Reborn: Billionaire in College

After coming out of the teahouse, Wang Tao’s mind was full of Chen Pingjiang’s words “change the world”.

This sentence is extremely lethal to a technology geek like him.

If Wang Tao didn't have an extraordinary passion for technology, how could he have dropped out of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in his junior year?

"Teacher Zhu, I feel we will definitely succeed this time. Aerial photography drones are a good direction. Now we have people, money, sites, and factories. There is no reason why we can't make it."

Zhu Xiaorui also nodded: "I saw some news about Mr. Chen in the news, and I thought he was no different from other Internet entrepreneurs, all of whom were only interested in profit. After talking to him today, I realized that I was totally wrong. I have never seen such a sentiment of serving the country and the people."

Guo Jia was also laughing: "I say you two should stop dawdling and go back early to tell other colleagues the good news. After that, you still have to pack and book flights."

"Yes, yes, go back quickly, we can have dinner together in the evening."

On the other side, Bu Housheng and Chen Pingjiang were walking on the road.

"Mr. Chen, I'm not sure about your investment style. What criteria should I follow when I encounter such high-tech companies in the future?"

Chen Pingjiang often increases the valuation by dozens of times to gamble, and he can't do anything about it.

In this regard, Chen Pingjiang could only spread his hands and said: "You should still follow your style. I just go by my intuition and invest in people."

"What about QuickPlay?"

"Qvod is different. Renren's next step is to expand into the entertainment industry. Qvod, as the industry's leading player, can easily transform into a streaming video platform."

Is Wang Xin worth investing in?
Chen Pingjiang felt that it should be worth it.

Putting aside other things, all the otakus in China owe Kuaibo a thank you. It was the app that accompanied us through so many happy times and allowed us to get to know many teachers in that information-scarce era.

"If Qvod is still around, there will be no place for other players." This is not a joke, but an objective explanation of Qvod's position in the industry.

The advantage of Qvod is that it integrates different playback engines, applies P2P technology and supports mainstream audio and video formats such as MKV, RMVB, WMV, etc. Qvod can also play videos while downloading, so you don’t have to wait to watch the video, which is almost a dimensionality reduction attack on other video playback websites.

Due to its fast, efficient and free features, almost all computers with Internet access at that time were installed with Qvod, and Qvod had a very high penetration rate among domestic users, reaching 70% at one time. In its heyday, it had hundreds of millions of users. Specifically, at the end of 2012, Qvod announced that its number of users had exceeded 2 million, of which 1.2 million were active users, and the daily online viewing volume reached 1.5 million times. In 2013, the number of Qvod users reached 3 million, making it one of the most popular video sharing platforms in China at that time. At that time, the number of Chinese netizens had only exceeded 5 million, and the number of Qvod users was already equivalent to the total number of users of its video playback peers.

There are some inevitable factors in the ending of Kuaibo and Wang Xin. They did not pay attention to copyright and went the wrong way. As for pornography, everyone has their own opinions.

If you touch the cake of many people and there is no one to protect it, bad luck is inevitable.

In other words, even if Kuaibo is wrong, it does not deserve the death penalty.

In an era when some Internet industries such as live streaming were growing wildly, many companies had gray areas. Kuaibo was not the only one to be accused of pornography. All others were taken off the shelves or fined, but Wang Xin was the only one to go to jail.

To some extent, Wang Xin is worthy of sympathy, otherwise he would not have been released from prison later with so many business tycoons supporting him and giving him money.

When he saw Wang Xin, Chen Pingjiang couldn't help but wonder, most of these Internet tycoons wore glasses, but there were very few who didn't.

A standard programmer's outfit.

After meeting Chen Pingjiang, Wang Xin seemed a little reserved. He was not sure about Chen Pingjiang's background.

Wang Xin is not yet remembered by the world. From a broader perspective, Wang Xin is remembered by the public for his sharp arguments and technical evangelism in court in 2016. His famous quote "One-night stands cannot make Momo what it is today, and fake goods cannot make Taobao what it is today" is still circulating on the Internet.

