Giant of the times

Intel (Processor) Company quickly elected a new CEO - Ted Hoff, the father of the microprocessor.

Both prestige and technology are impeccable.

This is an older generation of outstanding scientists, and among the rising stars, Wei Xiuping, a Chinese American in his twenties, also received relatively high votes and became a key training target. In the past, Chinese Americans had a very high status. It was low, but it is different now. With the emergence of such amazing and talented people as Li Zetian, the attitude of Americans towards Chinese Americans has changed a lot.

Smartness and high IQ have become the labels of the Chinese.

Some people have even compared the Chinese with the Jews, believing that these two races are the smartest people in the world.

Nowadays, every time it is time for college freshmen to register, whenever an Asian face appears in the school, the seniors welcoming the new students will first curiously ask if the other person is Chinese. Chinese people can also hold their chests and heads high and feel proud.

…

In early December, "Star Wars" was released. The global box office was much higher than in its previous life, reaching US$850 million. Star Wars Film Company received US$210 million.

However, the box office is only a small part, and the bulk is peripheral income, which belongs entirely to the Star Wars Film Company. Because the agreement was signed when the additional investment was originally made, 20th Century Fox was not optimistic about the film, and George Lucas had no money to invest and needed investment from the Star Wars Film Company.

After "Star Wars" was released, Netflix officially opened. At this time, there were 51 Netflix video rental stores in the United States, with more than 400 movies!

The rental store also sells VHS recorders, priced at $199 each.

When it opened, there was a super large poster at the entrance of each rental store. The upper half of the poster was a high-definition promotional photo of "Star Wars", and the lower half was a collection of small pictures of dozens of classic movies. The bottom of the poster read a line of large characters. : "VHS movie tapes, you can watch "Star Wars" at home!!!"

The poster attracted a lot of people, and the exciting and familiar battle sounds of "Star Wars" could be heard from time to time in the store, which made people stop and stop.

Both those who have watched "Star Wars" and those who have not watched "Star Wars" walked into the store one after another.

All of a sudden, the Netflix rental store was packed with people and it was extremely popular!

"That's great. I thought I would never see the movie once it was offline. I didn't expect that there is such a thing as a video tape! For a classic movie like "Star Wars", I can watch it a hundred times without getting tired of it! And I never get tired of it! There are also many classic movies in the store, such as "Gone with the Wind", "007", "The Godfather", "Modern Times", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "General Patton", "The Wizard of Oz", Spielberg's "Jaws" Wait... Oh my God! I can’t help but want to buy them and keep them in my permanent collection!”

Movie fans are excited!

Buy!

Buy!

Buy!

Countless movie fans frantically selected their favorite movies and also bought a VHS recorder.

Of course, some people choose to rent video tapes.

Buy a videotape, ranging from $50 to $80. For rental, it is calculated on a daily basis, which is US$5 per day, but first a deposit must be paid, which is not less than the value of the video tape.

The business in the store is getting more and more popular, and there is a queue at the door.

People were attracted by this scene and stepped forward to see what was going on, so they suddenly became Netflix users.

"VHS recorders can not only play movie tapes, but also record TV series. You can watch them when you want to watch them. You can also rewind and watch them. This thing is perfect for me! I usually watch TV series or games. , but sometimes I miss it because I don’t have time to watch it due to work reasons, which is really a pity. Now, let’s buy a VHS recorder and record them!!!”

"It's the same, I'm in the same situation!"

"The VHS recorder is a great invention. It's easy to use and can record for a long time!"

"Yes, this video recorder can record much longer than Sony's betamax home video recorder. The picture may be slightly worse, but it's not much different. It doesn't matter! Hi, waiter, VHS tapes can be recorded on the betamax home video recorder. Do you want to use it?"

"I'm sorry, sir, because the format of the video tape is different, so it cannot be used. If you want to play the VHS video tape, you must have a VHS video recorder!"

"Okay, then I'll buy a VHS recorder. After watching so many classic movies, I really can't help but want to buy it and take it home to watch!"

…

The opening of Netflix naturally attracts the most attention from movie companies.

Seeing how popular the scene was, many film companies that signed one-time buyout agreements regretted it and became jealous. But the film companies that signed the share agreement were all smiles.

“I didn’t expect movie videos to be so popular!”

"The key is that there are so many classic movies that I feel itchy just watching them!"

"Netflix has strong financial resources, and it has actually obtained so many movie licenses at once."

