this man is not calm

Chapter 479: Differences in Hobbies
This is not a particularly difficult task, and with Qizhaoyun's capabilities, it should be completed smoothly.

As the boss, Jin Shang is confident, but he himself is a little hesitant.

"Why, any questions?"

After hesitating for a while, Qi Zhaoyun replied awkwardly:

"Things are not complicated, but Jinxi Video is a legal person with autonomy, or a listed company that is subject to strict supervision. They should listen to Mr. Jin's instructions, but if I were to give them instructions, it would be hard to say, unless... a board meeting is held to formally propose and pass the plan. Otherwise, it is foreseeable that they will pretend to obey but actually disobey."

"Not really, right? I'm still the honorary chairman, and we have people in the core areas of technology, finance, and legal affairs of Jinxi Video..."

Jin Shang laughed and realized as he spoke that the worst-case scenario Qi Zhaoyun described was not completely impossible to happen. Once this sign appeared, it would mean that the tacit understanding between the superiors and the subordinates no longer existed, and some things could not be undone.

After thinking about it for a while, Jin Shang accepted Qi Zhaoyun's suggestion.

"There will be more proposals for the board of directors in the middle of the year. You will draft the documents and push for the passage of relevant issues in the name of the controlling shareholder and its persons acting in concert. Then, as the plenipotentiary representative, keep an eye on it for me."

Jin Shang had anticipated the problems encountered by the listed company Jinxi Video. The fundamental reason was that after the IPO, most of the financing funds were withdrawn and invested in the construction of data centers and broadband servers.

The current P2P network acceleration technology is a distributed multi-center model. A batch of secondary center nodes need to be built in North China, Northeast China, Central China, South China and East China. As a result, a huge amount of money is spent.

The traditional bookstores, film and television disc rental and sales, and property operations sectors that have made great efforts have received very little money. Flagship stores in core cities have opened very slowly, but outlets in second- and third-tier cities are springing up everywhere.

To put it bluntly, it is caused by some unfair allocation of resources.

Jin Shang had no way to explain this.

Few people believe the argument that with the advent of the Internet age, physical books, videotapes, magnetic tapes, CDs, etc. will quickly collapse.

If it weren't for the expansion of stores, in which a lot of real estate such as shops, office buildings and stores were directly purchased, Jin Shang would not bother to continue expanding, but would try to maintain the existing stock, or even crawl backwards until they were sold.

If it were not for the hundreds of thousands of high-quality paying users and millions of ordinary users, Jin Shang would not have integrated the online Jinxi video and offline store account data.

"No wonder when the new era overturns the old pattern, there are always some stubborn guys who would rather perish than keep up with the times. It's really hard to change. Now is not the time to make drastic changes. I just tried to compress the rapid expansion and encountered obvious obstacles."

It’s not that Jinxi Culture has lost control of Jinxi Video, but that the policies during the transition period have harmed the original interest groups. Thousands of employees across the country and tens of thousands of families directly and indirectly affected cannot be ignored.

When it was still a small company, such problems were not very prominent, but at this point in time, Jinxi Culture’s subsidiaries and branches may have a total of 20,000 to 30,000 people. If we add in the invested companies and temporary workers, the number would be even higher.

They may not be particularly noticeable if scattered across major cities in various regions, but when added together, they become a very strong force.

It is one of the top three bookstore chains in the country, one of the top five book and audio-visual distribution channels, and has dozens of printing, media, advertising and other partner units. I don't know how many people depend on it for their livelihoods. It finally went public to raise funds, but in the end most of the money was used by online video and broadband servers that were also its "piggybacks". It's no wonder that others have such ideas.

In the past, Jin Shang thought that out of sight, out of mind. He had the "Golden Broom" to control the risk, so the risk of failure was small. Even extreme pressure would not be a problem. However, Qi Zhaoyun's suggestion touched Master Jin a little.

Whether the company is good or not is one thing, but once people’s hearts are turned away, it will be difficult to do anything in the future.

The Internet era has impacted the original media channels, but it does not mean that bookstores and audio-visual rental and sales businesses will collapse quickly. It is expected that there will be a three to five-year rebound period, and then rapid decline. In the worst case, they will not disappear completely.

"We still need to appease them a little bit, paint a rosy picture, and stabilize the middle and senior management, so that the chances of problems at the grassroots level will be low."

