In the 1990s, domestic streets and alleys were filled with various video stores.
Countless people have completed their film enlightenment here through pirated VCDs. Respected teachers such as Li Lizhen, Weng Hong, Ye Zimei, Ye Yuqing, Yang Simin, Aoyama Chikeko, etc. have also started the fantasy journey of many teenagers.
Yao Yuan rented "Huan Zhu Ge Ge 2" to his mother. It was so popular at the time that I couldn't even rent the entire episode. I would jump to watch whatever episode I got.
The price is usually one yuan per disc per day, and the deposit is 10 yuan. If it is returned too late, the store will have to deduct a few yuan as a late fee - of course this varies from person to person.
At the same time, there was also such a leasing business in the United States.
The United States likes to build chains for everything, maximizing scale. The largest video rental company at the time was called Blockbuster. At its peak, it had 9,000 stores and more than 60,000 employees.
In 1997, a guy named Reed Hastings rented a copy of "Apollo 13" from Blockbuster. He had to pay a high late fee of $40 because he returned it overdue.
This kid had an idea, oh, this is a blue ocean!
So I invested in a company specializing in the DVD business, which was just emerging at the time, and connected it with the Internet, opened a website, and did online rentals.
In 2007, the company already had 100,000 DVDs and more than 10 million users. It was at this peak period that it suddenly decided to transform and start a streaming media service.
This company is called Netflix, and many people in China call it Netflix, which is literally translated as Netflix.
Today, Netflix has 22 million paying users, ranking first in the United States.
California, Los Gatos.
In the evening, inside the Netflix headquarters, the rare founder Reed suddenly came to the company today.
He entered the office of Chief Operating Officer Sarandos, made a cup of coffee casually, drank it by himself, and said: "No need to be so serious, we have more than 20 million members, all competitors are latecomers, Amazon
It’s the same, Hulu is the same, Hugelive is the same.”
"No, no, most video platforms are confused and don't know what to do, but Hugelive's steps are very clear. They only entered the United States in December last year, and now they can launch a series, which shows that they are well prepared.
I investigated the guys behind it. They are a group of Chinese people. After the financial crisis, they bought a small Hollywood company and it developed very well. They also have a video website in China, ranking first."
"So what do you want to say?" Reid asked.
"I would like to say that in terms of experience in operating streaming media platforms, they have more experience than us! In terms of film and television production capabilities, their industrial chain is more complete than ours!"
Sarandos said.
Reed is a second-generation rich man. He founded a company in Silicon Valley in the early 1990s and sold it for hundreds of millions of dollars, achieving financial freedom early. He is the founder of Netflix, but in fact he only invests and relies on his subordinates for real operations.
people.
Later, Netflix became more and more powerful, so he shifted the focus of his work. People who don't know about it think that Netflix is the result of his hard work.
Of course, this does not mean that Reed is incompetent.
After listening, he patted Sarandos on the shoulder and said with a smile: "I understand all this, but we still don't need to be too nervous. This year I approved 1.3 billion US dollars in original project funds, and "House of Cards" is in preparation smoothly.
, I see no reason why we should be defeated by an ant, even though the ant might bite."
"..."
Sarandos made sense when he heard it. There is no doubt about the power of Netflix. If others create original works and you also create original works, then everyone should rely on their own abilities!
"When will that "Black Robe Picket" be released?"
"8pm."
"There's still more than an hour, we can have a game first!"
With that said, Reed put down his coffee, pulled out two golf clubs from the corner, threw one to the opponent, and then went to the balcony outside, where there was an indoor mini golf equipment.
Sarandos naturally played with him. He knew that the other party seemed cynical, but he actually knew it well, otherwise he would not have come to the company.
…………
Hollywood, Hugelive North America Operations Center.
Yu Jiajia had just returned from Hong Kong. When the plane landed, she hurried to the office building. After leaving for a while, the place had changed a lot. For example, a special room was opened with a sign outside: "Combat Command!"
At first glance, this bad name is Yao Yuan's handiwork, which is similar to "beating Tencent".
Entering the room, there are also tricks inside. There is a large display screen hanging in front of it. There are data charts on it, one is North America and the other is Hong Kong.
Yao Yuan, Girard, Roulof and others are all there.
"Jiajia!"
"Thank you for your hard work, welcome back!"
The foreigners called Jiajia very loudly, but Yu Jiajia was sweating so much that she was already over 40, and she was still so Jiajia...
She took a breath, drank her coffee, and asked, "What is this thing for?"
"After the series starts airing, there will be a traffic display on it, showing how many people have clicked to watch, and how many minutes they watched on average."
"So advanced?"
"You thought you were doing all the preparations last year? They were all about technology!"
Yao Yuan pointed to the big screen and explained: "Not only that, it will also show in the most intuitive way how many people have chosen to pay and become our members!"
The two were talking in Chinese. Yu Jiajia glanced at Roelof quietly and asked: "Are you showing it to him?"
"The more intuitive it is, the more it impresses people. Making videos is so expensive, and 200 million US dollars will be wasted. I still want to continue to attract investment!"
