BAT Digital Collection "Three Kingdoms Kill": 13 platforms face off from a distance, IP competition becomes increasingly fierce

Author: Liao Yu, Chain New (ID: ChinaBlockchainNews)

Developing digital collectibles is becoming a trend.

According to incomplete statistics from "Chain New," the number of users participating in digital collectibles in China has exceeded ten million. Its popularity is comparable to the previously booming blockchain games and DeFi, attracting a large number of companies to enter the market. Currently, the number of digital collectibles platforms has surpassed 370.

Based on the characteristics of the companies behind these platforms, they can be divided into three tiers. Most platforms are in the third tier, while a few, which have early layouts and support from capital and users, are in the second tier, such as Digital Collectibles China and NVWA. The digital collectibles platforms under major internet companies like BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), which have no secondary market and strong safety compliance, are in the first tier.

According to "Chain New," among the three BAT companies, Alibaba was the first to explore the digital collectibles field, launching digital collectibles auctions on its Alibaba Auction platform on May 20, 2021. Tencent followed closely, launching the TME digital collectibles platform in August of the same year and releasing the digital collectible for Hu Yanbin's "Monk." Baidu, on the other hand, only began exploring the digital collectibles field in 2022.

Under the halo of traditional internet giants, nearly a year has passed, and the progress of BAT in the digital collectibles field varies:

Alibaba has gradually formed a platform matrix centered around Whale Exploration, with Alibaba Auction, Tmall, and Taopiaopiao as auxiliary platforms. Recently, Alibaba's big entertainment division also launched a new digital collectibles platform called "Squid." Tencent relies on its strong copyright library to launch the independent app "Fantasy Core," while Tencent News, Yuewen Group, Tencent Music, and Tencent Animation have each launched their own digital collectibles platforms. Baidu appears to be lagging, with only the Super Chain digital collectibles embedded in the Baidu App and Xiaodu App, and the recently launched independent app "Interstellar Pocket" still in beta testing and not yet publicly available.

The three leading internet giants, 13 digital collectibles platforms, each with its own characteristics. Does BAT's existing position and advantages help them conquer the digital collectibles field? What kind of impact will the journey of digital collectibles bring to them? When the secondary market generates in bulk, can they maintain their consistent advantages?

Alibaba: Evolving from Alipay, Driving Big Entertainment

In 2021, as digital collectibles exploded in popularity in China, Alibaba was particularly keen and launched its first round of digital collectibles business on the Alibaba Auction platform on May 20 of the same year.

"One-off transactions" are difficult to sustain; digital collectibles trading requires stable exposure windows. Alibaba returned to the fertile ground of Alipay and launched the Alipay Fan Grain mini-program on June 23, 2021.

As the birthplace of Alibaba's blockchain business, Ant Group behind Alipay may be the most reliable choice for the digital collectibles business.

In 2015, Alibaba chose to establish a blockchain research group within Ant Financial and gradually developed a blockchain ecosystem through eight major channels: patents, public welfare, traceability, healthcare, rental, finance, law, and BaaS. Alipay and Ant Group have immersed themselves in the blockchain concept during this development process, providing fertile ground for the growth of digital collectibles.

Alibaba Auction and Alipay Fan Grain provide relatively stable exposure windows, and the combination of these two channels has shared the business of Alibaba's digital collectibles market, working together for more than half a year.

During this stage, Alipay Fan Grain not only collaborated with well-known IPs such as Dunhuang, White Snake 2, Soul Street, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, The Awakening Era, and Feng Zikai, but also obtained authorization for several major events, launching a series of digital collectibles for the Hangzhou Asian Games and the first Beijing Marathon. Alibaba Auction also launched a large number of digital collectibles at this time, with the "Twelve Zodiac Heads" and "Oracle Bone Script" series receiving considerable attention.

With Alipay and Alibaba Auction's digital collectibles thriving, other sectors are also not to be outdone, with Tmall taking the brand collaboration route of "buying physical goods and getting collectibles," while Taopiaopiao is following the film and television route.

During the Double Eleven shopping festival in 2021, Tmall collaborated with eight major brands, including Wuliangye, Burberry, Kiehl's, and Procter & Gamble, to launch digital collectibles, and subsequently launched the "Tmall Digital Collectibles" subcategory within the Taobao and Tmall Apps, concentrating on releasing digital collectibles from brands and artists, with nearly a hundred launched so far.

Taopiaopiao's digital collectibles subcategory collaborated with well-known authors such as Liu Cixin, launching a series of digital collectibles like "The Wandering Earth," "The Way of the Dao," and "Only This Green," following a niche cultural route.

