, “If it is not popular, we can make new ones, but if it is popular, according to The time for the flow of the skit to ferment, you must keep up with the second one within half a month to take advantage of the heat, otherwise it will be cold after a month. Can this time-sensitive production team keep up?” Finally, compared to web dramas and movies, short dramas are more centered on actors, that is, dramas serve people rather than people support dramas. From this perspective, Douyin Kuaishou’s skits are not based on “content” and rely on “content” to do business, but more for the purpose of “establishing people.” “One of the problems that this brings is that if the sequel is filmed, the core male and female actors must not be changed, and the actors may sit on the floor and raise the price.” Chen Ning said. “Personal” business The effect of “Establishing People” through the skit is remarkable. Take “Yuer” as an example. Its masterpiece “This Lord I Want to Return” has accumulated 350 million views in Kuaishou, and a single drama has gained more than 2 million fans; while Kuaishou’s first major short drama “This Male Lead Is A Little Cold” The heroine of “A Great Friend of Lu” also gained 5 million fans through the show. The super strong ability to attract fans in a short period of time has made the skit more possibilities on the commercial link. “The Kuaishou skit itself still relies on the business model of the Kuaishou platform, so we will be more based on the commercialization of the entire platform to empower. We monitored part of the more interesting link is that the 5 million fans of “Yi Lu” directly In order to become a trusted fan of her e-commerce, her GMV conversion of her e-commerce has increased by about 60 times. This is a very surprising number. Therefore, our important direction in the second half of this year is to deeply integrate the short drama with the e-commerce.” Kuaishou The person in charge of the skit said. Chen Ning also believes that e-commerce will most likely become the main monetization method for skits in the future. “In fact, if MCN or individuals want to do Douyin or Kuaishou accounts, the initial investment in maintaining accounts is mainly to buy traffic and increase fans. The short drama is a way to reduce the initial investment time. For example, a drama is rated as A-level, and the platform gives 3000 With more than 10,000 traffic support, it may increase by 1 million fans in a short period of time, but if you raise your account to 1 million, it will take at least half a year to a year.” In other words, the skit is more like a “medium” to increase fans. Through the story of the skit, users can follow the core actors to increase their stickiness. After the skit ends, the actors return to the anchor status and use private domain traffic to bring goods. This can also explain why Kuaishou, which has stronger private domain traffic and a more complete e-commerce ecology, can be ahead of Douyin in the field of skits. But hidden dangers also exist. From the perspective of content, the essence of skits is “net-sensing cool dramas”. This type of content has limited reputation and influence, and the quality of the content is directly proportional to the life cycle. This makes the skits have a short life cycle and requires continuous delivery of new points and new ideas. Stories to satisfy users. Therefore, the realization of the IP of a short drama itself cannot be extended into an ecology like a long film and television drama. In response to this, the person in charge of the Kuaishou skit responded, “Under the environment of trial and error, the influence of a hit can last for a year. It is considered good. After all, it is related to the input-output ratio. The cost of brainpower is definitely not comparable to a short drama, and the influence of the former’s subsequent IP ecology will inevitably last for more than ten years.” According to Kuaishou’s thinking, the skit is more suitable for tapping people’s IP value and people’s e-commerce. In addition, for the artists, the short drama does provide them with a way out. For example, the vast majority of trainees who have not debuted on domestic talent shows, due to the lack of a comprehensive audition system in China, a large number of trainees lack opportunities to show up, and short plays provide them with a low-cost stage. Faced with such a big cake, many traditional artist agency companies have come to an end one after another. For example, Jiaxing Media, which participated in the production of “Sansheng III Shili Peach Blossom”, launched its self-made short drama “The Other Half of Me and You” on Youku for the first time; Yin United produced a short drama “Don’t be afraid, fall in love!” “; Happy Twist has also reached cooperation with Kuaishou and Haojiao at the same time, and has output multiple skits. Many people in the industry believe that although the number of micro-short dramas is often hundreds of millions, there are still no real works out of the circle, and there is no short video version of “Unexpectedly”. However, “whether or not it is out of the circle” seems to be irrelevant now. The role played by the film and television works incubated in the short video era has been rewritten, the tool attribute has come to the front, and the content itself has retreated to the second line. This may be the short drama in the present. The biggest change brought to the industry. (At the request of the interviewee, Chen Ning is a pseudonym)

Source: GPLP Rhino Finance (ID: gplpcn)

On June 19, Xueda Education (000526.SZ) announced that it would invest no more than 800 million yuan in entrusted financial management in the next 12 months. Entrusted wealth management will invest in short-term, low-risk bank wealth management products, structured deposits and monetary funds with high security and good liquidity.

Xueda education relies heavily on investment income. The annual report shows that in 2020, its investment income will reach 73.397 million yuan, accounting for 94.19% of the total profit. Among them, the income from long-term equity investment was RMB 8,899,300, the investment income during the holding period of transactional financial assets was RMB 1,189,600, the investment income from disposal of trading financial assets was RMB 47.593,000, and the income from bank wealth management products was RMB 15.716 million.

In addition, on June 19, Xueda Education issued another announcement stating that as of June 17, 2021, the company’s fund-raising account balance was about 559 million yuan, and about 247 million yuan of raised funds had been used. Among them, the adjusted investment projects and use plans of raised funds include: teaching online store construction project, teaching network optimization project, OMO online trading platform construction project, repayment of shareholder Ziguang Zhuoyuan’s loan, etc.

The financial report shows that in the first quarter of 2021, Xueda’s education revenue was 692 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.31%; net profit was 5,366,900 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 133.47%, turning losses into profits.

It is worth noting that on May 18, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission issued the “Notice on Examining Problems Found in Off-campus Training Institutions”, which was on the Educational List of Xueda University. The reason for the notification was that it carried out improper advertisements such as low-price marketing and sales anxiety.

(This article is for reference only, does not constitute investment advice, and operates at your own risk accordingly)