Yao Yuan switched to English and asked with a smile: "How about going to Hong Kong?"
"What a joke!"
Yu Jiajia shrugged and said: "I used to yearn for Hong Kong, but now I feel that there is a hole in my head. They have no structure from top to bottom. As soon as I opened the press conference, I found a few foreigners to flatter me, and I was so happy that I didn't know the heights of the world.
.Why……"
She nudged Yao Yuan with her elbow and suddenly said: "Wen Yongshan is pretty good!"
"ah?"
"Little model, I used to have a good time with Yang Tianbao. Yang Tianbao climbed up and dumped her. Alas, Hong Kong is short of people now, and there are many young and old people. I am also the one who can help them cultivate the new generation."
"..."
Yao Yuan rolled his eyes and was too lazy to pay attention to her.
There are only a few rotten garlics in Hong Kong, and Janice Man is indeed a big one.
……………………
Dick is an ordinary American young man in his 20s, even his name is so ordinary.
Coming from the southern countryside, he never went to college and has dyslexia, but he lives a very happy life. He doesn’t know why he is happy, but he is very happy anyway...
He works at a gas station in the Hollywood area, not far from major movie studios. He usually does odd jobs. Like horizontal drifters in China, this is called "Luopiao" in the United States.
He came to the big city with a dream, but was beaten by reality. After many failures, he gave up on himself. Once, he persuaded a gas station owner to open another business to make some extra money and meet many Hollywood stars.
I was scolded by my boss.
His suggestion was to follow the example of Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, there was a guy with a unique idea. He used gas stations as a cover to recruit a group of handsome men of various skin colors and temperaments. On the surface, they were filling up, but in fact, they only needed to pay for their money.
For $20, you can choose any young man to have a good time.
That's right, a male prostitute!
Most of the customers are Hollywood male stars, some are female stars, and some like couples to go out together...
The reason why the boss scolded him was not because of the male prostitutes, but because this method had long been outdated and there was no way to make any money.
That evening, after Dick finished his day shift and handed over to his colleagues, he returned to the shabby apartment shared by many people. He couldn't wait to open his second-hand laptop and boarded the Hugelive.
This is a new website he recently discovered. It has a lot of resources and a large number of Hong Kong movies with subtitles.
Oh, he is a Kung Fu fan!
But today, he was going to watch a long-awaited new drama. The previous bombarding of publicity and trailers had already whetted his appetite, saying that it was large-scale...
Hehe, the audience likes large scale!
Before I knew it, it was 8 o'clock in the evening.
Dick refreshed the page and saw that the website had launched a TV series on time, "Black Robe Picket", with 8 episodes. The first episode was nothing, but the word "VIP" was displayed at the end.
"FUCK! Do you still have to pay?"
He didn't want to watch it for a while, but after a pause, he clicked on the first episode and took a look before talking about it.
In later generations, there are a large number of fans of American dramas in China, and they have long figured out this routine: if the cost of a drama is not high, the most exciting scenes are usually placed at the beginning to give the audience an illusion...
This is the case with "Black Robe Picket".
Not long after the opening, a locomotive crashed the protagonist's girlfriend into a jam.
"OH!"
Dick was extremely excited to see it, he likes this kind of thing!
The plot that follows is not dull either. The protagonist is bent on avenging his girlfriend, but is approached by black-robed pickets. The leader of the organization, played by Brendan Fraser, takes him to see the true faces of those superheroes.
So in a secret club, countless viewers watched an astonishing five-minute
Unknowingly, an hour passed, and there was a suspense at the end, ending abruptly.
"FUC..."
Before he could come out, the video suddenly jumped automatically to the next episode, and a line appeared: Non-members can watch for free for five minutes!
"Fake!"
He cursed now, hesitated again and again, clicked on recharge, look first, look first.
As the payment page pops up, a huge "3.9$" appears in front of you.
"Monthly membership: only US$3.9 for the first month, US$8.9 for the second month!"
"Quarterly membership..."
“Annual Membership…”
3 yuan 9?
3 yuan 9!
Dick’s mind is filled with the idea of taking advantage. This price is totally OK! Even if I charge for a month, I can just cancel the renewal.
He paid the fee readily and became a noble paying member.
After another swipe, all 8 episodes of Chi Guoguo appeared before my eyes. I didn’t need anyone to teach me, and I automatically and consciously entered the drama-watching mode.
When he regained his composure, he found that it was already dawn, and he actually watched the whole night and finished the first season of "The Black Robe".
"I'm absolutely crazy, I still have to go to work!"
Dick complained and rubbed his face, but having said that, "Black Robe" is of good quality. Overall, it does not disappoint. People are looking forward to the second season.
"When will the second season be released? Next year? Then I will top up next year!"
Dick casually browsed the webpage, and hey, he found that there was an additional timeline on the homepage, previewing a new drama next month. It was also an original drama called "Black Eats Black".
"In the town of Banshee, Pennsylvania, a man who had been in prison for 15 years accidentally stole the position of the new police chief and became the town's vigilante..."
There is also a trailer.
