Author / Ying Qi
Edit / Seal
The pictures in this article are from the Internet
Churchill once said: Never waste a good crisis.
The stress test in a crisis may hide a greater turnaround and vitality. At the annual press conference of Reading in June this year, looking back on the past year, experiencing misunderstandings and even smears, as well as experiencing challenges and reconstructions, CEO Cheng Wu described Reading as "starting from a well-known storm".
There is no doubt that after the new management change and the re-engineering of organizational culture, Reading has not only started anew, but also opened up a farther story and a broader space.
On August 16, Reading Group (0772. HK) released its financial report for the first half of 2021 and handed over an latest answer sheet to the capital market.
This is the annual examination of the reading text, and now the annual examination of the "Great Reading" is also the official acceptance of Cheng Wu's new cultivation.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="149" >01 anniversary exam "transcript"</h1>
For enterprises in the capital market, they can not get a full score as long as they work hard, but the numbers on the report card will not deceive people.
According to the financial report, in the first half of 2021, the total revenue of Reading Group increased by 33.2% year-on-year to RMB4.34 billion. In accordance with non-IFRS, the company's net profit attributable to the parent in the first half of the year was RMB665 million, an increase of 30 times year-on-year.
After the storm, through the cycle, Cheng Wu and the new management have achieved great results under the pressure and challenges of this year.
In the first half of 2021, the MAU of Reading Group's online business was 230 million, an increase of 3.7% month-on-month, and the revenue of online business increased by 3.4% year-on-year. Under the background of the slowdown in the growth of the entire Chinese online literature market, the stability of the online business mainly benefits from the continuous incubation of high-quality content on the reading platform and the continuous improvement of community operation and recommendation efficiency.
In addition to the paid reading business, which has always had the advantage of reading, its free reading business is clearly continuing to make progress.
In the second half of 2020, the free business of Reading Articles broke the deadlock and made a breakthrough. By June 2021, the DAU of the free reading business reached 13 million, an increase of 3 million from December 2020. In the first half of the year, Yuwen also established a free fiction joint project team with Tencent, and Yuwen's free content creation platform also continued to emerge high-quality free novels, attracting more and more creators.
It is foreseeable that for a long time in the future, while strengthening its own advantages, Reading will continue to expand the free reading business and break through the growth ceiling.
The excellent performance of creators and creative ecology is not only free reading, but the ability of the entire reading text to adhere to the book and be consistent, or it is also a value.
Cheng Wu stressed several times that the vitality of creators is the vitality of "big reading".
As of June 30, 2021, the platform has accumulated 9.4 million writers, with a total of 14.5 million works, and the number of new words in the first half of the year exceeded 18 billion. According to the Baidu Novels List in June 2021, 17 of the top 20 online literary works are from the reading platform, reflecting the excellent ability of reading to incubate head works.
Moreover, with the renewal of the times and the replacement of the audience, creators are also rejuvenated, and more and more young writers have joined the reading platform to inject fresh blood. For example, during the first half of 2021, post-95 writers accounted for 80% of the new writers; among the top 100 writers in new book sales, post-90s writers accounted for 57%; among the newly promoted platinum god writers, post-90s writers accounted for 54%.
With authors, the quantity and quality of works, the ecology and experience of readers must also keep up.
When becoming an excellent literary content output platform, Yuwen is also committed to creating a community culture of interactive reading and enhancing user participation. As of June 30, 2021, the number of comments on online platforms reached 220 million, the number of user dubbing content reached 1.1 million, the number of audio and video "Easter egg chapters" released by writers reached 43,000, and the cumulative number of comments on the whole platform exceeded 1 million.
It can be seen that the online business of Reading Articles is still very successful. The drastic reform results of Cheng Wu and the new management after carrying the banner are far more than that.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="264" >02 "Methodology" before solving the problem</h1>
Chen Chunhua has made a profound speech in "Value Symbiosis", and countless facts have proved that only long-termism can transcend the crisis.