那是国内历史上第一次直播审理一桩跟互联网相关的案件。2016年1月7日至8日，20个小时全程直播，4万人同时在线，100多万人次观看了视频。

What programmers remember most is that Wang Xin proposed the theory of technology innocence in court. The "technology neutrality principle" has gradually entered the public eye from a consensus in a small circle.

"Mr. Wang, I've long heard of your name." Chen Pingjiang said with a smile.

Wang Xin even thought at one point that he had heard it wrong, or that Chen Pingjiang was mocking him. Compared with Chen Pingjiang, what was his fame?

Seeing the curious look on Wang Xin's face, Chen Pingjiang continued: "I admire you for bringing Qvod to such a high level after graduating from a technical secondary school and being obsessed with technology."

"No, no, I don't know what Mr. Chen wants to talk to me about?"

"Let's talk."

"Let's chat?" Wang Xin was stunned. You, a big boss, came all the way to Shenzhen just to chat with me? You are too free.

As soon as he opened his mouth, Chen Pingjiang said something shocking: "Boss Wang, you are almost half in prison now. If you don't talk about it, you may be in prison in a few years."

Wang Xin's heart skipped a beat. After all, Chen Pingjiang's power was far greater than his. But then he thought, he hadn't done anything wrong.

"Mr. Chen, what do you mean?"

If an ordinary person said this, Wang Xin would probably slap him/her.

"Qvod has two original sins: pornography and copyright. If you insist on running wildly down this path, you will fall down sooner or later."

Hearing this, Wang Xin breathed a sigh of relief: "I thought it was something else, you scared me. If that's all, what Mr. Chen said is a bit alarmist. In essence, Qvod is just a platform. The content is uploaded by users and has nothing to do with us. In the same way, users can choose what content they want to watch. Isn't there a lot of fakes and high imitations on Taobao? Did they arrest Lao Ma and sentence him?"

Sure enough, Wang Xin is the kind of person who will not give up until he reaches the Yellow River.

It is probably because of this kind of personality that he ended up using a sewing machine.

In comparison, his competitors are much smarter.

Before the Kuaibo incident, its peers had already taken action. Xunlei had already completely dealt with resources involving pornography and copyright disputes before it went public in 2013. Baidu Video completely stopped its P25P (peer-to-peer transmission) function after receiving a 2 yuan fine.

Only Kuaibo is still soaring, like a stubborn bull that cannot be pulled back.

Chen Pingjiang played with the lighter in his hand and sneered at the words: "You are just saying this to comfort yourself, right? You said the same thing to the procuratorate and the judge, who will listen to you? In the era of the wild growth of the Internet, everyone can grope in the gray area. Once everything is about to be formalized, believe it or not, you will be the first to come out. You can say that Qvod is just a platform, but the platform also has the responsibility of supervision. Just like my Renren and Weibo, if someone posts false or even sensitive pornographic content on social networking sites, I will let it go?"

"Don't use the platform theory to defend yourself. The rapid development of Qvod is due to the use of gray industries. Qvod and 'small movies' are interdependent. Qvod relied on 'small movies' to quickly occupy the market, and 'small movies' relied on Qvod to experience their golden age."

Wang Xin was unable to refute Chen Pingjiang because what Chen Pingjiang said was the truth and it was a hurdle that he could not get around.

After thinking it over, Wang Xin uttered, "But technology is innocent."

Chen Pingjiang smiled and shook his head: "You know what? Your words are meaningless nonsense. Because technology is of course innocent, do you need to emphasize it? No technology or science can be guilty, this is common sense. The only difference is whether you have subjective behavior. Let me ask you a question, don't you know that Qvod is used to watch porn movies? You obviously know it, not only do you know it, you also condone it and silently reap the benefits from it. What you not only know, but you may have it in your server."

"There are a lot of Putian hospital ads on Baidu search. Can Baidu also say that it is just providing a platform? The embryo cloning technology itself is not a crime, but if someone clones a real person, it is unethical."

The deafening sounds made Wang Xin a little dizzy.

