E -sports breakthrough: Sinking, going to sea, making stars, NFT and offline derivatives

Picking / Wang Hongxia

Edit / Wan Tiannan

Even if you don't play e -sports and don't watch the game, it will still get closer and closer to your life, perhaps a certain online video, perhaps in a certain offline venue.

For example, the Tencent E -sports Hotel, which had just tested in Hangzhou last month, the e -sports training variety show "Battle to the Peak" at the end of July, and the theme event of the "Glory Heroes of the King" in Beijing Universal Studios in April. And 90%of the e -sports players settled in Weibo to interact with the public, etc., all showing that e -sports is "wearing new coats" and integrates into the daily life of the public.

Since the formal project of the Asian Games in 2020, the national recognition has flourished. Nearly 70 % of netizens have recognized that e -sports is a sports.

Volkswagen recognizes, official names, capital is popular, and e -sports has naturally become "fragrant", and there are successive stories of the above new story.

But a recent data has broken harmony.

On July 22, the "China E-sports Industry Report" (hereinafter referred to as the report of the China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association (hereinafter referred to as the report) pointed out that in the first half of 2022, the size of Chinese e-sports users was about 487 million, which was year-on-year, year-on-year, year-on-year, year-on-year Falling 0.41%, the first decline in many years.

Although it is slightly dropped, it is not worrying that the e -sports industry is not fragrant? In the era of the stock size, how does the e -sports industry tap the commercial value of derivatives?

Great potential, uneven: eat meat on the head, eat long tails, eat soil

After more than 20 years of development, China is now the world's largest e -sports market.

The "Development Report of the 2022 Asian E -sports Sports Industry" shows that the size of global e -sports audiences in 2021, 474 million, accounts for 430 million. In addition, China also contributed about one -third in the total revenue of the global e -sports event market.

It is not easy to achieve such achievements. You know, 20 years ago, Chinese e -sports was labeled with "psychotoxic drugs" and has been controversial. In recent years, it has been officially "rectified".

In 2016, the Ministry of Education added a new e -sports major, the new e -sports profession of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in 2019, and the E -Sports in the Asia in 2020. As of the end of last year, 23 provinces nationwide issued e -sports support policies. The degree of tolerance of e -sports is getting higher and higher.

Capital also competes to the bureau, and the industrial ecology has gradually improved.

There are game manufacturers such as Tencent, Netease, and Perfect World. In the middle reaches, there are Tencent E -sports, Netease NEXT, Hero Sports and other competitors and many team clubs;

There are other derivative roles such as Huya, Douyu, Kuaishou and other e -sports live media, e -sports MCN institutions, e -sports sparrows and other derivative characters.

The content social platform is also entered. In early 2020, Weibo proposed the goal of "improving the first main venue ecology of e -sports users" and accelerating the layout of the e -sports ecology. Comprehensive operation coverage.

Iri Report: China E -sports Industry Chain Map

Regardless of capital or policy support, the commercial potential of e -sports values. According to iResearch, in the past 7 years, the scale of China's e -sports market has increased from 22.63 billion to approximately 167.3 billion yuan, an increase of more than 6 times. It is expected that it will maintain a compound annual growth rate of 9%in the next two years.

But it is not easy to harvest the commercial value of e -sports.

On the one hand, the size of e -sports users has been "topped."

According to iResearch, the year -on -year growth rate of e -sports was 1.2%year -on -year, and the growth rates in 2022 and 2023 were 2.8%and 0.8%, respectively.

It can be seen that the growth rate of e -sports users is slow, the market becomes saturated, and the competition in the stock market is bound to be fierce, and it is imperative.

However, the particularity of e -sports is that the cost of learning is very high, and the obscure game terms are discouraged. For example, it is difficult for people who do not understand e -sports to understand the complex effects of various buffs. Essence

On the other hand, the revenue of the e -sports industry has also declined.

