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Facts have proved that Zhou Buqi’s business idea around the combination of streaming media and cloud computing is absolutely correct!

Not your average streaming platform, though.

A restricted video website in the United States is very popular. It is said that it has nearly 1 million paid users and more than 30 million free users. It’s not only popular here, but also in the UK.

However, this kind of company has no strength and it is difficult to open branches all over the world.

The number of users is small, but it's okay. British users directly connect to American servers. The Internet speed is a little slow, but they can still watch relatively smoothly.

However, this website is in English and can be used in English-speaking countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Singapore without any barriers.

When there are too many people, there is not enough space.

Mainly in the UK.

So they decided to create a new service specifically for British users. If it were the past, there could only be two methods. One method is to go to the UK to set up a server in person, but the disadvantage is that it costs too much; another method is to find an agent in the UK, but the disadvantage is the lack of control, poor experience, and lack of immediacy.

Now, cloud computing services are here!

This is the best solution!

Between Amazon Cloud and Ziweiyun, they chose Ziweiyun.

Zhou Buqi attaches great importance to the cloud business. He went to the London headquarters of Ziweixing International the next morning and witnessed the signing ceremony on the spot. The contract was signed for three years and the annual fee was US$4.5 million.

The person who signed the contract was a bald man in his forties who looked very wretched.

If it were a regular website, that would be fine. Zhou Buqi could go up and say a few words and have a friendly exchange. However, although this kind of adult website is not illegal, it is somewhat unpopular and will cause a loss of status.

Zhou Buqi took a few glances, then went to the office of Harry Holt, President of European Cloud Computing Business, and asked: "Is the annual fee of US$4.5 million a bit low?"

Harry Holt said: "It's a bit low. It is said that Amazon Cloud's asking price is US$9 million in annual fees. Kurian was very decisive and directly discounted Amazon Cloud's price by 50%. I was also shocked at the time. What he means is to sign the order first and attract users first. The amount of video data is large and the migration cost is high. When this three-year contract expires, we will seek high profits for the next contract."

The cloud computing industry requires large investments, high technical difficulty, and high profit margins.

Net profit margin can exceed 50%!

Expenditures in the cloud computing industry mainly fall into three categories: the amortized cost of data center investment, employee salaries, and electricity bills.

The vacant servers should be left alone. The investment costs should be shared equally and salaries should be paid, which means that electricity bills can be spent less. The top priority is to win over as many users as possible. The more customers there are, the lower the marginal cost.

After hearing what Harry said, Zhou Buqi suddenly understood.

It turns out that this is the big strategy of "streaming media + cloud computing" that I formulated!

Provide services for video streaming platforms and win over customers at all costs! We must actively engage in a price war with Amazon Cloud and use lower prices and better technology to attract users.

After being attracted...

Hum!

From then on, people are just fish and meat, and I am a knife.

For example, this restricted video website P station has just developed and does not have too much content. It doesn’t matter which cloud computing platform you choose.

This type of website does not require very good service, because the content is so good and the user's tolerance is very high. Even if there are some glitches on the website, the user can still enjoy it.

It will be different in a few years.

By then, Station P will have developed.

Smartphones have also become popular.

There are little videos shot on mobile phones everywhere.

The content on the website will grow exponentially, the data will be dazzling, and the variety of free and paid videos will make the website's traffic even higher than Hulu and Netflix.

When this contract with a total value of US$13.5 million expires, Zi Weiyun can really raise the price.

As long as the price is not much higher than competitors such as Amazon Cloud, Microsoft Cloud, Google Cloud, etc., it is impossible to unsubscribe. The high cost of data migration has forced B-side users to cultivate loyalty.

Zhou Buqi said seriously: "Well, we must insist on the combined service of streaming media and cloud computing. Ziweiyun must win over as many video streaming customers as possible."

Harry Holt said with a smile: "There is also music streaming, and the scale of music streaming data is also very large. We are preparing to sign a contract with Spotify."

"I heard that Spotify is the most popular music product in the UK right now."

"Yes, the market share exceeds 50% and continues to increase. Among young people, a Spotify effect has been formed."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "How many users are there now for cloud computing in Europe?"

Harry Holt said: "The scale of users is quite large, with 180,000, and most of them are individual users and small company users. There are only more than 130 enterprise users with real long-term cooperation intentions, and more than half of them are in the UK. ."

"What does long-term cooperation intention mean? Sign the contract offline?"

"right."

"Sales and products are the soul of B-side business."

"Yes, we are working hard to recruit more sales people."

Zhou Buqi then asked: "Where's the income?"

Harry Holt replied: "I don't know the global data. The annual revenue in the European region can exceed 200 million US dollars, and the British market can exceed 100 million US dollars."

"Not much!"

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly, not satisfied.

