Entertainment mogul: Starting his business with the internet

Chapter 465 Entrusted with important tasks
After reporting his work in the office, Jiang Yuwei quietly closed the door and left.

Song Ci finally had a moment of peace. She had just picked up her teacup and taken a sip, the warm tea hadn't even gone down her throat, and she hadn't even put the cup down properly when she heard the door being pushed open.

"Chairman Song, you wanted to see me?"

"Huang Sheng, have a seat." Song Ci gestured to the chair in front of her desk and asked in a calm tone, "Are you finding your job at Toutiao going smoothly?"

The visitor was Huang Sheng, the former president of TD Games platform at Tengda Group. Since the group implemented a senior management rotation system, he had swapped positions with Yang Junfeng, the former head of Toutiao.com.

Huang Sheng sat up straight in his chair, his posture upright: "Thank you for your concern, Chairman Song. Everything has been going smoothly since I joined Toutiao.

"It's good that everything goes smoothly." Song Ci nodded slightly, paused for a moment, and couldn't help but sigh softly, "Speaking of which, ever since our Weibo platform took off, Toutiao.com, as a traditional portal website, has been having a harder and harder time."

He actually had many feelings in his heart.

Toutiao.com is the foundation of Tengda Group's success. In its early years, it not only supported the company's basic operations but also incubated flagship products like Toutiao.

It has now successfully completed its historical mission. Perhaps in a few years, this sector will have to be completely eliminated.

Huang Sheng also deeply understands this.

He had previously chatted with Yang Junfeng about how Weibo has long since replaced the four major portal websites of yesteryear, becoming the primary entry point for users to access news.

People are now greeting each other by asking, "Did you watch the news today?" instead of "Did you check the trending topics today?"

Weibo's "short, quick, and easy" content consumption model is indeed more suitable for mobile scenarios. As users spend more and more time on it every day, the time for in-depth reading is naturally squeezed.

For a moment, both of them felt a pang of nostalgia. Back when Tengda Technology was first established, it only had two businesses: Toutiao.com and games.

Today, the group's businesses are flourishing everywhere, but its original platform, Toutiao.com, is gradually falling behind the times.

Seeing the wistful look on Huang Sheng's face, Song Ci smiled and changed the subject: "However, on the other hand, the decline of Toutiao and the rise of Weibo are essentially a victory of 'user empowerment' over traditional 'editing rights'."

Once the power of content discourse shifts, the decline of traditional portal websites is inevitable. Okay, let's not talk about that anymore. I called you here today because I have something to tell you.”

Upon hearing this, Huang Sheng immediately perked up: "Chairman Song, please give your instructions."

Song Ci bluntly stated, "Although Toutiao.com's momentum has weakened, the Toutiao app is doing quite well now. I'm assigning you a task: develop a 'lite' version of this app."

"Extreme version?" Huang Sheng was stunned for a moment, a look of confusion on his face, not immediately understanding what the chairman meant.

Song Ci explained: "The current official version of Toutiao is 16MB in size, which is still too bloated for some low-end devices and phones with small storage capacity."

All you need to do is develop a streamlined version, keeping the installation package size under 3MB, to solve the lag issue on phones with insufficient specifications.

"I understand now." Huang Sheng finally understood the meaning of "Extreme Edition".

Song Ci further added: "Developing this express version is not just about reducing features; its essence is to compete for the lower-tier market and implement segmented user operations."

Huang Sheng suddenly realized: "Chairman Song, you mean to break through the current traffic bottleneck and further expand our business ecosystem through more refined operations?"

“That’s right!” Song Ci replied with a smile. “This express version is designed to precisely target specific user groups, mainly users in third-tier cities and below, as well as middle-aged and elderly people and teenagers.”

Functionally, we've made bold reductions, retaining only the core information feed; modules like videos and Q&A have been removed from the Lite version.

Huang Sheng quickly grasped the concept, but after pondering for a moment, he asked, "Chairman Song, if we streamline the functional modules, the app's fun factor will definitely be reduced. So how can we ensure user growth and retention?"

Song Ci offered some advice: "This is where the new task modules come in. For example, we can design a mechanism to exchange gold coins for cash, allowing users to convert their daily activities into 'rewards' through point-based tasks in various scenarios such as checking in, walking, sleeping, and planting crops."

The rules stipulate that rewards for consecutive check-ins should increase progressively, such as giving an extra amount of coins for checking in for 30 days, using this loss aversion psychology to strengthen user retention.

"Brilliant!" Huang Sheng's eyes suddenly lit up, and he instantly felt a sense of clarity, as if the clouds had parted and the sun was shining through.

