2001 Media Godfather

Chapter 112 Support
Chu An has learned something new; is this how everyone plays?

Logically speaking, Weibo currently has no competing products, and therefore no competitors.

Chu An was hoping to develop steadily for a while and leverage its uniqueness to grow into an industry giant.

结果
I'm just trying to raise some funds, do I have to resort to such dirty tricks?

He really didn't know that the crisis Weibo is currently facing is nothing compared to other companies in the internet industry.

This is a basic operation; there are much dirtier ones out there.

The reason is not hard to understand, because the internet industry can be said to be the most unique industry in the world.

Because both real industries and financial services have regional attributes.

If you are an American company, you enjoy preferential policies from the United States. If you are a Chinese company, then naturally you also enjoy territorial protection within the national scope.

From a small village grocery store to a multinational corporation, the common thread is that they all gradually develop from a certain region, slowly adapt to the industry environment, and gradually face increasingly fierce industry competition.

But the internet is completely different.

Whether you're a small workshop or a large enterprise, you're all in the same pool from the start. At least until you grow into a behemoth, there are no rules to protect you, no regional advantages.

Moreover, your competitors have been those behemoths from the very beginning.

This has also created two significant characteristics of internet competition:
First, it's cruel!! Everyone will do anything to survive.

Second, it's winner-takes-all! In any given market segment, there are almost no second-tier players besides the leading companies.

As a result, everyone says that the entertainment industry is dirty and chaotic, but in reality, the internet is a million times dirtier and more chaotic than the entertainment industry.

Here, you can see all the ugliest aspects of business.

Take this matter at hand, for example; it's far more complex than just plagiarism.

At this time, Lin Wanchen rushed to Chu An's house overnight to discuss countermeasures.

"Currently, the plagiarism allegations circulating on Inspur's website have had a significant impact on us. JPMorgan Chase has lowered its quote by 50%, and several other firms have lowered their quotes even more."

Chu An closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, clearly not as calm as he appeared. He said, "Didn't Wave also express interest in cooperation before? How come there's a sudden rumor that they're going to plagiarize Weibo?"

Lin Wanchen said, "Perhaps it's because we showed no interest in their offer, so..."

He shrugged and explained, "This is actually quite common in the internet industry."

“They have on-site development teams, so the cost of copying is far lower than that of mergers and acquisitions or partnerships.”

Chu An: "Aren't they afraid we'll sue them?"

Lin Wanchen said, "If we were a mature internet company, of course we would be afraid. After all, no one can afford the cost of losing a lawsuit."

“However,” Young Master Lin’s expression was somewhat troubled, “if we’re dealing with a small company like ours, then it’s a different story.”

Chu An, "What do you mean?"

Lin Wanchen said, "Because whether we lose the lawsuit or not is not important. We probably won't last until we win the lawsuit."

This is the harsh reality of the internet industry. When a large company comes to you to discuss acquisition or cooperation with a small company, even if the price offered is very low, it's considered to be doing you a favor.

Because most of the time, they don't talk about it; they just copy it directly.

Moreover, it was copied verbatim!

They have a user base, a brand, traffic, and a lot of money to pour into it.

Even if a small company creates something original, it can't compete with others.

What? Dissatisfied?
If you're not happy, go ahead and sue! They welcome you to sue; they'd love for you to sue.

Because the more they sue, the faster they die, they even skip the competition.

A lawsuit can drag on for three to five years. Before the verdict is reached, their plagiarized products can operate normally and legally, continuing to hunt down original works within the industry.

How can small companies survive?
Which investor would dare to give you money to keep a small company burning through cash?
Therefore, small companies will go bankrupt in one or two years, not three to five years.

There will only be two possible outcomes:

Alternatively, choose to settle and accept the loss.

Either fight to the bitter end.

The problem is, whether or not you can win the lawsuit is one thing. Even if you win, the company is already gone, so it won't affect their business anymore.

Take Weibo for example. The operating costs generated by the current user growth are in the tens of millions every month, and they are increasing at an extremely steep rate.

Let alone three to five years, they can't even last one or two years!
Chu An produced "Glory" in two years, which was enough to keep Weibo burning for a few months.

In short, once Langchao.com plagiarizes Weibo...
"We either make the website profitable, or we have to compromise!"

Chu An frowned, rubbed his forehead, and remained silent for a long time before finally blurting out, "You're oversimplifying things."

His original intention was simply to create a media platform that he could speak for and control.

To put it simply, I just wasn't comfortable using the original forums, and since I happened to have some money, I decided to create one.

It turns out, it's so troublesome.

He sighed deeply, sat up straight, and said, "Don't panic. When you encounter a problem, you just need to solve it."

