The author of the | Three Words Finance | harvest
The dispute between Li Ziqi and Wei Nian does not seem to show any signs of getting better.
A few days ago, Weinian Company admitted in a statement that it did not reach an agreement with Li Ziqi on equity and other rights and interests, but it had taken the initiative to communicate many times.
However, Li Ziqi did not seem to agree with Wei Nian's response. The words reflect that the possibility of reconciliation between the two sides is extremely small.
According to the latest reports, Weinian's 510,000 shares in Ziqi Culture of Li Ziqi Company have been frozen.
The reason why this dispute caused a sensation on the whole network is not only because of the traffic of Li Ziqi's top IP, but also because it shows the distribution of interests between Internet celebrities and MCN institutions.
The conflict between individuals and companies is naturally dramatic. One is the well-known national Internet celebrity, and the other is the capital hidden behind the Internet celebrity, and the Internet celebrity is in the face of capital, no matter how strong it is, it is not consciously regarded as a weak person.
At present, this dispute has entered the legal process. However, in the eyes of many people, the two sides from tacit cooperation to open discord, no matter how the victory or defeat, is a kind of harm to the perfect type of Li Ziqi's IP.
If you plan for the worst result, wei nian does not have Li Ziqi, what is left?
Tianyan's inspection shows that there are more than ten companies that Weinian holds and invests in, including the Sichuan Ziqi culture that we are familiar with.
Some can be seen only from the company name as food companies, such as Guangxi Xingliu Food Co., Ltd. and Guangxi Jiaxu Food Trading Co., Ltd.
Among them, Guangxi Jiaxu Food Trading Co., Ltd. is the production enterprise of Plum Qiqi Liuzhou Snail Powder, and Weinian holds 15% of the company's shares.
Another manufacturer of snail powder is Guangxi Zhongliu Food Technology Co., Ltd., which is also associated with Wei Nian.
The legal person and second shareholder of Guangxi Zhongliu Food Technology are also executives of Guangxi Xingliu Food Co., Ltd. Wei Nian owns 70% of the shares of Guangxi Xingliu Food Co., Ltd.
Therefore, these two food companies belong to the system of micro-thoughts.
In addition, there are several companies, including Zhejiang Weinian Jiang Gui Yuxin Industrial Co., Ltd., Guangxi Weinian Industrial Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Weinian Trading Co., Ltd.
It is worth noting that Zhejiang Weinian Jiang Gui Yuxin Industrial Co., Ltd. and Guangxi Weinian Industrial Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Weinian Trade Co., Ltd. are wholly owned by Weinian. And they were all just established in the second half of this year.
Another wholly-owned subsidiary of WeIan, Hangzhou Zhiqing Technology Co., Ltd., has been written off.
Zhongnong Weinian (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. was jointly established by Duan Yinghan and Hangzhou Weinian on January 7, 2021, focusing on the transformation of China's agricultural scientific and technological achievements.
In fact, there are two main companies that often appear in public: one is Ziqi culture, and the other is Erxi culture.
It is reported that Sichuan Ziqi Culture is a joint venture company between Li Ziqi and Wei Nian, which was established in July 2017, with Wei Nian holding 51% of the shares, and was originally agreed to be responsible for operating the Li Ziqi brand.
In the commercialization of Li Ziqi's IP, Liu Tongming, the founder of Weinian, and Li Ziqi himself are very fond of feathers, do not easily receive advertisements, and do not live stream goods.
Wei Nian finally decided to create a consumer brand with "Plum Ziqi" IP as the core, and successively launched snail powder, lotus powder and other products.
In August 2018, Li Ziqi's Tmall flagship store was officially opened. According to online public data, five products have created tens of millions of sales records in the 3 days of launch.
At present, the store has 6.43 million followers, and the food sold includes snail powder, lotus powder, chutney powder, etc., which can be found in the plum ziqi video.
Through the incubation of new consumer goods through big IP, the practice of micro-thought has greatly maintained the purity of Li Ziqi's video, while also taking into account commercial benefits, which is a very smart business idea.
However, the operator of this Taobao store is Wei Nian, not Li Ziqi's Ziqi culture.
That is to say, although Ziqi Culture was established to operate Li Ziqi's IP, it did not take over the operation right from Wei Nian.
And Li Ziqi does not have any shares in Wei Nian, in the eyes of many people, Li Ziqi can not benefit from the income of the Taobao store.
In addition to the IP around Li Ziqi, Weinian's MCN business is done by other entities, and there are dozens of million-level Internet celebrities under it.
In addition to Ziqi culture, Weinian also has a core company. This company is Erxi Culture Media Co., Ltd.
Whether it is in the introduction of Weinian's official affiliates, or in Weinian's financing news and usual news, Erxi culture is another existence second only to Li Ziqi.
According to the official introduction, Erxi Culture was established in 2018 and is mainly engaged in the related operations of KOL business brokerage.
It can be said that Erxi culture is a continuation of micro-thinking MCN business.
Unlike Ziqi Culture, which was set up separately for Li Ziqi, Erxi Culture can be regarded as an MCN institution in the ordinary sense.
