Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 420 I Will Sleep With Her
As we all know, video platforms are very expensive. Even the top platforms like Qiyi TV have been losing money for many years, and they are basically supported by the capital behind the stock price.

Evergrande’s idea is actually similar to that of several other companies. Hengten Network’s original business has currently reached a bottleneck. If it wants to continue to push up its stock price, it needs to provide the capital market with new stories and imagination space.

This is the real reason why they want to merge with Ruyi Pictures. It just so happens that entertainment, film and television, and the Internet are close relatives, and the combination of the two is just right.

Zhou Chenghui contacted Ruyi, which actually meant that Hengten Network had basically decided to initiate the merger. The focus of the current dispute is mainly on the specific price, because this determines the shareholding ratio of both parties after the merger.

There is nothing much to say about Ruyi Films' film business. Both the projects and performance are solid, and the capital market has a relatively sufficient valuation for it. So the only variable is the streaming platform "Pumpkin Movie".

For Evergrande, the content support from Arclight Films is undoubtedly a very important weight.

As Ke Liming said, only those top hit dramas can attract audiences. Just like Leshi.com, even though the boss ran away and the company was in debt of 10 billion, it still earned tens of millions of members every year thanks to the drama "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

There is no doubt that Arclight Pictures is capable of producing top-notch works. However, a new problem comes with it, which is the pressure of film purchase costs.

Or in other words, if you really want to support a new streaming platform, how much investment is needed?

"Some people do business that will get them killed, but no one does business that will make them lose money." Zhou Cheng said, "If the money invested in this platform exceeds the profits it can bring, then it is better to just cut it off. So I want to know, compared with the other platforms, what is the uniqueness or selling point of our platform?"

After hearing what the other party said, Meng Bai and the other two from Ruyi looked at each other. Naturally, they had discussed this issue many times.

"We at Arclight started out as a web drama company, so we probably know more about video platforms than anyone here."

It was still Meng Bai who spoke. Since he had already spoken, there was no need for him to continue watching the show. "Nowadays, the mainstream platforms in China actually have a problem. They want to do too many functions, and too many resources are wasted on functions that should not have appeared."

At this point, Meng Bai took out his phone and clicked on the Qiyi TV application interface. After a green opening screen, a fancy APP page popped up.

"As a video platform, in addition to film and television services, there are also user communities, online ticket purchases, gossip news, novel reading, knowledge payment, e-commerce malls... and even microfinance loans."

Meng Bai spread his hands: "I can only say that the platform is very thoughtful. They know that most of the members of several platforms are out of money, so they quickly provide a small loan."

Everyone in the conference room laughed when they heard this.

In fact, this is also a "bad habit" that exists in many domestic APPs. Everyone hopes that users will only use their own applications, so regardless of whether it matches the product style or not, they will integrate whatever they can.

Ke Liming also cooperated and clicked on his own "Pumpkin Movie" application: "Compared to other platforms, we follow the route of imitating Netflix and create a pure film and television viewing platform. Users go online for no other purpose, just to find a wonderful work to watch."

As he spoke, he slid through the application interface. As he said, the entire homepage had nothing but various "popular dramas" and "recommended movies".

"More than that, because it adopts a pay-per-view operation model, the main revenue comes from user payments, so there are only patch ads on the external interface, and no embedded ads within the series."

Zhou Cheng frowned: "Can the platform's revenue be sustained by user payments alone?"

"It will definitely be difficult in the early stages because the cost of purchasing films is fixed," said Ke Liming. "But as the number of users increases, this part of the cost will be quickly amortized and diluted. After that, as long as the bandwidth cost can be covered, the platform's positive returns can be met."

Zhou Chengwen: "Nowadays, the number of users on various platforms has entered a period of slow growth, and the cost of attracting traffic is also very high."

Meng Bai laughed at the side. "I can only say that the high cost of attracting traffic is the fault of each website. It's 2019, and short video platforms have evolved to catch users' attention in the first three seconds. But if you look at these platforms again, they still use the same traffic-attracting methods as traditional TV media. When a new user clicks on a video, he has to watch a 120-second ad first. This is simply outrageous."

