Reborn since 1993

Chapter 1195 The calm before the storm

The licensing of internet content copyrights in the media industry has not yet taken off. Previously, when websites and forums on the internet reprinted news from television stations, newspapers, and magazines, it was essentially "sneaking" reprints, which, to put it bluntly, meant plagiarism without authorization.

Therefore, various media outlets, television stations, and newspapers have never received any licensing fees or copyright fees from internet websites.

China.com spent millions of Hong Kong dollars to acquire five-year content licenses from dozens of newspapers and media outlets, setting a precedent!

However, this amount of money is nothing in the future. In its previous life, when Toutiao was developing its market, it spent billions of RMB a year to purchase news content, cooperated with more than 2,300 media organizations at home and abroad, and also reached cooperation agreements with tens of thousands of professional content organizations.

This allows Toutiao to access news from central media outlets, local TV stations, newspapers, and magazines, as well as news about various TV dramas, movies, and variety shows.

In addition, they recruited self-media personalities and opened millions of personal Toutiao accounts on Toutiao.

Behind all this is the huge amount of money that Toutiao has spent, but the money has not been wasted. Toutiao has swept across various portal websites and become the portal website hegemon in the mobile Internet era.

Today's Headlines has appeared in the hands of countless mobile phone users, while Sohu, NetEase, Sina, and others have far fewer downloads in the smartphone era, and have almost been forgotten by the new generation of users...

China.com's current investment is certainly not as large as that of Toutiao in its previous life, but it still needs to buy the necessary news content copyrights. If it does, it can basically get them for a bargain price.

In a few years, when traditional media realize that portal websites like China.com are actually competing with them for their business, it would be absurd for them to still license their cheap content to China.com.

After securing authorization from a number of media outlets in Hong Kong, China.com began extending cooperation invitations to Chinese-language newspapers in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Siam.

Just one week before the launch of China.com, China.com announced that it had obtained content authorization from more than 100 Chinese media outlets and newspapers!

The commotion caused by China.com has shaken the entire Chinese internet industry. There has never been such a big commotion before China.com. The cost of acquiring so many media content licenses alone has exceeded several million Hong Kong dollars.

"The world's largest Chinese-language portal website will officially launch in one week!"

"China.com has assembled a super editorial team, including several chief editors from Himalaya FM and Tianya Forum, as well as Hong Kong TVB, Ta Kung Pao, Singapore Lianhe Zaobao, and other Hong Kong media professionals."

"In the next three years, China.com will establish offices in more than 40 regions around the world and recruit a team of 300 reporters!"

"Wherever there are Chinese people, there is China.com. China.com claims that it will enable Chinese people to make their voices heard in the internet world."

"Over the next five years, China.com will invest five million US dollars annually in website content acquisition and support for outstanding media creators!"

Mr. Zhang, the owner of Yanjing Sohu Company, was looking at China.com, which was already being heavily promoted even before it went public.

China.com's advertisements have begun to appear on various internet platforms, including newspapers, Tianya forums, and chat rooms.

It's understandable that Mr. Zhang, along with other domestic portal websites like NetEase and Sitong Lifang, was somewhat dissatisfied that a website that hadn't even launched yet dared to claim the title of the world's number one Chinese portal.

No matter how dissatisfied they are, China.com's slogan is louder than Sohu's. While Sohu and its ilk are still trying to find ways to secretly upload other media content to their websites through the backend, China.com has already reached cooperation agreements with more than 100 media outlets!

"Backed by Dongling High-Tech and Cyberport, China.com really has big ambitions!"

Mr. Zhang spoke to Chen Yizhou, another person in charge at Sohu, with a mixture of envy and sourness.

Currently, there are only two people who truly make the decisions within Sohu: the founder, Mr. Zhang, and Chen Yizhou, who joined as a senior vice president.

Mr. Zhang's resume goes without saying: he has a science and engineering background, but he is a physics lecturer whose talents were wasted on the internet. Apart from his hobby of sleeping only four hours every night and taking naps in different situations, he has a lot of experience in his life.

Another thing is his tendency to use a "multi-talented" tone when singing "Dear, That's Not Love." Countless people who have heard him sing this song are most afraid of him asking his mentor, "Please tell me your dream..."

Aside from promoting his four-hour sleep theory and singing, after experiencing the setbacks of fierce competition in the internet industry, Mr. Zhang's favorite thing to do is teach physics to beginners.

Strictly speaking, Chen Yizhou belongs to the Stanford group. He is a Stanford graduate and has a connection with Jerry Yang of Yahoo.

With his experience in America, Chen Yizhou's joining Sohu enabled the company to quickly transform from a search company into one of the earliest portal websites in China.

Sohu is now mainly led by Mr. Zhang and Chen Yizhou.

"A great era of competition in the domestic internet industry is about to begin!"

Chen Yizhou said to Boss Zhang with some concern, "It seems that Sohu is developing rapidly, claiming that its users have exceeded 100,000 and its daily active users account for 11% of the domestic Internet user base."

The competition in the domestic internet industry has undergone some changes, just as Chen Yizhou predicted. In America, companies like Netscape, Yahoo, and Himalaya FM all went through a period of development before facing competitors.

However, the situation in the domestic internet industry is different. Domestic internet companies are all learning from Silicon Valley, and everyone is learning by imitation. There is no issue of who came first or last. For example, portal websites that imitate Yahoo appeared in droves as soon as they emerged...

"Now, in the mainland, Sohu already has competitors like Sitong Lifang and NetEase."

