Top of the big era

Draw a big pie and let everyone divide it!

Zhou Buqi is not sure whether this American TV series platter investment project will be successful or not. He can only say that theoretically it has a relatively high probability of success.

With the changes in entertainment models, good stories have been transferred from Hollywood movies to American TV series. This is also the general trend. In fact, the data of the past two years also confirms this.

Over the past year, the box office market for Hollywood movies has recovered, and the total box office of North American movies has increased.

However, this still causes many people to worry.

Although the total box office has increased, if you peel back the inner layer, you can see that the reason for the increase is that the ticket prices of 3D movies and giant-screen movies have become more expensive.

In fact, the annual number of moviegoers has dropped, and the overall box office rise has been driven by price increases.

In the past few years, Americans went to the cinema to watch an average of seven movies a year. Now, it has been reduced to 6. If the timeline is extended, it will be even scarier.

In the "golden age" of major Hollywood studios, when red couches were at their most blatant, the average American watched at least 50 movies a year.

Why are movie fans reluctant to go to movie theaters to watch movies?

The reason is simple.

More forms of entertainment emerged.

During the golden age of Hollywood, even television had not been invented. Watching movies was almost the only form of entertainment, and even war propaganda films were played in cinemas.

Now, streaming media, led by Netflix, are out.

The business strategies of high-quality TV channels headed by HBO are becoming more and more lively, their content is becoming more and more exciting, and more and more people are beginning to follow the drama.

With the development of technology and the revolutionary changes of the Internet, the golden age of American dramas has arrived.

In fact, it’s not just the United States.

The film and television industries around the world are similar, and the best stories are moving towards TV series.

This time Zhou Buqi left New York for South Korea and also received an invitation from the Korean Television Association. Korean TV dramas have become popular throughout Asia, and are even more popular than Korean movies. That group of people want to promote Korean TV dramas to the world.

"Korean TV series?" Lao Zhang took a plane with him and didn't think so at all. "If nothing else, the language is incomprehensible. And the Korean acting style... whether it is a TV series or a movie, is a bit exaggerated. Then The performance level is not like that of a developed country at all, it is similar to that of Thailand and Malaysia.”

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "As long as the story is good, South Korea can play the idol model of idol groups so well, and the dream model of handsome men and beautiful women is essentially the same. The logic of current film and television works can be changed."

"How did it change?"

"In previous works, the audience followed the director's ideas. It was like an art work. If the audience could understand it, they would watch it. If they did not understand it, they would reject it. It is different now. The director and production team are responsible for serving the audience Make a dream, make a dream they like.”

"Yes." Zhang Chaoyang nodded, "There is indeed such a trend. It is really not a simple distinction between works of art and commercial films."

Zhou Buqi said: "There are so many forms of entertainment now, why should we go to the movies or watch TV series? This is the benefit of breaking the monopoly. A few decades ago, movies monopolized entertainment. Movies can make whatever they want. Ordinary movies People have no choice but to watch. Things are different now, there is no monopoly advantage anymore, the movies are not good-looking, and people go to play video games."

"Huh?" Zhang Chaoyang vaguely noticed something, "Listening to your tone, why do I feel that Changyou and Ziweixing Global are competitors?"

Zhou Buqi laughed, "There's nothing strange about this."

Zhang Chaoyang hummed: "The palms and backs of your hands are full of flesh, so don't have any inclination."

"There is no tendency, how is it possible?" Zhou Buqi shook his head, "There are so many business models now, it's dazzling to see. But one thing is fixed, a person's day only has 24 hours. To put it bluntly, from Users are competing for time. Whoever steals more time will be more powerful. From this point of view, all personal-oriented companies are competitors. Some people like to watch movies, and some people like to play games. Some people like to socialize and chat, some people like to watch TV dramas and read books, and some people like to play Go... It is nothing more than building a huge business ecosystem and occupying as much of everyone's time as possible. Life is time, and time is wealth."

Zhang Chaoyang nodded, feeling that this topic was a bit big, and asked with a smile: "By the way, is your software good at playing Go? Can it really beat professional players?"

Zhou Buqi said modestly: "We may not win 100% of the time, let's say 99%!"

Zhang Chaoyang said angrily: "Just brag! If you are so good at playing chess, why didn't you go directly to Li Shishi and Gu Li? Did you find a second-rate character?"

In the current Go industry, the top two players in the world are basically two recognized people, one is South Korea's Lee Sedol and the other is China's Gu Li.

In comparison, Lee Sedol is slightly more powerful and has a slightly higher level.

Zhou Buqi argued: "A second-rate character? Do you understand? Pu Tinghuan is also a top player in the world, no worse than Lee Sedol and Gu Li, okay? He is ranked fifth in the world!"

Zhang Chaoyang asked: "Why not just find the most powerful chess player?"

Zhou Buqi said: "This first human-machine game will take place in Seoul. This is South Korea, and it will be more open. Foreign reporters can come more, which is more conducive to global reporting. Wait until the market is opened this time It has caused a sensation and organized the second man-machine war. Then we can go to the domestic capital or magic city. At that time, we will call Lee Sedol and Gu Li to stage the ultimate showdown. This time in South Korea, it is Warm up."

Zhang Chaoyang then asked: "How big is the computing power for playing Go? How did you provide this?"

"AI chip."

Zhou Buqi was also a little vague. He didn't know the specific situation, but he just had a general understanding. He approved an application, and Shen Xiangyang purchased 20,000 yuan of NVIDIA GPUs to provide computing power at a cost of 300 million US dollars. In addition, 20,000 self-developed AI chips were used, costing US$100 million.

Zhang Chaoyang asked: "I read the report and it said that you invested a total of 40,000 graphics cards in order to make this happen."

Zhou Buqi said: "It's not quite accurate, it should be 20,000 yuan. The other 20,000 yuan is self-developed, not GPU."

There is a distinction between dedicated chips and general-purpose chips.

GPU usually refers to a general-purpose chip, which is "universal" and can be used in many scenarios. The most important component of a graphics card is the GPU. Graphics card is often used to refer to GPU.

Many media don't know much about the specific technology, so they will be more casual when reporting, just saying how many graphics cards are used... which is actually not accurate. In fact, it should be a general-purpose GPU chip.

In addition to general ones, there are also special ones.

For example, another team of Shen Xiangyang has been developing its own AI chips.

If it is a general-purpose chip, it is actually very simple. Go outside to purchase the GPU chip, and then assemble it into the AI ​​chip. It will be successful. You can also use the banner of "self-research".

Ziweixing is not doing this. It is really developing its own AI chips specifically for Ziwei Cloud.

The difference between the two is that the graphics card and GPU are universal, equivalent to a "part-time job" and can do many things, and they can do anything; the dedicated AI chip is full-time and only does AI calculations, which is more energy-saving and cheaper. , greater calculation amount.

Compared to ridiculously expensive graphics cards and GPUs, everyone knows that self-developed “full-time” and “full-time” AI chips have a better future.

However, this is a new and immature field with many directions. Which one is right? have no idea! This research and development risk is very high.

Billions of dollars are spent on research and development, but it may fail.

With these billions of dollars, it is time-saving and simple to go directly to NVIDIA to buy general-purpose chips.

In the current technology industry, the only companies that are really developing self-researched AI chips are technology giants such as Intel, Google, IBM, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, in addition to MSI.

In terms of price, it is indeed cheap.

In terms of effect, there is still a certain gap compared with mature graphics cards.

Zhang Chaoyang said with emotion: "You are becoming more and more capable now!"