A new era of the Internet, the metacosm era, has arrived.
As an important application method of the meta-universe, digital collections have become the focus of widespread attention in the cultural tourism industry.
Whether it is the Henan Museum's 3D version of the digital cultural creation "Women's Good Eagle Zun" online seconds, or the "○ Universe • Thousand Palace Series" digital collection in Xi'an Qujiang Daming Palace National Heritage Park with a total revenue of more than 600,000 yuan, or the Hubei Provincial Museum will make the treasure of the town museum "Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword" into a digital cultural relics limited to 10,000 copies in 3 seconds sold out... They are all showing us the infinite vitality of digital collections.
Digital collections make unattainable art and cultural relics collections go off the altar, through digital encryption technology, so that ordinary people (especially young people of Generation Z) have the opportunity to experience the fun of collecting, so that the main body of digital collection IP into people's lives.
With its basic investment attributes such as "light assets, fast returns, and heavy benefits", digital collections have undoubtedly become one of the most convenient and efficient breakthroughs for cultural tourism enterprises to enter the meta-universe.
So, what can digital collections bring to cultural tourism enterprises? How should cultural tourism enterprises seize the outlet of digital collections? It has become a difficult problem facing cultural tourism enterprises.
01
The digital collection is controversial
The metaverse with blockchain, The Internet of Things, digital twins, digital collections/NFTs, etc. at its core is seen as synonymous with the next phase of the Internet (Web 3.0). Compared with the metaverse, digital collections can impress people more, and it is the fastest application scenario for blockchain to land.
But like the metaverse, digital collections have been controversial since their inception.
At present, some platforms adopt the direct purchase price combined with the auction price, but this method may not only bring about the short-term appreciation of digital collections, but also may leave hidden dangers that disrupt market order.
The auction of the Beast Head series in the Old Summer Palace is a fitting example. The "priceless treasure" of the "priceless treasure" yuanmingyuan for many years "appeared" at the auction, and the price of the hammer was only 8141 yuan.
Are consumers buying real cultural relics at a "high price"?
Apparently not. In fact, consumers are buying just a virtual GIF. What sets this GIF apart is that it comes with a globally unique code.
The first period of the twelve beasts each has 10,000 copies, of which 9982 copies can be directly purchased with 29.9 yuan, and there is no limit, 90 days later can be transferred through the WeChat Mini Program, and only 1 copy is really auctioned. The auction price of these 1 copy will become the reference price of the previous low-priced "same paragraph" transfer.
Industry insiders believe that the above assumption (that is, the phenomenon that buyers hoard a large number of goods in the early stage and then speculate on the auction price in order to "transfer" at a high price in the later stage) has a greater possibility.
Unlike the "NFT" of token substances that are generally built on public chains in foreign countries, most of the trading platforms in the domestic digital collection market are based on the alliance chain (some startups also have their own platforms and blockchains). Domestic digital collections are largely digital artworks, and the trading permissions between various platforms have hardly been opened. In this case, the value of domestic digital collections has not yet been fully exerted, and there is a risk of derealization to virtuality in open transactions.
02
Digital collections
What can it bring to cultural tourism enterprises?
"The emergence of digital collections is a new social phenomenon produced by the development of material life to a certain stage, accompanied by the continuous progress of modern science and technology. To explore the application of digital collections in the field of culture and tourism, we first need to consider what is the fundamental purpose of the sale, circulation and purchase of digital collections, and then think about the significance and value of cultural tourism enterprises and tourist destinations to develop digital collections. Li Hao, a researcher at the Cultural Tourism Research Base of the China Tourism Research Institute of Henan University, said.
The latest "Meta-universe Development Research Report Version 2.0" released by the New Media Research Center of the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University points out that there are four main drivers of demand for digital collections, namely value storage, humanistic identity, production factor allocation and social currency. Based on the driving factors of demand for digital collections, how digital collections can benefit cultural tourism enterprises has become the focus of attention in the industry. In fact, for cultural tourism enterprises, digital collections have a role that cannot be ignored in improving non-revenue, online customer acquisition and cultural inheritance.
