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After all this talk, this was not Zheng Xiaoli's main purpose.

When she came to meet with Boss Zhou this time, she actually wanted to apply for a project - a video website.

However, Boss Zhou has always been cautious about current streaming video websites.

This is an asset-heavy, high-expenditure field.

It's like Ziweixing International is a ship. On this ship there are already a number of heavyweight assets such as Yahoo, Ziwei Cloud, and artificial intelligence. If we add a video service, the ship may not be able to bear the load and it will sink.

However, Zheng Xiaoli felt that the situation had changed. She thought about it for a while and decided to adopt a roundabout strategy. "From what I know, the development of all fronts and products of the company has been very good in the past year. But there is one thing It’s an important product, and although it’s growing very fast, I found some crises because our competitors are growing faster than us!”

"Which product?"

"Twitch."

"video?"

Zhou Buqi was not too surprised by this result.

Twitch is a game video platform. Its main business is for gamers to live broadcast game videos here, and to share some exciting game videos. It is the largest game community in the world.

This was a website that Zhou Buqili mainly acquired.

This allows Ziweixing International and Changyou to cooperate and complement each other from a strategic level.

Zheng Xiaoli said: "Yes, in the past year, YouTube's revenue exceeded 4 billion US dollars, and they have turned a profit. Conservative estimates suggest that profits can reach at least 500 million to 700 million US dollars."

"No way?" Zhou Buqi was shocked, "Is YouTube profitable? Isn't it always losing money? Google's financial reports have always shown this."

Zheng Xiaoli said: "The data in the financial report is deceptive. Google counts a lot of video-related R\u0026D investment, as well as investment in some creative new products, into YouTube's business, and evens out the profits. If you only watch YouTube It seems that they turned a profit two years ago. I have analyzed their financial reports. This year, YouTube’s revenue will reach 4 billion US dollars, 55% of which will be distributed to content parties, and another 1 billion US dollars. of operating expenses, and the rest is business profit.”

Zhou Buqi really realized the unimaginable advertising market in the United States, "4 billion US dollars in advertising costs? If all domestic video websites are added together, can the advertising costs reach 1 billion US dollars? The United States only has a population of 300 million. This consumer market It’s so big!”

Zheng Xiaoli said with a smile: "Even for Twitch, the annual advertising fee can exceed 500 million US dollars. This is the largest game streaming platform. Twitch's profit situation is similar. If you don't count the development of new projects, just look at itself. With its operations, Twitch has made at least US$80 million to US$90 million in profits over the past year.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "The video website industry in the United States is really different from that in China."

Zheng Xiaoli said: "Yes, Twitch is the preferred platform for most game promotions."

"Competing with YouTube?"

"Well, as far as I know, YouTube's game advertising revenue in the third quarter of this year has exceeded 30 million US dollars. In the first quarter, it was not even 5 million US dollars. It can be seen that YouTube's advertising department is Strengthen the appeal in the gaming field.”

"It's time to grab the market!"

Zhou Buqi had mixed feelings about this.

YouTube is a video website he co-founded, and even the domain name was purchased from him.

Later, after it developed, it was bought by Google.

Going around in circles.

The children he once raised with his own hands have now become his competitors.

However, if he had to do it over again, Zhou Buqi would have no choice but to make this choice.

At that time, Zhou Buqi was too weak and too poor. He had no money and no reputation in the American market. Selling YouTube to Google not only gave him a sum of money, but also allowed him to successfully gain access to Google, giving him an opportunity to develop business in the US market.

Zheng Xiaoli said: "Game advertising is an important part of Internet advertising. In the past year, the total scale of game advertising in the European and American markets has reached 2.5 billion U.S. dollars. Twitch, as the largest game video platform, only received 500 million U.S. dollars. The market The share is less than 20%.”

Zhou Buqi couldn't help but laugh, "20% is not a lot, right?"

Zheng Xiaoli said sternly: "Too little. Twitch accounts for at least 50% of the industry's investment in game promotion resources! The industry ratio of our resource investment is 50%, and the revenue is only 20% of the industry. This figure is obviously low. ”

"Everyone else's is just text or pictures, right?"

Zhou Buqi thinks this is normal.

It is also promotion. Other websites may use text content or picture content to obtain traffic. The same proportion of advertisements will occupy less corporate operating resources. Twitch is different. It is a live broadcast and a long video, which really takes up a lot of servers, bandwidth and operational resources.

In other words, if others spend 1 yuan of corporate resources, they can earn back 5 yuan in advertising fees.

Twitch is an asset-heavy business. It takes 3 yuan of corporate resources to earn back 5 yuan of advertising fees.

Looking at it this way, it seems a bit unfair.

This is why Zhou Buqi has always been cautious about the "free + advertising" video website model. He has a soft spot for Netflix because Netflix has a paid membership model. It is impossible to afford such expensive film and television rights with just that little advertising money.

