Chapter 222 Whoever Dies First Is the Villain

The lights were dim, the music was loud, and the pungent smell of cigarettes and alcohol was mixed with strong aromas.

Girls stood in the aisles around the booths and danced restlessly. Wherever a young man with a tall and handsome figure passed by, two rows of bodyguards in black suits automatically separated the crowded crowd.

"Mr. Xie will pay for all the expenses tonight!"

The DJ's excited shouts spread through the speakers, with all eyes at the scene following the young man's back, until they were blocked by the nightclub's entrance door, still feeling unsatisfied.

#Xie Jingxing female anchor#
At the same time, the hot search terms on Weibo topped the hot search list in Shanghai.

"I will post a Weibo response tomorrow morning and open the website at noon."

Back at the hotel, Prince Wang curled up on the sofa playing with his cell phone.

Xie Jingxing took a glass of honey lemonade from Song Anli: "Has the technical support been arranged?"

"The server can handle a peak of one million people online at the same time. If it still crashes, it proves that the effect of our early warm-up work far exceeded expectations." Young Master Wang boasted excitedly.

Xie Jingxing remained noncommittal. The traffic effect that their personal fame could bring was worth millions based on commercial promotion.

During this period, Mr. Wang has promoted Panda Live in various ways. In addition, he spent a lot of money tonight, so it is reasonable to expect that the traffic of the platform will explode when it opens tomorrow.

He continued to ask after careful consideration: "I saw in the financial statements that our monthly bandwidth purchase and server rental costs are tens of millions?"

"We support 1080P high-definition video quality, which consumes a lot of bandwidth. If the number of online users exceeds the upper limit, the background will automatically transcode and reduce the video quality resolution."

Prince Wang explained: "So we calculated and purchased more bandwidth to increase the redundancy threshold. With the big game streamers having dinner with us tonight, we are optimistic that we will need to expand capacity next month so that it won't be wasted."

"We spent tens of millions to raise their salaries to recruit them, and we will have to regularly spend tens of millions on bandwidth fees in the future. Have you considered how they can create enough value?" Xie Jingxing asked.

Prince Wang relaxed and crossed his legs: "Their greatest value is traffic. The market is in its early stages. We will first spend money to seize market share and gain users. Sooner or later, we will be able to run a successful business model."

"It sounds a bit familiar." Xie Jingxing frowned and thought.

Prince Wang made a joking gesture and said, "Everything you said to me before, I will return to you exactly as it was."

Xie Jingxing was speechless. While investing in Panda TV, he also joined hands with Sequoia to acquire a stake in Douyu at a valuation of US$100 million. He didn't care who would win, as long as he could enter the pan-entertainment layout through the live broadcast platform.

So when Xiao Wang asked him about the logic of the business model of game live streaming, he received a perfunctory response, and even suspected that he wanted to hype up the market and make a quick buck and run away.

However, when the project reached the execution level, there were unexpected developments.

Xie Jingxing silently opened his phone and clicked on an APP with a panda icon called 'Panda TV'. The screen jumped to a blank interface with a slogan displayed: Panda TV - a pan-entertainment live broadcast platform.

The slogans of the other two direct competitors are: Douyu, a live streaming platform for everyone; and Huya, China's leading interactive live streaming platform with bullet screens.

"You want to do pan-entertainment?" He asked, placing his phone on the coffee table and tapping the screen.

Prince Wang smiled unchanged: "I wanted to give you a surprise."

"What is a surprise?" Xie Jingxing asked seriously.

Prince Wang put down his crossed legs and sat up straight: "Don't you understand what a surprise is?"

"Song Anli, Mr. Wang doesn't want to say it, can you help him translate what a surprise is!" Xie Jingxing turned his head and shouted.

Song Anli stood up quickly: "The surprise is that Mr. Wang didn't expect to make money from game anchors. He wanted to enter the pan-entertainment field through live broadcasting and build an Internet TV station. So Panda Live is not called Panda Live, but Panda TV!"

"Boss Wang, so this is a surprise!" Xie Jingxing suddenly realized and smiled.

Prince Wang glared at Song Anli angrily, then said confidently, "Don't you also want to do pan-entertainment?"

"I don't want to sell everything I have and spend all my money to start a TV station!" Xie Jingxing retorted.

Prince Wang completely laid low and played dead without saying a word. In addition to accepting investment from Grapefruit Capital to create Panda TV, he also independently established a company called "Banana Entertainment".

It involves artist management, professional variety show production, traditional sports event operations, and has even recently been in contact with Tencent E-Sports to host the League of Legends Professional League business.

It can be said that the positioning of this company is the same as that of the live broadcast guild we just met tonight. It stands at the most upstream source of the entire pan-entertainment industry and is an original content producer.

This connects to Panda TV and builds a complete industrial chain from production to sales in the pan-entertainment field.

