Chapter 346 Acquisition of music websites and layout of digital music
The recent popularity of Golden Harvest is astonishing, and it has been the focus of public opinion since the Chinese New Year.

First, Golden Harvest raised funds at a valuation of 10 billion yuan and started the listing process. It was like a high-explosive bomb that not only stunned the industry, but also shocked the entire mainland business community.

Before the impact of this incident subsided, Golden Harvest poached Zhou Gongzi from Huayi and also signed four popular stars, Liu Yifei, Liu Ye and Hu Jun.

Everyone wanted to see if Huayi would react, but Huayi remained very quiet, as if it had nothing to do with Master Zhou's departure.

Although everyone knows that Huayi's approach is a wise choice, Huayi still lost some face, and even the Beijing circle lost some face.

As is well known in the entertainment industry, Huayi is the representative of the Beijing circle.

But it can also be seen from this that by this time, the Beijing circle had begun to decline.

The Beijing circle is no longer the kind of people who always walk with their heads held high and start quarrels at the slightest disagreement.

Now Huayi was severely humiliated by Jiahe, but it didn't say anything.

However, no one cared much about it. Seeing that Huayi had not made any movement for several days, they put the matter behind them.

But before everyone could catch their breath, and even before the heat of Golden Harvest's financing had dissipated, Golden Harvest released another list of films, which once again caused a sensation in the industry and the outside world.

There was a lot of discussion outside and it caused a stir in the industry, especially among celebrities, who were even more upset after seeing the film list.

When I compare my company with Jiahe, it's like comparing apples to oranges.

Especially Liu Ye and Hu Jun, they were the most envied.

Although Liu Ye was also one of the four most popular young actors in mainland China, like Chen Kun, he did not have many film resources, especially commercial film resources.

But once he joined Golden Harvest, it seemed like everything changed.

First, he got the leading role in "Moon", Zhang Yimou's first and also the second domestic science fiction film, and then there was another movie waiting for him where he would play the leading role.

The resources are simply explosive.

You have to know that "Moon" is the second science fiction film in mainland China, and it has always attracted a lot of attention. In addition, Zhang Yimou's reputation was at its peak at that time. From the beginning of the project, there were countless people who wanted to participate.

As for the male and female protagonists of the movie, the competition between them has already become fierce.

But what no one expected was that they used various tricks behind the scenes, and Liu Ye did quietly win the male lead.

Especially after learning that "Moon" and "The Martian" are both one-man shows starring the male lead, I became extremely jealous.

As for another movie, "Chinese Partners", without looking at other things, just seeing that the screenwriter is Liu Zhou, then this movie cannot fail, and it is even halfway to success.

This is the reputation Liu Zhou has built over the years. None of the movies he shoots or the works he writes are bad.

Written by Liu Zhou, with Huang Xiaoming and Liu Ye starring, the film has a guaranteed box office of 100 million. Although Liu Zhou is not the director, no other film is willing to compete with it.

Therefore, such an obvious change in Liu Ye’s resources really made them a little upset.

They even suspected whether Liu Ye was Liu Zhou's biological brother, otherwise why was he treated so well.

As for Mr. Hu, he is okay with ordinary actors, but he is really jealous of the popular ones.

Many people want to make it in Hollywood but don't have the means. Once Hu Jun joined Golden Harvest, they easily realized this dream that seemed out of reach for them.

Golden Harvest specifically indicated that he is a co-starring actor, so it is impossible that Hu Jun is just there for a cameo role, he must have a lot of roles.

Anne Hathaway and Morgan Freeman are both well-known Hollywood movie stars and are also somewhat famous in mainland China.

Now, Hu Jun can perform on the same stage with them.

Seeing this situation, even Zhang Ziyi called and asked in a roundabout way whether there was a suitable role for her in "Lucy".

Liu Zhou didn't beat around the bush and replied directly that he didn't.

Liu Zhou didn't lie to her. Really, the female characters' roles were almost all played by the heroine. The extras definitely didn't get to play much.

And even if there was, it would not be Zhang Ziyi's turn, as she actually has no box office appeal in Europe and the United States.

So instead of choosing her, it is better to choose Fan Xiaopang and Zhou Gongzi, two of our own family members.

In fact, Hu Jun himself was quite surprised. He didn't expect that he would be able to act in Hollywood as soon as he joined Golden Harvest.

Of course, Hu Jun was very happy about this, especially when he saw the envious look in the eyes of his classmate and good friend He Bing, he was even happier.

He felt that his decision to join Golden Harvest was the right one.

Before, he had been in the scene full of intrigue all day long. For some better roles, Wu Kebo would rather look for people from outside than use the artists under Wang Jinghua.

But when he came to Golden Harvest, he didn't even need his own agent to fight for it, resources just came to him.

I have such good resources as soon as I joined. Will I be treated unfairly in the future?
……

Liu Zhou didn't pay much attention to the Golden Harvest film list that was causing a lot of controversy in the outside world.

