Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1452

Everything is planned.

Mr. Howard Stringer, the chairman and CEO of Sony, expressed a great welcome to Zhou Buqi and his party, and put on a very high reception etiquette. There were as many as 12 executives at the vice president level.

This fully proves one thing. Sony's current strategic plan, which was not analyzed before, is to create a "consumer electronics + content entertainment" model is accurate.

Stringer takes this very seriously.

However, the robot has not yet been able to exhibit.Sony stopped this business for several years, and the original project members were scattered to other business divisions.

Because of Ziweixing's incident, they were forced to recruit a few technicians from the past, and found the dusty robot from the warehouse, cleaned, inspected, charged, and tested it.

Zhou Buqi was very happy.

This just shows that the attitude of the other party is open. If they are wary of Ziweixing, they may not be willing to show the results of the robot.

It can be seen that Mr. Stringer also has a strong interest and expectation in cooperating with technology giants like Ziweixing.

The group made a big circle around the Sony headquarters building, focusing on the game console business.It's not the game business, it's the game console business. Sony's headquarters is the headquarters of the Consumer Electronics Division.

Zhou Buqi took the new PSP4000 they were working on, operated it a few times, found it very interesting, and praised it repeatedly.

PSP is a professional handheld game console.

The screen is larger than the iPhone, and the experience of playing games is better than that of the iPhone.

You can also watch movies and dramas, and use some application software, such as browsers, calculators, and notepads...

In fact, it is a portable operating platform that is far more powerful than a smartphone!
It just doesn't have the ability to make calls or send text messages.

At this moment, Zhou Buqi also understood that Howard Stringer's creation of Sony's business line was actually to vigorously promote the sales of PS3 and PSP two game consoles. More and richer entertainment content!
From this period of time in 09, the combination of "PS3+PSP" is indeed better than the iPhone, but the disadvantages are also obvious.

Zhou Buqi couldn't help complaining.

Isn't the system design too bad?

Not to mention compared with smart operating systems such as iOS and Android, it is much worse than Symbian and Microsoft systems.Moreover, PSP has no touch technology, and can only adjust the position of the cursor through the direction keys, which is much worse than that of smart phones in operation.

All in all, the design principle is too old-fashioned.

This time, Zhou Buqi was convinced of what Mr. Stringer wanted to do, in fact, he wanted to draw Ziweixing into Sony's camp to cooperate with his plan.

There are too few third-party applications in PS3 and PSP. The first choice of software application vendors is a few versions on the computer side, and then many versions on the mobile phone side. When they have time to develop apps for Sony’s game console system, day lily is cool. up.

Ziweixing intends to cooperate with Sony, of course we must firmly grasp it!
Howard Stringer was very enthusiastic and accompanied Zhou Buqi to visit all the time.What's interesting is that when he communicated with his colleagues, he spoke Japanese.

Because the demonstration of the robot still needs a long time to prepare, Stringer invited Zhou Buqi to his office for a private chat.

Zhou Buqi is very interested.

He has now figured out the details of the Sony CEO who was born in the media, and he has a clear understanding of his business ideas.

If you know yourself and the enemy, you can strike like acupuncture.

Zhou Buqi only took his secretary Ning Lu to the chairman's office, and asked other Ziweixing executives to continue to contact Sony. As soon as he was seated, he praised: "The experience of the new version of PSP4000 is very good, better than the iPhone. Much better than the Aster phone. If Google is willing to put YouTube on the PSP, I believe users will like it."

These words reached Stringer's heart, "That's right! I've said it a long time ago, whether it's PSP or PS3, it shouldn't be limited to game consoles. This should be a feature-rich video game book. entertainment machine."

Zhou Buqi went to praise him, "Yes, consumer electronics is impulsive consumption, while entertainment content is delayed consumption. Combining the two, Sony's business may skyrocket!"

Stringer laughed, then sighed, "It's a pity."

Zhou Buqi asked: "What's the matter?"

"There are too few adapted applications." Stringer looked bitter, "Most of the content on the game console is provided by Sony itself, and there is a lack of third-party applications."

Zhou Buqi thought it was ridiculous.

Want to have third-party apps?Then you have to build a third-party app store, just like the Apple Store and Google Store.But Sony did not dare to do this for the disc business.

PS3 will sell game discs, and PSP will also sell small game discs.Put the game disc in the game console to play the game.

If the third-party store is opened, many game developers will no longer make game discs, and directly put the game on the third-party store for paid download.

Sony won't be able to earn disc revenue.

How can they recover their huge investment in the research and marketing of the Blu-ray standard?
Stringer asked the secretary to arrange coffee, and then seriously suggested: "Niconico, a popular video site in Japan, belongs to Ziweixing."

