This director lacks vision.

Chapter 386 When in doubt, consult your mentor; but your mentor gives you a dressing down.

Yang Zi is 22 years old this year and will soon graduate from school.

Having been in the entertainment industry for so many years, she's not stupid.

Although everyone can see that she has made adjustments, this is something that cannot be said casually, and we must not give others grounds for criticism.

It's safe to say that Zi Mei is quite smart to succeed in the entertainment industry and become the top actress among the post-90s generation in terms of television drama achievements.

However, her path is now very difficult.

After all, Jiang Yifeng promotes people based on their looks.

He has made stars of many popular actresses, including Nazha Reba, and his girl group and TV dramas have achieved great success. It will be too difficult for Yang Zi to make a comeback.

They have no choice but to forge their own path.

After all, in the entertainment industry, having an average appearance is an advantage—a large number of ordinary-looking women can relate to the character.

To be a celebrity, you don't need everyone to like you. As long as you capture your core audience, you can have a place in the Chinese entertainment industry.

Tang Yan noticed that Yang Zi was wary of her, so she pouted and went to find Liu Yifei.

In their past lives, the two became good friends because of filming "For Love or Money," but now they are just nodding acquaintances.

But Tang Yan had her own methods. She was now Yang Mi's best friend and had gathered information from Yang Mi beforehand. With the right approach, she quickly became familiar with Liu Yifei.

Tang Yan came to act in the TV series "Zhu Xian". She was demoted from Bi Yao in Huanrui Media to Jin Ping Er in Fengxing Media. Her main purpose was to defect and show her loyalty.

All the artists at H&R Century Pictures know that Jiang Yifeng is now in charge of the company.

They were very much looking forward to it and hoped that Jiang Yifeng would lead them to success.

The same applies to Tangyan (a type of cigarette).

Jiang Yifeng didn't make any major moves against Huanrui, so Tang Yan had to take the initiative.

She's a top-tier female celebrity, and her treatment on set is much better than Yang Zi's.

The only problem is that I can't have much contact with Jiang Yifeng.

There's no way around it, Jiang Yifeng is surrounded by too many beautiful women: Liu Yifei, Shu Chang, Yang Caiyu, Li Yitong, Tian Qianwei, Yan Danchen, Fan Bingbing... These women love to stay on set even when they don't have any scenes to film.

There's also a mother-in-law, Liu Xiaoli, who's also addicted to acting.

Fortunately, Jiang Yifeng focuses on filming on set and is very serious about his work, so everyone is familiar with his style.

Because it was a film about Jiang Yifeng, most of the actors had received prior training.

In addition, Jiang Yifeng has a focused aura, which makes his directing effective, so the actors' performances are all on point.

Even though the young actors are not quite as good as the veteran actors, they can still hold their own in the role.

Once the entire crew was up and running, filming went very smoothly.

On the morning of April 3rd, Jiang Yifeng finished filming a scene set in a martial arts sect. His assistant, Li Xia, came over and said, "Boss, Zhang Yiming and others from ByteDance are here to visit."

Hearing this, Jiang Yifeng was a little surprised: "Didn't you say you were coming at noon? Why are you in such a hurry? Let them wait."

Upon receiving the instructions, Li Xia said to Zhang Yiming and the others, "The boss said the appointment time is noon, but he is currently unavailable. You will have to wait."

"You can sit and have tea in the lounge over there. I'll take you there."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Lidong immediately said, "No need, Mr. Li, you go ahead with your work, we'll just take a walk around the neighborhood."

Li Xia nodded, without pressuring him.

Watching Li Xia leave, Liang Rubo said, "I told you we shouldn't have come so early. It would have been better if we had arrived at the agreed time."

Zhang Lidong shook his head and said, "You don't understand. By coming early, we can show our sincerity and also show that we are in a hurry."

Although they still had to wait here, the effect was different, and President Jiang could feel the difference.

This controversy is no small matter; it concerns the company's future development, and we cannot take it too seriously.

On April 1st, the official "General Rules for Review of Online Audiovisual Content" were officially announced, and the president of the China Online Audiovisual Program Service Association was replaced by a leader from the Optoelectronics Department.

Generally speaking, when the Chinese government releases a policy, it is after thorough research and comprehensive consideration.

Online audiovisual content includes not only video websites, but also online platforms such as Weibo, forums, and Toutiao.

This is a comprehensive oversight and guidance.

ByteDance's products will naturally be subject to regulation, especially its two flagship products, Toutiao and Neihan Duanzi.