His hands holding the water cup began to tremble slightly, and the water in the cup also rippled due to the trembling.

Chen Pingjiang was delighted that the desired effect had been achieved.

"Mr. Chen." Wang Xin drank some water to calm himself down and asked, "I want to ask what is the purpose of you telling me this?"

"Of course I can't bear to see you rushing down the wrong path and finally getting yourself into trouble. I think highly of you as a person and your skills. If possible, I and the company behind me are willing to help you in your career."

Wang Xin laughed: "So Mr. Chen just wanted to invest in Qvod or acquire Qvod all along, and what he said just now was just alarmist talk to scare me?"

Chen Pingjiang raised his eyebrows: "Scare you? Not really. Although Qvod has some value, it depends on who it is for. To me, its value is just average. Without Qvod, I can go find Baofeng Audio and Video or Xunlei, or even make one myself. You can ignore me and continue to rush forward on this path. We'll see in a few years. And even if you invest in Qvod, I won't allow Qvod to develop along the old path."

What Chen Pingjiang said was correct. Even if Kuaibo was protected by him, at most he could only save Wang Xin from going to jail.

In the end, Kuaibo had to change its path. The crackdown on pornography and illegal publications and copyright regulation are inevitable historical events, and Chen Pingjiang cannot stop them.

Wang Xin thought about it and nodded in agreement.

Who is Chen Pingjiang? If he is really interested in KuaiBo, he should just speak up directly. There is no need to be so roundabout.

"I would like to ask, according to what Mr. Chen said, how should Qvod develop?"

“There are two options. The first option is to follow the example of Youtube and create a video content sharing website. The second option is to follow the example of Netflix and create a streaming media imitation platform with a membership subscription system.”

Wang Xin shook his head: "If we don't consider the first point, the cost of bandwidth and storage is scary enough, and the development will be very slow, and it will rely too much on advertising to make profits. Can you explain Netflix's model in detail?"

"It's simple. Just keep running according to your current model for two years. I guarantee you won't have any problems in these two years. Take advantage of these two years to occupy as much of the market as possible and purchase a large number of copyrights for various films and TV series. Extend Qvod's dominance on the PC side to the mobile side, and use its content advantages to dominate the content side. At the same time, use Qvod Xiaofang, or the TV box, to gradually achieve dominance on the TV side. After that, enter the cinema chain and reach the pinnacle of cinema O2O, and finally achieve 24-hour non-stop viewing, from small mobile phone screens to IMAX large screens with 360 degrees of no dead angle."

"By doing this, Qvod has become a big player across PC, mobile, cinema and TV. We focus on purchasing copyrights and producing our own TV series to increase the number of members. In the future, those who own copyrights will own the world."

Wang Xin couldn't help swallowing his saliva, thinking, wow, how long has he been thinking about Qvod? He has arranged everything for me clearly.

"Excuse me for being blunt, but it's a good way. But, Mr. Chen, since you've brought it up, why don't you do it yourself? You need people, you have money, you have channels, you have channels, it should be simple, right?"

"We have already decided internally that we will not develop across industries under normal circumstances. You are an expert in video. Instead of wasting time and energy on it, it is better to incorporate Qvod into our ecosystem."

Chen Pingjiang only said half of it, leaving the other half unsaid.

It is true that I don’t have enough energy because there are too many projects now.

Amap, Renren, Weibo, WeChat, Zhihu, group buying, food delivery, catering groups, Orange mobile phones, and in the future electric vehicles and other high-tech will be added.

For something like entertainment, Chen Pingjiang really doesn't need to do it himself. He can just invest in it like JD.com and DJI.

Another reason is that Chen Pingjiang has been consciously controlling the size of the group to avoid becoming the public enemy of the industry in the future, wanting to do everything and get involved in everything, and eventually suffering from the iron fist of anti-monopoly.

Even as powerful as Tencent and Alibaba are, it is impossible for them to take the No. 1 spot in every track. Tencent has many projects that it cannot complete, and Alibaba will also face crises in the future.

