Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 237 Wrap-up Party, Douyin Year-End Meeting

"cheers!!"

Chen Xiu raised her glass and clinked it with everyone. The clinking sounds from the two tables next to her blended into the clinking at her table, echoing throughout the entire private room.

After 115 days of filming, "The Song of Qin King Breaking the Enemy's Formation" finally wrapped up filming ahead of schedule in mid-January.

Chen Xiu also held a simple wrap party for the actors and behind-the-scenes workers who stayed until the end.

After finishing her drink, Chen Xiu poured herself another glass and picked it up, saying, "Everyone has worked hard during these three months of filming, especially Wu Sanshi. I heard you turned down a movie to film this one?"

"No, no! Actually, I turned it down because I couldn't understand the script."

"Oh? What's your name?"

"Asura..."

Knowing that she had saved Wu Sanshi from a bad movie, Chen Xiu turned her eyes with a strange expression.

Seeing Wu Sanshi frozen in place, he swirled his wine glass, reached out and said, "If there's a chance in the future, I'll ask you to act in a movie, as compensation!"

"Huh?! Thank you, Brother Xiu!"

"Don't drink alcohol, just keep drinking coconut juice."

"oh oh."

Wu Sanshi, who just turned 17, was made to drink coconut juice.

After comforting the child, Chen Xiu went to have a drink with the others, but didn't mention work again.

When it was director Lu Yang's turn, Chen Xiu personally poured him a glass of wine: "Director Lu, I have a lot of personal ideas about the filming during this period of cooperation, and I hope you won't mind."

"No, no, Mr. Chen, I feel I've learned a lot from working with you during this time..."

Lu Yang said in a low voice, "Others may not know, but I do."

The war scenes in "The Song of Qin King Breaking the Enemy's Formation" were all planned and filmed by Chen Xiu. When Lu Yang saw the finished film, he felt that it was a level of quality that he could never achieve on his own.

He didn't know when Chen Xiu had developed directing skills (given by the system), but Chen Xiu had given him this honor without saying a word, and even gave him a lot of useful advice during the filming.

It was because of this help that Lu Yang agreed almost without hesitation when he heard that Chen Xiu wanted to invest in Free Whale Cool.

Seeing Lu Yang's grateful expression, Chen Xiu clinked glasses with him.

"If my advice has been helpful to you, that would be great. But do you like to tell stories from the perspective of ordinary people?"

"I feel that it is more interesting to film major historical events from the perspective of ordinary people."

"Hehe, there's an author whose writing style is very similar to yours. He released a new book last month called 'The Longest Day in Chang'an,' which tells a story from the Tianbao era. I've already had Mr. Wei buy the rights. Are you interested?"

"Mr. Chen, are you still starring?"

Lu Yang said with anticipation that he felt it was great to work with Chen Xiu because as long as Chen Xiu was on set, the other actors wouldn't dare to cause trouble.

However, Chen Xiu just chuckled and continued to finish the rest of the wine in his glass.

This means they're not going to perform anymore.

Lu Yang sighed softly, thinking to himself: Acting was just something Chen Xiu was interested in; I was overthinking it...

"Mr. Chen, regarding the novel you mentioned, I'd like to go back and read through the content before making a decision, is that alright?"

"of course can."

Chen Xiu nodded to him, then poured herself and Lu Yang a glass of wine.

"Rao Xiaozhi has decided to sign his personal studio to Datang Group. I heard that you and Guo Fan have been trying to persuade him. Thank you."

"No, no, I didn't do anything."

Lu Yang waved his hand repeatedly, and deliberately lowered the glass of wine he had picked up.

After finishing her drink, Chen Xiu got up and drank a cup with the people at the other two tables.

When he was slightly tipsy, he didn't indulge in the revelry. Instead, he bid farewell to everyone and left the wrap party ahead of time.

When a successful and wealthy man treats people with such courtesy, no one at the wrap party has any objections to his departure.

After leaving the private room, Chen Xiu instructed Wei Feng to take care of the remaining cleanup matters, while he himself took his assistant to the airport and returned to Beijing that same day.

……

The following day, in the Douyin Conference Room of Yingdu Building.

Having finished her acting career, Chen Xiu has seamlessly transitioned to her work at Douyin Decision-Making.

"...Currently, Douyin has a total of 150 million users and 17 million daily active users. It is expected that the total number of users will exceed 200 million before the end of March."

As Su Xiao explained, Chen Xiu shifted her gaze from the documents in her hand to her face.

She seemed more serious, her jawline became more defined, and her phoenix eyes looked even more authoritative...

Noticing the two "offensive" gazes, Su Xiao turned her back to Zhang Yiming on the other side and rolled her eyes at Chen Xiu, who in turn pouted at her.

After a brief interaction, the two quickly returned to normal, one explaining the work progress non-stop, and the other continuing to stare at the documents in their hands.

Only Zhang Yiming kept staring at his own document, unaware of what was happening.

"...Our people sent overseas to explore the market have already held the first round of negotiations with the head of Musical.ly. Their offer for the acquisition is $10 billion, and negotiations are still ongoing." Chen Xiu and Zhang Yiming both understood why Su Xiao had put this information last.

