Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 427 Penguin's Sensitive Skin Liu Yifei: Shall we have a contest?

For Gu Bei

This timing has a significant advantage.

That is, now is the eve of the outbreak of the 3Q War.

For ordinary users, the 3Q War began with the open letter in November, in which Tencent forced users to choose between 365 and Tencent.

This open letter revealed to the entire industry the domineering nature of Tencent.

What shocked the industry even more was the experience of Zhou Hongyi, an internet mogul known for his rogue software, being forced to flee from Beijing to Xiangdu in a sorry state.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology intervened a day later.
Two days later, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) arranged for representatives from both sides to meet.
Seven days later, both parties issued a public letter stating that they had restored compatibility between their software.

Therefore, from the perspective of ordinary users, the 3Q War only lasted for a week.

But in fact,

From the perspective of internet industry insiders,
The 3Q War began with the release of Penguin Doctor version 3.2 during this year's Spring Festival.

Penguin Doctor almost completely copied 365's software interface and functions, and offered users a six-month trial of paid antivirus software as soon as they downloaded it, thus alleviating users' concerns about computer security.

This tactic of launching a surprise attack during the Spring Festival

Just like how WeChat's Spring Festival red envelopes will sneak up on Alipay in the future,
However, this time Penguin failed. 365 urgently recalled its staff and suppressed the installation volume of Penguin Doctor, but Penguin Doctor has managed to gain a foothold.

From the beginning of the Spring Festival until now

Penguins and 365 have been constantly clashing fiercely.

Anyway, Gu Bei on Weibo,

I've seen Zhou Hongyi mock Tencent's security technology at least ten times.

Some time ago, Gu Bei saw that Penguin Doctor was maintaining Penguin's consistent "small steps, quick progress, trial and error iteration" strategy, and now the software has become Penguin PC Manager.

When Tencent PC Manager starts forcibly pushing notifications, that's probably when the real battle between the two sides begins.

According to Gu Bei's memories from his previous life,
The most intense fighting between the two sides lasted from the end of September to the end of October.

Finally, it seems that 365 did something that touched a nerve with Tencent.

Tencent declared, "I'm not pretending anymore, I'm laying my cards on the table!" This domineering tactic of offering only one option directly crippled 365, causing it to be absent from the entire mobile internet era.

However, this 3Q War also completely changed Tencent.

This is also Gu Bei's best opportunity.

"The WeChat team's temporary office is just ahead."

Zhang Xiaolong led Gu Bei to a three-story villa. The curtains were already drawn. "As per your request, our initial development will be kept absolutely secret. All the staff will be transferred from the Weibo team and will stay here during the secret development phase."

Including myself, there are eleven of us in total. Two people are responsible for the development of each platform, plus a few backend developers. We expect to release version 1.0 by mid-September.

"Two months, that goes by pretty fast."

Gu Bei did a quick calculation.

"The office environment here isn't very good. I hope I can go back to the creative park in the future, where the environment is more suitable for my work."

Zhang Xiaolong still fondly remembers his office in the creative park; the relaxed and natural environment there is something he can't bear to leave behind.

Even as WeChat grew into a behemoth, Zhang Xiaolong stubbornly remained in his old office in the creative park, and even needed Pony Ma to send a car to pick him up for the weekly meetings.

"It's alright. You can go back to the creative park in six months at most. I've already secured it," Gu Bei said calmly.

"Actually, it's not necessary. We can rent one later. After all, it's not easy to rent offices in the creative park. Leaving it vacant for six months is a considerable expense."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Xiaolong also felt a pang of heartache over the rent.

Gu Bei gave him a strange look: "I didn't rent it, I bought the whole building, the No. 3 building next to the original Penguin Guangzhou branch."

Zhang Xiaolong: "..."

It was clearly a touching thing.

Why do I feel such a strong urge to hit Gu Bei right now?

After a pause,

Zhang Xiaolong said somewhat helplessly, "President Gu, you should have seen the WeChat diagram I sent you. We probably can't do as many things as QQ, nor can we make as much money."

"Do you see that over there?"

Gu Bei gestured for Zhang Xiaolong to look across the street.

Zhang Xiaolong looked up and saw that it was an internet cafe. The entire wall of the street-facing glass was covered with posters, and all of the dozen or so posters had the same name: "League of Legends".

He thought for a moment: "I think I know this game. The young people in the studio often talk about it."

"mine."

Gu Bei said calmly, "This game has ten million monthly active users overseas, and in just three months since it entered the domestic market, the peak number of concurrent users has exceeded 60."

