As part of Chinese culture and entertainment group Yuewen’s globalization drive, the first Global IP Awards ceremony held in Singapore on Monday was broadcast on Tencent Video.
Yuewen develops intellectual property (IP) mainly based on online literature. Known for pioneering the paid reading model in China’s online literature industry, it has become one of the most popular options for writers looking to make a living from online novels. His monthly active users across all platforms exceed 200 million. Its international platform, Her WebNovel, has been accessed more than 230 million times since its launch in 2017.
Works across cultural production fields such as animation, film, and games won the Yuewen Global IP Awards. There were a total of 21 categories, including “Most Anticipated Animated Works,” “Most Influential Animated Characters,” and “Outstanding Writers of the Year.” Global distribution deals have already been signed for nearly 70% of his award-winning IP.
Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability is one of the Best Pictures of the Year winners. This fantasy revenge story attracted his second-highest number of readers among Chinese online novels translated by WebNovel last year.
More than 11 million users on Tencent Video are excited about the second season of “Joy of Life,” one of the “most anticipated animated features.” The excitement for the latest time-travel historical drama isn’t limited to viewers. Disney has already acquired the rights to distribute the series outside of China. This popular show is based on the novel of the same name by Mao Ni, published by Yuewen.
Xiao Yan, the main character of “Battle in the Sky” and a martial arts guru, has been called one of the “most influential adapted characters.” The character currently appears in original novels, television series, and video games. In late 2023, Yuewen began distributing his version of the game around the world. The number of new players in Southeast Asia increased by 118% quarter-on-quarter in the last quarter of this year.
Through the award ceremony, Yuewen CEO and President Hou Xiaonan aimed to increase the global influence of Yuewen’s original IP. Over the past two decades, China’s online literature industry has been at the forefront of technological and business innovation, with many Chinese IPs captivating audiences around the world.
Mr. Hou joined Yuewen in 2020. He is also the vice president of platform and content at Tencent, the global technology and entertainment giant that is the parent company of Yuewen. Since assuming his role at Yuewen, Mr. Hou has made his IP a top priority, collaborating with his global partners to adapt web novels into animation, comics, movies, games, television, his series, and merchandise. We are building a comprehensive ecosystem and industrial chain to During his tenure, accelerating globalization became Yuewen’s strategic direction.
Under his direction, various adaptations of Yuewen’s original work have been produced, including “Soul Land,” “Battle Through the Heavens,” “The King’s Avatar,” “Joy of Life,” and “My Heroic Husband.” I did.
This mature IP ecosystem contributes to Yuewen’s popularity among content creators. Because content creators can not only find an audience for their writing, but also maximize the value of their work.
By the end of 2023, WebNovel had published 3,800 translated Chinese web novels, an increase of 31% over the previous year. Approximately 410,000 authors around the world have published over 620,000 original works on his WebNovel, which has been viewed a total of 230 million times.
Yuewen also partners with creative teams in the US, UK, India, Japan and Singapore to develop original IP for global markets, applying the same business model used for Chinese IP. For example, “My Vampire System”, written by British author JKSmanga and published on WebNovel, has been translated into six of his languages, and has also been made into audiobooks and comic versions.
In 2022, the first Chinese web novel will be added to the British Library’s collection. Of the 16 works, all were originally published by Yuewen.