Zheng Xiaoli said: "But a very important feature of the Internet is that winner takes all, but Twitch does not take advantage of it. Moreover, text advertising and image advertising are indeed cheaper, but the advertising fee is also lower. From this perspective, video advertising should It’s just that it has more weight.”

"What are your considerations?"

Zhou Buqi didn't quite understand.

Fortunately it doesn't matter.

Not being able to understand the analysis process and specific reasons does not prevent him from making final decisions. He can even make very accurate decisions on big projects such as artificial intelligence, which is the world's most cutting-edge science and technology.

Zheng Xiaoli said: "Twitch is a gaming platform and is loved by all gamers. This is an advantage, but it is also a disadvantage. Because the classification is too single, the source of traffic is too single. A single source of traffic will inevitably lead to the decline of the website. There is not enough traffic and insufficient advertising revenue.”

Zhou Buqi asked: "What are the disadvantages of single flow?"

Zheng Xiaoli thought for a moment and said with a smile: "Just give me an example. Suppose I am a game enthusiast, but I don't have the urge to watch game videos for the time being, so I will browse YouTube. However, while browsing YouTube, I suddenly watch When a game video was promoted, it immediately stimulated me and made me want to watch game videos, so I clicked on it to watch game videos. This meant that the game traffic that originally belonged to Twitch was snatched away by YouTube. Let’s go. This is the introduction of multiple content to game traffic. Single traffic is the purpose traffic, but the majority of the increase comes from unexpected traffic, not the purpose traffic.”

"Purpose traffic, unexpected traffic... Well, that's a good point!"

Zhou Buqi also learned new words.

Many of the current main concepts of Internet traffic were popularized by Boss Zhou. He even wrote a book "From Traffic to Traffic Pool", which can be said to have promoted Internet traffic thinking to the world.

Coupled with his current reputation, prestige and status.

This book has now sold more than 5 million copies worldwide, earning him more than 10 million US dollars in royalties. Today’s Internet practitioners, whoever says they have not read this book is like a JAVA engineer who has not read it. "JAVA Programming Thoughts" is equally unpopular.

Zheng Xiaoli was very happy when she was praised. "The user had the idea of ​​watching game videos, so he came to Twitch to watch the game videos. This is the purpose traffic. The user did not have the idea of ​​watching game videos, but because of other attractions, he suddenly wanted to Watching the game video, this is unexpected traffic.”

Zhou Buqi asked: "Where did this concept come from?"

Zheng Xiaoli smiled and said, "I thought of it myself."

"original?"

"Um."

"sharp!"

Zhou Buqi immediately started to have wild thoughts.

Zheng Xiaoli continued: "Twitch has a huge shortcoming now, which is the lack of unexpected traffic. The reason for this is because we lack a matrix of video products and lack opportunities to create unexpected traffic for Twitch."

Zhou Buqi understood now, "Yahoo video?"

"Yes!" Zheng Xiaoli nodded heavily, full of expectation, "Can I make Yahoo videos?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Do it, didn't I say it before?"

Zheng Xiaoli said: "What I said before is to provide some video content in the Yahoo App. But these types of videos are mainly news videos, which are supplements to text information. What I want to do is a separate and richer video There will be a separate Yahoo Video App for all categories of Yahoo Video to compete head-on with YouTube!”

Zhou Buqi didn't hesitate much and decided immediately, "Do it! Do it boldly!"

"real?"

Zheng Xiaoli couldn't believe that the big boss was convinced so easily.

Zhou Buqi waved his hand and said, "You can't just watch YouTube dominate. However, I suggest not to rush yet. It is best to wait for another six months. After that, Ziweixing International will be listed on the market, and then start after raising money. Video The business requires too much capital flow and is too weak to afford it. You can prepare in the first half of the year and come up with more plans to compete with YouTube. "

Zheng Xiaoli was very happy and excited, "Okay, then wait another half year!"

Zhou Buqi suddenly made a new request, "That... concept of purpose traffic and unexpected traffic, was it really you who pioneered it? Didn't you read it in some book?"

Zheng Xiaoli said: "I thought of it myself."

Zhou Buqi coughed and said, "As you know, I have written two books, "From Traffic to Traffic Pool" and "Platform Economy", both of which are very popular in the industry."

Zheng Xiaoli smiled and said: "Well, these two books are both bibles in the Internet industry. If anyone has not read these two books, no one is considered an insider. Especially the book "From Traffic to Traffic Pool", It’s the magic weapon for everyone to make Internet products.”

"This is the trouble. Many people are telling me and urging me to write a new book. Many people keep asking me questions when they meet me. But I don't have any ideas at the moment and don't know where to start. The two concepts you mentioned are very good."

"Ah?"

"You suddenly reminded me that this third new book might as well be a sequel to "From Traffic to Traffic Pool", called "From Destination Traffic to Accidental Traffic". What do you think?"

Zhou Buqi is not as shameless and thick-skinned as Jobs. There should always be basic respect in such matters and the other party's opinions should be sought.