The first is to increase non-revenue. Digital collections are sold through the upper limit of the line, which can bring additional income in addition to the normal operating income of cultural tourism enterprises. This move is similar to offline cultural creation. Compared with offline cultural creation, the cost of digital collection is lower and the transaction is more convenient. Therefore, the online revenue of digital collections will also be more substantial.
Take the "○ Universe • Thousand Palace Series" digital collection launched by Xi'an Qujiang Daming Palace National Heritage Park as an example, once the series of digital collections landed on the Taobao Ali auction platform, 30,000 copies of the collection were sold out in 9 minutes, with a total revenue of more than 600,000 yuan.
The second is online customer acquisition. Through online sales, digital collections can enhance tourists' awareness and recognition of cultural tourism enterprises, stimulate tourists' willingness to travel offline, and form a phenomenon of "online customer acquisition and offline consumption", thereby increasing the total revenue of cultural tourism enterprises. In fact, this is the most important way for digital collections to bring revenue to cultural tourism enterprises under the current situation.
Also taking the "○ Universe • Thousand Palaces Series" digital collection launched by Xi'an Qujiang Daming Palace National Heritage Park as an example, the collection of three digital collections of the series (the realm of a thousand palaces, the pei of a thousand palaces and the spirit of a thousand palaces) can enjoy the rights and interests of free playing in Daming Palace National Heritage Park for life.
Digital collection of "Universe Senomiya Series"
This is a typical case of "digital collection + scenic spot". How to understand it?
Tourists collecting this series of digital collections is most likely out of two intentions, one is that culture lovers spontaneously collect out of love for culture, and the other is that tourists rush to buy for "lifelong free play".
Either way, it will prompt them to have a certain amount of spontaneous publicity behavior (sending circles of friends, vibrato, verbal communication with friends, etc.). At this stage, the scenic spot can obtain the first batch of potential customers.
Then, when travel conditions permit, tourists who have gathered the three digital collections of the series to obtain a lifetime free play qualification and other tourists who have come to the scenic spot will come to the scenic spot. Although some tourists are exempt from tickets of an average of tens of yuan, their non-ticket revenue in catering, accommodation, transportation, shopping, entertainment and other aspects is much higher than that of ticket revenue.
The third is cultural inheritance, through the form of digital collections, cultural tourism enterprises (especially museums, etc.) can inject the culture that needs to be promoted into the digital collection of cultural relics, attract the attention of young people (especially the young people of Generation Z), and let more people (especially young people of Generation Z) understand the cultural relics and the culture behind them that need to be inherited.
On March 26 (2022), 60 curators and scholars from 50 museums and universities across the country jointly released the "Initiative on Museums Actively Participating in the Construction of the Metacosm", calling on museums to conform to the development of the times, give full play to their own advantages, and actively participate in the construction of the metacosm. The "Initiative" proposes that as a public cultural service institution, museums should enhance the awareness of open sharing of collection resources, especially digital resources, establish the concept of win-win cooperation, and let limited resources create unlimited possibilities in the metaverse. The core of the museum is cultural relics, behind the cultural relics is the culture, the museum actively participates in the construction of the meta-universe, will surely inject richer cultural connotations into the digital collection, and through the digital collection, let more people, especially young people understand the cultural relics and the culture behind them.
Although digital collections have shown their advantages in improving non-revenue, online customer acquisition and cultural inheritance, for cultural tourism enterprises, the most fundamental advantage under the current situation is online customer acquisition; for the cultural tourism industry, its advantages in cultural inheritance cannot be ignored; as for non-revenue, it is not the main way for cultural tourism enterprises to profit, and to a greater extent, it is still the use of digital collections to achieve publicity effects.
Han Jingting, secretary general of the Digital Twin Technology and Application Working Committee, believes that the cultural tourism industry has many IP products, which can provide more new scenes for the application of digital collections, not only the most popular cultural relics and intangible cultural heritage digital collections, but also explosive digital collections created in more scenes in the future. "But overall, the current role of digital collections in the cultural tourism industry in terms of profitability and drainage is still limited, mainly to bring more exposure and attention, and increase the publicity heat."
