Top of the big era

Zhou Buqi no longer has the energy to pay attention to Asda's mobile phone business.

Just like the milk tea business, blind box business, and real estate business, he has set the direction. Whether it will live or die depends on the level of the management team.

Zhou Buqi's main business territory still revolves around the four companies under the "Ziweixing" brand.

The top priority and the biggest challenge is Ziweixing Global.

This morning, Zhou Buqi, along with Mason, the vice president of Ziweixing International and president of the film and entertainment business, and others went to Netflix to conduct research.

In the pre-plan, Ziweixing International’s “Internet + Movie” ecosystem would have been deeply integrated with Netflix.

Of course Zhou Buqi would not make a special trip just because of this business matter.

What he focuses on is content ecology.

"How many subscribers does Netflix have now?" Zhou Buqi did not excessively affect Netflix's normal operations, but only asked the operating officer Benjamin to do some consultation.

"About 15 million."

"Oh? Quite a few!"

"However, a large part of them are still users of the traditional DVD mailing business."

Benjamin was not complacent about such data. On the contrary, he was a little worried. Because the promotion of online streaming media is not as smooth as imagined.

Otherwise, Netflix would not have been looked down upon by Wall Street, and investment banks would have given Netflix stock a "sell" investment recommendation.

Netflix currently has two main businesses.

The new business is streaming media, and the old business is DVD mailing.

That is, if the user wants to watch a movie, he can place an order on Netflix to rent a DVD disc, and Netflix will deliver it to the user via postal mail. The two services are subscribed together, and the monthly price is US$7.99.

"Is there any explanation? Online streaming should be more convenient than mailing DVDs, right?" Zhou Buqi then asked. It shouldn't be a limitation of the Internet speed. The Internet speed in the United States is very fast, even watching Blu-ray high-definition movies online.

Benjamin said: "Because of the rich content. If you rent DVD discs, users can watch almost all the movies they want to see. Disc rental is a traditional industry in Hollywood with strong support. But streaming media cannot, We don’t have enough high-quality content, and there are only about 3,000 movies and TV series in the library.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Sony and Disney content?"

"Yes, some old movies, some less popular content." Benjamin was helpless. "This part of the content is about 2,500 movies. The contract is signed until 2011, and the annual rent is 30 million US dollars."

Zhou Buqi asked: "What are the general trends in the industry?"

Benjamin said: "The DVD rental business continues to grow. Well... our original plan was that the DVD rental business might subside by next year. This is not the case. The DVD business may not reach its peak until next year."

"What about streaming? Not popular?"

"It's very popular, but there is too little content. We have statistics. If the content is available on streaming media, the DVD rental rate of this content will be reduced by 95%. This means that most of Netflix's users They are very fond of streaming videos, because there is too little online content, so they have to turn to renting DVDs.”

"This is the Internet, no surprises."

Zhou Buqi understood this.

This is the same all over the world.

The Internet is an emerging product. Before mobile Internet became popular, the Internet mainly had three major user groups: white-collar workers, intellectuals, and young people.

These people are more able to keep up with the times and adapt to the emergence of streaming media.

Benjamin said optimistically: "The data proves that our original business model design was correct. Streaming media is indeed more popular than DVD rental. Under the same circumstances, users prefer streaming media."

Zhou Buqi looked at him deeply and said, "The content is the core."

Benjamin was a little embarrassed and said tentatively: "Mr. Zhou, I heard that you want to organize a consortium to form a new large-scale entertainment giant in Hollywood?"

"It's still early." Zhou Buqi waved his hand. He knew what the other party meant, and there was no need to talk about it. "What about the data of streaming media? Are there any statistics on user preferences for content?"

"Yes, please wait."

Benjamin made a phone call, then called an assistant in charge of content and brought over a copy of the material.

This is the benefit of the Internet.

Data can be quickly fed back and organized into analytical models.

In fact, when making movies in Hollywood, they must actively refer to various market data when establishing projects, and adjust the plot according to the audience's preferences and current aesthetic tastes.

However, Hollywood’s data collection is too traditional and too expensive. For example, MGM spends more than $15 million on market research, consulting, and consultancy every year, which is simply ridiculous.

That’s not how you play with money!

Traditional market research is a complex and professional task, especially field surveys involving front-line employees. This kind of front-line staff is inefficient, high-paid, and the survey results are inaccurate, which is very annoying. But the Internet is different. The backend can directly give the most accurate and objective results about which movies users have watched on the Netflix platform.

Sorting, combining, statistics, all at once!

No need to spend a penny!

Benjamin handed over a very complex data analysis material and said cautiously: "Mr. Zhou, Netflix's user group is mainly 20-40 years old, and this analysis model mainly revolves around this group of people watching movies. group."

Zhou Buqi is a veteran of the Internet. There is no need to remind him that he will not be affected by the analysis model and produce cognitive biases in the sampling group.

