Restart life

Chapter 418 0408 [ByteDance and Baidu can also cooperate]

Zhang Chaoyang had insomnia again last night and didn't get up until noon.

At this time, he had not yet learned the skill of falling asleep instantly, nor did he only sleep four hours a day.

His schedule is so chaotic that he doesn't have a cook at home, because even he doesn't know when to eat.

Carrying his laptop, Zhang Chaoyang drove to a private restaurant.

While waiting for the food to be served, he took out his laptop, first logged into the Sohu portal website, and then opened Sohu Video.

Although he's a hands-off manager, he doesn't completely ignore everything; he still checks on his products every day.

Sohu Video now also has UGC (user-generated content), but neither Zhang Chaoyang nor Sohu's senior management pays much attention to it.

Sohu Video positions itself as an "online TV station," focusing on high-end, professional, and legitimate content.

With his connections in Beijing's entertainment circle, buying film and television rights would be incredibly easy for him.

Tudou and Youku will have to pay a hefty premium to snatch the rights to the new drama from Zhang Chaoyang.

In addition, with Sohu's revenue soaring last year, Zhang Chaoyang invested more money in buying legitimate content. Now, Sohu Video not only has a lot of legitimate domestic content, but also buys a large number of American, Japanese, and Korean dramas.

However, Sohu simply has the largest number of officially licensed copies of new dramas.

If we include older dramas, LeTV is number one. Because even before Chen Guiliang went to university, LeTV was already stockpiling legitimate content.

At Chen Guiliang's urging, Wang Wei bought the official copies of popular TV series such as "Soldiers Sortie" and "My Own Swordsman." These were TV series that hadn't received much attention when they started filming, and no one was interested in buying them.

For example, the TV series "My Chief and My Regiment", which premiered this year, was not well received and was easily acquired by Tudou.com.

In addition, Tudou.com also has a large number of old movies from film studios (at bargain prices).

"Damn, this UGC video has such a high number of views?" Zhang Chaoyang saw a video on his own website.

The title is: "Chen Shiyi's graduation speech, his outfit was particularly flamboyant..."

Zhang Chaoyang clicked on the link out of curiosity and saw Chen Guiliang wearing a "red dress" on stage.

Yes, a red dress—that's Zhang Chaoyang's opinion on the Flying Fish Suit.

The photographer was clearly a graduate who filmed his classmates around him while the whole audience sang "The Wind Rises".

Zhang Chaoyang watched as a student sang while crying and laughing, and couldn't help but mutter to himself: This kid really knows how to fool people!

He then looked at the comments section.

"A senior citizen who graduated ten years ago is passing by. I was particularly moved by Chen Shiyi's opening remarks. It's true that the more accepting one is of unspoken rules, the more one forgets their original aspirations. Suddenly, I really miss my college days."

"What should I do if I feel like crying? Especially during the singing part."

"Excuse me, where can I buy Chen Guiliang's outfit?"

"Replying to LS, there's no stock available; it needs to be custom-made or sewn by yourself. That outfit is called the Flying Fish Robe, a second-rank official robe bestowed by the Ming Dynasty, second only to the python robe. Detailed information can be found on the official website of 'My Own Swordsman'."

"So cool, I want to make one too."

"Haha, Master Chen finally graduated. We were classmates in the same year, and I've been working for a year now. Let me tell you, Master Chen was incredibly awesome in high school..."

"..."

Zhang Chaoyang lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth, looking at the lively comment section and the impressive number of views. He couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Is there really a future in UGC (User Generated Content)?
Will this disrupt Sohu Video's development path?

Although Zhang Chaoyang himself was unaware of it, he was indeed studying Chen Guiliang.

This young man is too strange. It seems like he can turn anything he does into a trend – not by looking for trends to follow, but by doing things in a way that becomes a trend.

Always one step ahead of others!
When the food was served, Zhang Chaoyang ate a few bites to fill his stomach, then put down his chopsticks and opened Tudou and Youku.

The overall atmosphere on these two websites is much more lively than that on Sohu Video.

After thinking for a long time, the food was almost cold. Zhang Chaoyang picked up his phone and made a call: "You guys study UGC videos and discuss a feasible plan to vigorously develop UGC content."

Only after finishing the phone call did Zhang Chaoyang seriously start eating.

