Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 274 The Future of TikTok, and Poaching Players

Do you know TikTok?

Upon hearing this question, Zhou Shouzi's smile froze almost imperceptibly.

He stared at Chen Xiu sitting opposite him, thinking to himself: So that's what it was all about!
Since their first encounter with Didi, Chen Xiu has left a very deep impression on Zhou Shouzi.

After all, he spends all his time talking about investment with a bunch of middle-aged people, and then suddenly a young man in his early twenties appears, and this young man is very experienced in handling things. Any normal person would be impressed.

When Chen Xiu left Didi, Zhou Shouzi also left DST.

After that, the two didn't have much contact.

Zhou Shouzi thought about it for a long time before agreeing to meet Chen Xiu today after receiving her invitation.

He knew that, given their respective positions, their meeting couldn't be a simple reminiscing.

It's not surprising to hear about TikTok now.

After a moment of contemplation, Zhou Shouzi said, "This is the overseas version of Douyin. I heard that you have reached a cooperation agreement with Musical.ly and officially acquired them."

"Yes! The initial contract has already been signed, and the new version of TikTok is expected to launch in August. After that, we expect to start another round of financing..."

Chen Xiu spoke candidly about the company's development direction. When the topic of financing came up, he paused and asked, "Do you think we should seek financing from Wall Street, or from established internet companies like Facebook and Microsoft?"

"Facebook seems to be interested in acquiring Musical.ly. Is it possible for TikTok to cooperate with them?"

"You seem to pay quite a bit of attention to our company."

"It's a professional habit, so I still keep up with the latest developments of emerging internet companies every week."

Zhou Shouzi casually explained, still wondering about Chen Xiu's purpose in talking to him about TikTok.

Chen Xiu nodded nonchalantly: "Facebook did have the idea of ​​acquiring Musical.ly, but their offer stopped at $10 billion. It's possible that the two sides have different valuations."

"Facebook is currently the largest social media website, and TikTok's future development will inevitably involve cooperation with them. However, I personally prefer simple cooperation without other investments."

Although Facebook was the company that was most hostile to TikTok in its past life, it is undeniable that TikTok's early development also relied on advertising on Facebook to attract users.

In the same industry, small companies grow by absorbing resources from large companies.

When large companies realize that this small company is growing too fast and can threaten them, the so-called business war will inevitably arise.

However, these are all things that happened later. If the company had not grown and expanded, there would be no point in talking about competitive business battles.

At this point, Facebook sees TikTok as no different from Karami, and the two sides can still coexist peacefully.

When Zhou Shouzi heard Chen Xiu speak candidly about TikTok's development direction, he was surprised. After thinking it over, he also offered his own suggestions.

"TikTok's future development direction is in direct competition with Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. I suggest that you carefully consider them as investors."

"So you're more inclined to choose Wall Street?"

"Yes! I worked at Goldman Sachs for a while. If you need, I can introduce you to the head of the Asia region."

"Thank you."

Chen Xiu thanked Zhou Shouzi repeatedly, and then changed the subject to ordering food.

Chen Xiu invited Zhou Shouzi to dinner today not only to leverage his connections, but also to sound him out and see if he had any plans to switch jobs.

However, after hearing about how he met Lei Jun, Chen Xiu could only put aside his thoughts for the time being and prepare to let Zhang Yiming wield the hoe later.

As for whether they'll feel embarrassed facing Lei Jun after poaching his talent... well, that's a business matter. Lei Jun himself often poachs other people's teams, so it's a fair exchange.

During the meal, Chen Xiu didn't mention work again.

As Zhou Shouzi ate, he wondered: Did Chen Xiu really contact him about something so trivial? They could have easily discussed it on WeChat! Why did she have to arrange a meeting?

"Conserving capital?"

"Well, what happened?"

Zhou Shouzi subconsciously responded to Chen Xiu's words, while thinking to himself: Sure enough, there's more to come!

Chen Xiu didn't think too much about it, but felt that eating like this was too monotonous. Then she thought of Zhou Shouzi's situation and her heart couldn't help but stir.

"You've been working for over ten years, haven't you ever thought about staying here long-term?"

"You mean, stay?"

"Well, if Mr. Lei intends to train you to be a manager at Xiaomi in the future, like Martin at Tencent, it would be much more convenient to have you stationed here for a long time."

"To be honest, I hadn't thought about this situation."

Zhou Shouzi shook his head, his expression both confused and determined.

Chen Xiu spoke very frankly today, and he didn't try to hide anything, directly revealing what was on his mind.

"When I accepted Lei Jun's invitation to join Xiaomi, it was just a phase in my life. I wanted to experience what a startup company was like. I don't think I will be tied to Xiaomi forever."

"Oh."

Chen Xiu gave Zhou Shouzi a meaningful look. Her initial doubts about whether Zhou Shouzi would be poached changed slightly, and the content of their conversation shifted accordingly.

It seems that Zhou Shouzi was willing to join TikTok in his previous life not because Zhang Yiming was good at wielding a hoe, but because he himself had this idea.

