It's reasonable for me, a stuntman, to live a crazy life, right?

Chapter 1333 Youku wins!
"Haha, Mr. Chen, you really got it right. The advanced on-demand broadcast launched by Tencent Video has gone wrong!"

Chen Fei woke up early in the morning and was about to go to the filming of "Parasite" when he suddenly received a call from Gu Yongqiang.

He asked with some confusion: "What's going on?"

"It's the new drama "Sweeping Dark Storm" that Tencent Video and Penguin Pictures launched at the beginning of the month. Because of the advance on-demand broadcast, the film was leaked! Now it's everywhere on the Internet, and Tencent Video is probably going crazy at this moment."

There was a hint of schadenfreude in Gu Yongqiang's tone, mixed with contempt for the chaos in the industry.

He and Chen Fei are on the same front, both believe that the disadvantages of the "advanced on-demand" function outweigh the advantages.

But before that, Tencent, iQiyi, and Mango TV were all doing it, and the popularity was very high, so Youku, as a "maverick" player, was targeted a lot.

But now, the drawbacks have finally been revealed.

Those viewers who watched the entire series through advanced on-demand viewing actually packaged and copied the entire film and sold it on the entire Internet at the price of "6 yuan" per copy.

This operation is undoubtedly a major blow to Square and the producers who wanted to make money from "Sweeping Dark Storm"!
You can watch the entire series for only 6 yuan, and you don’t even need to open a VIP account or buy advanced on-demand viewing. It’s such a great deal for the audience!

In the nanny car, Fade Chen crossed his legs, with a slight smile on his face: "This matter has nothing to do with us, just sit back and watch the show, and you can also give a push when the time is right."

"Okay, I know what to do, haha."

Gu Yongqiang laughed like a villain and almost made a "hehehe" sound.

The controversy surrounding advanced on-demand viewing is already very huge, and now that the entire film has been leaked, the conflicts between users, platforms, and film producers are bound to be intensified.

At this moment, Chen Fei's mind quickly emerged with the possible subsequent public opinion melee, the platform's explanation, the audience's anger, the copyright owner's accountability and a series of other derivative situations.

Obviously, an industry storm is brewing!

When he arrived at the set, he found that many people in the crew were also discussing this matter.

Wen Muye came closer and asked curiously, "Director Chen, how do you think this will end? Tencent Video will be criticized and crashed, right? The audience who paid for advanced on-demand viewing will be furious?"

Han Jianu next to her echoed, "That's right! If it were me, I would definitely start cursing right now. I can buy the entire series for 6 yuan, but I have to spend so much money to watch it in advance. Isn't this a rip-off?"

Chen Fei shrugged and said, "Just wait and see. This is just the beginning. After public opinion ferments, it may promote the rectification of industry regulations."

He vaguely remembered that in his previous life, it seemed that it was because of this opportunity that all major platforms were severely fined!

In this life, I can just sit on the mountain and watch the fight between two tigers. Anyway, it has nothing to do with Youku.

Maybe Youku can take this opportunity to attract a group of new users.

"Come on, everyone get ready, let's start filming."

On the set, Han Jianu held up a loud speaker and started shouting.

At this time, the hot searches on the Internet have been dominated by topics such as #The whole film of the anti-gang storm has been leaked# and #The pros and cons of advanced on-demand viewing#.

Tencent Video urgently issued a statement, claiming that it had launched an investigation and would hold the leaker accountable, but netizens simply did not buy it.

"You really treat me like a leek? You can watch the whole series for 6 yuan, but I spent so much money to buy advanced on-demand viewing."

"I have already spent more than 30 yuan to buy VIP, and now they charge me again on top of the membership. It's really shameless, fuck!"

"I paid to watch it on a legitimate platform, but my friend watched it on a pirated platform, and then he turned around and called me a sucker. It's so fucking infuriating!"

"The advanced on-demand streaming of "Sweeping Dark Storm" really disgusts me. As a member, I want to watch 19 episodes, but I have to buy all the content from the first episode on-demand streaming to here. Am I a jerk?"

"Youku is still the best. It respects users. I will never use Tencent Video and iQiyi again. Damn it!"

