Top of the big era

After finishing the matter in Los Angeles, Zhou Buqi made up his mind to go to Manchester.

This season's competition has reached its final stage.

In the Premier League, Manchester United is almost invincible, leading second place Chelsea by as many as 7 points, and their three consecutive championships have basically been won.

Next, let’s look at the Champions League.

Now it has entered the knockout stage. In the quarter-finals, Manchester United swept AC Milan with a score of 7:2. Especially in the home game at Old Trafford, Manchester United sang all the way and won 4:0 neatly.

In the next quarter-finals, Manchester United's opponent is Bundesliga class leader Bayern Munich.

However, at this stage of the season, many "crippling" players have developed physical problems. Robben strained his right leg in the second leg against AC Milan and will be out for at least 3 weeks. He may not be able to play against Bayern. Van Persie is also injured and his condition is unstable.

Even Beckham, who has excellent physical fitness, suffered a serious injury from a ruptured Achilles tendon in a Premier League game in February. Not only was he reimbursed for the season, but his dream of this year's World Cup was also shattered.

We can only rely on No. 10 Rooney to shoulder the heavy responsibility of Manchester United's forward line.

During the difficult moment the team encountered, Zhou Buqi felt that he should go over and boost the morale of the soldiers.

Before I left Los Angeles, I received a call from Masayoshi Son, saying he wanted to chat.

Let’s talk then!

After talking with each other, I found out that this person was concerned about copyright procurement. The procurement budget of US$2 billion was nominally approved by the board of directors, but in fact it was not approved by the board of directors at all. It was the arbitrary decision of Boss Zhou.

Not to mention, Andy Hopkins recently purchased the streaming rights of 59 original DreamWorks film and television works at a "high price", which caused some controversy.

Son Zhengyi was also a little unable to sit still.

Zhou Buqi briefly talked to him, and there were not many obstacles. The main discussion was on the development direction of Ziweixing Global's technology, from digital conversion to 3D imaging, from artificial intelligence to streaming media concepts.

Son Zhengyi said: "I want to buy some Netflix stocks."

"Don't!"

Zhou Buqi quickly stopped.

Masayoshi Son also knows something, "When will the strategic cooperation be made public?"

Zhou Buqi replied, "May, June at the latest."

The strategic cooperation between Ziweixing Global and Netflix has been basically determined internally. Ziweixing Global will invest US$800 million to purchase 25% of Netflix’s shares. After the strategic cooperation, almost all of Ziweixing Global’s film and television content will be put on Netflix’s streaming platform.

It is conceivable that as soon as this news is released, Netflix's stock price will skyrocket!

News was released in June that Netflix's market value may increase 3-5 times by the end of the year.

It's late March now, time is too tight. At this time, SoftBank entered the market to acquire Netflix's stock, which was to check for accurate internal transactions.

By then, even Ziweixing Global and Netflix will be affected.

In fact, similar insider trading occurs every day in U.S. stocks, especially notorious investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which are frantically testing the edges of the law, and being punished is a common occurrence.

But SoftBank is special. It is a "foreign company" and a foreign company that is a thorn in its side. SoftBank is so rich that many venture capital institutions hate it. In many cases, it is clear that the investors can push the valuation to US$1 billion, but SoftBank enters the market waving banknotes and may raise the valuation to US$1.2 billion or US$1.5 billion.

So many people use the movie "Ghostbusters" to describe SoftBank, saying that SoftBank is like a soft marshmallow wandering around, and no one likes to compete with such a behemoth that seems to have unlimited funds.

You still have to be cautious in this kind of irregular operation.

Zhou Buqi said: "Netflix's stock may be split in September. If you want to buy stocks, wait until after the split."

"forget about it."

Son Zhengyi has no interest.

Zhou Buqi said amusedly: "I heard that you bought a big house in Woodside? Do you want to earn back the purchase money?"

Woodside is in the heart of Silicon Valley, where housing prices are extremely high, and Son has taken advantage of the economic crisis in recent years to make a lot of money. The luxury yacht he bought last year was "borrowed" by Zhou Buqi, and this year he spent US$117 million to buy a super mansion in Silicon Valley.

You know, the purchase price of Zhou Buqi's "Gentleman's Manor" in Silicon Valley was only US$68 million.

Of course, the timing of buying also differs.

When Zhou Buqi was purchased, housing prices were at their lowest. Now that the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis is gradually fading, the prices of high-end properties are growing rapidly.

Son Zhengyi waved his hand and avoided the topic, "I heard there is something going on at EMI Records?"

Zhou Buqi said: "It seems so. I also heard that the creditors and equity parties are fighting."

"Are you still interested in EMI?"