From the very beginning, video websites were able to break out from the siege of mainstream platforms such as TV stations by relying on better convenience and fluency. However, after a few years, when mobile streaming became the new mainstream platform, it also embarked on a similar path.

Imagine a scenario where a streaming platform gets a rare promotion opportunity and can appear on the mobile phones of viewers across the country for three minutes. During these three minutes, netizens can browse the content on the platform at will and decide whether to stay and continue watching.

At this time, if you have to watch a one- or two-minute advertisement at the beginning of each video before opening it, why would the audience stay when they have the power to exit at any time?
This is the traffic diversion problem faced by many domestic streaming platforms, which is even greater than the dilemma faced by traditional TV media. After all, when TV ads come on, viewers can still change channels, but on video websites, viewers have no choice - in the past, they could become members and skip the ads, but now even the ads are "members-only".

Just like what many platform users complained: I am so poor that I can’t even afford to buy a membership, so what’s the point of you pushing ads to me? Aren’t those VIP users who are willing to buy a membership the ones who really value watching ads?
Non-member users have low value, but member users don’t want to watch ads. This is the “contradictory literature” unique to video platforms.

In contrast, Pumpkin Movies follows a user-pays model. After users pay, the movie is sold well on all platforms. There are no messy "member-only ads" or "advanced on-demand" things. It is just a simple paid viewing experience.

This model would definitely not work five or six years ago, when people's perception of the Internet was still at the free stage. However, with the subtle influence of major platforms in recent years, coupled with the emphasis on copyright, a large number of viewers willing to pay have actually been cultivated.

For these users, as long as the membership price is not outrageous and can guarantee good content and viewing experience, spending some money really doesn't matter.

After listening to the introduction of Meng Bai and others, Zhou Cheng also had his own considerations.

Several major domestic platforms all adopt the "free + paid" parallel model, which shows that this is an operating model that is relatively recognized by major capitals. Similarly, for the capital market, this mature model is well known to everyone, so naturally there is a lack of imagination.

"Pumpkin Movies" imitates Netflix's charging model. It is hard to say whether this model can succeed in the domestic audience environment. But on the other hand, no one dares to say that it will definitely not work.

Major foreign entertainment giants are all planning streaming media, and many are taking similar approaches, which proves a certain feasibility.

Thinking about it this way, it seems that the new charging model is more suitable for them than the mainstream model.

Of course, no matter which model it is, as a platform, content comes first.

Therefore, the core key of everything lies in Arclight Films, the "hit-making machine" in the film and television market.

The few of them talked for an entire afternoon, but in the end they didn't reach an agreement on the specific cooperation. This was normal, after all, it was a large-scale merger and acquisition worth tens of billions, so how could it be decided so easily?

"Not bad, it's a good start." Chen Zhixi looked at Meng Bai, "It can be seen that Hengten Network still has concerns about the platform content. Mr. Meng, I'll have to trouble you a lot."

"Sister Xi, what you said makes me feel so stressed." Meng Bai smiled, then frowned unconsciously.

To be honest, even though there are only two parties involved in the negotiations, everyone actually has different ideas about the streaming platform.

Hengten Networks wants to use this opportunity to expand its business and boost its stock price. On the Ruyi Film side, Ke Liming intends to hype up the popularity and value of the platform and engage in capital operations.

Meng Bai's idea is somewhat similar to that of Ke Liming, but he has one more thing than the other, which is that he actually wants to really set up a video website.

A qualified film and television giant must have at least three aspects: capital, content and platform. Today, Arclight Films has capital and content, but the only shortcoming is the platform.

Although we have close cooperation with Qiyi TV and Tencent Video, they are theirs after all, not ours. Moreover, such close cooperation may not be able to be maintained for a long time. If we can have our own platform, even if it is smaller in scale, it can be regarded as a way out.

However, Meng Bai also knew that Arclight alone could not support the speed at which an entire video platform would burn money. But the emergence of Evergrande brought new hope.

Although the real estate industry is currently on the decline, it is still a large business and a video platform can still support it.

As for what to do if you run out of money in two years... well, actually you just need to get through the initial money-burning period of the platform's development, and then when it runs smoothly, you won't need the other party much.