Originally, Zhang Yiming and his group did not take this matter very seriously, thinking they would just deal with it and continue their aggressive expansion.

As a result, the day after the review guidelines were released, BlockBroadcast was investigated and its person in charge was taken away.

This has shaken the entire industry.

After all, internet entrepreneurship is very brutal. In order to grab customers, major platforms use all sorts of unorthodox and unconventional methods.

Now that Kuaibo is under investigation, it's impossible to say that Zhang Yiming and his group aren't worried.

In particular, Liang Rubo, who was in charge of technical architecture, did not want to cause trouble, so he suggested that all products under the company fully implement the new rules.

Zhang Lidong, who was in charge of advertising placement, naturally disagreed.

If the general rules are fully implemented, what appeal will the company's products have? Advertising revenue will inevitably decline significantly.

The argument was deadlocked, and Zhang Yiming was also undecided. So Zhang Lidong suggested that when in doubt, one should consult the mentor, Jiang Yifeng, for a decision.

Within ByteDance, Jiang Yifeng is referred to as a "mentor".

Jiang Yifeng's previous advice, especially on purchasing pre-installed software and hiring legal counsel, enabled ByteDance's business to develop rapidly.

In addition, Weibo and other social media platforms have shown support for ByteDance.

Today, ByteDance is developing even more rapidly than it did in its previous days.

Besides Toutiao, Neihan Duanzi has over 100 million registered users and more than 12 million daily active users, making it one of the most active mobile internet apps today.

Upon hearing Zhang Lidong's words, Zhang Nan subconsciously questioned, "Is it really a good idea to find President Jiang?"
He wasn't actually involved in our company's management and operations, so his advice might not be correct.

Zhang Nan was originally the owner of an image community company that made various GIFs, just like Kuaishou. After the company was acquired by ByteDance, she also joined ByteDance and is currently in charge of the operation of Neihan Duanzi.

Despite being a woman, she is decisive and has a strong sense of self-reliance.

She played an indispensable role in the future development of Douyin.

He Shanshan said with a smile, "I don't think President Jiang's suggestion is important; it's just a suggestion that Yiming needs to make a decision about."

He Shanshan is the company's financial director and a close confidante of Zhang Yiming.

Zhang Yiming smiled and said, "President Jiang has a broad vision and a high vantage point; his opinion is very important."

Let's take a walk around the area first.

The five of them wandered around the film set, watching everyone film, and found it all quite novel.

Zhang Nan and He Shanshan are considered beauties in the workplace, but compared to the beauties in the drama "Zhu Xian," they seem ordinary.

However, they didn't have any objections, because there were many handsome men in the crew, and they enjoyed watching it.

The group of five wandered around and quickly attracted everyone's attention.

After some gossip, people found out that he was the boss of Toutiao and Neihan Duanzi, two products that many people in the production crew used.

Yang Zi was very bold and took the initiative to strike up a conversation.

Zhang Lidong, who is in charge of advertising, is a very talkative person. He started chatting with Yang Zi.

Yang Zi said, "I saw in the news that your company's revenue target was 15 billion last year, which has already exceeded the target. This year's target is 30 billion. Is that really that impressive?"

"It's alright, the development speed is just average." Zhang Lidong of Versailles Circuit: "The national policies are good, we caught the wave."

"Then what are you doing on set? Are you here to sponsor Jade Dynasty?"

"We've come to ask Mr. Jiang for some advice; he's our big boss."

Zhang Lidong spoke with a flattering tone, as he had met Jiang Yifeng before and was completely convinced of Jiang Yifeng's abilities.

Jiang Yifeng is now a major shareholder of ByteDance and has veto power, so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him the big boss.

Moreover, Zhang Lidong's words were clearly intentional.

He made great contributions to ByteDance, but his shareholding and status in the company were overshadowed by Liang Rubo.

Simply because Liang Rubo is a co-founder.

Zhang Lidong also wanted to use Jiang Yifeng to increase his influence within ByteDance.

Zhang Yiming was aware of this situation, but he wasn't angry because Zhang Lidong was fighting against Liang Rubo, not against him.

As the actual controller of the company, Zhang Yiming also hopes that his two subordinates can have a proper struggle, so that he can manage them better.

Upon hearing Zhang Lidong's words, Yang Zi suddenly remembered that Jiang Yifeng was not only a director, but also a billionaire on the Forbes list.

Even a powerful group like those at Toutiao (Today's Headlines) have to wait on set to see Jiang Yifeng.

