Chapter 390 Advice and Sina's future direction
While the dispute between Liu Zhou and Wang Xiaoshuai over business and art was raging, Liu Zhou was working hard to promote Golden Harvest Group's stocks to some investors and investment institutions.

Since it is a sales promotion, of course the selling points of your own products should be clearly explained to potential buyers.

Golden Harvest Group is still very impressive. Its turnover and profit figures in recent years have been very good, and its various business segments are among the top in the industry. Even in its core production and distribution businesses, it is far ahead of its peers in the industry.

The listing of Golden Harvest Group is the first film and television stock. Some conservative investors think it is risky, but some investors believe that Golden Harvest Group may be very popular.

In this regard, after telling the story about his conversations with these people, Liu Zhou roughly understood what they were thinking.

However, Liu Zhou was confident about Golden Harvest's listing, so he appeared to be much more calm.

Liu Zhou expressed his understanding with a smile to those conservative investors, and also expressed his gratitude with a smile to those investors who recognized Jiahe Group.

Liu Zhou's confident and calm performance won their recognition and made them more interested in Jiahe Group's stocks.

After dealing with those investors, Liu Zhou couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, then went to the lounge, leaving the rest of the matters to Zhang Zhao and the people from CITIC Securities.

Liu Zhou had just sat down when he saw Zhang Chaoyang walk in.

"What? Are you tired in just a short while?" After saying that, Zhang Chaoyang sat down on the sofa next to Liu Zhou.

"No, I'm just a little uncomfortable. After all, it's my first time."

“You’ll get used to it slowly. When Sohu went public, most of its road shows were held in the United States. I was even less used to it at first.

But after visiting two cities, I have come to understand that I don’t need to take them too seriously. I just need to follow my own pace. Besides, the revenue of Golden Harvest Group is so outstanding, so there will be no problem in selling its stocks.”

"I understand. I have confidence in Jiahe. Thank you for bringing people here to support me this time."

"I promised you this before. I, Zhang Chaoyang, always keep my word."

Liu Zhou threw him a cigarette, then lit it for himself, took a puff, and then said slowly:

"Mr. Zhang, Pony is ready to enter the entertainment industry, and in my opinion, there is a lot of potential in the entertainment industry. Are you still planning to continue doing small things like this?"

"I am fine the way I am now. The reason why Sohu is involved in the entertainment industry is mainly to serve Sohu Video."

"Are you sure you don't want to play?"

"What are you talking about? If I want to have fun, I can do it even if I don't enter the entertainment industry."

"That's true. A bachelor like you can attract a lot of female stars in the entertainment industry with just one wave of your hand."

"Hehe, you just knew it!"

"Lao Zhang, no more jokes. I'm serious. Even if it's for your Sohu Video, you should spend more time on Sohu's film and television business. Don't let yourself fall behind."

"What's wrong? Did you notice something?"

"Now that the country has taken action, the protection of film and television copyrights will become increasingly strict. In the future, it will be impossible to buy online copyrights for TV series and movies as cheaply as it is now.

Even if you don’t have the copyright, you can’t play old TV series on Sohu Video. As for newly released popular movies and TV series, they will definitely attract competition.

It is foreseeable that the video website industry will enter a money-burning war in the future. Even though there are dozens of video websites now, more than 95% of them will become cannon fodder by then.”

"No wonder Sina Video has been buying up a large number of online copyrights for old movies and TV series. So you've been waiting here."

"Otherwise, I would have nothing better to do than spend this money. So in the future, when you ask me for help, Sina Video will not be afraid even if we are involved in a money-burning war. Just distributing copyrights will make us invincible."

Seeing Liu Zhou's somewhat smug expression, Zhang Chaoyang said nonchalantly:

"It's okay to spend money, Sohu is not afraid."

It seems that Zhang Chaoyang still does not realize how fierce the money-burning war among video websites will be in the future.

But think about it, now probably no one would have thought that just competing for the copyrights of film and television dramas would cost so much money that even the two giants, Ali and Penguin, could not bear it.

Historically, Sohu Video couldn't bear the money burning and had to withdraw midway. It also didn't take its own film and television business seriously and was mainly focused on investment, so it couldn't produce its own dramas.

In addition, Zhang Chaoyang was somewhat in decline, so Sohu Video also completely declined.

Liu Zhou now advises him to spend more time on the film and television business, hoping that when he can no longer withstand the money-burning war in the future, he will be able to support Sohu Video through his own business.

Historically, the reason why iQiyi surpassed Penguin Video to become the industry leader is mainly because they walk on two legs, spending money to purchase copyrights on the one hand, and producing their own film and television dramas on the other.

IQIYI's self-produced dramas are well-known for their quality and have also attracted huge traffic.