Only then did he truly grasp the essence of the "Lite" version, which was clearly an ecosystem strategy of user segmentation, scenario segmentation, and in-depth traffic mining.

Song Ci reminded her, "These are just directions I've given you. Your department needs to carefully balance user experience and commercialization. Don't let the Lite version end up as just a tool for exploiting loopholes."

Huang Sheng quickly assured him, "Don't worry, Chairman Song, we will definitely conduct thorough market research and data testing to get this right."

Song Ci nodded, her gaze falling on the face of the group's first batch of employees. After a moment of silence, she slowly spoke: "Huang Sheng, I have been paying attention to your performance ever since you and Yang Junfeng switched positions."

Upon hearing this, Huang Sheng felt a sudden tightness in his chest and subconsciously began to quickly review his work over the past period in his mind, fearing that he might have made a mistake somewhere.

"You did a great job, I'm very satisfied."

Song Ci's words set the tone, and Huang Sheng's anxious heart finally settled down. He quickly said, "Chairman Song, it's only right to do your job well."

Song Ci continued, "The gaming department is the core source of the group's profits. It's remarkable that you were able to adjust your mindset and cooperate so quickly after being transferred from the TD gaming platform."

Huang Sheng felt a pang of sadness. In fact, he had some complaints when he was first transferred to this position.

Given the importance of the gaming division, even if he didn't switch places with the WeChat president, he should at least have taken charge of Weibo. Instead, he went to Toutiao, which was losing momentum, and I was quite disappointed at the time.

Fortunately, he has always had a good attitude and is content with what he has, so he quickly adjusted and didn't let negative emotions affect his work.

Song Ci clasped his hands together, his tone gentle yet weighty: "You are a company veteran, and your abilities are beyond question. You have worked diligently for so many years to manage the game department, and you deserve at least three-tenths of the credit for Tengda's current scale."

Huang Sheng quickly waved his hand modestly and said, "Chairman Song, you flatter me too much. It is already a great fortune that I was able to follow you in starting the business with General Manager Zhang and Lao Yang and watch Tengda get to where it is today."

“This job transfer was a test for you, and you didn’t let me down.” Song Ci changed the subject. “Next year, the group will incubate a new product based on Toutiao. It will be Tengda’s next core strategy after WeChat.”

A sharp glint flashed in his eyes: "Tengda Group will devote all its resources to nurturing it. When it blossoms and bears fruit, Tengda will be able to completely crush all its competitors in the mobile internet era."

Huang Sheng was stunned, his face filled with disbelief. WeChat was Tenda's "pillar of strength," the core hub for "connecting everything." What other product could carry such weight and be comparable to WeChat?

In an instant, his eyes blazed with anticipation, and his heart was filled with excitement. The chairman's words clearly meant that he was to take charge of this blockbuster product; he was being entrusted with a great responsibility! Fortunately, he had withstood the test back then.

He stood up abruptly, his tone extremely solemn: "Chairman Song, rest assured, I will absolutely not let you down!"

"Sit down and talk." Song Ci waved his hand. "There's a product on the market called 'Kuaishou.' Go back and study it carefully. Figure out its operating logic, advantages, and disadvantages."

"Kuaishou!" Huang Sheng murmured the name to himself, vaguely guessing that this was probably the opponent he would face in the future. As soon as Huang Sheng left, his secretary Jian Ning led people into the office: "Chairman Song, Mr. Chen from Suda Taxi has arrived."

After Chen Shuo sat down, Song Ci asked, "I've been too busy lately, so let's not talk about official business for now."

"I just got married at the beginning of the month, and haven't had a chance to ask how things are going with Suda lately. I called you over today mainly to find out."

Chen Shuo immediately straightened his expression and hurriedly reported: "Chairman Song, when Suda was first established, the driver installation rate was particularly low."

It was only through the tireless efforts of the ground promotion team, coupled with a weekly traffic subsidy of 5 yuan, that we slowly accumulated a few users. The process was quite difficult.

Fortunately, the heavy snow at the end of last year caused orders to surge past a thousand, which helped to initially establish a foothold.

As he spoke, he took out a document from his briefcase and handed it to the big boss with both hands.

Song Ci took the materials and quickly flipped through them, casually saying, "Looking at the accounts, half of the funds have already been burned."

"Most of it was used for driver subsidies."

Are there competitors in the market?

"Yes. A new company called Didi Chuxing has emerged in the north, and there's also Kuaidi in the south. They're both developing very rapidly."

Are there any signs of a loosening of regulatory policies recently?

"We have been actively communicating with transportation and transport administration departments. If all goes well, the 'Guiding Opinions on Taxi Mobile Dispatch' may be issued soon."

