The pan-entertainment layout of the game IP.
You must know this talking Tom, and many people have contributed to the first experience of “smart phone games.” Recently, Tom Cat and his technology company “Outfit7” spent 10 years of birthday.
For most IP, 10 years means risk and unreachable, but Tom Cat seems to find a way to stay alive. This is the starting point for my curiosity about Tom Cat and Outfit7.
If you put this case in the context of the “leisure games” that Tencent and today’s headlines are paying more attention to, the value is especially important. But instead of asking big manufacturers why they value casual games, why not ask “What does casual games mean?”
If casual games are likened to WeChat games, their profit model and value are very similar – low barriers to entry, high advertising value, and strong drainage, then it means promoting, pulling and making money. machine.
According to QuestMobile’s 2018 data, Tencent and non-Tencent’s small program MAU Top5 are concentrated in the small game field. That year, jumping over a million DAU, and Nike’s sky-high advertising implants stimulate the heart of every practitioner. It is foreseeable that if a casual game cluster is placed in an APP, such as WeChat, or today’s headlines, APP activity, user stickiness, and advertising revenue potential will increase dramatically.
Next, we will get to the point and take Outfit7 as an example to analyze the growth path of casual games and related IP.
First, the 10-year transcript of “Invisible Big Donkey”
Outfit7 was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Cyprus. In 10 years, Outfit7 launched a number of avatars and 22 casual games apps including Tom Cat, Angela, Dogs, Ginger, Hank, and more. Pets, strategy, elimination, parkour, puzzle, shooting and other categories, user volume, activity and profitability grew steadily.
According to official data, as of September, the Tom Cat series APP has more than 10 billion downloads worldwide, with MAU exceeding 370 million, DAUAfter stopping, successively designed and launched a series of IP and games such as Angela, Hank, Ginger, and Dogs, which together form the talking Tom and Family. ).
In the 10 years, the series completed four image upgrades. The overall image follows the aesthetics of the times and becomes more sophisticated, and the individualized expression is more delicate. Concerned about the transfer of mobile smart terminal dividends to the Asian market, Outfit7 also developed a version that is more in line with the European and American style classics, more in line with the oriental aesthetic image, namely the mini version launched in 2016. This edition also paved the way for its entry into the derivatives market and the development of its licensing business.
It is understood that Outfit7 game development frequency is maintained in 4-6 new games every year, and 1-2 explosions are launched. According to official data, the top 3 APP downloads of the company exceeded 1 billion, and the next day remained around 40%.
In addition to occupying the sub-category of electronic pets, the head of the parkour mobile game was opened. The recent launch of parkour mobile game “Tom Cat Hyun Run”, on the day of the launch of the 96 countries iOS action game free list Top 10, and become China’s iOS casual games The second place in the free list, so far is also in the top 30 of the list; Another game “Tom Cat Parkour” is also ranked 35.
4. Mobile Games Workshop
To date, Outfit7 has downloaded more than 300 million games in 22 games in 22 games. This ability to quickly push up the game is not accidental. It benefits from a well-established team and industrial production that results in stable production capacity.
Qian Xinyu tells that under the influence of “existing potential energy”, Outfit7’s single application downloads can only take 7 to 14 days to break through 10 million. In addition, this driving effect is reflected inRooted deeper? It is a problem that Outfit7 needs to solve.
After the 10th Anniversary Party, Outfit7 executives opened a meeting with the theme of “IP Stereotactic Strategy” – as a 10-year-old IP, the Tom Cat series could not really break the circle. But then, this speed may be significantly faster.
It is understood that Jinke Culture has acquired Outfit7, and it is very important to see the possibility that IP has not yet been developed. After the completion of the acquisition, it began to promote the three-dimensionalization of the Tom Cat series IP, and achieved initial success in animation dramas, derivatives, and paradise.
Animal dramas, so far Tom’s cat series cartoons broadcast 4 seasons of cartoons on mainstream video platforms such as Youtube, Netflix, Youku, Iqiyi, Tencent Video, Mango TV, etc. A series of short films with a total of more than 40 billion plays. In foreign countries, it has also finalized cooperation with TV stations in more than 100 countries.