Therefore, Sohu Video should start to improve its film and television production capabilities from now on. In the future, Sohu Video will be able to survive well through its own dramas, instead of being half-dead like in the original time and space.

Liu Zhou is not trying to create a rival for Sina Video. It is almost impossible for Sohu Video to become a rival of Sina Video.

Sina Video's only competitors in the future will be Penguin Video and Youku Video, as well as a possible video website established by Baidu. As for LeTV, without a large number of previous film and television drama copyrights, it can forget about having the same comfort as in the original space and time.

To keep up, you also have to spend a lot of money.

And if LeTV Video burns a large amount of money, Liu Zhou feels that Jia Yueting's ecological backlash will collapse prematurely and his dream will suffocate prematurely.

Therefore, with the strength of Sohu Group, even if Sohu Video does a good job in its own business, it can only be the second tier in the field of video websites.

However, even if Sohu Video is in the second tier, it will greatly increase the overall market value of Sohu Group.

Historically, Sohu Group's market value has been declining since the mobile Internet era, and finally reached only US$20 to US$30 billion, which is even worse than when it was first listed.

So although Zhang Chaoyang is one of the earliest Internet people in China and a senior in the industry, he has also suffered a lot of ridicule from people within the industry and outside.

There was no way around it. The first generation of mainland Internet giants had a market value not as high as that of an Internet celebrity company. In an era when people laughed at the poor but not at prostitution, it was normal to be ridiculed.

Zhang Chaoyang seemed very open-minded about this, but who knows what he really thinks.

Zhang Chaoyang was one of his few friends and had helped him a lot. Liu Zhou kept all of this in mind.

Other Liu Zhous couldn't help him much, but Liu Zhou certainly didn't want to see him being ridiculed in the future.

If Sohu Video can really succeed, the market value of Sohu Group will be at least over 10 billion US dollars. Although it is still at the bottom among Internet companies, it is at least much better.

However, Liu Zhou could only give him a special reminder. Whether he would do it or not, and whether he could do it, depended on himself.

"Lao Zhang, do you think you can spend more money than the three BAT companies?"

“Are they all planning to build a video website?”

“Although Pony didn’t say it last time, but now that Penguin is preparing to enter the entertainment industry, do you think he will not be interested in video websites?

Moreover, as the traffic of video websites grows, do you think Ahri, the traffic-eating giant, will lose interest in video websites?

Penguin and Ali have both started video website businesses. Do you think Baidu, a giant on par with these two companies, would not be interested in video websites? "

After hearing Liu Zhou's three questions, Zhang Chaoyang fell silent. After thinking carefully, he felt that what Liu Zhou said made sense.

If Sohu really starts to burn money, how can it possibly compete with the three new generation Internet giants BAT?

Since the beginning of Web 2.0, Ali, Penguin and Baidu have begun to replace the three major portals and become the new generation of the Internet's three giants.

By now, the market value and influence of these three companies have already opened up a considerable gap with the three major portals.

However, among the three major portals, NetEase, which focuses on the gaming business, has not fallen too far behind.

Not to mention Sina, driven by the three major engines of Sina Weibo, Sina Video and the gradually rising Sina Legu, Sina has regained the honor of the portal with the highest market value from NetEase.

Although this honor is no longer valuable, it is foreseeable that Sina Group will have a very good future.

Only Sohu has not found a new outlet after the Olympics, and its gaming business is supported only by one game, "The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils".

Therefore, Sohu has already started to widen the gap with Sina and NetEase, let alone BAT.

In fact, what Zhang Chaoyang didn’t know was that Liu Zhou was not just thinking about keeping Sina Group in the second tier of the Internet.

When the mobile Internet era arrives, it will be the time for Sina Group to show its strength.

Not to mention other things, just the application of Toutiao, Sina Group has a unique advantage in making it.

Before this, the advantages of BAT in e-commerce, instant messaging and search were too great, and it was impossible to compete with them.

It’s different when it comes to mobile Internet, and this will be the emergence of another big trend.

Liu Zhou is not interested in takeout or anything like that, and Toutiao is the development direction he chose for Sina Group.

With Toutiao now in place, Tik Tok will naturally follow suit.

If everything goes well, it will not just be the BAT Big Three in the future, there will also be Sina.

"Liu Zhou, since video websites will be involved in a money-burning war in the future, what does that have to do with Sohu's entertainment business?"

"Since you don't have as much money as others, then you can just make your own movies and TV series. So if Sohu Video's film and TV production capabilities improve, even if you can't win over others in the copyright grab, Sohu Video won't become cannon fodder."

Liu Zhou paused, then continued:

"Mr. Zhang, the entertainment industry will have great potential in the future, and video websites will become more and more important. It's not too late now. If you make Sohu Video a success, it may become the core business of your Sohu Group."

(End of this chapter)