Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 448 Storm, Tencent, and iQiyi Form Alliance

This is Wu Zhuo's first leading role in a TV series since "The Magic Sword and the Chess Game".

"Nirvana in Fire" is clearly highly anticipated.

This drama has frequently topped the trending searches since filming began.

In particular, the cast of this drama is considered to be an exceptionally strong lineup in the television drama field.

With Wu Zhuo, Chen Kun, Chen Daoming, Yang Mi, Lin Gengxin, and other top industry professionals, each of them could almost carry a drama on their own.

Among them, Lin Gengxin is currently the least experienced.

Even Yang Mi is now considered a top-tier figure in the film and television industry.

In the middle of this year, Wu Zhuo specially created a short film for her called "Island of Horror".

The film had an investment of less than five million yuan, but ultimately grossed 8000 million yuan at the box office.

With box office revenue exceeding 10 times the previous amount, Yang Mi has become one of the few female stars with a huge following.

With such a large cast and crew, "Nirvana in Fire" has naturally become the most watched TV series this year.

On the 8th, after "Nirvana in Fire" officially premiered on Hunan TV, it immediately achieved a rating of 7.8, ranking first in its time slot and demonstrating the show's popularity.

Then there are online streaming platforms.

Baofeng Player exclusively broadcast the video, which garnered 3000 million views that night, breaking the record for the highest number of views on the first day across the entire network.

Of course, the most important reason is that it's exclusive.

Because of this drama, Baofeng Player attracted more than three million app downloads.

And this data is still ongoing.

In the following days, several topics related to "Nirvana in Fire" trended on social media.

#江庄梅郎#
#The best historical drama with political intrigue: Nirvana in Fire#
#StormPlayer's conscience#

Besides the topic of Nirvana in Fire, Baofeng Player also received a lot of attention.

Among them, the most praised aspect is the user experience provided by Baofeng Player.

Compared to other platforms where you see a lot of ads after watching for a short time, Baofeng has focused on improving user experience after its reforms.

Wu Zhuo demanded that Baofeng cut a large number of spam ads.

This brought Baofeng's advertising business to an all-time low.

While this approach significantly reduced Baofeng's advertising revenue, it won over a large number of users.

For users, the most annoying thing is definitely when a lot of ads pop up while watching a show.

The experience of having a dozen or so ads pop up in a single episode is just awful.

Currently, although other platforms have realized the importance of user experience, very few have actually implemented it.

Even if they implement it, they will choose to purchase memberships.

As for the membership model, Baofeng will certainly develop it.

However, that will have to wait until the self-produced drama is released later.

Although Baofeng Player currently has many users, it has very few loyal users.

The purpose of "Nirvana in Fire" is to attract users across the entire internet, rather than to attract members.

In terms of attracting users, this drama series has indeed fulfilled its responsibility.

Within a week, after the Langya List became a hit across the internet, it attracted approximately ten million active users to Baofeng Player.

……

During the time that Nirvana in Fire was airing, Wu Zhuo certainly wasn't idle either.

He continued to hold talks with major film and television companies.

They successively reached cooperation agreements with Emperor Entertainment Group, Oriental Film, China Star, TVB, and several major television stations in Taiwan, acquiring their film and television copyrights.

Compared to other platforms in China, Wu Zhuo has an advantage over these Hong Kong and Taiwan companies.

By nature, they would subconsciously consider Wu Zhuo as one of their own, so even though several other platforms joined the battle for the copyright, they ultimately failed to beat Wu Zhuo to it.

Then, what needs to be said here is...

Wu Zhuo had previously spoken with several companies, hoping they would invest in Baofeng.

Several company owners at the time were very interested.

However, in the end, all of these guys chose to give up.

The reasons vary.

Some faced pressure from platforms like Tencent, while others were coerced and lured by other platforms using their cooperation to their advantage, ultimately leading them to abandon their partnership with Baofeng.

Wu Zhuo was not annoyed by this.

Markets are like battlefields.

There are no permanent friends, nor permanent enemies.

At the same time, operating a shopping mall is not something you can simply do as you wish.

Because there are always unexpected things that happen.

Take copyright, for example.

Did Wu Zhuo never consider acquiring the copyright before?
I've thought about it.

He had considered acquiring film and television copyrights as early as 10.

