MTL - Rebirth Starts at 7 Million-Chapter 229 Star Chat's expansion plan

With the completion of the division of daily headlines and connotation jokes, Xingyuan released an announcement on its official website to explain the matter.

The layman only saw that Neihan Duanzi was independent, but the insider saw that the person in charge of Neihan Duanzi was actually Zhou Yuqing, who used to be 56.com.

The name of 56.com is very popular in the video industry. Before 2008, 56.com was undoubtedly the number one video website in China.

Later, if it wasn't for 56.com's lax content control, it was forcibly taken offline for 30 days by the official, resulting in the loss of users and the withdrawal of capital, Youku and Tudou would not have risen so fast.

After the decline of the once peak 56.com, it sounded the alarm for all video websites.

Since then, these video sites have been frightened and no longer dare to test back and forth in the gray field without the need for vigorous supervision by the government.

After this incident, 56.com caused a large number of talents from 56.com to leave.

Among them is Zhou Yuqing's team. This team is the core team of 56.com, and its ability is absolutely nothing to say.

In the past, there was no capital behind Zhou Yuqing, and there was no way to turn the tide and save 56.com, but now Zhou Yuqing and her team have gone to Xingyuan. Now that they have the capital and traffic, it is not difficult to produce some high-quality content with Zhou Yuqing's ability. , I am afraid that the inner meaning is about to rise.

Inside the Penguin Video, there was a discussion about Xingyuan's announcement:

"What do you think of this connotation joke?" asked President Wu of Penguin Video.

"I think it's a little strange. Does Xingyuan have excess traffic now? They already have a Xiaopo Station. It stands to reason that they should focus on Xiaopo Station as a monetization channel in the video field. Why did they come up with a connotation joke?" One said the short-haired woman.

"I have used this connotation joke, and I feel that it is not like a traditional video website. It is full of short videos ranging from tens of seconds to one minute, and it only has mobile terminals, not web pages. This is completely different from the video website we are doing. Different." said the man opposite the woman.

"You mean that what Xingyuan is doing is a new type of thing?" President Wu asked with a frown.

"I feel like this, because the competition in the video industry is too fierce now, Youku Tudou is desperately burning money, Baidu's shareholding in iQiyi has also begun to expand, and the cost of copyright is too high, I don't think it will be profitable in the next five years. You need to spend money to grab the market.”

"Pharaoh is right, and video sites can't just invest money, they must make achievements in content and the market.

That’s all for this market. Toutiao has traffic that can lead to traffic, but the content is entirely dependent on luck and management, and if the content is not good, the market will not be stable. "

"You should all know Zhou Yuqing's ability, can she not make excellent content?" said the short-haired woman who gave her opinion at the beginning.

Everyone was silent when they heard the words. At this time, President Wu said: "No matter how this connotative joke is expanded or which way it takes, we all need to take precautions. Xiao Zhu will leave it to you."

"It's President Wu." The short-haired girl nodded.

......

At the same time, at the headquarters of Youku, the imperial capital, two Youku partners are also discussing about the inner meaning of Duanzi.

"What do you think of this connotation joke?" Yao asked his partner.

"At the beginning, 56.com was not behind. Although it is far inferior to us in terms of funding and content, the strength of their team is still very strong.

I always felt that if they got new funding, they would get up again.

Fortunately, the financing of 56.com has been failing since then, and there was news that 56.com would be packaged and sold around the New Year this year. At this time, I was a little relieved.

But I didn't expect that Zhou Yuqing actually brought a part of the team to Xingyuan, and also made a connotation joke. This sudden attack almost knocked me out. "Gu Zong said with a bitter face.

"Yeah! Zhou Yuqing and her team's ability should not be underestimated. Coupled with Xingyuan's capital and traffic, it is estimated that it will be very competitive on the mobile side." President Yao said in a serious tone.

"We have just launched the mobile terminal recently. Originally, I was thinking of asking Xingyuan to buy some traffic, but now it seems to be out of the question." Mr. Gu said helplessly.

