Top of the big era

I went to Tokyo. I went there and came back the same day.

Meet Chen Dong.

When it comes to developing the Korean market, the previous target fell on Kim Beom-soo, one of the founders of NHN Group who later left.

In order to show his sincerity, Chen Dong made a special trip to South Korea.

Previously, Chen Dong's Korean younger brother named Kim Jong Hyuk had already started an e-commerce business in South Korea, and Kim Jong Hyuk's father was the director and vice president of Hyundai Group, with a high position of authority.

With this kind of relationship, many things will be easier to handle.

After meeting Chen Dong, Zhou Buqi got straight to the point, "Jin Fanxiu agreed?"

Chen Dong said with a smile: "He is now a househusband. He is almost idle. He dreams of starting a business again, but he lacks a suitable direction. After leaving NHN, he made several small web games, but they were not successful in the local market. It was also very unsuccessful in the United States.”

"What did you say?"

"I told him that traffic is king. According to our country's Internet experience, as long as there is traffic, the success rate of new games will be greatly improved. Whether it is QQ or Helo, they are all following this path."

"He accepted it?"

"I'm still understanding it, but my intention to cooperate is very clear." Chen Dong smiled, "I can't believe it. I'll probably make up my mind after the iPhone version of Helo is launched."

Zhou Buqi said: "I heard from Zhou Shaoning that the Korean market has been opened. This year's iPhones, including Aster2, can enter the Korean market. The opportunity has come."

Samsung has officially announced that their Android phone will be released in June this year. LG’s Android phones will also be launched in July.

South Korea will officially enter the smartphone era.

South Korea's Internet infrastructure has always been among the best in the world. As long as terminal products keep up, it can enter the mobile Internet era ahead of Japan.

Firstly, South Korea is small in area and population, so it is easy to transform; secondly, Japanese users have too strong habitual attributes, and young Koreans prefer to pursue new things, which is related to national character.

Chen Dong was full of confidence in Boss Zhou's judgment and said with a smile: "Yes, I talked with Jin Fanxiu, he has great ideas, and... he has the charm of a successful person. I think he can do it. Simply choose I’ve decided to work with him to develop South Korea’s mobile Internet market. When are you free to talk to him? Or should I take him to see you?”

"I'll go and check out the market in South Korea. Let's go there together after the Spring Festival."

"OK."

"However, it's still a little early. When smartphones from Samsung, LG, Apple, BlackBerry, and Asda go on sale in South Korea, it may not be until September, and there will still be more than half a year."

Chen Dong heard something in his words, "Boss Zhou, do you have any new ideas?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Mobile Internet is the general trend, but within two or three years, PC Internet will still be the key development direction. If South Korea's business only focuses on the mobile phone side and ignores the computer side, it will be difficult to form a linkage effect. Or Just like the Japanese business, computers and mobile phones must be synchronized.”

"Well, we can do YikYak first."

"Actually, I recently made a new discovery, a new technology."

"What technology?"

"Image processing, resolution conversion."

"Um?"

Chen Dong didn't understand what he meant.

Zhou Buqi said: "If you have good technology, it must be applied. If it cannot be transformed into the market, it will not generate value. What I am talking about is a technology from the Hong Kong Multimedia Laboratory, which can convert the resolution of a picture into Improve. Pictures are fine, and videos are certainly fine.”

"Video?" Chen Dong smiled, "You want to start in this direction?"

Zhou Buqi said: "To be precise, it's a live video broadcast."

"Isn't it possible at home?"

Chen Dong's wife and children are all in China, and he often video chats with other people in China, so the experience is very bad. He is in Tokyo, and there is not much of a problem here. The problem is in China, where the Internet speed is too slow. So much so that the picture there is blurry and often freezes.

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "China is not mature yet, but Korea and Japan can do it. I read a report that the current Internet speed in Korea is as high as 10M/s download speed."

Chen Dongdao: "Well, the live broadcasting industry has been in South Korea for six or seven years, but... ahem, their live broadcasts are more content that is prohibited under the 18th Eighteenth Anniversary."

"No, I've checked. Nowadays, formal live broadcast platforms have appeared, and they are doing quite well. For example, afreecaTV, the most female anchors can do is squeeze their grooves, expose their navel, wear a short skirt, and expose their underwear. It’s quite formal. There are live broadcasts of games and even mukbang, which is quite interesting.”

Zhou Buqi is fairly familiar with this business.

The live broadcast industry will be an important trend in the future, and domestic video live broadcast is ranked first in the world. However, 99% of the gameplay and creativity of domestic video websites come from South Korea. Some live broadcast platforms even package and poach all Korean female anchors to China.

South Korea’s population base is too small, and live video services are free and mainly rely on traffic to make money. The country has a large population and has natural advantages.