So how to survive the crisis test, and what kind of long-term doctrine is adhered to, may be a more worthy of deep consideration behind the report card.
In April 2020, Cheng Wu and the new management had just taken over the baton, but the hidden dangers buried by the historical contract broke out at this time, stirring up thousands of waves. However, more than a month later, Yuwen launched a single optional new contract, three types of four types of authorization ratings, free or paid can be selected, which is also an innovative move in the entire online text industry, refreshing the writer cooperation model of the online text platform.
But the turmoil and the mid-year results disclosed soon after may not only show a contract problem, "We are aware of the lack of anti-risk ability of the company's underlying business model and the structural problems that have been deposited for several years." ”
In September 2020, Cheng Wu released an internal letter entitled "Upgrading Organizations and Talents for the Future". The letter mentioned that Reading Group decided to start a top-down organizational change and achieve a comprehensive upgrade of reading organization, talent and culture by promoting three key initiatives.
These key measures include: the establishment of a creative committee for film and television business in addition to the decision-making committee of animation; the call for all employees to agree on new standards for reading and employing people; and the members of the General Office and management cadres to take the lead in formulating scientific talent planning and strengthening organizational construction.
"Why are the literati struggling?" This was the question that Cheng Wu threw at all the readers. He argues that organizational centripetal force, motivation for struggle, and cultural values are more dangerous than external challenges if they go wrong. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the stubborn diseases and shackles such as lack of coordination and loss of sensitivity in the organization, and build future-oriented organizational capabilities, in order to release the greater energy and value of the reading ecology.
In the process of many adjustments, the core management team of Yuwen has been enriched and strengthened, and new business leaders have been introduced in the fields of copyright operations, online business, investment, legal affairs and finance. On the basis of organizational upgrades, business "methodology" upgrades follow.
On October 19 of the same year, Tencent Pictures, Xinli Media and Yuwen Film and Television held a joint press conference in Shanghai. The three companies made their debut with the overall film and television production system, becoming the "troika" of Tencent and Yuwen's in-depth layout of film and television business and strengthening the coupling of digital content business.
After realizing the evolution of talent and management, Hewen is determined to replace the previously fragmented and fragmented system with a new and integrated system to solve the pain points in the business.
Through the deep ploughing of all links of the IP industry chain, the "troika" improves the production efficiency and quality of film and television production, creates a highly industrialized standardized process of IP development, and also opens up a new situation of more high-quality film and television such as "Qing Yu Nian" and "Son-in-law".
While the "troika" is running, the adjustment and reflection at the organizational and strategic levels of the company continues.
In January 2021, Cheng Wu released an internal letter with "Open organizational culture discussion, create better reading", which once again opened a big discussion on company culture. "I and the management team would like to discuss with you in depth the company's mission, vision and values for the next five or ten years, and once again examine our original intentions."
After 4 months, the company basically completed the discussion of cultural remodeling. In June, at the 2021 reading annual press conference, Cheng Wu officially announced the mission vision of upgrading the company, that is, the strategic upgrade from "reading" to "big reading".
In Cheng Wu's understanding, but also in the consensus of the outside world, Reading is definitely no longer a pure online reading company. The "Big Reading" will take online literature as the cornerstone and IP development as the driving force, and openly build an IP ecological business matrix with partners in the whole industry.
Therefore, for Yuwen, the long-term "long-termism" is to adhere to the long-termism of IP.
"Big reading" means establishing a more complete and long-term IP development system to make good stories come alive. At this stage, the three key directions of Reading are to adhere to walking with creators and coexisting with creators; to build and consolidate the "basic skills" of animation, film and television and other visualizations; and to accurately plan, open operation, and adhere to "IP long-termism" to carry and amplify the value of Reading IP.
From the upgrading of organizational talents, to the upgrading of business systems, and finally to the strategic upgrade of "Big Reading", this is a comprehensive upgrade and reengineering in the annual examination paper handed over by the new management change.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="265" >03 "answer area" of the IP ecological chain</h1>
After the methodology is pure, the next pen is naturally like divine help.
