Restart life

Chapter 218-0215 ​​[Chen Guiliang's Tough Stance]

Director Shang Jing acted quickly, bringing in most of the cast and crew of "My Own Swordsman" in just two days.

Because his new drama has already been approved, and the behind-the-scenes staff and actors are still the same people.

After Shang Jing called them, everyone registered accounts one after another. Partly to give the director face, and partly because they thought it would be interesting.

It was at this time that "Kaixin.com (Hainei.com)" quietly became "Hainei.com (Kaixin.com)". However, the website domain name remained unchanged to prevent users from not being able to find it after switching computers.

Yao Dazui was particularly proactive; after registering an account, he posted on Weibo for two consecutive days.

Hmm... I won't comment on this person.

Three months ago, "My Own Swordsman" broke CCTV-8's viewership record. Now it's airing on multiple local satellite channels, and there are also numerous pirated versions available online. Its popularity is astonishing!
The entire production team joined "Hainei.com (Kaixin.com)," and online trolls promoted the site on forums and message boards, quickly attracting a large number of new users to register.

These new users may have known about Kaixin001 before, but they've always stayed in their familiar online communities. Their reason for registering an account this time is purely because of the actors from "My Own Swordsman".

Sha Yi was particularly smug because he was one of the earliest to join the platform. Using the newly launched @ function, he tagged a bunch of his friends from the production crew: "Haha, I already have over 3 followers. You guys need to work harder."

The replies below were all eye-rolling emojis.

Looking at the powerful influence of "My Own Swordsman", Chen Guiliang suddenly thought of "Soldiers Sortie".

He made more than ten phone calls in a row and finally found out about "Soldiers Sortie": filming had already started in Yunnan Province last month.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Guiliang called Wang Wei: "Old Wang, has the venture capital arrived yet?"

"The money has all arrived," Wang Wei replied.

Chen Guiliang asked, "What are your plans next?"

Wang Wei treated this as a shareholder inquiry and explained in detail:
"First, increase investment in technology. Optimize the smoothness and image quality of video playback. Improve the site's video search and recommendation functions."

"Second, we will launch a virtual points and rating system. We will introduce rating, favorite, and sharing functions to encourage users to interact around the videos and enhance their participation and sense of belonging."

"Third, discover and support creators. For example, parody broadcasters like Hu Ge."

"Fourth, we will hold various events, such as a short film competition. I also plan to imitate Super Girl and create an online video talent show."

Chen Guiliang did not comment on these strategies, but only asked: "What are your long-term strategies for those pirated TV series, movies, music videos, and cartoons uploaded by users?"

Wang Wei replied, "Popular TV dramas, movies, and variety shows have very high viewership. I certainly wouldn't delete them voluntarily. Even if it weren't for viewership, constantly monitoring and deleting these would require manpower. But if a copyright holder complains, I will delete them immediately."

Chen Guiliang said, "Due to the frequent copyright issues, the government has already begun to regulate online music. Even Baidu MP3, in order to avoid legal risks, is now cooperating with more than ten record companies. When do you think the government will take action against video?"

Wang Wei remained silent for a moment, then guessed, "It might happen within one or two years."

In one year and eight months, the government will promulgate the "Regulations on the Administration of Internet Audio-Visual Program Services," which will include provisions on the definition of copyright for online videos.

However, when the regulations were first issued, major video websites didn't take them seriously. It wasn't until copyright holders took legal action and sued the major video websites for infringement that the online video copyright war was ignited.

By then, due to video websites spending exorbitant amounts of money to acquire legitimate content, the copyright fee for a single episode of a TV series would skyrocket several times, even dozens of times!

Chen Guiliang continued to probe with questions: "If the government strengthens its supervision of online video copyright two years from now, what phenomena will occur?"

Wang Wei said, "We're throwing money at acquiring copyrights."

“Why not buy it now? You just got a lot of venture capital anyway,” Chen Guiliang said. “I think we can put online talent shows on hold for now.”

Wang Wei said, "I'll think about it some more."

Chen Guiliang didn't insist: "I'm just suggesting it. If you act now, you'll be buying the rights at a bargain price. Once the competitors realize what's happening, you might not be able to buy popular TV series even if you have the money. I've made some connections for you. A hit series like 'My Own Swordsman' can be bought for a package deal of 80 episodes for only 10 yuan."

On average, you can get "My Own Swordsman" for 1250 yuan per episode at this time.

After the online copyright war broke out, each episode of such a popular drama series cost at least 20,000 to 30,000 yuan!

As the copyright war intensifies, prices have skyrocketed to 200,000 to 300,000 per episode!
In 2006, you could buy a non-popular TV series for a couple hundred yuan per episode.

If it's an old drama series, you can buy a whole bunch for a few hundred thousand yuan. That averages out to only twenty or thirty yuan per episode.

Why is LeEco able to grow so big?
Because they had been quietly accumulating copyrights since 2005. Back then, 10 yuan could buy a package of dozens of old dramas.

After hanging up the phone, Wang Wei stared at his computer screen, silently smoking.