Sometimes, when people spend a lot of time together, they may not realize how impressive or powerful the other person is.

Only in certain moments can one truly appreciate this difference. Many people share Yang Zi's sentiments; watching the five-person ByteDance team, the crew members discussed amongst themselves, with many praising Jiang Yifeng's awesomeness.

It's as if Jiang Yifeng's achievements are the same as theirs.

Jiang Yifeng finished filming at 12:10 pm.

He had his assistant deliver a special meal to the lounge, where he ate with Zhang Yiming and four others.

"The crew has limited resources, so please make do with what you have to eat."

Hearing Jiang Yifeng's words, Zhang Yiming smiled and said, "This is already better than the work meals we usually eat."

Zhang Nan also said, "Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Jiang. Please forgive any inconvenience caused."

The woman who was just questioning him has now become very obedient, and even He Shanshan is all smiles.

Jiang Yifeng has activated his Beast Heart talent, giving him a very strong aura.

He took a bite of beef and asked, "Is something the matter? Why are you in such a hurry?"

Zhang Yiming glanced at Zhang Lidong, who understood and explained the general rules.

"We can't grasp the right measure right now, and we're afraid of being made an example of by those above."

Jiang Yifeng said, "I have been using your products. The biggest problem now is not that they are skirting the edge, but that they are being collected by the community."

Especially with humorous anecdotes, users can exchange secret codes offline and quickly gather hundreds or even thousands of followers.

This is a very serious matter and could be blocked at any time.

Jiang Yifeng's emergence led to the early release of the "General Rules for the Review of Online Audiovisual Content," and also allowed ByteDance to develop faster than in its previous form.

In its previous form, the general rules were released in 2017.

Not long after, Neihan Duanzi was ordered to shut down, and Toutiao was also forced to rectify its practices.

It was precisely because Neihan Duanzi was shut down that ByteDance focused all its efforts on developing Douyin.

Douyin was able to develop because of the customers and creators accumulated by Neihan Duanzi, which already had a short video community at that time.

There is no such thing as success without a reason in the world. Those who boast about Zhang Nan's development of Douyin from scratch are people who do not understand the business.

From the government's perspective, problematic apps can usually be rectified, but apps like Neihan Duanzi that are directly ordered to shut down have crossed a red line.

Zhang Yiming issued a public apology in response.

Some things are unclear without being pointed out, especially since Zhang Yiming and others believe that Jiang Yifeng has connections within the government, and that he has even received praise from the Sohu platform.

Now that Jiang Yifeng said this, they were all terrified.

Jiang Yifeng continued, "Touching the edge is a minor matter. You can offset the negative impact by creating some positive communities and accounts."

Anything else?

After clarifying the scope of the matter, Jiang Yifeng continued to ask questions.

His attitude towards Zhang Yiming and others was rather casual; he didn't have any special feelings for them, nor did he try to cultivate any particular relationship with them.

After all, business is business, and everyone is focused on profit.

Moreover, it's still uncertain whether Douyin can become the market leader in the future.

Kuaishou has been developing its short video community for almost a year.

With Jiang Yifeng's help, Kuaishou APP now has 1.7 million registered users and nearly 3000 million daily active users, a more rapid development than in its previous life.

Furthermore, Chen Yixiao also began to promote algorithms, launching the "You May Like" feature on Kuaishou short videos.

Instead of conducting his own research, he introduced technology from the Classic of Mountains and Seas laboratory and shared data with the laboratory.

In fact, ByteDance's core algorithm is essentially a complex, advanced, and constantly evolving artificial intelligence system, and it is also a very typical application of AI technology.

User data from Kuaishou and Douyin is the "high-purity fuel" for AI research.

It has irreplaceable value, especially in fields such as recommender systems, multimodal learning, computer vision, and user behavior modeling.

Jiang Yifeng had previously approached Zhang Yiming, hoping to get ByteDance to collaborate with the Shan Hai Jing Lab.

But Zhang Yiming refused, feeling that the recommendation algorithm was ByteDance's core technology and he didn't want to share it.

So Jiang Yifeng found Chen Yixiao.

After two rounds of follow-up investments, Jiang Yifeng's Fengling Capital now holds a 47% stake in Kuaishou, making it the absolute majority shareholder.

Kuaishou is more reliant on Jiang Yifeng, and Chen Yixiao is more willing to cooperate with Jiang Yifeng.

Therefore, Jiang Yifeng provides greater support to Kuaishou.

