Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3231 Short Video Model
Although Zhou Buqi did not know the economic concept of "developed stagnation", he had already understood this logic.

He has foresight.

If he had wanted to act earlier, he would have started the short video business a long time ago, or he would have discovered Musical.ly and acquired the company a long time ago, and there would not be the turn of other dynamic and competitive short video startups to appear in the market now.

The main concern is about stagnation of development.

If the time had been ripe for short videos long ago and the environment was ready for the short video business before 2010, Zhou Buqi would have definitely rushed in with Ziweixing and would have dominated the short video track with ease.

But there is absolutely no right time or place.

The short video business has strong infrastructure requirements, which requires smartphones to have strong enough performance, users to be proficient in using smartphones, and the communication network to be fast enough and the traffic charges to be low enough.

Several conditions are indispensable.

If you do it in advance, you will definitely die.

However, when the time is ripe, Ziweixing and Ziweixing International will become industry giants with a market value of more than 2000 billion US dollars.

No management guru can avoid the "big company disease".

This is determined by human nature.

Large companies are all affected by the state of developed stagnation.

Small companies can do the same thing, but large companies with talent, capital, technology and ecological advantages are often not as good as small companies. This is the main reason. So Zhou Buqi spun off Fantuan and Didi from Ziweixing early on and went to fight alone in the market.

Fantuan, led by Wang Xing and Zhang Yinlei, can easily defeat Baidu Nuomi and Alibaba's Taodiandian.

In fact, this is true for all BAT.

The reason why Penguin developed so well later was that it realized the disadvantages of developed stagnation early on, and then changed its development ideas. Penguin no longer did many emerging businesses itself, but used investment strategies to support other small companies and startups to do them.

Baidu and Alibaba have fallen behind because both companies still have traditional corporate concepts and do everything themselves.

Especially Baidu.

Baidu, once the largest Internet company in China, was the first to fall into the trap of development stagnation. In addition, Li Yanhong's gentle personality and polite style made the working environment inside Baidu much more relaxed than other Internet giants.

This is good news for Baidu employees.

This is very tragic for Baidu.

As a result, no matter what Baidu did, it would fail, and every time it would get up early and arrive late.

The reason why iQiyi was able to succeed and become the largest video website in China is that it was spun off from Baidu in the early stages of its business and has been operating independently ever since, thus avoiding Baidu's stagnant development.

Before Zhou Buqi, there was no theory.

The only analogy we can use is "barbarism vs. civilization".

Now Tang Binchen's concept of "developed stagnation" can be said to have given him a rough idea.

Zhou Buqi said that he has not been doing short videos because he is worried that the big companies will prevent this emerging business from taking off. He would rather give the market to some start-ups, let them fight for it, and then acquire and integrate them when they are ready.

Compared to doing it yourself, it just costs a little more money, but this strategy is safer.

This can ensure that Boss Zhou has the short video business in his hands.

Zhou Buqi said: "Well, I have always had such concerns. Ziweixing...including Ziweixing International, I have never agreed to start the short video project. The main reason is that I hope to give up the market and let those emerging startups fight and lead the way for this new industry."

Tang Binchen smiled and said, "I can understand it. Others may not understand it, but I can. The reason you are temporarily letting go of the short video business is not because you don't value it, but because you value it too much. You don't want to destroy an emerging market because of Ziweixing's empiricism."

Or he is a close confidant who has a very accurate understanding of Boss Zhou's thinking.

Zhou Buqi said: "The new short video business has two main difficulties in terms of operation. One is the form of short videos, which is to build a new media model. Too narrow content will have more room for quoting out of context, which makes many people reject it. Another point is that under the UGC model, more users are required to shoot and edit videos themselves. For some ultra-high-definition videos, smooth editing is still a huge challenge for current smartphones."

Tang Binchen nodded and said, "Indeed, short video editing is a pain point. There are also some short video products in the United States, but they all fail, mainly because of the editing. In order to publish short videos, many people need to connect their mobile phones to computers, edit them on computers, and then upload them to mobile phones for publication."

Zhou Buqi said: "This operation is too complicated. If it is done by some professional studios, it is of course no problem. But for most entertainment users, this challenge is too great. The final solution must be a convenient operation on the mobile phone. It is easy to edit and upload ultra-clear videos on the mobile phone."

Tang Binchen said: "Video editing requires extremely strong productivity. The clearer the content, the higher the requirements. Today's smartphones don't seem to be very good. I have used even the most advanced iPhone or Aster phone. If I edit ultra-high-definition videos shot by the phone, it will heat up seriously and there will be lags and problems."

Zhou Buqi has long been aware of this problem. "The chip capabilities of today's smartphones are far behind the camera capabilities. Because the technology for video and photo shooting is ready-made and has been developed for decades, we only need to convert the technology and hardware of traditional video and photo cameras into mobile phone versions. But chips are not the same. Everything is in the process of continuous innovation and invention, which is definitely more difficult than porting ready-made technical solutions for camera modules."

Tang Binchen smiled and said, "Yes, the news has said that some young directors may want to stand out, or they may consider the cost, so they are using iPhone or Aster to shoot mobile movies. After the filming, they can sell it to streaming platforms and make a profit."

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Zhou Buqi nodded and said, "The GPU capabilities of current mobile phone chips are still insufficient, so Ziweixing has been developing AI chips, which actually solves the same problem."

AI chips solve the problem of GPU computing power.

This is what Ziweixing has been doing many years ago.

This is the hardware infrastructure.

The rise of the global short video industry is actually dependent on the explosion of an industry, that is, AI chips. Only when the capabilities of AI chips are strong enough, and mobile phones can have the same powerful video processing capabilities as computers, will the basic conditions for the development of short video business exist.

The layout already existed.

So Zhou Buqi is not in a hurry at all about short videos.

There is still a long way to go!
It is estimated that the various basic conditions required for the short video business will not be fully met until his two-year study abroad plan is over, and the era of short videos will truly arrive.

Tang Binchen said: "There are many startups working on short video projects now. There seem to be more than 20 in New York. There are even more in Silicon Valley. However, looking at the entire United States, the best short video product is still Musical.ly, which was made by a domestic team."

Zhou Buqi didn’t even need to know too much about this product. After listening to Liu Qing’s words last time, he could make a pretty accurate judgment, “Because the direction of Musical.ly is lip-syncing MVs.”

Tang Binchen smiled and said, "Yeah, lip syncing. It's really interesting, and it's mainly used by young people. The original song is played in the background, and young people perform some dances and movements in front of the phone camera to the music, which is very interesting."

Zhou Buqi said: "The most important point is that it solves one of the biggest pain points of the short video business! This direction solves the trouble of editing!"

"Yes, for lip-sync MVs like this, the background music is the original singer's music, which limits the editing of short videos. Users don't need to edit, they can just post it after recording." Tang Binchen also praised this, "This is a very novel and clever angle, which is a huge advantage compared to other short video products. Whoever can solve the trouble of editing can break through the siege in the current short video track. At present, only Musical.ly can do it."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "There is another mode, which is also very clever and okay."

"Ok?"

"There is a domestic product called Kuaishou. I have observed that, looking around the world, apart from Musical.ly, there is only Kuaishou. Only these two models can survive in the current promotion environment of the short video track."