IP development ‘crucial’ to Chinese film industry

IT IS crucial for the film and other creative industries in China to develop their own intellectual properties to maintain healthy growth, a forum heard. 
China aims to be the world’s No 1 film market, reaching an audience of 2.5 billion and earning US$15 billion (Bt534 billion) in box-office revenue by 2020. To achieve those goals, the creative industries are putting more emphasis on developing IP to help reshape the value chains of film, novels, online video, TV series, games, variety shows, music, theme parks and derivative products. 
Emily Dai, Web drama general manager of iQiyi, a video-on-demand service based in Beijing, said many Internet platform operators had developed and produced their own content to cash in on the changes in viewing behaviour of Chinese audiences from TV sets to mobile devices and tablets. 
“However, the critical key to facilitate the development of the IP industrial chain is the quality of the content,” she said. 
Dai shared her views and thoughts at a panel discussion on “Strategic IP Management in China’s Film and Creative Industries”. The seminar was held last week in Hong Kong under a collaboration between the Business of IP Asia Forum and China Daily newspaper.
Liu Kailuo, president of Heyi Pictures, said the film industry needed to seek new healthy growth by developing derivative products to spread risk and to avoid over-reliance on box-office earnings. Liu pointed to a film of his own, “Surprise”, as an example. Through developing Web-based IP, this movie has been able to obtain 60 per cent of its total revenue from non-box-office earnings. 
“Therefore, the IP development and creation should not focus only on content but also a whole pyramid. [Having an] online platform is very helpful for film development,” he said. 
Although the film industry in China is expected to grow by at least 19 per cent a year through 2020, |box-office earnings in the second quarter of this year saw a slight decline, partly due to depreciation of the yuan. 
However, the industry is still expected to reach 44 billion yuan (Bt227 billion) in total revenue this year. 
William Feng, head for Greater China and vice president for Asia-Pacific at the Motion Picture Association (MPA), said the industry had to be patient in developing it own IP like in Hollywood, where some US filmmakers covered the costs of IP management before releasing their movies into the |market. 
“What the Chinese movie industry lacks is not talent, capital or a market, but patience,” he said. 
Xiao Fei, board chairman and chief executive officer of Beijing UP Picture Group, said IP incubation and creation were open sources of revenue and important for long-term growth. 
“But it is hard to find talented incubators and creators, and the big question is how to promote China’s IP to global stages or markets,” he said. 
Pirated content in China was one of the greatest concerns raised by the panellists. Li Lei, deputy director of Filmko Pictures, said being creative and telling a great story were the best way for the film industry to protect its intellectual property.
“Other people will find it difficult to copy if you are telling a fantastic story,” he said.