Once achieved, Panda TV will become a complex of Internet long video platforms such as Tencent and iQiyi + local satellite TV traditional TV stations + live broadcast platforms + traditional film and television production companies.

An Internet TV station that broadcasts live 24 hours a day and allows real-time interaction, covering all cultural, sports and entertainment content from movies to games. In the future, no one will ask him whether he wants to return to Wanda to take over Lao Wang's job. Instead, they should ask Lao Wang whether he wants to take over his job.

But the moon did not know how heavy sixpence was. The dream was too expensive to buy with the spare change he had at his disposal.

Taking the first wave of traffic that Panda TV will receive when it opens tomorrow as an example, it cost him and Xie Jingxing their personal fame, as well as the cost of poaching a large number of top game anchors to pay for live broadcast contracts worth tens of millions of yuan.

If he tells him his complete business plan honestly, no investor will join him in burning money in his wild imagination.

Therefore, since Xie Jingxing wanted to spend money to run data to hype the market, he could just go with the flow and do it secretly.

Spend the most money to buy the most anchors to attract traffic, gradually expand the business boundaries of Panda TV, and wait until the platform business is perfected and the business model is initially established. Then, we will have the confidence to put forward a real business plan to attract investors.

Young Master Wang was too ambitious to explain too much, and Xie Jingxing didn't want to listen either. He was also fooling the other party, saying, "Big brother, let alone second brother."

The atmosphere was silent for a long time, and he took the initiative to break the silence: "What are your plans for the future?"

"First, we will create a female talent show that is different from the existing singing talent shows. We will select 50 beautiful women who want to be stars from all over the country, imitate the Korean idol trainee company, and use live broadcasts to record the contestants' daily meals and training. Netizens will vote to decide the results of the competition."

Wang Sicong organized his language to simplify the introduction of his ideas as much as possible, but he seemed a little lacking in confidence.

After hearing his speech, a professional in entertainment variety shows thought about it for three days and three nights and came up with an answer that it was too complicated. There was no similar program in South Korea, and there was no place to copy it, so he had to rely on himself.

Xie Jing Xing inexplicably focused his attention, staring straight at Young Master Wang, until he felt uncomfortable all over, then he said, "The cost is very high."

"My participation in the film can save some publicity and film remuneration costs, and other miscellaneous costs. In total, 1 million yuan is enough. If it doesn't work out, I can find Tencent or TV stations to cooperate to share the cost. The risk is not as big as you think."

Prince Wang tried to make up for it as much as possible. Xie Jingxing asked without hesitation: "The live broadcast platform is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture, while the online variety show is under the jurisdiction of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Panda TV is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture and does business under the jurisdiction of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. How can the supervision be solved?"

"I will coordinate. At present, the relevant domestic regulatory regulations are not perfect. Maybe we can take this opportunity to promote the improvement of Internet industry regulatory policies."

Prince Wang was becoming increasingly unsure and had to force the price. He paused and emphasized, "If you are not willing to take any risk, then why are you investing in venture capital?"

"No, no, no, I'll give you 80 million." Xie Jingxing shook his head and raised a finger.

Young Master Wang was suddenly stunned, and looked at Song Anli with a confused look, trying to confirm whether he had heard it wrong. Song Anli was not much better than him, and was also confused and at a loss.

"You're right. I want to specialize in pan-entertainment, so I acquired Pony.com for that purpose."

Xie Jing Xing spread his hands and made additional explanations: "I invested 80 million through Xiaoma Pentium and cooperated with Panda TV to realize your idea."

"Then why are you gesturing with one finger?!" Xiao Wang was stunned.

Xie Jingxing looked at Song Anli in confusion: "Did I gesture?"

"I gestured!" Xiao Wang answered quickly.

"Oh, I mean there are fewer people, the number of contestants should be doubled!"

Xie Jingxing snapped his fingers, then raised another finger: "We need 101 girls. The show will be called "Creation Camp 101". Invite JJ Lin to be the music mentor... What are the names of those popular idols who came back from Korea? Invite them to be idol mentors."

"As producers, we two participated in the entire program recording process and created the first domestic idol girl group... What, those idols' salaries are higher than JJ Lin's? Think about it, we two are helping thousands of losers to train goddesses and help them realize their dreams, and we are doing things that benefit the public and accumulate virtue. Is it expensive to spend a few lousy dollars..."

Xie Jingxing talked endlessly about his grand dream, and Prince Wang was unable to resist and followed him on a whirlwind journey.

After all, Song Anli is the one by his side, and she has long been accustomed to the fact that every time he speaks passionately, it must be accompanied by a major project. She quietly collects her thoughts and helps him make two cups of coffee to refresh himself.

The lights in the hotel suite's living room stayed on all night. As the sky gradually brightened, Prince Wang dragged his tired body and said goodbye.

