The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

Chapter 176 The Iron Curtain Project! A dance without background music!

Zhichun Road, ByteDance headquarters.

Conference Room 1.

A deathly silence.

This silence was even more suffocating than the roar just now.

That thick stack of legal risk assessment reports was now spread out in the center of the table.

"Has it been confirmed?"

Zhang Yiming's voice was hoarse. He didn't look up, still staring at the test machine with its shattered screen.

"Confirmed."

The general counsel dared not wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, his voice trembling.

"We contacted the three major record labels: Sony, Universal, and Warner, as well as domestic record companies like Taihe Rye Music and Modern Sky..."

"The replies are all the same."

"The exclusive right to disseminate information online has been sold."

Buyer: Microlight Technology.

"all?"

Zhang Yiming suddenly looked up, his eyes behind his glasses were frighteningly sharp.

"all."

The general counsel swallowed hard.

"To be precise, Lin Che has bought out all the top 500 most popular 'hit songs' on the market, as well as all the music clips that these companies will produce in the next three years that are suitable for short video editing."

"Moreover, the contract contains an extremely harsh 'non-compete clause'—strictly prohibiting the licensing of the contract to any 'short video streaming competitor'."

"Bang!"

Zhang Lidong slammed his fist on the table, causing the coffee cup to jump and spill brown liquid onto the white documents.

"This is a monopoly! We can sue him for unfair competition!"

"tell?"

Chen Lin, who had been silent all along, gave a wry smile and picked up the wet documents.

"These kinds of lawsuits can drag on for two years. After two years, it'll be too late. The life or death of internet products hinges on these two months."

"Isn't there an alternative?"

Zhang Yiming took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He was an engineer by training, and he didn't believe in dead ends.

"Music is just background. We have the best algorithms and the best filters. What if we switched to free classical music? Or found some unknown independent musicians to write music on the spot?"

The product director paused for a moment, then hesitated, "Mr. Zhang, this..."

"try."

Zhang Yiming's gaze left no room for doubt.

"Now, immediately, replace the background audio in Curry's video with Beethoven, replace it with just rhythmic drumbeats, replace it with copyright-free electronic sounds."

"I want to see the results."

……

Ten minutes later.

The technical department temporarily wrote a script to strip the audio track from the original video and randomly fill it with music from a public domain library that is not subject to copyright restrictions.

The projector lights up.

Everyone held their breath.

On the screen, a long-legged beauty is dancing the currently popular "Seaweed Dance".

The original background music was that extremely catchy song, "Like a seaweed, seaweed, swaying with the waves..." Every movement was perfectly timed with the drumbeats, it was addictive and catchy, making you want to tap your feet.

But now.

The music playing from the speakers was a soothing, even slightly melancholic, piano piece – "Für Elise".

In the video, the beautiful woman is still twisting and turning wildly, with intense movements and exaggerated expressions.

The background music, however, flows gracefully.

A huge, absurd, and utterly jarring sense of incongruity instantly filled the entire conference room.

It's like watching a slapstick silent film.

Without the background music to keep the beat, those originally cool moves looked like twitching.

Without the catchy lyrics, those lip-syncing expressions seem like they're acting crazy.

"Change it." Zhang Yiming's face was ashen.

Next video.

It's a comedy blogger performing a skit. The original sound effects were those typical canned laughter and comical sound effects typical of variety shows.

Now, it has been replaced with a stirring march.

awkward.

The awkwardness of it overflowing the screen.

The kind of "meme" that could make users smile was shattered by the wrong background music.

Zhang Yiming stared at the screen without saying a word.

He understood.

He finally understood.

Short video, not video.

It is audiovisual language.

If it only shows images, that's called surveillance video.

If it's just music, that's called radio.

The moment when the visuals and music perfectly complement each other, creating a chemical reaction, is the moment dopamine is released.

Lin Che didn't lock down the copyright.

What he locked away was the "soul".

"It's unwatchable..."

Zhang Lidong covered his face, unable to bear looking at the scene on the screen that resembled a mentally ill person dancing wildly.

"If we release something like this, users will think we've gone crazy."

