Wang Xiaohui, who is responsible for the content production of iQiyi, was originally the deputy director of CCTV. He joined iQiyi as the chief content officer in 2016. He got up and went to find Gong Yu outside the conference room. The two lit a cigarette by the window in the corridor.
"Mr. Gong, the atmosphere in the conference room is very bad!"
Gong Yu graduated from Tsinghua University in 1996 at the age of 51. He once reached the peak of his career at Sohu. He founded iQiyi in 2010 and then led iQiyi to fight its way through the war of long-form video websites.
In 2013, it merged with pps, and in 2015, it proposed the "Apple Tree" business model including multiple entertainment services. The discipline established a business model including advertising, membership, brokerage, rewards, publishing, distribution, licensing, games, and e-commerce.
Gong Yu blew out a smoke ring and said gloomily: "What can we do? People have to bow their heads under the eaves. I don't understand why they want to sell iQiyi's shares to Phoenix Group? I miss us in
What a day for Baidu!”
Wang Xiaohui laughed and said: "The screenwriters there still miss the days when the coal bosses did not interfere with their creations."
Gong Yu also laughed when he was told, "Lao Wang, Mr. Jing is very determined to change iQiyi. He gave me a three-month deadline to make iQiyi be like Netflix. He asked me to make visible changes."
Change! The older I get, the less courageous I am. Mr. Jing doesn’t care about iQiyi’s stock price or performance. I care about nothing.
I will adjust iQiyi according to his requirements. Whether it will make a profit in the end will not matter. If I am killed, he will have to make an arrangement for me. Or if it really turns into China's Netflix, my merits will be considered complete!
I'm just sorry for you comrades who followed me in my career! I broke my promise."
Wang Xiaohui was silent for a while and said: "Mr. Gong, according to Netflix's model, quite a few parts of our iQiyi Apple Tree business model will be directly abolished! Is it possible to form another company?
We have more than 8,000 employees. What impact will it have if we lay off all of them?
At least we can see that live streaming, VR, web IP, e-commerce, and short videos are all promising businesses.
In the conference room just now, Wang Hailin strongly criticized the film purchase system of the three Internet platforms of Youaiteng. I always prefer his suggestion, which is to change to the American drama system of submitting titles and bidding for customized dramas based on scripts. Then we
The internal studio is expected to undergo major cuts and changes.
Mr. Jing asked you to go in, so he should make arrangements on the spot and implement this matter."
Gong Yu frowned and pondered for a moment. He somewhat understood what his subordinate meant. In fact, the internal team of iQiyi did not want to change at all. Instead, he felt that Jing Gao was too meddlesome and ineffective in directing.
iQiyi's share price reached a peak of US$31.5 billion in June this year. Although it is currently declining slowly, it is still a relatively eye-catching stock among New York Chinese concept stocks. It has surpassed established stocks such as Ctrip and ranked fifth.
.In this case, who is willing to change?
Gong Yu said: "Old Wang, I will go in later to help Mr. Jing."
To be honest, the market has given iQiyi a maximum valuation of US$31.5 billion per share, which is to regard it as the Chinese version of Netflix. iQiyi’s benchmark Netflix has a market value of US$177 billion. However, he said it in front of the audience the day before yesterday
Jing Gao said it face to face: iQiyi cannot become Netflix!
The story he told investors about "China's version of Netflix" when it went public in March was really just a story. The gap between the two companies is extremely huge.
First, Netflix’s revenue does not rely on advertising, but on membership fees. This is something iQiyi cannot do.
Because if you buy a Netflix membership, you can watch the high-quality dramas it has accumulated over the past ten years. In the past ten years, Youaiteng has been all about fast-moving variety shows, online dramas, and major online movies, with very few high-quality products. How can domestic users pay monthly?
10.99 US dollars (equivalent to approximately 73.6 yuan in RMB)?
I will probably be scolded to death by users.
Therefore, if iQiyi does not engage in "side business", it will not be able to sustain itself by relying on membership fees alone.
Second, Netflix is the dominant player in the field of streaming media. Although it faces competition from Amazon, Disney, Apple and other companies in the field of streaming media, Amazon, which ranks second, has only half of Netflix's market share.
Domestic Youai Teng is in the first echelon, and it is very aggressive. Whether it is following the trend of making genre films, or driving up the purchase price of films, iQiyi's business environment is obviously even worse.
Third, the business logic of the two is essentially different. To get started with Netflix, you need to open a membership, which is to directly monetize the content. However, iQiyi’s model is to attract traffic first, and then delve into how to monetize the traffic.
This is a typical Chinese Internet style of play.
Therefore, in this form, he creatively proposed the "Apple Tree" business model, which is Youaiteng's peer business model! Of course, Alibaba is known as the "paraquat" in the entertainment field, so Youku does not seem obvious.
Take a look at the configuration of Tencent Video. Does it have web writing, animation, publishing, distribution, licensing, brokerage, and advertising? In addition, does its parent company’s business include short videos, live broadcasts, e-commerce, and games?
?
This is standard configuration!
This is called "one fish eats more". Deeply dig into the consumption flow of traffic users. The whole industry plays this way.
Now that Jing Gao is forcing him to change his most proud business model, isn't he feeling painful in his heart? Just like he told Lao Wang, he is already 51 years old, how can he still start a business with a market value of 20 billion US dollars?
enterprise?
This kind of opportunity is rare! As the CEO of iQiyi, he is not as powerful as the boss of BAT, but he can still be compared with the vice president of Tencent Group and a partner of Alibaba!
Furthermore, how Jing Gao ruined iQiyi, he must be given a position. He is "loyal" in executing his strategy. If it really relies on the capital strength of the Phoenix Group, then for him
It’s a huge career boost!
Therefore, he wanted to stay, even though he was resisting in his heart.
Wang Xiaohui nodded, held a cigarette between his fingers, raised his wrist and looked at his watch.
Gong Yu put out his cigarette butt and said, "Old Wang, let's go in!"
…
…
When Wang Xiaohui left the conference room to find Gong Yu, the meeting in the conference room was still continuing under the chairmanship of Jing Gao.
Wang Hailin suggested that iQiyi's film purchase system be changed to a reporting and bidding model similar to that of American dramas. Then we need to face, or discuss, a question: Why has the Chinese TV drama industry not shifted to a "drama-centered system" for so many years?
Even in the era before 2010 when content creation was king, there was no shift to this system.
What's the reason?
In other words, what are the difficulties in implementing this system?
Wang Hailin and Song Fangjin are both senior screenwriters in the industry, so they naturally have a strong say in this issue.
Seeing that his friend Wang Hailin's words were very enjoyable and he often used wise words, and Mr. Jing was also ready to accept their opinions and let iQiyi change the mode of purchasing movies, Song Fangjin said without hesitation: "Mr. Jing, I just emphasized that the drama center
The production is not centered on the screenwriter. The reason is that not every screenwriter has the ability to be the center!
This involves the current status of our industry. First, it has become a trend to despise screenwriters, playwrights, and screenwriters. Many scripts are actually controlled by directors! Second, there is indeed a lack of good screenwriters. At present, domestic screenwriters have a stable level of output.
, no more than 50!”
Everyone in the conference room was surprised by this number.
Jing Gao gently rubbed his eyebrows. This is really a cycle of nonsense. If you don’t pay attention to screenwriters, there are no good screenwriters. There are no good screenwriters, so you don’t pay attention to screenwriters at all. Ugh!