Volume 3: Taking Roots 2016 Chapter 785
When Toutiao officially changed the name of the short video software A.me to [Toutiao Short Video] and invested heavily in promotional resources, the effect was extremely significant.
After all, it is a new Internet unicorn company with a valuation of more than 10 billion US dollars. Market valuation is never groundless, and the emerging concept of "unicorn company" is also a fact recognized by the industry.
The so-called "unicorn" itself is a rare mythical beast in Western mythology, and the extension of this concept to start-up companies is also a new term originated from Wall Street in the United States.
In 2013, an American investor classified startups with a valuation of more than $1 billion in the private and public markets, and called those in emerging industries and growing very fast "unicorns."
This type of company often possesses unique core technologies or disruptive business models, and has the potential to become a leader in a particular segment, or even a future industry overlord.
Founded in 2012, it took only four years for its valuation to exceed 10 billion US dollars, so it is well-deserved of the title of unicorn enterprise.
Whether it is core technology or disruptive business model, Toutiao can be said to have both, which is reflected in its core business [Toutiao Today].
You should know that as early as the era of the four major portals, the Internet news and information section has already been controlled by the four major portals and has become the foundation for the survival of these four major portals.
To this day, although the Internet has not remained in the era of the four major portals, their accumulation in the news and information sector still gives them sufficient authority and dominance in this sector.
It can be said that the news and information section has long been their private domain.
The four major portals of the past have now become famous giants in the Internet industry, but right under their noses, [Toutiao] suddenly appeared.
It was truly shocking that their treasure, which they were so proud of, was dug up from their back garden.
There is certainly the factor of "time" in this, as the rise of mobile Internet has broken the traditional pattern, giving latecomers an opportunity to take advantage of it.
But in the final analysis, technology is the primary productive force, and the core algorithms in the hands of Toutiao are the main reason why they can stand out.
Times create heroes, and heroes create times.
Zhang Yiming, the founder of Toutiao, is naturally this hero. The reason why Toutiao has entered the short video field with great fanfare is because Zhang Yiming asserted that "short videos will be the next outlet for content entrepreneurship."
He also directly came up with a "1 billion subsidy for short video creation plan", from which it is not difficult to see the courage of this person at the helm.
In fact, Zhang Yiming has already put all his chips together from the very beginning and bet his future on short videos. Now he is pouring in a lot of resources, but it is just a further bet.
With the example of Toutiao, it has a huge traffic portal with nearly 600 million users and more than 60 million daily active users.
Not only can it bring nearly 6 billion yuan in advertising revenue to Toutiao a year, but when this traffic entrance is fully connected to [Toutiao Short Video], it can also bring it massive traffic resources.
The reason why this move was not used immediately was naturally that Zhang Yiming felt that the time was not yet ripe, or that the original A.me business model had not yet been implemented...
When it was officially renamed "Toutiao Short Video", it meant that in Zhang Yiming's view, the time was ripe.
The whole army attacks!
With 1 billion subsidies in front and [Toutiao] as the traffic portal in the back, these two measures alone have allowed [Toutiao Short Video] to catch up and greatly shortened the distance with its competitor Douyin.
No matter whether he is Li Gui or Li Kui, as long as he can be killed, the remaining one will undoubtedly be the real one.
However, even though Toutiao has relied on [Toutiao Today] as a traffic entrance, it is not possible for [Toutiao Short Video] to break through the threshold of 100 million users in a short period of time.
The threshold of 100 million users is known as the watershed in the Internet industry. It took Tencent's WeChat 13 months and 433 days to break through this watershed.
With Zhou Dongsheng's guidance, the company changed its strategy ahead of schedule and began to introduce musical.ly into the domestic market in a bold manner. It opened up a niche track in the short video field, namely music short videos, and began to develop it with all its strength.
During this period, both Yang Luyu's own efforts and Zhou Dongsheng's massive resources only shortened the record by a few months.
After changing its name to Douyin Short Video, it took less than 9 months to accumulate 100 million users.
