The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 537 The End
The night was dark.

The laptop screen displays Tencent Video’s hit dramas this year.

"The world is clear and bright, where is the blue sky?" The old man had blood on the corners of his mouth, alas.

The blue-dressed Qing-dynasty lady beside him stared with wide eyes and exaggerated expression, waving her right hand and angrily said, "This is too much. They took the money but didn't do the job. I'm going to find them."

Afterwards, she picked up a kitchen knife from somewhere, waved it, and rushed towards the prince's mansion in a rage, and actually rushed in.

"Tsk." Lu Yuan leaned his upper body back, against the back of the chair, and couldn't help frowning.

Is it logical that a palace maid, in the feudal dynasty, ignored the hierarchy and shouted at the prince with a kitchen knife, but was not beaten to death?
And what's up with this acting?

After all, he graduated from the Beijing Film Academy, so he didn't seem to have any skills to express his anger except glaring and shouting.

Yaoyao was angry. She clenched her fists, breathed rapidly, and her little chest heaved violently.

This is the Qing Dynasty drama "Palace Lock and Bead Curtain" that Tencent bought last year. It was produced by Huanrui, written by Yu Zheng, and starred by Yang Mi's classmate, Yuan Shanshan.

Tencent bought the exclusive license for 36 episodes, with a licensing fee of 120 million yuan per episode, totaling 4320 million yuan, and the licensing period is 5 years.

"Palace Lock and Beads Curtain" is not an isolated case. The quality of the popular dramas on several other video websites is comparable to it.

The decline in the quality of domestic dramas has already begun, and the speed is visibly accelerating.

As one of the shareholders of iQiyi, Lu Yuan has a deep understanding of the development of the video industry and the status of several other video websites.

In the past 2011, several video website companies announced their financial reports one after another. It can be said that 99% of domestic video websites are currently in a loss-making state.

The third quarter financial report showed that Youku's net loss was 4750 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 11%; Tudou's net loss was 5560 million yuan, a month-on-month decrease of 30%; Ku6's net loss was 8200 million yuan, a month-on-month decrease of 39.8%.

Since Q2011 3, mainstream video websites have shown signs of differentiation.

iQiyi, Youku, Tudou, Sohu and Tencent Video occupy the top five positions, with an average daily coverage of more than 2000 million people.

The gap between the top five and the bottom five is widening, and there is a clear trend of differentiation between the two camps.

In the first camp, iQiyi is far ahead, with the number of users continuing to rise. Youku, Tudou, and Sohu are almost standing still due to funding or copyright restrictions, and are showing a trend of being overtaken by Tencent Video.

Despite the dismal performance, in order to compete for the still-growing number of users, various video websites are still gritting their teeth and continuously increasing their investment in copyright.

Today's video industry has bid farewell to competition for licenses and bandwidth, and returned to the competitive dimensions of content, user experience and business model, competing for the comprehensive influence of the website platform.

The ability to purchase dramas is the first step in upgrading competition.

Faced with new development trends, major video websites have taken corresponding countermeasures.

LeTV and Tudou set up a joint venture, with an initial investment of 3 million yuan to purchase domestic film and television dramas.

Sohu Video and MSN China have officially reached a strategic partnership in video business.

Tencent invested in Huayi and spent 10 billion to purchase film and television drama copyrights.

iQiyi became a strategic partner with Blueprint in the form of shares, backed by Baidu.

Other companies have their own countermeasures and are no less capable.

Among these companies, only LeTV is currently profitable.

LeTV went public in August 2010 and owns one of the largest online copyright libraries in the video industry.

The rich reserves of content resources have brought considerable profit growth to the company's copyright distribution business, increased the stickiness of paying users, and combined with advertising, etc., this is the key to its profitability.

In 2011, the average monthly number of active paying users of LeTV exceeded 80.

LeTV raised 2.62 million yuan through its IPO, and due to the positive market response, it exceeded the target by 4.2 million yuan, bringing the total amount of funds raised to 6.82 million yuan.

However, more than half of the 6 million yuan was lost in purchasing copyrights.

The copyright market last year was so exaggerated that it is no exaggeration to say that it was a dog's brain.

Sohu Video paid a high price of 3000 million yuan to acquire the exclusive broadcasting rights of the new version of "My Fair Princess", and then Tencent bought "Palace Lock and Bead Curtain" for 4320 million yuan.

The hit drama "The Unforgettable Number" has received 30 billion hits on iQiyi alone.

According to the contract with Blueprint, iQiyi enjoys the exclusive broadcasting rights and did not spend much money, making a number of video companies drool with envy.

But it is understandable, otherwise why would iQiyi be willing to give up 18% of its shares in exchange.

Blueprint has played an important role in the rise of iQiyi.

These are just some of the TV series and movies that have had a certain influence after being broadcast.

Currently, the country produces more than 10,000 episodes of domestic dramas each year, but only half of them are actually broadcast, and even fewer of them become popular.

There are only two or three hit movies every year.