“Kaishou Little Theater” page “I want it to fire, but I also want it not to fire” The most obvious advantage of the skit is undoubtedly the “short and fast”. Compared with TV series and movies with high investment and unstable income, the lower cost and faster feedback of skits are the main reasons why traditional film and television companies favor it. At first, many companies made their first pot of gold in this blue ocean, but they were quickly hit. “When we started to do it in mid-2019, the cycle was very short, because it only needed to be reviewed by the platform, the production budget was also very cheap, and one episode could be controlled at 10,000 yuan.” Chen Ning told Sohu Technology, with the help of Douyin and Kuaishou. With the intervention of traditional video platforms, the budget of each video soared to 500,000 yuan in just two years. Costs are rising, but the business path is still immature, and many companies that enter the game later have begun to wait and see. At present, the business models of short dramas explored by all parties in the industry are mainly divided into three types: accounting, advertising and e-commerce. Let’s first look at the relatively popular split-accounting model in recent years. Before the short drama, in 2015, iQiyi first launched the “net big share account”. At present, long video platforms have generally begun to use this commercialization method. Different platforms have different accounting rules. iQiyi adopts content sharing, marketing sharing and advertising sharing, while Tencent Video and Youku only adopt content sharing. According to the effective viewing time of paying users, it is a kind of benign income model to make the big works of online drama and network directly face the C-end users, which will force the film party to be responsible for the quality of the content. There have been many high-income cases in online drama splitting. In 2016, “The Demon Out of Changan” with a production cost of only 4.5 million made more than 20 million in revenue, and the return on investment ratio reached 1:4.5; in 2017, the revenue of “The Chef of the Flower Pot” has exceeded 72 million in two years. Of course, as the industry passes through the initial stage of volume, the good days of relying on platform subsidies and account sharing will not last long. The producers of the skits asked by Sohu Technology all stated that “you can’t make much money by splitting the accounts.” At present, both Kuaishou and Douyin have avoided discussing the proportion of revenue sharing. Previously, the person in charge of Kuaishou short drama pointed out to the media, “Because of the lack of subsequent monetization channels, long dramas can only rely on a mode of sharing accounts. The special form of the video allows it to be monetized even if there is no account split. The monetization mode other than the account split is rapidly completing the video, and the follow-up will become heavier and heavier.” From the attitude of the platform, it is difficult for the account split to become the main film party. Source of income. The so-called “special form of short video” enables advertising customization and e-commerce to be applied more flexibly in the ecosystem. For example, in terms of advertising, Kuaishou and Wanglaoji’s “Auspicious Theater” have launched two short dramas “Niu XIII” and “My Contract Boyfriend” with over 100 million broadcasts. However, due to the unclear prospects of the short dramas, many advertisers are still cautious about the placement of most of the short dramas. “Everything depends on whether there are customers who want to place an order.” An insider of Happy Twist told Sohu Technology that although the short drama is a new direction for Happy Twist, the internal promotion is very slow. On the one hand, the current production process of the short drama It’s not much easier than a long drama. On the other hand, it’s not easy to find content that meets customer needs. “Of course we want to make our own IP, but there is no content at the moment.” Wang Yaou, general manager of Happy Twist Marketing Center, once said in an interview with Dongxi Cultural Entertainment: “The short play is very short, but how to balance the quality of the content and the commercial value of the brand is not easy at all. Moreover, this is a new field. How the content party and the platform party sign a commercial contract, how to determine the terms, how to sign, how to commercialize, how to share profits, there is no mature template, everything needs to be explored.” From advertisers to producers, everyone is still experimenting on their own. Although there have been many excellent cases of customized advertising dramas, it remains to be seen whether advertisers will continue to launch them. In addition to commercialization, film producers are also facing more and more difficulties in the production process. The first to bear the brunt is the gradual lengthening of the cycle. “Timeliness is the number one advantage of the short drama. It was originally possible to make two dramas a month, but now that the supervision is involved, the time period from production to launch is hard to say.” Chen Ning said, when the short drama is the biggest After the time advantage is gradually compressed, the future space will not be particularly large. Secondly, the “short, flat and fast” feature of the short drama has its own advantages, but correspondingly, this has also increased the pressure on the filmmakers to grasp the time window. “When we were making a short drama, we wanted it to be popular but also not to be popular,” Chen Ning described the mentality of the film party in this way, “If it is not popular, we can make new ones, but if it is popular, according to The time for the flow of the skit to ferment, you must keep up with the second one within half a month to take advantage of the heat, otherwise it will be cold after a month. Can this time-sensitive production team keep up?” Finally, compared to web dramas and movies, short dramas are more centered on actors, that is, dramas serve people rather than people support dramas. From this perspective, Douyin Kuaishou’s skits are not based on “content” and rely on “content” to do business, but more for the purpose of “establishing people.” “One of the problems this brings is that if the sequel is filmed, the core male and female actors must not be changed, and the actors may sit down and raise prices.” Chen Ning said. “Personal” business The effect of “Establishing People” through the skit is remarkable. Take “Yuer” as an example. Its masterpiece “This Lord I Want to Return” has accumulated 350 million views in Kuaishou, and a single drama has gained more than 2 million fans; while Kuaishou’s first major short drama “This Male Lead Is A Little Cold” The heroine of “A Great Friend of Lu” also gained 5 million fans through the show. The super strong ability to attract fans in a short period of time has made the skit more possibilities on the commercial link. “The Kuaishou skit itself still relies on the business model of the Kuaishou platform, so we will be more based on the commercialization of the entire platform to empower. We monitored part of the more interesting link is that the 5 million fans of “Yi Lu” directly In order to become a trusted fan of her e-commerce business, her GMV conversion of her e-commerce company has increased by about 60 times. This is a very surprising number. Therefore, our important direction in the second half of this year is to deeply integrate the short drama with the e-commerce company.” Kuaishou The person in charge of the skit said. Chen Ning also believes that e-commerce will most likely become the main monetization method for skits in the future. “In fact, if MCN or individuals want to do Douyin or Kuaishou accounts, the initial investment in maintaining accounts is mainly to buy traffic and increase fans. The short drama is a way to reduce the initial investment time. For example, a drama is rated as A-level, and the platform gives 3000 With more than 10,000 traffic support, it may increase by 1 million fans in a short period of time, but if you raise your account to 1 million, it will take at least half a year to a year.” In other words, the skit is more like a “medium” to increase fans. Through the story of the skit, users can follow the core actors to increase their stickiness. After the skit ends, the actors return to the anchor status and use private domain traffic to bring goods. This can also explain why Kuaishou, which has stronger private domain traffic and a more complete e-commerce ecology, can be ahead of Douyin in the field of skits. But hidden dangers also exist. From the perspective of content, the essence of skits is “net-sensing cool dramas”. This type of content has limited reputation and influence, and the quality of the content is directly proportional to the life cycle. This makes the skits have a short life cycle and requires continuous delivery of new points and new ideas. Stories to satisfy users. Therefore, the realization of the IP of a short drama itself cannot be extended into an ecology like a long film and television drama. In response to this, the person in charge of the Kuaishou skit responded, “Under the environment of trial and error, the influence of a hit can last for a year. It is considered good. After all, it is related to the input-output ratio. The cost of brainpower is definitely not comparable to a short drama, and the influence of the former’s subsequent IP ecology will inevitably last for more than ten years.” According to Kuaishou’s thinking, the skit is more suitable for tapping people’s IP value and people’s e-commerce. In addition, for the artists, the short drama does provide them with a way out. For example, the vast majority of trainees who have not debuted on domestic talent shows, due to the lack of a comprehensive audition system in China, a large number of trainees lack opportunities to show up, and short plays provide them with a low-cost stage. Faced with such a big cake, many traditional artist agency companies have come to an end one after another. For example, Jiaxing Media, which participated in the production of “Sansheng III Shili Peach Blossom”, launched its self-made short drama “The Other Half of Me and You” on Youku for the first time; Yin United produced a short drama “Don’t be afraid, fall in love!” “; Happy Twist has also reached cooperation with Kuaishou and Haojiao at the same time, and has output multiple skits. Many people in the industry believe that although the number of micro-short dramas is often hundreds of millions, there are still no real works out of the circle, and there is no short video version of “Unexpectedly”. However, “whether or not it is out of the circle” seems to be irrelevant now. The role played by the film and television works incubated in the short video era has been rewritten, the tool attribute has come to the front, and the content itself has retreated to the second line. This may be the short drama in the present. The biggest change brought to the industry. (At the request of the interviewee, Chen Ning is a pseudonym)

