Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 340 Penguin's Targeting of Douyin
"Is Ahri preparing to enter the film promotion and distribution field?"

Chen Xiu looked at Ma Yun with curiosity, but wasn't particularly surprised.

Ma Yun nodded without hesitation: "Yes! The entertainment sector has always been a key development project for Ali, and movies are of paramount importance. We also have the conditions for online promotion and distribution. President Chen won't blame me for entering the market and taking away our share, will he?"

"How could that be? Internet marketing isn't my patent; anyone can do it."

"That's good……"

"I hope we can work together to expand this market."

Chen Xiu poured himself a cup of wine and reached out to stop in front of Ma Yun.

Staring at the wine in his glass, Ma Yun pondered for a moment, thinking to himself: He doesn't seem to care about this news at all. Compared to the two kings who jump around at the slightest hint of something, Chen Xiu's composure is far superior...

After criticizing the two Huayi brothers, Ma Yun still reached out his glass to clink with Chen Xiu's.

With a clink, the two men downed their drinks, put down their glasses, and smiled at each other.

Since Chen Xiu rejected the cooperation between Douyin and Tmall, Ma Yun did not bring it up again.

For the rest of the meal, the two simply ate, drank, and chatted, but didn't talk about work.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Chen Xiu got up to say goodbye and leave. After seeing him off, a hint of gloom seeped out from under Ma Yun's otherwise joyful eyes, and the corners of his eyes, which had been upturned, were now completely smoothed out.

"If you want to get into e-commerce, you'd better deal with Tencent first..."

……

After leaving the banquet at the Cheng residence, Chen Xiu went straight to Su Xiao's house.

Upon entering the living room, he saw the powerful woman sitting on the sofa, wearing a white shirt and looking quite attractive from the side. Her suit jacket was placed to the side, and her laptop was on her lap, indicating that she had brought her work home.

Hearing the commotion, Su Xiao turned her head and looked at Chen Xiu.

After recognizing him, he relaxed his shoulders and slowly closed the laptop as he reached out from under the sofa.

Chen Xiu slowly stepped forward, placed her hands on the sofa, leaned forward, and quietly looked at Su Xiao.

"Sister Xiaoxiao, have you had dinner yet?"

"Hmm, sniff~, you've been drinking?"

"A little bit."

"Hmph! Go upstairs and take a shower, don't reek of alcohol."

Su Xiao waved her hand dismissively, stood up from the sofa, and went to Chen Xiu's side, pretending to help him upstairs.

Chen Xiu grabbed her hand, pursed her lips and shook her head, indicating that they should not go upstairs for the time being.

Seeing this, Su Xiao frowned slightly, thought for a moment, then helped Chen Xiu to the sofa, let him lie down and rest his head on her lap, and then gently pressed his temples with the hands that were typing on the keyboard.

Looking down at Chen Xiu, whose eyes were closed, Su Xiao applied pressure with her thumb, sometimes lightly and sometimes heavily, and asked, "What did you talk about with Ma Yun?"

"He wanted Douyin and Tmall to form a bundled cooperation, but I refused."

"Hmph! Cutting off the fuel supply from under the enemy's back, that's more like Ahri's style... So, you didn't enjoy your meal?"

"No, I enjoyed the meal very much."

Chen Xiu's lips curled up, and she suddenly opened her eyes, a cold electric current seeming to flash in her deep eyes.

Chen Xiu looked up at Su Xiao, who had taken off her glasses, and thought that beneath her slightly furrowed brows, her eyes were like stars, her nose was straight, and her lips were like roses. She was beautiful and charming. She raised her hand and began to draw on her cheekbone.

Chen Xiu moved her fingers to her brows and helped her smooth out the furrows between her brows, saying, "Ma Yun can't do anything to me. He just brought me some news."

"what news?"

"Penguin should take action against Douyin."

You mean using Weishi?

Su Xiao pursed her lips and said with a strange expression.

Chen Xiu nodded, and the next moment, she saw a sneer that quickly bloomed on her face and then immediately disappeared.

"Pshaw! How could that be?"

Su Xiao tried her best to suppress it, but the corners of her mouth just kept turning upwards uncontrollably.

Chen Xiu could understand her reaction; currently, Douyin and TikTok combined have 150 million daily active users, while Weishi has 1.5 million daily active users…

It's certainly amusing to see someone challenged by an opponent with such a large difference in scale.

Chen Xiu lowered his hand, grabbed Su Xiao's hand that was on his temple, and analyzed, "If Tencent is determined to eat up the short video market and then use traffic from other sections to support Weishi, it will always be a problem."

"Are they really that determined?"

"Well, it's only a possibility. It depends on how much Pony Ma wants a piece of the short video pie."

"Even so, we don't need to worry! Douyin has completed the closed loop from 'content to users to monetization,' and users have already gotten used to Douyin, just like they got used to WeChat."

Su Xiao said confidently, and as the CEO of Douyin, she certainly had the confidence to say these words.

Chen Xiu thought a little deeper: "What if Tencent blocks Douyin?"

"..."

Su Xiao paused, her expression becoming even stranger.

"You mean 3Q War 2.0?"

"It won't come to that extent. After all, I am still a shareholder of Tencent. Even if there is competition, it is within the rules. It would be too ugly to tear each other apart."