The major video websites do not have a keen eye and do not know which drama will become popular.

How to do it?

You can only buy whatever you see, buy whatever you think will be popular, and look at the director and the cast, because if you don’t buy it, what if someone else buys it and it becomes a hit, then you’ll be at a loss, right?

Therefore, everyone is actually gambling, spending hundreds of millions a year on gambling. If the bet wins, they can be one step ahead and increase their market share.

Even if many of the dramas they bought were considered rubbish by the audience, they did not hesitate.

This has also caused the entire industry to be basically in a loss-making situation, because content cost expenditure accounts for more than 70% of the website's total annual revenue.

You don’t have to make money, but you can use profits to exchange for the market. First monopolize, then charge, this is the usual strategy of Internet companies.

Lu Yuan turned his gaze to the notebook on the desk, where were the dreams he had experienced over the past few years.

The love story between an alien professor and a superstar.

The fishmonger gradually became a gangster boss.

There are two brothers who look the same. The younger brother is a suspect in a murder case. In order to clear his younger brother's name, the older brother exchanges identities and appears alternately during the day and at night.

"The Cliff", a spy-themed film with a similar story structure to "Insidious".

Mermaid love story.

A few things about the boy with the yin-yang eyes and the ferryman.

The growth story of a woman in the Song Dynasty.

"."

There are many types of themes, with no limit on themes, including costumes, fantasy, crime, fantasy, history, horror, and dozens of scripts.

Not only that, the glory points he has accumulated can enter dreams hundreds of times. As long as he stays in the film and television industry, continues to interpret roles and produce works, the glory points will continue to accumulate, which also means that Yuanfang Media will not lack scripts.

By his standards, these stories all have merit.

So why didn't he film these scripts before?
First, their own influence and strength are not enough to form a group.

Second, he realized that copyright prices would soar, capital would compete with traditional TV stations for dramas and drive up prices, and a feast for producers was about to begin.

There is no doubt that he guessed right.

11 years ago, a TV series could only sell for 4000 million at most.

Nowadays, it is not difficult for a TV series to generate a total revenue of over 100 million yuan if sold to traditional TV stations and video websites!
And the price is getting hotter and hotter.

Faced with high-priced copyrights, major video websites are saying they can’t afford it.

Lu Yuan is also aware of one thing: this year Sohu Video, Tencent Video, and iQiyi plan to form an alliance and adopt a group purchasing model in an attempt to cool down the copyright war.

But in his opinion, this alliance is nothing but a piece of cake and has no basis in reality.

Never overestimate the bottom line of Internet companies, which may say one thing and do another.

The simplest example is, if at this moment, Jiang Wei announced that Lu Yuan would return to the small screen again, starring in the spy drama "The Cliff", how would several video websites respond?
They will inevitably break the so-called alliance without hesitation, wave money, and compete to purchase the exclusive network broadcasting rights at all costs.

Because the leading actor is the spy king who starred in "The Hidden" and "Before the Dawn", he is the undisputed number one in domestic TV dramas. In recent years, all the dramas starring Lu Yuan have been exclusively broadcast by iQiyi.

The industry is well aware of how many users iQiyi has gained thanks to "Before the Dawn", "Snow Leopard", "Startling by Each Step" and "The Eternal Number".

I'm drooling with envy.

Lu Yuan dared to assert that the revenue of "The Cliff" by then would definitely be a terrifying astronomical figure.

This is another reason why he kept Jiang Wei hanging. It’s not that he didn’t want to shoot, but the timing was not right.

He has no doubt about his dominance in the field of spy dramas.

In order to produce good dramas and hits, video network companies can abandon the so-called alliance at any time. Therefore, copyright revenue will continue to increase next year.

The copyright wars aren't going to stop anytime soon.

In order to avoid copyright disputes, major video website companies have also tried to make their own dramas, but compared with traditional film and television companies, they are not as capable.

Therefore, Lu Yuan had planned a route long ago, and starting in 2013, the company began to fully start the production of long-form TV series.

Let the copyright market be a little more chaotic, the more chaotic the better, and take advantage of the hot market to bite off a piece of meat from these capitals.

But Lu Jing's proposal in the afternoon pointed him in another direction.

He has an endless supply of stories and scripts, and his own production team. Why doesn't he build his own platform, or invest in a video website and take the lead in the discourse?

He agreed with what Gong Yu said, which was also the view he had always adhered to: for video websites, content is king.

Everyone is losing money. They are simply spending huge amounts of money to bet on a hit product, but the probability is too low and the effect is not ideal.

Moreover, he owns the copyright of Blueprint. Although the number of copyrights is slightly less than that of LeTV, Blueprint has more classic dramas with a potential value of billions, and he can also distribute it.

If we take into account the proceeds from the sale of iQiyi shares, theoretically, his funds would be as high as 50 billion.

There are also a large number of scripts that are not included in the valuation.

Relying on these, they can invest in a video website, dominate the discourse, build their own playback platform, formulate the rules of the game, define the standards for domestic dramas, fight against capital, and say "fuck you" to shoddy film and television dramas.

enough?

