Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 789 Let's survive for 3 years first.
One month after Wanxiang Technology, a joint venture between Autumn, Tencent, and Sunac, acquired LeEco's business, it announced the completion of a $6000 million Series A financing round, led by Haitang International, with participation from Tencent, Shunwei Capital, and other institutions.

Investors who have long been involved in the film and television industry can see that Wanxiang Technology wants to keep the pie in its own bowl and is very cautious about raising funds from outside.

This is understandable; not to mention Sunac, Autumn and Tencent have all the resources needed to start a video platform.

Source of content, viewership, funding, and distribution channels.

Of course, whether the two companies will provide resources, how they will provide resources, and how much resources they will provide are matters for Wanxiang Technology to negotiate internally.

However, judging from the current situation, the new platform should be mainly based on the autumn group. The position of the new company's CEO has not been announced, and both Tencent and Sunac have only sent one of their own senior executives to serve as non-executive directors.

As expected, the day after the new platform completed its first round of financing, Chen Zhixi's personal Weibo verification changed from "Chen Zhixi, Vice President and Producer of Qiutian Pictures" to "Chen Zhixi, CEO and Producer of Wanxiang Technology".

On that day, Chen Zhixi, in her new role as CEO of Wanxiang Technology, announced a series of plans for the new company and platform.

The main focus was on her personal reflections on the heavy responsibilities she bears, and the announcement of the new platform's name: Wanxiang TV. The domain name is wxtv.com.

"We chose this name because we hope our new platform will provide viewers with a wide range of exciting content."

The new platform will continue to invest in all aspects of film and entertainment, including but not limited to TV series, movies, variety shows, animation, and even children's content and documentaries.

In the article, Chen Zhixi reiterated her confidence that she could reach 1 million paid members within 3 years and "enter the first tier in China".

The original LeTV video website was seamlessly switched to Wanxiang TV at noon that day, and the APP update was pushed out later.

A new platform, a new starting point; everything is full of challenges, yet everything is thriving.

However, it seems like they're just deliberately arguing for the sake of arguing.

The following day, Huanxi Media announced that its streaming platform, Huanxi Premiere, would operate independently and had received a strategic investment of $5500 million from Ali.

Dong Ping said she plans to take Huanxi Premiere public within three years.

No need for "seems," Huanxi Media is just here to argue, and it's obvious they're targeting Wanxiang TV.

After the food delivery war and the ride-hailing war, are video websites about to start another major battle?

This is the first thing that comes to many netizens' minds.

There are already three companies in the market, but Mango TV's model is too unique to be included.

Now that two new platforms are entering the market, does this mean I can watch shows for free without having to pay for a membership?
Think beautiful!
Competition among video websites differs from that in the food delivery and ride-hailing industries. It's unrealistic to expect to burn through competitors by spending money. Besides, after the food delivery and ride-hailing wars, major domestic investors are tacitly avoiding a recurrence of such competition.

"No, why should we worry about him? Who does he think he is?" Regardless of whether Huanxi Premiere was targeting Wanxiang TV, Li Qiutang didn't take Huanxi Premiere seriously.

"Competing in film library, self-produced content, and distribution channels—how can they compete with us in any of these areas? Going public in 3 years? Let them survive for 3 years first."

If Huanxi Premiere didn't operate independently and just did its own thing, nothing would have happened. Whether it had ten million or a hundred million members, nobody would care. But now that it's going to operate commercially, it has to take on huge market risks.

Huanxi Media's ability to withstand risks is clearly not as strong as Qiutian's.

This was Li Qiutang's first meeting with the management team at Vientiane since the company officially changed its name. Given Mr. Li's personality, he probably wouldn't be coming for a long time afterward.

So if you have any requests or ideas, you have to bring them up quickly, otherwise you won't be able to catch them later. It's not just Chen Zhixi who's eyeing the boss; the vice presidents of various businesses are also after him.

The vice president of variety shows and documentaries was the first to try and take advantage of Mr. Li's business.

“Acting-themed variety shows are very popular now, and we plan to take a different approach and make a directing variety show! We will bring together directors to make films, and then critique and compete with them one by one.”

"Which director isn't arrogant and proud? You think they'll just come whenever you ask them to?"

"Who said we invited famous directors? We invited new directors! There aren't many director pitching events like this. If we invite directors to be judges, the effect will definitely be good."

When necessary, Li Qiutang will certainly make concessions for the new platform, but he really doesn't like sitting in front of the stage to be a mentor or judge.

"Let's talk about that later," Li Qiutang politely declined. "Didn't you say you went to inspect mangoes last time? How did it go?"

That's something to talk about.

When it comes to producing variety shows, every single one in China is affiliated with Hunan TV.

Countless companies have visited Mango for inspection, and countless companies have tried to poach Mango's employees, but Mango has always stood firm.

The vice president of variety shows gave a detailed account of his visit to Mango TV a few days ago: "To put it bluntly, it's like the major studios are playing a game of cat and mouse. We might only require a team to come up with one idea a year, but Mango TV is different. They require each team to come up with an idea every six months or even three months."

"Raising 'gu' sounds simple, but it's very difficult to do. Without the fertile ground of Mango TV, others can't even copy it properly. It's not just about their studio's creativity; the key is their execution staff. Even the stage manager who moves boxes and lays out props, and the drivers, are incredibly efficient. After a performance ends, the stage manager can change the stage in ten or twenty minutes. We were there and were truly amazed. This kind of efficiency requires years of stable teamwork; it can't be achieved overnight."

Li Qiutang has managed small film crews of dozens of people and also hosted large crews of thousands of people, so she has a deep understanding of this.

The vice president of variety shows, after conducting some field research, came up with some production ideas: "We find it difficult to enter the currently popular variety show genres, such as outdoor reality shows, talk shows, and hip-hop rap shows. We don't have an advantage in these areas."

It's harsh to admit, but that's the truth. That's why he wanted to compete as a new director in variety shows; without resorting to these "unorthodox" tactics, it's hard to stand out.

"So I think we should be more conservative and make a slightly innovative music variety show, which would be safer."

Li Qiutang has played in a band and has a good understanding of music. She also watches music variety shows regularly, so she's not exactly an amateur.

But the idea behind my own show sounds so familiar.

"...We plan to broadcast it on both TV and the internet. We've reached an agreement with Zhejiang TV. We'll contribute 7%, they'll contribute 3%, and they'll provide the production team. After all, we're just starting out, and our team isn't mature yet, so we need to learn first."

This is just like "The Voice of China"!
"No problem." Although the plan is very basic, the framework is already there. All that's left is to refine the idea while attracting investors. Once we've attracted enough investors, we can start production.

Vientiane TV is in dire need of development, and each department has many creative ideas to come up with. After discussing music variety shows, the vice president of variety shows and documentaries brought up three more variety show ideas, showing that their department is full of energy.

After discussing variety shows, Li Qiutang reminded him that although documentaries were declining, they couldn't be completely abandoned; they still needed to be done. Variety shows were more likely to be successful, so she suggested setting up a niche documentary channel for him and having him promote documentaries as well.

There are indeed teams in China making documentaries, and Li Qiutang knows quite a few of them.

“I attended a dinner party a few days ago and actually found a good documentary project. It’s called ‘The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru’ and it’s being directed by Fang Li.”

(End of this chapter)