This director lacks vision.

Chapter 47 Independence and Contingency Plan

Hearing this, Jiang Yifeng took a sip of tea and joked, "How to shoot good online videos is my livelihood. Boss, if you want me to teach you, you should give me some benefits, right?"

For Jiang Yifeng, teaching is a good thing that can enhance his reputation and status in the martial arts world.

Anyway, people will figure out the shooting techniques for online videos on their own, even if he doesn't teach them.

To be frank, this thing doesn't have much value.

The trainees at Sohu this time are all key contracted bloggers that are being cultivated.

Jiang Yifeng becoming their teacher is a way of building good relationships, and it will increase his influence on Sohu Video in the future.

Moreover, Jiang Yifeng holds the position of content director, so he has to do some work.

Zhang Chaoyang knew he was joking, so he said slowly, "There are no benefits, but that's a small matter."

The second thing I want to talk about today is the most important.

Jiang Yifeng poured Zhang Chaoyang a cup of tea and said with a smile, "Please give your instructions, boss."

Zhang Chaoyang coughed and organized his thoughts.

"The spin-off listing of Sohu Video cannot be rushed for the time being; it certainly won't happen within two or three years."

With information evolving rapidly, portal websites face immense competitive pressure and increasingly narrow profit margins.

The Sohu portal website is insufficient to support the group's future development; video business will be the group's main business in the next few years.

If I spin off the video website, the group company will lose its main business and its development focus.

There are many opinions among the people.

Upon hearing Zhang Chaoyang's words, Jiang Yifeng understood that someone within the group disagreed with splitting up the video website.

After all, for a company, a good project means performance, bonuses, income, and lucrative opportunities.

Video websites are booming right now, and Youku will go public at the end of next year, with its market value soaring to 35 billion US dollars on the first day.

Sohu Video currently holds the top market position, making it a highly sought-after commodity.

Spinning off the video website would harm the interests of many senior executives and shareholders of the group.

Unlike Sohu Changyou or Sogou, this is a relatively independent project.

Like Sohu Portal, the video website is a platform for creating internet content and is managed by the same team.

From the team's perspective, we finally managed to build up the video website by leveraging the resources and funding of Sohu.com, and then the boss turned around and wanted to spin it off for an IPO. This is an act of betraying our benefactors.

Naturally, the opinions were very strong.

Although Sohu is still under Zhang Chaoyang's control, the company has quite a few shareholders.

Zhang Chaoyang also needs to respect the opinions of company executives and veterans.

Many large companies are like this; it's not like the boss can just make a decision on a whim and do whatever he wants.

This is especially true for conglomerates like Sohu that have reached a certain level of development.

There are even more problems.

Baidu also has a host of internal problems.

It is said that Li Yanhong uses a special version of Baidu.

His own experience using it was excellent.

A bunch of employees surrounded him and cheered him on, building an information wall.

He simply couldn't understand why Baidu's reputation was getting worse and worse.

Tencent's solution to the problem was to cultivate internal spies.

Ultimately, this led to the creation of the WeChat team.

But Zhang Chaoyang didn't have that kind of ambition.

He had originally agreed with Jiang Yifeng to spin off Souhu Video and exchange shares with Jiang Yifeng's studio.

Now that I've broken my promise, I feel a little embarrassed.

"This is my fault. I didn't expect everyone to have such strong opinions, so I've decided to give you some compensation."

"Why don't you tell me your thoughts first?"

Seeing that things were changing, Jiang Yifeng remained calm.

He thought for a moment and said, "Then let's set up my studio as a company called Fengxing Media, while maintaining a certain degree of independence."

We still work in the Sohu Building, specializing in producing high-quality content, including web series, movies, and various programs.

Production costs were covered by Soohu Video, and profits will be split 50/50 between the two parties.

Since Sohu Video is not going to be spun off and listed for the time being, Jiang Yifeng might as well go ahead and list his own company.

The cooperation model he proposed is also a mature approach for the future, called "guaranteed revenue sharing".

For example, the collaboration between Ma Dong's Miwei and iQiyi is a case in point.

iQiyi provided the production budget, Ma Dong's team was responsible for producing the program, and the advertising revenue generated was split between the two parties.

This allows the two companies to collaborate closely while maintaining a degree of independence. When Miwei needed funding, iQiyi was also one of the lead investors.

Ma Dong also served as the Chief Content Officer of iQiyi, just as Jiang Yifeng concurrently served as the Content Director of Sohu Video at that time.

