Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 332 You guys aren't any better! I'm the only one who can make money.

penguin.

"Director Gu, hello, I'm the general office secretary."

A young and pretty clerk swiped Gu Bei's card and led him into what is now Tencent's headquarters.

Gu Bei looked around at the office building in front of him, a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

When he joined Penguin, it was already Penguin Building, which Penguin built itself and will be put into use next month, instead of here.

"Are you sure the flight for tomorrow night can't be changed?" the clerk asked Gu Bei cautiously. "Pony is coming back from Kyoto tomorrow, and he really wants to see you in person."

"No time!"

Gu Bei said calmly, "I've already made an appointment with Director Chen Kaige to discuss the earthquake project."

What project can compare to meeting Pony?
Well, a movie with an investment of 200 million yuan is definitely not a small project these days.

Gu Bei followed the clerk into a reception room.

He was actually quite looking forward to meeting Pony Ma, after all, this was a move that could be considered a rebellion against the Heavenly Gang.

but,

But not under the current circumstances.

At the very least, we should wait until Weibo has completely crushed Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo before making any moves.

Besides, why make him wait here for Pony to come back? Couldn't Pony be waiting for him to go back in Kyoto?

Subsequently,

When Gu Bei met the penguin representative this time, it was an old acquaintance.

Xing Hongyu, the current or future head of Tencent Weibo,

When Gu Bei joined Tencent,
Just when Tencent and Sina Weibo were racking their brains over each other...
The entire Tencent team was calling for support for Tencent Weibo. He had talked to Xing Hongyu several times and almost transferred to the Tencent Weibo team as well.

But he gave up at the last minute because he preferred making games. Unexpectedly, he ran into Tencent at its headquarters.

"Hello, Mr. Gu." Xing Hongyu shook hands with Gu Bei and was about to introduce himself, "I am..."

"Hello, Mr. Xing!"

Gu Bei, however, called out his name calmly.

Xing Hongyu was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.

He looked up and glanced at the general office secretary.
It seems like they are asking if the other person has already introduced themselves.

The general office secretary shook his head, his expression becoming slightly serious.

Although it's just a simple name

But it's clear that Gu Bei understands them.
They knew far more about Gu Bei than they did about Gu Bei.

Even within Tencent, Tencent Weibo is a top-secret project.
The project was decided by a direct competition between four business units (BUs): online media, instant messaging, Penguin Space, and Penguin Mail, in the general office's conference room. Ultimately, Penguin.com, led by Xing Hongyu, was chosen to lead the project.

The importance attached to this project was elevated by the General Office to the level of a matter of life and death for Tencent. Even the PowerPoint presentation for the project launch was personally created by Pony Ma.

In this case

Xing Hongyu's name was called out by Gu Bei immediately.

So his ongoing closed-loop development seems to have become a joke.
No one knows exactly how much Gu Bei knows about their project's progress!
Xing Hongyu screamed inwardly, "Who leaked the information???"

At this time

Gu Bei had already sat down first.
He looked up at the two of them, a hint of doubt on his face: "Sit down!"

They've reversed the Heavenly Spirits!

Gu Bei's actions,
He seemed to regard this place as his own reception room.

On the contrary, Xing Hongyu and the general office secretary seemed more like visiting guests.

Just two simple words,
This immediately put immense pressure on Xing Hongyu.
Sitting is not an option, and not sitting is also not an option!

But standing like that is not proper hospitality.

Xing Hongyu had no choice but to sit down, his awkward smile looking more like a grimace.
In this awkward psychological state, he was completely outmatched by Gu Bei in terms of momentum, and a huge weight was constantly pressing on his heart.

"So... what's your goal this time? To acquire my Weibo account?"

Gu Bei took the initiative in initiating the conversation, firmly grasping the initiative in his own hands.

"We are indeed interested in acquiring your Weibo account."

Xing Hongyu sensed the glimmer of hope that Gu Bei had deliberately given him, and he immediately said sincerely to Gu Bei, "You should be able to see from now on that Weibo will eventually become a platform with a billion users."

Platforms of this scale require founders to invest a huge amount of money and energy.

Given your current career path, you wouldn't be able to fully dedicate yourself to the development of Weibo, and supporting its growth would require hundreds of millions of dollars.

"The Weibo team has proven their operational capabilities. I just need to ensure that Weibo continues to develop according to my vision. I don't need to devote too much energy to it."

