Chapter 594: Industry Changes and the Summer Vacation Is About to Start

Don’t underestimate the Penguin and Ali in the later film and television circles, of course they are indeed awesome.

But Baidu also has a lot of influence in the film and television industry, the most important of which is its iQiyi video.

The three mainstream video websites at that time, iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video, went from bad to worse after being acquired by Ali, and were already falling behind.

iQiyi and Penguin are the two video websites with the highest traffic, and they compete most fiercely with each other.

However, in the battle for traffic and advertising, Penguin Video, backed by the Penguin Group, could not defeat iQiyi, which had been the number one video website for several years in a row.

iQiyi’s main strength is its self-produced dramas.

They were the first video website to focus on self-produced web dramas and movies.

Not long ago, iQiyi launched an online drama “Online Love”, starring Mr. Cang, who is the enlightenment teacher for many male compatriots in China.

“Love Online” has achieved great success. Faced with the current fierce battle for online copyrights of film and television dramas, iQiyi has begun to go its own way.

Later, when online dramas exploded in 2015, iQiyi launched 650 out of the 622 online dramas on the entire network. In the following years, this proportion has remained at around 90%.

Of course, filming more web dramas does not necessarily mean a greater influence in the film and television industry.

However, iQiyi can exert huge influence by becoming the industry’s top video website with its online dramas.

The terminal screening platform for TV dramas or variety shows is now video websites, as few people watch TV anymore.

Many artists or production companies are subject to video platforms.

Moreover, iQiyi’s online dramas have begun to become high-quality, and future online dramas will no longer be discriminated against as they are now, but have become the mainstream in the industry.

Therefore, iQiyi itself can also produce a lot of film and television resources.

However, Baidu cannot be compared with the two giants Ali and Penguin with just iQiyi.

At that time, Baidu was no longer a company of the same level as these two companies.

When Baidu held on tightly to iQiyi, both of them had already laid out the entire industrial chain.

In the original time and space, it took only seven or eight years for them to completely control the entertainment industry.

It has derived a complete industry chain of IP – incubation – production (artist management) – distribution (channels, issuance, marketing) – consumption (derivatives, ticket booking).

During these seven or eight years, the two companies have invested in nearly 150 companies related to the entertainment industry. Basically, all the companies with a bit of fame have either the surname Ma or the surname Ma.

The entertainment circles such as Beijing circle, Northwest circle, Shanghai circle, etc. have all become small circles, and the only big circles are the Ali circle and the Penguin circle.

At that time, in addition to investing in film and television, Penguin focused on industry and IP incubation, connecting the upstream and downstream of film and television production.

Ali mainly makes movies and does all kinds of buying. Huayi, Bona, Guangxian and Wanda have all accepted investments from Alibaba. Four cinema chains including Dadi and its own Tao Piaopiao are also involved in distribution.

In the film industry, the Ali series is the leader.

The reason why Yi Yang Qianxi, one of the Three Little Ones, has such good movie resources and is far ahead of other top stars is because he is the direct descendant of Ali and is called Prince Ali.

Of course, he has also worked hard to achieve his goals, and his professional skills are among the best among the top stars.

Do you think the two companies are satisfied with this?

At that time, due to the surge in artists’ pay, people jointly invested in the Modu Film and Television Media Company in order to control costs at the source.

This company cooperates directly with Shanghai Drama Academy.

So from now on, unless you are an irreplaceable artist like Shen Teng, Wu Jing, and Wang Baoqiang, you will have no bargaining power with these two companies.

Therefore, compared to the US Supreme Court’s ruling in 1948 that several Hollywood giants had illegal monopolies, the Hollywood giants at that time were simply dwarfed by them.

Now, Ali and Penguin have entered the market ahead of schedule, and announced their entry into the entertainment industry one after another within a month.

This made many people in the circle a little nervous.

After all, these two companies appear to be too wealthy.

They need financing loans to make a blockbuster movie with an investment of 100 or 200 million, but they spend tens of billions or even billions.

Apart from Jiahe, who can withstand this?

And that’s not all. By now, everyone with a discerning eye knows that the impact of Internet channels on the film and television industry will become increasingly greater and even play a decisive role.

Ali and Penguin Group happen to be the two largest Internet companies in China.