If you look back at the construction results written by the IP copyright business of Reading in the past year, it is far more eye-catching than the online business. We can clearly feel that the production method with high-quality IP as the core has indeed led Yuwen into a more extensive and exciting market.
Dripping water hides the sea, the river flows endlessly, and the IP ecological chain of reading articles has achieved remarkable results.
First of all, in this semi-annual report for 2021, the revenue of copyright operations and other segments increased by 124.5% to RMB1.80 billion.
The copyright business has increased significantly year-on-year, which means that the IP ecological chain is accelerating to generate positive returns.
Moreover, Yuwen has a first-class representative work in all fields of the IP ecological chain: it has achieved outstanding results in important segments such as comics, animation, film and television, and games.
For example, in terms of comics, Yuwen and Tencent Animation launched the "300 Online Comics Reform Plan", and more than 70 comic works adapted from Reading IP have been launched in Tencent Animation. Reading animation and quick look comics are also cooperating, and there are more than 30 online IP comic projects in the planning.
In terms of games, the market feedback of a number of "Douluo Continent" IP-related games developed by Yuwen and 37 Interactive Entertainment, China Mobile Games and other companies is not bad. Launched in April this year, "Douluo Continent - Dou Shen Re-arrival" topped the iOS China game leaderboard. In addition, games adapted from high-quality IP such as "Lord of Mystery", "Legend of mortal cultivators", and "Son-in-law" will be launched in the future.
At a time when the film and television industry is trying to change the extensive production mode of the past and the quality of the product has gradually become a consensus, the film and television results of the reading IP ecological chain are even more impressive. The "troika" is fast and fast, and the fine plays after "Celebrating the Rest of the Year" are constantly surprised.
The representative work of the "Troika" in 2021, "Son-in-law", is not only the first episode of the broadcast platform to break the tens of thousands of hits, but also the fastest episode of the fastest hit breaker in history. With the popularity of the series, the real-life egg fire, the magical "visit of distinguished guests" has become an imitation object, and the news of affiliated companies applying for the "fighting knife" and "Suning Yibao" trademarks in the play has broken the circle. The network atmosphere at the beginning of the whole year can be called "redundant", and the whole people are hotly discussed.
After the beginning of this year, not only did "Son-in-law" explode, but the film "1921", which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, also landed in theaters in July, firing the first shot in the summer program. "1921" is the first part of the era melody trilogy created by the "Troika", and the other two heavy drama works "Heart Dwelling" and "Human World" are also in full swing and will soon meet the audience.
Produced by the "Troika" Zhongxinli Media, "Douluo Continent" and "Flowing Golden Years" have received double harvests of word-of-mouth and have a great trend of "hegemony", and this summer's "Rebels" are even more blossoming against the trend and the response is enthusiastic. In addition, his participation in the film "Hello, Li Huanying" has also created the second highest box office in the history of Chinese films.
Ip ecological chain is increasingly pursuing the synergy and industrialization of production, "Big Reading" in a series of upgrades, and constantly strengthen its own development capabilities, Reading Animation, Reading Film and Television, Xinli Media, etc., but also strengthened external collaboration, linkage with more industry partners, deep open collaboration, and participation in IP ecological chain practice.
On the other hand, while enhancing IP incubation capabilities, improving the IP industry chain, and continuing good stories, Yuwen is still committed to creating a continuous hematopoietic mechanism, doing a good job in the construction of writers and content ecology, hoping to stably output good stories and let good IP grow continuously.
Cheng Wu believes that among the many uncertainties in the industry, a good story is the only "certainty", and the common emotion of human beings is the maximum constant quantity that crosses all variables, which is also the true meaning of good IP.
The deep understanding and cognition of IP is perhaps the biggest advantage of Cheng Wu in this annual examination, and this year, Yuwen handed over a satisfactory answer. Perhaps its next decade, and its long-term nature, will be left to the future to verify.
But we have reason to expect that a complete IP chain of blood circulation will continue to extend, nurture and inherit good stories, and connect the origin and return of human emotions.