"Oh, Chronos Li's business acumen is amazing. He has inadvertently created a hugely wealthy company! Film companies will have to look at his face from now on!"

"Yes, video tapes will obviously become the main source of profits around movies. With Netflix's financial resources, it will definitely expand rapidly! If movie companies want to make money, they must cooperate with Netflix!"

"..."

Countless film companies started talking about it internally.

At the end of the day, Netflix counted today's sales data, and Li Zetian was immediately taken aback.

Dongfang Yuqin said: "The first is the VHS recorder. 250,000 units were sold in the United States, with sales of up to 50 million U.S. dollars. Mr. Li, according to the agreement we signed with JVC, we charge 20%, that is, 10 million U.S. dollars belongs to For Netflix, this is almost pure profit! In addition, it has rented out 980,000 movie tapes with a deposit of US$56 million. It has a huge cash flow, which can be used to invest and make another amount of money. Even if the user returns the tape, there will still be a loss. When new users rent video tapes, it’s like a bank where people make deposits and people withdraw money, but the bank always has a large amount of funds in its hands and makes a lot of money.”

Li Zetian nodded and motioned for her to continue.

"480,000 movie video tapes were sold, with sales of about US$30 million. Some of the best-selling movie video tapes in some Netflix rental stores have even been sold out. In addition, about 220,000 blank video tapes were sold, and users bought them and recorded them at home. For the show, it was $20 a piece and sales were $4.4 million."

Li Zetian sighed: "This is really a big start. If Netflix makes so much money, some people will be jealous and then enter this industry. From now on, Netflix will speed up its expansion and monopolize the market! In addition, I ordered the CEO of Netflix to hope that Rick Adolph, when negotiating with the film company again, try to get the exclusive license as much as possible!"

"yes!"

…

Netflix has been a hit since its launch, causing a huge stir among video recorder manufacturers.

At this moment, the happiest company is JVC. In cooperation with Netflix, it sold 250,000 VHS recorders in just one day. This was unimaginable in the past. It won’t be long before VHS recorders will occupy the US market. Then comes the global market. The videotape format battle between JVC and Sony will soon be decided!

Sony was really anxious now. They didn't expect that video rental stores would be the key to determining the fate of the video tape format.

Unfortunately, Netflix has already cooperated with JVC and can no longer cooperate with Sony.

Norio Ohga, the president of Sony, said with a serious face in the conference room: "Yesterday, the Netflix video rental company opened, and it was unprecedentedly popular. According to the intelligence we collected, Netflix helped JVC sell 250,000 VHS recorders in one day. If If Sony doesn’t take any countermeasures, it will have no choice but to sit back and wait for death as JVC announces the death penalty for the β-max videotape format!!!”

"President, since VHS recorders are so popular because of video rental stores, can we also open video rental stores? Looking at Netflix's success yesterday, we know that video rental companies are very profitable, and at the same time they can help us promote Betamax video recorder and beta-max videotape format!!!" someone in the conference room suggested.

"Yes, this is a good idea! Only movie and video tapes will attract users!"

"..."

Those present were almost unanimous in their approval of the approach.

Norio Ohga nodded and said solemnly: "Then follow this method!"

After the meeting, the order to establish a video rental store quickly spread to Sony's American branch. People from the branch immediately took action and divided into two groups. One was negotiating authorization with the film company, and the other was looking for a store.

However, at this time, the film company is not as easy to negotiate as before. They have seen the value of video tapes, so naturally they have to raise the price severely.

There's no doubt that Sony is having trouble licensing its movies.

Li Zetian soon learned that Sony was also going to get involved in the film rental business. It was raining heavily that day. He looked at the heavy rain outside the window, frowned, and murmured: "With Sony's financial resources, sooner or later, it will get the film authorization, damn it , how should we defeat each other? However, without Sony, there are other companies that want to keep Netflix in the market leadership, unless Netflix has movies that other video rental companies do not have. Therefore, exclusive licensing is very important in the video rental market , content is an important factor that cannot be ignored! Fortunately, Netflix has signed exclusive licenses with many movie companies, and its content is naturally much better than Sony! When Netflix takes over the U.S. market, it will be mandatory for movie companies to choose to occupy Team, if you don’t choose Netflix, get out! Sometimes, what users watch is not decided by the users themselves, but what the giants are willing to show them. If the movie companies are smart, they will naturally know which sales platform to choose!!!”

So Li Zetian picked up the phone again and urged Netflix to speed up its expansion!

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