"Just go to Tik Tok and watch it. All the highlights have been edited out by video bloggers. Just aim for 'poisonous movies' and that's it."

There was a lot of condemnation online, which completely nailed the label of "Sweeping Dark Storm" as an ugly show to the wall.

I don’t know if Tencent Video was desperate or not, but it actually turned around and sued Douyin, accusing the other party of illegally uploading infringing videos.

When Chen Fei saw the announcement released by Douyin, he felt that Tencent Video’s action was really outrageous.

Clearly before the show went online, the two parties had already signed a copyright cooperation agreement and would launch a series of derivative win-win cooperation for the promotion of the show.

Both platforms need traffic. If the cooperation goes smoothly, it can be said to be a "win-win" situation!
Douyin attracted new users with its wonderful editing clips, while Tencent Video could take the opportunity to gain a group of drama fans and encourage them to purchase VIP and advance on-demand viewing.

But because the source of the film was leaked, the blogger on Douyin actually cut out the later ending.

But the VIP users of Tencent Video had only seen half of it and had no idea what the plot was going to be like next.

However, when they see that they can watch the subsequent plot for free on TikTok, their purchasing power naturally drops significantly.

For a time, Tencent Video suffered a serious loss of users, while the popularity of Douyin soared.

It could have been a win-win situation, but because of a "super on-demand" function, Douyin became the unilateral winner.

Tencent Video suffered heavy losses and immediately started to take desperate measures!
In the evening, when Chen Fei returned to the hotel from the crew, he received another call from Gu Yongqiang.

"In just one day, Tencent Video actually took down more than 8000 short videos about TikTok about Sweeping Dark Storm due to complaints. Wow, it's really a thankless job for all the hard work!"

More than 8000 videos?

Chen Fei began to calculate the difficulty of this "major project".

Finally, he came to the conclusion that after all this trouble, the drama "Sweeping Dark Storm" would not only not make any money, but would probably have to lose a large sum of money.

However, the style of big companies has always been "stubborn" and "unwilling to admit defeat".

So, if nothing unexpected happens, Tencent Video will have to do something fancy.

Sure enough, when Chen Fei woke up early the next morning, he saw that the industry group was flooded with news about Tencent Video’s “new strategy”.

The official Weibo account of "Sweeping Dark Storm" was the first to release a solemn statement against piracy!
Subsequently, Tencent Video launched the "Advanced On-Demand Package", claiming that "buy 10 episodes at a time and enjoy a 7% discount", trying to use "bundled discounts" to hedge the adverse effects of "film source leaks".

And this time it’s not just “Sweeping Dark Storm”, all currently airing dramas enjoy this discount.

However, this wave of operations did not win praise, but instead attracted more scolding:
"Are we taking you for fools? Isn't this just a bundling sales tactic?"

"Report! Let's all report together."

"You are such an idiot. I am so fed up with you. I will just cancel your membership renewal and get out of here!"

The public opinion storm is getting bigger and bigger, and more and more viewers and netizens are choosing to call, send complaint letters, or even directly post videos to criticize.

Finally, the authorities could no longer sit still.

On the 26th, Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee took the lead in speaking out, directly naming Tencent Video, saying: "In the advanced on-demand broadcast of "Sweeping Dark Storm", since it is charged by episode, consumers have the right to choose the episode they want to watch.

The so-called "unlock and watch in sequence" is suspected of bundled sales and completely disregards consumers' right to choose! "

At the same time, the China Consumers Association also expressed its opinion that "video platforms should respect consumers when providing VIP membership services.

The rule that requires customers to purchase in order to enjoy the "advanced on-demand" service is completely undermining consumers' right to choose independently and goes against their true wishes!"

With the two major official statements, it was like the clarion call of "charge" was blown, triggering even greater public opinion!
Seeing that the time had come, Gu Yongqiang immediately called Chen Fei and said, "Mr. Chen, is it time for us to take action? Our colleagues are waiting for us to 'rescue' them."

"Haha." Fade Chen waved his hand and made a prompt decision, "You decide on the arrangements. Don't let them down."

"okay!"