Gu Bei leaned back slightly, crossed his legs, and looked at Xing Hongyu indifferently, "Or... can Tencent give me a sufficiently generous cash reward, two hundred million, three hundred million... or even four hundred million?"

"Huaxia currency?"

Xing Hongyu asked tentatively.

“Of course it’s US dollars!” Gu Bei replied immediately.

"Mr. Gu, your appetite is a bit too big!"

Xing Hongyu's tone was somewhat dissatisfied.

He vaguely sensed that Gu Bei was treating him like a child, not afraid of Penguin's actions at all, and showing no intention of making a deal whatsoever.

Gu Bei smiled at him, feeling much more at ease.

The initial buzz surrounding his relationship with Liu Yifei had died down, and public sentiment had been quelled; ultimately, it was just a rumor.

But this time, the news that broke...
However, it was linked to Liu Yifei's news and Weibo posts.

This is different from celebrity news; it's not something that will pass in a short time.

Based on Gu Bei's understanding of the internet, this matter will likely become an old joke in the future, just like the rumor about Penguin Pony giving away Penguin coins for his birthday.

He continued to tease Xing Hongyu.
Let's release some information and also test Weibo's current valuation:
"My asking price is not expensive at all!"

Twitter's valuation was already $2.5 million in its February funding round this year.

I also received news about Twitter's next round of funding, which should be in the second half of this year and may exceed one billion US dollars, indicating that Twitter will become a brand new unicorn company!
Weibo's user base is on par with Twitter's!

"You've surpassed ten million users?"

Xing Hongyu caught the key information in Gu Bei's words.

He was taken aback.
Because Fanfou, the second largest player in the Weibo field, only has a user base of around one million.

Their predictions for Weibo were already very optimistic, but they estimated at most around eight million users. However, Gu Bei's Weibo growth is now significantly more rapid than they anticipated.

"Guess!" Gu Bei smiled faintly.

Xing Hongyu immediately felt as uncomfortable as if he had swallowed a fly.

The most frustrating thing about negotiating with Gu Bei is that he has absolutely no idea what cards Gu Bei has up his sleeve, but Gu Bei seems to be able to see through all their cards, at least on the surface.

"President Gu, this is not the attitude for negotiation."

Xing Hongyu attempted to adopt a tougher stance.

If this continues,
He really had no way to explain himself to his superiors.

"Then I'll go?"

Gu Bei remained defiant.

As someone who experienced the 'World Expo Battle' right after joining Tencent.
He was very aware of how much Tencent valued the Weibo project at this stage.
Xing Hongyu's tough stance was like paper in front of him, completely vulnerable.

It's important to understand that even the WeChat project, which saved Tencent, was won through an internal competition, which is why it received Tencent's full resource investment.

The Penguin Weibo project, however, received unprecedented investment from the entire Penguin Group, with no time even allocated for a race against time.

Because Weibo has truly shaken Tencent's relationship chain!
Perhaps in many people's minds, Weibo has become a cesspool where robots dance together.
But in the early years of the mobile internet,
A large proportion of Weibo posts consist of real-life interactions.
This is different from the situation where Douyin seems to put a lot of pressure on Tencent, but in reality, it does not shake Tencent's social network at all.

Gu Bei remembered it very clearly.
During the years when Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo experienced explosive growth, there were suddenly a few months when their data actually declined.

Those few months were when WeChat won the horse race, gained full resource support from Tencent, and then used Moments to seize all the daily interactions of the two major Weibo platforms.

From then on, the penguins could truly rest easy!
without any exaggeration,

This battle for WeChat is like Tencent's Normandy landings.
Tencent Weibo did all the hard work on the front lines, while WeChat quietly launched a sneak attack and reaped the final glory and benefits.

of course,

In Gu Bei's personal opinion,

Even without WeChat's sneak attack, the sheer audacity of social media in stirring up trouble...
In the end, they couldn't retain the group of people who wanted genuine interaction in real life.

Just like how Twitter's community environment later became very similar to that of Weibo, it seems that this is an inherent flaw of microblogging as a product form, and in the end, only obsessed people remain.

Faced with Gu Bei's casual attitude,

Xing Hongyu was starting to lose his composure.
Isn't this just toying with honest people?

At last,
He decided to go all out and said directly to Gu Bei, "Mr. Gu, you should know that the value of domestic users is definitely not comparable to that of North American users. The advertising rates are completely different."