Sitong Lifang has just secured a huge amount of financing and is rumored to be merging with Overseas Huayuan.com.

Now, with the formidable China.com joining the fray, Sohu's days are likely numbered. China.com claims it will launch simultaneously in mainland China, Hong Kong, Siam, and Singapore, meaning Sohu will inevitably have to compete with them.

Hearing Chen Yizhou's words, Mr. Zhang also felt a bit worried. "The most important thing right now is Sohu. We need to secure funding as soon as possible!"

The entire Chinese portal website landscape is calm before the storm. Everyone knows that the first major battle in the Chinese internet industry will arrive soon, most likely around the time China.com goes online.

At this point, what Sohu and other portal websites needed most was to start fundraising and raise more funds in order to survive the fierce competition.

Websites need continuous upgrades and optimizations, which require engineers; promotion and advertising require money, all of which require a lot of funding.

You can't talk about ideals without money. Just like the slogan of a truck brand that features one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: You only have the right to talk about ideals if you're alive...

Mr. Zhang also understands that Sohu's most important task right now is to attract more investment; otherwise, it might become cannon fodder in the first round of battle.

"The question we need to consider now is where Sohu can get investment!" Chen Yizhou looked at Boss Zhang.

Sohu's initial funding came from Nicholas Negroponte of MIT's lab, amounting to $22.5. Logically, Sohu should belong to the overseas venture capital faction.

However, Mr. Zhang was somewhat hesitant about whether to continue accepting overseas venture capital. He had seen too many cases where founders of companies like Cisco and Apple were sidelined or even ousted by investors.

Even now, there are rumors that Yahoo is actually controlled by professional managers, and that its founder, Jerry Yang, has been sidelined and is now just a figurehead!
Mr. Zhang was also afraid that if he accepted overseas venture capital, he would one day be sidelined.

“Right now, the only companies that can invest in Sohu are American venture capital firms, Tianya, and Cyberport’s Port City Future Industry Foundation…” Chen Yizhou said.

The landscape of China's internet industry is currently quite clear: there are only two major camps willing to invest in domestic internet companies.

They can either accept overseas venture capital like Sitong Lifang, or accept investment from Tianya Venture Capital or Cyberport's Port City Future Industry Foundation.

In reality, Tianya Venture Capital and Gangcheng Future Industry Fund are just fronts for Dongling High-Tech, except one is based in inland China and the other in Gangcheng. One has advantages in inland China, while the other is a local player in Gangcheng and has the potential to list in Gangcheng.
But regardless of which one is accepted, once the investment is accepted, the company will be part of the Dongling High-Tech Group.

Chen Yizhou hopes that Sohu can accept overseas venture capital. He has connections overseas and can help Sohu attract venture capital. Moreover, China.com will be Sohu's competitor in the future.

China.com is part of the same company as Tianya and Cyberport, so it can't accept investment from its competitors, can it?
"Let's wait and see what happens after China.com goes live before making a decision!"

At this critical moment, Mr. Zhang's indecisive nature resurfaced, making it difficult for him to decide which side Sohu should choose.

Seeing this, Chen Yizhou could only sigh helplessly. He felt that with Mr. Zhang's indecisive and wavering personality, he would suffer a great loss when the Internet war came. If he hesitated at the critical moment, how could Sohu have the last laugh?
……

"Huayuan.com agrees in principle to merge with Sitong Lifang!"

"This merger is beneficial to both parties and will enable them to better cope with future risks. I believe the new company should be named Sina.com, which combines the initials of the two companies' English names!"

"Stone Capital has completed its merger with Huayuan.com at a valuation of $2000 million. Stone Capital holds 60% of Sina's shares, while Huayuan.com holds 40%!"

While China.com was promoting the event extensively, it caused a huge shock to its two competitors.

The merger negotiations between Sitong Lifang and Huayuan, which had been deadlocked, quickly united in the face of China.com, a common enemy, with Huayuan making significant concessions.

If China.com aims to become the world's number one Chinese portal, then once its site launches in North America, Huayuan.com will still have a chance to survive, and its valuation will likely be significantly reduced.

Wang Zhidong, who became the president of the newly established Sina, exchanged agreements with Jiang Fengnian, the chairman of Sina.

To put it bluntly, Sina is a combination of various parties. The president is Wang Zhidong from Sitong Lifang, while the chairman is Jiang Fengnian, the founder of Huayuan.com.

Similarly, Sina's other senior executives were also selected from both sides, with both sides sharing the pie, although Sina had a slight advantage. Such a combination was fine during the honeymoon period, but once there were disputes, the internal factional struggles within Sina would be enough to make Wang Zhidong suffer.

"For Sina!"

After signing the agreement, Wang Zhidong raised his glass with high spirits, marking a new peak in his life.

The newly established Sina has become the third largest internet company in China in terms of user scale and daily click rate, second only to Tianya and 3721 Navigation, with a valuation of over 50 million US dollars!
"Mr. Wang!"

Wang Zhidong had just finished drinking when he saw a manager approach him with a rather unpleasant expression and whisper something to him.

Jiang Fengnian clearly saw that Wang Zhidong's expression changed immediately after hearing the news.

Seeing the look Jiang Fengnian cast his way, Wang Zhidong didn't hide it. He knew the news was impossible to keep secret.

"Including central media outlets, People's Daily, and China Youth Daily, 158 other newspapers and media outlets across the country have reached exclusive internet copyright agreements with China.com!"

(End of this chapter)