As the domestic digital collectibles market gradually expands, although Alibaba has multiple platforms such as Alipay Fan Grain, Alibaba Auction, Tmall Digital Collectibles, and Taopiaopiao, the scattered entry points are not conducive to gathering collectors, making it difficult to bear market enthusiasm, urgently needing a new platform entity.

Thus, on December 25, 2021, the independent app Whale Exploration, based on Ant Chain technology, was officially launched, quickly releasing its first digital collectible, the "Journey to the West" series, which received widespread acclaim.

Whale Exploration evolved from Alipay Fan Grain. On December 10, 2021, Alipay Fan Grain announced that it would launch an independent digital collectibles app, not only structurally separating from Alipay but also enhancing functionality, leading many users to migrate to the new platform.

The next tricky issue is IP.

In the early stages of Whale Exploration, the digital collectibles issued, such as the "Journey to the West" series and "Three Kingdoms Hero Manual," mostly came from public IPs like "Journey to the West" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," with hardly any self-owned IPs in sight.

This also led Whale Exploration to quickly pivot towards museum collections and artist collaborations half a month after its launch, rapidly releasing over 50 digital collectibles, including the Terracotta Army Museum series and the spear of King Wu of Yue, attempting to stabilize users with high-quality and high-frequency digital collectibles.

The effect was significant. From January 21 to 24, 2022, the number of Whale Exploration users grew from 2 million to 5 million, with an average daily increase of 1 million.

At this point, Alibaba formed a digital collectibles landscape led by Whale Exploration, supported by Alibaba Auction, Taopiaopiao, and Tmall Digital Collectibles. After this, Alibaba's big entertainment division also joined in.

On May 17, 2022, Whale Exploration's official WeChat account announced that it would soon launch a new digital collectibles platform called "Squid," operated by Alibaba Pictures' subsidiary Alibaba Fish.

According to "Chain New," Alibaba Fish has established deep cooperation with institutions such as the National Museum of China, the Louvre, Dunhuang Museum, the Summer Palace, and the Terracotta Army Museum, giving it a strong advantage in IP accumulation.

Tencent: How big is the imagination of "showing copyrights"?

In the digital collectibles field, Tencent started later than Alibaba, and the release time of its Trust Chain was also later than Ant Chain. However, Tencent's copyright advantages in film and television (Tencent Video), animation (Tencent Animation), music (Tencent Music), and literature (Yuewen Group) are evident and reflected in its development in the digital collectibles field. Therefore, horizontally speaking, Tencent's exploration of digital collectibles is not slower than Alibaba's.

On July 30, 2021, QQ Music took the lead, launching the "TME Digital Collectibles" feature page, and on August 20, it released the first digital collectible reservation—Hu Yanbin's 20th Anniversary Black Vinyl Digital Collectible. It later launched a musician program, deeply binding with musicians such as Zhang Chu, Zhou Chuanxiong, Moxi Zishi, Xiao Quan, and a small green onion to reserve more copyright resources.

Yuewen Group followed closely. On January 5, 2022, Yuewen Group announced the launch of the first digital collectible based on a web literature IP in China, "The Great Decree of the Night Watchman," with a limited edition of 2,000 copies priced at 158 yuan, available on the Qidian Reading App, officially released on January 8.

The collectible content included not only the popular web literature "The Great Decree of the Night Watchman" but also randomly included handwritten signatures and messages from the author, selling out immediately upon launch.

On January 26 of the same month, Tencent News and Science and Technology Daily, in collaboration with China Aerospace Shenzhou Media, initiated the "2022, Space Treasure Hunt" event, launching the "Tencent Digital Collectibles Museum" mini-program and introducing space-themed digital collectibles for the first time, using VR and mobile gravity sensing technology to create an interactive way for users to "search for treasures" in space, conveying New Year blessings from space to users.

Additionally, on April 20, 2022, Tencent Animation launched the "Ten-Year Limited Audio Commemorative Drawing Ticket" digital collectibles, totaling 10 types, including classic works from famous IPs such as "I Am Bai Xiaofei," "Fox Spirit Matchmaker," "Once Upon a Time There Was a Spirit Sword Mountain," "One Person Below," "Sister and Science," "Iron Maiden Steel Soldier," "Spirit Princess," "Martial Arts Peak," "Great King, Spare My Life," and "Unhealthy Relationships."

