The King of Directors 2000

The weather in Yanjing in April is much warmer. The originally sleepy city has become lively again since this month. Tourists from all over the country flock here to experience the unique cultural charm of this city.

In the headquarters building of Fenghua Film and Television Company, a very important internal meeting was taking place at this time.

In addition to Li Shengyao and Wu Wenhui, the CEO of Fenghua Video and the head of Fenghua Special Effects Department, there are two new members.

For about four years since Fenghua Video was launched in the beautiful country, Fenghua has done nothing major except building a movie theater.

This meeting was mainly to announce the group's new major projects.

At this time, it was Li Shengyao explaining the next plan.

There are three main things.

First, the Fenghua Special Effects Department will be independent and a subsidiary will be established under Fenghua Special Effects in the future.

After several years of technical accumulation, Fenghua Special Effects has sufficient strength, and its internal members have a strong desire to produce their own animated films.

The second is to establish a live broadcast website called Fenghua Live.

At this time, several live broadcast websites have emerged in the mainland, broadcasting games, singing, dancing, or taking viewers on sightseeing tours.

However, overall, the content is relatively thin.

In Li Shengyao's view, this is a vast untapped market.

The third is to establish an independent domestic video website. This video website has its servers in Singapore and its users are mainly from Southeast Asia.

The name of the video website is Fenghua Online.

In Li Shengyao's previous life, several major video platforms in Europe and the United States began to enter Southeast Asia after 2015.

At this point in time, the living standards of Southeast Asian viewers have greatly improved compared to before. The membership fee of US$25 a year can be spent by many viewers.

In this dimension, Lee Sheng-yao can more easily open up the Southeast Asian market by relying on the advantages he accumulated in idol dramas in his early years.

He plans to plan ahead and seize the market.

Not only will it translate a large number of domestic idol dramas and sweet dramas, but it will also cooperate with local film and television stars in Southeast Asia and work with them to produce film and television dramas that are suitable for Southeast Asian audiences.

Several senior executives who participated in the meeting had already received the news and knew Li Shengyao's intentions. Their participation in the meeting at this time was just to further confirm the matter.

The meeting went smoothly. After half an hour, several senior executives left, and only Wu Wenhui stayed.

"Boss, I still think it is unreliable to enter Southeast Asia now. We are losing money and making money."

Li Shengyao rarely manages the company's specific business. Most of the time, Wu Wenhui makes decisions.

However, when encountering some strategic issues, Wu Wenhui would ask Lee Sheng Yew for advice.

Just like the Chinese Super League has been very popular in the past few years, many real estate developers have failed, and some investors have been inviting Fenghua to join.

Wu Wenhui saw Evergrande's success and won the AFC Champions League, and was a little excited for a while.

Later, it was vetoed by Li Shengyao.

There is also the live broadcast of sports events. Recently, major video websites have spent a lot of money to introduce the five major European leagues, as well as the NBA, which seems to be very lively.

Fenghua is the largest video website in China.

Many senior executives feel the need to compete in this area and introduce the Premier League or the NBA.

This proposal was also rejected by Li Shengyao.

Facts have proved that apart from live NBA broadcasts, other events are really about losing money and making money, not making any money at all.

LeTV bought the rights to La Liga and the Premier League, but later broke the contract without paying the money.

The main reason is that there are too few fans watching. Chinese fans like to point fingers, but not many are willing to spend time and money to watch football games.

As for the Chinese Super League, it has now become a platform to compete for financial resources. The signing fee for any random player is 80 million.

The annual investment is about three to four billion, which is a meaningless waste of money.

Wu Wenhui has always admired Lee Sheng Yew's strategic vision. However, he has often traveled to Southeast Asia on business in recent years and feels that except for Singapore and Malaysia, where living conditions are good, other places are not good.

Southeast Asia has a large population and seems to have a large market, but it may not necessarily make money.

The situation in Southeast Asia is actually very similar to that in the mainland. People have not developed the habit of paying to watch movies and TV series. They now mainly watch pirated videos.

Hearing this, Li Shengyao shook his head, "In this matter, we have to plan in advance. I have heard the news. Disney and Warner are planning to establish video websites in Southeast Asia. We have advantages that others do not have, and we can expand this advantage." , quickly occupying the Southeast Asian market.

