Chapter 1185： barrage culture

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Just like the previous Oscars, once the awards ceremony is over, the scolding battle over the ownership of the awards begins again.

You say this is not worthy, I say that is not worthy, and in the end, all the blame is directed at the academy, and the academy continues to pretend not to say a word. Everyone is very skilled.

This kind of scolding didn't involve the company's business, so Lehman naturally didn't have the energy to pay attention. On the contrary, after he went to Amber, he also got a piece of good news from the managing director Edward.

"Is Apple also optimistic about us?"

With the multi-party negotiations in recent days, the investors who are optimistic about Amber are getting higher and higher.

"Because the streaming media environment has improved again, and the existence of self-made dramas has greatly offset the strength of content supply, neither Netflix nor us are so passive.

Also, there is an inside message. I've heard people say that Comcast wants to bring streaming media into the set-top box port. If it is true, we will have a wider range of channels to connect with users and have better development prospects. Of course, the market trend will focus on the content segment of streaming media. "

With the help of people in red shirts, it is faster to receive information. Although Laiman can understand these good reasons, he did not expect that all aspects of the update will be so fast. Are you all stupid?

"Well, the question now is, where is the progress of the negotiations?"

"There are only a few details left. It can be done in about two days. We will have a meeting with representatives of Google Ventures and Apple. Chairman, do you want to come?"

"Well, yes."

After attending the Oscars, he has no other travel arrangements for the past few days, which is enough for him to take care of the company's projects.

Soon, he met in the conference room with representatives of the two parties and the team in the Los Angeles Regional Office of Coopers & Co., which was responsible for sorting out the terms.

"Mr. Rust, we are very bullish on your streaming platform."

The people at Google are already relatively familiar, and the two middle-level white people from Apple came to greet them politely.

"Sit down, if it goes well, we are all on the same front."

"Let's start, we've talked a few times, and we need to solve some problems as soon as possible." Edward echoed.

Everyone was no longer polite, and Yongdao representatives took out relevant documents and distributed them on behalf of Lehman.

"At present, the turnover, total assets, and net assets of Amber in the first quarter have been discussed before, and we also used a model to deduce the retention rate in the second quarter. The situation is very optimistic, because it is this paragraph. The appreciation of time is very fast, and I believe there is no reason for us to feel that it suddenly deteriorates."

"Yes, our needs are still the same. It is still traffic and some business transactions. When it comes to the field of streaming media, we must give Amber the best treatment." Edward continued to emphasize this point.

"No, no, we can give discounts in e-commerce, but you request that you deliberately guide users to recommend Netflix between Amber and Netflix. Sorry, we can't do that. In this way, the credibility of the Apple Store will be lost. A round A can't afford it." Apple's people took the lead.

"The same is true for us. Netflix's downloads and user stock are higher than Amber. We can't ignore the facts and deliberately conceal this fact. At most, we put the two at the same level, and Netflix ranks ahead of Amber."

"But according to our previous discussion, you can see that the increment and public favorability brought by "Game of Thrones" is multiplied by a model coefficient. We can basically guarantee that by the second half of this year, members and users can naturally accumulate. To 8 million, this is seriously inconsistent with Amber's valuation at this time, isn't it?"

"We are not denying that Amber is growing at a high speed, and the market prospect is considerable."

If it weren't for the performance of "Game of Thrones", Apple would not have opened up a new investment battlefield in advance.

According to a sentence of their CEO Tim Cook after reading the analysis report, "This is undoubtedly an underestimated gold mountain. You will never regret finding a way to get on the line."

Apple is so active that it can devote energy and resources to open up the battlefield in the streaming media field when it is already competing with many giants for market share and the battle is fierce. In addition to valuing Amber, they also want to ensure the relationship with some suppliers. .

The Apple Store is their most successful service community. In the long video segment, if there is an APP that has some involvement with them, its strategic significance is there.

To be honest, Apple has been doing similar things in recent years, either attracting companies related to the subdivision, or rolling up its sleeves and going out in person.

