Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1431 Netflix data

Zhou Buqi no longer has the energy to pay attention to Asda's mobile phone business.

Just like the milk tea business, the blind box business, and the real estate business, he has set the direction. Whether he lives or dies depends on the level of the management team.

Zhou Buqi's main business territory is still surrounded by four companies under the "Ziweixing" brand.

The top priority and the biggest challenge is Ziwei Star Global.

This morning, Zhou Buqi went to Netflix for research work together with Mason, the vice president of Ziweixing International and the president of the film entertainment business.

In the pre-plan, Ziweixing International's "Internet + Movie" ecosystem would have been deeply integrated with Netflix.

Of course, Zhou Buqi would not make a special trip just because of this business matter.

He focuses on content ecology.

"How many Netflix subscribers are there now?" Zhou Buqi didn't overly affect the normal operation of Netflix, but just called in the operation officer Benjamin for some consultation.

"About 1500 million."

"Oh? A lot!"

"However, a significant portion is still traditional DVD mail-in users."

Benjamin was not complacent because of such data, on the contrary, he was still a little worried.Because the promotion of online streaming media is not as smooth as expected.

Otherwise, Netflix will not be looked down upon by Wall Street, and the investment bank will mark the investment recommendation of "sell" on Netflix's stock.

Now Netflix mainly has two businesses.

The new business is streaming media, the old business is DVD mailing.

That is, if the user wants to watch a movie, he places an order on Netflix to rent a DVD, and Netflix will deliver it to the user through the post.The monthly subscription price for the two businesses is $7.99.

"Is there any explanation? Online streaming media viewing should be more convenient than mailing DVDs?" Zhou Buqi continued to ask, it should not be limited by the speed of the Internet. The speed of the United States is very fast, even if you can watch Blu-ray high-definition movies online.

Benjamin said: "Because of the rich content. If you rent DVDs, users can watch almost all the movies they want to see. The rental of DVDs is a traditional Hollywood industry with strong support. But streaming media is not good. We don’t have enough high-quality content, and now there are only about 3000 film and television dramas in the library.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "What about Sony and Disney?"

"Yes, some old movies, some not-so-popular content." Benjamin was very helpless, "This part of the content is about 2500, signed until 2011, and the annual rent is 3000 million U.S. dollars."

Zhou Buqi said, "What about the general trend of the industry?"

Benjamin said: "The DVD rental business is still growing, um...our original plan, the DVD rental business may disappear by next year. This is not the case, and the DVD business may reach its peak next year."

"What about streaming? Unpopular?"

"It's very popular, but there's too little content. We have statistics, if it's online streaming content, then the DVD rental rate of this part of the content will be reduced by 95%. This means that most of Netflix's users are Fascinated by streaming video, because there is so little online, they have to switch to renting DVDs.”

"It's the internet, no surprises."

Zhou Buqi expressed his understanding.

This is the same all over the world.

The Internet is an emerging product. Before the mobile Internet was popularized, the Internet mainly consisted of three major user groups: white-collar workers, intellectuals, and young people.

These are people who are more up-to-date and able to adapt to the advent of streaming.

Benjamin said optimistically: "The data prove that our original business model design is correct. Streaming media is indeed more popular than DVD rental. Under the same circumstances, users prefer streaming media."

Zhou Buqi took a deep look at him, "The content is the core."

Benjamin was a little embarrassed, and tentatively said: "Mr. Zhou, I heard that you want to organize a consortium to form a new large-scale entertainment giant in Hollywood?"

"It's still early." Zhou Buqi waved his hand. He knew what the other party meant, so there was no need to talk about it. "How about the streaming media data? Are there any statistics on users' preference for content?"

"Yes, just wait."

Benjamin made a phone call, then called an assistant in charge of the content, and brought over a copy of the material.

This is the benefit of the Internet.

Data can be quickly fed back and organized into analytical models.

In fact, when Hollywood makes a movie, it must actively refer to various market data when setting up a project, and adjust the plot according to the audience's preference and current aesthetic taste.

However, Hollywood's data collection is too traditional and too expensive.MGM, for example, spends more than $1500 million a year on market research, consulting, and consultants, which is simply ridiculous.

Money is not like that!
Traditional market research is a complicated and professional job, especially the field research of dispatching front-line employees.This kind of front-line staff has low efficiency, high wages, and inaccurate survey results, which is very annoying.But the Internet is different. The background can directly give the most accurate and objective results of which movies users watch on the Netflix platform.

Sort, combine, count, work together!

It doesn't cost a penny!

Benjamin handed over a very complicated data analysis material, and said cautiously: "Mr. Zhou, Netflix's user group is mainly 20-40-year-old group, and this analysis model is mainly around this movie-watching group. group."

Zhou Buqi is a veteran of the Internet, and he does not need to be reminded that he will not be affected by the analysis model to produce cognitive bias of the sampling group.

