Huayu is free to do as you like

After not seeing each other for a while, Nazha burst out with unprecedented enthusiasm after returning home and expressed her longing for her with practical actions.

However, being addicted to food is the best way to describe her.

After a fierce exercise, Nazha hugged Gu Wei's waist on the big bed in the bedroom and buried her head in his arms, like an ostrich in danger.

Gu Wei put his hand on her smooth and beautiful back and rubbed it gently.

"No, I'm too tired. I need to go to bed. I have work tomorrow."

Naza did not raise her head, panting slightly and spoke softly.

Gu Wei smiled and lowered his head to kiss her hair, then turned sideways and hugged Naza.

"Go to sleep."

Then he closed his eyes.

Early the next morning, Gu Wei came out of Nazha's house, went to the company to handle some work, and then took a car to the headquarters of [ByteDance] in Beijing.

It has been more than three years since Gu Wei invested in ByteDance in 2013. In June of 2014, [ByteDance] raised another Series C round. At that time, Weibo and Sequoia Capital led the investment. It raised US$100 million and was valued at US$500 million.

In the past three years, [ByteDance] has developed steadily, and [Toutiao] has more and more users, but it has gradually reached a bottleneck.

[Neihan Duanzi] Because of the content, it is always required by relevant departments to rectify it. Therefore, under the demand of the entire company for innovation and change, in September this year, [ByteDance] launched a new music short video software [Double] sound】.

This is not the first time that Gu Wei has come to the [ByteDance] headquarters. As a major shareholder, he has occasionally visited the company in the past few years to talk to Zhang Yiyi and others about the current situation of the company and understand the development of ByteDance. and difficulties faced.

Although he doesn't understand technology, he can always give Zhang some pertinent suggestions from a long-term perspective.

After arriving at Byte, Zhang Yiming came out to greet him personally and took Gu Wei around for a tour.

Compared with other companies, emerging Internet companies like [ByteDance] basically change over time. The company's scale and valuation are expanding rapidly like a balloon. The last time Gu Wei came was more than half a year ago. Now with that There have been great changes from time to time.

"This is our newly established [Douyin] project department. Because the product is incubated based on [Neihan Duanzi], the staff also selected some backbones from there, plus newly recruited employees."

Gu Wei nodded after listening to Zhang Yiming's introduction.

"Wow ~ big star!

Why did Gu Wei come to our company? Did our company invite him to be a spokesperson?

The boss personally accompanies him?

Gu Wei is really handsome, even more handsome in real life than on TV."

Their arrival was naturally noticed by the employees who were working, and everyone looked in Gu Wei's direction and whispered.

"Don't be surprised. Mr. Gu is the major shareholder of our company. He will usually come every once in a while. You will know when you work for a long time."

The old employee next to him explained.

"What, he is a shareholder of our company?"

"Yes, although I don't know how many shares I hold, I guess I'm not a small shareholder. Mr. Zhang personally accompanies me every time I come here."

"Wow!

This is incredible!

Do big celebrities still invest in Internet companies?

Our company is now valued at several billion dollars, isn't it? Gu Wei is not only handsome, he is a big star, and he is also an investment genius?

The domineering president has come into reality, how cool is it! "

"."

Gu and Wei ignored everyone's comments and left the work area after taking a few glances.

After a while, the president's office.

"The company is currently negotiating for D-round financing. The two leading investors are Sequoia Capital and CCB International. However, they are still negotiating and there are still some differences in valuation."

Zhang Yiming introduced it to Gu Wei while making tea.

"The current valuation given by the two companies is US$9 billion, and our own quotation is US$11 billion."

Gu Wei took the tea cup he handed over with both hands, blew on it, and took a sip.

"I also downloaded the [Douyin] you just introduced. I think it's a pretty good app."

Zhang Yingming smiled.

“The company has now entered a bottleneck period in the news field, and we developed [Douyin] to see if we could find a new track.

However, competition in the short video field is also fierce.

At present, Kuaishou is the absolute leader, and Meipai and Miaopai, which also have a large number of users, cannot be underestimated.

Xiaokaxiu, which was launched last year, relied on the traffic diversion of the same company Miaopai and the momentum of Sina Weibo. In just over two months after its launch, the total number of users exceeded 15 million, making it the top free download list in AppStore China.

It is considered a rising star in the short video field.

If our [Douyin] wants to catch up with these, we still have a long way to go. "

As soon as Zhang Yiming mentioned Xiao Kaxiu and Gu Wei, he knew what his intention was.

Gu Wei has a good relationship with Zhao Liying, so he knows that Xiaokaxiu's rapid popularity after it went online is closely related to its Weibo star promotion strategy.