The report pointed out that in the first half of this year, the total revenue of the e -sports industry decreased by 10.12%year -on -year to 76.497 billion yuan, the first decline in the past five years.

The main reason is that due to the impact of the epidemic, users' willingness to pay for the game, and the suspension of many e -competitions, leading to brand sponsorship, event bonuses, tickets and other related income.

In fact, even if the epidemic is left, it has always been a headache for many e -sports companies.

In addition to the upstream game manufacturers make money, most of the middle and lower reaches are facing "survival dilemma."

Taking the e -sports club as an example, brand sponsorship is its big income. Obviously, only good -grade head clubs can get more sponsorship, such as EDG clubs that have won many times in the League of Legends.

EDG Club win the championship

EDG head coach Abu revealed in the live broadcast of 2020 that of the more than 10 clubs under the entire LPL (League of Legends Vocational League), EDG is the only one to make money, and it is only a balance of payments.

For another example, the competitors of the event, VSPN, the largest third -party event operator in China, mentioned in the prospectus earlier this year that during the three years from the end of September 2021, the company's losses continued to increase, from 39 million, 88 million to 317 million The reason is that the cost of the event and the company's exploration of new business are high.

It can be seen that although the entire e -sports industry has a high voice, specific companies are facing crisis. In the early stage of the development of the industry, "burning money" to hit the market is the conventional operation of head players, but how long can it support? Especially for more SMEs. Finding new market capacity and improving realization capabilities is the core proposition, and industry evolution often requires more powerful head players to promote. In this regard, Tencent, Netease, VSPN, etc. are continuously exploring.

When the user is at the top, the wind is derived: sinking, going to sea, holding hands in the entertainment circle

The core product of e -sports is the event. The goal of breaking the circle is naturally attracting more people to participate or watch the event.

For a long time, strong competitive games such as "League of Legends" and "Glory of the King" occupy the mainstream. At present, the most popular e -sports events in China are the LPL (League of Legends Vocational League) and KPL (King Glory Professional League) led by Tencent. Because of strong confrontation, it brought high ornamental, but also established barriers in virtual.

After all, not everyone loves blood. Outside of the League of Legends, many light competitive games are also very wide, such as "Happy Landlords" and "Tiantian Chess" and other young and old chess games.

To attract these groups, sinking into the event project came into being.

As early as 2016, Tencent developed chess and card games into e -sports events. At the end of last year, the finals also invited cross -border people such as Deng Yaping to help break the circle. It can be seen from the age of the players to 50-00-00, which indeed breaks the stereotype of "e-sports is only young".

Deng Yaping helps the "Happy Landlord" finals

Netease also "followed up", and NetEase games are mainly light competitives, which is also a step that it must take for e -sports.

In 2018, Zhang Fengyi, vice president of Netease, said that in addition to competitiveness, NetEase E -sports also advocates pan -entertainment and mildness. The "Fifth Personality" series of the light competitive game "Fifth Personality" has developed into a top race under the track.

In addition, the competition sinks, and it can reach more people, such as holding local competitions, college competitions, etc.

Tencent and NetEase launched the event authorization system in 2020 and 2021, authorized their games to organize competitions to ordinary institutions such as enterprises, communities, and Internet cafes in various places, and launched the tools of the national competition -Tencent "King Sibao" and "Netease" and "Netease" "Battle", assisting the public to run the competition.

The effect is very significant. According to the official data of Tencent, in Q1 in 2022, the number of League of Legends mobile game license competitions increased by 33.4%over last year's Q4; the glory of the king increased by 150%, and the competition covered different regions such as Qingdao, Yunnan, Macau, and Jilin.

Zhao Mingyi, the head of the Northern Big project department of Netease Games, also shared it. In 2021, more than 700 games were organized through "Netease Battle".

In addition to sinking, the event is also the unanimous choice of e -sports companies. Specifically, game manufacturers or third -party event operators incubate overseas.