The rise of the mobile terminal is already recognized by the Internet.

Especially in the field of video, its convenience can be said to be hanging on the PC side.

Even if the data is expensive now, as long as you download it in advance in a wifi environment, you can watch it later.

With this alone, the mobile terminal can attract a large number of users.

As the leading video site Youku, it is naturally impossible to give up this market, but Mr. Gu and Mr. Yao never imagined that they had just entered the game, and they encountered the appearance of connotation jokes.

And Xingyuan also has a small broken station that is also a video-type website. Although it is the main two-dimensional, it should not be underestimated.

Mr. Yao thought for a while and said, "Xingyuan's capital and traffic are very strong, but like Penguin, their core business is not on video websites.

In the end, Xingyuan is doing games and news, and for them, video is just a marginal business.

I feel that Xingyuan is probably just trying to supplement its own ecological chain with this connotative joke, and it is impossible to invest heavily. We should not worry too much.

And these connotation jokes are all messy little videos, which don't seem to be able to make any content. "

"Having said that, I still feel a little uneasy. The combination of Xingyuan + Zhou Yuqing may create a miracle." Gu said.

Youku, Tudou, and 56 competed for several years. Although one was cleaned up and the other was due to the founder's marriage problem, Youku finally gained dominance.

But after so many years of competition, Mr. Gu knew the strength of these two companies.

And now is exactly the time when Mr. Gu is preparing to use the listing funds to launch Youku mobile terminal to occupy the domestic video website market in one fell swoop.

As a result, several big capitals intervened strongly, giving Youku a blow.

The fire of the penguin video has not been extinguished yet, and the connotation jokes have emerged again. Coupled with iQiyi, which is backed by Baidu, and the dead but not stiff potatoes, Mr. Gu feels a lot of pressure.

Video website, in fact, it is not difficult to make money.

Of those large foreign video sites, one counts as one, which one is not the daily gold?

However, there are more and more competitors in China, resulting in high content costs. The re-entry of big capital will only intensify this competition. For Youku, the inability to make profits is the biggest problem.

President Yao is also very clear about this, he patted President Gu on the shoulder and said: "In terms of traffic, we can't surpass them, but we have an advantage in content.

With the resources in our hands, whether it is selfies or outsourcing, we can get a large number of users. After all, content is the core of video websites.

I believe we Youku will have a bright future. "

When the major video sites were worrying about the connotation jokes, high-level officials gathered in Xingyuan's conference room.

Some time ago, Penguin used Penguin video ad-free and Penguin game to attract a wave of popularity to wx.

At that time, Xingyuan's focus was not on Xingchao, and he couldn't touch the penguin directly, so Luo Fan simply didn't see it.

Originally, according to Luo Fan's plan, the next stage of Xingchao's efforts will be after the 4G network is fully popularized.

But now, because of the need to carry mobile payment in Star Chat, the number of users of Star Chat must be increased as much as possible. Luo Fan called everyone here for this reason.

"Boss, you said you already have the idea of ​​expanding Star Chat? Is that true?" Wang Jing asked.

Luo Fan nodded and said, "You should all know about Penguin's penguin farm, right?"

After the senior executives of Xingyuan looked at each other, Li Jingyi nodded and said, "Of course I know, Xingchao also wants to do a business similar to the penguin farm?"

The "Penguin Farm" mentioned by Luo Fan is a social game launched by Penguin in Penguin Space in 2008. However, this game is not original by Penguin. Penguin Farm is actually "imitation" of Happy Farm.

The content of this game is very simple. Each user has his own field, where he can grow various crops, which can then be picked and decorated.

The penguin farm involves experience points and gold coins. With the increase of levels and gold coins, you can also upgrade to obtain more land for farming more crops, a virtuous circle.

How popular was "Penguin Farm" back then?

It is said that at its peak, the game had 100 million active users, more than six times that of World of Warcraft.

And in 2008, it had not yet entered the era of mobile Internet. At that time, Penguin's users were only in the early 200s.

