The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 603 Payment Model
When I wake up in winter, I feel as angry as if the lid of my coffin has been pried open.

December 12th, the premiere ceremony of "New World" was held.

At ten o'clock, Lu Yuan climbed out of bed with full energy, and with a "rustle", he quickly opened the bedroom curtains.

Although the first snow has not yet fallen in Beijing in December this year, the cold wind is still biting and piercing the bone.

The Central Meteorological Observatory had earlier issued a blue warning for the cold wave, predicting that the lowest temperature in the capital city may break the December record in the past 30 years and reach minus 12 degrees Celsius.

There are many wild animals raised in Ziyu Villa, including alpacas, peacocks, sika deer, white swans and so on.

The villa he bought has an excellent view. Looking to the west, a small park comes into view. The surface of the lake has turned into mirror-like ice, and a few birds are flying around on it.

As for animals such as alpacas and sika deer, they had long disappeared and no one knew where they had gone to.

Compared with the previous months, the villa seems more desolate at this moment, and the desolate and solemn atmosphere unique to winter permeates.

Just like the upcoming Lunar New Year movie war, the smell of gunpowder is getting stronger.

Bathed in the sun, Lu Yuan stretched, turned and went into the bathroom to wash up, while browsing the latest entertainment information.

The news about New World being reported was made public on the 17th.

Over the past two days, public opinion has been boiling and continuing to ferment. Various big Vs have come out and movie fans have been left speechless.

He hadn't originally intended to hype it up like this, but he just happened to be reported.

During the roadshow, managers of many cinema chains, including Wanda, sent congratulatory messages.

It said that the pre-sale results were impressive, with pre-sale tickets almost sold out, and the box office on the premiere day is very likely to break the record for Chinese-language films.

He also paid special attention to the pre-sale situation of "The Chinese Zodiac".

There is no doubt that this action blockbuster is the real rival of the Lunar New Year box office in his mind.

Brother Cheng Long's publicity campaign is still in full swing. This time he joined "The Chinese Zodiac" for no pay and received a share of the box office, and the share ratio is quite considerable.

After several attempts at transformation, three years later, Cheng Long finally returned to the field of Long's action films, which he is best at.

"The Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs" is undoubtedly a long-awaited feast for thousands of dragon fans.

There is no need to elaborate on Cheng Long's influence, and Lu Yuan also expressed his sincere admiration for the contribution this predecessor has made to Chinese-language films.

But that didn't stop him from wanting to surpass his opponent at the box office.

As for Chow Yun-fat, the leading actor of "The Great Devil", well, he started hyping up the issue of naked donation again.

Chow Yun-fat has repeatedly shown his contempt and disdain for mainland actors in public, and his character is questionable.

In addition to the little things Huang Xiaoming revealed to him, Lu Yuan was not impressed and decided not to mention it.

I washed my face and walked out of the bathroom.

As soon as I opened the bedroom door, I almost bumped into my nephew Zhou Qi.

The little brat was running back and forth in the corridor, holding a toy gun in his hand.

"biubiubiu~"

Lu Yuan grabbed his collar, braked, and pulled him back: "Who bought this gun?"

"Grandpa!"

He was suspended in mid-air and answered crisply.

"show me."

Zhou Qi was reluctant to part with it and hesitated for a while, but in the blink of an eye it was snatched away by someone.

It is a metal powder revolver equipped with a silencer. It looks quite exquisite and is very expensive.

Lu Yuan suddenly became interested and pulled the trigger several times in succession.

"Snapped!"

"Snapped!"

"Snapped!"

Zhou Qi stood on tiptoe, stretched out her little hands, grabbed the hem of his clothes, and swung it.

"Uncle, this is mine."

Lu Yuan fired several shots in a row, and seemed to have returned to his childhood. He smiled and asked his nephew: "There are still bullets. Let me shoot a few more."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Qi immediately covered his pocket, crouched down, and shook his head desperately, saying, "Uncle, I don't have any bullets in my pocket."

This silly kid... Lu Yuan deliberately frowned and said, "You are not a good kid, are you?"

Zhou Qi felt aggrieved, tears welling up in his eyes.

Lu Yuan coughed guiltily, looked around, touched his head, and negotiated: "Be good, this gun is too dangerous for you, what if you get hurt? Wait until you grow up to play with it. Uncle is not afraid of danger, I will help you get rid of it."

"No!" Zhou Qi refused loudly.

"Dad lied to me the same way yesterday, and then he used up all my bullets and refused to buy me any more."

"Wow, wow, wow..." He became sadder and sadder as he spoke, and his tears fell like beads from a broken string.