For example, VSPN began to expand overseas in 2018. As of the end of September last year, the business has expanded to more than ten countries including Southeast Asia, America, and Europe.

It is worth mentioning that Tencent holds 13.54%in VSPN, so most of the landing of VSPN overseas events is cut in from Tencent Games.

In fact, the effect of gaming out of the sea is closely related to the popularity of the game IP in the local area, which causes an interesting phenomenon: the gaming pattern of game manufacturers overseas is a big difference from domestic.

For example, Tencent's domestic ace IP "Glory of the King" has not been able to meet the overseas needs because of the game version, which leads to the high penetration rate. It has always been suppressed by the "Endless Duel" of Byotic Mu Tong Technology.

In contrast, "Endless Duel" not only became a national game in Southeast Asia, but also continuously selected as the e -sports medal project of the Southeast Asian Games in 2019 and 2021. Moreover, since 2018, Mu Tong Technology has been held in Singapore's many "endless duels" events. This year, Mu Tong Technology will also open up the Middle East, Latin America and other regions to accelerate the globalization process.

In addition, NetEase, which has been suppressed by Tencent in China, has also made its top planning in the Japanese and Southeast Asian markets with many years of overseas operating experience. The Top CLANS event hatched in 2019 is the first Southeast Asian first overseas competition brand led by Chinese companies.

However, after Tencent will not be willing to be willing, this year will release the new international version of King Glory and upgrade the October World Champions Cup. As for the effect, it remains to be observed.

If sinking and going out to sea are new increments of excavation of the event, then "e -sports+entertainment" is a new incision outside the event.

In recent years, the film and television variety shows of e -sports themes have been launched: the variety show "Battle to the Peak", "Beyond! Heroes ", film and television drama" Full -time Master "," You Are My Glory ", League of Legends Derivative animation" The Battle of the Two City "... Not only Tencent and Netease have participated as game copyright parties, vSPN, Huya, Douyu, etc. Downstream companies have also cut into cooperation.

"Battle to the Peak" Yang Mi competition screen

However, these works are far away from "out of the circle". The symptoms are that it is difficult to balance the professionalism and entertainment of e -sports. However, "wrong" may not be this combination, but how to combine it. As long as the imagination space is still there, such attempts will not, and should not stop.

Diversified commercial scenes: stars, NFT, offline derivatives

When it comes to commercialization of e -sports, the NBA has to be mentioned, which is also a competitive event. The two are similar in the monetization mode. In fact, in the past few years, e -sports events have continued to learn from the NBA to upgrade. For example, under Tencent, LPL and KPL implemented the alliance of NBA in 2017, and successively launched the All -Star Games, Draft Conferences, Main and Wardhenery and other competition systems to improve While the viewing of the event and the viscosity of the fans, naturally increased the commercial value of the event.

According to the Ferrisana report, the annual income of the LPL league in 2020 was about $ 1.8 billion.

But it is not enough, there is more room for excavation in e -sports.

First, incubation star clubs and players.

It is true that strength is the key to the club or players, but the blessing of operation should not be underestimated.

In the past few years, most clubs have not paid attention to operations, and the situation has not changed until nearly a year.

In September last year, KPL was the first "Operation Day". The players needed to conduct outdoor activities, interviews and other activities on the same day to promote the club culture; LPL joined Bilili to create a documentary "Not Broken" last year, focusing on humanistic content such as players training, daily life and other humanities content ; In August this year, Zhu Boyi, a peaceful elite professional player who had won many championships and his teammates, was arranged on the electronic screen of Shenzhen Metro Station.

LPL's "Not Broken" documentary

Similar operating strategies help enrich the image of clubs or players, and pave the way for the future excavation of the fan economy.

Second, e -sports+NFT.

The concept of the natural online virtual scene of e -sports is highly overlapped by the concept of the NFT Yuan universe, which is considered "a doomed pair".