“Kaishou Little Theater” page “I want it to fire, but I also want it not to fire” The most obvious advantage of the skit is undoubtedly the “short and fast”. Compared with TV series and movies with high investment and unstable income, the lower cost and faster feedback of skits are the main reasons why traditional film and television companies favor it. At first, many companies made their first pot of gold in this blue ocean, but they were quickly hit. “When we started to do it in mid-2019, the cycle was very short, because it only needed to be reviewed by the platform, the production budget was also very cheap, and one episode could be controlled at 10,000 yuan.” Chen Ning told Sohu Technology, with the help of Douyin and Kuaishou. With the intervention of traditional video platforms, the budget of each video soared to 500,000 yuan in just two years. Costs are rising, but the business path is still immature, and many companies that enter the game later have begun to wait and see. At present, the business models of short dramas explored by all parties in the industry are mainly divided into three types: accounting, advertising and e-commerce. Let’s first look at the relatively popular split-accounting model in recent years. Before the short drama, in 2015, iQiyi first launched the “net big share account”. At present, long video platforms have generally begun to use this commercialization method. Different platforms have different accounting rules. iQiyi adopts content sharing, marketing sharing and advertising sharing, while Tencent Video and Youku only adopt content sharing. According to the effective viewing time of paying users, it is a kind of benign income model to make the big works of online drama and network directly face the C-end users, which will force the film party to be responsible for the quality of the content. There have been many high-income cases in online drama splitting. In 2016, “The Demon Out of Changan” with a production cost of only 4.5 million made more than 20 million in revenue, and the return on investment ratio reached 1:4.5; in 2017, the revenue of “The Chef of the Flower Pot” has exceeded 72 million in two years. Of course, as the industry passes through the initial stage of volume, the good days of relying on platform subsidies and account sharing will not last long. The producers of the skits asked by Sohu Technology all stated that “you can’t make much money by splitting the accounts.” At present, both Kuaishou and Douyin have avoided discussing the proportion of revenue sharing. Previously, the person in charge of Kuaishou short drama pointed out to the media, “Because of the lack of subsequent monetization channels, long dramas can only rely on a mode of sharing accounts. The special form of the video allows it to be monetized even if there is no account split. The monetization mode other than the account split is rapidly completing the video, and the follow-up will become heavier and heavier.” From the attitude of the platform, it is difficult for the account split to become the main film party. Source of income. The so-called “special form of short video” enables advertising customization and e-commerce to be applied more flexibly in the ecosystem. For example, in terms of advertising, Kuaishou and Wanglaoji’s “Auspicious Theater” have launched two short dramas “Niu XIII” and “My Contract Boyfriend” with over 100 million broadcasts. However, due to the unclear prospects of the short dramas, many advertisers are still cautious about the placement of most of the short dramas. “Everything depends on whether there are customers who want to place an order.” An insider of Happy Twist told Sohu Technology that although the short drama is a new direction for Happy Twist, the internal promotion is very slow. On the one hand, the current production process of the short drama It’s not much easier than a long drama. On the other hand, it’s not easy to find content that meets customer needs. “Of course we want to make our own IP, but there is no content at the moment.” Wang Yaou, general manager of Happy Twist Marketing Center, once said in an interview with Dongxi Cultural Entertainment: “The short play is very short, but how to balance the quality of the content and the commercial value of the brand is not easy at all. Moreover, this is a new field. How the content party and the platform party sign a commercial contract, how to determine the terms, how to sign, how to commercialize, how to share profits, there is no mature template, everything needs to be explored.” From advertisers to producers, everyone is still experimenting on their own. Although there have been many excellent cases of customized advertising dramas, it remains to be seen whether advertisers will continue to launch them. In addition to commercialization, film producers are also facing more and more difficulties in the production process. The first to bear the brunt is the gradual lengthening of the cycle. “Timeliness is the number one advantage of the short drama. It was originally possible to make two dramas a month, but now that the supervision is involved, the time period from production to launch is hard to say.” Chen Ning said, when the short drama is the biggest After the time advantage is gradually compressed, the future space will not be particularly large. Secondly, the “short, flat and fast” feature of the short drama has its own advantages, but correspondingly, this has also increased the pressure on the filmmakers to grasp the time window. “When we were making a short drama, we wanted it to be popular but also not to be popular,” Chen Ning described the mentality of the film party in this way, “If it is not popular, we can make new ones, but if it is popular, according to The time for the flow of the skit to ferment, you must keep up with the second one within half a month to take advantage of the heat, otherwise it will be cold after a month. Can this time-sensitive production team keep up?” Finally, compared to web dramas and movies, short dramas are more centered on actors, that is, dramas serve people rather than people support dramas. From this perspective, Douyin Kuaishou’s skits are not based on “content” and rely on “content” to do business, but more for the purpose of “establishing people.” “One of the problems this brings is that if the sequel is filmed, the core male and female actors must not be changed, and the actors may sit down and raise prices.” Chen Ning said. “Personal” business The effect of “Establishing People” through the skit is remarkable. Take “Yuer” as an example. Its masterpiece “This Lord I Want to Return” has accumulated 350 million views in Kuaishou, and a single drama has gained more than 2 million fans; while Kuaishou’s first major short drama “This Male Lead Is A Little Cold” The heroine of “A Great Friend of Lu” also gained 5 million fans through the show. The super strong ability to attract fans in a short period of time has made the skit more possibilities on the commercial link. “The Kuaishou skit itself still relies on the business model of the Kuaishou platform, so we will be more based on the commercialization of the entire platform to empower. We monitored part of the more interesting link is that the 5 million fans of “Yi Lu” directly In order to become a trusted fan of her e-commerce business, her GMV conversion of her e-commerce company has increased by about 60 times. This is a very surprising number. Therefore, our important direction in the second half of this year is to deeply integrate the short drama with the e-commerce company.” Kuaishou The person in charge of the skit said. Chen Ning also believes that e-commerce will most likely become the main monetization method for skits in the future. “In fact, if MCN or individuals want to do Douyin or Kuaishou accounts, the initial investment in maintaining accounts is mainly to buy traffic and increase fans. The short drama is a way to reduce the initial investment time. For example, a drama is rated as A-level, and the platform gives 3000 With more than 10,000 traffic support, it may increase by 1 million fans in a short period of time, but if you raise your account to 1 million, it will take at least half a year to a year.” In other words, the skit is more like a “medium” to increase fans. Through the story of the skit, users can follow the core actors to increase their stickiness. After the skit ends, the actors return to the anchor status and use private domain traffic to bring goods. This can also explain why Kuaishou, which has stronger private domain traffic and a more complete e-commerce ecology, can be ahead of Douyin in the field of skits. But hidden dangers also exist. From the perspective of content, the essence of skits is “net-sensing cool dramas”. This type of content has limited reputation and influence, and the quality of the content is directly proportional to the life cycle. This makes the skits have a short life cycle and requires continuous delivery of new points and new ideas. Stories to satisfy users. Therefore, the realization of the IP of a short drama itself cannot be extended into an ecology like a long film and television drama. In response to this, the person in charge of the Kuaishou skit responded, “Under the environment of trial and error, the influence of a hit can last for a year. It is considered good. After all, it is related to the input-output ratio. The cost of brainpower is definitely not comparable to a short drama, and the influence of the former’s subsequent IP ecology will inevitably last for more than ten years.” According to Kuaishou’s thinking, the skit is more suitable for tapping people’s IP value and people’s e-commerce. In addition, for the artists, the short drama does provide them with a way out. For example, the vast majority of trainees who have not debuted on domestic talent shows, due to the lack of a comprehensive audition system in China, a large number of trainees lack opportunities to show up, and short plays provide them with a low-cost stage. Faced with such a big cake, many traditional artist agency companies have come to an end one after another. For example, Jiaxing Media, which participated in the production of “Sansheng III Shili Peach Blossom”, launched its self-made short drama “The Other Half of Me and You” on Youku for the first time; Yin United produced a short drama “Don’t be afraid, fall in love!” “; Happy Twist has also reached cooperation with Kuaishou and Haojiao at the same time, and has output multiple skits. Many people in the industry believe that although the number of micro-short dramas is often hundreds of millions, there are still no real works out of the circle, and there is no short video version of “Unexpectedly”. However, “whether or not it is out of the circle” seems to be irrelevant now. The role played by the film and television works incubated in the short video era has been rewritten, the tool attribute has come to the front, and the content itself has retreated to the second line. This may be the short drama in the present. The biggest change brought to the industry. (At the request of the interviewee, Chen Ning is a pseudonym)