Previously, Wanda Group made a huge investment to enter the film and television industry, but they were actually not too worried.

After all, the real estate industry does not have a very big impact on the film and television culture industry.

Even though Wanda owns the largest cinema chain in the country, it only has one cinema chain.

Both China Film Group and Shanghai Film Group have more than one cinema chain under their umbrella, especially China Film, which has more screens and market share than Wanda Cinema Line.

Therefore, Wanda cannot form a monopoly on terminal screenings at all, nor can it achieve a relative monopoly. The most it can do is increase Wanda’s voice in the industry.

On the contrary, Ali and Penguin may form a certain monopoly on future publicity and distribution channels.

Therefore, the impact brought by the personal entry of these two companies is far beyond what Wanda can compare to.

At this time, the bosses of film and television companies in the circle had to admire Liu Zhou again.

They acquired Sina Group early on and gained a foothold in the Internet industry.

Now Sina Group is the fourth largest Internet company in the industry after BAT, and also has considerable influence in the Internet industry.

In terms of publicity channels, Sina has its own portal website, Sina Weibo and Sina Video, which are not inferior to Ali and Penguin at all.

At this time they couldn’t help but sigh that Liu Zhou deserved to be the richest man, his vision was really beyond their reach.

At first, they couldn’t understand why Liu Zhou was so determined to acquire Sina, and even went so far as to confront Duan Yongping and the Taishan Club behind him.

If Liu Zhou had not been so famous at that time and had a certain influence on public opinion, he might have been brought down by Taishan Society.

Although Liu Zhou survived, they still felt it was not worth it. After all, Taishan Club’s influence in the domestic business community was at its peak at that time.

If you offend them, it will be difficult to invest in other industries.

But who could have imagined that the Internet boom would be so fierce that Liu Zhou became the richest man in mainland China simply by relying on his industries in the Internet and film and television circles.

Now the Internet has a huge impact on the film and television industry. We are now at a loss, while others can sit back and relax.

At this time, Liu Zhou, who made them envious and jealous, was working at Sina Group.

Although he had anticipated the entry of Ahri and Penguin, he couldn’t remain indifferent.

Liu Zhou knew better than those in the circle how powerful they were.

Perhaps they have not yet realized what the entry of these two companies means, and it is not just as simple as adding two powerful competitors.

So it is impossible for Liu Zhou to do nothing. Some things still need to be prepared first.

Sina Group has developed quite well over the past year.

The official department officially settled in Sina Weibo, making Sina Weibo the most mainstream open social platform in China, with an increasing influence. Then there is the mobile app Jinri Toutiao that Liu Zhou is most concerned about, which was launched last year.

With its pre-refresh function and big data recommendations, as well as the customized content provided by portal websites, Toutiao has become a popular application in just one year.

Liu Zhou’s plan achieved initial success.

Now Sina Group is preparing to launch a new function, which will allow users to browse short videos in addition to text news.

This is the most user-attractive point.

In the future, everyone’s work will become busier and busier, and their time will become more and more fragmented. Short videos just happen to satisfy their need to pass the fragmented time.

What’s more, the short videos that can be recommended to them are all related to their preferences.

Moreover, compared to browsing text, people still prefer to browse news, which is much more efficient in absorbing information.

Of course, for Liu Zhou, the current short videos on Toutiao will provide big data nourishment for Sina’s Douyin in the future.

The reason why the algorithm of Douyin is so powerful is that it has been accumulated from Toutiao.

After learning about Toutiao, I am quite satisfied with its development.

Afterwards, he arrived at his last stop, which was also the main purpose of his visit, Sina Video.

The copyright wars launched by video websites in the past two years have made some companies unbearable, and they have gradually begun to fall behind.

The video industry seems to be starting a new round of reshuffle.

The first is Tudou Video. Its boss Wang Wei not only had a divorce scandal, but although the company was finally listed, it also caused damage to the company’s vitality.

This has already made Tudou Video lag behind Youku and Sina.

But it was its helmsman Wang Wei who really started to fall behind.

He is a typical literary youth who does whatever he wants.

Not only did they spend a lot of money on the Tudou Film Festival, but the money was spent without making much of a splash.

Later, when they saw that the movie “Pleasant Goat” was selling well, they felt that such animated films were too cliché, so they invested heavily in the animated film industry again, loudly announcing that they would become the Pixar of China.