100 million active users, equivalent to one out of every two using Penguin is stealing food.

And Penguin Farm also has a terrible data. In the quarter when Penguin launched Penguin Farm, the monthly income of the entire Penguin increased by 3%, and the daily activity of Penguin Space increased by 16%.

And the word "stealing vegetables" has undoubtedly become a popular word on the Internet at that time.

Even the Ministry of Education has come out, in order to prevent the physical and mental health of minors from being affected, it is required to change "stealing" to "stealing".

Luo Fan smiled and said: "There is this plan, but it is still a little different. If we only repeat the penguin farm, with our size, we can indeed replicate the former glory.

But that can only be short-term. What I hope to do is a long-term event, which can allow those who have Star Chat to use Star Chat, and those who do not have Star Chat will also be attracted. "

"Then how to set it?" Xu Jiale asked curiously.

As someone who has been interested in games since childhood. Xu Jiale studied this game when he was studying. At that time, Xu Jiale felt that the gameplay of Penguin Farm had been developed to the extreme by Penguin, and he really couldn't think of any new ways to play Penguin Farm.

"Mr. Xu, why do you think the Penguin Farm is so successful?" Luo Fan asked Xu Jiale.

In Xu Jiale's view, there are many reasons for the popularity of this game, the most important are these three points:

First of all, in the environment of 2008, the main group of Internet users is in the city, and almost no people in the city have any experience in planting. Although the settings in the game have nothing to do with reality, it still satisfies many people. psychology.

Second, because this is a social game, friends can help each other and steal each other's results. After entering other people's farms, they can "release insects", "steal", "plant grass", or Help with "collection", "insecticide", "weed control".

There are good and bad things, and they can satisfy different groups. Some people who are thirsty and not thirsty can do a little damage, and those who like to help others can also satisfy their own sense of experience, and no matter what they do, they will always be in real life. There will be no consequences.

And thirdly, this game has given a lot of people with a lot of work pressure a 'buffer' space, allowing them to relax after work and increase interaction with friends.

After listening to Xu Jiale's answer, Luo Fan nodded and said, "Mr. Xu, you summed it up well, but there is a big problem with Penguin Farm, that is, this game has not been popular for too long."

It took less than a month for Penguin Farm to become popular across the country. It reached a peak of 100 million in half a year, and then began to gradually decline. After a year, there is basically no heat.

In Luo Fan's view, the reasons for the decline of penguins are also very simple. The first is that the game itself is too simple and repetitive. This simple game is like "jump", it will explode at the right time, but it will take a long time. It doesn't make sense anymore.

The second is because they can "steal vegetables", a large number of people stay up late or customize alarm clocks to collect their own crops, but after all, stealing vegetables is just a small game, not as exciting as the World Cup. After staying up late for a long time, people will suddenly find that What's the point of this shit?

When there are more of these types of people, the foundation of social-based games quickly collapses, and even penguins can't save them.

"Then boss, what can we do to change these drawbacks?" Xu Jiale asked.

"The gameplay of our game can be similar to that of Penguin Farm, it's okay to have some changes, but we must keep the game simple so that users can easily participate.

But games that are too simple are also easy to be eliminated, because users will feel bored, which cannot be changed in terms of games, but we can start offline, and I plan to really send them the results of their cultivation. "

"For crops?" Xu Jiale was stunned for a moment, and then his eyes lit up. This is indeed a good idea.

"Boss, sending real [crops] to all users is indeed a long-term way to ensure user activity, but the cost will increase a lot!" Cao Shuai reminded.

"The cost is definitely high, but as long as you can get user stickiness, it's worth it.

Don't forget that our current goal is to promote Star Chat as much as possible and increase the number of users of Star Chat. How can it be possible to gain users without real money?

You must know that we don’t have a social circle as big as penguins, and we don’t have so many resources to use. After all, our small broken stations have no advertisements, and it doesn’t make sense to send game props directly. "Rowan said with a smile.