Seeing Chen Xiu's gaze, Zhou Shouzi realized he had misspoke and tried to make amends: "President Chen, at least for the foreseeable future, I will remain with Xiaomi." "Understood. Last month, when Douyin held its Series B financing, President Lei came to sign the agreement on behalf of Shunwei Capital. It seemed like he wanted to talk to me about something, but when I contacted him on WeChat afterwards, his response was very vague."

The topic was turned on very smoothly, and Zhou Shouzi happened to know the inside story of the matter.

"Hehe, this matter actually originated from an idea of ​​President Lei."

"what idea?"

"This year, we plan to invite celebrities to become brand ambassadors for Xiaomi phones. The marketing department listed several candidates, but Mr. Lei was not particularly satisfied with any of them. Then, during a meeting, he suddenly came up with the idea of ​​inviting you to be the brand ambassador for Xiaomi."

"..."

Chen Xiu glanced at Zhou Shouzi silently, and recalling Lei Jun's hesitant words that day, he understood the other's embarrassment to some extent.

"Why didn't he mention it again when I contacted Mr. Lei afterwards?"

"This is yet another new idea."

So many ideas?

"Yes! It was inspired by you that Mr. Lei proposed to become the spokesperson for Xiaomi phones during a meeting, but was rejected by the head of the marketing department because his public recognition was too low."

Hearing this, I recalled Lei Jun enthusiastically offering suggestions during a meeting, only to have them rejected.

Chen Xiu instinctively wanted to laugh, but she pursed her lips and held it in.

As a result, Zhou Shouzi, who was sitting opposite him, chuckled.

"Haha! Sorry, seeing your face immediately reminded me of how everyone else reacted at the meeting the other day. They all reacted the same way."

Zhou Shouzi mimicked Chen Xiu's expression from earlier, suppressing a laugh.

His imitation made Chen Xiu laugh. She laughed twice and then stopped, looked up and met Zhou Shouzi's gaze. Their eyes met, and they both couldn't help but laugh.

After laughing, Chen Xiu suddenly changed the subject and said, "In a few years, if Mr. Lei still wants to be the spokesperson for the Xiaomi brand, it's not impossible."

“How come you see?”

Do you follow Lei Jun's account on Douyin?

"Have."

Zhou Shouzi nodded with a strange expression. Being an employee required to pay attention to the boss's social media accounts and social interactions, which made him somewhat uncomfortable.

Chen Xiu ignored this change and continued, "Do you know how many fans Boss Lei has now?"

"Hmm, it seems to be 150 million?"

“That was the data from last month when he first opened his account; now it’s almost 300 million.”

"so much?"

Zhou Shouzi's eyes widened; he was genuinely surprised by the number.

He also has Twitter and Instagram accounts, understands how difficult it is to gain followers, and is also aware of the value of 300 million followers.

Chen Xiu responded calmly: "According to user profiles, the group that follows Lei Jun is mainly teenagers and people under 35 years old. Most of them should be fans of Xiaomi products, and now they have become fans of Lei Jun."

"You mean, the brand and the founder have become synonymous?"

"Yes! Mr. Lei also enjoys interacting with his fans. He updates 4-5 short videos on average every week, showing a high level of enthusiasm for life."

"Um... He set up a special filming studio in his office, and one day after get off work, he even lay on the floor to film the moon."

The story of Zhou Shouzi lying on the ground to take pictures of the moon had already been posted online by a Xiaomi employee. Even if it wasn't common knowledge, it wasn't exactly a secret. So, when Zhou Shouzi mentioned it, it wasn't exactly exposing his boss's shortcomings.

When asked about this amusing question, Chen Xiu simply smiled and said, "This year, Douyin's goal is to surpass 4 million users and reach 5000 million daily active users. Based on this base, Mr. Lei's fans will only continue to grow."

"As long as more than half of Xiaomi's fans follow Lei Jun, plus some netizens who are just watching the show, the tens of millions of followers are already comparable to those of top-tier celebrities. It's only a natural thing for Lei Jun to become Xiaomi's brand ambassador."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Shouzi paused for a moment, then hesitated and asked, "President Chen, you just said that President Lei has tens of millions of followers?"

"I now have 3000 million followers. If the number of users doubles, Douyin will naturally be able to create more bloggers with tens of millions of followers."

"But you're a celebrity."

"Celebrities showcase their lives, and so does Mr. Lei. There's not much difference; they're both people that netizens can't meet in real life anyway."

Seeing Zhou Shouzi, who had realized the effect of Douyin, begin to be stunned.

Chen Xiu said with a half-smile, "Once TikTok is redesigned and launched, it may become a billion-dollar software. At that time, we will need to find a manager who is proficient in both Chinese and Western cultures and understands the operation of the capital market."

"This doesn't seem easy to find..."

"It's not urgent. The company is just starting out, and the original structure is still usable. Once we reach a certain size, we plan to move TikTok's international headquarters to Hong Kong or Singapore."

Zhou Shouzi's lips trembled, and he looked at Chen Xiu with a hesitant gaze, as if he had understood his implied meaning.

Their eyes met, and Chen Xiu said calmly, "These are all things for the future. Let's eat first."

　I've been writing a lot about business and daily life lately, and soon we'll be getting into the release of "Wolf Warrior 2" and the premiere of "Qin King's Battle Song"!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)