Chen Xiu shook her head in denial.

His status as a shareholder of Tencent is still useful. In addition, Tencent is also one of Douyin's shareholders, although the share is not large. But no matter what, both sides have to maintain a semblance of decency.

Hearing Chen Xiu's words, Su Xiao's expression quickly relaxed, and she nodded down to look at Chen Xiu. "Since we won't get to that point, there's no need to worry about anything else. Haven't we encountered enough challenges and difficulties since we started with Didi?"

Feeling her hand being gripped tightly, Chen Xiu smiled, her expression unchanged as she gazed at Su Xiao.

"I think so."

"Hmph! You should be starting to think about how to deal with this by now, right?"

Chen Xiu shifted her body, making a move to get up, and Su Xiao leaned back as well.

"I'm starting to get a clue, but my head is a little dizzy from drinking. Sister Xiaoxiao, let's go take a shower together."

"..."

Su Xiao rolled her eyes in a charming way, but did not refuse.

The two went up the stairs together and into the bathroom. The large bathtub was spacious enough to comfortably accommodate two people.

……

Pengcheng, Penguin Coastal Headquarters.

In Pony Ma's office, the warm orange light shines on the brown carpet, creating a very comfortable atmosphere.

However, the three people sitting around the sofa had rather cold expressions, and the atmosphere was exceptionally serious.

Seeing the two silent men, Pony poured a third of the whiskey into the empty glass, added ice cubes, and shook it.

Haven't you reached a consensus yet?

Upon hearing this, Liu Chiping and Ren Yuxin both looked at Pony Ma, who was drinking, and then exchanged a glance.

After a moment of silence, both sides stuck to their own views.

“I think we can talk to Chen Xiu again.”

Ren Yuxin spoke first, choosing a more moderate approach: "After all, he is also a shareholder of the company and has cooperated with us a lot. Even if we want to enter the short video market, we can have a proper talk with him beforehand."

"I don't think it's necessary."

Liu Chiping's voice was gentle, but his attitude was very firm.

Of the three people present, he had known Chen Xiu the longest and had the closest relationship with her, but he insisted that there was no need for negotiation and that war could begin.

Ren Yuxin retorted, "Weishi's scale is far smaller than Douyin's right now. Even with traffic support from other apps, our chances of catching up with Douyin are practically zero..."

"What if we use WeChat's traffic allocation?"

Liu Chiping casually made the suggestion, then turned his gaze to Pony Ma, who had already finished his drink, waiting for his decision.

Ren Yuxin is well aware of the level of WeChat's traffic.

He secretly calculated in his mind what Liu Chiping's suggestion meant: if Weishi could gain access to WeChat's traffic, perhaps...

"WeChat won't work!"

While adding wine to his glass, Pony explained, "Allen can only accept WeChat blocking Douyin short video sharing links in Moments. He rejects the suggestion of traffic allocation."

"..."*2
Liu Chiping and Ren Yuxin subtly pursed their lips.

After rejecting WeChat's offer to empower him, Pony Ma also offered his own solution: "Could we burn money on Weishi to poach Douyin's self-media bloggers?"

Liu Chiping and Ren Yuxin exchanged a glance, both thinking: Pony's strategy is still to poach talent with money, simple and direct...

"Well, I think we can give it a try."

Liu Chiping was the first to give his approval, choosing to follow Pony Ma's idea.

His reason for opposing another talk with Chen Xiu was partly due to his understanding of Chen Xiu, knowing that it would be pointless.

On the other hand, it was clear that Pony Ma really wanted a piece of the short video pie, so there was no need to waste time on meaningless negotiations, since the outcome wouldn't change anything.

"We need to discuss the initial investment amount in a meeting. The update for Weishi will not be released until next month. However, we can proceed in advance by blocking Douyin short video sharing links in Moments."

Ren Yuxin followed up, saying that Pony Ma's statement just now had also made him realize something.

Seeing this, Pony Ma took a sip of whiskey with a smile on his lips and nodded to the two of them.

"Now that we've reached a consensus, let's get started! As for Chen Xiu, we don't need to communicate with him anymore. If he wants to, we can sit down and have a proper talk."

"Understood."*2
After much discussion, it was ultimately Pony Malay's turn to make the decision.

He had no objection to Chen Xiu, and even had a very good impression of her. However, in business, personal relationships should never be a factor influencing the company's decisions.

With that thought in mind, Pony finished the rest of his whiskey in one gulp and gave the two of them his final instructions.

"Mark, you need to keep up with the updates of Weishi carefully and make sure it's similar to Douyin's functions."

"clear."

"Martin, if Chen Xiu wants to negotiate, our bottom line is to become the second largest shareholder of Douyin."

"I know."

Pony's gaze darted back and forth between the two men before he put down his glass and stood up.

"Okay, that concludes today's meeting. You should all go home and get some rest!"

Liu and Ren got up to take their leave.

After they left, Pony Ma tidied up the wine set on the coffee table by herself.

He stopped abruptly halfway through, poured out the ice cubes that had melted into lychee-sized pieces from his glass, took another piece from the refrigerator, and then sat on the sofa overlooking the night view of Pengcheng Bay. He finished the remaining half-bottle of wine by himself.

(End of this chapter)