Huayu 2011: Starting with Hilarious Men

Sohu and Youku are old rivals.

In October 2009, Sohu, together with platforms such as Jidong.com and Youpeng Pule, launched the Online Video Anti-Piracy Alliance, targeting platforms such as Youku, Tudou, and Xunlei, which were rife with piracy.

It was Sohu's actions that caused the online copyright prices for TV series and movies to rise starting in 09.

By 2011, Sohu's hundreds of copyright lawsuits against platforms such as Youku, Tudou, and Xunlei had entered the stage of concentrated trial and enforcement, and a large amount of pirated content was forcibly removed.

Zhang Chaoyang has repeatedly and publicly criticized the industry for piracy, calling it a cancer on the internet!

After the contract was signed, some Sohu executives stepped forward to offer their opinions and suggestions.

"I think the content of the second season of 'Hilarious Men' can be bolder, the more eye-catching the better."

"The size can be larger; netizens nowadays like large sizes."

Some netizens believe that the content of the first season of "Hilarious Men" is vulgar.

However, some executives who have eaten and played around with the food and entertainment thought it was neither low-class nor vulgar enough.

How can a work that doesn't cross any red lines and doesn't even require review be called vulgar?

In the view of these executives, the bigger the scale, the better, as long as it attracts more viewers and the data looks good, even if it fails to pass the review, it can be deleted.

These film and television platforms are now very bold; it's normal for them to be active online.

I haven't seen Kuaishou still operating perfectly well.

Zheng Nan treats such people's words as nonsense, letting them go in one ear and out the other, not even bothering to acknowledge them.

Sohu, a company the size of a large corporation, suffers from the problems of big companies, where any idiot can become a leader.

If something goes wrong and causes an incident, the idiot leader who made the suggestion won't take any responsibility whatsoever.

"While the first season of 'Hilarious Men' is still going strong, we're going to start promoting it. Zheng Nan, please cooperate."

The contract was made in duplicate. After receiving the contract belonging to Sohu, Liu Chun began to discuss the subsequent publicity and distribution with Zheng Nan.

"No problem, cooperating with the publicity is what I should do, just don't go too far with your publicity."

While they cooperate, Sohu's publicity department has a limited ceiling, but a very low floor.

If Zheng Nan hadn't given them a heads-up, he was afraid Sohu would have made up some bizarre stories.

It's not that Zheng Nan is overthinking things; Sohu has a dark history in this regard.

In March of this year, Zhang Chaoyang was invited to attend Wang Xiaofei's wedding, which was broadcast live on Sohu Weibo.

Afterwards, Wang Xiaofei and his wife sent a lawyer's letter demanding an apology, while Zhang Chaoyang publicly responded by "neither admitting his mistake nor apologizing." The war of words between the two went viral online, causing a surge in traffic on Sohu Weibo.

In November, Sohu Entertainment will release a video titled "Zhao Ziqi Allegedly Slept with Director to Get Lead Role," claiming that she obtained the lead role in "Goodbye Vancouver" by sleeping with the director.

Zhao Ziqi angrily published "A Letter from an Actress to Mr. Zhang Chaoyang," directly accusing Zhang Chaoyang and Sohu of defamation, which caused a public uproar and forced Zhang Chaoyang to issue a public apology.

"Ahem, I'll try my best to keep the people in Sohu's entertainment department in check." Liu Chun was a little embarrassed; he had indeed wanted to create a big news story.

"Both sides should respect each other in their cooperation. The second season of 'Hilarious Men' was a hit, and there will be a third and fourth season." Zheng Nan hopes that some people at Sohu will not be obsessed with popularity and traffic and do some stupid things.

…………

Zheng Nan left Sohu with the contract, settled the lawyer's fees, said goodbye to her new friend Dapeng, and boarded a plane back to Shanghai.

