Campaign Profile

Producer Qing Fan, who oversees content investment, coproductions and partnerships at Chinese streamer Tencent Video’s animation development & production centre, explores the company’s strategy for young adults, as it adapts games and webnovels into new series for Mipcom.

What success in the YA market has Tencent had in China?

Our Cartoon Channel has been an amazing success and is somewhere that animation for tweens and young adults is thriving. Our strong slate of animation productions for this audience has proved hugely popular in China, where Tencent Video is now the leading platform for teen and YA animation. By 2023, 56 original shows had been launched on the Cartoon Channel, and our significant portfolio also includes properties that have been developed from well-known and successful webnovels and video games. We offer diversified genres for a variety of viewers and a vast wealth of content which we feel would also be highly appealing to a wider global audience.

What does the data from Cartoon Channel reveal about the teen/YA audience?

It shows that this audience still has a great appetite for viewing if you can offer them content that’s on their wavelength and taps into what’s important to them. We work hard to produce engaging contemporary content featuring characters and stories that will appeal to teens and young adults and feel relevant to them. We also create breathtaking visuals that will capture their attention and their imaginations.

What is your strategy for reaching the YA audience outside China?

It’s really very similar to reaching our domestic audience: provide quality content with appealing characters, engaging and relevant storylines, and dynamic visuals to create impact. Regardless of location, this age group shares many ideas and emotions, so we incorporate global values into all our content, giving it widespread international appeal.

What shows are you launching at Mipcom for the YA market?

Honor of Kings (13×20’) is a 3D adventure/fantasy series based on the world’s most played multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game. Bringing the mysterious Honor of Kings world to life, the show consists of three chapters, each featuring one of the game’s most popular heroes: LiBai, Kai and Marco Polo. Through their exciting stories, the show inspires the audience to explore what makes a hero from the three perspectives of beauty, love and curiosity.

Lord of the Mysteries: The Clown (13×35’) is a 2D adventure/fantasy series adapted from the hugely popular webnovel series. Set in a stylish, steampunk vision of Victorian London, it tells the story of an ordinary boy who transforms into a series of extraordinary characters, immersing viewers in a lavish odyssey of historical adventure.

How are you dealing with the issue that YAs are watching less TV?

We recognise that there are so many different possibilities nowadays for their leisure time so it’s about standing out and giving them something they really want. At Tencent, our platform gives us instant feedback and insight from our subscribers about our shows and also what kind of content they are looking for now – whether that’s a particular genre, storyline or type of protagonist, or providing shorter shows and seasons to reflect how they are consuming content nowadays. We can respond rapidly and flexibly to create winning content that reflects their interests – such as gaming and webnovels becoming more common sources of content.

Recognising kids are glued to their phones, we create content that works on their chosen platforms and can even offer extra content around a show to add value and give them more reasons and opportunities to engage.

What is the secret to making successful TV from video games?

You must keep the ethos of the game, its themes and key elements, while ensuring it is strongly narrative-driven, given that you lose the interactivity that propels the story forward in the game format. You want it to work as an immersive viewing experience while also giving a feel of what it is like when you’re playing it, so gamers will recognise it as the game they love while non-gamers will also enjoy its visuals and adventures.

For our production Honor of Kings, we have achieved this with faithful and rich representations of the characters, their plots, story arcs and emotions. The game itself is very cinematic and the gorgeous visuals translate beautifully to an animated series, its universal emotions and connecting narratives lifting the veil off the vibrant Honour of Kings world.

How important are webnovels to Tencent’s production strategy?

Given the huge and continuing growth in the market for web fiction – particularly in Asia – it makes sense for us to tap into webnovels for our content. They have massive existing fanbases so we know we are giving viewers something that they like, as the characters, storylines and universes already exist and have been tested and proved popular – which also helps to speed up the process. There are some exceptional talents working in this field and it is exciting to work together to bring their creativity to animated life.

A couple of our latest shows are Lord of the Mysteries: The Clown, a 2D adventure/fantasy series adapted from the hugely popular webnovel series set in Victorian London; and Apocalypse of all Races, a science-fiction series adapted from the urban web novel.

What shows for other demographics are you unveiling in Cannes?

We have some fantastic, visually stunning shows for YA and older kids, along with adult animation fans generally. Ling Long Mountain (10×15’) is a 2D adventure/fantasy series in which monsters, mages and manipulators collide as a down-and-out mage and an enigmatic young boy form an unlikely alliance to take on the dark forces of evil in accursed Ling Long Mountain – a dangerous world full of evil spirits.

Apocalypse of all Races (26×15’), a science-fiction series adapted from the urban webnovel, tells of a huge crisis faced by the human race as Earth is invaded by monsters from another dimension. Can Su Yu’s mysterious scripture help him awake the power to face the coming apocalypse?

Stimulating and creative, 2D animated anthology film series Taisu Project (1×21’ & 1×33’ & 2×16’) features four interlinked science-fiction stories about war by acclaimed directors Shinichiro Watanabe, Shuuhei Morita, Li Wei and Weng Ming

Skygate (10×15’) is a 2D sci-fi adventure with a strong female hero. Bai is the holder of the Dragon Core, one of the Twelve Divine Cores of the Tianyan Kingdom – the strongest weapons in the world – yet people doubt whether she is qualified for the role. As she travels to the Blue Moon Kingdom, she faces a battle of wits and courage in a thrilling life-and-death competition with its leader, Duan.

On a more humorous note, The Loud Inn (16×5’) is a stop-motion comedy series about two sisters who take over a mysterious inn.

And we are still working on producing attractive and engaging content for younger kids including shows with international copro partners such as The Creature Cases (with Sony Pictures Television Kids), Supertato (with BBC Studios), Coop Troop (with Sixteen South, France Television and Mikros) and Shasha & Milo (with Banijay Kids & Family).

How has the global economic downturn impacted the animation business?

When there is less money to go around, quality becomes even more important whether that’s to broadcasters buying in shows or to viewers who might be paying subscriptions to watch. I think production companies are focusing on fewer shows, but looking for IPs that potentially have longevity, global appeal and commercial attraction.

How is AI changing the animation business?

Obviously, it is going to have an effect, as it is in so many other businesses and various aspects of our lives, but it’s still early days when it comes to assessing its impact. If it can help with some of the more time-consuming and laborious aspects of production then great, but I think there’ll always be a demand for talented and creative animators.