“Kaishou Little Theater” page “I want it to fire, but I also want it not to fire” The most obvious advantage of the skit is undoubtedly the “short and fast”. Compared with TV series and movies with high investment and unstable income, the lower cost and faster feedback of skits are the main reasons why traditional film and television companies favor it. At first, many companies made their first pot of gold in this blue ocean, but they were quickly hit. “When we started to do it in mid-2019, the cycle was very short, because it only needed to be reviewed by the platform, the production budget was also very cheap, and one episode could be controlled at 10,000 yuan.” Chen Ning told Sohu Technology, with the help of Douyin and Kuaishou. With the intervention of traditional video platforms, the budget of each video soared to 500,000 yuan in just two years. Costs are rising, but the business path is still immature, and many companies that enter the game later have begun to wait and see. At present, the business models of short dramas explored by all parties in the industry are mainly divided into three types: accounting, advertising and e-commerce. Let’s first look at the relatively popular split-accounting model in recent years. Before the short drama, in 2015, iQiyi first launched the “net big share account”. At present, long video platforms have generally begun to use this commercialization method. Different platforms have different accounting rules. iQiyi adopts content sharing, marketing sharing and advertising sharing, while Tencent Video and Youku only adopt content sharing. According to the effective viewing time of paying users, it is a kind of benign income model to make the big works of online drama and network directly face the C-end users, which will force the film party to be responsible for the quality of the content. There have been many high-income cases in online drama splitting. In 2016, “The Demon Out of Changan” with a production cost of only 4.5 million made more than 20 million in revenue, and the return on investment ratio reached 1:4.5; in 2017, the revenue of “The Chef of the Flower Pot” has exceeded 72 million in two years. Of course, as the industry passes through the initial stage of volume, the good days of relying on platform subsidies and account sharing will not last long. The producers of the skits asked by Sohu Technology all stated that “you can’t make much money by splitting the accounts.” At present, both Kuaishou and Douyin have avoided discussing the proportion of revenue sharing. Previously, the person in charge of Kuaishou short drama pointed out to the media, “Because of the lack of subsequent monetization channels, long dramas can only rely on a mode of sharing accounts. The special form of the video allows it to be monetized even if there is no account split. The monetization mode other than the account split is rapidly completing the video, and the follow-up will become heavier and heavier.” From the attitude of the platform, it is difficult for the account split to become the main film party. Source of income. The so-called “special form of short video” enables advertising customization and e-commerce to be applied more flexibly in the ecosystem. For example, in terms of advertising, Kuaishou and Wanglaoji’s “Auspicious Theater” have launched two short dramas “Niu XIII” and “My Contract Boyfriend” with over 100 million broadcasts. However, due to the unclear prospects of the short dramas, many advertisers are still cautious about the placement of most of the short dramas. “Everything depends on whether there are customers who want to place an order.” An insider of Happy Twist told Sohu Technology that although the short drama is a new direction for Happy Twist, the internal promotion is very slow. On the one hand, the current production process of the short drama It’s not much easier than a long drama. On the other hand, it’s not easy to find content that meets customer needs. “Of course we want to make our own IP, but there is no content at the moment.” Wang Yaou, general manager of Happy Twist Marketing Center, once said in an interview with Dongxi Cultural Entertainment: “The short play is very short, but how to balance the quality of the content and the commercial value of the brand is not easy at all. Moreover, this is a new field. How the content party and the platform party sign a commercial contract, how to determine the terms, how to sign, how to commercialize, how to share profits, there is no mature template, everything needs to be explored.” From advertisers to producers, everyone is still experimenting on their own. Although there have been many excellent cases of customized advertising dramas, it remains to be seen whether advertisers will continue to launch them. In addition to commercialization, film producers are also facing more and more difficulties in the production process. The first to bear the brunt is the gradual lengthening of the cycle. “Timeliness is the number one advantage of the short drama. It was originally possible to make two dramas a month, but now that the supervision is involved, the time period from production to launch is hard to say.” Chen Ning said, when the short drama is the biggest After the time advantage is gradually compressed, the future space will not be particularly large. Secondly, the “short, flat and fast” feature of the short drama has its own advantages, but correspondingly, this has also increased the pressure on the filmmakers to grasp the time window. “When we were making a short drama, we wanted it to be popular but also not to be popular,” Chen Ning described the mentality of the film party in this way, “If it is not popular, we can make new ones, but if it is popular, according to The time for the flow of the skit to ferment, you must keep up with the second one within half a month to take advantage of the heat, otherwise it will be cold after a month. Can this time-sensitive production team keep up?” Finally, compared to web dramas and movies, short dramas are more centered on actors, that is, dramas serve people rather than people support dramas. From this perspective, Douyin Kuaishou’s skits are not based on “content” and rely on “content” to do business, but more for the purpose of “establishing people.” “One of the problems this brings is that if the sequel is filmed, the core male and female actors must not be changed, and the actors may sit down and raise prices.” Chen Ning said. “Personal” business The effect of “Establishing People” through the skit is remarkable. Take “Yuer” as an example. Its masterpiece “This Lord I Want to Return” has accumulated 350 million views in Kuaishou, and a single drama has gained more than 2 million fans; while Kuaishou’s first major short drama “This Male Lead Is A Little Cold” The heroine of “A Great Friend of Lu” also gained 5 million fans through the show. The super strong ability to attract fans in a short period of time has made the skit more possibilities on the commercial link. “The Kuaishou skit itself still relies on the business model of the Kuaishou platform, so we will be more based on the commercialization of the entire platform to empower. We monitored part of the more interesting link is that the 5 million fans of “Yi Lu” directly In order to become a trusted fan of her e-commerce business, her GMV conversion of her e-commerce company has increased by about 60 times. This is a very surprising number. Therefore, our important direction in the second half of this year is to deeply integrate the short drama with the e-commerce company.” Kuaishou The person in charge of the skit said. Chen Ning also believes that e-commerce will most likely become the main monetization method for skits in the future. “In fact, if MCN or individuals want to do Douyin or Kuaishou accounts, the initial investment in maintaining accounts is mainly to buy traffic and increase fans. The short drama is a way to reduce the initial investment time. For example, a drama is rated as A-level, and the platform gives 3000 With more than 10,000 traffic support, it may increase by 1 million fans in a short period of time, but if you raise your account to 1 million, it will take at least half a year to a year.” In other words, the skit is more like a “medium” to increase fans. Through the story of the skit, users can follow the core actors to increase their stickiness. After the skit ends, the actors return to the anchor status and use private domain traffic to bring goods. This can also explain why Kuaishou, which has stronger private domain traffic and a more complete e-commerce ecology, can be ahead of Douyin in the field of skits. But hidden dangers also exist. From the perspective of content, the essence of skits is “net-sensing cool dramas”. This type of content has limited reputation and influence, and the quality of the content is directly proportional to the life cycle. This makes the skits have a short life cycle and requires continuous delivery of new points and new ideas. Stories to satisfy users. Therefore, the realization of the IP of a short drama itself cannot be extended into an ecology like a long film and television drama. In response to this, the person in charge of the Kuaishou skit responded, “Under the environment of trial and error, the influence of a hit can last for a year. It is considered good. After all, it is related to the input-output ratio. The cost of brainpower is definitely not comparable to a short drama, and the influence of the former’s subsequent IP ecology will inevitably last for more than ten years.” According to Kuaishou’s thinking, the skit is more suitable for tapping people’s IP value and people’s e-commerce. In addition, for the artists, the short drama does provide them with a way out. For example, the vast majority of trainees who have not debuted on domestic talent shows, due to the lack of a comprehensive audition system in China, a large number of trainees lack opportunities to show up, and short plays provide them with a low-cost stage. Faced with such a big cake, many traditional artist agency companies have come to an end one after another. For example, Jiaxing Media, which participated in the production of “Sansheng III Shili Peach Blossom”, launched its self-made short drama “The Other Half of Me and You” on Youku for the first time; Yin United produced a short drama “Don’t be afraid, fall in love!” “; Happy Twist has also reached cooperation with Kuaishou and Haojiao at the same time, and has output multiple skits. Many people in the industry believe that although the number of micro-short dramas is often hundreds of millions, there are still no real works out of the circle, and there is no short video version of “Unexpectedly”. However, “whether or not it is out of the circle” seems to be irrelevant now. The role played by the film and television works incubated in the short video era has been rewritten, the tool attribute has come to the front, and the content itself has retreated to the second line. This may be the short drama in the present. The biggest change brought to the industry. (At the request of the interviewee, Chen Ning is a pseudonym)