So you don't need to worry about making money.
A few years later, mobile phone performance will increase a hundredfold.
Therefore, the mobile version of this game would be sufficient to support all of WeChat's development investments over the years.
All I need is for WeChat to have a sufficient number of users.
I can guarantee you that until WeChat has over one billion registered users, you don't need to worry about making a single penny for me.

Walk the penguins' path, and leave them with nowhere to go!
When Zhang Xiaolong saw the League of Legends poster on the other side, he finally realized why Gu Bei insisted on making an instant messaging software. It was clear that he wanted to follow the path of making money through games, just like Tencent.

However, this is not unacceptable to Zhang Xiaolong. As long as it is not made as fancy as QQ, it will not have any impact on WeChat.

Even though he knew Gu Bei's promise was just a formality, Zhang Xiaolong was still quite moved: "Thank you for your trust!"

"These are the same words I want to say to you. Thank you for your trust!"

Looking back now, Gu Bei realizes that he was lucky to have persuaded Zhang Xiaolong to come out and join him.

Even now, Zhang Xiaolong isn't even a vice president within Tencent, so he's not considered a senior executive at Tencent; he's only a high-level leader in the Guangzhou branch.

But given the contributions of Tencent Mail, even without WeChat, he would likely become one of Tencent's senior executives in the future.

The fact that he was willing to abandon everything at Penguin and start a new business with me shows that he truly trusted me.

Simultaneously,

Gu Bei also felt that it was a stroke of luck that he made the decision to poach Zhang Xiaolong.

Originally, he thought his involvement in the domestic mobile internet was limited to Weibo, and that he would use Weibo to invest in some future successful companies.

When we sell WhatsApp in the future...
The money received will be used to develop Instagram.

They essentially control the two platforms where the most domestic and international entertainment stars gather.
Anyway, he doesn't consider making money through the internet. If he really wants to make money steadily, he still has to go with the gaming industry, which he is most familiar with.

But he mistakenly thought that Penguin was trying to get rid of him. He didn't have the channels that Red Clothes could use to get to Xiangdu, so he planned to dig up Zhang Xiaolong and cut off Penguin's roots.

Even if his WeChat can't compete with Tencent, he'll still annoy Tencent to death, giving others a chance to overtake him.

But during this year of preparation for the penguin war...

Gu Bei, however, discovered that penguins were not invincible.
On the contrary, if WeChat loses, it won't be so easy for him to make money from games. Putting aside other things, Honor of Kings, which Gu Bei expects to provide him with the most funding, might not be able to beat Tencent's future knock-off version.

After all, Tencent will be dominant in the mobile game industry for the next decade.

Without the funding from the game, making a movie would be a dead end!
Especially in the country,

Their only revenue stream is box office revenue.

Streaming platforms can provide a portion of the cost recovery.

The surrounding area will not contribute any revenue for at least twenty years.

Without exception, all six major Hollywood studios have a powerful backer who can provide protection. Without this backer's support, relying solely on their own efforts, these film companies would almost certainly go bankrupt.

Domestic streaming media has also proven this point.
After full competition, the four major platforms
The pants business declined rapidly after being acquired.
Mango TV was the last to enter the market, but its only distinctive feature is its variety shows, and its membership price is less than half that of Tencent Video.
Kiwifruit was originally stronger than Tencent Video, but unfortunately, due to a lack of funds caused by the pandemic, it has also begun to fall behind Tencent Video.

Only Tencent Video, with its powerful parent company, emerged victorious in the end.

There's no way around it, money really can buy you anything.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Gu Bei's current profitability is stronger than the entire Tencent company combined.

But if Zhang Xiaolong loses, then the position of Kiwi Fruit will determine the future position of Linlang Entertainment.

Burning through tens of billions a year,
Even Gu Bei couldn't withstand it.
Fortunately, Gu Bei had many opportunities to make mistakes.

Even if we can't become a penguin, we can still become ByteDance!
Subsequently,

Gu Bei followed Zhang Xiaolong to meet the WeChat development team.
These were all engineers transferred from Weibo. Gu Bei wasn't very familiar with them, but they were quite familiar with Gu Bei, since Weibo was still full of his influence.

Gu Bei stayed in Guangzhou for two days before flying directly to North Carolina.

He and Liu Yifei had been separated for almost a year, and had only seen each other a few times in between.
Fortunately, we'll be able to spend at least six months together soon!
……

penguin.

Xing Hongyu walked into the general office, somewhat bewildered.

He had met Pony Ma many times, but this was the first time the general office secretary had summoned him to the general office to see Pony Ma in such a serious manner.

After entering the general office, he glanced up and felt a chill run down his spine. Why were all the people in the office big shots?

"Hongyu, sit down!"

When Pony Ma saw him, he showed a friendly smile, "Tencent Weibo has been doing quite well lately. I heard that you've narrowed the gap with Weibo even further?"

