The classic scenes in the Korean drama "Squid Game" have been replicated on the streets of China. A beverage store less than 10 square meters was crowded with people, and customers lowered their heads and carefully poked the yellow biscuits with fine needles in their hands.

The classic scenes in the Korean drama " Squid Game " have been replicated on the streets of China.

A beverage store less than 10 square meters is crowded with people, and customers lower their heads and hold thin needles in their hands and carefully poke the yellow biscuits. The difference is that the patterns engraved on the cookies are very different - triangles, five-pointed stars, umbrellas... This is the popular sweet sugar game in "Squid Game".

"Collaborate customers who have completely removed the sugar pattern (limited to 10 minutes) on the spot and get new sugar or signature lemon tea for free." As the plot, this beverage store tries to create tension.

This small shop hidden on the first floor of the Beijing Apple Community has attracted many customers who come and experience it with the sugar game. Within two hours of visit by Beijing News Beike Finance reporters, more than a dozen people entered the store, almost all of whom were trying to pick candy.

This is just a microcosm of the derivative effect of "Squid Game". Under the popularity, sugar costs a few yuan have become a business. Some merchants offer about 10 yuan and can be mass-produced. It also said that the factory's average daily output can reach 5,000+.

craze is surging, and the capital behind this drama Netflix has already taken advantage of the situation, investing 21.4 million US dollars, and gaining "influence value" to nearly US$900 million. Not only that, Asia is Netflix's last market to be deployed except Africa, with South Korea as its important position. After increasing investment in Korean dramas, works of reputation were born one after another, and Netflix's globalization strategy obviously began to reap the results.

However, despite efforts to enter the Chinese market, this is still a missing piece on Netflix's Asian market.

号4号 's "Chinese scene": tea shop attracts traffic, can be manufactured in batches for 10 yuan

2021's Korean drama "Squid Game" produced and launched by Netflix in 2021 combines elements such as fighting wits, adventure, thriller, suspense, etc. in the battle royale background. A group of people in the play who owes huge debts and cannot repay them. The success or failure of childhood games will be judged. The loser will be shot dead, and the person who goes to the end can get 45.6 billion won.

There are 6 games in the play: "One, Two, Three Wooden Man, Sugar Cake, Tug of War, Marble, Glass Guess, Squid Game". Among them, the most widely spread derivative is Sugar Game, which is also the easiest to imitate, interesting and can be promoted quickly.

Beike Finance reporters noticed that a new signboard was added at the entrance of a beverage store on the streets of Beijing, with four black bold words "Squid Game" particularly conspicuous, and the slogan also has the word "Squid" that people are not familiar with.

Strictly speaking, the game "Sakura" and "Squid" are two completely different games, but obviously it will gain popularity after being named.

In fact, 未分类 is a game that has been circulating in the streets and alleys for a long time in Korea, and is as common as marble and ferrule games in China. The drink shop visited by a reporter from Beike Finance. The owner once lived in South Korea for a while and was quite familiar with this game. She said that the TV series was soon broadcasting and introduced the candy to the store and sold it together.

This store is relatively simple to play. "Purchase any lemon tea in the store + 5 yuan to get a lemon candy." In other words, lemon candy is not sold separately in the store, but is bundled with lemon tea to attract traffic. The effect of bundled sales of

is indeed significant. The reporter of Beike Finance observed in the store for 2 hours. More than a dozen people entered the store, almost all of whom were rushing to pick up candy. During this period, several customers proposed to buy a few sugar cakes and take them home, but the owner refused.

A customer told Beike Finance reporter that she and her friends came here to play 生视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视视Judging from the raw materials alone, only sugar and baking soda are needed to make sugar. One cost is less than 50 cents, but it can be sold for 5 yuan to 30 yuan when converted into a game.