You need to give people appropriate warnings but also give them a sweet snack to give them hope and motivate them to do their work.

In addition, as a listed company, it also has the responsibility of negotiating with investors.

From last year to this year, the financial crisis began to enter deep waters, the secondary market was sluggish, and many stock prices plummeted. Although Jinxi Video was relatively strong, it also fell a little as a group of investors cashed out and left the market.

The level of stock price directly determines the income of Jin Shang, a major shareholder, so we have to pay attention to it!
"There are more than 2,000 video libraries, and we expect to reach 3,000 next year. Copyright expenses are one aspect, and self-produced dramas are also starting to pick up. In addition, the number of paying users has begun to grow healthily. These are all good signs. However, the current scale of Internet video is too small, and the revenue can barely catch up with a fraction of Jinxi Music. Compared with traditional businesses, it is really insignificant."

Although the secondary market has given a high valuation and the growth rate of the financial report data is extremely encouraging, there are still many investors who are not buying it.

Even in mid-1998, the potential of the Internet was still seriously underestimated by the mainstream market.

"Mr. Jin, it will take several years for offline channels to catch up with online channels. I guess everyone still has doubts and is afraid of being dragged down by online videos, especially for self-produced dramas. Traditional channel operators have not expanded into the field of content production. It is impossible for them to occupy both the upstream and downstream of the industry chain, right?"

At present, the restructuring of television stations across the country is in full swing, and there is a strong call for the separation of production and broadcasting, whether in name or form, even if it does not live up to the name, at least the direction is to do their own professional work and not mix the two.

As a result, Jinxi Video seems to be going backwards.

"There's nothing I can do. I don't want to be too radical, but why is there only 2,000 videos in the video library now, and a large part of them are obtained from Changdi Culture and co-producers?"

To put it bluntly, the TV networks and studios that control most of the copyrights and film and television production rights have become accustomed to the old ways and have no intention of sharing the profits with Jinxi Video.

Just because you have the strength, capital, content, and channels, does that mean you are qualified to sit at the table and eat?
Do not be silly!
If others don't want to play with you, it will be difficult for you to get into the circle of interests.

Either the strong dragon defeats the local snake, or you form your own circle and play on your own.

This also made Jin Shang realize why Netflix in its previous life embarked on the path of high-quality self-produced dramas. Was it really because the management had a keen vision and saw through the future development trends?

In fact, this is not the case. Instead, the established TV networks and the eight major film studios do not authorize it at all. Is it great that you have channels and paying users?

If others don’t sell, you won’t have any TV series or movies to broadcast, and you won’t be able to make it in the end.

As a last resort, Netflix embarked on the path of self-reliance, investing its own money to produce high-quality online dramas. In the end, it became unstoppable and became the world's largest long-form video network giant.

Jinxi Video actually encountered a similar problem. When you are weak, you are ignored. When you become strong, you are hostile to others. In short, no one will cooperate with you.

Fortunately, Jin Shang has planned its cultural and creative business in advance, including novels, comics, music, and film and television dramas. If others don’t give them to him, he can record them himself.

It's a little less, but it's barely enough. Together with the online broadcasting rights of some film and television dramas collected bit by bit, it is almost enough to support the business of Jinxi Video.

More importantly, this kind of investment cannot stop, which means that the listed company Jinxi Video loses a lot of blood from its online video business every year.

From the company name, it can be seen that Jin Shang intends to invest money to develop the online video business, but what no one expected was that it would cost so much. If it could make a profit like the online game "Fengshen", there would be much less criticism, but in 1998, it is indeed unrealistic to expect to make money from online videos.

After explaining many things to Qi Zhaoyun, Jin Shang was able to sort out the work that had been delayed for some time.

"Let's buy another office building to calm down. The price has dropped a bit recently and many people want to sell it. I can pick up some bargains now!"
-
The days from the end of July to the beginning of August are the hottest time of the year. After passing the most dangerous stage, the extreme weather conditions of floods and waterlogging in various places have begun to stabilize.

It just so happened that it was the time when the college entrance examination results were announced, and many parents near schools began to set off firecrackers to celebrate because their children had been admitted to good schools. At this time of year every year, even the administrators who banned firecrackers turned a blind eye.

