The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 995 The Era of Great Battle Among Internet Music Platforms Has Arrived
It would be difficult to find another high-profile leader like the Wangs in the mainland market in 2007.

Perhaps it's a trial-and-error approach to learning the I Ching and transforming individuals into the company's brand identity; perhaps it's to prove to the market that the company has no problems; or perhaps it's to reassure the celebrities still with the company.

In short, since New Year's Day, they have made the most noise and the most substantial impact in the domestic market.

Especially their old rival, Orange Sky Entertainment. Two years ago, Wang Jinghua, who led a group of big-name artists to leave Orange Sky, has been rumored to be leaving again. Orange Sky Entertainment, which once caused chaos when poaching Huayi Brothers, is now mired in internal strife and has lost its former glory.

"I don't know if they're trying to figure me out, but it's obvious that Orange Sky is the target the two brothers want to target. They're just making empty promises to the outside world. At the press conference, they were subtly implying that those who left Huayi were short-sighted."

As he rolled over, Zhou Yi patted her bouncy bottom with his right hand, lifting her up slightly: "They want to go public, so they need to create hype."

Selling movies only makes a little money; the two Wangs are aiming for the first listed entertainment company in mainland China. To this end, they hooked up with Taobao, which had already taken off, last year and officially accepted Lao Ma's share subscription, binding them together as a community of interests.

Only by going public can they better exploit retail investors and make big money.

"Going public?"

As a wealthy heiress, Hsiao Ya-hsuan is no stranger to the financial market. After all, her mother is a prominent figure in Taiwan's semiconductor industry, with a personal fortune exceeding 10 billion NTD, not even including company assets.

To put it bluntly, the reason she couldn't stand up to her mother before was because no matter how popular she was as a singer, she couldn't earn as much as her mother. Being a singer was truly about realizing one's own life value, after all, she wasn't groomed to be an heir.

"That's impressive, though. Film and television stocks aren't that simple."

"They don't really want movies; they just want a stepping stone." Zhou Yi, inhaling the fragrance of the woman's hair, nuzzled his chin and revealed the untold inside story to her—

Immediately, he was met with exclamations of surprise and the satisfaction of hearing, "How do you know so much?"

"No wonder they signed those people from Warner Bros. and Wheatfield. I've heard my mom talk about Taobao; they even killed Yahoo! China. They're really powerful." Xiao Yaxuan didn't know Jack Ma personally, but she had heard of him.

In 2007, the initial signs of a three-way competition between BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent) were already emerging.

Baidu, which occupies the largest Chinese internet search portal, successfully listed on NASDAQ in the United States, creating a myth of Chinese concept stocks in the United States;

Alibaba has completely defeated Yahoo! China, acquiring all of its assets and securing $10 billion in funding from Yahoo!, thus clearing all obstacles and expecting to complete its IPO this year.

On the contrary, Tencent, which Zhou Yi invested in, also saw a rapid rise in its stock price, but it still lagged far behind the top two.

In contrast, Sohu, the former internet giant, seems to be at a loss as to how to continue its development. Zhang Chaoyang himself is also in a state of confusion, frequently throwing parties with yachts, alcohol, young models, and female celebrities.

With Lao Ma, who is about to take off, as his backer, it's normal for Hua Yi to be trembling with fear.

"Could Alibaba be thinking of getting into music too?"

"That's for sure, they just can't spare the time right now. They're all after my position as the number one in market share."

Although Alibaba's grand entertainment strategy ultimately turned out to be a joke, with every big move announced but ultimately amounting to little more than a lot of noise, it is undeniable that Jack Ma did manage to get involved in this area.

The signing of those former Wheatfield players this time could be a strategic move by Old Ma to lay the groundwork.

After all, if I remember correctly, Gao Xiaosong and Song Ke were the two people that Lao Ma (Jack Ma) brought in to take the helm of Alibaba Music Group—on the surface, it seemed like a perfect match in terms of their professional backgrounds, but unsurprisingly, they ultimately failed.

This angered Jack Ma so much that he simply abandoned Alibaba Music Group and turned to investing in NetEase Cloud Music to compete with Tencent.

"You'll face a lot of competition in the future. Baidu has Qianqian Music Player too."

"There's no way around it, we have to fight it eventually. In the domestic market, the losers are destined to lose everything."

