Huayu: This producer has no bottom line.

Chapter 26 Report to the Boss

Dawanglu SOHO Modern City.

The open-plan room, which is over 90 square meters, contains four desks, and a stack of cardboard boxes used to store computers is piled up in the corner.

The acrylic company nameplate hanging on the wall hasn't been removed yet—Shengping Vision Culture Media

The life story is about Ren Pingsheng.

This is his headquarters, which also demonstrates the new company's ambition to establish itself in the video industry.

"Brother Pingsheng, this place... feels really down-to-earth," Bai Ke said, putting his luggage on the ground and looking around.

Although it can't compare to the Sohu Building, the sense of belonging made these young people's eyes shine.

"The conditions are a bit basic, but we'll have to make do for now."

Ren Pingsheng pulled up a chair and sat down. "Everyone, find a seat and we'll have a short meeting."

The group grabbed a few pieces of cardboard and placed them under their bottoms, forming a circle around them.

"Ping Sheng," Da Peng spoke first, his expression somewhat solemn. He lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and said, "The boss just called again, saying that without Souhu's support, we're just a makeshift operation and can't accomplish anything."

Ren Pingsheng took the cigarette Da Peng offered, but didn't light it. He just played with it between his fingers, showing no panic on his face. "So what if they ran away? If they took money from those coal bosses, they might end up with a goddaughter. I'd find that disgusting."

"That makes sense," Dapeng shrugged, "but we've bought the equipment and rented the land. Now we don't have any start-up capital. What are you going to use to bid?"

"Brother Peng, broaden your thinking."

Ren Pingsheng stood up and wrote two dates on the whiteboard with a marker: [September 15] and [October 27].

"You guys are so focused on making videos, don't you even pay attention to your employer's news?"

Everyone shook their heads in bewilderment.

Ren Pingsheng tapped the whiteboard with his pen: "On September 15th, Sohu joined forces with hundreds of companies that own video copyrights to form an anti-piracy alliance and sued Youku. The day before yesterday, they also sued Xunlei."

Upon hearing this, Da Peng's expression changed slightly. "You mean..."

"The copyright war has officially begun," Ren Pingsheng said, emphasizing each word. "The era of pirated videos is coming to an end."

"Next, major video websites will fall into a frenzy of copyright competition. In the fight for users, whoever has high-quality content will be the platform's 'king'!"

Zhang Yibo, being a savvy shopper, immediately brightened up: "Director Ren means that if we enter the market now, we'll be catching the wave of platforms scrambling for content?"

"right!"

Ren Pingsheng turned around, turned on his computer, and logged into a backend interface. "The threshold for cinemas is too high, and the water is too deep. It's not suitable for us now. What we want to make money from is the Internet."

"I'll show you something."

The four of them went over and gasped after just one glance.

That's the "Life Story" account on Youku's creator backend.

On the screen, the combined views of the three videos had exceeded a staggering twelve million!

The notifications showed countless netizens frantically digging up old information.

"Holy crap! I just realized that this streamer who's been analyzing housing prices and the lives of ordinary people is the same person who predicted Michael Jackson's death!"

"Wow... foreign capital and domestic capital... This streamer is ruthless, daring to say that?"

The series of videos on the "Power and Sex Game" has created a cross-feedback effect, with the three episodes promoting each other and the number of views increasing wave after wave.

What shocked Da Peng and the others even more was the balance in the back-end account.

"Ones...tens...hundreds...millions...ten thousands...sixty thousand!" Xiao Ai counted the digits, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets. "The revenue sharing for creation can be this much?"

"The revenue sharing for creators on Youku is currently 1 to 5 yuan per thousand clicks. My play count has reached the highest level, which is 5 yuan per thousand clicks."

Ren Pingsheng calmly explained, "This is the revenue share from a single platform. When you include the total revenue from other platforms, these three videos have already generated nearly 3 yuan in revenue."

"This is without any product placement. You guys are familiar with this; that's how 'Wanwan' and 'Diaosi' made their money."

Ren Pingsheng looked at the stunned crowd and said, "This is the monetization model for Shengping Vision. It's a million times more reliable than begging and pleading to get theatrical releases."

