This director lacks vision.

Chapter 273 The Early Arrival of the Era of Entertainment Mega-Capital
On the morning of June 12, Jiang Yifeng arrived at the company and attended the monthly meeting of Soohu Group.

After the meeting, Zhang Chaoyang asked Jiang Yifeng to stay.

The two were making tea in the office.

Zhang Chaoyang exclaimed, "I think I'm pretty awesome. I can stay away from the company for a while without any problem."

It seems you're the better one; you managed to persuade Wen Lingfeng to join the company and take the helm for you.

You've been filming outside for several months, but the company is actually doing better and better.

That's so damn enviable!
I also hope to have someone I can trust to help me manage the company.

Jiang Yifeng was away filming, so he left all the company affairs to Wen Lingfeng.

As a result, Wen Lingfeng also resigned from her position at Hualing Capital.

Hearing Zhang Chaoyang's words, Jiang Yifeng smiled and said, "Then you should hurry up and have a child, raise him well for a few years, maybe there will be a chance."

Zhang Chaoyang sighed and said, "Having children is more troublesome. I have a rather pessimistic outlook on life, so I won't bother you."

Have you decided on the location for your company headquarters building?

Jiang Yifeng took a sip of tea and said, "It's settled. Wen Lingfeng found the connections. It's in the second phase of Zhongguancun Software Park, covering an area of ​​more than 8 square meters, with a total investment of 19 billion yuan."

Zhang Chaoyang gave a thumbs up and praised, "That's a big investment! Souhu's new building only cost a little over 7 million."

Jiang Yifeng explained, "This time it's not just a building, but an entire park, including office areas, film and television areas, terminal factory areas, and living areas. It's called Fengxing Science and Technology Park."

Without this title, you can't even get into the software park.

After all, the second phase consists of internet and high-tech companies.

Wait, why have you been praising me all day?
Stop beating around the bush, just say what you mean.

Zhang Chaoyang organized his thoughts before slowly saying, "There are two things I want to discuss with you."

The first issue is the development of Sohu Video.

With fierce competition among video websites, Sohu Video cannot rely solely on Fengxing Media.

After the company went public, the platform acquired H&R Century Pictures as a subsidiary.

In the future, H&R Century will focus on producing TV dramas to enrich the self-produced drama section of Sohu Video;
At the same time, they poached some people from TV stations and established the "Smiling Fox" variety show brand, which is responsible for producing the platform's self-produced variety shows.

This is a necessity for the internal development of the video website and is not intended to target Fengxing Media.

"You're also a shareholder of Soohu Video, so I need to make something special to you."

In March of this year, Sohu Video went public on Nasdaq, with its market value approaching 5 billion US dollars on the first day.

This is already a fairly high valuation.

After all, Youku's peak market value was only over three billion US dollars.

Although video websites have a large influence, their profitability is relatively poor.

Broadband costs, copyright purchases, and revenue sharing with bloggers—all these are sources of expenses.

After Sohu Video went public and raised nearly 10 billion US dollars, it's only natural that it would make some moves.

In addition to continuing to support video bloggers, the company also acquired H&R Century Pictures and formed a new content team.

Jiang Yifeng just returned to the company today and came to Souhu Group for a meeting. Wen Lingfeng didn't tell him about this, so he didn't know.

Zhang Chaoyang still cared about Jiang Yifeng's thoughts and made a point of explaining it clearly.

He paused for a moment, then continued, "Ma Yun also realized the benefits of the entertainment industry. Although the profit margin is not very high, it has strong advertising attributes and a large influence, which can help the development of other businesses."

At the beginning of this year, Alibaba established Alibaba Entertainment, first acquiring Dong Ping's Cultural Huaguo Communication Group; then acquiring 18.5% of Youku's shares and pushing Youku to acquire Tudou.com; it also acquired Tiantian Dongting, entering the music industry, making a big splash.

Tencent leverages its QQ user base to vigorously develop Tencent Video. They acquired New Classics Media and are also increasing their investment in self-produced content.

Baidu has made another investment in iQiyi, amounting to 12 billion yuan.

iQiyi's market share is now close to 20%, second only to Youku and Sohu, making it the third largest video website.

They partnered with Huace Media to establish a film and television company, and are also preparing to acquire Stellar Media in Hong Kong to enter the cinema business.

LeEco, needless to say, has been making a lot of noise in the past two years.

Zhang Yimou and Zhang Weiping have fallen out and are now in court.

Jia Yueting stopped working with Zhang Yimou for over a year, so it's pretty much a done deal that LeEco will sign Zhang Yimou.