Chen Dong sighed, "Actually, Japan's live broadcast industry is also very good. All infrastructures are very good, and the number of netizens far exceeds that of South Korea. But the Japanese are too stingy. They don't like to show their faces or expose themselves during live broadcasts. ."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "This is what I call computer vision processing technology."

"hehe."

Chen Dong was embarrassed to ridicule him and said to himself, Boss Zhou, stop pretending, you know nothing about computer vision.

Zhou Buqi said seriously: "Japanese people don't like to show their faces. It's easy. You can use face-changing technology to change your face into a watermelon or cartoon character. This shouldn't be difficult to achieve. I'm talking about a higher level of difficulty. It is the optimization of resolution. South Korea's Internet speed can accept higher resolutions, but the host's camera may not be able to capture such high-resolution images. This can use fixed-point amplification technology of images. Well, it is real-time and accurate The points on the human face are accurately positioned, and then zoomed in multiple episodes. Each episode zooms in a little bit and then positions it, and then zooms in a little bit more and positions it again, and finally the resolution enhancement effect is completed.”

Chen Dong was slightly startled, "Is it difficult to achieve?"

"Technology is changing quickly. This is definitely a general direction." Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "Video live streaming is an emerging industry with great development prospects in the future, especially for young people. PCs in the Korean market The Internet is almost monopolized by NHN, and it may be difficult for several major traditional industries to enter. It is better to use live video as a breakthrough."

Chen Dong smiled and said: "Let the anchors recommend new applications for smartphones?"

"This idea is possible. The linkage effect of traffic must be that the PC terminal attracts traffic to the mobile terminal in the early stage, and the mobile terminal diverts traffic to the PC terminal in the later stage."

"Well, then...then build a live video website in South Korea first?"

"We have to do it." Zhou Buqi nodded, "It's only January now, and smartphones won't be widely available until at least September. Let's build a live broadcast website first. And there's no need to start from scratch. The afreecaTV I just mentioned , seems to be the most popular right now, and its model mainly relies on selling advertising, brand promotion, and buying gifts, and it’s not worth a lot of money. Let’s discuss it with Jin Fanxiu, why not just buy this website directly.”

Live video streaming is an emerging industry that even major companies have not paid attention to.

In South Korea, due to the emergence of a large number of 18-ban live video websites in the past, this industry has given everyone a general impression of unhealthy and indecent content.

This is an opportunity.

Others look down on it, so Ziweixing has a chance to seize the market.

afreecaTV is quite popular among young people, but the company is too small and has no backing. It is better to acquire it directly and then carry out ecological linkage. First, combine it with YikYak to do PC Internet business. In the second half of the year, we will work together to enter the mobile Internet.

For Ziweixing, live video broadcasting is a brand new industry, and it is a bit risky to start a new industry in an emerging market.

But there is no way, Japan’s cultural background is not good, and the domestic infrastructure is not good.

Or wait a few more years for the domestic Internet infrastructure to be further upgraded before developing live streaming services. Either enter South Korea first and use the Korean market as a testing ground.

Domestically... we still have to adapt to the general situation and start with voice!

For example, the YY version of Helo.

The name of the software is "YY version Helo".

Duowan Company has confirmed that the software has launched a beta version on the 1st of this month, and has issued trial invitations to Advertising YY users.

After users log in to "YY version of Helo", they can bind their Helo account and YY account, and then two friend lists will appear, one is Helo's friends and the other is YY's friends.

It is equivalent to having the functions of Helo and YY at the same time through this software.

For senior YY users, the biggest attribute of YY is voice, not only voice communication with the team when playing games, but also voice shows in YY entertainment shows.

Some anchors are telling ghost stories, some are telling pornographic jokes, and some are shouting, singing, and cross-chatting. A voice-based entertainment space has been formed.

The only drawback is that there are too few people.

YY is just a niche software that relies on "World of Warcraft" players to form teams and play dungeons together. But it's different after linking with Helo. YY anchors can invite all Helo friends to join their shows, which opens up the market.

Moreover, if the user is listening to the voice program of the YY show, the account status will be displayed, and he will tell all Helo friends about his status, which can create a viral effect and spread the word to tens and hundreds, attracting more people. people join.

Duowan Company attaches great importance to this product. Combined with Helo, it has the opportunity to push YY to new heights. During the Spring Festival, when people all over the country are resting at home, it is a good opportunity for YY Voice Show to seize the city and seize the territory.

On January 20, the official version of “YY version of Helo” will be launched.

Ziweixing has also been paying attention to this matter, which is related to the next development plan of the "Magic Reform Helo Project". Previously, Ziweixing had completed financing for Duowan, spending US$59 million to acquire 40% of the shares. Even if there are some mistakes and detours, there is still a lot of room for adjustment and correction.