Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 464 Limitations

In early August, the sun was still scorching the earth in Beijing, and there was a hint of restlessness in the air, but this heat was nothing compared to the storm that was raging on the internet.

Since its early beta testing, Sina Weibo has seen its number of registered users climb at an astonishing rate.

Especially given the recent shutdown of Fanfou and the boost from the nationwide auditions for "1939", Weibo instantly became the hottest topic on the Chinese internet.

In Cao Guowei's office, a large screen is constantly updating data on user registration and topic interaction.

His eyes gleamed with excitement as he stood in front of the screen, phone in hand, repeatedly expressing his feelings:
"Director Wu, that's a great idea! At this rate, Weibo could probably reach a million-user platform this month."

After saying that, he immediately asked, "By the way, how's the preliminary selection going? Have you found any suitable candidates?"

Wu Chen smiled upon hearing this: "The team is still screening."

Using Weibo for the open selection process actually freed him and his team from the workload.

Otherwise, we would have to send people to select cities one by one, which would be very time-consuming and labor-intensive.

At this time, the entire Chinese internet industry's attention was firmly focused on Sina Weibo.

Almost every portal and technology forum is buzzing about Sina's new product, and the capital market's sensitivity is no less than that of the industry itself.

Even Xiong Xiaoge, while browsing Li Feng's online culture, couldn't help but marvel:
"Director Wu has a good eye; his Weibo campaign is really aggressive. With the open auditions and celebrity endorsements, could it really work?"

The leading domestic Twitter-like application has remained undecided, but Weibo's sudden surge has given him and major investors a glimpse of a promising opportunity.

“Director Wu has always had a good eye,” Li Feng replied with a smile.

Hearing this, Xiong Xiaoge's thoughts were drifting away, but suddenly she came back to her senses.

When Wu Chen withdrew from NetEase Culture, did he already foresee the limitations of NetEase Culture?
He is now slowly realizing the operational problems of NetEase Culture, because Li Feng is still pursuing two narrow paths: revenue from legitimate movies and TV shows in internet cafes and revenue from anti-piracy rights protection.

While he acknowledged the future potential of legitimate content, he argued that this shouldn't be the right approach to legitimate film and television copyrights, and subsequently advised:

“Li Feng, this is not the right path for Wangshang Culture. This path is too limited. The anti-piracy rights protection model has serious flaws. The litigation revenue is unsustainable. This way of going will lead to a dead end in the future.”

"Mr. Xiong, besides selling advertising, NetEase Culture is the only domestic film and television copyright holder that has found a 2C profit model because we have our own channels."

Currently, all major legitimate film and television companies are vying for distribution channels, which is NetEase's first-mover advantage. Moreover, I plan to launch NetEase Film and Television Cinema next year.”

Li Feng shook his head, his expression still resolute.

NetEase Culture is profitable and thriving.
How much are you planning to invest?

“One billion.”

Upon hearing this number, Xiong Xiaoge felt that NetEase Culture seemed to have deviated from the direction IDG had envisioned and was heading further and further down an unknown path.

That evening, Xiong Xiaoge also called Wu Chen. Besides marveling at how Wu Chen's collaboration with Weibo had become a classic internet case study and brought a significant start to Weibo, the main topic was the matter of Wangshang Culture.

"I advised Mr. Li some time ago that he should focus on the video website route and gradually give up the internet cafe channel and the revenue from anti-piracy efforts, but..."

Wu Chen shrugged, at a loss for what to do.

Sometimes a founder's stubbornness can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whether the path they take is right or wrong.

"Um"

Xiong Xiaoge felt that Wu Chen had the same idea as her. Wangshang Culture should have leaned towards the video website side, but instead it was still following the traditional old path.

In early August, the film and television industry was also bustling with activity. On one hand, the online auditions for "1939" on Weibo continued to be a huge success, with Wu Chen's team selecting suitable actors from the submissions.

On the other hand, the box office performance in mainland China during the summer season was equally impressive.

Transformers 3 unsurprisingly broke the 400 million mark at the box office, while Harry Potter, though slightly less successful, easily crossed the 100 million mark.

Meanwhile, Le Vision Pictures' long-awaited domestic sci-fi film "Mechanical Man" finally began its large-scale promotion.

With The Martian preceding it, it wasn't appropriate for MechWarrior to deliberately promote sci-fi elements, which made LeTV's advertising much more interesting.

"The Martian is a classic science fiction work that is worth studying. We may not be able to reach that level for the time being."

But that's okay, our movie has four main elements: science fiction, romance, kung fu, and comedy.

Therefore, each trailer we release is different; some focus on science fiction, some on kung fu, some on romance, and some on comedy, hoping to satisfy the preferences of different audiences.

Liu Hong, Senior Vice President of LeEco, spoke candidly to the media, and emphasized in particular:

"We tried our best to pay homage to director Wu's 'The Martian,' but unfortunately, we're telling a story about robots."

This promotional method has attracted the attention of many people in the industry.

Inside Xingchen Pictures, Ning Hao couldn't help but laugh, turning to Wu Chen and saying:
"LeEco's promotional tactics are quite interesting. They seem to be trying to have their cake and eat it too, constantly mentioning your 'The Martian,' but they're also worried the movie won't do well, so they're quickly trying to clarify things."

Wu Chen smiled faintly and shook his head, his eyes still fixed on the casting information on the screen.

Ning Hao leaned closer, glanced at the candidates, and couldn't help but ask, "How's the audition going? Are there any suitable candidates?"

"I've already seen a few good ones, and I'm going to invite them to auditions." Wu Chen's gaze lingered on the young faces, a satisfied smile appearing on his lips.

"Oh, let me see who's so lucky." Ning Hao couldn't stay seated; he stood up, leaned on the table, and peered out.

Wu Chen pouted, "Are you nearsighted?"

"There is a little bit." Ning Hao smiled, not caring.

"Li Gan, from Harbin, Heilongjiang. Oh, and a theater enthusiast too. Let me introduce myself. A little Northeasterner, seems quite suitable for your script setting, huh?"

Hmm, Jiang Qiming, oh, a fellow native of Guangdong and Guangxi, has quite distinctive features.
I've noticed that the people you chose all have quite distinctive features; none of them are handsome, but most are rugged or have unique characteristics.

After saying that, Ning Hao sat down.

He was quite curious to see who would ultimately be the lucky winner of Wu Chen's role.

Wu Chen rolled his eyes: "Nonsense, I'm making a war film, not an idol drama."

The team acted swiftly, and news of the open auditions on Weibo had already spread.

The media, with their keen sense of smell, have started spreading all sorts of rumors:
[The online auditions for Wu Chen's new film "1939" are about to enter the second round!]

Is Huang Xiaoshan about to be born? The list of young heroes is taking shape!

[Nearly 100,000 young actors have applied; who will win Wu Chen's favor?]

"."

(End of this chapter)