Gu Yongqiang immediately hung up the phone and went to make arrangements.

High-end business wars often use the simplest methods.

The next morning, as public opinion continued to ferment, Youku, which had not originally enabled the advanced on-demand function, seized the opportunity to release a statement:
"Youku always respects the rights of users, adheres to the principle of non-bundled sales, and is committed to providing users with a pure and high-quality viewing experience. We stand with users and jointly maintain a healthy industry ecosystem..."

This "gauze" statement instantly focused all firepower on Tencent Video and iQiyi, which are still "struggling", and even put Mango TV, LeTV Video and others into a passive position.

Users have spoken out, questioning these platforms, why don't they learn from Youku's sincerity? For a time, Tencent Video and iQiyi fell into a deeper passive position, and their stock prices plummeted that day, with billions of market value evaporated!

On the other hand, Youku has gained a lot of favor from users because of this wave of statements, and the number of APP downloads has increased significantly!

Gong Yu and Sun Zhonghuai had already started cursing in their respective offices.

"What a bullshit statement! Youku is just stepping on us to attract users!"

Gong Yu slammed the table hard; the jumping stock price curve on the computer screen hurt his eyes.

He really couldn't understand how the advanced on-demand package became a bundled sale?
The market rule is that everyone makes money based on their own ability. iQiyi has done nothing wrong, so why should it be targeted?
On the other side, in the president's office of Tencent Video, Sun Zhonghuai also had a gloomy expression on his face, and his fingers quickly swiped across netizens' comments on his mobile phone.

Looking around, the screen is full of voices saying "Youku is a good person by not pre-ordering" and "Tencent and iQiyi should learn from this quickly."

"How can users be so easily led astray?" He gritted his teeth, "Let the PR department issue a statement immediately, saying that we will optimize the rules, and this is not bundling!"

The two industry giants were busy as hell, but Gu Yongqiang, on the other hand, was as happy as if he had eaten honey. He was so happy that it was hard to describe.

"Go ahead, stir up public opinion. We will fight side by side with the users and we must eliminate all the chaos in the industry!"

He leaned back in the leather chair, tapped with his fingertips on Youku's newly launched "User Rights White Paper" on his desk, and a bright smile appeared on the corners of his mouth.

When going to war, what matters is having a legitimate reason.

And now, Youku is undoubtedly charging forward with the "public opinion" of hundreds of millions of users!

The operations director immediately understood what he meant: "Boss Gu, we have teamed up with several top film and television bloggers and asked them to create content from the perspectives of 'user choice' and 'healthy industry ecology'. Tomorrow we can bring up the topic of #Youku does not bundle sales#.

In addition, we have pinned a vote in the user feedback area to 'refuse advanced on-demand viewing and support pure viewing of dramas', and the number of participants has now exceeded one million."

Upon hearing this, Gu Yongqiang's smile grew even brighter.

“Okay, contact a few more financial media outlets and make a comparison chart of the decline in the market value of Tencent and iQiyi today and the growth in our download volume. We need to let the market see that only platforms that truly respect their users are worthy of winning such huge traffic!”

"I'll make arrangements right away."

The operations director turned around and walked out quickly.

That night, the topic #Youku won# directly became the number one hot search on Weibo.

In the accompanying picture, Youku APP's ranking in the app store's free list soared from 20th to 5th, and the comment section was full of likes saying "Finally, there is a platform that doesn't treat users like leeks."

On the other hand, the comment section of Tencent Video’s official Weibo account was flooded with words like “apology” and “refund”.

The latest statement released by the official Weibo account, "Optimizing the rules for advanced on-demand viewing", has been forwarded less than one-tenth of Youku's statement.

In the industry group, producers, investors, and producers were also in an uproar.

This "business war" between the three major platforms is simply too violent!

Looking around, the losses are often hundreds of millions or even billions, which is even more frightening than spending money on making big-budget movies!
At three o'clock in the morning, the lights in Tencent Video Conference Room were still on.

Sun Zhonghuai was still staring at the report on market value evaporation handed over by the CFO, but suddenly he received a call from the group's top management: "Mr. Ma has said, don't hold on any longer, the farce of advanced on-demand service should be over. If it continues like this, the user churn rate will be uncontrollable."

