Top of the big era

Ziweixing International also has a branch in Los Angeles. It is a film ecosystem created by Zhou Buqi a few years ago. There are four websites in total - the film social network Flixster, the film rating website Rotten Tomatoes, the film rating website Metacritic, and the movie ticket purchase website. Website Fandango.

Yahoo also has a movie channel.

After completing the acquisition of Yahoo, a certain degree of integration can be carried out. Ziweixing International's "Internet + Movie" industry will be considered to have stronger strength.

Of course, what is more important is the help of Netflix and Ziweixing Global in a broader ecosystem.

Recently, Wanda completed its acquisition of AMC Cinemas.

This complements each other even more.

Zhou Buqi came to Los Angeles and first found Ann Sarnoff, an executive of Ziweixing Global, and asked her to help take care of his sister. He said that he wanted to study and visit the show "Special Effects Makeup Showdown" and obtain the copyright rights. cooperate.

Then, he focused on movies.

Not the movie itself, but "Internet + movie."

With the advent of the mobile era, the concept of "Internet +" has emerged. Many movie websites under Ziweixing International have also launched app versions.

What Zhou Buqi is most concerned about is the ticket purchase website Fandango.

Similar websites in China have been losing money.

Fandango is different. In the past five or six years, it has been profitable and basically doesn't know what losing money means. This is mainly related to the difference in product concepts.

Domestic movie websites basically adopt the subsidy model.

Because domestic competition is too great.

Movie websites have little technical content and can be built casually. The threshold is very low... If you want to attract users, you can only use subsidies.

Therefore, when domestic movie fans buy tickets to watch movies, they like to buy tickets online.

Because online websites are subsidized, the cost can be lower.

Fandango is different.

The business philosophy has long since changed. The purpose is to make profits, and we are trying to find ways to make money every day. In addition to the advertising revenue on the website, a large part of the revenue is the commission from ticket purchases.

In other words, when movie fans purchase tickets on Fandango, in addition to buying movie tickets at the original price, they also have to pay a commission to the website.

With commissions, Fandango makes money.

But this also means that when buying tickets, movie fans rarely choose to buy tickets online, and more often buy tickets offline. Buying tickets offline is a centuries-old tradition, and the price will be cheaper than online.

Zhou Buqi has long wanted to make changes to this.

But the time is not yet ripe.

If you want to make "Internet + Movies" a success, you still have to wait for the mobile business to develop, which was not very successful a few years ago. Another more important point is the attitude of the theaters.

Many movie theaters in the United States have a long history of decades, and their business models are both traditional and rigid.

I don't agree with this online ticket purchasing model.

Therefore, Fandango's slow development is limited by this objective factor. Many cinemas are unwilling to cooperate with them and allow movie fans to purchase tickets online.

That's different now.

Wanda appears!

Wanda completed the acquisition of AMC, the second largest theater chain in North America.

In this process, Zhou Buqi was very helpful.

Therefore, after the transaction was completed, Fandango and AMC Cinemas reached a cooperation immediately. From now on, all movie tickets in AMC theaters can be purchased on Fandango.

Zhou Buqi has a big plan around "Internet + Movies", which is a larger overall and systematic project.

A Chinese Internet thinking.

This approach is absolutely feasible here in the United States.

For example, Snapchat is doing so well in the United States, but it still can't make any money. They learned from WeChat, and after some guidance from Penguin, they suddenly realized that they could still do this business! Only then did we find a profit model and promote the company's listing.

Another example is Alipay.

Later, all financial payment products in the United States were basically learned from the Alipay template. Selecting one or two commercial innovations from them was enough to kill everyone.

In the era of mobile Internet, domestic Internet technology is still much worse than that of Silicon Valley, and the technology gap will only get wider.

At the product level, it can surpass it.

In terms of business model imagination, it can basically crush Silicon Valley's Internet products.

Just like Uber and Didi.

At the beginning, Didi was modeled after Uber. After Didi grew up, Uber began to imitate Didi in all aspects.

However, Zhou Buqi was not in a hurry.

Now the time has come.

The mobile Internet train is coming, and Wanda has also acquired AMC theaters... It feels like the plan can be launched.

Zhou Buqi came to Los Angeles this time to do some research first.

Ziweixing International's film business is headquartered in Los Angeles.

The secretaries accompanying Zhou Buqi are Ning Yaxian, Gu Zanli, who speaks excellent English, Jason Kilar, CEO of Ziweixing Global, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, president of DreamWorks Animation... ...A group of seven or eight people met Fandango’s president, Paul Yanowoor.