Cultivating Southeast Asian audiences to pay to watch movies and TV series should not be rushed. In the early stage, the main focus is to earn advertising fees.

As long as we have enough active users every day and every month, we can still maintain the operation of the website even if we rely on advertising fees. "

Unlike Lee Sheng-yew's previous life, when Netflix entered Southeast Asia, it invested a lot in the early stage because they needed to purchase a lot of Korean drama copyrights.

Lee Sheng Yew has produced enough idol dramas before and has influenced Southeast Asian audiences.

They don't need to buy the copyright again, it's just a matter of left hand and right hand, and their cost will be much lower.

As long as subsequent idol dramas and sweet dramas can keep up, they will continue to attract audiences.

When Wu Wenhui heard this, he still felt that it was a bit unreliable. He had been to Wanwan and Hong Kong Island, and the advertising fees in these places were pitifully low.

It can be said that the only places in the world where advertising costs are expensive are China and the United States. Only these two countries can support huge investments in film and television dramas.

Not any other country.

He doesn't believe it's possible to survive relying on advertisers in Southeast Asia.

"Boss, let's wait for a few more years. We don't need to do it so early. We can let Disney and Warner develop the market first, and then go grab the market."

This is a good idea, it seems to save money.

But why do you think you can rob it?

If Southeast Asian viewers are used to watching American and British dramas, it will take more effort to change their viewing habits.

Li Shengyao still thinks it should be done in advance.

And this is not just about making money, but also a reputation, which shows that Chinese video websites are the first to pay attention to the Southeast Asian market.

Thinking of this, he definitely said to Wu Wenhui: "Listen to me on this matter."

Li Shengyao is very clear that in the next few years, China and the United States will compete in Southeast Asia. The greater the influence of their video websites in Southeast Asia, the more important they will be.

Wu Wenhui heard this, stopped trying to persuade, nodded, and then said: "Then I will immediately arrange for someone to make a plan. Then you can take a look and make some comments, and we will build a new website according to the plan."

"Okay, no problem."

…    “Fenghua will launch a video website for Southeast Asia.”

“Fenghua Online launched and gained half a million new users on the first day.”

“While Tencent and iQiyi are still making small fuss in China, Fenghua has already deployed overseas.”

“If we want our culture to go global, we should have our own platform to speak out.”

"Lee Seung-yew: I have another idea, which I will launch in two years. I hope this new idea can truly become popular around the world and blaze a trail in the media world where European and American discourse rights are monopolized."

"Fenghua Online is so popular, and the Fenghua idol drama has played a crucial role."

“Many viewers in Southeast Asia grew up watching Fenghua idol dramas, and now it’s the harvest season for Fenghua.”

Fenghua launched a special effects department and a live broadcast website but did not attract much attention.

They launched "Fenghua Online", a website for Southeast Asia, which attracted most media reports.

Not only domestic media, but also media from peninsulas, island countries, and beautiful countries are scrambling to report on it.

Many foreign media believe that this is the cultural strategy of China's top leaders, and they believe that Fenghua is the mouthpiece of the government.

Such remarks are still very popular overseas. Those who grew up listening to fake news have expressed that they cannot tolerate such behavior and want to reject Fenghua Online.

In terms of public opinion, China has always been in a weak position.

Fortunately, the childhood filter exists. The idol drama produced by Lee Sheung-yew more than ten years ago has cultivated a large number of viewers. These people downloaded the "Fenghua Online" APP without any burden, then registered new users and paid money to become members.

Under such circumstances, there are constant negative voices from outside, but Fenghua Online is still making rapid progress and occupying new markets in great strides.

The person who is most angry about this situation is not Netflix or Disney.

But it is Li Zekai, Hong Kong Island next to the mainland.

Li Zekai has always wanted the right to operate TVB in Hong Kong Island, but now the big boss of TVB is Li Shengyao.

Later, Li Zekai learned from the experience and felt that the Southeast Asian video market was very promising, so he came up with the idea of ​​building a video website.

He knows the power of Fenghua idol dramas, and he knows even more clearly that Lee Sheng Yew will not sell the copyright to him.

He plans to buy some American and British dramas to expand the market.

I never expected that Li Shengyao would move so quickly. While his side was still making preparations, Fenghua's side had already been formed.

Li Zekai heard the news at home and called his friends in Singapore to further confirm that Fenghua Online was indeed popular, with hundreds of thousands of downloads and new user registrations every day in Southeast Asia.

