CATDOLL: Tencent Animation held an industry cooperation conference, hundreds of cartoonists gathered together for the first time

On November 19, Tencent Animation 2015 Industry Cooperation Conference was held in Beijing. This was the first strategic conference for the entire industry since the establishment of Tencent Animation, and it was also the largest industry conference in China's animation industry, which brought together core representatives from all fields of the entire animation industry chain.

The detailed agenda of the conference covers two parts, namely the theme conference in the morning, and two closed-door meetings in the afternoon, namely the author's writing meeting and the commercial authorization meeting. The main content is the thinking on the two-dimensional economy and its relationship with pan-entertainment, the release of the development strategy of the two-dimensional economy, and the discussion of the future of the animation industry, seeking a combination of high-quality resources in the industry. First, Cheng Wu, Vice President of Tencent Group and CEO of Tencent Pictures, gave a keynote speech entitled "Flying with the Two-Dimensional Economy", proposing the concept of the two-dimensional economy for the first time in the industry; then, Zou Zhengyu, General Manager of Tencent Interactive Entertainment Animation Business Department, gave a speech, explaining in detail the business strategy of Tencent Animation's open co-creation; all parties involved not only listened to the sharing of successful experiences in the animation industry, but also had a clearer understanding of the future development trend of the entire animation industry.

At 10:30 a.m. on the same day, the theme conference of Tencent Animation Industry Cooperation Conference was officially held. Cheng Wu opened the conference and took KUMAMON bear, Marvel, home dance, cosplay, "The Return of the Great Sage", "My Name is Bai Xiaofei" and other two-dimensional phenomena at home and abroad as the starting point, proposed a new business model for the animation industry - "two-dimensional economy", explained the characteristics and significance of this concept, and quoted Luffy's "Be my partner" to advocate industry cooperation to promote the formation of my country's animation industry.

Tencent Group Vice President and Tencent Film CEO Cheng Wu is giving a speech

In his speech, Cheng Wu put forward his understanding of the two-dimensional world. He said: The two-dimensional world is a kind of surreal imagination, aesthetics and fun based on anime IP. The paint job of a "pain car" conforms to the aesthetics of anime works, which is the two-dimensional world; the dance moves and costumes of otaku dance reflect the fun of anime, which is the two-dimensional world; when the mobile game of "Naruto" restores the imagination of the original anime, it is also the two-dimensional world.

Cheng Wu also believes that nowadays, in the United States, Japan and other countries, the second dimension has long been the mainstream culture of society. The Marvel Empire, based on comics, has become a global cultural icon through movies, and has become the iconic cultural name card of the United States; in Japan, the country of animation, everything can be second dimension. Cheng Wu also cited the example of the American TV series "The Big Bang Theory" to explain why the second dimension has risen. He believes that this is because many people pursue free imagination and like virtual life. In fact, young people of every era will make their own cultural choices, which is the essence of the rise of the second dimension.

Cheng Wu, Vice President of Tencent Group and CEO of Tencent Pictures

"Whether it was the drama craze that began in the early 20th century, the rock craze in the 1970s and 1980s, or the game culture that began in the 1990s, they all reflected the youth's desire for new culture and new life at the time," said Cheng Wu.

Cheng Wu argues that the two-dimensional world is becoming the theme of entertainment and life for the younger generation. This is the trend of the times, the power of the times, and also the opportunity of the times.

Regarding the two-dimensional economy, Cheng Wu proposed the following definition at the conference: Aggregate industry forces, jointly incubate high-quality animation IP, and make it into games, movies, literature and various peripheral derivatives, enter the public's field of vision, and eventually become popular culture and become multi-form mass consumption. This is the core of this business model - turning animation IP into popular culture. As early as four years ago, Cheng Wu proposed a pan-entertainment strategy with celebrity IP as the core. With the development of user demand and Internet technology, he is committed to exploring the creation of the same IP in different content fields to release greater value of IP.

Cheng Wu also proposed three major trends in the era of the two-dimensional economy, namely, moving from a niche to the mainstream, breaking through the dimensional wall, and user behavior becoming the content itself.

Afterwards, Zou Zhengyu, general manager of Tencent Interactive Entertainment's animation business department, made a speech, using Tencent Animation's representative works in recent years in content layout, author big data statistics, animation themes, etc. as examples, pointing out that good content and good creators are the key to incubating high-quality IP. In recent years, Tencent Animation has been continuously improving its product line layout, and its penetration rate on both PC and mobile terminals has remained the first in the industry. "Based on the user insight and data of the largest domestic online animation platform, Tencent Animation has become the most professional animation IP producer and copyright operator in China, and can efficiently connect authors and users to co-create content. This year, Tencent Animation has also focused on building a screenwriter system to inject strong support into content creation." Zou Zhengyu said.

Zou Zhengyu, General Manager of Tencent Interactive Entertainment Animation Business Department

Focusing on Tencent Interactive Entertainment's pan-entertainment strategy with celebrity IP as the core, Zou Zhengyu explained that Tencent Interactive Entertainment has launched four major businesses, namely animation, literature, and film and television, based on its game business. At present, except for the film and television business which has just started, the first three businesses, including animation, have already achieved the first position in the industry in their respective vertical fields, which has accumulated a solid platform foundation for the interconnection, integration and symbiosis of the same IP in multiple content fields.

