America's Road to Fame

Chapter 419 One More Choice
Before this merger, William Chen had already started to take action, quietly absorbing a lot of shares of Tudou.com at a low price on the Nasdaq market.

At the beginning, William Chen participated in the financing of Youku and obtained 20% of the shares. When Youku was listed on the US stock market, he subscribed for 5000 million US dollars of shares in the name of Kettering Fund. However, this part of the shares, He didn't hold it all the time, but made a band.

Because he knew that the timing of Youku’s listing was very good, and Huagai stocks were hot at that time, so their stocks have been rising for a period of time after Youku’s listing.

When the price of this stock reached a relatively high price, the Caitlin Foundation sold out its shares in Youku. Of course, Youku.com is not stupid. They also issued some additional shares when the stock price was at a high level. , for refinancing.

When the upsurge of Huagai stocks ebbed, the stock prices of Youku.com and Tudou.com, which had just been listed, all fell sharply. The Caitlin Foundation also took advantage of this opportunity to increase its holdings of Youku and Tudou.com stock.

Therefore, after calculation, if the current merger measures of Youku and Tudou are followed, after the merger, William Chen will hold about 25% of the shares of Youku Tudou through its subsidiaries, becoming the company's largest shareholder. One of the shareholders, the shareholding is second only to the founder Gu Yongqiang.

However, this is not the final result. In the future, William Chen will not only increase the shares of Youku Tudou through Future Group, but also participate in the future development of Youku Tudou through Meishen Film and Television Investment and Weimi Investment, which have Huaguo background. Additional financing, and finally control of Youku Tudou.

In his plan, Netflix will not be the only streaming media platform under his umbrella. In the future, Youku Tudou will still need to enter the overseas market. Having two video platforms, Netflix and Youku Tudou, will allow Chen William Content resources to maximize the benefits.

Because based on the current price of Netflix membership, in the United States, there are three levels: basic, standard, and premium. Members of different levels can support different viewing quality. Even the cheapest basic membership, every The monthly price is $9.9, and the premium membership is $19.9.

Of course, he can watch different movie sources in different regions to charge different prices, but you must know that most of these different movie sources are new movies, and the movie sources of those old movies are still similar. It is impossible for the membership price to differ too much. According to the exchange rate, it only fluctuates by about 1 US dollar. In some areas, the price will be even more expensive than that of the United States.

Because if the price difference of membership is too big, then I am afraid that there will be behaviors of buying membership in low-priced areas. Anyway, this is all viewed online, and it is impossible to restrict the user's IP too strictly.

Then the question arises. In more developed countries such as Europe, America, Japan and South Korea, the people can accept the minimum monthly membership fee of nearly 10 US dollars. What about those less developed regions?

After all, like the United States, there is a basis for charging TV programs. Their TV stations are divided into three types: public TV stations, cable TV stations, and pay TV stations.

For example, public TV stations are covered by signal transmitters, that is to say, as long as you buy an antenna or a satellite signal receiver, which is what we commonly call "pot", you can receive the signal of the TV station and watch it. A one-time investment in equipment is required.

Cable TV stations need to introduce signal lines and decoders to watch, so cable TV stations need to "subscribe", that is, to pay "cable TV operators" regularly, which is similar to the "membership fee" model.

It is worth mentioning that the two largest "cable TV operators" in the United States are Comcast and Time Warner. Comcast acquired Universal from General Electric, and Time Warner, just look at the name. Yes, it is the parent company of Warner Pictures...

The final paid TV stations have higher fees, relatively more sophisticated content, and better services, because they often have no advertisements and can be regarded as "premium members."

Watching TV in the United States is often expensive, just like cable TV stations and pay TV stations. Operators will formulate several packages, such as the so-called "poor package", including six major public TV channels and about 20 cable channels. It tends to run around $20 a month.

A higher-level package, including the six major public TV channels and about 70 cable channels, will cost about $70 a month.

Further up, there is a more expensive "premium cable". In addition to the premium package, you can also customize more "adult channels". The price is related to the content you customize.

Therefore, it can be seen from these models that they themselves have a basis for charging content, so the public can easily accept the "membership" price of the video platform, and these prices are not available to many less developed countries. For countries with such a habitual basis, it is difficult to adapt.

For example, you can accept that the monthly membership fee of Penguin Video, Youku, and iQiyi is 70 yuan. This is still the basic membership fee. Want to watch more clearly? 150 yuan per month...

This difference in acceptance is also the reason why when Netflix is ​​expanding globally, its main markets are Europe, America and some Asian regions.

The only way is to temporarily abandon most of the markets in those areas and only serve high-income groups.

Therefore, there will be a huge market vacancy. If William Chen does not occupy this vacancy by himself, it will be occupied by others. In this way, Youku Tudou can fill this part of the market. Anyway, there are two companies, and Youku Tudou can implement low prices. Strategies to occupy the market that Netflix gave up.

Moreover, with these film and television content resources, by authorizing the two companies, more income can be obtained, so why not do it?

However, the Youku Tudou company after the merger is mainly to maintain its market share in China first. As for overseas development, it needs to be a later matter.

Now Youku is also making efforts in terms of content. For example, in the future, it plans to purchase the rights to broadcast more new episodes, and even participate in the investment in the production of excellent content.

For example, the production of "Captain Huaguo" in cooperation with Marvel Huaguo this time, the protagonist of this drama, Captain Huaguo, is decided to be Hu Ge. As for the heroine, there are two actors, namely Chen Zihan and Tang Yan.

Chen Zihan will have more roles in this episode this time. She plays the lover of Captain Huaguo during the initial Anti-Japanese War, while Tang Yan, who appears in the modern era, will be the future Huaguo's lover. An important member of the "Spear Bureau", that is to say, she will also have an important position in Huaguo's "Marvel Universe" in the future.

(End of this chapter)