There was no internet on the plane in 2011. The flight from Beijing to Shanghai was only a little over two hours. Zheng Nan didn't want to sleep, so she played Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope for a while.

It truly lives up to its reputation as a classic game; it's incredibly fun!

The plane landed around 10 p.m.

As soon as Zheng Nan got off the plane and connected to the internet on her phone, she discovered that Sohu's advertising campaign had already begun.

Sohu Entertainment's headlines were dominated by various news items from "Hilarious Men".

[Sohu has acquired the exclusive rights to "Hilarious Men"! All platforms are requested to remove infringing content!]

"They acted so fast. I hadn't even deleted it from the backend yet, and they've already sent me a lawyer's letter."

[The exclusive rights to the first season of "Hilarious Men" sold for a staggering 2.6 million yuan! A hundredfold return!]

"Damn it, still 2.6 million? You'd better make up the 600,000 short!" Zheng Nan thought to himself, cursing Sohu's shameless and exaggerated advertising.

Zheng Nan estimated that if he hadn't said a few more things to Liu Chun during the day, Sohu could have made five million.

Anyway, bragging doesn't cost anything, and netizens aren't going to ask Zheng Nan to verify it, so he can just brag for the sake of popularity.

The second season of "Hilarious Men" is in preparation and is expected to premiere on Sohu Video at the end of the year!

"???"

"That's right, it's in the preparation stage. How come I didn't know it was expected to air at the end of the year?"

Such a big thing, didn't anyone inform the director?

Why did Zheng Nan, a talented student from the Shanghai Theatre Academy, choose Sohu? Because Sohu respects original creators!

After reading several related news articles, Zheng Nan felt utterly exhausted.

Tomorrow, Zheng Nan will be applying to establish a personal company in Shanghai, so instead of going back to the Shanghai Theatre Academy that night, she found a hotel to rest.

After a night of buzz, many fans of "Hilarious Men" learned about the signing with Sohu.

Post it.

[Have you seen the news? "Hilarious Men" has signed an exclusive deal with Sohu.]

I saw it; they said the rights to the first season sold for 2.6 million. I'm so envious.

[If you're envious, take one too.]

[Is Zheng Nan, the director and lead actor of "Hilarious Men," only 18 years old and a freshman in college? He's already a millionaire?]

[Seeking Zheng Nan's contact information. She is 158cm tall and an extremely beautiful young girl.]

[Um, which is height? Which is weight?]

[A $26,000 investment yielded $2.6 million; even Buffett couldn't do that.]

[Damn, what the person upstairs said is ridiculous. I could spend two yuan on a pair of gloves, work a day carrying bricks on a construction site, and earn 280 yuan. That would make me more awesome than them.]

[Nobody's as good as me! Working a manual labor job is too tiring, I just beg! Shanghai, Beijing, the coast—I'll beg wherever there's money, and I can easily earn 30,000 to 50,000 yuan a month!]

[This makes me want to eat.]

"You can't do it. People with a sense of shame can't beg."

Can someone be shameless?

[We've gone off-topic! We were talking about "Hilarious Men"!]

[Signing with Sohu is great; we'll be able to see season two soon.]

I heard it will air at the end of this year, so there are still more than six months to go. Looking forward to it!

Does anyone have the catalog number for Sato Haruki's new work? I've been asking for three days!

Why are there always perverted people on Tieba?! I want some too!

Sina Weibo also followed up with some news reports, but due to the competition between them, Sina did not push the topic, resulting in a high level of discussion, but it did not make it onto Sina Weibo's trending topics list.

Lin Wenruo sent Zheng Nan a QQ message this morning, asking if what was said in the news was true.

Zheng Nan's answer was a mix of true and false, with the false part being the majority.

Lin Wenruo said that's good, but you can't be too successful!

I'm afraid my brother is suffering, but I'm also afraid he'll drive a Land Rover.

Zheng Nan dismissed Lin Wenruo, checked out of the hotel, and headed straight for the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce.