Major IP Events in China in 2022

In 2022, many impressive things happened. In terms of IP, although there are not many new and excellent IPs in 2022 due to various factors, there are still great breakthroughs in other aspects. In this regard, this article sorts out and summarizes the 17 major events of Chinese IP in 2022, hoping to help you.

Compared with 2021, a prosperous year with good IPs emerging from time to time, 2022 is a bleak year. Due to the increasingly strict control of the epidemic and the depression of cultural tourism and cultural industries, there are indeed not many new excellent IPs.

However, in 2022, new technologies and trends represented by AI, Metaverse and web3 have made great breakthroughs and made up for the shortcomings.

Our IP Fried Rice team has sorted out and summarized the major Chinese IP events in 2022.

1. Virtual Teresa Teng appears again, setting off a new wave of high-simulation digital humans

At a certain satellite TV station's New Year's Eve concert that opened in 2022, a completely super-realistic Teresa Teng appeared on stage, sang many famous songs, and sang duet with real singer Zhou Shen in the same time and space, which caused a sensation across the entire network and the country, and also pushed the hyper-realistic virtual people that emerged in 2021 to a peak.

Before this, although digital virtual people such as AYAYI, Ling, and Liu Yexi were popular, they were only pictures and short videos made in advance. There were no highly realistic virtual people like Teresa Teng who could perform live in real time. This shows the highest technology that can be achieved at present, and also reveals the arrival of an era of live broadcast + highly realistic virtual people.

In fact, this is not the first time that a virtual Teresa Teng has appeared, but this time her appearance just happens to be combined with the craze for the metaverse and virtual humans, so the impact it brings will be quite far-reaching...

2. Bing Dwen Dwen is so popular, it is not just a Winter Olympics mascot

In February 2022, the Winter Olympics opened in China. This Winter Olympics created a super popular IP: the mascot Bing Dwen Dwen.

Bing Dwen Dwen can be said to be the most popular mascot among the people in all major sporting events or activities held in the country, and long queues have appeared in various places to buy her.

Some people attribute the popularity of Bing Dwen Dwen to external factors, such as scarcity, the Winter Olympics and national endorsement. These are superficial. Not every mascot with a national and Winter Olympics background can become popular. The vast majority are just lukewarm .

Why is Bing Dwen Dwen so popular? In addition to being the national treasure of the Winter Olympics mascot, its chubby, silly, cute, and various socially awkward looks are equally important, which makes it have memes similar to super IPs such as Kumamon...

Moreover, it is very convenient for people to imitate and recreate. Many pictures that are popular on the Internet are taken by ordinary people and unknown authors. Even if you use two oranges together, you can imitate Bing Dwen Dwen.

In short, the silly temperament that easily stimulates the subconscious, the innovative appearance that is easy to imitate, and the genes of the national treasure panda, these seemingly simple and popular meme characteristics are the source code for Bing Dwen Dwen's real popularity.

3. The brand metaverse opens: Lanxiang, Nayuki and Starbucks

Starting from January 2022, many brand metaverse actions have emerged throughout the year, from video advertising, to digital collection marketing, to the construction of the brand metaverse, all of which combine brands, IPs and metaverse scenes, and various creative ideas emerge in an endless stream.

Here are just a few of the most interesting and iconic brands.

The first one is Lanxiang Technical School, which has become a national meme with its excavator. It launched a creative and interesting short film, which was jokingly called the birth of the Lanxiang metaverse.

Lanxiang's short film seamlessly combines excavators with games and two-dimensional culture. It is very imaginative and has an explosive sense of metaverse space. It is very different from Lanxiang's previous image style and fully reflects the breakthrough of a traditional old brand under the wave of the metaverse.

Another famous case is Nayuki's Tea, which launched a "Beautiful Virtual Shareholder" event on June 30, 2022, upgrading member points to Nayuki coins, which can be exchanged for gifts and can also be used to buy and sell virtual stocks based on Nayuki's stock market situation. It also created a metaverse Nayuki Park for virtual shareholders, allowing players to go treasure hunting.

Therefore, Naixue upgraded from a new consumer concept brand to a blockchain, web3, and metaverse brand.

As expected, Naixue's action caused great controversy, and Naixue soon withdrew the activity and removed the product from the shelves.

In IP Egg Fried Rice’s opinion, this action was indeed a little premature and somewhat beyond the level that the current market can accept. It is natural to remove the product from the shelves. But no matter what, Nayuki’s Tea’s action still shows the infinite possibilities of the future brand metaverse.

The "Third Space - Odyssey Plan" launched by Starbucks abroad is more complete and comprehensive. It not only issues NFTs for membership rights and completely converts traditional points into digital assets, but also has user co-creation communities and various third space activity plans, as well as a series of joint artist activities.

Since Starbucks operates overseas, it can go further and more thoroughly on digital assets and web3. If the Odyssey Project develops smoothly, it will allow Starbucks to achieve dual-track operation: it is both a traditional commercial listed chain of coffee shops and a metaverse based on digital assets, in which users fully participate and own, rather than just a company.

4. Bored Ape influences China and changes the IP cooperation model

Starting from April 2022, from China Li Ning to Greenland Real Estate, etc., they have successively cooperated with the world-famous NFT-IP upstart Bored Ape to launch a series of new IP cooperation methods.

These include Li Ning's Bored Ape Fashion Sports Club, Greenland's Real Estate Club, Beurer Health Club, etc. These are not ordinary IP collaborations, but a web3 embryonic ecosystem that combines a series of developments such as communities and rights.

Li Ning + Bored Ape

Greenland + Bored Ape

Double Relaxation + Boredom Ape

And there is another very special thing, that is, Li Ning, Greenland and Beurer, by purchasing a certain numbered avatar of the BAYC series of Bored Ape, not only authorized it, but also owned it and obtained all the derivative development rights of this avatar.

In other words, brands do not need to go through tedious cooperation negotiations with the official company of Boring Ape as in traditional IP licensing. All they need to do is to buy a certain avatar on the market, and they will have the right to develop it, and can arrange various product designs, promotional activities and metaverse development on their own. It is that simple.

This subverts the traditional IP licensing model established by Disney. Therefore, each brand uses a certain Bored Ape that it has purchased to build its own community, club, etc., and become its own piece of land.

How long will this model last? What problems will it encounter in the future? All remain to be seen. However, in any case, this model has brought a lot of impact to IP cooperation around the world and even in China, and has triggered many subsequent IP NFT issuances to serve as references and models.

5. Domestic digital storage explosion

Under the impact of the overseas NFT boom, there has been a huge explosion of digital treasure platforms and digital treasure IPs in China since March and April 2022. From the entry of large platforms such as Jingtan and Huanhe, the rise of emerging startups such as IBOX, Weiyi Art, Lingjing Digital Treasure, and the entry of national units such as Xinhua News Agency, digital treasures have quickly reached their peak.

Although formal second-hand transactions were not allowed, the Dunhuang Flying Apsaras and other items released in the early days were sold at sky-high prices in second-hand transactions. Various innovative ways of playing, which were later considered to be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, emerged one after another, constantly attracting a younger generation of buyers to join the market.

At the same time, the combination of brand marketing and digital collections has also reached a peak. Various brands have added digital collections to their marketing activities and cooperated with various artists and IPs, forming a flourishing situation.

IP Danchaofan predicted in an article in June that the number of domestic digital storage platforms will soon exceed 1,500. This view has been shared by many people, who believe that the number will be not just 1,500, but 2,000 or even 3,000.

An era of digital prosperity that lacked an underlying infrastructure suddenly arrived, but soon began to decline sharply.

6. The domestic digital storage market is in decline

The decline of Shuzo came so quickly, just as sudden and unstoppable as its rise a few months ago.

Shortly after we wrote in June that the number of Shuzang platforms was expected to exceed 1,500, Shuzang began to experience a major decline starting in July, and this decline was an all-round retreat.

Starting from July, various digital storage platforms began to find that sales were not good. The closure of Huanhe was just one of the most obvious events. More profound declines occurred everywhere. By August, we found that most of those who wanted to open digital storage platforms had stopped participating. The number of closed digital storage platforms began to exceed the number of newly opened digital storage platforms. In September, the closure wave continued. In October and November, some digital storage platforms that originally had a large number of users also fell into a shortage of purchases and traffic.

In fact, the reasons for the decline of domestic digital storage are very simple, which are two points: one is that the underlying architecture has natural defects and the secondary market always lacks legal liquidity; the second reason is that there are really not enough leeks, the number of new users is decreasing, and old users are also withdrawing or no longer purchasing.

