Cheng Wu: Reading articles last year nearly 10,000 works were cut off due to piracy Cracking down on piracy is a strategy that will invest 10 times

Cheng Wu, Vice President of Tencent Group and CEO of Yuwen Group.

On April 21, Cheng Wu, vice president of Tencent Group and CEO of Yuwen Group, was interviewed by a shell financial reporter of the Beijing News in Beijing. Cheng Wu said that in 2022, 10 times more manpower and resources will be invested than in the past to elevate copyright protection to a strategic height that is crucial to the company.

In addition, Cheng Wu said that 80% of the new writers in the reading last year were post-95, and with the rise of the Z generation (generally referred to as the post-95), realistic themes and science fiction themes are also more popular, "The diversified themes, imagination and innovation ability of good books are also evolving with the addition of more and more young authors and readers." ”

60,000 online writers are affected, and the cost of piracy violations is low and the cost of rights protection is high

About two years after taking over the reading of texts, Cheng Wu said that after more than a year of writers' ecological construction, reading has formed a healthy, young and sustainable writers' ecology. "Last year, 80% of the new writers in the reading were post-95s, and the number of writers in the middle waist increased by more than 30%. A healthy creative ecology must have a steady stream of fresh blood. On the one hand, in the past, we have continued to build a writer's ecology and activate the writer's creative power. On the other hand, we also actively protect intellectual property rights, safeguard the productivity of writers, and consolidate the sustainable foundation of reading for all. ”

In terms of intellectual property protection, piracy is a major problem that cannot be bypassed. The Beijing News shell financial reporter searched on April 21 and found that at present, well-known online articles such as "The Lord of Mystery" and "The Knife Line in the Snow" can easily search for free reading links on the Internet.

Subscription is one of the main sources of income for online writers, such as reading "Lord of Mystery" through the Starting Point Reading App, in addition to the previous free chapters, the price of a paid chapter is about 0.15 yuan, and reading the full paid content is about 130 yuan.

In this regard, Cheng Wu told Shell Financial Reporter, "In a sense, piracy is actually the biggest harm to the group of writers who can continue to create and rely on through genuine reading, and it is also the biggest harm and disrespect for intellectual property creation." ”

He disclosed the monitoring data of Reading Group, and a sample survey of 10 key books in 2021 found more than 200,000 pirate sites and 1.6 million infringing links. According to incomplete statistics, in 2021, 60,000 writers will be affected by piracy, and nearly 10,000 works will not be continuously changed because of piracy. "Creation requires a positive cycle to continue, and piracy makes it difficult for writers to have no income. As an enterprise, what we are most saddened by is to see many excellent writers, especially many writers who write realistic themes and writers who write relatively niche and innovative themes, these backbones have greatly affected their income and creative mentality because of the infringement of piracy. ”

In recent years, reading group has cooperated with national law enforcement, smashed more than 60 series of pirate websites, thousands of pirated apps, removed tens of millions of infringing links through complaints, and filed rights protection lawsuits for more than 1,000 works. However, Cheng Wu said that from the perspective of frontline work, the piracy control of online literature still faces many challenges. Especially with the development of the piracy industry chain and new technologies, the low cost of violating the law and the high cost of rights protection are the core difficulties of repeated prohibitions on online literature piracy infringement.

In fact, compared with online music and online video, it is easier to infringe on the pirated literature of online literature due to the less memory occupied and lower transmission costs. At the same time, the writers themselves will occupy a lot of personal energy to defend their rights, which is a difficult price for online writers who generally require three or five thousand words of updates per day.