Zhouyi's musical empire has expanded continuously through the two major platforms, Warner Music and QQ Music. While Warner Music has firmly established itself as the leader in physical records, its position in the online music market is not so secure.

Although QQ Music has become the largest legitimate online music platform in China thanks to Zhou Yi's own name, it has not created a significant gap in quality with Baidu's Qianqian Jingting.

Not to mention the piracy market, Kugou Music, launched in 2004, has become the music playback software with the largest user base in China after two years of rapid development. Every time Kugou Music is opened, the greeting "Hello Kugou" is heard throughout the country. At the same time, at the end of last year, another new music platform that became an instant hit on the Chinese internet emerged: Kuwo Music.

The software's founder came from Baidu and has close ties with the company. With increased traffic and its partnership with Qianqian Jingting, it's directly challenging QQ Music, owned by Zhouyi.

To be honest, if QQ Music didn't have Zhouyi's exclusive copyright to support it, it would have already lost its position as the number one in the legitimate music market share to Baidu, given that Tencent currently lacks a traffic advantage.

Baidu's search traffic is so massive that it was far beyond what was expected of a portal website in the era of BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), truly befitting its status as the leader among the BAT companies.

Before this battle with Baidu was even over, Alibaba, in partnership with Huayi Music, planned to seize market share.

The enormous profits and influence of the music industry have ultimately attracted the attention of leading companies in the emerging internet industry—and not just domestic internet companies.

After entering the mainland market, foreign giant Google launched Giant Whale Music, which also focuses on legal music. In 2006, it had already achieved nearly 10 million yuan in advertising revenue, and the situation was very promising.

"Google doesn't need to worry too much. Their team is too arrogant and will die on their own sooner or later."

The following day, at QQ Music headquarters—

It was actually just a floor rented in the Guiyi Building.

Zhou Yi, who quickly appeared, convened a meeting to clarify the platform's future direction and competitors, thus stabilizing morale.

As Google is currently catching up by relying on advertising revenue, Zhou Yi doesn't seem to value it much.

Many people believe that Google withdrew from the mainland market due to administrative reasons, but in reality, they simply couldn't compete with Baidu. In the end, they broke down and simply refused to accept data regulation, using the excuse of being persecuted to withdraw.

You can say Baidu is disgusting, but you really can't assume that Robin Li was a pushover during that period.

If Europe and America dared to loosen restrictions, Robin Li would have dared to launch a counterattack into their home turf. As the head of the BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) group, Robin Li was truly in high spirits during this period.

"But Mr. Yi, our losses are already increasing."

"No problem. How is the Green Diamond system developing now?" Zhou Yi waved his hand and asked directly about the development of Green Diamond.

This was QQ Music's trump card when it first gained market dominance, and it has now become the platform's symbol. The icon that can be lit up on QQ has become the first choice for many people to show off.

Of course, this has led to a small problem now—

As the Green Diamond system became popular, some people began to discover loopholes in it, and a popular internet culture of "blocking Green Diamonds" gradually emerged.

Many people would rather spend almost the same amount of money to get a so-called "permanent VIP membership" than to subscribe to a single-month VIP membership. In the end, they spend the money, lose the so-called "permanent VIP membership," and end up with nothing. Some unlucky people may even have their accounts banned by Tencent.

Even so, diamond-encrusted culture has become a fashion trend among the new generation of internet users. Baidu, known for its unethical practices, even pushed diamond-encrusted news directly on its search page to help more netizens understand this issue.

Real business battles are often this simple and unpretentious.

Meanwhile, Lao Ma, who was watching the "internal struggle" between Zhou Yi and Li Yanhong, two generations of Peking University students, from Hangzhou, turned his attention to a startup group that originated in Hangzhou—Xiami.com.

Or, to put it another way, Xiami Music.

The reason I'm paying attention to this small team that plans to delve into the music industry is because its founder left Alibaba.

The reason he went to Huayi Music was to learn the model of the I Ching, and to pursue both physical records and online music.

It's not shameful to try to cross the river by feeling the way the Book of Changes.

Meanwhile, in Shanghai, a team that planned to create a new music software in imitation of the "dead" Qianqian Jingting after it was acquired by Baidu was also gearing up – they planned to call their software Tiantian Dongting.

(End of this chapter)