Zhou Buqi smiled, "Yes."

Stringer asked: "Can an adapted version be developed for PSP and PS3?"

"This..." Zhou Buqi thought so, but he couldn't agree directly, frowned slightly, and said curiously, "By the way, I remember that Sony has invested in the streaming media platform Hulu."

Stringer sighed, "That's right."

Zhou Buqi suggested: "You can put Hulu on the PSP. There are so many film and television content on Hulu, I believe it can attract many users."

Stringer shook his head. "To be honest, that's what I thought about it at one point. That's the main reason why Sony took a stake in Hulu. But it's hard to do."

"why?"

"It's related to Hulu's business model. Hulu relies on advertising to make money."

"Is there a contradiction?"

"If there are advertisements in the application on the Sony game console, it will affect the product experience. Another point is that advertisers may not be able to recognize this model."

Stringer looked helpless and troubled.

Hulu is now a "free + advertising" profit model, mainly relying on merchants to place advertisements to make money, which has disadvantages in the profit model.Advertisers place advertisements on the website, but the website feeds the advertisements to the game console platform, which may not meet the advertiser's initial positioning.

This model of multi-channel promotion will encounter a lot of troubles, and it is necessary to introduce different advertisers for different channels. Hulu is just a small company now, without such a huge marketing team.

In contrast, Netflix's "subscription" model is much easier.

No matter what platform it is, just pay and subscribe directly. It is relatively simple to operate, and there are not so many messy things from third parties.

Zhou Buqi was a bit fanciful, and encouraged: "Sony is a shareholder of Hulu, so it should have certain decision-making and suggestion rights. Hulu can be promoted for free in game consoles without advertising. Does the management disagree?"

Stringer said: "Management agreed, but other shareholders did not agree."

"Is that so..."

Zhou Buqi thought it was funny, he had already guessed it.

Hulu's shareholders are NBC Universal, Fox, Sony, and Disney. They are all Hollywood giants and competitors. It is strange that they can be twisted together.

Stringer said: "By the way, isn't Comcast planning to acquire NBC Universal? Do you want to participate?"

"Correct."

"Ziwei Star Global?"

"Correct."

"Comcast contacted us. They want to acquire this part of Hulu shares held by Sony. Hulu's strategic purpose for Sony has not been achieved. It is meaningless to hold this part of the shares. I plan to sell it. Are you interested Do you want to sell it to you?"

Stringer knew that this kid was a major shareholder of Netflix, so he wanted to have a relationship with him.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Forget it, I'm not interested in Hulu."

Stringer nodded, "Indeed, I also suggest that you don't get involved in Hulu. The board of directors' thinking is not unified, and there are great conflicts with the management. I support the management's push for Hulu to promote the subscription model, but the board of directors Disagree. Sony has withdrawn this time. But if this matter is not resolved, I can guarantee that Hulu's management team will leave sooner or later!"

Zhou Buqi pretended not to know, "Really?"

Stringer said: "For sure, I have communicated with them. The management is now putting their hopes on Comcast. When they acquire NBC Universal and get the shares in Sony, it will be Hulu. The largest shareholder, holding nearly 50% of the shares. If Comcast supports the subscription model of Netflix, Hulu’s management will be very happy.”

Zhou Buqi continued to pretend to be stupid, "The subscription model is very effective for Sony's game console business?"

"Of course, just like Netflix." Stringer smiled and took a deep look at him, "If a Netflix app is developed for PSP or PS3, users will be tired of playing games when they use game consoles." Now, you can watch film and television content through the app. The subscription model will not affect the interests of Netflix, it is mutually beneficial.”

Zhou Buqi said: "Netflix only has American business now."

Stringer said: "Yes, I know, I'm talking about the US version of PSP and PS3. It's good to promote Niconico in the Japanese version. Isn't this also a subscription model?"

Zhou Buqi also said: "Netflix is ​​only a small company, and it is already very busy on the web page, so it may not have enough development teams."

"Are you a major shareholder?" Stringer laughed, "As you, you can't push a word on Netflix?"

Zhou Buqi smiled slightly and did not deny, "If Ziweixing, and Ziweixing International, Ziweixing Global, Ziweixing Digital Media and Astar Group related to Ziweixing can reach a deep multi-directional and multi-level strategic cooperation with Sony , I believe Netflix will also join.”

"I'm looking forward to it!" Stringer said bluntly, and added, "It's a pity that the robot project has been shelved. Ziweixing is interested. It can be developed along this line of thought. I believe the team of scientists will be very happy."

(End of this chapter)