Wen | Wang Xin
Editor| Fan Tingting
In recent years, the script of the roller coaster has killed the industry, and recently there have been new moves.
On April 11, Tianyan check showed that Beijing Xiwen Technology Co., Ltd., which is associated with the script killing platform "Reasoning Master", underwent industrial and commercial changes, adding two New NetEase Group companies as shareholders, after which there was news that Reasoning Master had obtained tens of millions of yuan of A round financing from NetEase Group.
This is not the first time NetEase has invested in script killing.
In September last year, NetEase launched the script killing app "Meow Meow Detective Hall" on the TapTap game platform, and then launched a test suit, revealing that it would launch a number of NetEase game IP derivative script killings; in January this year, NetEase invested in Hangzhou Orange Wish Cultural Planning Co., Ltd., the parent company that focuses on offline live script killing "NINES Reasoning Hall", with an amount of tens of millions of yuan.
Publicity map of NetEase's "MeowTh Detective Hall"
In the eyes of most people, the craze of script killing is gradually cooling, and there has been no absolute head so far, and the industry as a whole is in a fragmented format. NetEase, on the other hand, has invested in two script-killing related companies at the beginning of 2022, which is undoubtedly giving the script killing industry a greater imagination space: can the script killing industry begin to tell a new story in the case of a big game manufacturer entering the game? NetEase's investment this time, is it a late set, or has it found new possibilities?
Online script killing, the dragons are leaderless
In 2016, the variety show "Star Detective" triggered a domestic script killing trend, and after WeChat launched the Mini Program function in 2017, a number of script killing Mini Programs began to emerge. Online script killing gets rid of the limitations of time and space, players only need to choose the script to form a room, you can play with relatives and friends, some small programs and apps have also launched a "carpooling" mode, convenient for players to team up with strangers.
With the attribute blessing of social networking and entertainment, online script killing, which is much cheaper and more convenient than offline, quickly attracted a group of users.
Subsequently, in 2018, online script killing ushered in the "first year of financing", and I am enigma, drama duoduo, drama detective and other online script killing related companies have completed angel round financing.
I am Enigma in 2018 officially announced as a star detective partner
In 2020, due to the epidemic and other reasons, many script killing stores were suspended, and the young people who stayed at home shifted the position of script killing to online, and there were more and more mini programs and Apps related to script killing, and the number of users also ushered in a spurt of growth.
In 2021, under the repeated epidemics, the still-alive script killing stores and new players began to look for other ways out, they saw the potential of online script killing, introduced the DM (script killing host) in the store with this mechanism online, led consumers to WeChat through Weibo, Douban and other social platforms to reach transactions, basically using Tencent conference or DingTalk conference for games, greatly reducing the threshold for online script killing, and the joint name of traffic IP and script killing has led to the third online traffic growth.
Capital has also begun to tap the long-tail effect behind the online script killing: in July and August 2021, five online script killing-related enterprises, namely Little Black Detective, Reasoning Master, Eating Melon Detective, Lai Hao, and Drama Essence Taohuayuan, have completed financing.
With more and more entrants, industry supervision has gradually become stricter, online script killing has undergone several rounds of reshuffling, and there are not many apps and mini programs left, but no one is dominant.
The reason is that online script killing is a "content is king" industry, most users follow the high-quality script, rather than follow the platform, the reasoning master is one of the players who rely on the high-quality script to form a moat.
According to its official website, in 2017, the reasoning master launched an online distribution of scripts and offline organization of the "online" model through the public account, focusing on acquaintance social networking, which allows consumers to spontaneously promote the reasoning master. According to 36Kr, the master of reasoning has more than 800 contributors and exclusive authors, as well as more than 1500 inventory scripts, which can output original scripts with quality and quantity, gradually attracting and precipitating a group of loyal users.
However, unlike many online script killings, the reasoning master currently only has one online channel, WeChat Mini Program, the game experience is relatively single, there is no voice, stranger matching and other functions, basically in the form of text for the game, closer to a distribution platform. In a report by One Entertainment Observation, founder Wang Mengchi said that the cost of using mini programs is lower and it is enough to meet the current needs of users.
But the biggest risk of relying on Mini Programs is being subject to the platform. Now open the Reasoning Master Mini Program, the page shows "due to the violation of the service has been suspended", "e-commerce online" to the official customer service to ask when it can resume use, the other party said: "Offline is because of the content self-review, still waiting for the platform review", did not tell the specific recovery time.
Online and offline to seek each other
The fiery online script killing has also attracted a lot of questions.
The first is the problem of monetization. Compared with the offline cost of tens or hundreds of dollars, most of the online script killing is still a free model, some of the charged customer unit price is also below 10 yuan, a very small number of fees can reach tens of yuan or hundred yuan, platform users have low willingness to pay, and the difficulty of monetization is high.
The second is the traffic conundrum. Taking "I am a mystery" and "Hundred Changes Detective" as an example, Qimai data shows that on the IOS application free rankings, except for the peak of 12th place in Mystery on January 28, 2020, and the peak of 35th place for Hundred Changes Detective, the rest of the time the ranking of the two apps is basically outside the 300.
The official website of "Master of Reasoning" also shows that the highest daily active life online can reach 500,000, and the daily active life is basically about 100,000, which is not outstanding.
With the development of the past five years, the industrial ecology of script killing has been gradually improved, basically forming a creator - distributor - distribution platform - online platform / offline store - consumer model, under the problem of profitability, many online script killing related enterprises have turned their attention to the upstream and midstream, on the one hand, bringing together high-quality author resources to launch original scripts, on the other hand, through the distributor and distribution platform, by reaching the B-end to achieve profits. Some online script killing companies will also combine upstream and downstream, form brand cognition online, guide users to offline stores to consume, and achieve profitability.
