Piracy has become a stumbling block to the healthy development of the "cute economy"
"Moe Economy" has to say no to copycat products
□ Our reporter Han Dandong
□ Wang Xue, an intern of our newspaper
At present, with the support of the "Moe culture" such as cute pets, cartoons, and two dimensions, the "Moe Economy" has risen rapidly and has become a new economic format.
"Moe culture" first originated from Japanese animation and gradually formed an urban cultural trend.
After a large amount of capital investment, a large number of "Moe Culture" IPs were developed, and the productivity of the "Moe Economy" was continuously liberated. Together with the widespread dissemination of new media, the "Moe Economy" generated a developed industrial chain.
The so-called "Moe Economy" refers to the economic behavior that occurs when Moe series products are derived from "Moe Culture".
For example, the international cartoon image brand company Line Friends has developed a series of derivatives using the emoticon pack cartoon image of the chat tool "LINE". In five years, Line Friends has opened more than 160 offline stores and 12 online stores, covering 19 Countries and regions, the economic benefits are extremely considerable.
For another example, the Chongqing version of Peppa Pig has reached millions of clicks. Peppa has been nicknamed "a piglet that does not sell meat but still wins respect" by netizens, especially the "post-90s". Its "cute economy" The effect of "has been produced.
"Moe culture" has gradually become one of the important forces driving consumption.
It is reported that when the movie "Detective Pikachu" was released in 2019, the box office performed strongly.
As a very popular cartoon character Pikachu in the past 20 years, its property owner has earned more than US$90 billion through product sales and derivative licenses.
From "selling cute" to "moe", the "moe economy", as an emerging economic format, has grown rapidly.
However, the increasingly popular "Moe Economy", while meeting consumer needs, also exposed some problems, which urgently need to be regulated.
Moe culture meets psychological needs
Support the rapid rise of the cute economy
From mobile phone shells to snack packaging, from toy dolls to cat's claw cups, from web emoticons to daily necessities, a large number of products blessed by cute things are becoming more and more popular in the market.
"Moe economy" has quietly risen and become a new economic format.
And the origin of all this is "Moe culture".
Why is the magic of "Moe culture" so powerful?
Where does the attraction of the "cute culture", a lovely force that transcends gender and age, comes from?
The Austrian zoologist Konrad Chakarias Lorenz once put forward a theory describing that human beings generally have the instinctive emotions favoring "biological larvae", that is, "larval retention".
The commonality of larvae is cuteness, so it is human nature that people like everything that has the characteristics of larvae (big eyes, big head).
The "baby characteristics" of "cute things", such as big eyes, innocence, small and cute, cater to people's psychology.
Zhang Wei (pseudonym), who is engaged in information programming in Shenzhen, likes to collect all kinds of cute things.
He has collected 8 cat paw cups, and the room is full of pillows and sofa cushions printed with Pikachu and Peppa Pig patterns... "I like all cute things. After I came back from working for more than ten hours a day, I saw these Cute accessories can relieve stress, and why not spend money on things you like." Zhang Wei said.
In this regard, Zheng Ning, director of the Cultural Law Research Center and the Department of Law of the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China, said: “Moe culture has a strong decompression and decompression effect, which can meet the emotional needs of people under rapid work and life rhythm. Businessmen. It is precisely to seize the psychological demands of the people at the moment, and let the'sprout economy' take root and sprout quickly."
In Zheng Ning's view, the audience of "Moe Economy" is mainly "Generation Z" (people born between 1995 and 2009), who pursue spiritual rewards such as happiness and personalization in the consumption process, and are greatly influenced by animation and the second dimension. , "Moe Economy" is in line with their consumption philosophy.
With the rise of "Generation Z", domestic topics related to the consumption wave of "Generation Z" have also attracted attention.
According to incomplete statistics, the number of this group has reached 150 million people, showing a completely different consumption tendency from the previous generation: the pursuit of happiness in the consumption process and spiritual rewards such as personalization, they need companies to provide them with matching products and service.