In comparison, Google's mentality is rather normal. The reason why their executives are willing to give Amber some diversion in terms of downstream traffic in the core search field of the business is just a way to exchange resources for resources and realize resources. Amber has investment value, and betting on it now can get huge returns.

After this was refuted, Edward was already prepared, and changed his direction to continue to strive for benefits, "Well, you have your own recommendation mechanism, but it's okay for us to ask for hidden recommendation windows such as search words."

"Our APP promotion, it's no problem to have some good advertising space."

"In addition, when pushing the drama, some traffic effects? We will be partners in the future, right?"

"It's a bit difficult. We can't give up other business cooperation for your family. At most, it's just a higher priority."

Around all kinds of details, everyone buckled very carefully.

In a flash, 2 hours passed, and everyone was a little tired.

"After chatting so much, it should be no problem." The people at Google couldn't wait the most, "The contract will be officially signed in 2 days?"

"Deal?" Edward smiled.

"Deal." Apple's people also breathed a sigh of relief, "So, we will use 390 million cash and this large and small cooperation to get your 3% equity and priority of follow-up financing. This understanding is correct. ?"

"Cannot interfere with the management of the film library." Lehmann stressed.

"Yes, yes, we have no objection to this, I believe your professionalism in content, but we will also send a director representative to Amber to safeguard our rights and interests. This is not supervision, just protection, our people generally do not disrupting your day-to-day operations," said the Apple representative.

"So do we." Google Ventures nodded in agreement.

"I'm fine with that."

The financing details, several parties have generally reached a consensus, and the Apple representative said seriously: "The last question, I want to know how you want to use this financing, just give a rough idea. In addition, under what conditions to start the B round?"

What VCs are most afraid of is that the person in charge of the invested company has no direction for the future. After the real money has been invested, the investor must hope that every penny can be spent on the cutting edge, not messing around, and they don’t know the next step. what to do.

In fact, there are countless companies that need financing to grow up. There is not such a saying in the industry: 90% of companies can get into the angel round or even the A round, but starting from the A round, the B round will die 60%; b When it is the turn of the C round, 70% of them die, and by the time they grit their teeth and survive the C round, they are already less than 5% of the initial market.

And the key reason for being eliminated is generally not the market environment, but the management of the enterprise itself.

There are a lot of people who started a business with a passion, and then were hit by reality or swelled to fluttering or just relying on a momentary inspiration to do things. However, when these people ran out of money, the project did not achieve the expected growth, the market share did not improve much, and the investment Fang lost his confidence, and the project basically turned yellow.

And Amber's financing itself represents a kind of independence. Mann Media's cash reserves will not be transfused to Amber. Whether it is successful or not, not everyone is worried.

"I can guarantee that at least half of this money will be spent on expanding new markets and increasing film source inventory to consolidate user choices, and the other part will be fixed expenses for technical services such as computer rooms and cloud services. The plan can burn the money to the right place to expand the competitiveness.

As for the B round, my idea is to launch when 15 million to 20 million paying users, how about this answer? "

...

The Apple and Google VCs left satisfied.

The A round is almost finalized, and Lehman is in a good mood.

At present, there is no trouble in the next stage of Amber's actions. When both traffic and funds are settled, it can be launched to the Latin markets such as Britain, the United States, Germany, France and Mexico.

Aside from self-made content, which attracts users, as long as the Internet traffic port is increased, the positive feedback cannot be underestimated.

First, the image of the platform is deeply shaped; second, users can think of Amber when they choose streaming media apps through the recommendation position, and naturally have the basis for the impression of competing with Netflix for new users, which offsets a considerable part of Netflix as an industry leader. For other homogeneous platforms, the natural suppression of user diversion.

At night.

Lehman had Ron set up a leadership meeting just before he was about to sign the contract for the A round, inviting Perlman, Bryan, and some of the backbone of the equal division.

Like the technical team, Amber currently has more than 70 engineers, roughly divided into 6 teams and managed by Ron.

When the staff came together, Lehmann first announced the good news on financing, which made the Amber veterans who were all bundled with corresponding options a little excited and full of energy.