"Isn't it a bit of a waste of effort to talk to him like this? He doesn't seem to fully understand." Song Anli, who watched the whole process, felt very distressed.

Xie Jing Xing rubbed his cheeks vigorously, and laughed hoarsely: "I had underestimated him before, but it turns out that he is not as bad as I thought."

"I still think his ideas are too advanced. After all, PGC platforms are too expensive." Song Anli expressed reservations.

Xie Jingxing broke down the pan-entertainment industry and made arrangements for each link except for the video platform. He took a different approach by cooperating with ByteDance on PUGC-type video platforms while investing in online live streaming platforms.

As a result, Mr. Wang was so ambitious that he dared to take advantage of others' efforts and tried to take advantage of the live broadcast trend and directly enter the PGC industry, which was gradually becoming stable.

Tencent Video is backed by Tencent, iQiyi stands with Baidu, Youku merged and went public, and even LeTV has its boss Jia who is suffocating for his dream.

There are many competitors in the industry, and even my own man has never thought of taking advantage of them head-on, so how can Prince Wang do it?

Song Anli could not agree with it due to personal feelings, let alone rational analysis.

"Don't jump to conclusions. I often say that I have the courage to accept failure. In other words, I have the courage to acknowledge the success of others. Maybe Xiao Wang is one of them. Who knows?"

Xie Jing Xing stretched and threw away the half-eaten Snickers: "Or give me a bowl of wontons, this thing is too sweet."

"It suddenly feels a bit absurd." Song Anli said for no reason.

Xie Jingxing raised his eyebrows, not understanding why: "What do you mean?"

"I actually need to post on Weibo to clarify the scandal with the female anchor just for someone like you."

Song Anli said this and turned around to call the front desk to order a bowl of wontons, which she didn't know whether it was a midnight snack or breakfast. Then the editor posted a Weibo to clarify the rumors and announce the official launch time of Panda TV.

Xie Jingxing took a cold shower to refresh himself, then spread out an A4 paper and picked up a pen to write Panda TV's Series A equity financing plan.

The 20 million yuan invested by Grapefruit Capital in the angel round of financing, plus Xiao Wang’s tens of millions of registered capital, has almost been exhausted by now. The huge amount of funds needed for the subsequent production of variety shows and cooperation with Xiaoma Pentium is not enough.

Douyu's Chen Shaojie and Huya's Li Xueling are not good people who will honestly abide by the rules and engage in commercial competition. Panda TV's launch is the first step in a long journey, and it will soon face many despicable tricks.

The more cash flow the better, this is the common advantage he and Xiao Wang have.

The amount of financing in the A round is between US$1200 million and US$1500 million. It is more reasonable to transfer about 20% of the equity, and Grapefruit Capital can only follow the investment.

The lead investor should preferably be a top venture capital institution, followed by an Internet company with technical strength, and then a traditional film and television company.

Sequoia, IDG, Tencent, Alibaba, names flashed through Xie Jingxing's mind, he grabbed his hair and couldn't make up his mind.

The annual revenue was 319 billion yuan and the net profit was 28 billion yuan.

This is the first time that iQiyi has turned a profit after many years. Prior to this, since the platform was launched, it has produced popular variety shows, TV series and TV series such as "The Rap of China" and "Summer of the Band".

However, it still cannot shorten the long-term continuous bleeding, with a total net loss of up to 12 billion yuan in 500 years. A top PGC video platform has grown into this.

Xiao Wang’s ambition is not limited to the PGC platform, he wants more, the entire pan-entertainment industry.

There is no essential difference between 50 contestants and 101 contestants. The only difference is that the latter was born from Tencent and was so successful that it was dubbed the "pioneering work of domestic idol talent shows".

The former was created by a second-generation rich man known as a loser and flopped, so it was naturally dubbed as "The Internet's Concubine Selection Story".

So, if the former is successful, how will people describe and comment on it? That will probably be a matter of public opinion by then.

A loss of 500 billion, a loss of 1000 billion... Xie Jingxing didn't know whether Xiao Wang was ignorant and fearless, or whether he was a newborn calf that was not afraid of a tiger. In any case, he was afraid that he would be at a disadvantage temporarily in this game.

But it doesn’t matter, the road is long and difficult but the journey will eventually lead to the destination, so let the bullet fly for a while.

Xie Jingxing waved his pen and quietly crossed out the names of Tencent and Alibaba from the list of potential lead investors, while ByteDance and Kuaishou appeared on the paper.

He sets the stage. There are too many protagonists in this play, and whoever dies first will be the villain.

The clouds outside the window dispersed and the sun rose, shining brightly. Song Anli carefully put down a bowl of steaming wontons and took a photo of the man who was sleeping soundly on the desk.

(End of this chapter)