Derivatives, Jinke Culture launched the parent-child family life brand “Tom Cat House”, which covers children’s wear, toys, household items and other categories. The core users are parent-child groups. And a strategic cooperation with Alibaba, will jointly promote business development including derivative product development, marketing authorization, space authorization and advertising implantation. By the end of the first half of 2019, Jinke Culture has launched about 260 SPUs of IP derivatives, over 900 SKUs, mainly including AI robots, smart toys, children’s educational products and so on.
Children’s Paradise, Tom Cat Park has landed in Hefei and Shaoxing stores, and cities such as Hangzhou, Ningbo and Zhengzhou are also in the process of preparation. According to Qian Xinyu, the Tom Cat series will also land an 10,000-square-meter outdoor large-scale integrated playground in Cyprus, where the headquarters of Outfit7 is located.
However, from the perspective of revenue share, the current trial of new business has not released the value it deserves. Outfit7 2018 total revenue of 1.077 billion yuan, of which about 70-80% from games (about 90% from advertising revenue, 10% from internal purchase), 5-10% from film and television animation, only 1 % from authorizationAnd other innovative businesses.
However, this also means that as a game IP, the Tom Cat series has a lot of potential to be motivated. This is also the expectation of Jinke Culture for Outfit7, becoming a multi-IP, multi-platform, all-age family entertainment company. This goal is easily reminiscent of Disney, or Netflix. Qian Xinyu told, “To achieve this goal, we need to open up more countries and more channels to expand IP influence.”
VI. Global Strategy & Embrace China
The essential difference between the Tom Cat series IP and other avatars is that , the latter mostly uses comics and animation as the carrier, while Tom Cat uses casual games as the carrier – Different from Contents such as words, music, or plots, “games” naturally have cross-language, cross-ethnic communication, speeding up the globalization of IP; and making IP from the beginning to make money.
So, for Outfit7, the game is not only the path to earning money, but also the bridgehead for the global market and the first shot of the future IP stereo strategy.
With the game, they can quickly enter each country and build a basic understanding and user base. Then, by setting up a local social media account for the Tom Cat series IP, the local fans are operated at low cost; at the same time, through the business or agency company, their animation content is delivered to the video media of each country. When necessary, set up a branch to strengthen business.
As for the Chinese market, due to the acquisition of Jinke Culture, the future of Tom Cat will inevitably have a greater correlation with the Chinese market.
First of all, this time the Chinese-foreign marriage is a plus point from the results. According to official data, Outfit7’s cumulative 10 billion game downloads and 40 billion video playback data, 50% of downloads (5 billion times) and 75% of broadcasts (30 billion times) are 2 years after the merger. Completed in the middle of the month.
Secondly, China’s new business trials will determine whether Tom’s next decade will break into a butterfly. These new businesses include paradise, derivatives, and licensing, and the current state of China’s cultural consumer market is indeed a paradise for these new businesses.
Finally, China CityThe field is indeed the core market of Outfit7 (this also proves the user base and value of casual games in China). Qian Xinyu told the Tom Cat series APP that the global market contributed 1/3 of the world’s 370 million MAU, which may be more during the winter vacation, accounting for 45-50%, and most of them are driven by parkour games.
If you say virtual pets to parkour, it is an evolution of game content. Then from the game to the evolution of film and television, it is necessary to mention the “movie” at the top of the content pyramid.
Qian Xinyu told me that the development of the Tom Cat movie started in 2017. In the continuous advancement, “We invited the filmmaker Jean-Julien Baronnet of Assassin’s Creed to complete the work together. It is still not in the development stage. Too much disclosure, but this will be a family movie that adults and children will be interested in. It will not be limited to the Chinese market and will be released globally.”
What will the talking Tom Cat and Outfit7 become in the next decade? The final game is not known, but it is foreseeable that the front road of Outfit7 will be a difficult climb.
In the dimension of animated film alone, if compared with the avatar IP at home and abroad, Outfit7 action and rhythm are too conservative. And how to reverse the business model that relies too much on advertising to realize? And can Tom and his friends break the circle? Fortunately, the formation of the troops is in place, the fan base is large enough, and the next one is hard to hope that the Tom cat can still run well.
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Note: I amMomo Xiaoli, focusing on new things in entertainment and consumer spending >, exchange can add WeChat Spontaneous-Literary, please note the name, company, position.