Afterwards, Lehman led Perlman to the first seat and continued: "Let's get to the point, today's meeting, there are mainly two things to be discussed clearly, the first is the A round that has just been notified. After getting money and resource support, there is a clear goal to further expand the market share;

The second is about the adjustment and new planning of the platform itself. "

While talking, Lehman wrote on the vertical board: "A round and B round financing, product architecture" these brief outlines.

"The meaning of Amber's existence, I am not just content to supplement the company's copyright business, to do it, I want to be an in-depth operator in the content field, and more importantly, to be able to stand firmly in this field, We dare to compete even if we are not afraid of competition, so we have invested in the A round and seek strategic allies. Whether we can develop enough to be qualified to ring the bell on Nasdaq in the future, I hope that everyone here will be inseparable."

Saying that, Lehman added: "Of course, when I communicated with you before, I didn't say much about some of the directions of the product. Today, I am here because the money from the A round will come in, so let's discuss it together. Ron, come first."

As Amber's CTO, he is already a community of interests, and even career value must be realized here. When Ron Brandon sighed about Amber's development prospects, he also initially concluded with a report:

"Our current paying users have reached 6.7 million, and the annual users are still a small number, and most of them are monthly subscription users. However, because of the existence of "Game of Thrones", the activity in the past few weeks and even the next few weeks can be maintained at 10 million. Depending on the level, in terms of results alone, we have surpassed 5 million users on Hulu and become the second-largest streaming media platform in terms of user stock (youtube does not count long video services separately, and it is not included in the calculation, and everyone’s business development direction is different).”

Lehman took the lead in applauding, "Yes. But we are also facing the first difficulty, how to continue to increase user dependence or reduce user churn. The large monthly subscription also means that these users have the will not to renew."

"Yes, that's something we've been working on."

Streaming media, the biggest embarrassment is nothing more than too strong substitutability, no matter from the trend of background access or from the user's personal point of view, once there is no interesting content, it is difficult for them to spend energy on Amber.

Like the hit "Game of Thrones", although the number of users has increased rapidly, there is a problem of overlap. These people were originally Netflix users, and Netflix can't read our homemade content, so they came over for a monthly subscription. This kind of At the same time, it is the most difficult to pay attention to how the users who are freely chosen by several homogeneous platforms keep them, followed by those TV users and the new and old users who have changed the way of watching dramas under the guidance of new guidance, all have similar problems.

"That's why we have to increase the investment and output of self-made dramas, right? I believe that "American Terror", which is the successor to "Game of Thrones", will also have good results, and then maintain the situation. In addition, buy new films Source content and expanding business in overseas regions are both good ways to increase user growth and retention." Brian mentioned.

"This is a good point, and it is what we are ready to do after getting the A round, but I still want to start with the service itself and enhance the sense of belonging to the audience."

Lehman nodded and shook his head: "To put it bluntly, streaming media is all about selling content, and the difference is mostly in focus, scale, and their respective highlights. Like Netflix, the scale is relatively the largest and the most complete, but all we can provide is It is not just needed, otherwise users will not jump around.

The concept I want to express at this moment is not based on the supplement of film sources, but whether we can create some way to achieve the conquest of users themselves rather than the precipitation meaning in terms of service breadth. The former must be done, and the latter must be pondered and prepared with both hands. "

Hearing this, everyone understood.

Co-authoring your previous question is not about how to expand user acceptance, but when you think about it carefully, it seems a bit inappropriate for streaming media to say "indispensability" and "sense of belonging".

Even Ron, the most tech-savvy, thinks that he has made a mistake in the attributes. Social software needs to be indispensable and irreplaceable. It seems that it is meaningless to entangle and irreplaceable like Amber and Netflix. For the needs of the drama, if you don’t choose Netflix, you have to choose Amber and Hulu. More, you should use several. Whichever has updated good content will go to which one.

Lehmann didn't know what everyone was thinking. He just felt that with millions of relatively loyal users, he could develop stickiness based on his future experience.

"Marketability, strong demand, both are indispensable. At present, Amber's strong demand is only for self-made dramas and those exclusive film sources that Netflix does not have. There are too few. I have an idea..."