Both of these reasons are caused by the fact that the digital collection market is far from being reasonable, so the previous craze was just artificial.

But IP Egg Fried Rice is still optimistic that this craze that lasted for nearly a year and has finally receded will not only leave behind a mess, but also many very valuable attempts, and these values ​​will eventually bear fruit in the near future.

By December, IP Danchaofan had come into contact with several new digital collection or digital IP platforms and discovered many new models that were different from the previous ones of cutting leeks, which paid more attention to long-term development, community, value and rights.

Therefore, Lao Xiaoge is convinced that in 2023, digital treasures will realize value development in a new way, which will be better than in the past . At the same time, the latest news is that the China Digital Trading Platform will be launched on January 1, 2023.

7. The Lone Warrior: IP Song of the Year

After talking about the huge impact of digital collection in 2022, let’s turn our attention back to some specific influential IPs.

If there is a song that can be called the IP song of the year, it must be "The Lone Ranger".

Since April 2022, "Lone Warrior" has become a ubiquitous song, with countless cover versions, spreading across the entire Internet, floating on the streets and alleys, and in various performances.

The popularity of "Lone Hero" goes far beyond the meaning of League of Legends. It reflects a very obvious spiritual need of the times. People from all walks of life who are in deep trouble generally need a song to represent their own voices, and this song of mortal heroes full of courage has naturally taken on this mission.

The heroes portrayed in the song are actually thousands, even hundreds of millions, of ordinary fighters. It shows the bravery and tenacity shown by ordinary people in the face of tremendous difficulties, and conveys the indomitable spiritual strength and infinite courage in the face of setbacks.

Not only adults love this song, a survey shows that "The Lone Warrior" has also become the most popular song among students and children, so it is well-deserved to be the "Song of the Year" in 2022.

8. Panda Duck is a big hit

On May 21, 2022, KFC began selling this year's Children's Day meal package. In the traditional "meal × toy" combination, there are three different toys, namely Pikachu Music Box, Pikachu Music Box and Pikachu Picnic Kettle.

As a result, the Psyduck music box became a huge hit, and all the Psyducks were "sold out" on the day of its release. One consumer went to four KFC stores on May 21, and was told that they were out of stock. At the same time, the Psyduck music box quickly appeared on second-hand trading websites, and the price was quickly raised.

The Psyduck Music Box has become so popular that it has become a trend all over the Internet. From Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, to WeChat Moments and Video Accounts, the Psyduck Music Box is sweeping the Internet.

The resurgence of Psyduck, an old IP, has a very simple underlying logic: people have a huge amount of emotions that need to be vented, and Psyduck is very convenient for expressing people's emotions through secondary creation.

The Psyduck music box is extremely convenient for people to create secondary works: just find two pieces of paper, write down what you want to express, stick them together, and then show your right hand first, then your left hand, and record it as a video. The pain in your heart will be relieved, and your hurt mood will be healed in a certain way. And Psyduck is cute, making the expression harmless and worry-free.

The first few short videos that went viral were of Psyduck with two stickers stuck on its two duck paws. The words on them were all related to "nucleic acid test, go out". As the music started, the cute duck began to swing its hands up and down, and then used its right hand and then its left hand to reveal the contents on the paper, which quickly excited people who had been suppressed for a long time and gave them a strong sense of emotional release. Naturally, they couldn't help but like and forward the videos, and they wanted to own one and make one themselves.

As a result, countless Psyduck short videos were created, and there was even a service that allowed people who couldn't get Psyduck toys to make short videos on their behalf.

9. The ugly and cute hit of Shenma Lai Le

This is a bronze galloping horse cultural and creative IP product from the Gansu Provincial Museum, known as "The God Horse is Coming". It does look ugly and cute, and has also triggered various complaints on the Internet -

The biggest feature of this cultural relic derivative design is that it breaks the limitations of ordinary cultural tourism design and amplifies the characteristics of the original cultural relics to the extreme, making it extremely humorous, friendly and humorous.

In fact, the horse in the classic cultural relic Horse Stepping on Flying Swallow is originally like this. From the side, it looks heroic, but from the front, it is grinning and crooked, and the smile is also very magical. So this outstanding design is actually faithful to the style of the original .