With the Classic of Mountains and Seas Lab at its helm, Kuaishou's algorithm will surely catch up and surpass others. Coupled with Jiang Yifeng's strategic guidance and its first-mover advantage in the short video field, Kuaishou will definitely be stronger than before.

ByteDance's future is indeed not so clear.

Upon hearing Jiang Yifeng's question, Zhang Yiming replied, "No, we came here today mainly to ask you about this."

Jiang Yifeng nodded and said, "OK, I've made myself very clear."

These words were somewhat meant to shoo them away, so Zhang Yiming stood up and said with a smile, "Then, Mr. Jiang, you're busy, we won't bother you any longer."

"Okay, then I won't see you off."

Zhang Yiming and four others left the film crew, and everyone remained silent.

After getting into the van, Zhang Lidong said, "Although President Jiang's attitude was a bit cold, he still gave us some pointers. We should go back and quickly revise Neihan Duanzi, and then create some sections that are officially encouraged."

"It's still possible to do something like skirting the edges."

Zhang Yiming nodded and explained, "President Jiang's cold attitude is probably because I refused his request to collaborate on the algorithm last time."

Liang Rubo said, "Algorithms are indeed our core technology. If we hand them over to the Shan Hai Jing Studio, our company's future potential will be greatly reduced."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Lidong immediately retorted: "What discount? Look at Kuaishou's collaboration with President Jiang; its valuation has now exceeded 150 billion!"

Wang Sicong is a rich second-generation with little talent, but with the support of President Jiang, he created Panda TV, which is now valued at 140 billion yuan.

Why are we so fixated on the algorithm? Mr. Jiang never said he wanted to buy the algorithm; it was just a collaboration!

Now that's great, Mr. Jiang has researched the algorithm himself and even partnered with Kuaishou. How are we supposed to compete now?

Liang Rubo, being a tech guy, couldn't win the argument with Zhang Lidong, so he said defiantly, "What's there to be afraid of? At worst, we can cooperate with other companies!"

Zhang Lidong chuckled and said, "President Jiang has veto power. Who do you want to cooperate with? Does he agree?"

Upon hearing this, Liang Rubo fell silent.

Zhang Yiming was annoyed, but he still said, "This matter is over. Let's go back and rectify the platform content first. We can talk about the algorithm later."

Zhang Yiming was also a smart man. He could sense that Jiang Yifeng was giving them a warning, but his goal was still to cooperate on algorithms and data.

It's not just about today's attitude, but also about the Neihan Duanzi (a popular Chinese humor app) issue—if Zhang Yiming and others hadn't taken the initiative to ask, Jiang Yifeng wouldn't have reminded them and would have watched Neihan Duanzi get taken down.

This is already an explicit statement.

Jiang Yifeng indeed thought so.

Even without short videos, ByteDance's platform already has a large database.

Jiang Yifeng's AI research requires a large amount of data.

Moreover, China's short video market is large enough to accommodate two companies.

The competition between Kuaishou and Douyin better suits Jiang Yifeng's needs.

Anyway, he's an investor, and what he needs most is big data.

But since Zhang Yiming refused to cooperate, Jiang Yifeng naturally had to give him a warning.

In fact, if Zhang Yiming and the others had asked a few days earlier, Jiang Yifeng wouldn't have even told the truth.

He answered truthfully today because he knew it was too late; the minefield of Neihan Duanzi (a popular Chinese humor website) is too big.

Even though Zhang Yiming and his team took immediate action upon returning, they still received an official notification that Neihan Duanzi would be indefinitely taken down for rectification and could only resume operation after passing the inspection.

This is a devastating blow to ByteDance, which is expanding rapidly.

Zhang Yiming also realized the importance of having a powerful backer and wanted to bring in key investors.

The problem is that Jiang Yifeng has veto power; if he disagrees, the investors can't get in.

After recognizing reality, Zhang Yiming finally bowed his head and chose to cooperate with Jiang Yifeng.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas Laboratory has absorbed ByteDance's algorithm technology, received a larger amount of data, and accelerated the development of AI research.

Jiang Yifeng didn't care about Zhang Yiming's attitude and thoughts after being humiliated.

In business, everyone has their own methods for cooperating and competing.

Jiang Yifeng left the follow-up details to Wen Lingfeng and Du Wei, as he focused more on filming Jade Dynasty.

On April 11th, the 15th day of filming for Jade Dynasty, it was finally Jiang Yifeng's turn to appear as the Beast God.

(End of this chapter)