In comparison, the speed at which Huang Zheng's Pinxixi broke through this watershed was not much faster than that of Tencent's WeChat, and it also took more than a year.
As for the series of high-profile initiatives taken by Toutiao, the speed at which [Toutiao Short Video] breaks through this watershed will inevitably be greatly accelerated.
But we can only wait and see how long it will take. Given Toutiao's capabilities, it should not be difficult to break this record.
Zhou Dongsheng, who was watching his opponent's moves, couldn't help but feel deeply moved . Despite his pursuit and interception and all his defenses, it was obviously still difficult to stop the sudden rise of Toutiao.
At this point, Zhou Dongsheng realized how ridiculous it was to be complacent about grabbing the name "Tik Tok".
After all, according to my preconceived notions, this name will eventually become the biggest winner in the short video field, but in the final analysis it is still the ability and credit of Toutiao.
Now that it has been renamed [Toutiao Short Video], the effect achieved has only increased rather than decreased compared to the word "Tik Tok".
Just like the transition of Tenda from "OICQ" to "QQ" back then, even if Zhou Dongsheng had intercepted the latter's name in advance, even if Tenda changed to "OO", it would not necessarily be much inferior.
After all, the "user habits" that Zhou Dongsheng believes in are far from being formed at this stage.
Although it has taken advantage of the time difference to start planning ahead and has already attracted hundreds of millions of users, this user habit is far from being deeply rooted.
However, this subtle inertia of thinking is sometimes beyond Zhou Dongsheng's control. But even so, Zhou Dongsheng still does not feel the slightest bit impatient or anxious. He even analyzes his opponent leisurely and still feels that he has a sure win.
Our side is not without a chance of winning. We have begun to consciously make up for our technical shortcomings. Toutiao is certainly a strong opponent, but we are also capable of fighting.
If we can defeat Toutiao in a head-on competition, it would be a very fulfilling thing. Even if we lose in the end, we will have no regrets.
What’s more, Toutiao has already shown its two weapons, so it’s time for us to take action!
Although [Toutiao Short Video] is trying hard to catch up and narrow the gap, Douyin will naturally not sit idly by.
As the end of 2016 draws closer, the much-anticipated Golden Second Awards ceremony is about to begin.
Now, it's my turn to play a card.
…
When planning the first Golden Second Award ceremony, Zhou Dongsheng, a strategic investor, made great contributions to creating the golden signboard of "No. 1 in the industry".
Not only did he invite two important guests, Ding Sanshi and Wang Xiaozhang, but he also put all the top internet celebrities from his two major media outlets on the stage, investing a huge amount of resources at a loss to gain publicity.
At the same time, it is precisely because of this sincerity of "spending a fortune on a horse's bones" that Douyin was able to break out of the siege between Kuaishou and Meipai and gain its own place.
Now that a year has passed, the standards of the second Golden Second Award cannot be inferior to the first.
Although the big boss Ding Sanshi did not attend this time, after all, helping someone in need is a precious favor. As for adding icing on the cake, for Ding Sanshi, it is naturally a trivial matter that he can do or not.
Therefore, he declined Zhou Dongsheng's invitation. Zhou Dongsheng naturally expressed his understanding. After all, it was a pleasant surprise to be able to invite this giant Buddha for the first time. It is normal that he cannot invite him now.
As for this favor, Zhou Dongsheng, who was always willing to reciprocate, did not reciprocate. Putting aside PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, the two projects, Douyin and Mobike, have already brought Ding Sanshi considerable returns.
Not to mention, this is just the beginning. This is how the world is, it's all about human relationships and worldly wisdom.
Although there is no real Buddha like Ding Sanshi sitting in the throne, in the eyes of the general public, this year's Golden Second Award is even more prestigious. Especially with the arrival of many celebrities, the Golden Second Award has become more dazzling.
However, on the stage of the Golden Second Award, even if celebrities come, they can only serve as foils. After all, the Golden Second Award ceremony is aimed at content creators in the field of short videos.