Several technicians, including Ron, were in high spirits when they heard this, waiting for the big boss's words.

"Didn't we learn Netflix's recommendation mechanism and user rating mechanism? The effect has been good. If we add the mechanism and technology for users to send real-time comments and display them on this basis, it should also increase users' dependence on Amber."

That's right, after the A round, in addition to buying content, shooting self-made content, and expanding the server, Lehman's trump card is the best "barrage" mechanism in the live broadcast field of station B and the future fire.

In Lyman's eyes, this is a genius idea of ​​emotional needs.

What do audiences watch dramas for?

Fill the void? Kill time?

In the final analysis, it is nothing more than the emotional needs of the people based on their hearts.

Movies, TV dramas, games, novels, and all entertainment vehicles serve people's emotional needs, as well as material needs at the spiritual level.

The barrage, which was originally registered in Japanese animation, went to Station A, Station B, and then to the field of live broadcast at home and abroad, quickly became a must-have trick for many network service providers. This is because this mechanism can be used in various products and functions. Besides, proper bundling evolves into the interaction between the platform and the user.

Humans are social animals, but they tend to be sensitive and lonely. Especially the Internet has indifferent emotions and magnifies the aspect of loneliness.

Under such a social relationship, especially for people who watch dramas online, the barrage, as a product of emotional connection, can also be used as the most direct guiding target, which can not only stimulate the work itself during the viewing process Users generate emotions, and then the barrage provides users with a channel to share their originally very personal emotions and share them with the public.

In the process of sending a private experience, users not only get multiple functions such as expression and emotional catharsis, but more importantly, they can gain a feeling of being recognized and responded to.

In other words, the emotion itself is connected to more people through the barrage through the works, staying for a longer time, and crossing the space. Streaming media is provided by a single content service provider, with more user participation.

Furthermore, the barrage can supplement the rating and recommendation mechanism of streaming media.

Like many songs by Wang Yiyun, and for example, the film and television highlights that are constantly being mined at Station B, many unpopular movies and songs have never been paid much attention. Based on the threshold form of the dissemination of the content itself, they have been criticized and out of the circle, and further. Difficulty in spreading is reduced.

This alone is of great benefit to the platform itself with massive copyright authorization.

Even for those content providers, it is a win-win situation, they will provide an additional reason to the platform, and the causal relationship is not difficult to understand.

After all, invisibly, the bullet screen provides these manufacturers with an additional means of expanding exposure and publicity, and provides a relatively vertical channel for people who like to watch movies and TV series.

This kind of screening allows users to spontaneously contribute time, money and emotional screening. I believe you can understand how difficult it is.

In general, interactivity, connectivity, creativity, deeper impressions, etc. can be taken care of, and there is nothing better than this.

At present, few people pay attention to this additional service, and Americans have always been biased against the Asian region, which is why the supplementary application of barrage has been out for several years. , everyone found that its interactive effect is really great, and gradually accepted it.

Therefore, if Amber can become the first APP to introduce the barrage mechanism in the streaming media field, it will gain two more names under the advantage of the first mover (the first-person user favor has already been obtained).

...

This concept based on emotional interaction makes everyone's eyes shine, and the viewing atmosphere that transcends the limitations of time and space sounds great.

Although Ron's group of technical talents do not have a substantial feeling for the so-called barrage advantage until it is confirmed by the market, but the big boss has such a clear concept, and he still talks in such detail, and they all look forward to the addition of relevant methods.

"I will let the team add this service From a technical point of view, it is just a plug-in, it is not difficult, and the corresponding architecture should be completed within a month at most."

To be on the safe side, Ron moved backwards cautiously.

Lehman said with a smile: "Of course, not all users actually like to watch other people's feelings drift by. Remember to add it to the personal adjustment. If you don't want to have a barrage, just turn it off and it will not affect the broadcast of the episode."

"rest assured."

"The next stage, our plan is roughly like this-"

In overseas markets and local markets, continue to screen film sources;

Develop barrage plug-ins, comment selection and like mechanism;

Increase the proportion and investment of self-made dramas...

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