At that time, Zhao Liying was invited to serve as the nominal vice president of Xiaoka Show, while Jia Nailiang was the CCO. At the same time, Wang Luodan, Jiang Xin and many other celebrities were invited to promote Xiaoka Show.

Under the guidance of many celebrities, Xiaokaxiu, a newly launched short video APP, will become popular in a short period of time.

He smiled and looked at each other.

"It seems that you have set your sights on me."

Zhang Yiming saw what he was thinking and smiled sheepishly.

"I can't help it. Now is a critical period for the company's financing. These investors are all based on data. If the company doesn't take advantage of such a big star shareholder like you, wouldn't it be a waste of money?

Both [Toutiao] and [Neihan Duanzi] have been developing for a short time, and it is difficult to improve in a short period of time. Only [Douyin] has just been online for more than a month and has huge potential.

Besides, our valuation is higher this round and we raise more money, so your shares will be more valuable."

"Okay, I'm your partner, not an employee, so you don't need to draw a pie for me.

Just tell me what to do."

Zhang Yiming looked happy when he heard what Gu Wei said and began to tell him his thoughts.

In fact, it is very simple. Gu Wei himself is the most popular star in domestic entertainment. His popularity is not a joke. Not counting strangers, his own fans alone are enough to make Douyin popular.

So he only needs to join Douyin himself, and then place advertisements on various platforms to promote it.

All Gu Wei needs to do is take a short video and upload it to his account every once in a while. It's very simple.

To be honest, with Gu Wei's current popularity in China, there are many people who are eager for his traffic.

Since Wang Sicong met Gu Wei, he has invited him to Panda to host live broadcasts every time, claiming that he can do whatever he wants as long as he agrees to the conditions because he values ​​Gu Wei's popularity and large fan base.

If he can start a live broadcast, his fans can max out the gifts and bring huge traffic to the platform.

Gu Wei was not in need of that little money, and he knew that Panda TV would not end well in the end, and he did not want to cut off the fans in this way, so he never agreed.

However, it doesn’t matter if you use your own company’s APP like [Douyin]. Anyway, [Douyin] will become popular sooner or later. If you use traffic to boost it in the early stage, it will definitely develop faster and better.

And as Zhang Yiming said, he is a major shareholder of [ByteDance], and the company's valuation is directly related to his own interests. Of course, the higher the better.

Gu Wei thought about it after hearing Zhang Yiming's plan.

"I also have two film and television companies under my name, with many signed artists, including first-line stars Yang Mi, Zhang Tianai, Nazha, and others who are less famous. They can also sign for [Douyin] diversion."

"Very good!"

Zhang Yingming clapped his hands. He didn't expect such a surprise, buy big and get small.

"I don't want to make money. I can make decisions for my artists, but the fees have to be based on the going rate.

We cannot lose money to them because of me as the boss. "

“Don’t worry, we [Byte] are not short of money, and another US$1 billion will be received from this financing soon.”

Zhang Mingming waved his hand and said proudly.

Gu Wei nodded, thought for a while and asked hesitantly:

“I downloaded [Douyin] and played it several times. According to my understanding, our APP is a music short video, with many novel ways to play, and comes with special effects, filters, beauty, scene switching and other functions. It is easy to operate and suitable for the general public.

Ordinary people can also gain everyone's attention by shooting videos to share their lives. I think this is the key to the success of [Douyin] in the future.

Now, although celebrities like me can bring a lot of traffic and the data will be very good, but with the star-centralized model, it will be difficult for ordinary users to gain attention, and the APP will not be able to last relying on celebrities alone."

Gu Wei knew that the success of [Douyin] in the future would not depend on any celebrity, but on thousands of ordinary short video shooters. Because of the huge number of video producers, countless novel short videos have been born, plus [Byte [Douyin]’s unique algorithm mechanism is the key to [Douyin] having the last laugh in the short video track.

He doesn’t want Douyin to go astray just because he can easily bring traffic.

Zhang Yiming was a little surprised at first after hearing Gu Wei's words, and then waved his hand indifferently.

"I'm surprised that you can see the essence of this APP so clearly. I told you before that if you don't come to the company as a star, you must be the best product manager."

Gu Wei rolled his eyes at him.

I am a big star and a major shareholder. You want me to come and work for you as a product manager. What are you thinking?

Zhang Yiming continued:

“You’re right to worry, but that won’t happen.

The underlying logic of [Douyin] determines that this will not be a star-centered APP. What celebrities can do is divert traffic, and when the traffic comes in, it will naturally be digested on this plate.

Users who follow celebrities and download the APP will gradually be attracted to other videos in addition to watching celebrities. After a period of time, even if the celebrity he likes is no longer on our platform, I believe this user will be retained.

Our various trendy designs and unique algorithms are the key. "

Gu Wei nodded with relief after hearing Zhang Yingming's words.