Look down at the model.

Depend on!

What a mess, so complicated, and all kinds of statistical formulas, I can’t understand it!

Fortunately, there is a general conclusion at the end.

"call."

Zhou Buqi breathed a sigh of relief.

Among the genres in Netflix’s user preference rankings, the first label is action, and the second label is thriller. Then there are suspense, romance, crime, political intrigue and more.

Zhou Buqi immediately thought of Netflix's masterpiece "House of Cards", which has led to the trend of online dramas around the world.

Thriller, suspense, crime, politics, conspiracy... Sure enough, "House of Cards" is an online drama created by Netflix specifically for its users and spawned by Internet data.

In comparison, it is too expensive to make action movies and too risky to make romance movies. This type of crime suspense and political conspiracy movies are very popular all over the world.

However, this type of film is not mainstream in cinemas.

One of the most profitable types of theater movies is family fun, which is a movie that parents take their children to watch together. The plot is too complex and heavy, or the themes related to crime and thriller are not suitable.

…

Son’s office is in Silicon Valley.

After leaving Netflix, Zhou Buqi and his party went to the SoftBank base to find him.

Zhen Yu chuckled and asked: "How is it? Did Netflix provide you with new ideas?"

Zhou Buqi turned to look at her, "You've been following me, haven't you? What about you? What are your ideas?"

Zhen Yu said: "The two most powerful giants in Hollywood right now are Disney and Time Warner. The two companies have different focuses. Disney focuses on the derivatives market, while Warner focuses on the peripheral market."

"Then what?"

"Warner's movies and DVD operations are all crazy. A movie can be divided into theatrical version, extended version, director's cut, regular version, hardcover version, collector's version, and can be divided into several batches of DVDs. ."

Zhou Buqi was a little disdainful, "I just want to squeeze every penny out of the market."

Zhen Yu said: "What I'm talking about is not the difference in business models, but the content concept. Disney's content is family-friendly, while Warner's movies are more of a deep and criminal type. For example, Warner DC's "Batman: The Dark Knight," The disc's revenue exceeded 700 million US dollars, which was a record. The same cannot be said for Marvel's "Iron Man". The box office of "Iron Man" is half of that of "The Dark Knight", so it stands to reason that the disc's revenue should be half as well. In fact, it is not. , the global disc revenue of "Iron Man" seems to be only US$190 million."

"Really?" Zhou Buqi's reaction was relatively dull. He understood what Senior Sister Zhen Yu meant, but he didn't quite agree with her point of view. "The quality of the film is too different. "The Dark Knight" is an epic masterpiece and is suitable for Collection. 'Iron Man' is just a popcorn farce, there's no comparison."

Zhen Yu nodded lightly, "Yes, DVDs also have collectible properties. The more classic the movie, the higher the sales. But streaming media does not have such properties."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Anyway, this is an idea. Sister Bao? Why don't you speak?"

Xue Baoshan smiled and said nothing.

Zhou Buqi asked: "What's your opinion?"

"I don't understand. You can discuss it with Senior Sister Zhen. I'm learning."

"How humble."

Xue Baoshan pursed her lips and said, "It's not about being modest. I really don't understand. I don't know much about Hollywood."

Zhou Buqi said: "It's not easy to save MGM from such a decline. We are not movie producers or directors, so we have no choice but to make strategic decisions. In fact, Netflix's data is still there It’s of reference value. If the box office is insufficient, peripherals will make up for it. Warner’s route is also very good. Let’s go and meet Masayoshi Son first.”

Now Zhou Buqi is building his assistant team.

Mainly the seven assistants.

Ziweixing, Ziweixing International, Ziweixing Global, and Ziweixing Digital Media each arrange one. There are also travel assistants who are mainly responsible for arrangements for planes, vehicles, yachts, hotels, etc. when traveling.

There are also security assistants and financial assistants.

The financial assistant is the "big housekeeper" Senior Sister Zhen Yu.

The loan business is all run by Senior Sister Zhen Yu.

Ziweixing Global’s investment in this project is very large and may reach US$20 billion. SoftBank has a big head, and Zhou Buqi has a small head. Even Xiaotou and Zhou Buqi couldn't come up with so much cash, so they could only get loans.

Fortunately, the financial industry in the United States is very developed, unlike in China, where loans require physical collateral. Contact several major investment banks here in the United States, and you can conduct risk assessments on intangible assets, and just use Ziweixing's stocks to get loans.

The loan is expected to be between US$3.5 billion and US$4.5 billion.

Now, Ziweixing Global's Mergers and Acquisitions Committee has officially made an offer to MGM: US$2.5 billion. It's time to talk to Sun Zhengyi about the investment quota issue. Zhou Buqi personally stepped down as CEO, so we need to act faster!