Produced | Odaily (ID: o-daily)
Produced | Odaily (ID: o-daily)
I can be regarded as a player with a little knowledge of NFT fur, and I have participated in most of the NFTs that can be named. I have held BAYC, Azuki, Doodles, CoolCats, Mfers and other series; I used to be an author in the field of entertainment and interviewed many IP incubation Businesses related to operations; I am also a person who likes to collect some modern art works and trendy toys.
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Talk about NFT from the perspective of IP
The focus of recent industry traffic is BAYC and its parent company Yuga Labs. On March 12, when I saw Yuga Labs acquiring the Crypto Punks and Meebits series from Larva Labs, I lamented the pattern of Yuga Labs on Twitter , In this acquisition story, Larva Labs is more like a top-level IP incubation factory, but Yuga Labs is an IP operation platform that not only owns but also acquires empowerment. The former is like Pixar, and the latter is Disney.
Subsequent Yuga Labs also further demonstrated its vision as the first NFT IP platform, including describing its vision as "bridging the gap between culture and web3" in the new deck, and describing its commitment to breaking the boundaries of the "Metaverse" , plans to further create new IPs, acquire old IPs, and even released a short video of their NFT family Metaverse "the Otherside".
There are also other media that describe Yuga Labs with the positioning of "Disney in the web3 era". Is it too exaggerated to use a company that sells small pictures to target the century-old entertainment giant Disney? I don't think so at all.
My starting point is not the fully released market value of APE tokens exceeding 10 billion U.S. dollars, nor its just completed valuation of 4 billion U.S. dollars, led by a16z, and the 450 million U.S. dollars in financing participated by Adidas Ventures, Animoca Brands, Samsung, Google Ventures, etc. , but the changes and laws of IP incubation operations and copyright commercialization over the past century.
A few years ago, the founder of an IP company said a word to me, and I deeply believed it. The core issue that IP companies are always thinking about is "low cost, high traffic". How to obtain higher traffic at a lower cost, content, channels, and marketing methods are all formulated and changed based on this core.
A hundred years ago, wide-screen sound films were new media. In 1928, Disney launched the first sound animation "Steamboat Willie" in history. Film and television was a new content carrier in that era, and the Mickey family was the first to rise in this channel. A group of IPs have also become the originator IPs in the hearts of movie viewers around the world.
Over the past century, Disney has also encountered multiple growth bottlenecks. It has always continued to innovate its IP and expand new distribution channels to maintain its leading position, including the development of entertainment program production, theme parks, toys, books, games, media networks and other businesses, mergers and acquisitions Pixar, Marvel, 21st Century Fox, and vigorously developed the streaming media business Disney+ during the epidemic, and even recently announced that they will enter the Metaverse.
But what I want to talk about is Sanrio, which was established in 1974. This is the favorite example of all IP people. Everyone knows its most well-known IP HelloKitty. Amazingly, HelloKitty does not have any film and television works, and has not even carried out any advertising, but Sanrio has established the earliest full set of IP authorization and management chain. Except for the special category of tobacco and alcohol, Sanrio has co-licensed copyrights in almost all fields, including clothing, accessories, daily chemical products, automobiles, offline stores and so on.
With the boom in commodity markets and international trade in the second half of the 20th century, I'm sure you'd be hard-pressed to avoid buying a thing or two with the Hello Kitty family on it. When you drink water with a HelloKitty water bottle and write with a HelloKitty pencil, you also become a dissemination node of this IP while consuming.
Another interesting example is Line Friends. LINE is a social application developed by NHN Japan, a Japanese subsidiary of South Korean Internet group NHN. With the popularization of instant messaging software, LINE FRIENDS has also become an independent brand, operating character IP, and its business includes games, animation, theme parks, coffee shops, etc. In 2019, its revenue exceeded 1.2 billion yuan.
Similar examples include Kakao Friends, Changcao Yantuanzi (Twelve Building Culture), which became popular in China’s WeChat ecological emoticon package, and recently released NFT series, which used to accompany the production of Web2 mainstream community products such as Douban and Weibo. Lengtu is well-known to this generation of Internet users because of the content of cold jokes.
What I want to say is that from the three examples of film and television works, daily necessities, and emoticons, we can see that with the change of media, the cycle of cultivating IP is shortened, the chain of commercial realization is also shortened, and the communication mode is getting better. Lightweight, reach efficiency is geometric growth. At the same time, the design style and presentation of IP are constantly iterating.
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The Unlimited Potential of BAYC and Yuga Labs
So when I saw NFT, I knew it would be a real, new revolution.