To quote the original words of the person in charge of the Cultural and Creative Center of Gansu Provincial Museum; "Everyone was familiar with the side view of the bronze galloping horse before, but in fact, from the front, it is grinning, and its mouth is a little crooked. When we designed it, we highlighted its front image, magnified the inclination of its head and mouth, and added teeth, making it look naughty and cute, and very cute. You will want to laugh when you look at it! At the same time, we added interaction between the horse and Feiyan, making them look like a pair of good friends."

Simply put, it takes the original concept of "I'm ugly, but I'm cute" to the extreme, so it became one of the rare IP hits in 2022.

10. Love, Death and Robots 3: The Shock of Gibaro

Love, Death & Robots Season 3 was originally a foreign IP work, but because of the great sensation caused by Gibaro in it in China, especially in the animation production circle, it has almost generated universal worship and influence, so it must be included in the annual IP event.

This is a work that is generally considered by people in the animation circle to be the pinnacle of animation production that has absolutely broken the highest ceiling: Love, Death and Robots 3's "JIBARO Jibaro" , which even the old man Ge was fascinated and dumbfounded.

"Jibaro" seems to be telling a fantasy story about love, but it is full of extremely rich cultural allusions. The relationship between the characters in it, in the director's own words, is a relationship between predators that is closer to carnal desire.

This is an animation that combines two-dimensional and three-dimensional senses to the extreme of reality. Moreover, before the feature film editing, the animators did not set up any shots, and most of the animations were produced in a 360-degree perspective. They usually complete the action on one side first, then go around to the back, and finally check the coordination of the entire action from all angles.

In short, whether in terms of aesthetics, culture, technology or production methods, Jibaro has reached an unprecedented and unattainable height.

11. Walking Alone on the Moon, a Milestone in Comic Adaptation

During the summer vacation of 2022, a science fiction film "The Lone Moon" starring Shen Teng and Ma Li was released, and the final box office reached 3.1 billion yuan.

But few people know that this is actually a movie adapted from a comic book. The original work comes from the Korean comic of the same name. Therefore, this movie has a special significance: it has created unprecedented success for domestic comic-adapted movies .

Domestic movies have always been either adapted from novels, famous events, or created entirely by the creators, but there are very few that have been adapted from comics into live-action movies and achieved such a huge success.

In fact, after the movie was released, many of the scenes that were talked about a lot were thought to be from Shen Teng and the Mahua team, but in fact most of them were from the original comics themselves... It was precisely because of the humor and ruffian spirit of the original comics that Shen Teng was able to give full play to his role, allowing comedy and science fiction to blend harmoniously.

Therefore, as a combination of comics and live-action movies, "Lone Moon" is also a milestone in the development of animation IP.

12. Light Chaser’s Animation Universe of Fengshen

In 2022, Light Chaser launched an animated blockbuster: Yang Jian, which is part of the Light Chaser's Fengshen animation universe.

As the most important domestic animated blockbuster in 2022, it is only natural that it will be included in the annual IP events.

However, as someone who has personally watched this animated blockbuster in the cinema, I still have an indescribable feeling of regret.

On the one hand, the production of this animated blockbuster is indeed extremely exquisite and imaginative. The Yang Jian’s ship that appeared at the opening was truly wonderful, and a futuristic cyberpunk fantasy city also emerged. Yang Jian’s character was also very interesting and moving at the beginning.

But, to be honest, this cartoon really doesn't seem to be made by one director or one production team. It seems more like it was produced and spliced ​​together by multiple directors and multiple production teams. This is my very real feeling.

The most obvious sense of collage is that the scenes and character traits of the movie are constantly changing, especially the scenes in the first half of the movie, which do not appear at all in the climax part. It is more like two different movies: the front is the cyberpunk prodigal son's journey, and the back is the oriental fantasy with a sense of immortality and chivalry. This is the part that makes me feel most collaged.

Therefore, the release of the Yang Jian animated film is both a major IP event in 2022 and a regret among major events.

13. Paper Dog Craze among College Students

This is also something worth remembering in the 2022 IP event: in the second half of the year, college students across the country showed a craze for creating paper dogs...

In fact, the bottom line is that the continuous closure of universities across the country in 2022 has really made young people annoyed. The rich campus life in the past is gone, and the youthful vitality and creativity that college students should have will naturally produce a creative way of expression, which is the source of the popularity of "paper dogs".