Li Zekai was really envious and regretful. He should have settled this matter in 2013, but in the end he spent more time on the young model, so that the progress of the matter was slow.

"boom!"

Li Zekai picked up a pot of flowers and then threw it out heavily.

He then called the person in charge of the preparation of the new website and asked, "How long will it take for our website to be completed? Can it be completed in three days?"

"Boss, three days will definitely not work, it will take at least three months."

"Why did Li Shengyao finish it in three days? Why is it so slow here?"

"Fenghua has experience in video website production, and they have already had enough film and television resources. Those idol dramas don't need to be purchased. They can just transfer them internally. They can save a lot of trouble.

In fact, even if we build the website now, without enough resources, it will be difficult for us to attract viewers. "

The loyal words were harsh to the ears. After hearing the report from his men, Li Zekai drank a glass of water, sat down and blew in the cool breeze, and then calmed down.

Things have happened, and now even if they are unconvinced or dissatisfied, they have no choice but to accept this reality and see if they can overtake in a corner.

"Okay, let's stick to the previous plan. In addition, we need to purchase more rights to American and British dramas."

"Boss, do you want to increase the copyright fee?"

"If you want, I will give you another 100 million. We must fire the first shot and squeeze out Fenghua Online. We want to become the leader of Southeast Asian video websites.

When the number of users of our video website exceeds that of Fenghua Online, I will definitely mock Lee Sheng-yew to his face. "

Not only was Li Zekai dissatisfied with Lee Shengyao, but Spielberg on the other side of the ocean was also dissatisfied with Lee Shengyao.

When he first met Li Shengyao, he was amazed that there was such an outstanding young man in the world.

Later, he discovered that this young director was very sensible and respected him very much in the beautiful country. He felt that Lee Sheng Yew might become an excellent commercial film director.

However, just when Lee Sheng Yew was making money, he gave up his career in Hollywood and returned to the mainland.

Since then, Lee Sheng-yew has grown rapidly, and almost every one of his films in recent years has won awards at the three major European film festivals.

Lee Sheung Yew's status in the film and television industry has risen rapidly like a rocket.

Spielberg was even more dissatisfied with Lee Sheng-Yao at this time, and Lee Sheng-Yao had a tendency to become the number one director in China.

Some thoughtful people began to suggest that Spielberg should suppress Lee Sing-Yew, so the always moderate Jewish director often belittled Lee Sing-Yew in interviews.

Previously, Lee Sung-yao won the Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival, which made Spielberg very angry.

At this time, the new website created by Li Shengyao became popular in Southeast Asia, making him even more frustrated.

Spielberg is not an ordinary director. He has been promoted to capital a long time ago.

He knew very well that several video websites in the beautiful country were eyeing Southeast Asia, and he was also involved in related plans, but he did not expect that they would seize a large market for Lee Sheng Yew before they even exerted their efforts.

At this time, a reporter called to interview Spielberg over the phone for his opinion on Fenghua Online.

"I think this is not fair business competition. They have monopolized the cultural development of Southeast Asia. I feel sorry for the audiences in Southeast Asia. What they will watch most in the future are Chinese film and television dramas.

I hope that after Disney, Warner, Fox and other websites enter Southeast Asia, they will have more choices and richer cultural food. "

The reporter then asked Spielberg what he thought of Lee Sung-yew attending the Cannes Film Festival next month.

"I heard that his new movie is a musical. There has been no outstanding musical in the world of cinema for more than ten years. I hope he will not disappoint."

Regarding Spielberg's eccentric words, Lee Sheng-yao actually didn't want to pay attention to it, but the old man said bad things about him again and again. When he was interviewed, he said directly: "Some old people don't know what's going on, and they always like to use Looking at people through the old eyes, they can no longer keep up with the world. I suggest that they retire and go back to their hometowns to plant flowers and weed so as not to offend others."

He then threatened: "China is a huge market. I hope that the six major Hollywood film companies will choose producers and directors carefully and not choose people who are enemies of China. Otherwise, it will be difficult for your movies to be recognized by mainland audiences." "

The question is not whether it can be recognized by the audience, but whether it can come in.

Lee Sing-yew plans to check in with Spielberg when his new movie is released next year.

Lest this old man think that blind Bibi doesn't have to pay the price.

(End of this chapter)