Produced｜Sohu Technology

Author｜Song Wanxin

Edit｜Yang Jin

After exploring for a period of time, at the beginning of this year, Chen Ning’s company gave up the short drama business. The reasons behind it are complicated. He feels that since the skit has become an outlet, the market is still speculating on the concept, and no one has run through the commercialization path. This somewhat illustrates a certain problem.

If you trace the origin of the skit, you may have to start with “Unexpectedly” in 2013. At that time, Douyin had not yet been born, and Kuaishou had not been out of the circle. “Unexpectedly” is defined as a mini comedy, but from the perspective of the content of the series, “Unexpectedly” also has the characteristics of today’s “mini-short drama”: 15 episodes per season, 5 minutes per episode, compact plot , The net is full, the pain points and the laugh points are intensive.

The early short dramas were mainly played in the horizontal screen mode of UAT. In the past two years, with the development of short videos, the short dramas have naturally grown in the short video ecology.

According to the “2020 China Internet Audiovisual Development Research Report” released on October 12 last year, short video users have reached 818 million, and the average daily short video product use time is 110 minutes. When the short video traffic dividend is about to peak, the content mode of short dramas has become a new direction for platforms to compete for user duration.

From mid-2019 to the present, Chen Ning has felt the tremendous changes in the skit industry, “No matter whether it is the production system or the budget, it is no longer the same.” At the same time, after a period of barbaric growth, regulatory forces also began to intervene.

At the end of last year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television added the category of “Internet short dramas” to the key online film and television drama information filing system. This category stipulates that the web short drama is a web drama with a single episode of no more than 10 minutes. This means that the “micro short drama” has been named and qualitative, and the market has formed a larger scale and has been brought into supervision.

A few days ago, Kuaishou and Douyin have held short play press conferences, and each published their transcripts. Douyin said that during the “New Fan Project 1.0” period, 110 MCN agencies and more than 1,400 Douyin creators participated, and a total of short play works have been registered. There are more than 5,000 units. Kuaishou announced that more than 20,000 skits have been included, of which over 12.5 percent of the episodes are over 100 million. Kuaishou users watch more than 210 million skits per day, and the total user viewing time has reached 35 million hours.

Various dimensions of data are prosperous, but behind the data, the skit is still in the early stage of being “defined”. Whether the platform, producers, and actors can achieve unification of interests in this process determines how big the entire industry can ultimately be. .

“Kaishou Little Theater” page

“I want it to fire, but I also want it not to fire”

The most obvious advantage of the skit is undoubtedly the “short and fast”. Compared with TV series and movies with high investment and unstable income, the lower cost and faster feedback of skits are the main reasons why traditional film and television companies favor it.

At first, many companies made their first pot of gold in this blue ocean, but they were quickly hit. “When we started to do it in mid-2019, the cycle was very short, because it only needed to be reviewed by the platform, the production budget was also very cheap, and one episode could be controlled at 10,000 yuan.” Chen Ning told Sohu Technology, with the help of Douyin and Kuaishou. With the intervention of traditional video platforms, the budget of each video soared to 500,000 yuan in just two years.

Costs are rising, but the business path is still immature, and many companies that enter the game later have begun to wait and see.

At present, the business models of short dramas explored by all parties in the industry are mainly divided into three types: accounting, advertising and e-commerce.

First, let’s look at the relatively popular split-accounting model in recent years. Before the short drama, in 2015, iQiyi first launched the “net big share account”. At present, long video platforms have generally begun to use this commercialization method.

Different platforms have different accounting rules. iQiyi adopts content sharing, marketing sharing and advertising sharing, while Tencent Video and Youku only adopt content sharing. According to the effective viewing time of paying users, it is a kind of benign income model to make the big works of online drama and network directly face the C-end users, which will force the film party to be responsible for the quality of the content.

There have been many high-income cases in online drama splitting. In 2016, “The Demon Out of Changan” with a production cost of only 4.5 million made more than 20 million in revenue, and the return on investment ratio reached 1:4.5; in 2017, the revenue of “The Chef of the Flower Pot” has exceeded 72 million in two years.

Of course, as the industry passes through the initial stage of volume, the good days of relying on platform subsidies and account splitting will not last long. The producers of the skits asked by Sohu Technology all stated that “you can’t make much money by splitting the accounts.”

At present, both Kuaishou and Douyin have avoided discussing the proportion of revenue sharing. Previously, the person in charge of Kuaishou short drama pointed out to the media, “Because of the lack of subsequent monetization channels, long dramas can only rely on a mode of sharing accounts. The special form of the video allows it to be monetized even if there is no account split. The monetization mode other than the account split is rapidly completing the video, and the follow-up will become heavier and heavier.” From the attitude of the platform, it is difficult for the account split to become the main film party. Source of income.

The so-called “special form of short video” enables advertising customization and e-commerce to be applied more flexibly in the ecosystem.

For example, in terms of advertising, Kuaishou and Wanglaoji’s “Auspicious Theater” have launched two short dramas “Niu XIII” and “My Contract Boyfriend” with over 100 million broadcasts.

However, due to the unclear prospects of the short dramas, many advertisers are still cautious about the placement of most of the short dramas.

“Everything depends on whether there are customers who want to place an order.” An insider of Happy Twist told Sohu Technology that although the short drama is a new direction for Happy Twist, the internal promotion is very slow. On the one hand, the current production process of the short drama It’s not much easier than a long drama. On the other hand, it’s not easy to find content that meets customer needs. “Of course we want to make our own IP, but there is no content at the moment.”

Wang Yaou, general manager of Happy Twist Marketing Center, once said in an interview with Dongxi Cultural Entertainment: “The short play is very short, but how to balance the quality of the content and the commercial value of the brand is not easy at all. Moreover, this is a new field. How the content party and the platform party sign a commercial contract, how to determine the terms, how to sign, how to commercialize, how to share profits, there is no mature template, everything needs to be explored.”

From advertisers to producers, everyone is still experimenting on their own. Although there have been many excellent cases of customized advertising dramas, it remains to be seen whether advertisers will continue to launch them.

In addition to commercialization, film producers are also facing more and more difficulties in the production process.

The first to bear the brunt is the gradual lengthening of the cycle. “Timeliness is the number one advantage of the short drama. It was originally possible to make two dramas a month, but now that the supervision is involved, the time period from production to launch is hard to say.” Chen Ning said, when the short drama is the biggest After the time advantage is gradually compressed, the future space will not be particularly large.