At the same time, Gong Yu also received an email from the board of directors at iQiyi: "Refer to the Youku model, adjust the strategy as soon as possible, and prioritize stabilizing user reputation."

Both of them looked very unhappy, but they could do nothing about it.

At this time, Gu Yongqiang was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, looking at the brightly lit city outside the window. His fingertips slid across the pop-up window on his mobile phone that announced that the number of new Youku users had exceeded 3 million, and an uncontrollable smile appeared on his face.

After thinking for a moment, he called Chen Fei again.

"Hey?"

"Director Chen! I think this is a great opportunity. While the platform traffic is high, we can definitely launch a new drama to take advantage of this wave of popularity and also take over the schedule for Dream of China."

That's a good suggestion.

Chen Fei thought for a moment and replied: "Contact Su Guohai and Jiang Xuerou and move "Snow Sword" to the front and push it to the platform while it's hot."

The school season is about to begin, and the traffic in the film and television market will definitely experience a sharp drop.

But now, with the explosion of “advanced on-demand”, the popularity of video platforms remains high, which is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity to promote new dramas.

"Okay! I'll contact Mr. Su right away."

Gu Yongqiang hung up the phone immediately.

However, before calling Su Guohai, he did not forget to instruct his secretary: "Tell the legal department to write 'never bundle sales' into the platform user agreement.

By the way, let’s communicate with the publicity and promotion team of Feiyue Films. We can add the selling point of ‘no advanced on-demand’ to the publicity and promotion plan of our new drama. This is the industry conscience that the audience wants to hear the most now.”

"Okay, antique."

The secretary suppressed his laughter and nodded in agreement.

High-end business wars are so simple and unpretentious.

It feels so good to take advantage of the cuts on your opponent's body and sprinkle salt on them.

"Humph, I told you to keep showing off. Your stock price has plummeted, your users have left, and you've lost all your profits. You deserve it!"

……

In a blink of an eye, it is the last day of the month.

When Youku and Feiyue Film and Television jointly announced that "Snow Swordsman" would be released on the 3rd of next month, several other platforms could no longer sit still.

While others are madly eating up popularity and traffic, our own stock price is plummeting and users are madly losing...

The comparison between the two is really too tragic!
Therefore, iQiyi took the lead in issuing a statement, announcing the cancellation of the advanced on-demand service in an attempt to calm users' anger.

Soon after, several platforms including Tencent Video, Mango TV, and LeTV Video also spoke out and gave the same solution.

——Cancel the advanced on-demand service!
Starting from "The Untamed" launched by Tencent Video in August 19, to "Sweeping Dark Storm" broadcast in August 8.

At this point, the two-year tug-of-war finally ended with consumers winning!
For a moment, the entire network was filled with cheers and celebrations.

"Wouldn't it be better if you did this earlier? Why are you so stubborn? Come on! I want to see how stubborn you can be."

"Listen carefully, water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. Without us users, you are nothing."

"Oh my god! Check out the Youku opening screen. The poster for The Snowy Swordsman is so cool! Excellent, too good."

"Youku has made a lot of money this time."

"A good platform should let people make money. That's called conscience. It's been the same for ten years. Look at other platforms. Their consciences have all been eaten by dogs. I'm already a member, but they still have ads popping up. What a crap job."

Although the complaints online have not stopped, with the arrival of "victory", if nothing unexpected happens, the incident will gradually subside next month.

iQiyi and Tencent Video have great power, so it is not difficult for them to suppress the heat of this incident.

However, Youku and Tik Tok are already gearing up, ready to pounce and take a big bite of the meat!

Especially Youku.

After winning the business war, the next step is naturally the time to reap the rewards.

At the same time, Chen Fei, who had diverted his attention from the battle of "advanced on-demand", boarded the plane back to Beijing with Liu Yifei.

School is starting tomorrow and Xiao Shitou is going to kindergarten.

They were worried about letting Liu Xiaoli go alone, so they decided to personally send their son off to embark on a new journey in his life!
(End of this chapter)