In Wei Nian's financing information in July this year, Wei Nian revealed the KOLs under Erxi, including fragrant roast chicken, Zhongni, Xia Yiwei, kakakaoo-, Nicole_Ju, Wo Silkworm Auntie, Zi Wang, Fang Yuan, Shiyuan Shiyuan, ZOEY is Zoe, Noisy Rice, Senba Rabbit, Ye Xingxing, Wu Qiongqiong Love Painting, Karina and Rub Xi, Luke, Zhong Enqi, Meow Daxian, Xia Liang, Liu Meng, Liu Jin, Shi Weiliang, Hu Titi, Lemon Ti and dozens of other KOLs.
Li Ziqi's Weibo fans are 27.63 million, and Douyin's fans are 55.15 million
Lin Xiaozhai and nG's cat have also cooperated with Wei Nian, but they have now separated.
As can be seen from the table, there are only one or two tens of millions of Internet celebrities cooperated by Erxi Culture, and most of them are million-level KOLs.
From the data point of view, Erxi is still keen on Weibo Internet celebrities, which may be related to Weinian's initial focus on the Weibo platform.
In June this year, Erxi Culture released a third anniversary commemorative article, which pointed out that Erxi Culture has served more than 300 first-line brands in the past year, formed a more perfect professional operation system, and achieved the coverage of head and waist brand resources.
In fact, although Wei Nian has also cooperated with so many Internet celebrities, there is still a lot of difference between Curry and Li Ziqi.
From the establishment of a separate company operation, we should also be able to clearly understand this.
Erxi culture was born out of the MCN gene of Wei Nian, but with the fire of Li Ziqi's IP, Wei Nian chose the development route of consumer goods.
So, can Erxi culture still hatch super IP like Li Ziqi?
This is actually quite difficult, and big IP like Li Ziqi is unattainable. Li Ziqi is not only an Internet celebrity, she has become an export of traditional culture, and it is almost all praise overseas.
According to Tech Planet, some investors said that at that time, Weinian was chosen as the main operator of the Tmall store because Ziqi Culture had just been established and did not meet the registration conditions of the Tmall store.
The investor also pointed out that Weinian proposed to issue 8%-10% of the shares to Li Ziqi as early as last year, and also proposed a complete set of cooperation plans when introducing a new round of financing this year.
In addition to giving Li Ziqi 8%-10% of the shares, the plan will also restore the operation right of Tmall stores to Ziqi culture.
The investor said that Li Ziqi did not accept the above plan and did not put forward his own appeal.
Another point worth noting is the income problem of Li Ziqi.
The investor pointed out that in the past two years, Wei Nian has distributed 40 to 50 million yuan in income to Li Ziqi. He also said that The most profitable snail powder brand of Wei Nian actually does not make money, and in the first half of this year, it is actually in a state of loss, with a loss of nearly 100 million yuan.
In addition, according to public reports, on March 19 this year, Weinian transferred all the "valid" "Li Ziqi" trademarks under its name to Ziqi Culture, leaving the trademarks that were originally rejected and invalidated in its own name.
According to the Dolphin Think Tank, when WeiNian signed Li Ziqi, Li Ziqi was not an ordinary Internet celebrity, and Weibo only had 9,000 fans. At that time, Wei Nian had already signed up million-level Weibo bloggers such as fragrant little roast chicken and nG's cat.
In the investors' statements, we seem to be able to see their attitude towards the matter. From a few thousand fans to tens of millions of fans of super Internet celebrities, on the one hand, the loss of micro-thoughts and the dividends to Li Ziqi tens of millions.
Wei Nian's attempt to resolve the dispute peacefully also appeared extremely restrained in his external expression. Wei Nian is also trying to return some rights and interests to Li Ziqi.
In the impression of the outside world, Wei Nian is an MCN organization, and its well-known Internet celebrity is Li Ziqi.
However, in Wei Nian's official website and various promotional documents, Wei Nian is now positioned as "a new consumer brand company focusing on food and beverage and growing".
The importance of Li Ziqi to Wei Nian is self-evident, which is also the main thrust of Wei Nian's transformation from MCN to a new consumer brand.
It can be said that without Li Ziqi, it is almost impossible for Weinian to transform into a new consumer company. The IP of Wei Nian and Li Ziqi is deeply bound, and in a sense, the two are mutual achievements.
Doing new consumer food and beverages through Li Ziqi's IP is the core of Weinian's difference from other MCNs.
Li Ziqi does not need to receive many advertisements, she herself is making endorsements for her products. In the entire business chain, Li Ziqi's personal IP is the best advertisement for consumer goods, and these products appear subtly in the video.
Separated from Li Ziqi, Wei Nian's consumer products will lose the blessing of top traffic. Subsequent launches of new products will also be blocked.
It can be said that the cooperation model of Wei Nian and Li Ziqi is destined to be one, and as long as they are separated, they will be damaged.
If we have to discuss who will lose the most after separation, it is undoubtedly a small thought.
Even if Wei Nian can hold Li Ziqi's IP, how long this IP can still be popular after leaving Li Jiajia (Li Ziqi's real name) is unknown.
The best outcome of this dispute is a settlement between the two sides.