"Uh" Lu Yuan blinked.

Brother-in-law, you are such a piece of shit. You even have the nerve to snatch children’s toys.

Villa, living room.

Lu Minghua sat comfortably on the sofa, holding his mobile phone and watching TV series, using the PPS video player software that came with the vivo factory system.

12 mobile phones can already play videos, but the picture quality is not that clear.

He was watching "The Ming Dynasty 1566".

In the months since PPS was acquired, the company's technical team has not been idle.

Not only does it continue to update the PC client, but it is also actively engaged in the research and development of the web and mobile versions.

With the stunning debut of the vivoX1 mobile phone, the PPS mobile client was also released.

Thanks to the huge reserve of classic film and television dramas owned by Blueprint Copyright, the PPS mobile version has quickly attracted a considerable number of active users.

"Startling by Each Step", "Empresses in the Palace", "Drawing Sword", "Live", "Snow Leopard", "Wulin Wai Zhuan"...

These classic movies and TV series attract many users to watch repeatedly every day.

In addition to this, there is another historical drama that stands out, that is "The Ming Dynasty 1566".

This drama brought shame to Hunan Satellite TV back then, but Lu Yuan has always felt regretful and always believed that its ratings should be more than that.

Therefore, he used his privilege as a major shareholder to ask PPS employees to step up the promotion of the drama.

Sure enough, a group of users discovered this buried treasure.

Many classic lines from the drama were also widely circulated by users and became popular on social media.

Some things, if not on the table, weigh nothing, but when weighed, they weigh a thousand pounds. ———Yang Jinshui
No one is truly a wise minister. When they are wise, they are used; when they are not, they are dismissed. - Emperor Jiajing
There is only one person in the Ming Dynasty who can call the shots, and that is the emperor. There is also only one person who can protect us from the wind and rain, and that is me. - Yan Song

You are in me, I am in you, this is where all the bad things in the world go wrong. - Hu Zongxian
Civil officials have birds embroidered on their clothes, and military officials have beasts embroidered on their clothes. After putting on this skin, which one of us is not a beast in human clothing? - Zheng Michang
My money! ! ——Emperor Jiajing
"."

After watching this drama, many PPS users gave it extremely high praise.

Some people even said that understanding "The Ming Dynasty 1566" is better than reading ten years of books!
Lu Minghua is one of them, and he has a special liking for this historical drama. He was deeply touched by the heavy sense of history, the subtle power game between the emperor and his courtiers, and the complex and ever-changing political ecology and social outlook in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

This is a work that requires a certain age and life experience to understand, and the threshold is relatively high.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

Just as Lu Minghua was immersed in the tense plot of Yang Jinshui being tortured.

Zhou Qi closed his eyes, waved his hands wildly, and rushed into his arms, crying loudly, complaining aggrievedly: "Grandpa, my uncle stole my...hiccup...gun..."

"Be careful, don't fall." Lu Minghua put down his phone.

Zhou Qi buried his head between grandpa's legs, pointed his little hand backwards, and sobbed, "Grandpa, uncle... ow..."

Soon after, Lu Yuan also approached, playing with the revolver in his hand, spinning it in various ways. He imitated the sound of gunfire and teased his silly nephew.

"biubiubiu~"

Seeing this, Zhou Qi cried even harder.

Lu Minghua shook his head helplessly and said to Haodaer, "Give it back to him quickly!"

Only then did Lu Yuan put the pistol back into his nephew's hands.

Zhou Qi looked at the empty ammunition bay, touched his empty pocket, and choked up.

She looked up at her uncle, pouting her lips, raising her arms and wiping her tears pitifully.

"Stingy guy, I'll buy it for you tomorrow." He said casually.

Zhou Qi's shoulders twitched. He felt that the house was full of bad guys, so he ran outside to play.

"Dad, where is my mother?"

"Shishi and your sister called me to go shopping in the mall early in the morning. Oh, and your aunt too."

Lu Yuan curled his lips. Liu Shishi had been complaining about uterine cold last night and wanted him to help treat it, but he just talked big and didn't dare to stay overnight.

"If you're bored, you and your second uncle can go get a foot bath. I'll pay for it. Hey, where's my uncle?"

"Your second uncle went out for a walk, stop talking nonsense." Lu Minghua glared at him and pointed at the phone screen.

"Several other video software on the market have introduced membership fee systems, why hasn't PPS made any moves yet?"

"Oh, about that. The company is still weighing which charging model is most appropriate."