"The fight against piracy has reached an urgent stage. This year, we ourselves have officially elevated copyright protection to a strategic level that is critical to the company. We will invest 10 times our manpower and resources to explore the ecological co-governance of copyright protection. Specifically, technological breakthrough and national co-governance will be two important directions. Cheng Wu said, "Under the upgrading of various technologies such as artificial intelligence and encrypted watermarking, we hope to open up the resources of the whole company, establish an intelligent anti-piracy middle platform, and comprehensively strengthen the attack and defense system." In addition, at the request of writers, we have also joined forces with the industry to gather a wide range of readers and authors to build the 'Sunshine Reading - National Anti-Piracy Alliance' to promote the public collection and handling of infringement clues." ”

The "post-95s" have become the backbone of the author and reader groups, and will incubate more works with IP as the core

According to the data disclosed by Cheng Wu, in both the author and the reader, the "post-95s" have gradually become deep participants in the field of online literature.

According to statistics, among the new writers who read articles in 2021, more than 80% of the writers after 95. 60% of the new readers of the starting reading APP during the year are also post-95s.

Cheng Wu said that the change in audience has also brought about changes in popular online themes. "History, fairy tales, and fantasy are the mainstream themes of our past, but with the addition of Generation Z in recent years, with the enrichment of their creative and reading needs, in the past five years, the compound growth rate of realistic themes has exceeded 30%, which is one of the fastest growing categories." More than 40% of the readers of realistic themes are post-95s, nearly half. In addition, with the development of science and technology, science fiction has become a very favorite category of the Z generation, and it is already one of the five major categories of online literature, and the number of readers of the Z generation of science fiction themes accounts for more than 60%. ”

According to him, contemporary young people have shown a strong sense of traditional Chinese culture and historical themes, "The most popular traditional published book in 2021 is the Analects, which has been read by 30 million people on the station, and more than 80% of readers are under the age of 30." In addition, "The World of Man", which was initiated and produced by Tencent Pictures and co-produced by the main controller, Yuwen and Xinli Media, spans 50 years of history, but also attracts a large number of post-90s, post-95s and even post-00s fans. ”

It is worth noting that the film and television drama of "Human World" is adapted from the novel of the same name, and similar IP adaptations also include "Qing Yu Nian", "Son-in-law", "Heart Residence" and so on.

In this regard, Cheng Wu said that from good books to good stories, from words to IP, the two help each other, endlessly, "for example, after the broadcast of the "Human World" TV series, the novels of "Human World" have been on the major best-seller lists; and "Qing Yu Nian" has gathered a community of more than 3 million readers in the starting point reading APP, and after the film and television drama hit, the novel that has been completed at the starting point for more than 10 years has also returned to the first place in the best-seller list of the starting point reading APP, and helped the book usher in many physical publications. ”

Previously, Yuwen Group said at the performance exchange meeting that the IP ecological chain has laid the foundation for long-term development. "The IP ecological chain we mention is to hope that the first step is to make a good story in the vertical field, and the lowest cost of trial and error is literature, followed by comics." Based on literature and comics, we can continue to make good animations, films, TV series, derivatives, and other interactive entertainment works. At the same time, we coordinate the industrial chain and do a good job in scheduling and planning, which can reduce systemic risks to a certain extent, improve the success rate, and bring more vitality and sustainable development capabilities to the industry. Cheng Wu said.

Specific to the genre suitable for IP creation, he believes that it is necessary to make specific judgments and plans according to the characteristics of the work, such as games adapted from global science fiction themes, there are not many successes, compared with historical themes, immortals, fantasy into animation is easier, "The World of Man", "Heart Residence" and other realistic theme works into film and television works is easier.

In Cheng Wu's view, in addition to continuously strengthening the creative ability and creation system in the vertical field, Reading Wen also needs good linkage, with IP as the clue and IP as the core, to build different links well, "We are still on the road to the future, I think this direction is right, and has also made progress in stages, but we cannot think that the final success has been achieved." Reading articles now have such an ecological playing style as a whole, and have also verified this kind of thinking through various fields, the next step is to attract more talents, cultivate more works, and incubate more good works with IP as the core. ”

Beijing News shell financial reporter Luo Yidan Bai Jinlei Editor Xu Chao Proofreader Li Ming