If it weren't for Chen Guiliang's influence, Zhang Chaoyang wouldn't have started heavily supporting UGC on Sohu Video until 2013. By then, it was too late!
After lunch, I browsed Weibo again.

He first browsed his own company's Weibo, then ByteDance's and Sina's. He focused on studying the Weibo accounts of celebrities.

The result left Zhang Chaoyang very frustrated.

During this period, he organized daily gatherings with celebrities, personally persuading them to join. The celebrities were very accommodating, registering for Sohu Weibo accounts without hesitation.

The question is, what exactly do those celebrities post on Sohu Weibo?
Aside from diligently posting updates myself for the first few days, the rest of the time the team just routinely posted promotional content. They all acted like robots!
On the other hand, the Weibo posts by celebrities on ByteDance and Sina Weibo are clearly posted by the celebrities themselves.

Zhang Chaoyang felt that this couldn't go on, so he picked up his phone and made a call: "Increase the budget for the Weibo project team by 300 million yuan, specifically for rewarding popular Weibo posts and encouraging Weibo users to actively participate in discussions."

When he logged back into ByteDance Weibo, he found a piece of good news on the WAP site homepage: "Warmly celebrate ByteDance Weibo users exceeding 1800 million."

Damn, it was only 1600 million last time, how come it's 1800 million in the blink of an eye?

Damn it, I can't beat them no matter what.

Sohu Changyou is still the most worry-free; its monthly revenue is increasing every month. Making games really is a way to make money without lifting a finger.

The waiter came to clear the table, but Zhang Chaoyang didn't leave. He walked to a wicker chair and lay down: "Young Master Chen, when are we going out for drinks? I'll invite Wang Erlei and the others too... Don't want to go to a bar? Okay, let's go to the coffee shop like last time... See you then."

……

Jack Ma finally made a decision.

On the same day that ByteDance Weibo announced it had reached 1800 million registered users, Jack Ma personally contacted Chen Guiliang, saying that Taobao was willing to have an exclusive partnership with ByteDance Weibo (for one year).

Chen Guiliang immediately sent someone to sign the contract.

Sign it quietly for now, without alerting anyone.

Because ByteDance is also secretly contacting other e-commerce companies: Vancl (clothing), Redbaby (maternal and infant products), Newegg China (3C products), etc.

Once the negotiations are nearly complete, announce the results at the same time to catch Sina and Sohu off guard!
Chen Guiliang sat in his office, scrolling through various video websites.

His graduation speech video garnered high views on any website where users could upload content. It even went viral on online forums and social media, and was subsequently reported by traditional newspapers.

Quite a few netizens inquired about the Flying Fish server, and then they followed the trail to the official website of "Wulin Gaiden". Those netizens originally only intended to browse information about the Flying Fish server, but after arriving, they were attracted by other content and gradually became interested in the game "Wulin Gaiden".

The official forum for "My Own Swordsman" has attracted nearly 100,000 registered users, with even more netizens posting and browsing as guests.

It has become something similar to NGA!
There are many trending posts every day, mainly discussing Hanfu (traditional Han clothing), history, games, armor, weapons, and daily life.

Of course, the most popular post these past two days has to be Chen Guiliang's graduation speech.

Especially those photos Xie Yang took, which he disguised as photos taken by passersby and posted online, have all been spread to gay websites!

……

Cafe.

Zhang Chaoyang was sitting in his usual spot, with Wang Erlei and Director Zhou with him.

Zhang Chaoyang, holding his phone, asked, "It hasn't arrived yet?"

Chen Guiliang replied, "We're here, we're already at the door."

"Hurry up, we're waiting for you." Zhang Chaoyang hung up the phone.

Wang Erlei stirred his coffee with a spoon and said, "I've given up struggling."

Zhang Chaoyang asked, "Are you abandoning Weibo on Air?"

Wang Erlei said, "We will continue to do it, but we will no longer pursue a large and comprehensive approach. We will develop a closed microblogging social platform like QQ Moments, and coordinate it with Kongzhong's gaming strategy. In the future, Kongzhong's microblogging platform will be essentially a communication software for a group of game players."

Wang Erlei's departure was very wise. Let alone ByteDance and Sina, even Sohu couldn't beat Weibo on its platform because of limited resources.

"I'm going to give it my all this time!" Zhang Chaoyang said confidently.