He also took action for this.

But the result was not satisfactory; although he obtained some copyrights, the amount was pitifully small.

The reason is actually quite simple: nobody wants to sell these copyrights.

Don't think you're the only smart one who knows that copyrights will be valuable in the future.

In fact, as early as the 1980s and 1990s, international companies had already instilled the concept that copyright is very important into the minds of Chinese people.

Generally speaking, unless the company goes bankrupt and closes down, very few people will sell the film and television copyrights in their copyright library.

Like the 1600 Hong Kong film copyrights that Wu Zhuo acquired from Orange Sky Entertainment and Celestial Pictures.

The reason he got it was because he paid the right amount of money.

Another reason is that the business direction of these two companies has begun to change.

Especially Orange Sky Entertainment.

Orange Sky Entertainment has significantly reduced its film production and shifted its focus to the theatrical release market.

In other words, Orange Sky no longer wants to be a production company; they are transforming into a cinema chain and distribution channel.

And Tianying.

There are two reasons why they were willing to sell Shaw Brothers' 760 films: firstly, these films were too old.

According to copyright law, the copyright ownership period for a film is 50 years.

Many of the films in Shaw Brothers' collection date back to the 70s, meaning that the protection period for these films is only about 10 years.

Another reason is that the television industry is gradually being replaced by the internet.

Celestial Pictures originally purchased Shaw Brothers' films with the intention of broadcasting them on television.

But with TV ratings declining, Celestial Pictures can't make much money from these copyrights.

Therefore, after Wu Zhuo approached them, Tianying ultimately chose to transfer the copyright to Baofeng.

This is actually a win-win situation.

Celestial Pictures can use this opportunity to make a considerable amount of money.

Baofeng can take advantage of the final protection period of these copyrights to increase its film library by acquiring a large number of exclusive copyrighted films, thereby attracting users to stay.

Just like music platforms place great emphasis on their music libraries.

The same applies to video platforms.

What would it be like if users couldn't watch the movie they wanted or the movie they wanted?
Users download your platform so they can watch the movies they want.

In the end, you got nothing.

Why would users download your app?

Even if you manage to attract users, without a large film library to support them, they will uninstall your platform within a few days.

The copyright battle among the major platforms has lasted for nearly two months. For Baofeng...

In this copyright battle, besides acquiring a considerable number of copyrights...

Another huge benefit is that this copyright dispute has made Baofeng Video a household name and one of the largest video platforms in China.

Now, when people in China talk about video platforms, Baofeng is also considered one of the major platforms.

In fact, this was because Baofeng already had a good user base.

Baofeng is currently among the top platforms, second only to Sohu and Youku.

Just when everyone thought the copyright dispute between video websites would continue.

On January 6, Baofeng received invitations from iQiyi and Tencent.

The purpose of the invitation was simple: to discuss the recent copyright battle.

Han Zhijie, as the president of Baofeng, attended the tripartite meeting.

"Old Han is here, please have a seat."

At 1:50 p.m., Han Zhijie arrived at the iQiyi building ahead of schedule.

Led by iQiyi staff, we arrived at the conference room. As soon as we entered, we saw representatives from the other two companies already waiting for us.

Upon seeing Han Zhijie's arrival, Wang Juan from Tencent Video immediately greeted him with a smile.

"Mr. Wang, it's been a long time!"

Han Zhijie previously worked under Wang Juan at Tencent.

The two sides are very familiar with each other.

"We thought Mr. Wu would come!"

iQiyi CEO Gong Yu came over with a smile and shook hands with Han Zhijie.

"Mr. Wu usually doesn't get involved in this kind of thing."

Han Zhijie smiled. He sensed the other person's disdain, but he didn't care.

This industry isn't about seniority.

It's about skill.

He was very confident in his abilities and felt that with Wu Zhuo's financial support, he would be no less capable than Gong Yu and Wang Juan.

"Now that everyone's here, there's no need to wait any longer. Shall we get started now?"

Gong Yu gestured for the Storm team to sit down and returned to his own seat.

“We have no problem.” Han Zhijie nodded.

“Okay.” Wang Juan didn’t refuse. Then she looked at Gong Yu and asked, “Mr. Gong, you didn’t call us here to ask us to withdraw from the copyright competition, did you?”

