Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 264, "The Qin King's Battle Song," was a huge success.

Following Chen Xiu's suggestion, the three parties discussed the matter and ultimately decided that Hunan TV would voluntarily withdraw.

However, Chen Ruhan mentioned the rights to broadcast the second round of broadcasts.

Chen Xiu's response was to discuss the specific price after "Qin Wang Po Zhen Qu" premiered, which is standard practice.

After agreeing on the initial broadcast price, the next step is to finalize the contract, file for satellite TV registration and scheduling, and then discuss promotional arrangements...

All the details were handled by designated personnel, so Chen Xiu didn't need to follow up.

After personally escorting the TV station representatives out of the conference room, Chen Xiu returned to find that the expressions of Sun Zhonghuai, the representative of Tencent Video, and Gong Yu, the CEO of iQiyi, who had been sitting on either side of him, had changed.

Now that the first round of negotiations for broadcasting rights has ended, the next step will inevitably be to negotiate online broadcasting rights.

Before Chen Xiu could speak, Sun Zhonghuai and Gong Yu exchanged glances.

When the three companies first collaborated on the production of "Qin King's Battle Song," the agreed-upon online streaming rights were that the two platforms would share the responsibility. Now, the only issue to be discussed is the price.

"Mr. Chen, shall we continue discussing online broadcasting rights?"

Thinking about Chen Xiu's relationship with the penguin, Sun Zhonghuai spoke first.

Gong Yu didn't dare to lag behind: "That's right! Once it's confirmed, we can start arranging our publicity plan earlier."

"We definitely need to make arrangements as soon as possible."

Seeing the two of them working together, Chen Xiu thought to herself: Could they be teaming up to try and bargain with me? I need to test them out.

"Speaking of the online broadcasting rights, a few days ago, Mr. Fan from Ali called me and said that he is now in charge of Ali's entertainment division and wants to bring 'Qin Wang Po Zhen Qu' to Youku for exclusive broadcast. The price he offered is also very attractive."

"Youku is also interested?"

"Yes! If it weren't for the funding issues, Leshi would probably be interested too."

"Mr. Chen, you're joking. Leshi is too busy taking care of itself..."

Sun Zhonghuai touched his nose, feeling that his plan to lower the price was not going to work.

Gong Yu glanced at Chen Xiu and began to probe, "President Chen, how much does Youku offer?"

"4 million, to be paid in three installments."

Currently, the price of online broadcasting rights is generally 1.5 to 2 times that of the first broadcasting rights on television. The first broadcasting rights for "Eternal Love" were priced at 8 million per episode, with a total price of 4.64 million for 58 episodes. Youku offered 800 million for exclusive online broadcasting.

This also reveals who contributed the most to the 300 billion views of "Three Lives Three Worlds" across the internet.

Youku, as expected of a reservoir...

However, streaming platforms inflate their data to sell ads at higher prices, and production companies pad their shows with inflated content to sell ads at higher prices; everyone knows this without saying a word.

Sun Zhonghuai and Gong Yu were not surprised when they heard the price for the online broadcast of "Qin King's Battle Song".

If the two companies split the price, each would get 2 million. After deducting their respective share of the investment returns, the amount is actually not much. They can make a profit just from the ad placements.

Thinking of this, Sun Zhonghuai and Gong Yu exchanged a glance and decided not to try to lower the price with Chen Xiu anymore.

"Mr. Chen, 4 million, payable in three installments, is acceptable to both of our companies."

"That would be the best!"

Chen Xiu looked at the two with satisfaction, thinking to himself that the production cost of "Qin King's Battle Song" was 2.4 million, the TV premiere price was 2.88 million, and the online broadcasting rights were 4 million.

These two sources of income alone amounted to 6.88 million yuan. After deducting taxes, they made a 50% profit.

The remaining issues, such as the second round of broadcasting rights and overseas copyrights, will have to wait until the first round of broadcasting ends before we can discuss those.

With the influx of internet capital into the entertainment industry, the television drama circle has indeed become more comfortable. It's no wonder that movie stars are flocking to act in television dramas, because the money is simply too easy to make.

However, compared to the photoshopped acting in "General and I," the fact that it still managed to sell each episode for 800 million yuan on its premiere and make a fortune from online streaming rights is quite remarkable.

Chen Xiu's approach of filming on location, riding horses, and shooting large-scale war scenes... is just earning a meager living.

After agreeing on the proceeds from "The Song of the King of Qin Breaking the Enemy's Formation," Chen Xiu was about to get up and leave when Sun Zhonghuai called him back.

"Mr. Chen, let's talk about something else."

"What else?"

"Before I came here, Cheng Wu called me and mentioned the 'Joy of Life' IP. He asked me to ask if you had any plans to adapt it into a film or television series?"

"..."

Chen Xiu sat back down with a thoughtful expression. He had bought the "Joy of Life" IP from Cheng Wu in 15, with the agreement that it would be shared by both parties.

Sun Zhonghuai must have some ideas for this, so let's hear what he has to say.

"Mr. Sun, is Tencent planning to make a movie called 'Joy of Life'?"

"Hehe, Mr. Gong and I were chatting about this last time, and we thought we could all work together to film it, following the self-produced drama model." After these years of trial and error, and with the experience of working with Chen Xiu, Sun Zhonghuai and Gong Yu both felt that self-production by the platform was far more cost-effective than spending money to buy dramas.

They no longer want to be taken advantage of and ripped off by the film and television industry.

