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

Chapter 6 Is it the Lay that makes potato chips?
When Meng Bai returned to the table, Li Qin was on the phone.

"Aunt Li, are you busy... Yes, I have something to discuss with you... Okay, I'll go over in a few days... Okay, okay, okay."

The person on the other end of the phone said something again, and Li Qin responded repeatedly. After a while, he finally hung up the phone.

After putting down the phone, he looked up and saw a strange smile on Meng Bai's face. He asked in confusion, "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing, I just suddenly thought of a joke." Meng Bai said casually. Seeing that Li Qin was looking at him without moving, he had to continue: "Someone asked what is the difference between beggars making money in the past and workers making money now?"

"Beggars and workers?" Li Qin pursed her lips, thought for a long time, and said hesitantly: "...One wants money, and the other one wants a job?"

Meng Bai shook his head, looked at Li Qin's curious eyes, and said with a smile: "When beggars make money, they say 'Master, please be kind'; when workers make money, they say 'Boss, yes, yes, good'."

Li Qin was stunned at first, then realized that Meng Bai was making fun of her response when she was on the phone just now.

She couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed, but then she felt a little funny. Her cheeks flushed, and after holding it in for a long time, she finally couldn't help but say, "Bad guy!"

Meng Bai took a deep breath and said, "It's you southern girls who are so refreshing when you curse at people."

"We also have many unrefined ways of cursing people - little bastard, you have to start a life!"

"Sorry, I don't understand."

"Then I'll change to something you can understand..."

"That's not necessary."

Meng Bai picked up the teapot and added tea to the two people's cups. He said, "Let's get back to the topic. Was it Director Li Shaohong who called just now?"

"Yes, she happened to be in BJ, so I made an appointment with her to tell her about it." Li Qin said, "But shouldn't you tell me which video website you want to cooperate with first? Otherwise, how can I tell Aunt Li tomorrow?"

It has been nearly ten years since the establishment of Tudou.com, the first video website in China, in 2005. Video websites have also gone from being a group of early grassroots to a new stage with the entry of capital and the concentration of top players.

For example, among the current mainstream video websites in China, the first tier are naturally Qiyi TV, which is backed by Baidu and has just acquired PPS, and Youku Tudou, which has joined forces with other powerful companies and is currently in the limelight.

The second tier is composed of the “old powerhouse” Souhu and the “rising star” Penguin Video.

As for the third echelon, most of them are "outdated players" who have passed their peak or "grassroots people" who have no capital injection, such as 56.com, Ku.com, PPTV, Liujianfang, Caoliu and the like.

In addition, there are Station A and Station B, which are different from others and are considered "heretics" among video websites.

However, although there are many video websites, not all of them are suitable from the perspective of investment and production.

Video websites are a very money-burning business. Servers, bandwidth, copyrights... every one of them can be called a "money-eating beast."

Currently, the entire industry is still in the stage of "burning money to grab market share". Both advertising revenue and user traffic are a drop in the bucket compared to the investment.

These mainstream video websites are basically maintained by the capital behind them investing money and introducing new venture capital financing.

But capital and venture capital money don’t just come out of the wind. If you just invest money, you must choose one with high traffic and great fame.

In other words, only those websites in the first and second tiers are worth investing in.

As for the small websites after the third echelon, they will either be acquired and merged by the leading websites like PPS, or they will be ignored and gradually disappear in the long river of time.

It is difficult for these small websites to maintain their own survival, so how could they have the extra energy and capital to create original content?

Therefore, Meng Bai seems to have many choices, but the only ones that are really promising are the top few. Even these few have their own problems.

Penguin Video has just been established and has continued its usual "buy, buy, buy" style in terms of content. Its main plan in the short term is to purchase the online copyrights of excellent film and television dramas, and it has little interest in self-produced content.

Sohu is an old video website. In the past two years, it has produced self-made dramas such as "Diaosi Nanren", but it is just a test. The main strategy is more focused on overseas dramas such as Korean dramas, Japanese dramas, and American dramas.

Since the merger, Youku Tudou has been called the "king of the moment" in terms of funding and content. The "Never Expected" series has become an IP that has set the entire network on fire. But also because of this, they prefer cost-effective short dramas in their own content, and are more cautious about medium and long dramas.

"So, our only choice is Qiyi TV, right?" Li Qin said with a frown.

Meng Bai sighed: "Remember what I told you, when I first met that liar Producer Lin, I had just been rejected by a video website, right?"

"It seems... I heard you mention it."

"The one that rejected me was Qiyi TV."

"..."

Li Qin leaned back on the wooden chair speechlessly, and said with a tired expression: "Very good, you have ruled out all the options. Then why are we still talking about these useless things here?"

"Young people, you are impatient and anxious." Meng Bai said calmly, "I just said that Youku and Souhu are more difficult, but not impossible. In addition, there is another suitable website..."

"Another one?" Li Qin thought for a few seconds, but couldn't think of any other famous video website, so she couldn't help but ask, "Which one?"

“Have you heard of Leshi?”

“The one that makes potato chips?”

"...Ahem!"

Li Qin looked at Meng Bai coughing because of choking on the tea and couldn't help but smile slyly.

Humph, I finally got back at you, you can’t stop teasing me!
Meng Bai coughed a few times and finally recovered his breath. Looking at Li Qin, who still had a smile on her face, Meng Bai knew that she had done it on purpose.

I didn't expect that this girl, who looks cool and aloof, actually has a lively personality.

Seeing Li Qin's smug look, Meng Bai felt amused, but he was too lazy to argue with a girl. He shook his head and continued, "I'm talking about Leshi Video, a video website under Leshi.com."

"I know. I bought the website for The Legend of Zhen Huan." Seeing that Meng Bai didn't respond to what happened just now, Li Qin felt a little bored, so she returned to her normal state and said, "Many of my friends like to watch this drama while eating."

"The Legend of Zhen Huan" can be said to be the most popular "drama king" in the past two years, especially its popularity among young people is comparable to "Wulin Waijia".

At the beginning, Leshi spent 2000 million to buy the exclusive online broadcasting rights of "The Legend of Zhen Huan". It was originally just an ordinary copyright investment. Unexpectedly, the drama became a hit and brought Leshi 20 billion traffic in just half a year.

Rumor has it in the industry that Leshi can earn tens of millions of yuan every year just from the drama "The Legend of Zhen Huan", making it a high-powered cash flow machine.

For this reason, while Leshi has been marketing its products over the past two years, it has also started collecting various scripts and novels in the hope of finding the next "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

And this represents two good news for Meng Bai——

Leshi has sufficient funds and a solid foundation for investment;

Compared with other websites, Leshi is more willing to invest in and produce its own web dramas.

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(End of this chapter)