The two put down their identical documents and looked at each other.

After Su Xiao turned on the lights in the conference room, Chen Xiu squinted and asked, "What is Douyin's current valuation?"

"Latest valuation: $40 billion!"

Zhang Yiming explained, "After we completed our Series A financing before the Lunar New Year, the company's market value was $20 billion. In the past six months, Douyin's user base has almost doubled, and with the support of the bullet screen feature, the live streaming data is also very impressive."

"With the addition of TikTok's overseas growth, Douyin's future business plans have surpassed those of Kuaishou. However, since the only monetization channel at present is revenue sharing from live streaming gifts, our valuation is only around 40 billion US dollars."

Chen Xiu frowned and thought for a moment, then shook her head in disappointment.

"It's not enough! With a valuation of 4 billion, a 10% Series B funding round can only raise a maximum of 40 million US dollars, which is far from the 10 billion US dollars that Musical.ly is demanding."

There are basic rules for financing. Douyin's valuation of 40 billion US dollars is public knowledge. Chen Xiu cannot offer 10% of the shares and ask for 10 billion US dollars in financing.

As for selling more shares in exchange for funds, neither he nor Zhang Yiming were willing...

"Based on the current valuation, it is indeed not enough."

Zhang Yiming suddenly said meaningfully.

Hearing this unusual sound, Chen Xiu looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Zhang Yiming flashed his Mickey Mouse-like smile and pushed up his glasses with a gleam in his eyes.

Chen Xiu frowned and pursed her lips, saying with a hint of disdain, "If you've come up with a good idea, just say it."

"Hehe, Douyin has only been around for less than two years, so this valuation is already quite good. However, compared to our needs, it's still not enough. I have two suggestions to increase the valuation, you two can take a look."

"Uh-huh."

Chen Xiu nodded in agreement and pulled out a chair for Su Xiao, who had come over.

Seeing the two sitting side by side, Zhang Yiming smiled knowingly and said, "Douyin's live streaming function is part of the consideration for building an online community, and it is also a proven and feasible way to monetize."

"In addition, I have come up with two more monetization methods that are suitable for Douyin's current model."

Chen Xiu glanced at Zhang Yiming, thinking: Did you go through all this trouble beforehand? Are you going to explain how you came up with this idea?

"I suddenly had the idea for these two methods while I was in the bathroom..."

"Old Zhang, there aren't many listeners today. How about we discuss this topic in more detail at the company's annual meeting next month?"

"Okay, I'll come back to you with the details next month."

He actually wanted to say...

Chen Xiu turned her head to look at Su Xiao, and then the two of them pursed their lips knowingly.

Interrupted from his preamble, Zhang Yiming coughed lightly with a hint of regret and said, "I think the first way is to add e-commerce functionality to Douyin!"

Chen Xiu and Su Xiao were both startled, their eyes revealing varying degrees of surprise.

In the internet industry, the e-commerce sector is considered extremely overvalued, but this sector already has oligopolies.

Just look at Tencent to see how invincible Ali is in e-commerce. Pony Ma tried many times in the e-commerce field, but all of them failed. Only Jingdong made a name for itself by selling 3C products.

If Douyin, with its current size, were to rashly venture into e-commerce, the outcome would likely not be good.

Chen Xiu knew that Zhang Yiming was not a rash person, so he simply patted Su Xiao under the table, signaling her to calm down.

After waiting for a while without hearing anything from Zhang Yiming, Chen Xiu and Su Xiao looked up and saw a disappointed yet expectant look on Zhang Yiming's face.

Chen Xiu shifted her gaze and asked, "How exactly?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yiming immediately perked up.

"Given Douyin's current scale, we certainly can't directly enter the e-commerce market, but we can partner with Taobao and add a link to Taobao on Douyin's pages to sell products..."

"add to the cart?"

Chen Xiu clenched her right fist and punched her left palm, a look of joy appearing in her eyes.

Zhang Yiming smacked his lips and nodded, saying, "This name is good! I hadn't decided on a name yet... 'Shopping Cart' sounds fitting too."

"Not only that!"

Chen Xiu excitedly stood up, and under the questioning gazes of Zhang Yiming and Su Xiao, walked over, opened the conference room door, closed it, and then put it back on.

After doing all this, he came back, put his hand on the desk, leaned forward, and gestured for Su Xiao and Zhang Yiming to come closer.

The two did as instructed with different expressions, and then they heard a sentence.

"In this way, we initially help Taobao drive traffic, but through cooperation, we can increase Douyin's valuation. Once Douyin's scale increases by 3-4 times in the future, we can transfer this experience to build our own Douyin online store, with the stores already in place..."

Upon hearing this, Su Xiao's beautiful eyes sparkled with delight.

Zhang Yiming paused for a moment, thinking: Why did I only think of the second level? I didn't think of the third level? Wait, wait…

"Xiu, you're absolutely right, that's what I think too!"

Zhang Yiming clapped exaggeratedly, his face full of a sense of shared understanding.

(End of this chapter)