"For cultural tourism enterprises, the development of cultural tourism digital collections is not only to add a new cultural tourism product, but also to attract the attention of the new generation of tourists through representative and unique digital collections, so as to open up a new marketing channel." Li Hao said.
03
What should cultural tourism enterprises do
Catch the hang of your digital collection?
For cultural tourism enterprises, to seize the outlet of digital collections, we must first understand the three attributes of digital collections, namely digital attributes, collection attributes and asset attributes.
Digital attributes refer to the form of existence of digital collections. Different from physical collections, digital collections refer to the use of blockchain technology, corresponding to the unique digital credentials generated by specific cultural works and artworks, on the basis of protecting their digital copyright, to achieve true and credible digital distribution, purchase, collection and use. Digital collections are unique, indivisible, and traceable, and can be used to mark ownership of specific assets.
Collection attributes are one of the emotional sustenance and functional attributes of digital collections. Based on the fact that it is sold in limited quantities, like physical collections, digital collections also have collectible value and have a certain scarcity. "Compared with the collection of cultural relics or authentic calligraphy and paintings, digital collections allow buyers to buy, view and collect online at a low price, without worrying about the storage of collections, counterfeiting and other problems that plague physical collectors." Shen Li, a young teacher at Shanghai Tourism College, said.
Asset attributes refer to the market value of a digital collection. As a derivative of financial technology, the asset attributes of digital collections include commodity attributes, monetary attributes and securities attributes. Its supervision involves multiple departments, and there is an urgent need to establish a joint regulatory mechanism under the current situation.
For cultural tourism enterprises, to seize the outlet of digital collections, it is also necessary to do a good job in four links: platform selection, IP shaping, form selection and design team selection.
The first is platform selection. For most cultural tourism enterprises, at this stage, they do not have the necessary technology and traffic to independently build their own digital collection platform, nor is there any need to spend time and effort to build independently; relying on the existing platform, not only can greatly reduce the cost of platform construction, but also can be drained through the platform. However, the risks of external platforms are often not controllable within cultural tourism enterprises; at the same time, based on the digital attributes and asset attributes of digital collections, the choice of platforms is crucial.
"Unlike foreign NFTs, which are mostly based on public chain issuance, due to differences in regulatory policies, the relevant domestic issuance platforms are mainly based on large network platforms, and the essence is a private blockchain." The distribution of cultural tourism digital collections also mainly depends on large distribution platforms, if the platform collapses, whether the cultural tourism digital collections in the hands of consumers will face the problem of zeroing, and the series of problems that may be caused by this are also worth thinking about. Li Hao said.
But there is no doubt that once the platform collapses, the credibility of cultural tourism enterprises in the hearts of tourists is bound to be affected.
Recently, the incident of WeChat rectifying public accounts and mini programs related to digital collections has aroused industry attention. Tencent's WeChat team said: "According to relevant national laws and regulations, in order to regulate the risk of speculation in virtual currency transactions, the WeChat public platform has recently standardized and rectified the public accounts and mini programs that speculate and sell digital collections for the second time. ”
Therefore, how to choose a digital collection platform has become one of the keys for cultural tourism enterprises to seize the outlet. In the current situation, relying on Internet giants and platforms that are highly compatible with policies is relatively less risky, such as whale probes, Greek land, phantom core and other platforms.
The second is IP shaping. For most cultural tourism enterprises and tourist destinations, their own resources are scattered, and after sufficient market research, they select IP suitable for development as digital collections and carry out a series of publicity, which is the place where cultural tourism enterprises need to pay attention.
Take the "Jiangnan Silk Art" Guofeng series digital collection recently released by whale exploration platform as an example, the three main IP landmarks of the series are the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, the most beautiful West Lake and the cultural Liangzhu. Through the fusion of art and life, the collection presents the most representative and unique landscape culture of Hangzhou in front of the collector's eyes, and combines the hand-painted elements of Hangzhou characteristics such as Qianjiang Tide, Liangzhu Cultural Relics, West Lake Lotus Leaf, And Three Pools Printing Moon through the fusion of art and life, and condenses the Jiangnan characteristics of "light makeup and thick smearing" in this digital collection, which can't help but make people fascinated.