The owner said that 5 yuan is the cost price. She asked her friends to help make the sugar cakes. She made at most 100 pieces a day, and the shelf life is very short, about 7 days. “It can be broken half of it when mailed, and there is also labor cost."

successfully challenged in "Squid Game" means that it is one step closer to 45.6 billion won. In real life, corresponding rewards and punishments are also set up to increase the fun of the game. In addition to bundled sales,

also brought the candy game to the streets of the city and set up a stall to start a temporary business. A table and two chairs can support a candy game stall. "8 yuan per time, successfully cut out the pattern and get one doll", the gameplay is also Not novel, similar to the night market balloon game, but the effect brought by TV series still attracts many people. People often share their experience in setting up stalls on social platforms, and some bloggers make a small profit when using the National Day holiday.

You can often see inquiries about whether to mail in the comment section of these bloggers, and some bloggers simply started online business.

Beike Finance reporter asked a store and said that each quotation was about 6 yuan, such as If you need to match the iron box props in the play, you need to add another 3 yuan. If you place an order in batches, you need to customize it in advance. The shelf life is only about 7 days. The production is small and the price is low, so it is difficult for the store to make a lot of money by relying on sugar cakes.

With the popularity of sugar, sugar cakes are quickly produced. Compared with the price of 5-10 yuan for some stores, the price of sugar cakes produced in 1688 is higher, most of which are above 10 yuan. The advantage is that they can be produced in batches. Production. A merchant told reporters that the current average daily output of the factory can reach 5,000+, and the shelf life can reach one year. Sugar cakes such as

have become a source of supply for offline merchants and Taobao stores. The reporter of Beike Finance tried to buy sugar cakes in many online stores, and the final source of actual photos came from the same one.

The merchant told reporters that sugar cakes are also very good overseas sales, "Sub-border orders are placed, and buy them at tens of thousands of places at a time. "He said that this has caused the price of sugar cakes to rise. When the reporter asked whether the price was too high, the merchant said, "This is still high, then ask other companies, it is not a problem to buy it and sell it for 15-20 yuan. "

" Not everyone can make this sugar cake well. "The manager of the beverage store said. The sugar cake business has also been inverted. The manager took out the sugar cakes he bought on the e-commerce platform and the sugar cakes he made on his personal. The purchases on the e-commerce platform are obviously thicker, the sugar essence smells heavier and are not easy to expose.

"" is also crazy. The surrounding products are money-making

In the drama, a huge pig-shaped piggy bank appears almost every episode, hanging high on the ceiling. When people look up, they can see piles of money piled up inside. These are enough to tempt poor people to fight to the death. At the same time as the fight is also piled up. Becoming higher and higher. In addition to the plot of

, the popularity brought by this drama is also attracting all walks of life to take advantage of the situation.

Shell Finance reporter searched for "Squid Game" through e-commerce platforms. The screen was decorated with triangular, round or square masks, green sportswear similar to school uniforms, killer's red jumpsuits, and "kill doll" suits wearing yellow dresses and double ponytails. Most of these peripheral products are priced below 100 yuan. Taking masks as an example, some of them sold more than 100,000 pieces on Pinduoduo.

Compared with China, the overseas demand for "Squid Game" peripheral products has surged. Foreign fashion websites Lyst data shows that a few days after the show was launched, the global search volume of retro-style sportswear (+97%), white slippers (+145%) and red jumpsuits (+62%) has soared. The sales of vans white shoes on game players' feet have soared by 78 times, and they are even out of stock.

Netflix naturally did not let go of this "fat meat". In early October, Netflix launched the official peripheral of "Squid Game" in its e-commerce platform Netflix.shop. The peripheral products are mainly clothes, including sweatshirts and T-shirts, priced between $30 and $40, which is equivalent to Amazon .

This move is a surprise to help Netflix's new business development. In June this year, Netflix announced its launch of its own e-commerce platform. Netflix.shop is focusing on the new track, mainly for selling peripheral products of Netflix's popular dramas. Currently, 9 theme peripheral products have been launched, "Squid Game" is set at the top of the homepage of Netflix's store.

"Squid Game" is produced far more than imagined.In early October, a long queue was lined up in front of the flash store on the streets of Paris, France. In this simple store with a limited time of 2 days, the people who maintain order were wearing the same red onesie as in the play and wearing a mask on their faces to guide the experiencer. The experiencer who enters the store can immerse himself in the play.