Look down at the model.

Depend on!
What a mess, it's so complicated, and there are various statistical formulas, I can't understand it!
Fortunately, there are general conclusions later.

"call."

Zhou Buqi breathed a sigh of relief.

Among the types of Netflix user preference rankings, the first label is action, and the second label is thriller.Then there's suspense, love, crime, political intrigue, and more.

Zhou Buqi immediately thought of Netflix's masterpiece "House of Cards", which has driven the trend of online dramas all over the world.

Thriller, suspense, crime, politics, conspiracy... Sure enough, "House of Cards" is a web drama specially created by Netflix for its own users and generated from Internet data.

In comparison, it is too expensive to make an action movie, and it is too risky to make a romance movie. This kind of crime suspense plus political conspiracy genre feels popular all over the world.

However, this type of film is not mainstream in cinemas.

One of the most profitable types of theater movies is family carnival, that is, movies that parents bring their children to watch together. The plot is too complicated and heavy, or themes related to crime and horror are not suitable.

……

Masayoshi Son's office is in Silicon Valley.

After leaving Netflix, Zhou Buqi and his party went to the Softbank base to find him.

Zhen Yu smiled lightly and asked, "How is it? Netflix has provided you with new ideas?"

Zhou Buqi turned to look at her, "Didn't you follow me all the time, how about you? What are your thoughts?"

Zhen Yu said: "The two most powerful giants in Hollywood, one is Disney and the other is Time Warner. The focus of these two companies is different. Disney focuses on the derivatives market, while Warner focuses on the peripheral market."

"and then?"

"Warner's films and DVD operations are all in full swing. A film can be divided into theatrical version, extended version, director's cut version, regular version, hardcover version, and collector's version. It can be divided into several batches for DVD release. .”

Zhou Buqi was a little contemptuous, "I just want to squeeze out every penny in the market."

Zhenyu said: "I'm not talking about the difference in business model, but the content concept. Disney's content is a family carnival route, while Warner's movies are more dark and criminal. For example, Warner DC's "Batman: The Dark Knight", Disc revenue exceeded $7 million, a record. Marvel's "Iron Man" is not good. "Iron Man" box office is half of "The Dark Knight", and it is reasonable to say that the disc revenue is also half. It is not. , the global disc revenue of "Iron Man" seems to be only 1.9 million U.S. dollars."

"Really?" Zhou Buqi's reaction was relatively flat. He understood what Senior Sister Zhenyu meant, but he didn't quite agree with her point of view. "The quality of the film is too different. "The Dark Knight" is an epic masterpiece. Favorite. "Iron Man" is a popcorn farce, there is no comparison."

Zhen Yu nodded lightly, "Yes, DVDs still have the attribute of collection. The more classic the movie, the higher the sales. But streaming media does not have such an attribute."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "Anyway, this is an idea. Sister Bao? Why don't you speak?"

Xue Baoshan smiled and remained silent.

Zhou Buqi asked, "What's your opinion?"

"I don't understand, you can discuss it with Senior Sister Zhen, I'm learning."

"How humble."

Xue Baoshan pursed her lips, "It's not about being modest, I really don't understand, I don't know much about Hollywood."

Zhou Buqi said: "MGM is so fallen, it is not easy to save it. We are not film producers or directors, and we can't end it. We can only make a fuss about strategy. Netflix's data is actually still there. For reference value, the box office is not enough, and peripherals will make up for it, and Warner's route is also very good. Let's go, first go to meet Masayoshi Son."

Now Zhou Buqi is building his assistant team.

Mainly the seven assistants.

Ziwei Star, Ziwei Star International, Ziwei Star Global, and Ziwei Star Digital Media each arrange one.In addition, there is a travel assistant, who is mainly responsible for the arrangement of planes, vehicles, yachts, hotels, etc. when you are away from home.

There are also security assistants and financial assistants.

The financial assistant is the "big housekeeper" sister Zhen Yu.

The loan business is run by Senior Sister Zhen Yu.

The investment of Ziwei Star Global is very large, and may reach 200 billion US dollars.Softbank has a big head, and Zhou Buqi has a small head.Even if it is a small head, Zhou Buqi can't come up with so much cash, it can only be a loan.

Fortunately, the financial industry in the United States is very developed, unlike domestic loans that rely on physical mortgages.Contact several major investment banks here in the United States to conduct risk assessments on intangible assets, and just use Ziweixing’s stocks to make loans.

It is expected to borrow 35 billion to 45 billion US dollars.

Now, Ziwei Star Global's mergers and acquisitions committee has officially made an offer to MGM: 25 billion US dollars.It's time to talk to Sun Zhengyi about the issue of investment quotas. Zhou Buqi will step down as CEO himself, so he has to act faster!
(End of this chapter)