"The'cute economy' has unearthed this kind of human needs, and then grasped this characteristic to meet people's needs. From the prosperous pets in the early years to the various cute things now, it is because It meets people's needs and is very popular." said Zhao Zhanzhu, a special researcher of the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law and deputy director of Beijing Yunjia Law Firm.
Moe products have piracy problems
Intellectual property management must be strengthened
At present, many brands also focus on fusion products with "Moe culture", thus bringing consumers a natural sense of intimacy, making consumers willing to pay for it, but the "Moe economy" also has many problems in the current stage of development.
In 2019, Starbucks China store launched a cat's claw cup made of cherry blossom powder, which was loved by consumers and was later fired for more than one thousand yuan.
However, it is understood that consumers who have bought Starbucks cat's claw cups are quite critical of its practical function and quality.
The netizen with the account “Old Li’s Head is the Cow” commented: “Just for the sake of a fresh picture, this (cat's claw cup) is really not very practical. There is only a little space, and a glass of water is not enough for me to take a sip. "The netizen with the account "ma" commented: "It looks good with the packaging, but after unpacking it is an ordinary cup, which is not worth the price."
At the same time, the quality is uneven, and copycats are becoming a problem for these "cute products".
It is understood that whenever an explosive "cute product" is selling well, the problem of piracy will follow.
In Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, there are various "cute products" such as Pikachu dolls, Peppa Pig pillows, cat claw cups, Uniqlo co-branded T-shirts, etc. These products are mostly copycat products with uneven quality. .
A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily enters "Pikachu" on an e-commerce platform, and a variety of Pikachu products will appear, but they come from different businesses and have different prices. The price of similar "Pikachu Love Bags" varies by up to 40 yuan.
Xiao Zhang is a staff member of a factory in Yiwu, Zhejiang. He is mainly engaged in the business of purchasing and selling goods. He told the reporter of "Rules of Law": "Whenever there is a hot-selling product, we will buy the original order for reference. We also have a design. People, they will analyze the original product, what material, what color, and then we can do it ourselves, and then sell the product to various channels in online stores and physical stores."
It is understood that the "cute products" produced by these factories are basically patterned according to 1:1, but the material is different from the original version, and the cost is low. The cost of a cat's claw cup is about 7 yuan, and the cost of Pikachu small pillow does not exceed 10 yuan.
"Because of cost control, the product will inevitably still have defects." Xiao Zhang said.
Zheng Ning pointed out that piracy infringes on intellectual property rights and has an adverse impact on the sustainable and healthy development of the "cute economy". In addition, piracy often fails to guarantee the quality of the goods, leading to confusion in the market. This is an urgent need to rectify.
Merchants should abide by the Consumer Rights Protection Law, Product Quality Law and E-commerce Law and other legal regulations to ensure that the quality of their products is up to standard.
When consumers encounter damage to their rights, they must also actively defend their rights.
So, industry experts have given relevant suggestions on how to continue and healthy development of the "Moe Economy" at the moment and become a major industry.
Zhao Zhanzhu believes that the IP protection of "Moe Culture" involves different types of intellectual property rights.
Some apply for the registration of a certain cartoon image as a trademark and protect it from the perspective of trademark rights; others register it as a work of art for copyright registration and protect it from the perspective of copyright.
Zhao Zhanzhu said: "Whether it is from the perspective of trademark rights or copyright protection, intellectual property infringements should be cracked down, and rights can be protected through civil litigation or by reporting to the copyright and industry and commerce administrative law enforcement agencies."
Regarding the chaos of piracy in the "Moe Economy", Zheng Ning said: "Special departments or personnel should manage the entire process of intellectual property rights for Moe products, and carry out copyright registration, trademark registration, patent application, and trade secret protection in a timely manner to achieve IP The whole-process industrial chain management of creativity, production, right confirmation, storage, authorization, operation, and protection. When intellectual property rights are found to be infringed, they must be protected in a timely manner. At the same time, when developing IP, be careful not to infringe other people’s intellectual property rights."