The annual revenue of cloud computing business in Europe is about US$200 million, and the global market is about US$500 million.

This is too little!

You know, in order to promote the development of Ziweiyun's business, Ziweixing International has issued US$2.5 billion in bonds, all of which have been invested in this field.

Seeing that the big boss was not happy, Harry Holt quickly explained: "In the past few years, the prospects and development trends of cloud computing have been doubted by the industry, so the promotion effect is very poor, and many companies are unwilling to try. Only this year This is the first year of cloud computing, and the data is not beautiful enough, but I can guarantee that the cloud computing business will give an amazing growth rate data."

Zhou Buqi asked: "How much can it grow next year?"

Harry Holt vowed, "There will be at least 100% growth."

"100% growth?"

Zhou Buqi shook his head.

This year’s revenue of US$500 million, even if it increases by 100%, is only US$1 billion. Ziweiyun’s investment budget next year will still exceed US$2 billion.

Perhaps the investment amount should be moderately controlled.

The growth rate of the market cannot keep up. Excessive investment in the short term will cause a lot of waste. Maybe you should choose a long-term plan.

Seeing the big boss who was still a little unhappy, Harry Holt changed his style and started to play with the frame of reference, "In the past five or six years, Amazon Cloud has invested more than 4 billion US dollars in Europe, which is twice as much as us. But in Europe, In terms of income, Ziweiyun is almost the same as Amazon Cloud.”

"oh?"

Zhou Buqi's eyes lit up and his expression relaxed.

Harry Holt breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he had made the right bet, and said with a smile: "Compared with Amazon Cloud, Ziwei Cloud has many advantages, including more services, more big-name partners, lower fees, and better technology. Strong and stable operations. I heard that Amazon Cloud was down again in France last month and was protested by more than 20 important customers."

"Why is this happening?"

“Amazon Cloud’s largest customer is Amazon’s own e-commerce platform. Last month, Amazon launched a promotion in France with a lot of traffic. High concurrency occupied too many resources of Amazon Cloud, causing other users on Amazon Cloud to Services were limited and accidents occurred due to crowding."

"Ha ha!"

Zhou Buqi was very happy.

I feel somewhat proud in my heart!

The core framework of Ziweiyun was developed by a team led by Dr. Wang Jian in China. Although after Kurian came to power, he formed a team with stronger technical strength and carried out technical upgrades and transformations of Ziweiyun. However, the technology There are no major changes in direction or underlying architecture.

One of the most powerful technical advantages of Ziweiyun developed by Dr. Wang Jian is its ability to handle high concurrency.

This is because when Xiaonei.com is doing on-campus group buying, millions of college students across the country will be in front of their computers rushing to buy. This is nothing. Last year, Ziweiyun provided technical support for Taobao's "Singles' Day", with high concurrency of tens of millions of people.

Zi Weiyun solved it calmly.

However, in developed countries such as Europe and the United States, the population size is not that large and there are not so many centralized network activities, so there is no need for such high-concurrency technology. But when needed, Amazon Cloud will collapse.

Zhou Buqi said that Ziweiyun can keep an eye on Amazon Cloud. If it keeps an eye on Amazon Cloud, Ziweiyun will definitely achieve brilliant results in the next few years!

It's a pity that Harry Holt's level is relatively low, and he doesn't know much about higher-level things.

After Zhou Buqi decided to go to the United States, he had some more exchanges with Kurian about the cloud computing industry. The development trend of Ziwei Cloud seemed to be better than Amazon Cloud, which was very satisfying!

From this point of view, Kurian’s appointment is extremely correct.

It was almost noon, and Zhou Buqi refused a work meal.

British food is really terrible.

It's better to go back to the hospital ward. Aunt Xue cooked delicious Chinese food in the kitchen and went back to have lunch with her parents. After lunch, Zhou Buqi would go out in the afternoon to the "Little Silicon Valley" in the DC area.

Ziweixing International wants to buy a 10-story office building here to serve as Ucgram's London headquarters and radiate throughout Europe. Two floors of the office building will be set aside to be rented to Spotify.

Spotify is doing very well now, and its best market is the UK market.

It plans to use the UK as a springboard to connect to the US market while looking at the European market. The founder of Spotify also came, and Zhou Buqi went over to talk to him about launching a new round of financing.

Zhou Buqi's car stopped in front of a theater in Hoxton, DC.

Zhou Buqi lowered the car window and saw Jiang Shuying outside the window, wearing a white chiffon shirt and a black pleated skirt, standing on the roadside and looking up.

She wears a beige British-style lady's hat on her head, which not only shows her elegant temperament, but also has a sense of fashion.

"Xiao Jiang!"

"Yeah! Mr. Zhou!"

Jiang Shuying cheered, and her eyes became moist with joy.