"Of course, we must win! Let them fight first, fight first. EMI's case is almost exactly the same as MGM's case, just wait. When the time is right, go to Citigroup, and you can basically win it. "

Son Zhengyi smiled and said, "I have a good relationship with Citigroup. You can come to me when you need it."

"certainly."

Zhou Buqi looked like it was natural.

Son Zhengyi said: "Streaming media is the right direction, and the future is getting brighter and brighter. Film and television streaming media must be available, music streaming media must be available, and news streaming media is also a good direction."

"Today's headlines, isn't that what it is?"

"The model of Toutiao may not be able to go overseas, right? The free model may not work either."

Son Zhengyi is more worried.

The main concern is copyright. You can write all kinds of domestic analysis articles casually. Seeing others write well, you can copy them in a daze and make simple modifications.

This is almost impossible in Europe and the United States.

The release of self-media content here is subject to strict copyright restrictions, making it difficult to publish a large amount of repetitive content. Most of them cooperate with some professional media, such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, The Hollywood Reporter, and New York "Guest" and so on.

However, the cost of cooperating with these professional media is high.

If a model like Toutiao were adopted, the meager advertising fees would simply not be able to cover the cost of buying copyrights from these media. Unless it's the Netflix model, which is a paid subscription.

For $5 or $10 a month, users can subscribe to content reports from some of the world's well-known media.

The immediacy of news has led to the low value of many old articles from the past.

With Netflix’s model, you can purchase more copyrights for old movies, and old movies can be watched over and over again, which is also of great value. However, streaming media news products are not good. They are too time-sensitive and can only continue to purchase the latest copyrights.

It's very difficult to run in this mode.

Zhou Buqi said: “The public dissemination of news will still be borne by social platforms such as Twitter, YikYak, or Helo and UCgram in the future.”

Sun Zhengyi nodded, "The timeliness of news is indeed insurmountable, but discussions on some issues that are not timely are still valuable, just like the little knowledge Ziweixing has done in China."

Zhou Buqi smiled, "Yes."

"There is also a product here in the United States, which is probably imitated by Weizhi, called Quora. It was founded last year and is currently launching its first round of financing."

"Imitate Wei Zhi?"

"Um."

"What team?"

"It seems to be coming from Facebook."

Zhou Buqi said thoughtfully: "Ziweixing has a lot of internal exchanges with Facebook. Ziweixing often sends teams to Facebook for business trips. Maybe it was during this process that they brought Weizhi's product concepts to the United States, allowing them to The thoughtful people at Facebook discovered it and left their jobs to start a business.”

Son was stunned for a moment, then laughed, "It's possible!"

Zhou Buqi said: "Ziweixing has Weizhi, and Ziweixing International should also have a similar product. Since they have done it, then invest in it."

Son Zhengyi smiled and said: "That's what I mean. Since we are doing streaming media, we should do the whole package. We need to do film and television streaming media, we need to do music streaming media, and we can also do article streaming media. If you don't participate, SoftBank will participate." . It is said that this Quora is very popular, and the valuation has been raised to 80 million US dollars before the website is launched."

Quora is not online yet, but there is already an online question and answer website on the market called Answers. However, the concept of this website is universal, that is, no matter how low your education level is, you can register as a user and answer questions on it. This resulted in a lot of junk content on Answers that was fake or wrong at first glance, and the experience was not very user-friendly. It completed financing at the beginning of the year and its market valuation was US$60 million.

Quora has not yet been launched, but the capital market has given it a valuation of more than 80 million US dollars. This is because Quora's concept is high-end, and just like Weizhi, user registration is restricted.

Ordinary users can read, but cannot participate in answering questions. Only screened users are qualified to answer questions and publish articles.

It is conceivable that the content in Quora will be of high quality and of high reference value.

These are all issues Zhou Buqi had considered several years ago. Unexpectedly, it has just been introduced to the United States. In terms of the ability to copy homework, Americans are really not very good at it.

Zhou Buqi called Lu Qi and handed the matter over to him, and then said to Sun Zhengyi: "You bought a new house in Silicon Valley, don't you have a big party?"

"Ah? No need, right?" Sun Zhengyi looked surprised.

Zhou Buqi asked: "How many projects has SoftBank invested in?"

Son Zhengyi said: "That's a lot, maybe a few hundred."

Zhou Buqi said: "I think we can pick some key companies with development prospects and get them together. They can support each other and grow together. You use my products, I use your services, and we have friendly exchanges. Invisibly. , they can develop together very effectively, which is also in SoftBank’s interests.”

Sun Zhengyi was very smart and immediately understood this kid’s wishful thinking. He couldn’t laugh or cry, “I heard that Weishu is going to be commercialized in the United States?”

Zhou Buqi said frankly: "Yes."

Sun Zhengyi nodded, "Okay, I'll help you arrange it!"