"We have even surpassed Weibo in terms of user activity."

Xing Hongyu didn't understand Pony Ma's intention, and only said vaguely.

Of course, there's a significant amount of exaggeration in this figure, since it includes the number of posts automatically generated by Penguin Space. However, in terms of social interaction, Penguin Weibo is indeed stronger than Weibo, thus preserving Penguin's core relationship network.

However, in the realm of public discussion, which has a stronger media attribute,

The gap between Tencent Weibo and Weibo has not narrowed.
On the contrary, with Gu Bei and Liu Yifei being active in China in the first half of the year, Tencent Weibo was left even further behind.

"very good."

Pony Ma was well aware of these tricks, but she didn't expose them. Instead, she suddenly asked, "Has Gu Bei contacted you?"

Xing Hongyu's body stiffened instantly.

The current Penguin employee handbook clearly states that anyone contacting Gu Bei must report to the general office immediately.

He didn't understand Pony Ma's intention, but he still firmly denied it, saying, "No, I don't know Gu Bei's whereabouts. Didn't he just finish filming in Hangzhou?"

Pony Ma gave Xing Hongyu a meaningful look.

Xing Hongyu panicked immediately.

Oh no, I've exposed my habit of stalking Gu Bei on Weibo every day. Otherwise, how would I know that Gu Bei just finished filming "Hangzhou Trip"?
"He should be fine. Even if Gu Bei tries to poach him, they'll consider the non-compete agreement."

"The Tencent Mail team is very stable now. The general office is monitoring the movements of all employees who have left in the past six months to ensure that they know which company they have been with in the past month."

"So what exactly did Gu Bei do with Zhang Xiaolong? I guessed it was for Weibo, but Peng Shaobing is still in control of Weibo."

“We previously guessed that Linlang Video was not the case either. Although Linlang Video was highly valued by Gu Bei internally, this business model obviously couldn’t work in China. We even worked with Linlang Video to create Penguin Video, which was a huge waste of money.”

"It can't possibly be the recent Linlang Games! League of Legends has developed rapidly since entering the Chinese market, posing a threat to CF and DNF, but that doesn't seem like something Zhang Xiaolong would do."

"However, we can't afford to ignore League of Legends! It's grown too fast thanks to Weibo. In just three months, it's already taking over the internet cafe market from CF and DNF. We need to quickly come up with a competing product. Forget about Zhang Xiaolong for now; games are the foundation of Tencent's profits!"

It was only after the discussion among the Tencent executives that Xing Hongyu realized that this emergency meeting was because of Gu Bei.

obviously,
Although a year has passed,
However, the penguin's sensitive skin, caused by Gu Bei, has not yet healed.

"Immediately begin developing a game that competes with League of Legends, find teams both domestically and internationally that develop games similar to League of Legends, and acquire them. We must hold onto our position in internet cafes."

After a moment's thought, Pony Ma decided to put aside Zhang Xiaolong, whom he had been concerned about, and focus on the intense impact of Linlang Games on Tencent.

However, he still had a vague feeling that Gu Bei must have a very important purpose in poaching Zhang Xiaolong.

……

North Carolina.

"Bruce, it seems you've finished filming that little movie that entertains yourself."

Producer Joe warmly greeted Gu Bei on the set of The Hunger Games, and couldn't help but tease Gu Bei about his trip back to Hangzhou.

After all, Gu Bei announced this year's schedule: Spider-Man in the first half of the year and Mission: Impossible in the second half, both A-list productions, and they are also flagship IPs of Sony and Paramount, two of the six major studios.

As a result, they went back to shoot a zombie movie that cost less than ten million dollars.

Hollywood has actually been quite critical of Gu Bei's decision.

"Believe me, it's a very different kind of zombie movie," Gu Bei said calmly.

“Every director tells me that,” Joe said with a smile. “But if it’s you, Bruce, I’ll definitely go see the movie when it’s released. After all, you’re Bruce, who can create miracles.”

"I still prefer your rebellious side. Get back to normal, Joe!"

While the two were chatting, they arrived at the Hunger Games set in an open-air ball cart.

Gu Bei spotted Liu Yifei, who looked heroic and spirited during the shoot, holding a bow and arrow tightly in her hand and a stubborn expression on her face, just like a young girl with a stubborn mind.

"Cut!"

After Gu Bei greeted the director,
He walked into the film set and looked at Liu Yifei with a smile.

The moment Liu Yifei saw him, a look of surprise and delight appeared on her face.

However, after the initial surprise,
She weighed the bow and arrow in her hand, then slightly raised her chin: "Shall we have a contest?"

(End of this chapter)