Entertainment mogul: Starting his business with the internet

Chapter 42 Interview Program
Zhang Yong also stared at Song Ci with a serious expression, wanting to hear his boss's opinion on the acquisition battle. Once Chen Tianqiao successfully acquired Sina, it would inevitably have a huge impact on the existing landscape of portal websites.

Knowing the outcome, Song Ci remained calm and said casually, "Chen Tianqiao is destined to fail. Although the people on the Sina board of directors are good at fighting among themselves, they will definitely do their best to resist Chen Tianqiao's acquisition for the sake of the power they hold. They will probably launch a poison pill plan to dilute Chen Tianqiao's shares."

After hearing Song Ci's reasoned analysis, Zhang Yong pondered for a moment and nodded in agreement, saying, "It seems that Boss Chen will end up with nothing this time."

Yang Junfeng breathed a sigh of relief, but he still felt a sense of urgency. As the person in charge of Toutiao.com, he knew the current state of the domestic portal industry best. Besides the three established portals, Toutiao.com had another potential major enemy.

Yang Junfeng looked worried. "President Song, what I'm most worried about is Tencent. Their Tencent portal went online last year and is developing very rapidly. Moreover, with QQ driving traffic, their website traffic is also growing at a high speed."

Previously, Tencent, constrained by profit pressures, prioritized the development of social networking products. Now, with their successful IPO and improved financial situation, they have begun to focus on developing their portal website.

Song Ci waved his hand and comforted him, saying, "Don't worry, social networking is a lucrative business. Too many people are eyeing Tencent, and some companies will inevitably develop social products to distract Tencent and prevent them from focusing all their efforts on developing the portal website."

Song Ci paid no attention to the hidden dangers mentioned by Yang Junfeng. Next year, Xiaonei.com, the first real-name social networking platform in China, will be launched and will begin to compete with Tencent for the social networking market. At that time, Tencent will devote all its energy to dealing with Xiaonei.com, this major threat.

Looking back now, these past two years have indeed been the best time to develop Toutiao.com. If we had waited two more years and developed Weibo ahead of schedule, Tengda Technology would have had a core product and would have been able to gain a firm foothold.

Compared to Toutiao.com, Song Ci was most concerned about the TD gaming platform. Although he knew about its operation through daily work emails, he still couldn't help but offer some advice in person: "The promotion of the TD gaming platform needs to be strengthened, and we can cooperate more with Europe and the United States."

For popular games, the revenue share for game distribution channels can be appropriately reduced. It's also crucial to ensure the security of platform user accounts, and to quickly resolve issues such as cheating and viruses.

Huang Sheng assured, "Please rest assured, Mr. Song, we have already acquired the copyright for the card game 'Three Kingdoms Kill,' which you are concerned about, and the online version is under development."

The distribution of two Korean games, *Audition Online* and *Yulgang*, is currently under negotiation. If they launch next year, they will bring a significant number of users to the TD platform. However, the Korean companies are asking for high prices.

Song Ci nodded, "We can make some concessions in the early stages, and once the TD platform develops, game companies will be begging us for help. Right now, we still need to attract customers with more hit games."

The Steam platform was able to become the world's largest comprehensive digital distribution platform thanks to the huge success of Half-Life 2.

With the even more popular Minecraft, plus other hot games and card games scheduled to launch next year, TD Games is poised to become the world's number one game publishing platform.

At this moment, a female employee knocked on the door and came in, handing over a document to Zhang Yong for review. "Mr. Zhang, Mr. Yang, this is the latest data from the first episode of 'Headline Star'."

Upon closer inspection, Song Ci recognized her as a familiar face: Song Xueying, a senior student from the same college, whom she had met briefly at the school gate during registration.

Song Xueying had obviously seen Song Ci as well, but since they were in the leader's office, it was inconvenient for her to speak. She also didn't know what was going on with Song Ci, so she suppressed her doubts and politely nodded to Song Ci.

After Song Xueying left the office, Yang Junfeng asked curiously, "Does President Song know Song Xueying?"

Song Ci casually remarked, "I met this senior from Peking University once when the semester started. Is she interning at the company?" Yang Junfeng nodded and replied, "Yes, this girl is very capable and meticulous. General Manager Zhang assigned her to work in the office, where she is responsible for organizing some important data and documents."

"A resounding success! Yesterday, our first episode of 'Headline Star' was a huge hit, with all the data exceeding expectations. Mr. Song, you should take a look too," Zhang Yong roared excitedly, handing the report to Song Ci.

I skimmed through the Song Dynasty poems, and the statistics on the materials were very encouraging. The number of visits, the popularity of the topic, and the number of reposts all far exceeded the company's expectations.

After reading the Song Ci poem, Song handed the materials to Yang Junfeng, who was already impatient, saying, "Starting from the second episode, we can find a title sponsor for our 'Headline Star' program."

Yang Junfeng carefully examined the data and beamed with joy. He complimented Song Ci, saying, "It's all thanks to President Song's strategic planning that we were able to invite Liu Xiang to 'Headline Star.' He's an Olympic champion, the number one track and field athlete in China, and he's incredibly popular. Liu Xiang deserves seven-tenths of the credit for the success of our first episode."

The Peking University leadership has provided tremendous support for Song Ci's entrepreneurial endeavors, going to great lengths to do so.

After discussing Liu Xiang's situation with Qin Chaoyang, a school leader learned about it and used his connections to contact an old classmate in the sports department, who helped Toutiao.com successfully schedule an appointment with Liu Xiang, which led to the successful launch of the first episode of "Toutiao Star".

Song Ci simply smiled faintly at Yang Junfeng's compliment. There's no such thing as a free lunch, and favors owed must eventually be repaid.

"I'm curious how you managed to recruit Li Hong from CCTV."

Zhang Yong replied with a smile, "We took advantage of women's competitiveness and jealousy. The headhunter used Yang Lan to provoke Li Hong, and the money was also generous, with a million yuan just for the signing fee. But now it seems it was all worth it."

Song Ci also felt that inviting Li Hong to host "Toutiao Star" was indeed a stroke of genius.

"I've taken care of the interviewees for the first episode; you'll have to handle the rest yourselves."

"Preparation is the key to success, and lack of preparation leads to failure. To ensure the long-term and stable success of 'Headline Star,' the selection of interviewees for each episode must be carefully considered."

Yang Junfeng said seriously, "Don't worry, Mr. Song. We have already found a professional agency to invite those celebrities. However, we estimate that the public relations fee for each celebrity invitation will be around one million, which will put a lot of pressure on our finances."

Song Ci doesn't care much about public relations expenses. "As long as the show continues to be popular, there will be plenty of advertisers willing to sponsor it."

Suddenly, Yang Junfeng had a flash of inspiration and eagerly suggested, "President Song, why don't you go on the interview for the second episode?"

A famous bestselling author, top scorer in the college entrance examination, and the most handsome guy at Peking University—with so many identities combined, the effect won't be any worse than hiring Liu Xiang. For the sake of the company's development, please support my work!

(End of this chapter)