"What about independent musicians?" Zhang Yiming persisted. "How about we sign a new batch now?"

"It's too late."

The operations director shook his head in despair.

"The birth of a hit song is a mystery; it requires luck and time to develop. The songs that Weiguang has are viruses that have been validated by the market."

"If we go to sign new players now, it's like using wooden sticks to fight against machine guns."

"As soon as users find that they can't find 'Learn to Meow' or 'Decent' on Douyin, they will immediately uninstall it and go back to Weiguang."

The meeting room fell silent once again.

Outside the window, it was already daylight.

The morning sun in Beijing shines on the glass curtain wall of the Yingdu Building, reflecting a dazzling light.

But those in the conference room felt only a bone-chilling cold.

They have a budget of 10 billion and hundreds of top engineers.

But they were stuck with hundreds of "bubblegum pop" songs that they would never remember if they hadn't listened to them.

It's hard to move an inch.

"Mr. Zhang..."

Chen Lin looked at Zhang Yiming, awaiting that difficult decision.

Zhang Yiming closed his eyes.

He was calculating the losses in his mind.

The delayed launch means all the previous hype has been wasted, morale has been dampened, and Weiguang will continue to dominate the market.

But if you force yourself to go online, that's suicide.

a long time.

Zhang Yiming opened his eyes.

He took the Montblanc pen that he had just used to sign the document.

Use both hands to exert force.

Click.

The crisp sound echoed in the quiet room.

The black resin pen barrel broke in two, and the ink stained his fingers black.

"Notify everyone."

Zhang Yiming's voice was as cold as ice.

"The Douyin project...has been postponed indefinitely."

"Establish a 'Copyright Task Force,' Zhang Lidong, you will personally lead the team."

"Since Lin Che has bought out the head, let's buy the waist and the legs!"

"Go poach talent, throw money at the problem, even if it means raising copyright fees tenfold or a hundredfold!"

"Douyin should remain inactive until the background music issue is resolved."

……

At the same time.

Top floor of the Microlight Technology Building.

Lin Che stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, holding a freshly brewed cup of black coffee.

Steaming hot.

Beneath his feet was a large screen displaying real-time data that had just been refreshed by Weiguang Video.

Daily active users (DAU): 100,000,000

Nine zeros.

One hundred million.

In the history of the Internet, it took WeChat 433 days to go from 0 to 1 million daily active users, while it took Toutiao 4 years.

The video, titled "Micro Light Video," took 45 days to develop.

"Boss."

Shen Nan pushed open the door and came in, his expression complex, a mixture of elation and sympathy for his opponent.

"The message I just received."

"ByteDance has withdrawn all its reserved slots. The Douyin launch event, originally scheduled for this Saturday, has been cancelled."

"Their app package was not submitted for review."

Lin Che blew on the foam on his coffee and took a small sip.

Bitter, with a sweet aftertaste.

"As expected."

Lin Che turned around and looked at Shen Nan.

"Zhang Yiming is a smart man, and what smart men are best at is 'stopping losses'."

"He knows that a short video without background music is like a dish without salt; it will only be criticized if it's served, so it's better not to serve it at all."

"But boss..." Shen Nan said, still a little scared, "This move was too risky. What if they insist on going online?"

"Bite the bullet?"

Lin Che smiled.

He walked to his desk and picked up a document.

That was a supplementary agreement to "Project Iron Curtain".

"If they dare to go online."

"The summons from the Nanshan Court, along with those hundreds of copyright trolls we've been feeding, will overwhelm ByteDance's legal department within an hour."

"I'll make them pay back everything they own."

Lin Che put down the document and looked at the string of nine zeros.

At that moment, he knew that the first phase of the war was over.

By leveraging the "copyright iron curtain," he successfully secured a precious three-month "window of opportunity" for Weiguang.

During these three months, Weiguang will have no rivals.

It can grow unchecked until it becomes a towering tree, so large that no storm can shake it.

"Pass down the order."

Lin Che's voice returned to calm.

"All employees will receive three months' salary as a bonus."

"But don't let your guard down."

Lin Che walked to the map, his gaze passing over Zhichun Road and looking further into the distance.

That's Shenzhen.