Secondly, the “short, flat and fast” feature of the short drama has its own advantages, but correspondingly, this has also increased the pressure on the filmmakers to grasp the time window. “When we were making a short drama, we wanted it to be popular but also not to be popular,” Chen Ning described the mentality of the film party in this way, “If it is not popular, we can make new ones, but if it is popular, according to The time for the flow of the skit to ferment, you must keep up with the second one within half a month to take advantage of the heat, otherwise it will be cold after a month. Can this time-sensitive production team keep up?”

Finally, compared to web dramas and movies, short dramas are more centered on actors, that is, dramas serve people rather than people support dramas. From this perspective, Douyin Kuaishou’s skits are not based on “content” and rely on “content” to do business, but more for the purpose of “establishing people.” “One of the problems that this brings is that if the sequel is filmed, the core male and female actors must not be changed, and the actors may sit on the floor and raise the price.” Chen Ning said.

“Personal” business

The effect of “Establishing People” through the skit is remarkable. Take “Yuer” as an example. Its masterpiece “This Lord I Want to Return” has accumulated 350 million views in Kuaishou, and a single drama has gained more than 2 million fans; while Kuaishou’s first major short drama “This Male Lead Is A Little Cold” The heroine of “A Great Friend of Lu” also gained 5 million fans through the show.

The super strong ability to attract fans in a short period of time has made the skit more possibilities on the commercial link. “The Kuaishou skit itself still relies on the business model of the Kuaishou platform, so we will be more based on the commercialization of the entire platform to empower. We monitored part of the more interesting link is that the 5 million fans of “Yi Lu” directly In order to become a trusted fan of her e-commerce business, her GMV conversion of her e-commerce company has increased by about 60 times. This is a very surprising number. Therefore, our important direction in the second half of this year is to deeply integrate the short drama with the e-commerce company.” Kuaishou The person in charge of the skit said.

Chen Ning also believes that e-commerce will most likely become the main monetization method for skits in the future. “In fact, if MCN or individuals want to do Douyin or Kuaishou accounts, the initial investment in maintaining accounts is mainly to buy traffic and increase fans. The short drama is a way to reduce the initial investment time. For example, a drama is rated as A-level, and the platform gives 3000 With more than 10,000 traffic support, it may increase by 1 million fans in a short period of time, but if you raise your account to 1 million, it will take at least half a year to a year.”

In other words, the skit is more like a “medium” to increase fans. Through the story of the skit, users can follow the core actors to increase their stickiness. After the skit ends, the actors return to the anchor status and use private domain traffic to bring goods.

This can also explain why Kuaishou, which has stronger private domain traffic and a more complete e-commerce ecology, can be ahead of Douyin in the field of skits.

But hidden dangers also exist. From the perspective of content, the essence of skits is “net-sensing cool dramas”. This type of content has limited reputation and influence, and the quality of the content is directly proportional to the life cycle. This makes the skits have a short life cycle and requires continuous delivery of new points and new ideas. Stories to satisfy users. Therefore, the realization of the IP of a short drama itself cannot be extended into an ecology like a long film and television drama.

In response to this, the person in charge of the Kuaishou skit responded, “Under the environment of trial and error, the influence of a hit can last for a year. It is considered good. After all, it is related to the input-output ratio. The cost of brainpower is definitely not comparable to a short drama, and the influence of the former’s subsequent IP ecology will inevitably last for more than ten years.”

According to Kuaishou’s thinking, the skit is more suitable for tapping people’s IP value and people’s e-commerce.

In addition, for the artists, the short drama does provide them with a way out. For example, the vast majority of trainees who have not debuted on domestic talent shows, due to the lack of a comprehensive audition system in China, a large number of trainees lack opportunities to show up, and short plays provide them with a low-cost stage.

Faced with such a big cake, many traditional artist agency companies have come to an end one after another. For example, Jiaxing Media, which participated in the production of “Sansheng III Shili Peach Blossom”, launched its self-made short drama “The Other Half of Me and You” on Youku for the first time; Yin United produced a short drama “Don’t be afraid, fall in love!” “; Happy Twist has also reached cooperation with Kuaishou and Haojiao at the same time, and has output multiple skits.

Many people in the industry believe that although the number of micro-short dramas is often hundreds of millions, there are still no real works out of the circle, and there is no short video version of “Unexpectedly”. However, “whether or not it is out of the circle” seems to be irrelevant now. The role played by the film and television works incubated in the short video era has been rewritten, the tool attribute has come to the front, and the content itself has retreated to the second line. This may be the short drama in the present. The biggest change brought to the industry.

(At the request of the interviewee, Chen Ning is a pseudonym)

“Investor Net” Wu Wei

On June 4, ten days before the Dragon Boat Festival in 2021, Zhejiang Wufangzhai Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Wufangzhai”), which changed its sponsoring brokers three times in just two years, finally submitted a prospectus to the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The company officially applied for listing on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

As a well-known zongzi product brand, Wufangzhai began accepting listing counseling as early as April 2019. The sponsoring broker at that time was GF Securities Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “GF Securities”, 000776.SZ); in January 2020, Wufangzhai replaced the sponsoring brokerage with China International Capital Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “CICC”, 601995.SH); however, the cooperation between the company and CICC has not exceeded one year. In December 2020, Wufang Zhai also replaced the securities firm with Zheshang Securities Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Zheshang Securities”, 601878.SH).

Beginning in 1921, Wufangzhai became the first batch of “Chinese time-honored” enterprises to become famous for making zongzi. After restructuring and privatization of collective enterprises, the company is no longer just a zongzi production enterprise. After years of development, Wufangzhai also has business lines or product lines such as catering stores, moon cakes, glutinous rice balls, cakes, egg products, and other rice products.

However, like many old brands, in addition to products such as rice dumplings and finished dishes and semi-finished products, the moon cakes, glutinous rice balls, pastries, egg products, and other rice products sold in Wufangzhai are all processed and produced by OEMs. Even for the famous zongzi products, Wufangzhai is increasingly dependent on OEM production.

As a company that produces seasonal foods, in order to ensure the stability of the company’s income, Wufangzhai has established direct-operated or franchised stores in high-speed service areas, high-speed rail stations, shopping malls and other places with large numbers of people, but these stores have different profits and losses. From 2018 to 2020, the total number of the company’s directly-operated stores has declined. By entrusting processing to expand product lines and raising funds to build an e-commerce center, can “Wufangzhai” be transformed into an Internet food brand as it wishes?

The historical evolution of collective enterprise restructuring is complicated

The predecessor of Wufangzhai was the overall reorganization of the Wufangzhai Zongzi subsidiary in Jiaxing City, and was jointly established by Jiaxing Department Store, Jiaxing Meat Center, Jiaxing Brewing, Jiaxing Academy of Agricultural Sciences and 582 natural persons. From the perspective of property rights structure, Wufangzhai is a collective enterprise. At the beginning of its establishment in 1998, Wufangzhai still left 520,000 shares that were not clearly vested, and the remaining shares accounted for 4.29% of the company’s total share capital.

From 2001 to 2004, the shareholders of Wufangzhai carried out multiple equity transfers. The predecessor of the company’s controlling shareholder, Wufangzhai Group, Sino-Ocean Industrial, became the controlling party of the company through multiple transfers of the equity of Wufangzhai collective or individual shareholders. By March 2004, Sino-Ocean Industrial held 59.16% of Wufangzhai. Shares. Since then, Wufangzhai’s equity has been transferred many times. In 2010, Wufangzhai also transferred 4.29% of the remaining shares held by shareholder Zhu Zhijie, and the company paid the registered capital to incorporate the residual income into the capital reserve. The form solves the problem of remaining shares.