"Gulp," Da Peng swallowed hard. He suddenly realized that his previous understanding of the Internet was like that of a country bumpkin who had never seen the world.

He was so shocked because Sohu didn't offer any revenue sharing to individual creators.

At that time, domestic video websites mainly operated under two models: one was the YouTube model, which relied on user-uploaded content, and the other was the Hulu model, which focused on licensed film and television content.

Sohu chose the latter, and is a staunch advocate of "genuine high-definition".

But in Ren Pingsheng's view, it's less about Sohu choosing Hulu and more about Charles choosing to "buy directly".

Old Zhang, a PhD graduate from MIT, is somewhat elitist and looks down on these kinds of things.

Da Peng was thrilled, but being a seasoned veteran, he immediately realized, "But 100,000 isn't enough for us to put together a whole show."

Ren Pingsheng laughed, "Brother Peng is right, but I never said that the start-up capital was only this 100,000."

He turned off the video feed and opened eName's trading platform page.

"I've already prepared our first real pot of gold."

"What is this?" Da Peng wanted to press his face against the screen, staring at the densely packed letters.

Domain certificate.

Ren Pingsheng leaned back in his chair, his eyes revealing composure.

"At the end of March, I spent tens of thousands of yuan to acquire these three domain names."

"w...e...i...b...o..." Da Peng spelled it out letter by letter, then suddenly slapped his thigh, "Weibo! Is this the new Lang Weibo that just launched in August?"

"Weibo?" Bai Ke and Xiao Ai were still confused.

"Yes, Xinlang Weibo is currently using a very long domain name, which users can't remember. And with Weibo being so popular now, I predict that Tencent, NetEase, and even our former employer, Sohu, will all follow suit and create their own Weibo platforms."

Ren Pingsheng lit a cigarette, leaned on the edge of the table, and turned to look at everyone. "When the time comes, anyone who wants to eliminate their competitors must acquire a domain name that can directly compete with Weibo. There are only three of them on the entire Internet, and they are all in my hands."

Da Peng's Adam's apple bobbed. "Someone's been looking for you?"

"Starting in September, real estate agents contacted me indirectly, offering 100,000 yuan, which I ignored. In mid-October, the price rose to 500,000 yuan, but I still ignored it."

Ren Pingsheng flicked his cigarette ash. "It's still early. Once the other companies' products are launched and they start competing, I'll package the three domain names together and let the highest bidder win."

He gestured with his hand, "Don't even bother talking unless it's at least eight figures."

"Eight figures!"

Da Peng's legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

In 2009, when the price of apartments in Beijing's Third Ring Road was only 20,000 to 30,000 yuan per square meter, this amount of money was enough to buy several apartments!

That coal boss who withdrew his investment was only willing to pay a total of three million!

"Pingsheng," Dapeng said, sitting on the ground and looking up at him, his voice slightly unsteady, "you said you bought it at the end of March, how the hell did you know Xinlang was going to launch a Weibo account?"

"Just a guess."

"Guess? Guess again?" Da Peng almost jumped up.

"Okay, I'm not teasing you anymore."

"Actually, I noticed that Xinlang has been investing in interactive products, and Twitter and Facebook already exist abroad. They will eventually adopt them. To put it bluntly, those products are microblogs. I thought there was potential in those two words, so I took a gamble."

Da Peng stood there dumbfounded for a long time, then got up from the ground, dusted himself off, and the other three young men were completely dumbfounded.

So, don't worry about money.

Ren Pingsheng stubbed out his cigarette and looked at his startup team with piercing eyes.

"Before selling the domain, let's think of it as going back to when we were filming 'Wanwan' (a popular Chinese sitcom). Let's save where we can, spend where we can, work together, and create a new IP!"

He got up, walked to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and wrote four large characters below the two dates.

Report to the Boss

Everyone stared at those four words, before they could even ask a question.

Ren Pingsheng had already put the pen cap back on.

"This time, we won't be losers."

He turned to look at everyone, "This time, we'll be the bosses."