Temporary setbacks are nothing to worry about; he's confident he'll succeed on Weibo. Sohu has portal resources to drive traffic, media resources to help with promotion, and he knows so many celebrities.

By organizing more events, we can boost our popularity.

Even if we can't defeat ByteDance and Sina, we should at least create a three-way power struggle.

Chen Guiliang walked into the coffee shop, found their seats, sat down, and pulled out two lawyer's letters with a grin: "These are for Sohu and Kongzhong.com, ordering you to immediately stop using the Weibo name. Sending emails is too informal, so I'm handing them to you personally."

"Damn! You actually sent a lawyer's letter?" Zhang Chaoyang really wanted to punch someone.

Wang Erlei was overjoyed and posted a photo of the lawyer's letter on Weibo: "Just received a lawyer's letter from President Chen, delivered by him personally. Is this something a normal human being would do?"

Zhang Chaoyang leaned closer to look: "What do you mean? You don't use your own Weibo, you don't use Sohu Weibo, you only use ByteDance Weibo, right?"

Wang Erlei said, "ByteDance's Weibo has 1800 million users. I can accumulate fans here faster, and it's also more convenient to communicate with netizens. As for my own Weibo, didn't I just say that it will focus on game-related social networking in the future?"

"So you're not going to use Sohu Weibo?" Zhang Chaoyang was particularly annoyed.

Wang Erlei spoke frankly: "Your idea won't work; the user experience will be terrible."

Zhang Chaoyang didn't say anything more.

He has already copied ByteDance's Weibo operating model, but the user experience is still very poor.

It's hard to explain, and Zhang Chaoyang doesn't understand it either.

Chen Guiliang handed over the phone and smiled, "Look who this is?"

Zhang Chaoyang took a closer look, and his expression changed drastically in an instant.

The Weibo post read: "Hello everyone, I'm Jack Ma, officially joining ByteDance Weibo today. Alibaba has reached an exclusive business partnership with ByteDance..."

Chen Guiliang took the phone back and quickly handed it to Zhang Chaoyang again.

"Hello everyone, I'm Li Guoqin... Dangdang.com has reached an exclusive business partnership with ByteDance..."

Then, Chen Guiliang continued browsing Weibo.

"Hello everyone, I'm Liu Qiangdong... JD.com has reached an exclusive business partnership with ByteDance..."

Wang Erlei stared in disbelief and asked, "Did the three families agree to announce it today?"

Chen Guiliang nodded: "And QQ Mall, Paipai.com, Baidu Youa, Gome, Suning, Vancl, Redbaby, Newegg..."

QQ Mall and Paipai.com are both e-commerce websites owned by Tencent.

Baidu Youa... you can tell who it is just by the name.

Zhang Chaoyang's eyes widened instantly: "You actually partnered with Baidu? Baidu also has Weibo! Why would they partner with your Weibo?"

Chen Guiliang sighed, "Sigh, I wanted to sign an exclusive cooperation agreement with Baidu Youa. Unfortunately, they absolutely refused and insisted on signing a non-exclusive agreement."

"Is this a matter of exclusivity or not?" Zhang Chaoyang asked, confused.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "I don't have any major conflict with Li Yanhong. It's just that he poached one of my employees, but I poached one of his vice presidents back. He just doesn't know it yet."

Zhang Chaoyang said, "No. Baidu also has Weibo, why would they cooperate with ByteDance's Weibo?"

“It’s all about doing business,” Chen Guiliang explained. “For Baidu, their Weibo account with only tens of thousands of users is nowhere near as important as their e-commerce website, which they’ve invested heavily in.”

Director Zhou chimed in from the side, "Dude, you're awesome!"

Zhang Chaoyang suddenly realized: "With so many e-commerce companies, what good cooperation could there be between them and ByteDance's Weibo?"

Chen Guiliang confidently stated, "It represents a completely new business model for Weibo."

Zhang Chaoyang felt a chill run through him.

Ruined.

We definitely can't win this time.

With a string of exclusive business partnerships, Chen Guiliang has completely dominated the e-commerce market. Sina Weibo and Sohu Weibo are excluded entirely, making it impossible for them to replicate his success.

Only e-commerce websites owned by Tencent and Baidu have not signed exclusive contracts with ByteDance.

At this moment, the Sina Weibo project team was also stunned by the punch.

(End of this chapter)