If that's the case, I don't think there's much to talk about.

Tencent will absolutely not give up on purchasing copyrights.

This is our company's overarching strategy, and it will not change because of anyone.

"We at Baofeng are the same. Everyone knows that in this industry, whoever owns the copyrights owns the business."

Whoever owns more copyrights has the advantage.

We at Storm were already a bit late to the game, so naturally we won't give up.

Han Zhijie also made his stance clear.

"Of course, I know that none of us will give up the pursuit of copyright until one of us completely collapses."

But we all know that if we keep fighting like this, it will only damage our own interests.

You should know that the video industry now consists of more than just the three of us.

Whether it's Sohu, Youku, or even companies like LeTV and Kuaibo, they can't just sit idly by and watch us grow bigger.

They haven't made a move yet, simply because they want to wait until we all suffer heavy losses.

I think neither of you wants to be the one stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind!

As Gong Yu spoke, he instructed his assistant to distribute data charts to everyone.

"This is a data table of the copyright of single episodes of new media film and television dramas in recent years."

Between 2009 and 2011, the price of a single episode of a film or television drama on new media platforms soared from tens of thousands of yuan to nearly 200 million yuan.

Prices had already fallen sharply by the second half of 2011, and there was even a large number of unsold films and television dramas at the 2012 Spring Trade Fair.

However, starting in the second half of the year, especially in October, the price surged again, reaching 2.5 million per episode.

There are even cases in the market where people compare prices from multiple vendors and then rip us off like cattle.

Gong Yu glanced at Han Zhijie as he spoke.

Without a doubt, if Baofeng Player hadn't entered the market and snatched up the copyrights, the copyright prices wouldn't have risen so quickly.

Han Zhijie looked at the newspaper in his hand with a blank expression.

He was well aware that Baofeng's involvement had significantly increased the copyright prices of new media films and television programs.

But that's the price to pay.

If Baofeng Player wants to grow bigger, it must get involved in copyright disputes.

If we don't get involved, Storm will be eliminated sooner or later.

As for raising copyright prices as a result, that's not something Baofeng should be considering right now.

“We have all this data, Mr. Gong, please just tell us the solution!”

I think you didn't call us over here just to look at reports.

Wang Juan placed the report on the table and looked at Gong Yu.

The reason she personally took charge was...

The reason is that Gong Yu said he had a way to solve the current predicament.

To put it bluntly, we can't fight anymore, or others will benefit from it.

Now, we should all sit down and have a proper talk.

"It's very simple, I think the three of us should form an alliance."

Gong Yu stated his plan directly.

"Now that Youku and Tudou have merged, Sohu also owns a large number of early TV series copyrights."

In this regard, the three of us are latecomers, and if we don't unite, we will definitely be kicked out by them.

Now that Youku Tudou is about to be acquired by Alibaba, a major investor, I think no one will believe that Alibaba will behave itself after acquiring Youku Tudou.

If we don't prepare in advance, we're likely to have a tough time later.

Upon hearing this, Han Zhijie and Wang Juan both nodded subconsciously.

In fact, during this period, Sohu was still the leading company in China.

But the most threatening platform to other platforms is Youku.

Especially Youku after it merged with Tudou.

Youku and Tudou were among the top five video websites in China in their early days.

The merger of these two companies is nothing short of a behemoth.

After the merger of these two companies, Sohu will have to be very careful.

Even before Youku and Tudou merged, Gong Yu had already considered joining forces with Tencent and Sohu.

However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, this matter has not been implemented.

It wasn't until this year, with the intervention of Baofeng Player, that Gong Yu finally made up his mind to join forces.

"How do you think we should cooperate? Since you have this idea, you must already have a plan!"

Han Zhijie looked at Gong Yu.

"It's very simple. The three of us will jointly establish a video content cooperation organization. This cooperation does not involve equity or funding arrangements, but only the exchange of copyrights and joint procurement to achieve resource sharing."

Our three parties adopt a joint procurement model with shared costs (each party bears one-third of the cost), and share resources through exclusive drama exchange and joint broadcasting.

The collaboration covers content categories including domestic films and television dramas as well as American dramas, integrating Baofeng's copyright resources, Tencent QQ promotion, and Baidu search resources for joint marketing.

(End of this chapter)