In 2011, Wufangzhai Group also incorporated 9 companies under the group including catering, e-commerce and rice industry into the company system of Wufangzhai through capital increase, in order to increase Wufangzhai’s business line and avoid competition in the same industry. Related questions. The following year, in 2012, Wufangzhai accepted the capital increase from 6 institutional shareholders, including Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway, Everbright Financial Holdings Venture Capital Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Everbright Financial Holdings”), and 2 individual shareholders. The valuation is 1.3 billion yuan. In the same year, Wufangzhai Group also transferred 139 million yuan worth of equity at a valuation of 1.3 billion yuan.

Five institutional shareholders, including Everbright Financial Holdings and Ivy Investment, who invested in Wufangzhai in 2012, transferred their equity in Wufangzhai to the company’s actual controller’s related parties at an overall valuation of 1.7 billion yuan in 2016. Ocean decoration. Judging from the supplementary agreement signed between Wufangzhai Group and Ningbo Fuju, which became a shareholder in 2012, Wufangzhai introduced new shareholders in 2012 to promote the listing of the company. The trigger condition for the supplementary agreement signed by Wufangzhai Group and Ningbo Fuju is the enterprise. To be listed at the end of 2015.

Also in 2016, Wufangzhai Group acquired 1.25 million state-owned shares of Wufangzhai held by Jiaxing Meat Center at an overall valuation of 1.367 billion yuan, accounting for 2.48% of the company’s total shares. In the long history of Wufangzhai, the company’s major shareholder Wufangzhai Group has also reduced the number of natural-person shareholders of the company through the transfer of shares held by natural persons. However, as of the 2021 prospectus release date, Wufangzhai still has 165 natural person shareholders.

In the historical evolution of Wufangzhai, issues such as the transfer of state-owned shares and the handling of remaining shares may become the focus of the company’s listing review. The actual controller of the company, Li Jianping, was also involved in the case of Feng Shuixiang, the former chairman of Jiaxing Industrial Assets Investment Group Co., Ltd. and party secretary, taking bribes and illegally operating similar businesses. This has aroused further market concern about the listing of Wufangzhai.

Regarding Wufangzhai’s above question, “Investor Net” also contacted Wufangzhai’s secretary of the board for verification, but failed to get a reply from the other party.

Limited market space, unfavorable expansion of self-operated channels

Zongzi is one of the traditional Chinese delicacies with a long history, but like moon cakes, it is a typical seasonal food. After the Dragon Boat Festival, the market demand will be greatly reduced. At the same time, in the long process of development, combined with local specialties and taste preferences, Zongzi has also developed many “factions” and taste preferences. Representatives include the Jiaxing fresh meat dumplings preferred by Wufangzhai in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the Beijing glutinous rice dumplings eaten with sugar in the north; in addition, there are also Shanxi yellow rice dumplings, Shaanxi honey cool dumplings, and Nanning cool dumplings. Zongzi’s “sweet party” and “salty party” are also incompatible on the Internet, and they have been a hot topic of discussion during the Dragon Boat Festival for many years.

In addition to the large regional differences in taste, the price of zongzi is generally not high, so the overall scale of this market is not large. According to statistics, the scale of my country’s zongzi market was 4.916 billion yuan in 2015, and it will grow to 7.337 billion yuan in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.53%. The report cited by Wufangzhai in the prospectus estimates that by 2024, the domestic zongzi market The scale is only 10.291 billion yuan.

Unlike moon cakes, which require a mold and an oven, the rice dumplings can be made at home after simple processing of the materials, and they can be eaten after they are cooked. Also because of the convenience of making zongzi and the different tastes in different places, shopping malls and vegetable markets in many places will provide materials for making zongzi or homemade finished zongzi before the Dragon Boat Festival. Because the production of zongzi is convenient, and consumers prefer to make zongzi now, this makes the originally small zongzi market present a very fragmented status quo.

Competition is also fierce in terms of fine packaging and zongzi gift boxes. At present, there are more than a dozen brands such as Wufangzhai, Beijing Daoxiangcun, Zhenzhen Lao Lao, and Zhiweiguan. In addition to traditional rice dumplings, beverage brands such as Starbucks, Heytea, and Naixue will also make their own creative rice dumplings to further carve up this otherwise small market.

During the period from 2018 to 2020, Wufangzhai actively deployed catering or sales outlets in crowded areas such as shopping malls, high-speed service areas, and high-speed rail stations to cope with the current seasonal changes in the company’s income and further expand the scope of the company’s product radiation .

However, the expansion of Wufangzhai’s stores has not been smooth. From 2018 to 2020, the number of directly-operated stores opened by the company is lower than the number of closed direct-operated stores. Therefore, the number of directly-operated stores in Wufangzhai has increased from 203 in 2018. This has dropped to 169 in 2020. Even in 2019 without the impact of the epidemic, the number of directly-operated stores of the company is still 20 fewer than in 2018. After the Wufangzhai cooperative store opened and closed, the number of stores in 2020 has also returned to 43 in 2018. Different from the unfavorable expansion of directly-operated stores, from 2018 to 2020, Wufangzhai’s franchise stores increased from 38 to 40; dealer stores increased from 185 to 222, an increase of 20%.

It is worth mentioning that as of the end of 2020, of the 169 directly-operated stores that Wufangzhai is still operating, more than 100 have suffered losses in 2020, and a large part of the loss-making stores also have losses in 2019. Among the 42 cooperatively operated stores, more than half of the stores also suffered losses.

Zongzi sales decline, the proportion of e-commerce is low

Due to the unfavorable expansion of self-operated stores and restrictions on local tastes, as of the end of 2020, 55.82% of Wufangzhai’s income depends on the contribution of Eastern China. In the division of Wufangzhai’s sales revenue, only 18.53% comes from e-commerce retail, and this part is directly sold to end consumers. Wufangzhai did not disclose the sales target. Therefore, consumers in East China may contribute more than 55.82% of the income to Wufangzhai online and offline. In addition, compared with the 411 million zongzi sold in 2018, the total number of zongzi sold by the company in 2019 decreased by 3.131 million; affected by the epidemic, in 2020, Wufangzhai only sold 366 million zongzi.

Although the overall sales volume of Wufangzhai Zongzi has declined, and the company’s production capacity has increased, Wufangzhai’s self-produced rice dumplings accounted for a lower and lower proportion of the total number of Zongzi produced by the company during the current period. The more they rely on foundries to produce products for the company, the controllers of some foundries are still shareholders of Wufangzhai. From 2018 to 2020, the foundry produced 11.66%, 13.40% and 25.01% of zongzi for Wufangzhai.

In addition to using OEMs to produce rice dumplings, Wufangzhai has also expanded the company’s product line by producing moon cakes, glutinous rice balls, pastries, egg products and other rice products. As of the end of 2020, only Wufangzhai contributed 70.77% of the revenue, of which 17.82% of the revenue was provided by the moon cake series, egg products, pastries and other products produced by the foundry.

Among the five projects that Wufangzhai plans to raise 1.056 billion yuan to build, only less than 50% of the funds will be used for the construction and upgrading of production lines, and the other 465 million yuan will be used for the construction of digital industrial smart parks (ie, storage and e-commerce centers). ) And R&D center. The digital industry smart park construction project, Wufangzhai aims to enhance the company’s warehousing and logistics capabilities, and at the same time, through the construction of an e-commerce center, further strengthen the company’s e-commerce business development and increase e-commerce business sales revenue.