Then he invested 7000 million to shoot “Little Door Gods” and directed it himself.

In fact, his idea is indeed good, but it is not suitable for Tudou Video.

Right now is a time of fierce competition and animated films are of little help to the video website business.

So this has made the shareholders a little intolerable, watching Tudou start to fall behind step by step, and Youku is already having a hard time facing the copyright war.

Therefore, the shareholders behind the two companies are pushing for a merger between Youku and Tudou, but although it is called a merger, it is actually more like Youku acquiring Tudou.

Because they wanted to kick out Wang Wei, the literary youth.

In addition to Youku and Tudou, Renren has acquired 56.com, and Suning is already in contact with PPTV.

Sohu’s “Diaosi Nanren” has also been launched. Zhang Chaoyang has paid much more attention to Sohu Video. Now Sohu Video shows no signs of decline.

At the same time, Ali is also in contact with Gu Yongqiang. Perhaps the day when Youku Tudou merges will be the day when Ali acquires Youku Tudou.

In addition, Penguin Group has injected 1 billion yuan into Penguin Video. Although iQiyi plans to develop its own drama series, it now has the support of Baidu, so the copyright war is still a real possibility.

The most fiercely engaged in the current copyright war are Sina Video, Penguin Video and iQiyi.

All three companies are backed by major Internet companies.

However, Sina Video is having a much better time because it has the industry leader Golden Harvest Group as its ally.

Movies, TV series and variety shows produced by Golden Harvest or its series generally sell their online copyrights to Sina Video.

Although Sina Video also needs to spend a lot of money, at least it has obtained the copyright and does not need to get involved in that crazy bidding.

Therefore, even though Sina Video is already a top player in the industry, the copyright war has been going on till the end.

Although Penguin and iQiyi are also wealthy, they have been established for a relatively short time.

So now Sina Video is undoubtedly the number one video website in the industry.

However, the situation is still uncertain, so this is not the time to rest on our laurels.

Liu Zhou came to Sina Video this time mainly to allow it to start producing its own dramas.

The success of iQiyi has proven the advantages and effectiveness of its own dramas. In this case, there is no reason for Sina Video not to follow suit.

Moreover, Sina Video is backed by Golden Harvest Group and has a very good foundation.

Liu Zhou also did not intend to let the team slowly explore the possibilities, but instead, he wanted to create a high-quality web drama in one go.

Let’s set a benchmark first: online dramas don’t necessarily mean low quality.

The regulation of online dramas is much more relaxed now, so there are many more themes that can be filmed.

Liu Zhou arranged for “Soul Ferry”, the first online drama that made industry insiders take it seriously.

Then the “Yu Zui” which was banned in later generations was also included.

In addition, Liu Zhou also specially invited the Noon Sunshine team, which has close cooperation with Golden Harvest, to create the “Ghost Blowing Out the Light” series of web dramas.

Since the “Ghost Blows Out the Light” movie has started production and is about to be released, the web drama can also start production.

With both movies and web dramas, “Ghost Blows Out the Light” will become the IP that Golden Harvest will focus on developing in the future.

This time, Golden Harvest Group is setting an example for Sina Video. In the future, they will set up their own film and television department.

Self-made dramas. Self-made dramas, of course, have to be movies and TV series produced by oneself to be considered self-made dramas.

After connecting the people from Jiahe with Sina Video, Liu Zhou also told the person in charge of Sina Video some of his ideas for the future.

Video websites can not only produce their own dramas, but their own variety shows are also a huge market.

In later generations, iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video all had many popular self-produced variety shows.

In addition, the live broadcast function of the video website can also be developed.

Of course, it is not a live broadcast like Huya or Douyu, but a live broadcast of some sports events or some major ceremonies and celebrations.

For example, the live broadcast rights of NBA and European football events will no longer be monopolized by CCTV in the future.

The live broadcast rights of many sports events have been acquired by those video websites.

Sina Video can also prepare in advance in this regard.

Liu Zhou worked at Sina for nearly a week, and then shifted his focus back to Golden Harvest Group.

It is already June and this year’s summer vacation is about to begin again.

The summer movie that Golden Harvest has prepared for this time is “Painted Skin 2” directed by Wuershan.

(End of this chapter)