This Paul Yanowoor was previously the senior vice president of Disney's online business, and later joined Ziweixing International as the president of Fandango. Katzenberg helped a lot in this process.

After the meeting, we briefly exchanged greetings.

Then he talked about some work situations.

Paul Yanowoor is just the president of Fandango, and there is a group vice president in charge of entertainment business above his head. This vice president is not from the entertainment industry. He is a person who started out as a marketer in Silicon Valley.

This makes them always have differences when communicating.

Zhou Buqi kept it in mind and remained calm.

Next, we talked about the development of Fandango’s ticketing business.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Have you signed a contract with AMC Cinemas?"

Paul Yanowoor was very happy, "I signed the contract at the end of April. The contract terms are very rich. Not only can you buy movie tickets for all AMC theaters online, they also provide seat information in all theaters, which makes our The platform becomes even more competitive.”

"Wait a minute..." Zhou Buqi caught a point, "Seating information in the cinema?"

Paul smiled and said, "Yes, after AMC Cinemas was acquired by Wanda Group, the business philosophy seems to have undergone some changes, and it is closer to consumers. It is no longer the traditional concept of the film industry in the past."

Zhou Buqi asked: "How to say?"

Paul said: "One thing Fandango has always wanted to promote is to allow movie fans to choose their own seats through an online platform. Through the website, it can display in real time which seats in the screening hall are sold and which seats are vacant. Movie fans They can choose where they want to sit.”

Zhou Buqi was surprised, "Isn't this what it should be?"

"How is that possible?" Paul was even more surprised. "This will subvert the traditional cinema chain business model. Movie fans like to watch movies in the best seats, and no one likes to sit on the edge. This will greatly increase the number of movie theaters." Theater operating costs.”

"Well……"

Zhou Buqi was stunned and speechless.

Now I can truly feel the wonderful changes that the Internet has brought to the world. Advanced productivity means more relevant services to consumers.

From this perspective, China is much better than the United States.

Cinemas here in the United States are unwilling to share similar information with ticketing platforms.

If fans could choose for themselves... Damn it! Doesn’t that mean that movie tickets can’t be sold? Did everyone choose the seats in the middle that are most suitable for watching movies? Can’t those marginal positions be sold?

The demand that could be met by scheduling 10 shows now requires cinemas to schedule 30 shows.

Operating costs have increased significantly.

Paul smiled and said, "But now it's better. There is new blood in the theater chain industry. Wanda Group does not have the traditional American theater chain concept. Their attitude is more open. They have opened up to us almost all the information we need." ."

As the CEO of Ziweixing Global, Jason Kilar knew it very well. He pointed at Zhou Buqi with a smile, "Wanda was able to complete the acquisition of AMC Cinemas. He was the chief consultant and helped a lot."

Paul suddenly realized, "That's it!"

This is actually a bit exaggerated.

Without Zhou Buqi, Wanda did the same thing in her previous life. Wanda has brought some concepts from domestic theater chains to AMC theaters, and has fully and openly accessed the Internet ticketing platform.

The catfish effect comes out.

In particular, AMC theater chain is the second largest theater chain in North America. This catfish is so huge that it soon led to the entire film industry being fully opened to the Internet.

The United States is still different from China.

The Internet has unimaginable power in China, and movie theaters are all privately owned. Under the market economy, there is no way to compete with the Internet. If it sells train or plane tickets, it is a state-owned monopoly. The Internet does not work well, and consumers cannot choose their own seats. But when it comes to private cinemas, it is too easy to transform them.

This is not the case in the United States. Theater chains are just not used to the Internet.

The movie theater industry has been around for hundreds of years, but the Internet is only a few years old? Why should we listen to the Internet? Why should it be replaced by a more advanced model?

Wanda's acquisition of AMC Cinemas brought the domestic Internet and cinema cooperation model, which greatly promoted the US cinema market to move closer to a more advanced civilization.

It can be regarded as breaking their tradition to a certain extent.

Paul continued: "Many cinemas are unwilling to connect to the Internet platform, and operating costs are a big factor. Many ticket sellers in cinemas have worked for decades and are older, so they may not be able to use online and offline machines. . If new conductors are recruited, it will be an additional expense."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "If you want to break the tradition, you will definitely hurt some traditional interest groups. It is indeed not easy."

Paul smiled and said: "With the AMC theater opening, it will always get better and better. Throughout May, our online movie ticket sales doubled compared to last year, mainly "Avengers"."