"At worst, you can come back and continue being your sister's nanny, and I'll continue selling scripts and making TV dramas."

"Heh!" Lin Wanchen laughed, feeling much lighter after being depressed.

Knowing that Chu An was trying to reassure him, and deliberately avoiding discussing the predicament, he said, "Actually, the responsibility for this lies with me. I was mentally prepared for the harshness of competition, but..."

He shook his head. "Perhaps I was complacent because of the smooth sailing at the beginning, or maybe I was just careless."

Chu An said, "You're not Superman, and I'm not the Jade Emperor. It's normal to make mistakes."

"I'd like to hear your thoughts! After all, even so, we still have offers from four other firms, including JPMorgan Chase, so we haven't exhausted all our options yet."

Lin Wanchen said, "Their offer is actually not that meaningful."

Chu An, "What do you mean?"

Lin Wanchen said, "Take JPMorgan Chase for example. Their original offer was $8000 million, which is nearly 6 million RMB."

"Even though their demand for more than 30% of the shares is a bit much, such a large sum of money is enough for us to complete the initial user accumulation and have ample time and space to find profit points."

"But now we only have 40 million left. 300 million is not enough. It might be burned up in a year!"

"The fact that they acquired more than 30% of the shares has created trouble for our next round of financing. We have fewer assets to offer, which could lead to a vicious cycle that could eventually kill us."

Chu An nodded, agreeing with Lin Wanchen's words.

Moreover, Chu An thought of the worst-case scenario: "Old Lin, have you considered that JPMorgan Chase and the other three companies are reacting a little too quickly?"

Chu An may not understand the internet, but he does understand business.

He used to not focus his energy on Weibo, but now he's starting to take it seriously.

Lin Wanchen pondered Chu An's words, a chill running down her spine. "You mean... Inspur is in cahoots with Morgan Stanley and a few other firms? They want to operate Weibo at a low cost?"

Chu An shook his head, "No, no, no, it's unlikely to be collusion."

"Even if Langchao.com wanted to collude, it's unlikely that it could collude with all four investment institutions at once."

"However," she changed the subject, looking at Lin Wanchen, "wolves may not need to coordinate before a hunt, because once the hunt begins, they will immediately reach a tacit understanding!"

Lin Wanchen, “.”

If Chu An calms down and analyzes the matter carefully, he believes that Langchao.com probably never intended to plagiarize Weibo in the first place, but genuinely wanted to cooperate.

After all, Chu An, along with the first batch of Weibo users such as Xu Shu, Lin Wanxing, and Su Manqing, have a huge celebrity effect.

Moreover, Weibo already has a fairly large user base.

It's better to cooperate in a down-to-earth manner. After all, from Langchao.com's perspective, it won't cost much.

Plagiarism is clearly unwise.

However, the turning point came when Weibo began accepting funding, and a group of investment institutions were very interested.

That's where things get interesting.

The first to reach an agreement were probably not investment institutions like JPMorgan Chase, but rather Langchao.com. Seeing that investment institutions were approaching Weibo, they immediately changed their strategy and proactively revealed their intention to copy Weibo.

Yes, in Chu An's opinion, this news must have been leaked by Langchao himself.

Firstly, it undermines the confidence of investment institutions. The investment value of having only one Weibo account in China is completely different from having two or three.

Secondly, it's actually a way to get the ball rolling.

Is this the reason why major investment institutions are lowering their offers?

No!

This does nothing to benefit the trend.

The "brick" thrown out was meant to tell investors that Inspur was also doing Weibo.

The "jade" that was brought back was: rather than investing in a small company with no foundation or experience, wouldn't it be more worthwhile and safer to invest in a behemoth like Inspur?
"What?" Lin Wanchen looked incredulous. "You mean, Langchao.com not only wants to take over the Weibo business, but also wants to get money from investors?"

Chu An shrugged matter-of-factly, "Isn't this obvious?"

"In today's internet environment, which company lacks a profit center? Which company doesn't rely on financing and going public to survive?"

With a thud, Young Master Lin slumped back onto the sofa, somewhat unable to accept it. This world was too dark; he felt a pang of longing to go back to his hometown and make socks with his father.

Staring at Chu An, she asked, "So what do we do now?"

Chu An: "That's a question for you; you're the expert."

"I," Young Master Lin, felt wave after wave of powerlessness.

If he knew what to do, he wouldn't have come to find Chu An in the middle of the night. For a moment, he couldn't utter a single word.

Chu An, though relatively calm, was indeed completely unfamiliar with the field.

He reassured Lin Wanchen again, "Although I don't understand, I do know that there is an advantage that Langchao.com does not have."