At that time, only two video websites were focused on UCG: Tudou.com and 56.com.

But Wang Wei knew that more competitors would soon emerge. Just a few days earlier, YouTube in the US had completed its Series B funding round, valuing the company at over $1 million post-money!
When something becomes popular in the US, a large number of followers will inevitably emerge in China.

Wang Wei's guess is correct.

Sixrooms and Ku6.com are already developing their websites, which will be launched one or two months from now.

Although Tudou.com has a first-mover advantage, this advantage is relatively fragile, and it must build a wider moat in advance.

Instead of making a decision immediately, Wang Wei asked his employees to collect data and asked users to complete a survey.

A week later, Wang Wei was analyzing various data.

He drew the following conclusion:
First, over 80% of new users are drawn by UCG videos, especially parody videos. Therefore, we must stick to the UCG strategy and use it to expand our user base.

Secondly, the quality of UCG videos is unstable, and most of them are even considered low-quality, making it difficult to attract and retain existing users in the long term.

Third, users spend more than four times as much time watching pirated movies, TV series, cartoons, and variety shows as they do watching UCG videos. Ironically, it's the pirated videos that truly retain users in the long run! This was completely unexpected by Wang Wei.

The future development strategy for Tudou.com is clear: encourage user-generated content while accumulating more film and television program copyrights.

Wang Wei proactively called Chen Guiliang: "I plan to buy the exclusive online rights to 'My Own Swordsman,' 'Bright Sword,' and 'Chinese Paladin.'"

"You have a good eye," Chen Guiliang said with a smile. "I recommend a TV series that's currently being filmed. It's a military drama called 'Soldiers' Assault.' Even the investors aren't very optimistic about it, but I think it's bound to be a hit. If you buy it now, you can get it for a couple hundred yuan per episode."

“Okay, I’ll send someone to make contact,” Wang Wei said.

Chen Guiliang said, "When you bought the rights to 'Soldiers Sortie,' there was a clause that required the main members of the production team to register accounts on HaiNei.com. I don't care whether they use them or not, they just have to register the accounts with their real names."

“No problem,” Wang Wei said. “Next, I will contact film and television companies one after another to purchase those films and television dramas from several years ago, or even decades ago.”

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Haha, if it's a local film studio, you can buy it from them now for the same price as buying junk. Some old movies are sold in packages for probably only a few dozen yuan each. Don't make a fuss, don't attract attention, let's make a fortune quietly."

"Okay." Wang Wei smiled as well.

With a large number of copyrighted works, Tudou.com is no longer the same Tudou.com it used to be!
……

ByteDance is currently in financing negotiations.

Carlyle's investment managers are questioning ByteDance's dual-website model: "Xiaonei.com and HaiNei.com (Kaixin.com) have very similar functions, and there is even a lot of overlap in users. Why not just merge them? It would greatly reduce operating costs."

Chen Guiliang replied, "Xiaonei.com is a real-name campus social network, while HaiNei.com is an anonymous general online social network. The two are completely different at their core!"

The investment manager said, "There's no conflict. We've researched Cyworld (China), a website where both real-name and anonymous accounts exist. About 20% of Cyworld (China) users are registered with their real names."

“I have my own business philosophy,” Chen Guiliang said, not wanting to explain too much. “If you feel it’s not suitable, you can withdraw from the financing negotiations at any time.”

Carlyle Group prefers to invest in companies that are about to go public, followed by companies that have entered a stable growth phase. Furthermore, they excel at post-investment management and like to send senior executives to optimize their portfolio companies.

But Chen Guiliang doesn't like being told what to do!
He was willing to accept Zhang Suyang, the director sent by IDG, because Zhang would not interfere with day-to-day management and decision-making.

He was also willing to accept Chang Zhongxiang, recommended by DJF, because Chang Zhongxiang did not work for DJF. Moreover, after arriving, Chang Zhongxiang would only be in charge of the finance department.

Carlyle hasn't even invested yet, and they're already questioning Chen Guiliang's development strategy.

Chen Guiliang told the investment managers, “I have my own ideas about how to operate and develop the company. I don’t want investors to interfere too much! I can selectively accept the elites you recommend. But the decision is mine. Even if I accept them, I can dismiss them at any time. If you can’t agree to this, you can withdraw from the negotiations now!”

A Carlyle investment manager said, "ByteDance's management is very rough. If Carlyle leads this round of funding, it will have to send a senior executive to help optimize management."

“Sir, you can go and ask your superiors right now.” Chen Guiliang’s attitude was very firm.

The man immediately left the scene and went outside to make a phone call, presumably communicating with the head of Carlyle China.

More than ten minutes later, he returned and shook hands with Chen Guiliang: "Mr. Chen, I hope we can cooperate next time."

"I am happy to work with Carlyle, but I will never accept investors interfering in the company's daily affairs," Chen Guiliang reiterated his stance.

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

One of the major venture capital firms has left.

The remaining people looked at each other in bewilderment and decided to temporarily suspend negotiations, as they needed to discuss the matter privately.

(End of this chapter)