With real estate companies like Wanda Group also investing, the entertainment industry is now booming and highly competitive.

Sohu Video must diversify its development and produce more content.

This is part of the company's strategic plan.

Jiang Yifeng's rebirth is like a catfish, especially in the video website industry and the entertainment circle.

Sohu Video has achieved great success in producing original content, revitalizing the struggling Sohu Group—a feat that is evident to all.

Fengxing Media's market value has continued to rise, demonstrating the development potential of the content industry.

This led domestic internet companies to establish video websites and develop the cultural and entertainment industry earlier, and to place greater emphasis on self-produced content.

In today's video website industry, Sohu is still number one, holding more than 40% of the market share, but Youku, iQiyi, Tencent Video, and LeTV are all making efforts.

These companies are either publicly listed or backed by internet giants, and have ample funds.

Everyone needs to create their own content, so talent in the industry chain becomes especially important, and salary increases are inevitable.

The era of big capital in the entertainment industry has arrived, and celebrities should be happy.

Their salaries and appearance fees will increase accordingly in the future.

This phenomenon was originally not expected to appear until 2014, the year that was considered the first year of internet traffic.

However, Jiang Yifeng's resurgence accelerated industry development, brought forward the entry of internet capital, and intensified competition.

Upon hearing Zhang Chaoyang's explanation, Jiang Yifeng shook his head and said, "I thought it was something serious. It's such a small matter, no need to explain."

I didn't explain my partnerships with YouTube and Netflix to you.

Because I know that you, boss, have a broad perspective and won't care about these things.

Now that you're explaining all this to me, you're just looking down on my perspective.

For Sohu Video to develop normally, acquiring content companies and building content teams is a perfectly normal decision.

Jiang Yifeng understood, of course.

Moreover, after Sohu Video went public, Jiang Yifeng still held 12.4% of the shares, with three times the voting rights, making him a mini-boss of the company.

Zhang Chaoyang also holds shares in Fengxing Media, and their cooperative relationship is very solid.

We are now in the early stages of a big-capital era in the entertainment industry, where content is king, making Fengxing Media's importance increasingly prominent.

It's impossible for Sohu Video to sever ties with Fengxing Media.

If Fengxing Media were to switch to another video website, Sohu Video's leading position in the market would be in jeopardy. Hearing Jiang Yifeng's words, Zhang Chaoyang laughed heartily and said, "Geniuses are always arrogant. You haven't suffered a loss since you joined Sohu."

I was just trying to explain things clearly because I was afraid you'd overthink it.

"Stop kidding, what's the second thing?"

"You know that Huanrui owns the film and television adaptation rights to Jade Dynasty, right?"

"Yes, I know that. You don't want Fengxing Media to produce Jade Dynasty, do you? What's the point of acquiring Huanrui then?"

"Zhu Xian will definitely be produced by Huanrui's team themselves, with funding from the platform. The project has already been approved."

However, Huanrui doesn't have many well-known artists, so they still want to invite stars from Fengxing Media to act in the show.

They contacted Liu Yifei's team, hoping to cast her as Lu Xueqi, but she declined, stating she wasn't interested.

Hearing this, Jiang Yifeng finally understood why Zhang Chaoyang had spent so much time explaining.

In Zhang Chaoyang's view, Zhu Xian is a very influential IP, and Lu Xueqi is the first female lead in the series.

This role would be highly sought-after in the entertainment industry.

As a result, Liu Yifei refused without even thinking about it.

This was definitely instructed by Jiang Yifeng or Fengxing Media, indicating that Fengxing Media has a problem with Huanrui and doesn't want to cooperate with them.

Jiang Yifeng asked, "Who were the male lead Zhang Xiaofan and the female lead Biyao from 'Zhu Xian' assigned to?"

Zhang Chaoyang was stumped by the question.

Although he valued Huanrui's first project after joining Sohu, he did not follow up on it consistently, and he was unaware of the details.

Zhang Chaoyang gave his assistant Sun Lin a wink, and Sun Lin understood, going outside to make a phone call.

A minute later, she came back and said, "The male lead, Zhang Xiaofan, will be played by Li Yifeng. Biyao hasn't been decided yet, but it's highly likely that she'll be played by Tang Yan."

At that time, H&R Century Pictures had few independently signed artists, including Li Yifeng, Han Dong, and Xi Xue. Yang Zi had only joined in 2015.

They primarily collaborate with various artists through their own studios.

The company owns studios such as Mingdao Studio, Tangyan Studio, and Duchun Studio.

If Jiang Yifeng hadn't appeared, Yang Mi's studio would have cooperated with Huanrui and even signed that famous performance-based agreement.