Lin Wanchen, "What?"

Chu An said, "Have you forgotten? We lost. Let's go back to the entertainment industry, make enough money, and then come out and have fun again."

"But if the wave loses this round, it may lose everything."

Lin Wanchen, “.”

These words did work in the end. After all, Lin Wanchen's mental age was much younger than Chu An's actual mental age, which made her feel inexplicably at ease.

Gradually calmed down.

However, at this point, all we can do is mechanically list out the possible solutions.

"Now."

"Now, there are only three paths to take."

Chu An smiled. As long as Lin Wanchen could still think and provide him with professional guidance, there was still hope.

He encouraged her, "I knew you had something up your sleeve, tell me!"

Lin Wanchen said, "First, I hope that an investor with principles and conscience will emerge."

Chu An: "Dreaming is not the way out, next!"

Lin Wanchen said, "Secondly, accept Langchao.com's offer. At least we're still alive and have a chance to turn things around."

Chu An was speechless.

His tone grew colder, "Waiting to die isn't a way out either!!"

Lin Wanchen shrugged. "Then there's only the third option left. We need to find a way to generate revenue for Weibo immediately, one that's enough to support its survival and development."

"In this way, we can keep going against Langchao.com until we win the final victory!"

Chu An rolled his eyes at this, thinking, "Damn it, he managed to calm me down."

What a waste of my brain cells!
None of the three suggestions were reliable.

Leaving aside the first two points, expecting a capitalist to have a conscience is simply insane.

But waiting to die was not in Chu An's nature. He would rather die standing than kneel down.

As for the third option, that's even more absurd!

To be honest, Chu An had considered finding ways to monetize Weibo. But at least for now, it's basically impossible.

We can understand this by analyzing the profit structure of microblogs in later generations.

In another timeline, 86% of Weibo's revenue comes from advertising and marketing.

One is to provide exposure for large-scale events in industries such as fast-moving consumer goods, digital products, and automobiles, and charge fees for it.

Secondly, through algorithm optimization, we can achieve precise targeting of users.

Although Chu An was very familiar with these advertising and marketing methods and procedures, the problem was that Weibo was currently in the user accumulation stage and was not suitable for an overly strong commercial atmosphere.

If Chu An really makes money selling ads, then Weibo is doomed!

Besides this 86%, the remaining 14% all came from value-added services.

For example, membership sales and content subscriptions.

Similarly, Weibo is not suitable for the user accumulation stage.

Chu An had considered other sources of income, but they were either unsuitable for the current era or environment, or they were too slow to generate enough money.

To put it bluntly, Young Master Lin's three suggestions are essentially useless. But they at least illustrate one point: there is no other way out besides these three absurd solutions.

Chu An simply told him to go back and get some rest.

But he himself couldn't sleep all night.

The next day, Lin Wanxing learned about Weibo's predicament from her older brother. While on set, she called to ask, "Need money? I've got plenty."

Afterwards, Xu Shu, Su Manqing, and Lao Lu all came to comfort her.

Old Lu even boasted, "You don't have money? I do! You can take whatever you need from the studio's account anytime!"

Chu An was very grateful to everyone, but
This is a huge issue; it can't be resolved with their small amount of money.

What Chu An was even more moved by what everyone did next.

First, Lin Wanxing publicly participated in the discussion on Weibo about "The Wave Plagiarism," tagging the topic on her personal Weibo account and addressing her fans.

"You've got no shame! I'm not going to use your copy anyway! I'll stick to Weibo and support Chu Shikuai! I don't care who else does it!"

Lin Wanxing's fans naturally supported their idol, leaving comments and sharing the post.

"Miss Wanxing is so loyal! I love her!"

"Although Chu Shikuai is not a very good person, his Weibo account is still useful, so I'm not switching."

"Stop talking, just marry me."

The fans were having a blast, but the thread gradually went off-topic.

Surprisingly, shortly after Lin Wanxing posted on Weibo, Su Manqing, Lu Mingze, and others reposted Lin Wanxing's post and publicly expressed their support for Chu An, stating that they would not use Langchao's plagiarized products.

Even Xu Shu, who belongs to Tiandu, is no exception. She published her first blog post, officially joining Weibo and hoping that fans will support her here in the future, and that she will treat this place as her eternal home.

Although they couldn't help financially, they contributed in their own ways.

We place our hopes on the power of public opinion to provide some assistance.

Whether it can be of any help is still unknown.

But
Faced with the crowd's support, Chu An, who had been completely clueless, suddenly had a bright idea.

He thought to himself, "I may not understand the internet, but I do understand people's hearts and how to play the game of communication!"

.

(End of this chapter)