But to be honest, he was also a little surprised by this.

Liu Zhou originally thought that announcing this film list would generate some heat, and at the same time demonstrate his strength, so that the majority of shareholders would have more confidence in Golden Harvest's stock. When Golden Harvest goes public, investors could buy more shares.

But he didn't expect it to be so popular. Liu Zhou wondered if he could make it a routine to release one every year and create an influential "Golden Harvest Film List" on the Internet.

But that's all in the future. Now Liu Zhou has come to Sina's headquarters in Zhongguancun Ideal International Building.

Liu Zhou had just sat down in the office when President Wang Yan and Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Cao Guowei knocked on the door and walked in.

"What's going on? You actually have to report it to me in person?"

Wang Yan spoke first:

"Boss Liu, the acquisition of the music website you arranged earlier has come to fruition."

Hearing Wang Yan's words, Liu Zhou immediately perked up, slightly adjusted his sitting position, and said:

"Let's talk about it in detail."

“In recent years, more than 1,400 music website companies have been established, but after three or four years of reshuffle, only 50 or 60 are left, of which only six or seven are well-known.

But among these seven or eight well-known companies, Penguin Music belongs to Penguin Group, and Qianqian Jingting was acquired by Baidu two years ago. Finally, only Kuwo, Kugou, Tiantian Dongting and Xiami Music are left.

I have contacted all four companies. Kuwo Music directly rejected our acquisition offer. As for the other three, they already have capital investment behind them.

360 invested in Kugou, Shenzhen Capital Group invested in Xiami, and Tiantian Dongting had some investment from Ali, because Wang Zhigang, the founder of Tiantian Dongting, was an employee of Ali before he started his own business.

No wonder when Ali entered the music market in later generations, he first acquired Tiantian Dongting. It turns out there is such a connection.

“Which website currently has the most users and is developing the best?”

“KuGou and KuWo.”

"Kuwo rejected us so decisively. Is there something unique about them?"

“No, Kuwo has developed well purely because it was founded earlier, in 2005, while the others, except Kugou, were mostly founded in 07 or 08.”

"If that's the case, then we won't force it. We don't need to bother with Kuwo anymore. What about the other three companies?"

“Tiantian Dongting didn’t really want to sell it, but it was the first music player that supported displaying lyrics on the desktop, and with this feature, its user base grew rapidly.

Moreover, Tiantian Dongting often makes small innovations and insists on being user-centric, so even if its features are learned by others, its user base continues to grow.

So even though Tiantian Dongting was established the latest, only last year, its users have surpassed Xiami and its momentum is catching up with Kugou.

As for Xiami, its main business is niche music, which can be considered a differentiated operation.

Kugou has the strongest momentum and the best technology, and it already launched its mobile app last year.”

"Which website do you want to acquire?"

"Kugou or Tiantiandongting."

"Isn't Tiantian Dongting unwilling to sell? And with the support of the wealthy Ali, he has the confidence to refuse, right?"

"Having said that, I think as long as the price is right, nothing will be a problem."

"That's right, we at Sina should have this kind of courage now." Liu Zhou was stunned when he heard Wang Yan's words, and then said with a smile.

"Kugou has the strongest growth momentum, and its number of users is probably the largest on the Internet. Because of this, Kugou has no shortage of investment. If we acquire Kugou, we will need to spend more money."

"Didn't you just say that? As long as the funds are in place, it won't be a problem. As long as we can take down Kugou, it doesn't matter if we spend a little more money."

"So, Mr. Liu, which website do you think is suitable to acquire?"

"I think all three are suitable. We can acquire all three music websites!"

"Buy all three?" Wang Yan asked in surprise.

"Yes, I hope Sina can complete its layout in the music field in one go."

"Mr. Liu, aren't three too many? Many of our users overlap."

"Not many. It doesn't matter if there are overlapping users. What matters most is that the three companies combined have more users."

By August this year, the higher authorities will issue a "Notice on Strengthening and Improving the Review of Online Music Content" to strengthen the management of online music content, crack down on piracy, and sound the prelude to rectification.

After that, there will be another reshuffle of music websites, and those with weak strength and no capital support will almost all go bankrupt.

However, the issuance of this "Notice" also means that the country has begun to pay attention to music copyright, and the era of digital music is about to begin.

After that, music websites will also enter the stage of spending money to compete for users.

Later, Tencent integrated Penguin Music, Kugou Music and Kuwo Music to form Penguin Music Entertainment Group, and Ali also acquired Tiantian Dongting and Xiami to form Ali Planet.

Why do these two giants do this? Isn't it just to compete for users?
So instead of doing this, Liu Zhou might as well take over all three websites in one go and gain enough users before the digital music era arrives.

Moreover, with the scale and complementarity of several websites, the development speed of the three music websites will also accelerate.

(End of this chapter)