What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 412, Section 171: Testing the Waters
Yu Xing and Xing Hongyu, the head of Tencent Video, had intermittent communication, and only a limited number of people knew about this.

He wasn't sure if Xing Hongyu would convey his thoughts to Pony, Liu Chiping, and the others, but with the comparison of the current situation of Weishi, Vine, Instagram, and Miaopai, and with Lü Haiying and the others' contemplation, the idea of ​​when to enter the short video market was becoming an increasingly important question.

The domestic market, including the situation of silicon carbon data itself, seems to still need to wait, even though Kuaishou officially entered the domestic mobile internet market in July.

Kuaishou was formerly known as "GIF Kuaishou," a tool app for creating and sharing GIFs. However, with the rise of short videos both domestically and internationally, it decided to transform and enter a new market.

"Tsk, how come the mobile internet is developing so fast?" Liu Wanying always managed to catch up on Yu Xing's discussions quickly, and when she looked at the mobile projects at home and abroad, she would sigh like this. "In just a few years, in just a few short years, we've seen smartphones, instant messaging, offline group buying, electronic payments, and now these short videos. It's too overwhelming."

She still remembers when she first met Yu Xing, only a few years ago, and there was a sense of being from a different era.

Yu Xing smiled slightly: "That's true, everyone's sense of smell is very sharp."

"So what did you do?" Liu Wanying asked. "How's Xing Hongyu doing? Are you still trying to seduce him?"

“We are about communication.” Yu Xing was dissatisfied with this term.

Liu Wanying scoffed, "If Penguin has so much grudge against you, then the way it communicates with you is just flirting."

“It’s not that bad. He’s confused, and so am I. It’s normal for us to discuss our opinions as we think about the new trend. If Pony were in charge of Weishi himself, I would have talked to him too.” Yu Xing shook his head with a hint of regret. “But we haven’t talked for the past few days.”

Liu Wanying blinked curiously: "Why did you stop talking? Did Pony find out?"

“I don’t know. I just told him that I had an idea to cause problems for Weishi. We chatted briefly a few more times after that. He asked me about it, but I didn’t say anything. I just didn’t think highly of Weishi.” Yu Xing shrugged. “As a result, he was probably annoyed by my attitude and said that I didn’t need to complain about Weishi’s operation. Anyway, he wouldn’t operate it for me.”

Liu Wanying couldn't help but laugh: "That's quite true. People are thinking about how to do their jobs well, but you're just nagging in their ears, and not only in their ears, but also talking nonsense in the media."

Yu Xing glanced at Xiao Ying and pointed out the problem: "Everything I said is true. It's your statements in those short and long videos that are really 'nonsense.' Get your facts straight, okay?"

“I’m an investor, and everyone understands that I’m expressing my views on projects. But you’re running a company, so it’s naturally considered inappropriate for you to talk about other people’s business,” Liu Wanying said confidently. “If you don’t believe me, just look at the public opinion.”

Yu Xing didn't need to look; he knew that what Xiao Ying said was probably true.

"Judging from your appearance, I need to go and see if Kuaishou is worth investing in," Liu Wanying said, bringing up the matter of Red Falcon Capital.

Yu Xing was a little surprised: "Why was Kuaishou chosen?"

“Kuaishou’s transformation from a utility app to a short video app was very quick. I’d like to hear their assessment,” Liu Wanying said casually. “Kuaishou received $30 from Five Sources Capital last year, giving up 20% of its shares. Even if the investment fails, the cost won’t be high.”

She thought for a moment and then said, "Moreover, I think this path from tools to content is somewhat similar to the operation of Carbon Silicon Data. I asked around and found that it has nearly 5000 million registered users, but its daily active users for tools are not high. Now it is said that it has switched to short videos, which has increased its daily active users. I think it is worth investigating."

Yu Xing couldn't help but praise, "Xiao Ying, in industry terms, you have a real understanding of the product."

Liu Wanying never expected that her small investment intention would receive such high praise.