As an IP, the speed of NFT's dissemination and cognition is truly "on a rocket". In August 2021, NBA superstar Curry bought a BAYC and replaced it with a Twitter avatar. This is not only a headline in the Crypto industry , and also became the number one search on Twitter and the number one search on Douyin that day. When I went back to my hometown recently, a relative (an ordinary person in an eighth-tier city who doesn’t know what a blockchain is) glanced at my WeChat avatar and said, are you a monkey of the same style as Curry?
Since then, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Top 100 DJ Steve Aoki, The Chainsmokers, Marshmello, Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda, singer Post Malone, rap superstar Snoop Dogg, football star Neymar, socialite Paris Hilton, Justin Bieber, Eminem and other superstars (probably only one-tenth of the current star holders) have bought BAYC series and changed their avatars.
Twitter has a daily activity of 200 million, Instagram has a daily activity of 500 million, and WeChat has a daily activity of 1 billion. The above-mentioned celebrities have tens of millions of fans at every turn. And these communication channels are not only not bought, but KOLs spontaneously spend a lot of money and participate in community building. If NFT is not the carrier of the strongest IP in this era, what is it?
Some people will raise the issue that these influences cannot be realized into the pockets of BAYC creator Yuga Labs through authorization, or that there are hidden dangers in the decentralized and open copyright of NFT. I can only say: my friend, your structure is too small. The world of 0 knows nothing.
As of January 2021, Hello Kitty's 47-year revenue is $84.5 billion, and it is the second highest-grossing IP in global history (ranking first is Pokémon, which was born in 1996, generating $100 billion in revenue).
In less than a year since BAYC was born, the total turnover has exceeded US$1.5 billion, the seven-month turnover of MAYC has exceeded US$1 billion, the total turnover of the Crypto Punk series has reached US$2.7 billion, and the current price of APE coin is around US$12. Market cap of $12 billion. And these figures are far from covering its commercial value.
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Copyright System in the Web3 Era
Curry bought a BAYC with 55 ETH in August 2021, and bought a BAKC with 5.7 ETH, which was about $198,000 at the ETH price at the time.
Since then, Curry has been on the global social media hot search list and is regarded as a leader by the Web3 world. On September 8, he became the global ambassador and shareholder of the mainstream encryption trading platform FTX; on December 22, he and FTX.US Released Stephen Curry's "2974" series of NFTs, with sales of 1.46 million US dollars, all of which were used for charity; on December 24, he released 5 "Genesis Curry Flow" sneaker series NFTs on the Polygon network. More than $3 million.
Last week, ApeCoin (APE), a token associated with the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BYAC) NFT ecosystem, was officially launched. Holding Bored Ape and Kennel Club at the same time can receive 10,950 pieces. If the airdrop received by Curry is sold today, it will be worth $130,000. Today, the floor price of the BAYC series is 101 ETH, and the floor price of BAKC is 8 ETH, which is already twice the purchase price of Curry.
In other words, during the six months that Curry held Monkey, he not only achieved a nearly three-fold return on investment, but also jumped from a sports star to a KOL in a new field. The metaverse era is far from coming, but we have already felt that how to achieve both fame and fortune in the real world through virtual digital IP. Is there anything more "future" than this?
What is even more remarkable is the "decentralized copyright" that subverts the traditional authorization model. Let's take a look at what the decentralization of copyright will bring.
NFT of CC0 FogNFT of CC0 Fog, I will not expand too much here. Let's just say briefly that YugaLabs initially drew up a very clear statement of terms, affirming that you "own NFT", and "own the underlying work of NFT, Boring Ape", and you can commercialize the owned NFT.
This is also one of the hottest focuses after Yuga Labs Crypto acquired Punks and Meebits, because they plan to grant all the commercial copyrights of the CryptoPunks and Meebits series to their respective owners after the acquisition. You must know that Larva Labs did not have enough Web3, It has been criticized for not opening copyright.
So what are the consequences of allowing NFT owners to commercialize such a powerful IP? Let me just give a few examples:
1. In December last year, Adidas jointly issued Bored Ape Yacht Club to issue adidas Originals Into The Metaverse NFT, with a sales volume of 5,924 ETH (approximately 23 million U.S. dollars), and the transaction volume so far is nearly 100 million U.S. dollars.
2. Universal Music Group (Universal Music Group) purchased Bored Ape Yacht Club #5537 this month, and together with the previously purchased NFT, it forms Kingship’s virtual band group. Three members of Kingship are from Bored Ape Yacht Club and the other is from Mutant Ape Yacht Club.
