Top of the big era

In the era of mobile Internet, more is the industrial Internet.

The so-called industrial Internet is the combination of the Internet and a certain industry, that is, "Internet +".

This model can be very popular in China because many domestic products are either relatively blank, have been around for a short time and are not mature enough, or are monopolistic or semi-monopolistic, resulting in poor service systems.

The emergence of "Internet +" has effectively solved this problem.

This is not the case in the United States. Many industries have been developed for decades or hundreds of years. The industries are mature and stubborn, and have become somewhat rigid.

It will be more difficult to rely on the Internet to promote reform.

There is another important reason.

It’s just that the Internet here in the United States is not as radical as in China.

In the 1990s, the Internet boom broke out in the United States. At that time, there were many radical Internet strategies and various subsidies. In that era when the Internet was not yet popular enough, most of the users of the websites were financed with money. of.

Then, the dot-com bubble crisis broke out.

caused a severe economic crisis.

The vast majority of Internet startups are dead.

Silicon Valley has learned a lot from its mistakes, and its development strategies tend to be conservative. They don't dare to be too radical, and they don't dare to spend a lot of money to subsidize users.

Fandango is a typical example.

This company was founded in 2000, when it was still in the Internet bubble boom stage. It raised money in the early stage and relied on the subsidy model to promote it.

It’s almost the same as in China.

Buying tickets on Fandango is cheaper than buying tickets offline.

Later, the bubble crisis broke out, and most similar websites died due to the loss of cash flow. Fandango survived by luck and quickly changed its operating strategy.

The subsidy is definitely gone.

Not only can they not subsidize, but they also want to make money in different ways. Acting as a middleman to collect commissions has become a profitable business model. Relying on this model, Fandango has generated profits many years ago and can survive on its own.

The shortcomings are also obvious.

This can only be a small business on a small scale.

There is no bargaining power in the market, and Fandango can look down on any movie theater. Anyway, there are so few tickets sold on Fandango, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t cooperate with them.

Domestic movie ticket websites are different.

The subsidy is high and the ticket price is low, so everyone buys tickets online. As time goes by, the ticketing website has a certain say in the market. Which cinema dares to be disobedient... Then I'm sorry, when it sells tickets, it may reduce the weight of this cinema's ticket sales.

Paul Yanowoor explained this in more detail, "In the current North American theater system, the online ticket purchase market is only about 13%, and there is still a lot of room for growth."

Zhou Buqi glanced at him, "Then what do you think are the obstacles hindering the online ticket purchase market?"

Paul smiled and said: "There are probably three points. The first point is that because of the ticket purchase commission, the price of online tickets is higher."

"Well, this should be the most important point."

Zhou Buqi nodded.

He had long wanted to cancel the ticket purchase commission, but was later advised not to be too hasty and to wait and see for a while.

How much is the commission worth?

In the entire North American market, the total box office revenue in a year is US$10 billion, and 13% is purchased online, which is US$1.3 billion. Of the US$1.3 billion, 45% belongs to Fandango, which is US$600 million.

Of the US$600 million in transaction volume, Fandango’s commission is 3%-5%, and its annual commission income is less than US$30 million.

This amount of money is not worth mentioning to a technology giant like Ziweixing International.

Why not take the initiative to give up this commission, increase your share, and earn more traffic!

Ziweixing International is not a movie company, and there is no need to make money from movies.

The purpose of "Internet + Movies" should be to find a broader space for commercial realization based on the traffic created by movies, the entertainment leader.

Paul continued: "The second point is that traditional theater chains are wary of online business. They are worried that the ticket sales window has been handed over to the Internet platform and they may lose their right to speak."

This is indeed a very strong reason. Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "This kind of cognitive bias does take a long time to get rid of. Taking a step back, what can we do even if we don't have the right to speak? In the final analysis, cinemas are still To sell tickets, you still have to make money. The business model of traditional theater chains has huge shortcomings. If Wanda hadn’t stepped in, AMC Theaters might have gone bankrupt.”

This reason is a bit reluctant, but Paul Yanowoor thinks it makes sense, "It is true. In the past two years, the U.S. movie market has been sluggish, and movie fans are not motivated enough to buy tickets to watch movies. A subsidiary of the American Theater Owners Association The Film Foundation is interested in promoting an incentive project.”

"Oh?" Zhou Buqi was very curious, "What kind of incentive project?"

Paul said: "I just want the Film Foundation to subsidize cinemas across the country and lower the ticket price to about US$4. The normal ticket price is usually US$8, which is equivalent to a 50% discount. Use a lower ticket price to attract movie fans to return to the cinema."

Zhou Buqi's eyes lit up, "What a good thing!"

Paul shook his head, "But this plan has been discussed many times, but it still failed to pass."

"Why?"

"Because most movie theaters are not transparent enough. Once this subsidy mechanism is introduced, a large number of fake ticket fraud will occur."

"Well……"

Zhou Buqi was speechless.

Yes, many movie theaters are self-employed, and there is no real-name authentication ticket purchase system in the United States, so it is easy to make fraud.

A similar phenomenon often occurs when new Hollywood movies buy box office tickets.

Movie fans generally have a herd mentality. If a Hollywood blockbuster does not do well at the box office on its first weekend, it can basically be labeled a "bad movie" and movie fans will be greatly reduced in their interest in buying tickets.

In order to prevent this phenomenon, the producers will have emergency measures.

Once the box office performance is poor in the first weekend, we must start quickly and buy a lot of box office, so as to push up the box office in the first weekend and come up with a beautiful report card.

In the past few years, Tom Cruise's movies have not been as popular as in previous years. In order to maintain his status as an S-class superstar, Tom Cruise has also been shopping at the box office.

If fans don’t buy it, he will buy it himself.

If the box office is enough, he will still be an S-level Hollywood superstar.

Many of the chaos in the domestic film industry were mostly learned from Hollywood.

Paul smiled and said: "However, if the Film Foundation can cooperate with Fandango, it will be different. Fandango is an online platform, the data is open and transparent, and there is a third-party data platform to supervise it, it will be difficult to fake. If the film If the foundation is willing to put subsidies on Fandango, it can achieve its goal."

Zhou Buqi was very happy, "Openness, fairness and impartiality are the advantages of the Internet!"

Paul said: "But there is a major premise. Fandango must give up its own commission. The Film Foundation subsidizes the film market and cannot subsidize it into our commission."

Zhou Buqi said: "The commission mechanism should indeed be abolished. The Internet should have a peer-to-peer nature. Drawing commissions, wouldn't this become a new form of intermediary?"

"Really?"

Paul Yanowoir is not a pure filmmaker.

Although he was hired from Disney, he worked in Disney's online business. He majored in computer science as an undergraduate and graduate student, and started a business in Silicon Valley in his early years.

Later he entered the media industry and then joined Disney to enter the film industry.

As a science student with Internet genes, he has long been dissatisfied with Fandango's commission model. It is really un-Internet-like and resembles a Japanese Internet company.

Zhou Buqi said: "It is best to cooperate with the Film Foundation now and urgently launch a film industry revitalization plan. The Film Foundation and Fandango will cooperate. The Film Foundation will contribute a sum of money, and Fandango will also contribute a sum of money. Both parties will Get up and subsidize this industry!”