"Trade-offs? Are there several options?" Lu Minghua was a little confused. "Aren't they all monthly or annual packages? Like iQiyi and Sohu."

Lu Yuan sat down next to him, pondered for a moment, and slowly said: "In fact, there is another way, which is to charge by episode. To be more specific, it is how much money a drama has. It can even be further divided and charged by the number of episodes. Users pay for each episode they watch."

"This method sounds quite new!" Lu Minghua's eyes lit up, and he was obviously interested in this new charging model.

"Many viewers may not watch many TV series in a month, so asking them to spend dozens of dollars a month will feel it is not worth it, and they may even feel like they are being kidnapped.

If a TV series only costs a few dollars, more users will probably be willing to pay for it.”

"That's right." Lu Yuan smiled and said, "But this model also has its disadvantages. For the operator, the income will become unstable, and there are many streaming media on the market, so it is not easy to cultivate user loyalty."

Seeing Lu Minghua's puzzled expression, he explained further.

“The advantage of the currently popular monthly or annual subscription system is its stability. A stable customer base means a stable source of income.

The ARPU value (average revenue per user) is relatively high, which is very helpful in alleviating the financial pressure of the platform.

On the other hand, although this payment system is a bit like kidnapping, it can indeed help us build longer-term relationships with customers and increase their loyalty, thus providing more profitable space for market cultivation.”

Lu Minghua fell silent after hearing this. He was just a retired high school history teacher and didn’t know much about the twists and turns of the streaming business model.

Seeing his father remained silent, Lu Yuan didn't say anything more.

In fact, the company has been considering the issue of how to charge for quite some time, but has never made up its mind.

After all, both models have their pros and cons.

Lu Yuan personally prefers the model of charging per episode.

The producers and the platform can share the profits together. For those TV series and movies with high pay and high click-through rates, the platform will give higher traffic and exposure.

For works that meet the audience's expectations, their distribution ratio and final income will increase accordingly.

Such an operation would be extremely cruel to the producers, and the 80/20 rule of survival of the fittest would become more obvious.

But at the same time, this can also, to a certain extent, force the improvement of the quality of TV dramas.

“Why not try to run both models in parallel?”

My second uncle Lu Yao quietly approached at some point and offered a pertinent suggestion.

“Let those heavy fans of video dramas choose monthly or annual subscription services, while light fans can choose freely and pay by the episode.

Once the number of paying users reaches a certain scale and their loyalty is established, we will consider whether to adjust the charging model based on market feedback.”

"That's also a method." Lu Yuan thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

Then, his attention was attracted by the toy revolver in his second uncle's hand.

"Uncle, where did you get this gun?" Lu Yuan felt that the gun looked familiar.

Lu Mingyao coughed slightly awkwardly, his eyes flickering and looking around, as if trying to change the subject.

However, before he could open his mouth to explain, a loud cry suddenly came from the yard.

"Grandpa, my uncle stole my gun. Ouch, my gun. Mom."

If you don’t see the person, hear the sound first.

Zhou Qi closed his eyes and rushed into the living room like a blind man groping for an elephant. He fell down, got up, sat on the floor, and almost cried to death.

Seeing this, Lu Minghua looked at his brother helplessly.

Lu Yuan touched his chin.

Tsk tsk tsk, there’s no doubt about it, this second uncle is definitely my dearest.

The global premiere of "New World" was held at the Water Cube in Beijing.

The box office success of "Out of Time" and "Lost in Thailand" has made Lu Yuan an iconic figure in the film industry's reputation and box office.

The drama "New World" starring him has attracted attention from the industry since the beginning of filming.

Director Wen Muye, actors Lu Yuan, Liang Jiahui, Wang Yanhui, Liu Yijun and other main creators were all present.

Industry directors Feng Xiaogang, Ning Hao, Xu Zheng, China Film Chairman Han Sanping, Light Media Chairman Wang Changtian, Emperor Entertainment Group Chairman Yang, as well as Huang Bo, Wang Baoqiang, Liu Shishi and others attended the red carpet.

Dozens of A-list celebrities showed up to promote "New World," along with reporters from East Asian countries. The red carpet event was as spectacular as the lineup of an international A-level film festival.

In order to make the publicity more powerful, Zhang Bowen integrated resources and cooperated with PPS.

It was the first Internet-style movie premiere in history.

It is not a carefully planned live broadcast by traditional TV stations, but a real-time broadcast that strives to eliminate any editing and modification.

Nine camera positions, one shot from beginning to end, no blind spots.

Because Lu Yuan is going to announce a big news at the premiere tonight!
(End of this chapter)