The reservations for the "Teacher Appreciation Banquet" at several branches of Yuanqilou under Lao Jin have been fully booked long ago, with supply far exceeding demand. The hot weather has not dampened everyone's enthusiasm at all.

As usual, my grandmother went out to escape the summer heat. This time, she didn't go far. Instead, she went to Chengde Mountain Resort with some old friends to cool off. She didn't even use a private plane.

Another old comic by mother Mei Xinghong has been chosen to be adapted into an animation, and she often has to discuss it with the animation producer, so she is a bit busy. Lao Jin went to attend a birthday party at a friend's house.

Originally, Jin Shang had some work to do at the Commodity Trading Center, so his trip was delayed for some reason, so he and Li Xuan stayed at home to take a vacation during the high temperature weather to kill time.

It’s not that she didn’t think about going out for a trip, but because she had no plans and was a bit lazy, Li Xuan was too lazy to go, so she gave up.

Li Xuan took off her headphones and quit the online game "Fengshen" and complained to Jin Shang who was reading:

"This thing seems interesting, but with so many people playing it all night long, I really can't appreciate its magical charm. It's really not as fun as the "Mountain Racer" and "The Band" released some time ago, which are very exciting!"

"It targets different groups of players, so they can all play! Last time I went there, I saw many people playing "Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2", "Tomb Raider" and "Resident Evil", which are also very popular. There are also many Venus game console players who use flash cards to play "Champions League", playing season by season, with various ways of playing, which is pretty good."

"Female players and male players focus on different things! In fact, there are many girls who like to play Fengshen, but the current online channels are a bit of a hindrance."

A young boy playing games all night in an Internet cafe and a girl staying out all night playing games are not the same thing.

It has to be said that female players prefer games with stronger social attributes, while male players have a wider range of interests.

Another obvious phenomenon is that old players prefer well-made traditional stand-alone games and fighting games, while new netizens are more accepting of online games.

"In the final analysis, people surf the Internet for a reason, whether it's curiosity, satisfying their thirst for knowledge, or social needs, etc. Separated by the screen, people don't know each other's true identity, and many behaviors become uncontrollable. This is also the charm of the Internet..."

Putting down the book in his hand, Jin Shang smiled and said to Li Xuan:
"People like you and me have no expectations for online games, so we naturally won't get addicted to them. Because for us, reality is actually a 'junk game' that is more 'playable', has no save files, is more difficult, has full freedom, and has infinite unknowns. We don't need to go to the virtual world of the Internet to find specious self-satisfaction at all."

It’s not that I don’t have interest. I will try something fun, but I won’t get addicted to it.

"Indeed, it's okay to play around when you have nothing to do, but it's impossible to do this all day long, or even all night long."

Li Xuan agrees with this point.

"If we achieve a million users, the annual revenue will be at most 400 to 500 million yuan, which is a lot, but not a lot."

"Big IP development is valuable! The point cards can already cover the operating costs and make a lot of profit. If you include peripheral sales and licensing, the income will be even higher. Think about it, since the online game "Fengshen" became popular, the price of TV drama broadcasting rights has quadrupled, and the performance of the copyright operation class of the content division has improved a lot, all thanks to it. In the future, we won't have to worry about making a profit when shooting blockbuster movies."

This is the benefit of large-scale IP development. The success of a sub-project will drive profits for upstream and downstream IP industry chain developers.

Apart from other things, after the game "Fengshen" and the TV series "Journey to the West" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" became popular, the well-known weapons and props in them, such as the Seven-Star Sword, the Divine Whip, the Golden Cudgel, the Nine-toothed Rake and the Three-pointed Double-edged Sword, etc., sold very well, and the licensing dividend income in one quarter is almost over 100 million.

Don’t think that only children are interested in these, many teenagers and even adults are the target customers.

In the past six months, the number of T-shirts related to the online game "Fengshen" sold online at Jinxi Mall has exceeded five million.

We really can’t underestimate the consumption potential of today’s “game geeks” who have money and free time. In order to complete a set of “god equipment”, they buy multiple products just to collect cards.

There is no shipping insurance or seven-day no-questions-asked return policy for online shopping these days. Once you buy something, you are paying with real money.

"So how many years do you think this online game craze will last?"

"It depends on the operation. At least five years. As for ten years or even longer, it's hard to say. Maybe in twenty years, we can open a 'nostalgic server' to sell nostalgia and reap the benefits again."

(End of this chapter)