Zou Zhengyu finally emphasized that in the future, "open co-creation" is not just an attitude, but also an action. The revitalization of China's animation industry is by no means the work of one company, and the development of China's animation industry should not be a one-sided win. Tencent Animation is ready and willing to explore more possibilities of the two-dimensional economy with industry insiders and enter a brand new two-dimensional world together!

Zou Zhengyu, General Manager of Tencent Interactive Entertainment Animation Business Department

After Zou Zhengyu's speech, a Sino-Japanese cooperation ceremony was held for the release of the animation "Once Upon a Time There Was a Spirit Sword Mountain" and its landing on Japanese TV. Witnessed by Tencent Animation Content Director Li Xiaoting, Studio Deen Co., Ltd. Representative Director Shinichiro Ikeda and New Project Department Director Miyamoto Itsuo, Chuangshi Chinese Network Editor-in-Chief and Reading Group Male Content Center Senior Director Zhou Binglin and the original online novel author "His Majesty the King", the two sides launched the "Once Upon a Time There Was a Spirit Sword Mountain" animation.

The launch ceremony of "Once Upon a Time There Was a Spirit Sword Mountain"

As a high-quality animation jointly produced by China and Japan, Once Upon a Time There Was a Spirit Sword Mountain will be broadcast on Tokyo MX, SUN TV, KBS Kyoto, TV Aichi and AT-X in Japan in 2016. It will be the first Chinese youth-oriented animation to be broadcast on Japanese TV. After the animation is broadcast, the Blu-ray DVD will be sold nationwide in Japan and broadcast online on many websites such as Niconico, which is the first time in the history of Chinese animation. In addition, the official animation websites of China and Japan will be officially opened to the public in December.

Poster of "Once Upon a Time There Was a Spirit Sword Mountain"

In addition to the Sino-Japanese cooperation ceremony of "Once Upon a Time There Was a Spirit Sword Mountain" landing on Japanese TV, Li Xiaoting also announced 8 new animations and played PV mixed clips, including "Yokai List 2", "Fox Spirit Matchmaker: The King's Power", "Ma Shen", "Eros Chocolate", "The Master", "Time Strange Domain", "The Brave Adventure" and "The Ringmaster".

Afterwards, guests from all sides held a forum discussion on the theme of the two-dimensional economy. Famous cartoonist and founder of Animation Hall Wang Peng, CEO of Dream Animation Li Haoling, Vice President of Bilibili Chen Hanze, Editor-in-Chief of Chuangshi Chinese Network and Senior Director of China Literature Group Zhou Binglin, General Manager of Tencent Film Dream Studio Chen Hongwei, CEO of Zhongqing Longtu Yang Shenghui, Vice Presidents of Zhen Fund Liu Yuan and Zou Zhengyu talked about the two-dimensional economy.

Forum: Open and co-create the secondary economy

Group photo of guests

This industry cooperation conference has a large lineup of participants, especially including hundreds of comics authors. This large-scale gathering and exchange activity of comics authors is the first time in recent years. For most comics authors living in various parts of the country, it is the first time for them to communicate face to face with their peers and editors.

In addition to the authors who came from all over the country, the invited guests of the industry conference include many important representatives of the domestic and foreign animation industry and surrounding industries. These representatives come from the major domestic two-dimensional platform Bilibili; the famous Japanese animation production company Deen STUDIO; the well-known domestic two-dimensional Cos studios Hangzhou 304 and Black Sky Studio; video websites iQiyi and Youku; Zhen Fund and Early Bird Investment in the venture capital industry; Zhongqinglongtu and Ciwen New Media in the game industry; Yuewen Group in the literature field; Tencent Pictures and Aha Entertainment in the film and television industry. There are also well-known domestic animation studios and production companies such as Huimeng Animation. Basically covering all representatives of the industrial chain and surrounding derivative cultural circles. In addition, the conference also invited about 50 domestic media, covering popular culture, finance, Internet, animation, games and other sectors.

Event site

Behind all this is Tencent Animation's three years of hard work and exploration. In 2012, Tencent Animation was established, introducing classic Japanese comics including "Naruto", "One Piece", "Gintama", and strategic cooperation with well-known Japanese comic publishers such as Shueisha. At the same time, it has self-sustaining, established a cartoonist welfare system based on big data user insights, and patiently created a batch of high-quality IPs. Six works ("My Name is Bai Xiaofei", "Ace Censor", "Mr. China Marvel", "Monster List", "Brave Adventure" and "Fox Spirit Matchmaker") have entered the Baidu Search Rankings Domestic Animation Ranking TOP10.

Tencent Animation Work "My Name is Bai Xiaofei"

Tencent Animation Works "Monster List"

Tencent Animation Works "Brave Adventure"

Since 2015, Tencent Animation has proposed to "become a carrier platform for China's two-dimensional culture" and reached a strategic cooperation with Japan's Kadokawa to introduce a large number of light novels. In 2015, the traditional Star Comic Award was fully upgraded, and the slogan "Questions and answers are useless, one shot hits the mark" with a strong two-dimensional characteristic was proposed. In addition to comics and animations, the otaku dance project with strong two-dimensional attributes was added.

As China's largest original and authentic online animation platform, Tencent Animation's online platform currently has more than 20,000 works, more than 50,000 contributing authors, and more than 6,000 signed works, of which more than 300 are full copyright works, and more than 40 works have received more than 100 million clicks. It has a product layout including PC site (ac.qq.com), Android client, iOS client, Html5, QQ Animation, Tencent News client, etc., covering the daily usage scenarios of tens of millions of users.