She smiled, half surprised and half teasing, "If that's the case, Mr. Yu, then I'll have to bring more people with me this time. Oh right, you haven't said how to arrange the carbon silicon data afterwards?"

Yu Xing pondered for a while, wanting to smoke a cigarette but holding back, before finally saying, "Vine's style is rigid, Instagram is just a functional auxiliary, Weishi is constrained by competition from giants, and Miaopai is parasitic on Weibo and can hardly be independent. After thinking it over, I think it's not impossible to try it now."

Liu Wanying's eyes lit up: "Didn't you mention the phased issues before?" "There are indeed phased issues. If we're going to do carbon silicon data, we have to go all out, but we're worried that Tencent and Alibaba will follow suit. However, we can only know how things go after we've done them, and testing the waters is meaningful," Yu Xing said. "So, I'm thinking, maybe we could have Xiaoying lead a team to develop software for the overseas market. Vine and Instagram might not be that competitive."

Liu Wanying was somewhat bewildered: "The overseas market? Well... there's no accumulation of carbon and silicon data traffic there."

“The primary attribute of a content platform is content, and this time we can test whether this view is right or wrong,” Yu Xing said with a smile. “Traffic can be bought, and the money from the mountain peak can be invested back in. After the subsidiary raises funds, it can also be injected into the parent company as an asset. Moreover, Vine and Instagram both have an issue that they haven’t addressed: they don’t provide music to users.”

Liu Wanying has been trying out different apps lately, so she naturally understands what this means. Vine and Instagram, including domestic apps like Weishi, Miaopai, and Kuaishou, do not provide background music during shooting.

But she thinks this will be improved, since Tencent has its own QQ Music, and it will probably be imported later.

Liu Wanying hesitated and said, "Music? With the added differences in music, how much of an effect will it bring?"

Yu Xing was thinking of Musical.ly, which Douyin acquired when it expanded overseas. TikTok's global popularity owes much to this acquisition, and Musical.ly was actually developed by a Chinese team.

The seemingly simple mechanism of lip-syncing and music effects led to Musical.ly's sale price reaching $10 billion.

As Lü Haiying said, this kind of thing can undoubtedly successfully lower the threshold for users to create their own works.

Given this, we could let Silicon Carbon Data test the waters in overseas markets first, using distribution through Apple's App Store and Google Play Store to do preliminary work, both to refine the company's internal technical algorithms and to identify problems that might arise in actual operation.

However, this is indeed relatively unfamiliar to carbon silicon data.

Yu Xing could only reply to Xiao Ying: "Give it a try. Short videos are a new thing, and music adds a differentiation element. Logically, it seems to be competitive at least."

Liu Wanying agrees with this logic, but finds it difficult to assess before the logic becomes reality.

Another person whose task was assigned was Lü Haiying, who was also difficult to assess.

She hadn't expected to be chosen so quickly, but... the direction of this appointment was completely different from what she had imagined.

If we go to do overseas projects, then the traffic that Carbon Silicon Data has accumulated now will no longer bring us an inherent advantage.

“Senior brother, you…” Lu Haiying hesitated for once, “It’s not that I don’t want to do it, it just feels very unfamiliar to me.”

Yu Xing laughed and said, "Then think it over carefully. If you don't want to do it, I'll find someone else. It's that simple."

Lu Haiying hesitated, wanting to think it over again, but just as she was about to leave the office, she inexplicably turned back and sat down.

She took a breath and readily agreed: "Senior, let me do it. Although it's a bit unfamiliar, it would be a good learning experience if I could help the company identify technical and operational problems."

Yu Xing cautioned, "Really? If this kind of project doesn't turn out well, and if it's launched domestically, someone else might take over."

Hearing her senior brother say this, Lü Haiying felt more at ease and said sincerely, "Senior brother, it's only natural to choose the easy things. I also want to do only the easy ones, but the difficult ones have to be done by someone. Rather than others making excuses, I'll do it. Besides, you won't harm me. If I fail, I'll just take it as a lesson learned."

Yu Xing felt that this junior sister really had the appearance of an innate True Saint Body.

(End of this chapter)