Rather than going into battle alone, it is better to retain your core competitiveness and invest in other areas.

"How about we talk about this today? I want to go back and think about it. Besides, I have to discuss this big thing with Li Qing and Zhou Hongyi. They are also shareholders."

"Okay, then I'll wait for your good news."

Watching Wang Xin leave, Bu Housheng couldn't help but ask: "Mr. Chen, what you said just now was to scare him, or?"

"Guess!" Chen Pingjiang smiled mysteriously.

"Can't guess."

"Of course I'm not trying to scare them. If Qvod doesn't change, then society will make it change. LeEco is going to go public in two months, and they've been buying copyrights everywhere recently, as have many other companies. Just imagine that when these companies become content providers, Qvod will become a thorn in their side. I've worked hard to buy the copyrights, and before I've even recovered the cost, users are watching pirated content on Qvod. Who can stand that?"

"And it is inevitable that there are small movies on the Qvod server. In a few years, this area will definitely be brought under supervision."

As Chen Pingjiang owed Boss Wang a membership in his previous life, he would lend a helping hand if he could.

If you refuse to change, your fate will end here.

…………

Wang Xin really took Chen Pingjiang's words to heart. On the way back, he was a little absent-minded, with Chen Pingjiang's voice filling his mind.

After returning to the company, colleagues also noticed Wang Xin's unnaturalness.

After asking, I finally found out what happened.

"It seems that our company has indeed grown and has attracted the attention of giants."

"Old Wang, you are not really planning to join them, are you? I don't think it is necessary. Without Renren and Chen Pingjiang, we have developed to this point today, right? As for what he said, it was just to scare people. If we want to catch them, none of Xunlei and the others will be able to escape. On the contrary, we can't be intimidated by his words and lose our composure."

"Really? I think what Mr. Chen said makes sense. With his status, he must have access to more information than us. What if the country is going to crack down on copyright and small movies next?"

Everyone was talking one after another, but no one could convince anyone else.

A person's reputation is like the shadow of a tree. It is impossible to say that I don't care about Chen Pingjiang at all.

However, no one wants their well-developed company to be taken over, and even less wants to change the existing strategy because of Chen Pingjiang's words.

Everyone stopped talking and looked at Wang Xin.

But Wang Xin himself couldn't decide.

Finally, I made a call to the Red-robed Leader.

Old Zhou on the other end of the phone laughed when he heard it.

There is such a good thing. As long as you can get involved with Chen Pingjiang, this deal can be done.

Recently, he has been unable to eat or sleep because of the trouble caused by Tencent, and he urgently needs support.

Moreover, once Chen Pingjiang acquires shares, won’t the returns on his shares also increase?

After thinking for two or three days, Wang Xin finally made a decision.

This decision was not easy to make. If Wang Xin hadn't returned home and seen his children, he wouldn't have thought it through so quickly.

Regardless of whether Chen Pingjiang is exaggerating or has some ulterior motive, a gentleman should not stand under a dangerous wall.

Chen Pingjiang laughed when he received Wang Xin's call.

Now Renren and I have become the dominant force.

In fact, except for those companies that are particularly powerful and have a high opinion of themselves, generally speaking, when someone wants to invest in a company, few people will be rejected.

Because Renren not only has money, but also has resources and controls the traffic entrance.

"Tomorrow you will go to Qvod to discuss the rest of the matter. I will go back to Dongjiang first."

Bu Housheng nodded: "I'll call my colleagues in the legal department right away."

When Chen Pingjiang returned to Dongjiang, the people from DJI had just arrived.

When Lin Bin heard about this, he was a little confused. How could the big boss just go out and fool a company so easily?

He's actually a drone maker.

Isn't this idea too radical?

Is there any market for model airplanes? Aren’t all aerial photography equipments very expensive? Will anyone buy them?
With all these questions in mind, Lin Bin received Wang Tao, Zhu Xiaorui and their group.

I thought it was a big company, but I didn't expect Lin Bin to be stunned when he saw it. Isn't this... a little too shabby? (End of this chapter)