Lu Yuan didn't know.

But he understood that if he really wanted to build his own platform, relying solely on Yuanfang Media to provide content was not a normal business model.

The role of the platform is to gather audiences. It should be open to all film and television companies in the industry and have them provide content, rather than just being limited to distant media.

Even though he has a large number of scripts, he can barely maintain his output.

So, how can we get other producers and film and television companies to willingly put the dramas they produce on their own platforms?
Like iQiyi, Tencent and other video websites, he spent a huge amount of money to buy it? He doesn't have such strong funds.

Give benefits to the producers, use a profit-sharing model, or something else?
Lu Yuan had no idea.

So, do you want to take another gamble?

It’s just like when you were struggling over whether to buy the copyright for a film or TV series, betting on the copyright price going up.

Can he win the bet a second time?
Lu Yuan asked himself in his heart.

But no matter what choice he made, he was once again standing at the crossroads of life and career.

There is a sunny avenue on the left and thorns all over the ground on the right.

"The annual fantasy love comedy "Time Travel Cohabitation", directed by Lu Yuan and co-starred by Liu Shishi, was released, and the final box office was 8.73 million, setting a record for domestic films."

——Qingdao Daily.

"'Out of Time' broke box office records, and Lu Yuan sighed that the results exceeded expectations."

——Sina reports.

"'Out of Time' becomes the box office champion of Chinese films, with record-breaking attendance!"

——ifeng.com.

"The investment in Out of Time was 4000 million, and the box office was 8.73 million. Lu Yuan made 2.6 million from this movie!!"

——NetEase reports.

On March 3, "Out of Time" came to a successful conclusion, and its final box office data was revealed in a shocking manner.

All major entertainment platforms were inundated with praises, and Weibo was even more lively, with colleagues offering their sincere blessings to "Out of Time".

When the film was first released, although Lu Yuan was full of confidence, he never expected it to achieve such a brilliant market response.

Today, this movie is a box office success and has a good reputation. When it premiered, many people who went to the cinema to buy tickets to watch "Out of Time" had the illusion that tickets were hard to come by during the Spring Festival travel rush.

Lu Yuan knows very well that the success of "Out of Time" is the result of the combined effect of many factors, including schedule, creativity, script, actors and publicity.

The early publicity for the Love Words Challenge and the involvement in the Yin Xiaotian incident raised the audience's expectations to the maximum.

After its release, the film's excellent quality quickly gained traction among the audience, and word of mouth spread like wildfire. In addition, the clarification and reversal of the "box office stealing" rumors won the film strong support from public opinion, leading to this achievement.

The night when "Out of Time" was released.

Lu Yuan and the main creative team held a celebration banquet in Beijing. Many heavyweight guests were invited to attend, and the event was star-studded.

Whether they are familiar faces on the small screen or dazzling stars on the big screen, even if their schedules are tight and they have no free time, they will take time out of their busy schedules and fly from Hengdian to participate.

He is a big director who has the highest single-film box office in China. If he can get a role in his next movie, his salary will increase dramatically.

"Director Lu, you are the box office champion of a single film. How do you feel now?"

"Box office is not what I pursue. Telling a good story is my goal."

"Director Lu, can you please speak your mind? This is the first time I have interviewed you since the release of Out of Time. I was your fan before I entered the industry."

"Haha, okay, to be honest, even though I have been acting very calm, I am actually a little happy. But what I want to say is that the miracle belongs to the Chinese moviegoers."

"Liu Shishi"

After sending away the reporters, Liu Shishi let go of the dog's arm, picked up the wine glass, and walked on her short legs to socialize. The way she walked was so confident and radiant.

The first movie to hit the big screen grossed nearly 9 million yuan, breaking the box office record for domestic films.

Looking around, who else is there among the domestic female stars? !

"Sister K, Lao Hu." She clinked glasses with Cai Yinong and Hu Qian.

Cai Yinong looked around and saw many actresses staring at the figure in the crowd. She pulled her aside and whispered, "Spring is here. You have to pay attention."

"What?" Liu Shishi didn't understand.

Cai Yinong gave her an ambiguous look and pointed in a certain direction.

Liu Shishi looked over and saw an unfamiliar actress, dressed up beautifully, toasting Lu Yuan. The way she moved her body and the look in her eyes showed that she wanted to eat the stinky man alive.

She frowned, somewhat dissatisfied, her eyes lingered on Lu Yuan for a moment, and she shook her head indifferently.

"fine."

Cai Yinong was puzzled. So confident? What if?

Liu Shishi snorted and would never say that she had already squeezed the stinky man dry before she came.

At this time, Lu Yuan walked over, looked at Liu Shishi, and subconsciously raised his hand to support his waist.

Cai Yinong glanced at Hu Chuan and went to meet him.

She came here today not only to send her blessings, but also to discuss other things with Lu Yuan.

PS: The data in the article can all be found.

(End of this chapter)