Zhang Chaoyang nodded and said, "Okay, we'll do it your way. If your company needs financing, you can contact me; Souhu will definitely lead the investment."

In addition, I'll make you a promise: if Sohu Video decides to spin off and go public in the future, I'll give you a 5% stock option award, which will be preferred stock with three times the voting rights.

Hearing this, Jiang Yifeng was genuinely touched.

Regardless of how the future may change, at least at this moment, Zhang Chaoyang's tone was sincere, and his promise was genuine.

"The boss is really generous; I'm quite touched."

Zhang Chaoyang said sincerely, "You are worth this price. The suggestions you gave me have increased the valuation of Sohu Video by at least three times."

"The key is that I can also provide you with psychological counseling to help you get rid of anxiety?"

"Haha, this is one of the perks of being a boss."

"Boss, you're amazing. You inspired my work enthusiasm with just one sentence."

In order to acquire the stock options for Sohu Video as soon as possible, I'll find the most suitable main business for the company.

Zhang Chaoyang's smile faded, and he asked seriously, "What kind of business?"

"You've probably heard of Twitter overseas, right?"

Zhang Chaoyang nodded and said, "I've heard of it. Wang Xin imitated Twitter and launched Fanfou.com, which had over a million registered users, but it was banned because the content was too explicit."

Jiang Yifeng said, "Fanfou was shut down in June, and now millions of Weibo users are homeless. Don't you think this is a huge business opportunity?"

Zhang Chaoyang frowned and began to think.

Jiang Yifeng continued, "The Weibo model is very simple and doesn't require much technology. If a company wants to develop a product, it can do it within a month."

With the development of the internet, information is becoming increasingly fragmented, and people's ability to write and read long articles will decrease.

Blogs will definitely be phased out.

On Weibo, you can share your life and achieve social interaction or even show off simply by posting some pictures and saying a few words.

This product will be loved by everyone.

Our company is an internet content service provider, with microblogging as our main business, so this is a perfect fit.

Zhang Chaoyang couldn't help but retort, "We are an internet technology company, not a content service provider."

Jiang Yifeng countered, "What advanced technology does our company have? Just relying on Sogou's perpetually outdated search technology?"

Zhang Chaoyang: "..."

"Listen to my boss, hurry up and get Weibo up and running, then buy the Weibo domain name. You'll thank me in the future."

The development of Sina Weibo can be attributed to three main factors.

First, it has the advantage of being a first mover and the decisiveness of its transformation.

After several product failures, Xinlang bet on Weibo, launching its Weibo service at the end of August this year and spending a lot of resources promoting it.

The second point is the closure of Fanfou.com.

Originally, Wang Xin's Fanfou was the first in China to provide microblogging services, and it developed very quickly.

The shutdown of Fanfou.com has benefited Sina Weibo, as its lost customers have all gone to it.

It was this ban that led Zhang Yiming to leave Wang Xin and choose to start his own business.

Finally, Sina will spend 100 million US dollars next year to buy the domain name weibo.com.

For many new customers who are unfamiliar with Weibo, when they want to register for Weibo, they don't specifically search for "Xinlang Weibo" or "Souhu Weibo," but instead directly search for "Weibo."

After acquiring a Weibo domain name, Xinlang's daily organic customer growth was several times greater than that of other Weibo platforms.

This is also a significant advantage in terms of traffic.

If Zhang Chaoyang had listened to Jiang Yifeng's advice and started using Weibo earlier, and bought the Weibo domain name, then Sohu Weibo would definitely have succeeded.

While it may not be able to completely crush Sina Weibo, it certainly has a good chance of becoming number one in the industry.

Weibo is the future traffic platform for the entertainment industry.

Jiang Yifeng is a member of the Souhu Group. If he doesn't want to be ruined by Xinlang, he'd better make Souhu Weibo develop.

In fact, Jiang Yifeng had already prepared to tell Zhang Chaoyang this suggestion when Xinlang Entertainment published its article attacking Old Boys.

This was one of his backup plans.

Faced with an opponent's attack, Jiang Yifeng may use negative public opinion, but he will not remain silent.

There are quite a few media outlets attacking Old Boys this time, and Jiang Yifeng can't possibly cover them all.

Xinlang Entertainment is the ringleader, so naturally we'll target it.

If Weibo fails again, then Sina, this ship of the old era, will be submerged in the sea of ​​the new era.

(End of this chapter)