Although the news that the experience store was opened was released only one day in advance, it still did not block the enthusiasm of fans. It was raining in Paris that day. After waiting for a day, some fans still failed to enter the store, resulting in the fight between the people, and the pop-up store was forced to close early.

Some online games have also gained popularity, including "One, Two, Three Wooden Man", "Squid Game Sugar Cake", "Squid Game Challenge", etc. The reporter searched for squid games on WeChat mini program, and more than 100 results appeared. According to Qimai data, "123 Wood Man-Squid Game" ranked fifth in the Xiaomi store game download list, but there is no official game yet.

Netfly" expands ", takes over the Korean market?

Undoubtedly, Netflix became the biggest winner of this drama.

In early October, Netflix initially estimated that the "influence value" created by "Squid Game" for Netflix reached nearly US$900 million, becoming the most valuable streaming TV series in history. But the investment in this show is only US$21.4 million, far lower than the cost of hit TV series on Netflix and other streaming platforms. Among them, " House of Cards ", which made Netflix famous, spent $63.6 million to produce the first season in 2013, and "The Crown" in 2016, with a season of $130 million.

The success of "Squid Game" is inseparable from Netflix's globalization strategy. Since 2010, Netflix's local market has become saturated and began to explore overseas markets, and has entered Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Japan and other places. Asia is Netflix's last market to be deployed except Africa, with South Korea as its important position.

Netflix's second quarter report for 2021 showed that Netflix achieved revenue of US$7.342 billion, net profit of US$1.353 billion, and the total number of paid users worldwide was 209 million, an increase of 8.4% over the same period last year. Among them, , the revenue of in the Asia-Pacific region was 799 million yuan, accounting for 11%, and the number of paid users reached 27.88 million, an increase of 24% during the same period. Users mainly from the United States and Canada showed negative growth, with 430,000 users lost. It can be seen that Asia has become Netflix's main market.

In fact, Netflix’s cooperation with South Korea was not smooth. In 2017, Netflix’s first Korean drama " My Only Love Song " was broadcast, but it did not achieve the expected results. But Netflix did not give up on the Korean market, but continued to deepen cooperation. Since then, popular dramas such as " Love's Crash Landing ", " Itaewon Class", and " Smart Doctor Life " have appeared one after another, but they have always been "one breath".

It was not until the 2019 reputation work "Kingdom" was released, and the zombie elements successfully made it an Asian drama. Netflix also increased its investment in Korean dramas, which is now popular all over the world.

"Netfei never expresses any opinions, only gives money." This sentence by Kim Yinhe, screenwriter of "Kingdom", may explain the reason why Netfei's frequent dramas are released.

Local originals are promoted with the help of Netflix global streaming media, which is an effective model for cultural output. It is understood that Netflix intends to enter the Chinese market, and is subject to regulatory restrictions and content censorship is relatively strict, so China is still a missing piece on Netflix's Asian market.

Despite this, Netflix has not stopped expanding its territory and is trying new models to enter the Chinese market, such as cooperating with local companies. In 2017, Netflix and iQiyi reached a content cooperation agreement, and Netflix licensed some of the content to iQiyi.In 2018, Netflix Global CEO Reed Hastings said in an interview with the media, "The three big guys in the Chinese video industry are too strong. We would rather choose to sell the copyright to Chinese companies than enter the Chinese market directly, and our partners will not be limited to iQiyi. We maintain a very open mind about this. I understand very well that we will definitely not be able to beat Alibaba in the Chinese market."

But Netflix and iQiyi's cooperation has not lasted for too long. In 2019, iQiyi CEO Gong Yu said in an interview that it had stopped its cooperation with Netflix, "because of the censorship system and users, the effect is not very good."

After the double walls of independent entry into China and local cooperation, Netflix purchased the overseas copyright of " Wandering Earth " in 2019, and planned to translate it into 28 languages ​​to promote audiences in 190 countries and regions, but this looks more like to supplement its own content pool.

Beijing News Shell Finance Reporter Song Meilu Editor Wang Jinyu Song Yuting Proofreading Fu Chunyan