Image source: Whale Detective Platform
The third is the choice of form. For cultural tourism enterprises, to seize the outlet of digital collections, they also need to weigh what is the most suitable form of digital collection for themselves. Whether to choose "desperate bets" or "blossom everywhere" also requires cultural tourism enterprises to weigh under the premise of market research. According to incomplete statistics, the current forms of distribution of digital collections include "lucky lottery purchase", "points + small purchase" and "blind box collection".
"Lucky Lottery" means that every collector can participate in the lottery, but only the winning users can be eligible to purchase. Taking the digital souvenir of "Poetry and Painting Spring" recently issued by the Zhejiang Provincial Culture and Tourism Publicity and Promotion Information Center as an example, 2022 lucky signs were randomly selected from the 9595 people who participated in the activity, and the digital souvenirs of this issue were given away free of charge. The same goes for paid purchases.
"Spring of Poetry and Painting" digital souvenir
"Points + Small Purchase" means that collectors need to purchase digital collections by adding smaller amounts of points on the platform, and in the case of limited amounts, the paid collectors can get the digital collections they want to buy. The most representative of this form is the whale exploration platform. On the platform, collectors need to pay a small amount of Alipay points (usually between 10 and 30 points) and a small amount of RMB to purchase their favorite digital collection, and some digital collections can also be purchased directly with a small amount of RMB. In this form, collectors can not only set the purchased digital collection as the Alipay payment code skin, download the thumbnail, and generate avatars, but also customize the physical goods through the purchased digital collection, which is similar to the corresponding ticket of the digital collection.
A "blind box collection" means that even if the collector pays successfully, he may not be able to obtain the digital collection he likes, and may even buy an empty blind box. This form can be considered an upgraded version of the "lucky lottery", the difference is that the "lucky lottery" is to draw lots first and then buy, while the "blind box collection" is to buy first and then "draw lots". For cultural tourism enterprises, the latter has a greater impact under the condition of the same unit price and no difference in sales; at the same time, the uncertainty of the latter is higher than that of the former, which strengthens the scarcity of digital collections.
For example, in September 2021, the Henan Museum launched the "Archaeology Together" online archaeological blind box in Alipay, which fully integrates the elements of the first dozens of cultural relics (such as the treasure lotus crane square pot of the town courtyard, Wu Zetian Jinjian, Duling Fangding, JiaHu bone flute and other cultural relics) to create a "digital archaeology blind box", so that collectors can "online archaeology" anytime and anywhere through mobile phones. The event attracted about 30 million people in just 7 days, driving more than 2 million people to visit the official Alipay Mini Program of Henan Museum, and the transaction volume of cultural and creative products on the Mini Program was also 100-200/day higher than that of other platforms. At the same time, in a month's time, the museum's sales reached 5.2 million yuan.
Image source: Henan Museum public number
The fourth is the selection of the design team. In the era of "beauty economy", for cultural tourism enterprises, a successful digital collection is inseparable from an excellent design team. In addition to the application form provided by the blockchain platform, the presentation of digital collections depends largely on the design team's ability to process and recreate existing materials. The recognition of digital collections in the market often depends not only on the design team's understanding and design ability of the existing material, but also on the design team's understanding of the market. When the meta-universe develops to a certain stage, the meta-universe era of "a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending" is coming, the creator economy is booming, and cultural tourism enterprises will have more choices when selecting design teams.
For cultural tourism enterprises, to seize the outlet of digital collection, it is also necessary to seize two opportunities and pay attention to a reality.
The two opportunities are: digital collections are still in the ongoing period of enthusiasm; digital collections are relatively low cost as an emerging thing.
A reality is that under the current situation, the focus of domestic development of digital collections is to obtain offline revenue through "online drainage + offline customer acquisition".
Of course, as part of the metaverse, digital collections are emerging, and at present, there will be infinite possibilities and more operational space in the future.
Although there are certain risks in the trading and circulation of digital collections under the existing domestic legal and regulatory system, including but not limited to issuance platforms, market supervision, product quality, platform technology risks, etc., with the establishment and improvement of the legal and regulatory system and the advancement of the market, the future digital collection market will certainly develop in the direction of more safe, legal and compliant.
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