My Peninsula 2007

Chapter 498 Planning
Han Meiyan is not short of money. In fact, she can be considered a genuine tycoon in every respect. However, a large part of her assets are of dubious origin and cannot be used without restraint.

To date, the only project she can truly be proud of that she has successfully invested in personally is her stake in NGN.

After Susan presented BlackRock's financing terms, An Rusong also discussed the issue of share dilution with Han Meiyan. As for Han Meiyan, she never intended to have any say in NGN. In her mind, the NGN shares she held were simply a valuable asset that could bring added value.

Now, once BlackRock completes its investment in NGN, marking the end of NGN's second round of financing, although her stake will shrink to less than two percent, its valuation will be nearly $2 million. Furthermore, as compensation for the reduced stake, she will receive a substantial cash payment from BlackRock, also in US dollars.

Therefore, Han Meiyan couldn't be more satisfied with An Rusong right now.

More importantly, in addition to the shares of NGN she held, she also had a business of her own—CieloTV, a video-on-demand platform supported by a massive amount of online film, television and variety show copyrights. After several months of preparation, it was finally ready to be officially launched.

Based on her trust in An Rusong, Han Meiyan invested a lot in this project, and in addition to her own investment, the project also brought in an investment from Li Fuzhen.

To be honest, when she first started this project, Han Meiyan was a complete novice when it came to the internet economy. She didn't even really understand where "CieloTV" would make its profits. Therefore, she was quite apprehensive when she initially invested a large sum of money to purchase the copyrights to movies, TV dramas, and variety shows.

However, by now, her anxiety had completely disappeared. This was partly because Han Meiyan had put in a lot of effort to learn some things during this period and had gained some understanding of the internet economy.

On the other hand, as CieloTV gradually approaches its IPO, some well-informed and risk-taking venture capital firms, like sharks smelling blood, have eagerly rushed in, expressing their intention to invest.

This reality tells Han Meiyan that even though the internet economy bubble has already burst once, for wealthy and powerful investors, as long as you can come up with a good idea and create a trend with enough hype, they can use massive amounts of money to make you soar.

Today, Han Meiyan's biggest takeaway from the internet economy is that regardless of whether your project has a real profit point, as long as you can attract enough users, people will be waving checks and rushing to give you money. Therefore, she is now full of confidence in the future of "CieloTV".

Given all this, she wasn't particularly concerned about the dilution of her NGN shares; however, she couldn't show this emotion in front of An Rusong.

Han Meiyan put her water glass back on the coffee table, put her arm around An Rusong's shoulder, pulled him close, and let him lean against her. Then, while massaging his temples, she said, "I don't care about you, but you are. Big companies like BlackRock are ruthless. They are wealthy, powerful, and have complicated backgrounds. If you give up your controlling stake, what if they take over your company in the future?"

“So some details still need to be discussed,” An Rusong said, squinting his eyes. “They can’t accept my absolute control of the company, and I can’t accept their interference in the company’s leadership. So this negotiation will have to continue. I can make concessions on absolute control, but they have to give up some demands on the company’s leadership.”

After saying just that, An Rusong didn't continue. He had his own considerations and plans regarding NGN's latest round of financing, but there was no need to discuss these issues in front of Han Meiyan.

Of course, he didn't want to talk about it, and Han Meiyan didn't want to ask any more questions. She continued to massage An Rusong's temples, and after a while, she changed the subject and asked, "How were the results of this round of testing by CieloTV?"

“The results are good,” An Rusong replied, still squinting. “I’ll send you the test data later; you can take a look if you’re interested.”

Currently, "CieloTV" is in its final stages of launch, undergoing stress and compatibility testing. However, this technical testing isn't the final round; after the official launch, server stability under full load will also be tested. "CieloTV" currently rents servers from KT, a Korean telecommunications company. Considering the NGN technical team is involved in the program's development, server rental expenses will likely be the largest component of the company's costs at the beginning of "CieloTV's" operation, aside from copyright purchases.

“Also,” An Rusong continued, “recently, some venture capital firms have been paying attention to the testing of ‘CieloTV’, and it seems they are interested in investing in it. You can keep an eye on this.”

“I know,” Han Meiyan nodded and said, “Even if you hadn’t brought this up, I would have wanted to ask your opinion. Someone from Xiangfeng contacted me before, expressing their intention to invest. Besides Xiangfeng, people from LG and Samsung have also contacted me. Can you think for me, if 'CieloTV' really plans to raise funds, which party would be more suitable?”

Vertex Ventures is Singapore's Vertex Investments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. Although it cannot compare to capital giants like BlackRock, it still has considerable capital strength, and its main businesses are concentrated in the Asian region.

“I don’t recommend you consider South Korean venture capital firms,” An Rusong said bluntly, “especially Samsung, unless you want Lee Bo-jin to have more say in your company.”

He paused, then continued, "Furthermore, I don't recommend that you start thinking about financing right now. 'CieloTV' hasn't officially started yet, and we don't know how the market will react. Venture capitalists who are willing to come to us at this time either can't offer good terms, or they are really sure they can make a lot of money from you. In short, no matter which possibility it is, you will be the one who loses out."

Patting Han Meiyan's hand, An Rusong turned over, then picked up a water glass from the coffee table, took a sip of water, and continued, "If I were you, I would only make a three-step plan for the future development of 'CieloTV' for now."

He put the water glass back down, raised his right hand, and held up his index finger, saying, "First, in a way, 'CieloTV' and NGN are actually quite similar. The number of effective registered users is always the most important standard that the company needs to measure for development. Therefore, after the program goes live, don't think about revenue. How to expand the user base is the real issue you need to care about."

“Secondly, if you have enough funds, go and acquire more film and television copyrights,” An Rusong continued, raising his second finger. “Don’t just focus on South Korea; you should also consider Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and even the United States. Of course, in the United States, it’s unlikely that you can acquire a large number of film and television copyrights in a package like you would in China. You can choose to cooperate with film and television companies like Universal, Lionsgate, and the BBC.”

"Well..." Han Meiyan hesitated for a moment, then interrupted, "Those Americans might not be so easy to deal with, right?"

“Americans are people too. As long as there is profit to be made, they are even easier to deal with than Asians,” An Rusong said dismissively. “Of course, the premise is that you have to show them that there is real profit to be made. And the premise of this profit is that 'CieloTV's' user base must be large enough. So, you won’t go far if you only focus on the South Korean domestic market.”

In An Rusong's previous life, why was Tencent Video in China able to bring so many American film and television companies onto its cooperation list? It was simply because of China's large user base—tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of paying users. For any film and television company, that's a piece of cake that they can't afford to give up.

“The third step, and the most important one,” An Rusong said, raising his third finger and emphasizing his words, “CieloTV may not have its own technology and maintenance team for the time being, but a strong and efficient legal team must be established as a priority.”

“I can use the resources at my disposal to lobby the Blue House and the National Assembly as much as possible to introduce a bill to protect the copyright of cultural works on the Internet as soon as possible,” An Rusong continued. “But you can’t just sit idly by. Once the company’s legal team is assembled, select two prominent pirate video websites on the Internet and arrange for legal counsel to sue them. Don’t be afraid to spend money on this kind of thing. You have to understand that the bigger the lawsuit, the greater the impact. Even if the other party doesn’t pay much money in the end, as long as the case receives high public attention, we will have achieved the effect we want.”

“Believe me, once you win a few more of these lawsuits and the relevant legislation is actually enacted, the number of venture capitalists coming to your door with money will be ten times, or even dozens of times, more than it is now,” An Rusong said, patting Han Meiyan’s thigh.

(End of this chapter)