If we think about it from another perspective, adults who are exhausted physically and mentally also need to raise pets to heal their hearts...

So I really think that this paper dog event reflects the positive, optimistic and breakthrough-seeking spirit of contemporary college students, making life interesting and blooming through sharing design and performance art.

14. The Three-Body Animation is released

The long-awaited animated version of The Three-Body Problem will finally be released in December 2022, which can certainly be included in the annual IP events.

In my opinion, it has reached a certain peak level of domestic animation, with a clear plot line and good storyboards, worthy of a blockbuster, and faithful enough to the original work without any magical changes. As for why only the Guzheng Operation is left from the first part starting from the second part, it is understandable.

But judging from the feedback from all parties, there are mixed reviews. Many people are not very satisfied with the picture quality, and there are also various shortcomings that have been pointed out.

This only goes to show that everyone has been looking forward to The Three-Body Animation for too long and too high. As a result, it is really difficult to fully meet people's high expectations, unless every frame of the entire show reaches the level of Love, Death and Robots 3: Gibaro, which is difficult to achieve under the current circumstances.

15. The Fall of Avatar 2

Another long-awaited film, Avatar 2, will also be released in December 2022.

Also like the Three-Body animation, it received mixed reviews, and the general response was that the plot was mediocre and the visual effects were overwhelming.

I went to the cinema to watch the movie as soon as possible. In fact, I thought the plot was okay, but there were no big surprises in the story. However, the visual effects and the ability to construct the underwater world of Pandora are still jaw-dropping.

Therefore, the biggest regret is the timing of its release. The domestic epidemic is like a super tsunami, sweeping across everyone. Therefore, as long as there is a little bit of lack of word of mouth, it is enough to make many people prefer to endure the symptoms at home rather than go to the cinema to watch it. This point has been infinitely magnified at this special moment. This is the real reason why Avatar 2 did not perform well at the domestic box office, which is also a pity.

In any case, as a viewer who has watched the IMAX version, Lao Xiaoge still recommends that after your symptoms have healed, it is worth going to the IMAX theater to watch this masterpiece that has been in the making for more than ten years. Firstly, the production is really worth the price of the ticket, and secondly, the story is not as bad as people say.

In short, it is quite a pity that an IP masterpiece that has been absent for more than ten years has disappeared at such a special moment.

16. AI creation shakes up the global creative industry

In fact, of all the things that happened in 2022, the one that will have the greatest impact on future IP creation must be the stunning debut of AI creation.

Anyone who has seen the results of AI creations will be shocked, as they are completely beyond expectations.

We once thought that AI would first make manual laborers unemployed, but now it seems that AI may directly make intellectual laborers unemployed.

These are all created by AI, and what people need to do is,

Just enter the keywords and keep revising and optimizing them.

My basic prediction about the impact of AI is this:

• AI may not necessarily have an impact on the true original creators, and AI may even become a good assistant to the original creators.
• But at the same time, AI will have a huge impact on the work of producers, illustrators and other people in the IP creative industry. It is still unknown how far-reaching this impact will be and how much industry changes it will cause, but it will definitely be very serious.

Will humans be extinct due to AI in the future? It is very likely...

17. National digital currency and IP avatars

Most people may not know about the last annual IP event, but Lao Xiaoge believes that it is of great significance and should not only be included but also be the finale event.

That is, IP avatars have been added to the legal digital currency APP officially issued by the country. This is an important measure to encourage people to obtain the national digital currency.

This shows that the country's digital currency strategy has begun to integrate with IP , making it more humane and market-oriented, and more user-oriented, to actively win people's love. This is a very simple, rare and important step.

The picture below is the national digital currency with IP avatar that I obtained:

I first saw a group member sharing his national digital currency avatar in the IP Fried Rice reader group. I immediately downloaded the APP, exchanged for the national digital currency, selected an IP avatar, and took the initiative to become the owner of the national digital currency.

The future of the metaverse has infinite possibilities. As China's national digital currency, it certainly has huge room for development. Being able to actively embrace IP is a welcome step.

Here are the 17 major events in IP in 2022.

Author: Chen Ge Li, WeChat public account: IP Fried Rice (ID: IPCOOK)