Therefore, it is necessary to gradually shift from the model of buying dramas to the model of producing dramas.

The two companies are collaborating to share the costs.

Faced with the invitation, Chen Xiu readily agreed: "No problem, this time we'll have you two companies take the lead, and our Datang Pictures will provide support."

He initially bought the rights to "Joy of Life" mainly because it was profitable, so he was naturally eager to have Tencent and iQiyi co-produce it.

However, the two CEOs from the internet industry are clearly not the type to give money away.

Their approach to Chen Xiu to discuss cooperation had a deeper purpose.

"Mr. Chen, our idea is that you have a lot of personal popularity and influence. If you can star in 'Joy of Life' and make some changes to the plot, the show might be able to be broadcast on satellite TV."

"Yes! If you can act, then everything will be much easier."

"I have no plans to act at the moment."

Chen Xiu refused without hesitation.

He's incredibly busy right now. Even today, he squeezed in time for negotiations, and he has to rush to Douyin for another meeting this afternoon. He doesn't have time to act anymore.

Do you really think that being a boss means you can just wave your hands and not have to care about anything? Stone Bro, who doesn't take responsibility, is no longer a boss.

When their proposal was rejected, Sun Zhonghuai and Gong Yu's enthusiasm immediately waned.

Knowing that "Joy of Life" could make money, Chen Xiu, who held the copyright, didn't want to let the project slip by.

"There are plenty of stars in the film and television industry; you can always find someone suitable and affordable. Why are you two fixated on someone like me who's just dabbling in this?"

Upon hearing this, Sun Zhonghuai and Gong Yu both smiled, feeling that Chen Xiu's words made sense.

With such a large entertainment industry and so many celebrities, you're bound to find the right person.

……

After settling everything, Chen Xiu didn't invite Sun and Gong to stay for dinner and went straight to Yingdu Building.

Before the Spring Festival, Douyin's year-end meeting revealed that the company was valued at $40 billion, TikTok had successfully expanded overseas, and was in talks with Musical.ly about a merger, with the latter offering $10 billion. Zhang Yiming proposed a series of measures to increase the valuation.

Now, more than two months have passed, and the first quarter of 17 has ended. Musical.ly, which had been dragging on for months of negotiations, has finally realized what was happening and is now asking TikTok if it is sincere about cooperating.

With the Series B funding round about to begin, Douyin's decision-makers need to hold a small meeting beforehand to confirm the effectiveness of their pre-Chinese New Year initiatives, assess the company's current valuation, and then determine how to acquire Musical.ly.

When Chen Xiu entered the Douyin conference room, Zhang Yiming and Su Xiao were already waiting there.

The three exchanged glances, their eyes filled with thoughts, yet none of them spoke.

After everyone was seated, as is customary, Su Xiao began by recounting the company's recent developments.

"As of yesterday, Douyin had 2.4 million users and 2500 million daily active users, which is comparable to Kuaishou. Furthermore, its shopping cart function, which is similar to Taobao and Pinduoduo, has begun to play a role."

"In March, the total daily transaction volume through the shopping cart function on the two platforms exceeded 100 million yuan, and the monthly transaction volume exceeded 2 billion yuan. This figure is still on the rise. Other platforms such as Jingdong, NetEase Yanxuan, and Suning also want to integrate the shopping cart function."

"Due to the buzz generated by Mr. Chen's two live streams, some streamers and content creators from Huya, Douyu, and Kuaishou have flocked to Douyin. In the first quarter of this year, the combined revenue from advertising and live streaming was 32 billion yuan. After deducting bandwidth, R&D, marketing, and labor costs, the pre-tax profit was 9.6 million yuan."

Upon hearing this number, Chen Xiu was immediately struck by its magnitude; compared to the first quarter of last year, this year's results were several times higher.

Douyin's bandwidth, R&D, and marketing costs account for approximately 70% of its revenue. The revenue sharing with streamers is 7:3, with the platform taking 7%. (Data from 18 is available on DS).
Normally, Douyin's current revenue generation capacity is more than sufficient to support the company's development.

Chen Xiu and Zhang Yiming used the Series A funding they raised last year for TikTok's overseas expansion.

The upcoming Series B funding round is also to deal with Musical.ly, because they were the first to invest, and if we don't acquire them, dealing with a cross-border lawsuit will be a difficult task.

"...Based on the current price-to-earnings ratio, the company's valuation is approximately $65-70 billion. The Series B funding, plus the remaining cash on hand, is sufficient to cover the acquisition of Musical.ly."

Upon hearing this summary, both Chen Xiu and Zhang Yiming showed a hint of joy on their faces.

Once the acquisition of Musical.ly is completed, Douyin will have no more worries, and TikTok will be able to smoothly take over the other party's users, directly saving the difficult early user accumulation process.

Zhang Yiming said, "So it seems we don't need to spin off TikTok for further financing, right?"

“I think we can complete the merger and then spin off TikTok, raise additional funds, and then list it overseas.”

Chen Xiu insisted on her own opinion and then explained her thoughts to Zhang Yiming in detail.

After listening, Zhang Yiming hesitated: "You mean to bring in domestic capital, and then bring in Wall Street, and we'll sit in the middle as the referee?"

"Thinking about it this way, it's actually quite wonderful... Judging from Douyin's current development, even if we were to go public in the future, the best choice would be Hong Kong, while TikTok would have more options."

Chen Xiu didn't spell it out, but the two people present understood the underlying meaning.

(End of this chapter)