THE ongoing Shanghai International Film Festival is overflowing with Internet icons. As a result of the new “Internet plus” frenzy in China, which was designed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang as a way to encourage close cooperation between traditional industries and the Internet, the movie industry in China is reshaping with this concept in mind, industry insiders found at the festival.

    As the oldest Chinese movie event to gain international attention back in the early 1990s, the festival is regarded by insiders as a trend indicator.

    Most of the festival’s forums are revolving around topics relevant to the digital giants’ massive “invasion” of the silver screen, whether their themes focus on the Internet or not, China Daily reported.

    “BAT (an acronym for the Internet giants Baidu, Alibaba and Tecent) has established an entire ecosystem to reset the layout of the movie industry during the past year,” says Yu Dong, president of Bona Film Group, at a forum at the festival.

    The hot word “BAT” has gone viral since it started circulating after last year’s festival in Shanghai when Yu made his startling prediction that all Chinese film studios would eventually become subsidiaries of the three.

    Bona produced 12 movies last year, earning around 3 billion yuan (US$484 million), accounting for around 10 percent of the 2014 total box office. Its comedy film “The Man from Macao II” topped the box office during the fiercely competed Spring Festival season earlier this year.

    However, the high yields haven’t eased worries, especially considering two other major privately owned entertainment companies, Huayi Brother and Enlight Media, have made Internet giants their second-largest shareholders.

    With their stake holdings, Internet giants have walked from the backstage to the front.

    Alibaba Pictures, the film arm of China’s largest e-commerce giant, Alibaba, kicked off its second movie project “Sansheng Sanshi Shili Taohua” (“Ten-Mile Peach Blossom of Three Lifetimes”) earlier this month; its first movie was “The Ferryman.” Both titles were adapted from hit online novels that already had solid, established fan bases.

    Baidu’s film unit, the video-streaming website iQiyi, announced last July that it would produce seven Chinese movies and one Hollywood title. With an online box office total of 50 million yuan last year, iQiyi has shown its increasing presence during the festival in several upcoming big-budget films, such as the crime thriller “Lost in White,” partly financed by iQiyi and featuring A-list stars Tony Leung Ka Fai and Tong Dawei.

    Yu says that the Internet giants have established an online commercial system, including crowdfunding, to raise money, making use of big data to calculate the possibilities of turning fans’ enthusiasm to ticket sales, and earning back investments from online services.

    “It forms a closed ring. The only sector for us (traditional film studios) to survive and struggle is the creativity part,” he says.

    Cai Shangjun, a veteran director and a jury member for the festival’s Golden Goblet Awards, told China Daily that a good storyline is always the most important element.

    “The really good tales cannot be designed by computer programs. The real beauty is emotional,” he says.

    Even Internet insiders find it hard to reject this notion.

    Liu Chunming, CEO of Alibaba Digital Entertainment Group, may declare that future moviemaking will “be revolutionary” by customizing the script and the cast to cater to targeted viewers, but he still says that Internet-backed firms, with their big budgets, still need professionals and will rely on “the best director, the best crew and the best technology” to make well-received movies.

    “The Internet has been influencing the movie industry for four to five years. For me, it’s not news to hear of the merging between the Internet and the film business,” says Wang Changtian, chairperson of Enlight Media. “The biggest change is the way we think. The Internet also changes the way that a movie is produced, promoted and sold.”

    With online cinematic service Maoyan.com last year selling 82 million tickets, followed by Gewara.com with 45 million and Wepiao.com with 28 million, online ticket sales rose to around 50 percent of the entire market, up from 40 percent last year and 20 percent in 2013.

    Celebrities are also tasting the sweet power of the Internet, which allows them to shun traditional media exposure and promote themselves via social-networking services.

    Guo Jingming, one of the richest authors in China, made waves with his upcoming movie “Tiny Times 4” during the Shanghai festival. Followed by 38 million fans on SinaWeibo, China’s version of Twitter, the novelist-turned-director behind the 130 million yuan box-office hit “Tiny Times” franchise, was named the most influential Weibo figure last week, which is another way of saying that every sentence he posts on the Internet is a direct promotion to millions of possible ticket buyers.

    Of course, with all the chaos and turbulence in the market from the digital world, there are some concerns.

    “This is the best era for the Chinese movie market, and may also be the worst,” concluded China Economic Weekly.(SD-Agencies)