Huanrui's move is quite obvious: they want to use Liu Yifei's fame to boost the profiles of Li Yifeng and Tang Yan.

After all, although Lu Xueqi is the first female lead in Zhu Xian, she doesn't have many scenes, and her character arc is not as well-developed as Bi Yao's.

Moreover, since "Zhu Xian" is a male-centric drama, the more popular the female lead is, the more Li Yifeng, the male lead, will benefit.

Jiang Yifeng didn't hide anything and directly told Zhang Chaoyang Huanrui's purpose, then said, "Li Yifeng participated in two seasons of 'Super Boy' but failed to become popular. Liu Yifei won't help him boost his popularity."

Fengxing Media produces more than a dozen films and television dramas a year, with a wide variety of roles. Liu Yifei herself felt tired and wanted to take a break.

She turned down the role of Lu Xueqi simply because she was lazy.

Huanrui's production of "The Legend of Chusen" was a complete mess, and its ratings plummeted.

Jiang Yifeng certainly wouldn't let Liu Yifei get involved in this mess.

Seeing Jiang Yifeng say this, Zhang Chaoyang did not insist.

He poured Jiang Yifeng a cup of tea and said, "I've invited Zhao Zhicheng and the others to go fishing the day after tomorrow. Would you like to come along?"

Zhao Zhicheng is the founder of H&R Century Pictures, and he is not very old, only 32 years old this year.

Jiang Yifeng nodded and said, "No problem."

After chatting for a while, Jiang Yifeng returned to his office.

Just as she sat down, Mu Di knocked on the door and came in. She said, "President Jiang, there's been a problem with the second season of 'Back to Field'."

After the Sisters Who Make Waves ended, Fengxing Media's variety show department started preparing for the second season of The Big Band.

Now that the "Summer of Music" program is nearing its end, preparations have begun for the second season of "Back to Field".

Jiang Yifeng asked, "What's going on?"

Mu Di said, "We couldn't agree on the guest fees. We quoted Huang Lei and He Jiong 500 million yuan, which is 200 million yuan more than last year."

However, while iQiyi was poaching talent, they also wanted to produce a slow-paced variety show called "Leisurely Holiday".

They offered Huang Lei and He Jiong an appearance fee of 300 million yuan, but it was only 300 million yuan per episode, and the program was planned to run for 12 episodes.

iQiyi stipulated an exclusivity clause: once Huang Lei and He Jiong accepted a leisurely holiday, they could no longer film any other slow-paced variety shows.

iQiyi is trying to poach talent. The fee for the first phase is 300 million, and in the 12th phase, they gave Huang Lei and He Jiong 3600 million each, which adds up to almost 7200 million.

They won't make any money doing things this way; they might even lose money.

After all, iQiyi doesn't have the brand name of Fengxing Media, so it will be more difficult to attract sponsors for the program, and the program will also need to invite other guests.

This is how internet capital operates: throwing money at the market to increase market share, thereby increasing valuation and going public, or waiting to gain a monopoly before profiting by exploiting investors.

Jiang Yifeng asked, "You didn't raise the price?"

Mu Di said, "I raised the fee to 1000 million, but Huang Lei and He Jiong both refused. They chose to record Leisurely Holiday instead."

In addition to offering them high compensation, iQiyi also granted them the status of program producers, giving them considerable power.

Hunan TV has also finalized a collaboration with Leisurely Holiday.

A reward of tens of millions would leave anyone bewildered.

When faced with real money, all sentimentality takes a backseat.

Jiang Yifeng clearly felt that Fengxing Media's best period of benefit in variety show production had passed.

With competition from capital, the appearance fees for celebrity guests will continue to rise in the future, and the lineup of the first and second seasons of Sisters Who Make Waves will become a swan song.

Profit margins for variety shows will also shrink, given the increasing number of different types of variety shows on the market.

Fortunately, the company has also developed its own artist management business, and this revenue will increase accordingly.

Jiang Yifeng said, "Huang Lei and He Jiong left, but I have a backup plan."

Once Huang Lei has autonomy, he's bound to become arrogant.

Remember to give him a good beating then, teach him a lesson he won't forget, and show him what it means to be grateful.

Without the suppression of Jiang Yifeng and Fengxing Media, Huang Lei's tendency to be a know-it-all will be on full display, and he will definitely be unable to resist establishing the persona of Chef Huang.

After all, this persona is effective; Xie Tingfeng said that anyone who uses it knows how useful it is.

Mu Di nodded and asked curiously, "Then who should we cooperate with?"

Jiang Yifeng said, "Find your old employer."

(End of this chapter)