After profiting from the trend of online students for two years, Koala Entertainment began to enter the female population and do some "slow" content

Since 2014, the term "big online movies" has gradually caught people's attention. At that time, there were stories of hundreds of thousands of production costs winning millions of box office, and Koala Entertainment entered the market during that wild era of online content.

In an interview with 36Kr, Qian Wei, the founder of Koala Entertainment, admitted that they have made a lot of money by taking advantage of the past situation. "We had a film that cost 80000 yuan, and in the end, we recovered over a million yuan at the box office." In the past two years, they have been able to make an average of more than 20 major movies per year, ranking among the top 10 in revenue on major video websites. You can easily find several films produced by Koala, which has also accumulated a lot of channel resources for them.

But as time entered this year, the online film market began to reshuffle. Last year, the total number of over 600 films in the market suddenly surged to over 2000, and the era of mass production has passed. You will find that the production costs of top ranked online films are basically over a million yuan, reaching the level of second and third tier cinemas.

The recently launched Golden Casino series

After the market dividend period passed, Koala Entertainment began their new layout this year: targeting the female market and creating high-quality online content for students. "This was actually planned before, and shuffling is certain." Qian Wei said that they didn't release many films in the first half of this year, and were all preparing for future "slow" content.

Koala Entertainment's first change is the IP incubation method. They have formed a comic team, positioning themselves as long story world view works with a serialization time of more than three years. After these works have been verified by the market, they gradually launch corresponding derivative content such as web dramas and big movies.

In the first half of the year, Qian Wei's work "Need for True Youth", which verified this model, has gained over 350 million popularity with 52 consecutive episodes. The big movie of the same name has also started filming, and "root fans have given very good feedback on this approach." Qian Wei said that in the future, top women in his family will release works in this model, do IP amplification, and then develop derivative games. They have also reached cooperation with some game and film companies.

While starting to plan long-term IPs, Koala Entertainment is also building its own channels. "Just like the mobile game trend back then, the channels will become more and more dominant after the reshuffle, and CP's voice will decrease." Qian Wei said that this is also planning for the future, not letting himself be completely constrained by the platform. Now, Koala's approach is to create PGC live streaming content for women.

At present, they have integrated into WeChat mini programs and independently developed a PGC live streaming channel. They have collaborated with some women to launch customized live streaming content to meet the upgrading needs of these large accounts from graphic and textual content to video content, while accumulating traffic in the vertical field, preparing for future female oriented comics and online content. This channel is still under testing and only broadcasts live at 8 pm every night, with an average online audience of around a few thousand.

"The feedback from the official account that we have cooperated with is OK, and we hope to turn it into a live female channel all day in the future." Qian Wei said that this platform does not need to be very big, and the purpose is to form an internal cycle of IP incubation, channel promotion and realization. Of course, building their own channels does not mean that Koala will give up platform channels. The several works they produce next have deep cooperation with the platform.

After determining the new content incubation and channel promotion model, Qian Wei stated that they have also upgraded their core online content production. Now, Koala has also adopted a screenwriter and producer core system in production, and a large number of works released in the past are actually talent screening. "For example, directors who cannot adapt to this model have been eliminated by us." Qian Wei said that out of the dozens of directors they collaborated with, they only left two.

In the future, Koala Entertainment will advance at the pace of about 10 major online movies per year. Part of it will focus on women's slow content driven by comics and monetize long-term IP, while the other part will ensure Koala brand activity and create flowing market oriented content.

In terms of team, Qian Wei comes from an investor background and has served as the Director of Investment at Chuangdong and the founder of Huanyu Interactive Media. Responsible for the overall layout of the company and the planning of original film and television content, with two other partners in charge of comics and live streaming. Manga partner Fu Tao has previously served as the producer of Xishanju Games.

They have previously obtained tens of millions of Series A financing from Heyi Capital and Chuangdong Investment, and are currently preparing for Series A+.