Little Black Detective provides script killing game distribution and trading platform through Mini Programs, and at the same time launches relevant Mini Programs to cover offline stores and cooperate with Meituan. Lin Shihao, the founder of I Am Mystery, also said in an interview that he does not intend to make money online, but to build a script to kill the brand and expand to offline stores. The reasoning master also fully opened up the investment to join, and laid out offline franchise stores and directly operated stores.
I am enigmatic for the promotion of merchants to join the launch
Forced by the need to survive, offline scripts are seeking online, but forced by the demand for profits, online is also seeking offline cooperation, after all, consumers are more willing to pay for a more "immersive" offline experience.
In order to accelerate the layout of offline stores, online players have also given a lot of support policies. The staff of the reasoning master told "E-commerce Online" that there is no need for franchise fees to join, and many subsidies will be given in the early stage, such as helping to train staff, providing free scripts and publicity and promotion. Reasoning master also has a special mini program to help franchisees reach users in the platform, the franchisee's main expenditure is store rent, decoration and staff fees, after the official opening of the reasoning master will be in the turnover of the commission.
However, most online script killings have not yet formed a strong enough brand recognition.
Xiamen's script killing enthusiast Shan Shan told "E-commerce Online" that she knows that Xiamen has a reasoning master offline store, but will not go to the store to consume because of the reasoning master brand, "Now the script kills too many physical stores, the price is similar, unless there is a particularly good DM, exclusive high-quality script or a very immersive real scene layout, otherwise it will not be specially played." ”
The Reasoning Master offline store also has many bad reviews
In April last year, the Meituan Research Institute had data that the number of domestic script killing physical stores has reached 45,000, and it is still growing, the degree of internal volume is even greater than online, many stores have not yet made a profit on the first collapse, the number of scripts, props, store tables and chairs, etc. on the idle fish APP on the grounds of "bankruptcy" has increased by 110% compared with March, and the number of script killing stores in #April has doubled# also appeared on Weibo hot search.
In the more intense offline market, if you want to achieve offline profitability through online drainage, you not only need a strong brand reputation, but also need the brand to launch a physical store franchise model that can be quickly copied, and reduce the upfront input cost through large-scale operation.
NetEase enters the game and brings a new story?
The online and offline fight is in full swing, and NetEase's investment entry can be seen in its ambition to lay out the entire industrial chain.
NetEase's entry script killing can be described as "planned for a long time". In 2019, NetEase's mobile game "Tianxia" cooperated with the master of reasoning to launch a joint script killing, and subsequently, "Against the Cold Water", "Fantasy Journey to the West", "Shendu Night Travel" and so on also launched a joint script killing. It can be said that NetEase has always been optimistic about the script killing industry, and after repeatedly testing the form of joint authorization in the early stage, it launched the online script killing app "MeowThok Detective Museum" last year and officially entered the game.
The two script killing companies invested by NetEase this time have already had a certain scale and reputation in the industry, and both obtained content self-examination qualifications last year (only five of the first batch of related companies obtained this qualification), and corresponded to two plates, online and offline, which shows that NetEase hopes to rely on capital power to quickly get tickets and accelerate the opening up of all aspects of the script killing industry chain.
In the script killing industry that values high-quality content, reasoning masters and NINES reasoning halls have strong author resources, can continuously produce high-quality original scripts, and they all have offline store layouts, which just undertakes the market's return to offline demand.
For reasoning masters and NINES reasoning halls, they also need to draw capital power: the former only has small programs online, limited by WeChat, basically rely on text for games, NetEase's entry may be able to help it build its own app, explore more online script killing forms such as horizontal screen games, animation standing painting, etc.; the latter has a good reputation among senior players, but the direct-operated stores are mainly limited to the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai generation, and capital injection can help them quickly copy and expand.
It is worth noting that in February this year, there were relevant regulations indicating that the online script killing application was divided into "online games" and needed to provide the corresponding version number, and then the online script killing application of the Android platform was almost completely destroyed, and it has not been re-launched. NetEase, which has rich experience in online games, can provide corresponding resources for online script killing that needs a version number. On April 11, the official news of the restart of the game version number may be a weapon for NetEase to seize the market dividend.
In addition to fast entry, NetEase is also looking for an outlet for its own expansion traffic.
On the one hand, as an Internet giant, NetEase's advantages are online, and when online traffic peaks, it is urgent to find a new way out of traffic, after which NetEase is keen to create immersive experiences through offline activities and promote game IP, which undoubtedly has similarities with the script killing model.
On the other hand, script killing and the game have a good adaptability, the game's characters, plot can become the background material of the script killing, and the script killing can also reinterpret some of the older game IP, the content is renewed, the two script killing platforms with IP original ability can also provide more IP inspiration and sources for NetEase.
Not only NetEase, another game manufacturer did not miss the outlet of the script killing. Last year, Tencent's Reading Group and Xi Duohua and Beijing Supernatural Forces adapted IP such as "Qing Yu Nian" and "Yu Sin" into script killing, and then launched the script of the King glory IP to kill "Chang'an Night Sleepless", etc. In February this year, Tencent also invested in Hunan Detective Nishang Cultural and Creative Co., Ltd., the former director of "Star Detective".
Tencent IP-related script kill
Game manufacturers are trying to revitalize their IP resources, online linkage script killing platform, offline launch of game background script killing, reach more people, to complete the traffic, sound maximization.
Under increasingly strict supervision, the script killing industry has begun to stop barbaric growth, and gradually entered the regulatory era, with capital into the netease, whether it can elect the head of the script killing, who can unify the script to kill the two rivers and mountains online and offline, it still needs a longer period of verification.
Captions and some illustrations are from the Nines Reasoning Pavilion