All we can say is that the three parties involved have their own plans. As for what the final result will be, no one can predict it now.

Meng Bai was still thinking about the platform, and Chen Zhixi changed the subject: "Old Chen has already started preparing for the project of "Mistakenly Killing". In terms of the lead actor of the movie, do you have any recommendations besides Xiao Yang?"

"The leading actor of the movie?" Meng Bai switched his thoughts to the movie.

In the story of "Accidental Murder", the most important characters besides the male protagonist are the family consisting of his wife and two daughters.

"Who do you want to choose as the protagonist's wife?" Chen Zhixi asked.

"How is Qin Lan?" Meng Bai asked.

"Qin Lan?" Chen Zhixi thought for a moment, "If she plays the role, wouldn't she be a little... too beautiful?"

The character of wife Ayu is set as a middle-aged woman who accompanies her husband in a foreign country and is also the mother of two children. Even if the family conditions are not bad, they are definitely rough.

Since Qin Lan became famous, she has mostly appeared in delicate and beautiful images. It feels a bit out of place when brought into the atmosphere of the movie.

"Haha, I didn't expect Sister Xi to actually praise another woman of similar age for being beautiful."

"Tsk, you're not looking down on me. I'm not an actor anymore, so what's wrong with praising her?" Chen Zhixi rolled his eyes, then emphasized, "Also, I'm younger than her, okay?"

"Okay, you're the youngest." Meng Bai smiled and said, "Actually, it makes sense for her to be prettier. The initial conflict in the story comes from the fact that the wife, A-Yu, accidentally killed the rich second-generation man because he wanted to continue violating her. A rich second-generation man can't be obsessed with an ordinary middle-aged aunt."

"As for the image problem, it can be solved through makeup. When she joins the crew, let the stylist design her to be a little more rustic, so that she won't look so eye-catching."

"Will they agree?" Chen Zhixi asked.

"It's okay. I'll sleep with her."

Chen Zhixi was stunned for a moment. Should that word be pronounced "shuo"? Never mind. It's been so long since graduation that I've forgotten it.

"What about the two daughters? Has Boss Meng chosen anyone?"

"For the eldest daughter, how about Mai Mai? She looks suitable and is just the right age, both are middle school students, about 16 or 17 years old."

"Zhao Jinmai?" Chen Zhixi nodded. "She's quite suitable, but Old Chen mentioned Zhang Zifeng before."

"Zi Feng..." Meng Bai thought about it and felt that it was possible. Among the girls of this age group, only these two were popular and well-known.

Zhang Zifeng wins because of her high national popularity, especially after joining Mango TV's popular variety show "Longing for Life" this year, her popularity has increased even more.

As for Zhao Jinmai, her advantage is that she looks prettier. And with the huge success of "The Wandering Earth", her popularity is also very high now.

"Both girls are fine, but isn't Zifeng's pay a bit too high?" Meng Bai said.

"Yeah, that's right." Chen Zhixi said, "Then let's talk about it first. We'll use whoever has the right schedule and price. What about the youngest daughter?"

"I don't have anything suitable right now, I have to look for it again."

The role of "little daughter" is to make it more difficult for the male protagonist's family to get rid of suspicion. After all, compared with adults, children are more easily framed. In order to let the audience clearly feel this setting, her age must be young, and she is set to be five or six years old and not in school.

At first, Meng Bai actually thought of Wang Shengdi, with whom he had worked twice before. She was the little girl who played the little heroine "Pupu" in "The Secret Corner". Her image is very suitable for the big screen, and her acting skills are also OK. However, this little girl was born in 2010 and is already nine years old this year.

Children are different from adults. A one-year difference can make a big difference, let alone a three or four-year-old. So Meng Bai gave up and decided to find a new child actor.

As for the other roles, I'll leave it to Chen Sicheng to choose. I can talk to Taiyang Chuanhe later to see if there is anyone suitable.

This is why many new actors hope to find a big company. Various high-quality projects have been reviewed in the early stages of preparation. Unless it is really unsuitable or the crew has high requirements, it is difficult to get any good opportunities.

(End of this chapter)