In comparison, whether it is Yuewen, Tencent Animation, or Tencent News, the digital collectibles from single business units each have their own specialties, unlike Alibaba's "mixed bag." However, these digital collectibles platforms are still immature; although there have been attempts, many high-quality IPs have not been fully developed, and the frequency and quantity of digital collectibles issued are unstable. In the future, they need to find their own paths to leverage their advantages.

However, as a major copyright holder, Tencent established an independent digital collectibles platform called "Fantasy Core" early on, operating in app form, with its first limited release of 300 audio "Thirteen Invitations" digital collectibles. This was a full four months ahead of Whale Exploration, which was established at the end of 2021.

In comparison to Whale Exploration, the number of digital collectibles released by Fantasy Core is somewhat lower, with single editions of the Dunhuang mural series and the Shenyang Palace Ruyi series ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 copies, and the total series issuance around ten thousand copies, making it appear thin compared to Whale Exploration's collectibles, which often exceed ten thousand copies for a single edition.

Perhaps due to the principle of scarcity, the average price of digital collectibles from Fantasy Core is generally higher than that of Whale Exploration. Of course, this is also aided by Tencent's high-quality copyright library and IP collaboration library.

According to statistics from "Chain New," the digital collectibles released by Fantasy Core include not only the national comic "Non-Human" with over 30 billion views, the highly-rated national comic IP "Fox Spirit Matchmaker" with a score of 9.7, and the classic game "The Legend of Sword and Fairy," but also art celebrities like Zhang Daqian and Qi Baishi. Even the collaborating parties include well-known institutions such as the Chinese Cultural Media New Cultural and Creative Platform, Burberry, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, and the Palace Museum, with collaborations with museums from Xi'an, Gansu, Hunan, Shanxi, and Shenyang.

Moreover, whether it is Tencent's 23rd anniversary or the Spring Festival, Tencent will output its own digital collectibles, distributing 72,000 23rd anniversary commemorative digital collectibles to employees and releasing 20,220 Spring Festival limited collectibles to the public, seemingly making every holiday a node for Tencent to output digital collectibles.

Baidu: Starting the latest, still exploring how to play

So far, Baidu does not have an independent digital collectibles app.

The reason is simple: it is currently difficult for digital collectibles to create a chemical reaction with Baidu's core strategy. Baidu's current core business directions are artificial intelligence and autonomous driving, neither of which are fertile ground for nurturing and developing digital collectibles.

Currently, Baidu's digital collectibles seem more like a way to stake territory.

On January 18, 2022, Baidu launched its first digital collectibles platform, "Baidu Super Chain Digital Collectibles," embedded within the Baidu App, releasing multiple Year of the Tiger Spring Festival collectible editions from January 22 to 31, with a large quantity and free of charge.

After this, Baidu also released over ten thousand Baidu Classmate series digital collectibles internally and a series of digital collectibles featuring endangered animals, Huang Bo Huang Dou Jun, and Talking Tom Cat, many of which received positive feedback.

According to statistics from "Chain New," since the launch of Baidu Super Chain Digital Collectibles, nearly 30 series of digital collectibles have been released, which is relatively slow compared to the simultaneous releases of Alibaba's Whale Exploration and Tencent's Fantasy Core.

On the other hand, on March 31, 2022, Xiaodu launched its first digital collectibles smart device, the "Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 Digital Collectibles Limited Edition." This device not only includes a smart screen but also comes with the special digital collectible "Tiger Leap Starry Sky" for the Year of the Tiger, with a total price of 899 yuan and a limited release of 5,000 pieces.

Seizing this opportunity, Xiaodu launched the "Xiaodu Exploration Digital Collectibles" platform on April 7, embedded within the Xiaodu App, and released over ten digital collectibles related to animals and plants, such as "Listening to the Qin," "The Little Prince," "White Lotus Butterfly," and "Strange Stone Narcissus," making the platform more diversified.

From Baidu Super Chain to Xiaodu Exploration, the number of digital collectibles launched by Baidu's two major digital collectibles platforms over the past six months has not been many, totaling around 50, showing a significant gap compared to platforms like Fantasy Core and Whale Exploration.

However, from last year's launch of Xirang to the developer conference, it is not difficult to see Baidu's interest in blockchain and the metaverse. It just seems challenging to find a suitable direction at the moment, which may be the fundamental reason why Baidu's digital collectibles are at the bottom among BAT.

At the same time, Baidu is also seeking new changes.

On May 18, 2022, the official WeChat account of Baidu Super Chain published a post stating that a new digital collectibles platform app called "Interstellar Pocket" would be launched soon, along with a download link for beta testing. However, as of the time of writing, Interstellar Pocket has not yet been opened to the public.