In fact, the essence of e -sports+NFT is the fan economy, and the idea of ​​"incubating e -sports stars" is in line with. When the game skin, trophy, and competition fragments are made into NFT products, they will have the opportunity to form fan payments.

In this field, foreign e -sports companies act earlier. According to the gyroscope, from last year to February of this year, the number of cooperation between NFT and e -sports from abroad reached 66, with an average of 5.5 a month, mostly participating in e -sports clubs.

At present, there are very few domestic cases, but there are also trends. This year, JTEAM, the Jay Chou e -sports team, released NFT products such as members' digital badges. The head e -sports club RNG also announced that it would cooperate with Hangout to jointly develop the e -sports Yuan universe.

Although the current cooperation model of e -sports and NFT is unclear, this also represents a large imagination space, and it is foreseeable that there will be more and more attempts in follow -up.

Third, e -sports+offline industries.

Hou Miao, general manager of Tencent E -sports, mentioned in July this year that the future development of e -sports commercialization is the cooperation between traditional IP and derivative industries.

From the perspective of landing cases, the derivative industry mainly refers to the offline industries such as hotels and experience halls -cases that can be followed by imitation are Disney. The 2/3 income is through non -box office income, that is, derivatives and entertainment business acquisition.

On July 27th, the Grand Graph Hotel jointly invested by Tencent E -sports and Ou Yue Technology was tested in Hangzhou.

Gee Goose Hotel opened internal testing

But this is not the first time that Tencent E-sports has been involved in offline industries. In 2020, Tencent set up the first immersive e-sports interactive exhibition hall V-Station in Lujiazui, Shanghai. E -sports cafe.

Not only Tencent, JD.com, Tongcheng Yilong, Ctrip, and traditional hotels such as Rujia and Sheraton have also entered the e -sports hotel. Data data in the same city show that in the past three years, e -sports hotels have increased from more than 1,200 to more than 15,000.

However, the fusion mode of most venues is only implanted in local space into e -sports elements, such as live broadcast screens, touch screen interactive tables, etc. The e -sports atmosphere is "shallow".

This year's goose Hotel has been upgraded. The difference is that the full -space immersive e -sports atmosphere, including the theme room of five popular e -sports IPs, virtual human guide for replace traditional lobby managers, and e -sports professional talent tests.

It can be seen that digital technology and game IP jointly support the differentiated experience of the Graphic Hotel.

The previous cases also showed that many young people were willing to pay for e -sports hotels. In Guangzhou, e -sports hotels integrating e -sports culture and hotel accommodation functions have become new categories of popular accommodation in the hotel industry. The average occupancy rate is more than 80%, the repurchase rate is more than 60%, and some weekend and popular holidays are full. The house becomes normal.

According to the "China E -sports Hotel Market Research Report 2021" released by the Tongcheng Research Institute, it is expected that the stock of e -sports hotels in the country will reach 15,000 in 2021, and it will exceed 20,000 by 2023.

However, it is clear that the high offline industrial costs and long return cycles such as hotels are "burned" in the early stage. Entrepreneurs have opened up a lot of risks while opening up new business scenarios.

Conclusion

At this stage, the e -sports industry presents a subtle sense of "conflict".

On one side is the rise in national recognition, and the other is the top of the user. One side is recognized as market potential, and the other is the polarization of the industry, eating meat on the head, and eating soil, and a large number of practitioners have difficulty survival.

At present, the dilemma of e -sports is not in the inner rolls of those who enter the game, but the "gap" between the entire industry and the user and capital.At this time, the most important thing is that while the head enterprises seek their own solutions, they can also promote industry evolution, develop derivative industries, broaden opportunities for monetization, and extend business value.It can be seen that e -sports variety shows, e -sports hotels, and e -sports Yuan universe are the staged new answers given by the industry. The results are different. They are trying to bear the heavy responsibility of breaking and long -term realization of the e -sports industry.

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