The beauties of Indian descent with wheat-colored skin and long legs, the petite and charming white girl, the banging fists and bed fights... all of this hit home with Dick's sexual fetishes.
He scratched his messy hair and felt that the $8.90 had slipped out of his wallet.
…………
Back to last night.
Hugelive's combat headquarters.
As the time approached, the atmosphere suddenly became tense. Several bosses stood in front of the big screen, waiting for this unique "online launch ceremony".
"Would you like some tea?" Yao Yuan asked.
"Tea?"
"I brought it from China, jasmine tea."
"Jasmine can also be used to make tea?"
Several foreigners expressed curiosity. Yao Yuan made a pot and poured some for each person. It costs 6,000 yuan per pound, which is very expensive. If converted into US dollars, it costs 1.9 US dollars per gram.
Rock sugar was added to the tea, which was very sweet to the American taste, and it also calmed the mood invisibly.
Yu Jiajia also drank and asked: "Hey, what is jasmine tea made of?"
“Green tea and jasmine!”
"What jasmine? Tiger-head jasmine? I have raised a pot before."
"That's not clear. I know about the dog-headed lolita."
Yao Yuan was talking nonsense, took two steps forward with the cup, and looked at the big screen that had not started yet and the data was still.
To be honest, his biggest purpose in setting up Hugelive is to cash out in the future, and the second is to cater to his superiors. But in order to achieve these two goals, he has to make a good website and shoot good works.
“Unknowingly, I became the savior again!”
He sighed in his heart, and then snorted coldly, there are different types of saviors!
The model of Hugelive and Netflix is actually a double-edged sword. It can greatly improve a country's film and television industry, but it can also plunder resources and destroy its original foundation.
For example, Korea in later generations.
After China imposed restrictions on South Korea, South Korea lost its largest overseas market. Just as Netflix came to it, the two parties hit it off immediately. Netflix spent money like crazy without any restrictions, so you can film whatever you want.
Have any Korean practitioners ever tasted such rich dumplings?
For fun, they are fully moving towards the so-called "global commercialization", taking turns to include zombie movies, exorcism movies, super power movies, modern war movies, science fiction movies, etc.
Directors have opportunities to showcase, actors earn a lot of money, and audiences see more types of works, and everything is booming.
But is this true?
Of course not. Netflix’s channels and funds have been overwhelming in South Korea, seizing the best talents and resources. Everyone is proud of making movies for Netflix, and local production is getting worse and worse.
Although it will not die out, market dominance will fall into the hands of American capital represented by Netflix.
On the other hand, in China, people always talk about the country's restrictions on this and that. It seems that there are no restrictions. China Entertainment has already rushed out of the earth. In fact, if there were no policies, it would have been over.
The most typical one is "Domestic Film Protection Month".
From Yao Yuan's point of view, what he will pay close attention to in the future is WeChat, games and videos. WeChat is established in China, but games and videos can do big things, big things!
"Oh, who would have thought that monopoly and colonization could be achieved with a broken video website!"
Yao Yuan took a sip of tea slowly.
"It's 8 o'clock!"
At this time, Yu Jiajia suddenly shouted.
The eyes of several people flickered and were projected on the big screen in front of them.
""Black Robe Picket" is now online!"
"The data starts counting!"
As soon as I finished speaking, I saw two trend charts appearing on the big screen, one for North America and one for Hong Kong. Two green curves started from the "O" in the lower left corner and meandered all the way.
Sometimes it pauses, sometimes it falls, sometimes it rises.
When it reached the middle stage, it finally stabilized and began to continue to rise.
There are numbers jumping crazily next to it, which are the number of viewers who watched for more than five minutes, 500,000, 1 million, 2 million, 3 million...
Everyone's emotions are high, and the most intuitive data can indeed bring the greatest impact.
But they know that now is not the time to celebrate.
After a while, most of the free first episode of "Black Robe Picket" has been broadcast, and the data for the second episode began to appear, which is also the number of people who watched for more than five minutes, that is, the number of people who paid!
100!
1000!
10000!
100,000!
Finally, when the number stayed at 1.4 million for a long time, late night had already fallen in Los Angeles, and everyone stayed there all night.
"yeah!"
“400,000 people exceeded the predicted value!”
“The number of paying users in Hong Kong has reached 900,000!”
"Haha, Hong Kong is indeed a blessed place on earth, and I was not disappointed!" Yu Jiajia laughed.
Everyone high-fived and Girard popped open a bottle of champagne.
1.4 million is not the final figure. In the future, people will continue to pay and people will continue to unsubscribe. While it fluctuates up and down, what we want is steady growth.
"cheers!"
"Yao, this is a wonderful start!"
"Yes, this is just the beginning, and we will definitely achieve greater success."
Rouloff was relieved and recognized Hugelive's potential and team capabilities. He would not intervene in the operation, but would provide help at the financial level, financing, listing, bond issuance, etc.
According to the concept, Hugelive will be based on large capital in the United States, Asia, and Europe and carry out localization strategies for different countries.
There are three dramas this year: "Black Robe Picket", "Black Robe", and "Warrior", which are too few.
Rulov has decided to speed up the process and capture the city!