Although under the operation of Yang Luyu and with the blessing of Zhou Dongsheng's face, some celebrities have opened their own Douyin short video accounts, but for the entire platform ecosystem, it is just icing on the cake.
Naturally, there is nothing commendable about the short video content posted by celebrity accounts, and it is naturally impossible for them to participate in the competition for the Golden Second Award.
Of course, they would not care about such an award. After all, at this point in time, compared with the deeply rooted Weibo Night, the Golden Second Award is still a little cramped and somewhat stretched.
But food must be eaten one bite at a time, so this kind of thing cannot be rushed.
In the face of Toutiao, which is eyeing them and wants to replace them, the Golden Second Award has unknowingly become the unique symbol of Douyin.
Yang Luyu naturally knew who deserved the credit for this, and even under the limited conditions at the time, he was still able to set up this industry benchmark.
Now that he has 360 million US dollars in financing, the wealthy Yang Luyu naturally cannot let this golden signboard fall into his hands. He cannot let Zhou Dongsheng's "painstaking efforts" down, right?
Therefore, for this second Golden Second Award, from the venue to the process and even the guests, Yang Luyu was very generous and directly raised the standards to the maximum.
From the first World Expo Center, it was directly upgraded to the Exhibition Center. Anyway, it’s the investors’ money that’s being spent, so why should we feel bad about it?
Zhou Dongsheng was naturally familiar with this place. He attended Huang Xiaoming's century wedding in this place.
At that time, Zhou Dongsheng was still sighing about the grandness of this wedding of the century. Unexpectedly, with the passage of time, this grandness is no longer worth mentioning to Zhou Dongsheng today.
After all, it's just a venue.
As time goes by, we have finally come to the end of 2016. At the New Year's Eve, the second Golden Second Award will also begin.
With the help of a professional team, the Shanghai Exhibition Center was transformed into the venue for the second Golden Second Award ceremony.
The red carpet walk, which is essential to the award ceremony, was naturally not absent. A long red carpet extended all the way to the inside of the castle.
Although the outdoor temperature was only a few degrees, it did not affect the lively atmosphere outside the venue at all. A large number of media reporters on both sides of the red carpet were already on standby.
At the same time, fans from all walks of life gathered together, holding colorful light signs, ready to support their idols at any time.
At the end of the red carpet, there is a signature wall with the words "The 2nd Golden Second Awards Ceremony" written on it.
At the starting point of the red carpet, a Rolls-Royce had slowly stopped there. As the door opened, Zhou Dongsheng got out of the car leisurely. In addition to Yang Luyu, there was also Principal Wang who would never miss any fun opportunity.
Zhou Dongsheng, who was originally young, promising and handsome, looked even more handsome and impressive when compared with these two people.
"Wow, this scene is almost as exciting as Weibo Night," Principal Wang exclaimed in amazement.
"Mr. Wang, thank you for the compliment. The current Golden Second Award is totally incomparable to Weibo Night, but it's hard to say about the future." Yang Luyu took over the conversation and said confidently.
"What a pity. If I had known earlier, I would have invested some money with Dongsheng. Now I have missed another opportunity to make a fortune." Principal Wang said with a hint of regret.
"Come on, your Panda Live is not bad now..." Zhou Dongsheng said politely in a hypocritical manner.
Although he used top anchors as bargaining chips and reaped a lot of dividends from several major live streaming platforms including Principal Wang, it did not have much impact on the competition among the major platforms.
Although the Panda platform is now booming, the current live broadcast landscape has not changed much.
The battle among thousands of broadcast platforms, with burning money as the main theme, is still ongoing, but it is almost coming to an end as all parties are unable to continue.
As 2017 arrives...
Zhou Dongsheng had a thousand thoughts in his mind, but then he put them aside and walked inside with the two of them, talking and laughing.
The second Golden Second Award was naturally broadcast live online, and many spectators gathered to see who would win the Golden Second Award this year.