3. The world's top electronic music festival Tomorrowland announced that NFT artist Ape Rave Club will premiere on the main stage on July 24, becoming the protagonist of this year's music festival. Ape Rave Club, a digital artist from the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT series, plans to release original encrypted native music through the NFT platform.
When I interviewed the founding team of POPMART a few years ago, I asked them if they would make content based on Molly, and they immediately answered no, and told me that Molly can be anyone, any profession, any personality, and they will not do it without effort. The flattering content limits her development as a platform IP over time. I immediately felt that it made perfect sense.
In the NFT universe, I see a new ceiling. The world's top clothing brands, entertainment giants, and big-name stars are all sparing no effort to use their decades of accumulated resources to spread BAYC and endow it with top-level content from their own perspective. , Match the best channel.
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Consumer Goods, Art, Luxury
Finally, I want to talk about some subjective experience.
NFT was born in a very interesting era. In addition to subverting the grand narrative of the business world of IP and copyright, when someone asks me what it is, I will say: it is a work of art and not only a work of art, it is a consumer product and not only a Consumer goods, it is a luxury and not only a luxury (here I am referring to the narrow Avatar-like NFT).
In fact, the definition of the above concept itself is blurring the boundaries.
When many practitioners explain to "newcomers outside the circle" why a rough and small picture NFT that does not seem to have much artistic skill is invaluable, they will use Andy Warhol and Pop Art as metaphors, which is indeed appropriate.
Pop Art is art that draws style and subject matter from popular culture: TV, Coca-Cola, comics, cans, dollars, printed wallpaper, initially many traditional bigwigs were uncomfortable with such art because they rejected commercial culture and the commercialization of art , arguing that it would threaten the survival of modernism and "high culture". However, the trend of rebellion, dismantling authority, and facing the commercial society is irreversible and has actually happened.
NFT is the more extreme popularization, marketization, and commercialization of modern art. You can dislike it and look down on it, but you can't stop it from happening.
A more interesting example is the trend of street-oriented and trend-oriented luxury that has lasted for several years. The design of luxury goods has stepped down from the altar, slogans are printed on clothes, illogical oversize, subculture without source, joint names with street fashion brands, using social media influencers as brand ambassadors...
Behind this phenomenon is the increase in the number of the global middle class - luxury goods are no longer a symbol of so-called wealth and blue-blooded status, but more about life attitudes and choices that show individuality, and more and more people have sufficient purchasing power. If luxury goods want to continue to occupy a leading position in the fashion market, they must adapt to the development and changes of the times and develop a more popular and younger market.
When some "new rich people" ask me why I want to buy NFT, instead of telling him that BAYC is Web3's Mickey, I will say this is Web3's Richard Mille (RICHARD MILLE) more often.
When someone says that luxury goods must be a century-old classic brand that lasts forever, RICHARD MILLE is the best example of slapping face. It can be called the super late wave of the rise of the modern watch industry. The first work was launched in 2001, and it likes to challenge new technologies. RICHARD MILLE was first famous for its models worn by friends of elites in various fields (especially sports circles, including Federer, etc.), and the current price of basic models exceeds one million yuan. Even millions of dollars, but still make rich people flock to it, especially celebrities and internet celebrities.
Is this example highly similar to BAYC? It can be said that in today's luxury goods, the "community attribute" (who is bringing the goods) has gradually replaced the "blood attribute", and when wearing Richard Mille, you have to "inadvertently" roll up your sleeves to show people , We are not like Federer who can always wave his arms under the spotlight of the stadium. It is much easier and more fluid to change the BAYC avatar.
So, let’s talk about why brands are issuing NFTs and everyone is buying NFTs: Giants are afraid of falling behind and being defeated by new things; new rich people who make profits in Web3 need to show their social identities; old rich people in Web1 and Web2 need a dialogue Entry point for the new generation.
Two days ago, when a Web3 investor talked to me about a Crypto-related project that the Web2 team started up again, they saw that their deck team introduced monkeys and said:
I can't help but sigh, this is the legendary Web3 identity.
Some media released NFT is young people's "gambling stone" and other eye-catching content. It is true that we are always using the old reference to compare the new world, but the development of the Internet and the business world is the last thing to "seek the sword". You want to understand it, then you should understand it first.
Of course, the floor price of BAYC exceeding 100 ETH is already unattainable for most people, and BAYC is only 10,000 after all. But there are still more fresh and interesting series being produced, and the holders themselves also determine the ceiling of this IP. The new story has just begun, and more narrators are needed to participate in it. After participating, you will have unexpected gains.