After a pause, he directly offered his price: "I can give you a fair price: $200 million to acquire all of Weibo's shares. We can discuss the cash and equity ratios later."

"That's too stingy! You can't afford Weibo!"

Gu Bei stopped teasing Xing Hongyu.

He patted his pants, stood up,
There was no lingering attachment whatsoever, just like the two hundred million dollars and the game currency.

He even had the leisure to invite Xing Hongyu: "Hongyu, I think you have some ideas, why don't you come and work on Weibo?"

"Don't get me into trouble!"

Xing Hongyu glanced at the secretary in the general office next to him, feeling somewhat uneasy.

It's no wonder he overthinks it; the main reason is that Gu Bei's way of addressing Hong Yu sounds too much like a friend's address, which is how his old friends in the team address him.

To avoid the general office secretary from overthinking,

He quickly continued to try to persuade Gu Bei to accept the offer: "Mr. Gu, this price is definitely not high. Tencent's profit for the entire year of 2008 was only four hundred million US dollars!"

"The entire penguin kingdom only has 400 million!"

Gu Bei was also somewhat surprised.

Is it that low?
But thinking about it carefully...
Both Dungeon Fighter Online and CrossFire on Tencent launched their Chinese servers last year.
That's when they finally found a real path to wealth for the penguins.

“That’s right. Tencent’s revenue last year was one billion US dollars, and its profit was only four hundred million US dollars. We spent two hundred million US dollars to buy your Weibo account, which is not a small amount at all!” Xing Hongyu continued.

"You can't do that either!"

Gu Bei patted Xing Hongyu on the shoulder, "I'm the only one who can make money. My royalties, plus Minecraft and movies like Twilight, make more revenue and profit than Tencent."

You should really consider this; my company has a better future than Penguin.

Gu Bei recalled that after Xing Hongyu's venture with Tencent Weibo failed, he incubated Tencent Video, which gained 5000 million users through organic growth alone.

It doesn't sound like much.
But that was in 2015.
It will be two years before Douyin, the king of short videos, is born.

This illustrates the saying "you can't have your cake and eat it too." Tencent gained WeChat, but then gave up Tencent Weibo, and incidentally, also gave up its own Douyin (TikTok).

"Mr. Gu, are you bragging?" Xing Hongyu couldn't help but ask.

"Here's a tidbit: last year, Twilight was the world's best-selling DVD, selling a whopping $500 million worth of DVDs worldwide!"

After Gu Bei finished speaking, he walked towards the door of the reception room.
After criticizing the penguin, I left. That felt so satisfying!
Incidentally, this led to the discovery of Weibo's current valuation, which was used to issue equity incentives to others based on a valuation of $200 million. The valuation from a competitor was definitely authoritative enough.

The general office secretary led Gu Bei downstairs.

In the elevator, she suddenly spoke up: "Director Gu, I think you don't need to be so resistant. You can consider this offer."

After all... Penguins have resources you can't even imagine!

Oh?
Are you referring to Tencent Weibo, which couldn't catch up with Sina Weibo despite investing the entire group's resources, or Weishi, which was already integrated into QQ but still failed?

Gu Bei remained silent.

He would find it a little strange if people from other departments at Penguin said this.
But it's perfectly normal for someone from the General Office to say that.

After all, the Penguin General Office is the highest decision-making body of Penguin, and even the clerks there are more arrogant than the clerks in other departments.

Gu Bei didn't take those words to heart. He went back to prepare for the last roadshow the next day, then went back to Kyoto to finalize the director for the earthquake project, and then had to return to North America.

One reason is that San Diego Comic-Con is about to be held, and Gu Bei is going to attend the press conference for The Walking Dead;
Secondly, because Twilight 2 is about to be released in North America, this movie should be the most important movie for Rose Pictures' development in the next few years;

Finally, in order to finalize the final version of La La Land, the Venice film selectors were invited to watch the film.

early morning.

"Jingle Bell!"

Gu Bei was awakened by the incessant ringing of the phone.

Liu Yifei, still dazed, asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, you go to sleep first. It was Peng Shaobing from Weibo who called, he probably has something urgent to say!"

Gu Bei walked out of the room and answered the phone on the sofa in the suite.

Then Peng Shaobing's anxious voice came from the other end: "President Gu, Fanfou has been shut down!"

Gu Bei instantly regained his senses.

Although it was delayed by a few days
But Fanfou, the second largest player in the Weibo field...

It still ended up being shut down!
(End of this chapter)