However, the content might require ride-hailing apps to prohibit price gouging after integrating with the official platform, so it's a mixed bag.

During their question-and-answer session, Song Ci closed the document, her tone softening somewhat: "It's always a good thing that regulatory policies are easing. I saw at the end of the document that some financing institutions have already been in contact with Speedata?"

Chen Shuo nodded and said, "Yes, Chairman Song. In addition to some venture capital firms, Baidu and Alibaba have also sent people to us. I'm holding off on them for now and waiting for your instructions."

Song Ci became interested: "What are the valuations of various companies for Speedata?"

Chen Shuo replied, "Most venture capitalists valued us at around 5000 million, but Baidu's valuation was slightly higher, at 7000 million."

Alibaba was the most agreeable, offering a valuation of 8000 million yuan, and they were the most proactive in establishing a partnership. They even promised to provide regular subsidies as long as we used Alipay for online payments.

Song Ci knew perfectly well that Alibaba was after the application scenarios of mobile payment and valued the strategic value of express delivery even more.

"With Didi and Kuaidi emerging, the ride-hailing market is bound to face fierce competition. Competition means burning money!" He then changed the subject, "Venture capital, Baidu, and Alibaba have all rejected us, it's time to reveal our hand."

I will have the group's investment department invest 1 million in Speedata, based on a valuation of 2000 million. With this money, you must quickly expand your market.”

Chen Shuo quickly replied, "Understood, Chairman Song!"

Chen Shuo arrived in a hurry and left just as quickly.

Afterwards, two more department heads came to report on their work, and it was almost noon.

Song Ci finally had a moment to spare, and was just about to pick up her teacup for a sip of tea and catch her breath when the knocking on the door started again.

"Come in."

The door was gently pushed open, and a petite figure stood in the office doorway.

Song Ci looked up and saw who it was, and a smile immediately spread across her face: "Shishi, what brings you here?"

Liu Shishi smiled radiantly and walked lightly to her husband's side: "I had an appointment with someone this afternoon, and I was talking to Yuanyuan at the coffee shop across the street. I just stopped by to see you."

Song Ci took Liu Shishi's slightly cool hand, let her sit on his lap, and casually asked, "Who did you meet?"

Liu Shishi hooked her arm around his neck and said affectionately, "Director Ning Hao. My studio is looking to invest in a film recently and asked him to direct it. He said he wanted to meet me, and since I was free, we arranged to meet across the street."

"what movie?"

"Xu Zhengli's project is called 'Breakup Buddies.' He initially wanted to direct and star in it himself, but his asking price was too high. I communicated with Mr. Lai from Huaying Film Studio, and he recommended Ning Hao."

"After the huge success of 'Lost in Thailand,' Xu Zheng's value soared, and he still has box office appeal. It's worth investing in the movies he stars in."

Song Ci nodded, then suddenly remembered something, "Is Ning Hao currently a contracted director with Galloping Horse Pictures?"

Liu Shishi was taken aback, somewhat puzzled. Her husband had never cared about entertainment news, so why was he suddenly asking about this?
She thought for a moment and slowly nodded: "Yes, his Bad Monkey Studio is affiliated with Little Horse Galloping."

Is Xiaoma Benteng going public?

"It should be. I heard that Mr. Li, the boss of Xiaoma, just signed a performance-based agreement with Jianyin Culture, stipulating that if the company does not go public by the end of this year, it will have to repurchase the investor's shares."

From this perspective, they definitely need to go public; otherwise, they won't be able to fulfill their performance targets and will suffer huge losses.

After saying that, Liu Shishi asked curiously, "What's wrong, honey? Why are you suddenly concerned about Xiaoma Benteng?"

The details of Song Ci are too numerous to discuss. Mr. Li was so preoccupied with a major incident that he became distraught and eventually died suddenly. As a result, Xiaoma Benteng failed to meet its performance target, and its valuation plummeted.

"It's nothing. I overheard a senior executive from China Construction Bank mention that they think Pegasus might fail to go public, and its valuation will drop significantly. If that's the case, you can put up some money and work with Cai Yinong to take it over."

"A snake swallowing an elephant?" Liu Shishi was very surprised.

Given Tangren Media's size, acquiring Pegasus Media seems like a pipe dream on the surface, but capital operations are always unpredictable, and since the husband said so, it's probably quite possible.

"I'll tell Sister K to keep an eye on Little Horse Galloping," Liu Shishi replied.

Then she changed the subject, "Honey, Tengda Culture is having a celebration party tonight to mark 1 billion yuan in box office revenue for 'Lost in Thailand.' Do you want to come with me?"

"Don't go!"

(End of this chapter)