I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 630 You give me the content, I'll give you the traffic.

"We can share the revenue with you according to this year's industry CPM (cost per thousand clicks). The CPM price of mainstream domestic portal websites is usually between 1-30 yuan per thousand impressions. We can discuss the specific amount."

Chen Zhiyuan understood Fang Qingye's meaning: Your articles can be shared based on the number of clicks on Toutiao!

He quickly did the math in his mind. Based on the article about the urban village demolition survey published yesterday, which had 3000 million views on Toutiao, and calculated at the median price of 15 yuan per thousand views, that would be 45 yuan!

A single report earned him a commission of 45!
Chen Zhiyuan's breathing became a little rapid.

It's worth noting that the Huacheng Daily, based in the Pearl River Delta, has relatively good advertising revenue among newspapers nationwide, but it only earns 2.8 million yuan a year!
How much extra income can be obtained this year?
"How is it?" Fang Qingye asked.

“Okay, so what exactly is our share? And how will we know the exact number of clicks?” Chen Zhiyuan asked.

A slight smile appeared on Fang Qingye's face.

He knew that Chen Zhiyuan's words were a compromise.

"I will send a professional team to discuss this with you in detail, including technical issues, so that both parties are satisfied," Fang Qingye said.

“Okay!” Chen Zhiyuan immediately agreed.

"I think we'll have a pleasant collaboration." Fang Qingye smiled and extended her right hand.

At noon, Chen Zhiyuan, as the host, treated Fang Qingye and the other person to lunch. The two sides chatted and laughed, and the tension from the morning had completely dissipated.

As the drinking progressed, Chen Zhiyuan became more talkative.

He began to recount his career history of over thirty years.

"Chairman Fang, President Wang, you're both from the post-80s generation, right? The 1980s were the golden age of newspapers."

"It wasn't just newspapers, but also magazines and literary books. Back then, our 'Southern Window' was in high demand. I can't remember which year it was, but I think it was 1988, but it published an article called 'A True Account of the Shekou Incident.' It caused a national sensation upon publication, and our newspaper went through three reprints, but we still couldn't meet the readers' demand."

“I’ve also read that article. It was when I was in college. Although it was about the late 80s, it was quite shocking to read,” Fang Qingye said.

"Yes, it's shocking. But now there are fewer and fewer shocking articles, and nobody reads newspapers and magazines. You know, an old printing factory worker once said something to me that really shocked me."

"What?"

He said, "Young people these days can't even tell if the newspaper is upside down, haha."

"The main reason I'm preparing to sign an agreement with ByteDance is to give our newspaper a better future. I'll be retiring in two years, and I don't want the Huacheng Daily to go down in the wrong hands and become a laughing stock."

"No, print media will be reborn by relying on the Internet and digital technology."

"Hehe, thanks for your kind words. Come on, let's drink to that!"

After finishing their meal, Fang Qingye returned to the hotel and said to Wang Yu, "Please contact the person in charge of Southern Weekly. I'd like to meet and talk."

ByteDance's shareholders' meeting was held as scheduled. Shareholders approved the company's Series B financing report of RMB 15 billion and quickly signed a financing agreement with investment institutions.

In the subsequent Series B funding report published on ByteDance's official website, one investment institution attracted the attention of the investment community.

China International Capital Corporation (CICC)!

What surprised people even more was that the Huacheng Daily, which had sued ByteDance, suddenly withdrew its lawsuit. Well-informed sources revealed that the two parties had signed an out-of-court settlement agreement, the details of which are unknown.

Fang Qingye returned to Yanjing at the end of January, half a month before the Spring Festival.

In just over twenty days, he whirlwinded through seven or eight cities, meeting with heads of nationally renowned newspapers and newspapers, including the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, Wenhui Daily, Yangtze Evening Post, Zhejiang Daily, and Qilu Evening News, to discuss only one thing: "Content revenue sharing based on traffic!"

The weather in Yanjing is terrible today; the wind is biting cold.

Fang Qingye and her two companions exited the boarding gate and entered the waiting hall, where they saw Zhang Yimin and others waiting for them at the airport. Ah, Liang Rubo, Hong Dingkun, Zhang Nan—the top executives from ByteDance are all here.

"Yi Min, what are you doing? I told you I didn't need you to pick me up from the station, just send a car." Fang Qingye said helplessly.

He really dislikes all these formalities; wouldn't it be better to keep things simple?

"It's only right, Chairman Fang. You've traveled to so many cities in one go, working so hard to resolve the company's crisis. We should come to pick you up." It was Zhang Yimin who spoke, coming forward to help take the suitcase.

He said it from the bottom of his heart.

He really didn't expect Fang Qingye to be so decisive and efficient, managing to get all the more well-known newspapers in the country to agree to their terms!

Who says our chairman likes to slack off?!
"Have you spoken with The Beijing News?" Fang Qingye pressed.

"We've discussed it, and the agreement is basically the same as the one in the Huacheng Daily. However, we added one more condition: Toutiao will promote the Beijing News website with advertisements. This will bring them more revenue than copyright licensing."

“Sure, as long as both sides have common interests. As long as we can control the traffic, these newspapers will be nothing to us in the future,” Fang Qingye said calmly. “Of course, we must talk seriously now.”

Fang Qingye's meaning was very clear: we don't need to be fixated on the gains and losses of a single city or place; we can give them some concessions.

"I have also started negotiating with official media outlets such as the Economic Daily and China Youth Daily one by one. By the first half of next year, we can sign traffic sharing agreements with the vast majority of them."

Zhang Yimin was quite confident.

Although this is a considerable expense, it will completely resolve the copyright dispute and also help ByteDance shed its reputation as an "internet robber".

"But that's not enough."

"Not enough?" Zhang Yi was taken aback by Fang Qingye's words. "Why isn't it enough?"

“We must cultivate our own original authors and have our own self-media platforms, instead of just scraping content from other media and calling this platform Toutiao.”

"Qualified organizations, media outlets, and independent media can join the Toutiao media platform after passing the review, providing high-quality content to a wide range of mobile internet users."

"Monetize through traffic? Revenue sharing with ads?" Zhang Yimin immediately understood Fang Qingye's meaning.

"Yes, I won't pay you for the content you create on our platform, but I will give you traffic! For those excellent authors who can publish valuable reports, I can give you 5 times or even 10 times the traffic!"

"That's great!" Zhang Yimin said.

"Remember, it's not just about text creation, it's also about short videos! Don't underestimate short video creation, it can be said to be the future of ByteDance!" Fang Qingye's words were full of meaning.

“Okay, once we get back, we’ll immediately convene a meeting to discuss how to implement it,” Zhang Yimin said.

"I won't be attending the meeting. I have other things to do back in Yanjing this time, mainly to see some friends," Fang Qingye said with a smile.

"Okay, you go ahead with your work."

Zhang Yimin was already used to Fang Qingye's way of doing things; he only focused on the general direction.

He then returned to Yanjing, hoping to see other friends, such as Director Luo of the People's Bank of China, General Manager Ning of COFCO, and General Manager Zhu of CICC.

The Lunar New Year is almost here, so let me offer my early New Year's greetings.

Of course, another thing happened in Yanjing.

Wang Xing, the former CEO of Meituan, suddenly made a high-profile announcement that the company would enter the new energy vehicle market.

(End of this chapter)