It is worth mentioning that of Wufangzhai’s 1.056 billion yuan fundraising, 90 million yuan is intended to be used to supplement working capital. However, from June 2018 to March 2021, Wufangzhai has paid dividends 4 times, with a total dividend amount of up to 253 million yuan. This also makes the outside world have certain doubts about the necessity of fundraising.

In response to the above questions, “Investor Net” also tried to ask Wufangzhai’s Secretary of the Board for verification, but failed to get a reply. (Produced by Thinking Finance)■

First, let’s take a look at the difference between engine power and car power. The so-called engine power refers to the power of the engine. It only refers to the engine, and has nothing to do with the vehicle type. The performance of the engine is measured on the engine performance test bench. The indicators for evaluating engine power are effective torque, effective power, speed and average effective pressure. The higher these indexes, the better the engine’s power performance. The power of a car refers to the average driving speed that can be achieved when the car is driving in a straight line on a good road, which is determined by the longitudinal external force received by the car. It is measured in actual driving, and the main evaluation indicators are the maximum speed, acceleration time and maximum gradeability. The higher these indicators, the better the power of the car. For ordinary family cars, acceleration time is the most direct indicator of power performance. It should be noted that the power of a car reflects the comprehensive capabilities of the car, including engine, gearbox, chassis, body, etc., not just the performance of the engine. The factors that affect the power of a car include the power and torque of the engine, the technical condition of the engine, the number of gears and the transmission ratio of the gearbox, the transmission of the final drive, the quality of the car, the radius of the tire, and the conditions of the car. Engine power performance is only one of the factors that affect the power of a car, but it is not the decisive factor. For the same model, of course, the better the engine’s power performance, the better the car’s power. For example, for Volkswagen Sagitar, the acceleration time from 100 kilometers to 100 kilometers for a model equipped with a 1.2T engine is more than 11 seconds, while the acceleration time from 100 kilometers for a model equipped with a 1.4T engine is only 8.7 seconds; In just over 11 seconds, the acceleration time from 100 kilometers for a model equipped with a 1.5T engine is over 9 seconds. Obviously, for the same model, the greater the engine horsepower, the better the car’s power. But for different models, even if equipped with the same powertrain, the car also shows completely different dynamics. For example, it is also equipped with a 1.4T+ seven-speed dry dual-clutch powertrain. The golf acceleration time is 8.6 seconds to 100 kilometers, the Magotan acceleration time is 9.1 seconds to 100 kilometers, and the Audi Q3 takes 9.8 seconds. The engine power and torque of these models are the same, but the dynamics of the cars are quite different. For models of different brands and the same level, it is even more meaningless to simply compare engine parameters. Such as Honda Civic and Volkswagen Golf. The maximum power of the Honda Civic engine is 130Kw and the car weight is 1353 kg; the maximum power of the Volkswagen Golf engine is only 110Kw, and the car weight is 1360 kg. However, the acceleration time from 100 kilometers for the Golf is only 8.6 seconds, while the acceleration time from 100 kilometers for the Honda Civic takes 9.6 seconds. Obviously, the power of the golf is better. Let’s take another extreme example: the comparison between a big truck and a small car. There is no doubt that the engine power and torque of a large truck is much greater than that of a small car, but the power of a large truck is much worse than that of a small car. For example, the maximum power of the Jiefang J6 engine is 350 horsepower, its maximum speed is 110 km/h, the acceleration time from 100 kilometers is more than 40 seconds, and the maximum gradeability is 32%; while the maximum power of the Volkswagen Jetta engine is only 110 horsepower, and its maximum speed is It is 185 km/h, the acceleration time from 100 km/h is 11.2 seconds, and the maximum gradeability is 42%. Analyzed from these three dimensions, the power of the Jetta sedan completely outperforms the Jiefang J6 truck. If you compare it with other models, the result is the same. The power of the car is better than that of the truck. Therefore, it is one-sided and inaccurate to judge the power performance of a car solely from the engine power parameters. For example, the engine parameters of BMW cars are lower than most models of the same level, and even lower than those of many domestic cars. However, few people say that BMW cars have poor power performance. The matching and tuning of the car are better, and the power performance is fully brought into play. If we want to know the power of a car, the best way is to test drive. Only in driving can we truly feel whether the power of the car can meet your needs. If you can’t test drive, you can also look at its 100 kilometers acceleration time, which is the simplest and most direct dynamic parameter. Another thing is to look at the power-to-weight ratio of the car. Generally, the power-to-weight ratio is above 100 horsepower/ton, and the power is all right.

They have launched a product that is a pair of hands for chickens with a wide selection of designs (dolls, athletic, T-rex dinosaurs) to colors. “Chicken Arms” – the product is made to add charm to the chickens and laughter for your family. These chicken arms are files that are available on free 3D websites, users can download for their own use. However, if you don’t have a 3D printer and just want to buy a cute set of arms for your chicken, there are stores that specialize in 3D printer designs that sell these products. Let’s see more of the chickens in their new look with their hands! 21st century version of “chicken T-rex”. Looking at this biceps, I wonder who dares to win food with the chicken. Even the body shape is much stronger thanks to the hands. Another cute “T-rex chicken” with the same red arm as the crest. “Chicken T-rex” appeared everywhere! Or if you don’t like muscular arms or T-rex dinosaurs, you can come up with doll hands, how gentle it looks. The pose of the chicken comes to life with the new arm.

Depending on each religion, ashes after cremation are buried or brought home to worship or sent to places of worship such as pagodas, churches, communal houses, shrines, etc. as a solution to pray for sucess. Place the ashes in the temple In addition to the above forms, some people will scatter the ashes to rivers, lakes, hills and mountains according to the wishes of the deceased. Among the ways of disposing of ashes, scattering ashes is considered the most popular choice in many countries around the world. At that time, relatives will carry the ashes of the deceased and scatter them in the wind, on the ground or in the water (sea, lake, etc.). This is considered a symbolic meaning for the release of the deceased. Families can share memories of the places they went to with the deceased or fulfill their last wishes. Illustration. Scatter ashes into the sea Besides scattering ashes in the wind, many people will choose to keep the ashes of their loved ones and place them in a certain place such as in the house, funeral home, garden, etc. If they want to keep a loved one’s ashes in their own home, some people will scatter the ashes by storing them in an urn and leaving them where they feel most comfortable. Some people will choose to bury the ashes of the deceased through forms such as placing in the ashes storage cabinets provided by the funeral home, at the funeral home. Ashes store In addition, memories at the familiar garden of the family. With that, we always have the feeling that the deceased always exists, always exists around here. The above treatment methods are still considered to be popular in the world. Besides those common ways, there are also some strange and creative ways of storing the ashes of deceased loved ones. According to a source from Vietnamnet, one of them is making jewelry from a small part of the ashes of the deceased. It can be stone, diamond or crystal decoration on rings, bracelets, necklaces. This is considered a creative form of ashes handling that gives the meaning of always wanting to keep the deceased loved one by his side. Use part of the ashes as jewelry. Instead of keeping the ashes in an urn at home, some people will mix the ashes with materials such as lacquer, paint, etc. to paint and hang the picture in their own home.

Earlier, President Putin’s foreign policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov, invited US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan to discuss this issue.

Mr. Ushakov stressed to Ambassador Sullivan that Moscow will react seriously if the US takes “unfriendly actions” such as imposing sanctions.

President Joe Biden has proposed holding a summit with Putin

On April 13, US President Joe Biden held a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, underlining Washington’s commitment to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and expressing concerns about the concentration of the military. of Russia near the Ukraine border. Mr. Joe Biden also proposed a summit between the two leaders in a third country.

In March, Joe Biden still warned Moscow to pay the price for meddling in the US presidential election, but so far, no sanctions have been announced.