"Forty-three million?"

Andy couldn't help but let out an exclamation, a little gaffe.

But this can't blame Andy, even Renly and Matthew are a little surprised. Don’t talk about streaming media platforms. Even an ordinary Internet celebrity blogger on YouTube has far more subscribers. Although this comparison is unreasonable, because YouTube is a free subscription, while Sony’s streaming media platform cracks. ) Is required to pay; but the meaning is the same. For network subscription channels that rely on traffic for a living, "430,000" is really too low and too low.

Andre cast his gaze at Lan Li calmly, "His opinion." The subtext is: Blame Lan Li has chosen a streaming media platform with such a low number of subscribers.

The reason why the "crack" streaming media service is so low-key and so shabby is mainly because Sony has never paid attention to this one. Compared with the booming rise of online streaming media, the Sony parent group still values ​​the operation and promotion of animation and games, all related Services are developed around these themes, and the importance of film and television must be ranked behind.

Because of this, the "crack" subscription service can only be used on LG and Samsung products, and only available in a few specific countries such as North America, Japan, and South Korea. 430,000 subscriptions, to be honest, should be no surprise, and even sigh, that Sony’s loyal users are indeed **** enough to achieve such a number.

However, from another point of view, the main difference between the acquisition of a streaming media platform and the creation of a new streaming media platform is in two aspects: first, the film library, which is the existing copyright of the streaming media platform; second , Paid subscribers, omitting the pre-publicity and foreshadowing, improve the starting point.

Of course, other than that, there are many specific differences in the following, such as the algorithm of movie recommendation, the construction of online websites, the production of smart phone software, etc., but overall, the most important and core difference is the above two. point.

Amazon established its own streaming media platform. In the absence of a film library, it used its priority user base to open up the situation; while Hulu.com has the film library of the three major companies as its backing and won at the starting line, but In the follow-up, there is still a lack of independent original works, and there is no way to truly "simultaneously" watch new works. This also restricts the rapid growth of subscribers. After all, the old works are still not attractive.

"If the number of subscribers is 4.3 million, I am afraid that a zero or even two zeros will need to be added to the purchase price." Faced with Andrei's complaints, Lan Li responded calmly.

Andy thought about it for a while and nodded in agreement.

Andre pretended not to hear, picked up the red wine glass in his hand, tasted it carefully, let the silence spread for a moment, and then changed the subject, “Sony really doesn’t have much to do with streaming media platforms. Interesting, the dedicated office of the crack is almost an abandoned department, and now there are only five employees responsible for daily operations."

Five...This is almost tantamount to abandoning children. I am afraid that even within Sony, no employees are willing to go to the streaming media department. This can basically be considered an exile.

"In the beginning, I also prepared a cooperation proposal, but seeing this situation, I simply put forward the acquisition proposal. Sony did not hesitate too much and directly quoted. It seems that they feel that it is not a bad thing to get rid of this burden. , But we still have some differences in terms of the details of the acquisition. They only want to transfer the platform, but the copyright must be calculated separately; I think this is an uneconomical transaction."

In just one month, Andre and Sony also fought back and forth for multiple rounds. Even though Sony hopes to get rid of the burden of cracking, they still cannot give up their interests.

"In the end we reached a consensus, 30 million US dollars, Sony will buy shares in the form of copyright, and own 20% of the shares. But..." Before Andre's words could be said, he noticed that the eyes of all three people were all in sight. Projected over, it was not a simple wait and see, the burning eyes still carried a lot of power, which interrupted Andrei's words slightly.

"I know that thirty million sounds like a fantasy, even if it is my own surprise; however, there are other conditions to open up the entire platform network, including online website and other smart phone application development, and follow-up All relevant negotiations must be completed by ourselves, which is equivalent to saying that what we are acquiring is a semi-finished product." Andre added the follow-up words.

Lan Li is still not very sensitive to business. He can't remember the market value of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu in 2017, but he can be sure that Netflix is ​​already catching up with Disney.

what does that mean?

This means that the market value of the Netflix Kingdom is at least 100 billion, or even more, which is "hundreds of billions of dollars", a height that ordinary people can't reach in a lifetime; but now, the crack is three thousand. Ten thousand dollars change hands?

Of course, as Andre said, first of all, Sony used copyright to occupy 20% of the shares. Secondly, this is a semi-finished platform. Thirdly, Sony did not pay any attention to it. Under the influence of many factors, the transaction price was like this. It is cheap, and the acquisition can be completed only by relying on the pay of a movie by Lan Li; but this result is still beyond Lan Li’s expectations, he thought it would take at least 100 million US dollars to be enough.

However, calm down and think about it is not an accident: Hollywood and Wall Street billionaires, they may indeed not miss the 30 million US dollars, there are countless millionaires who can complete the acquisition, but who will buy a semi-finished streaming media platform. , And then you have to work hard to build the platform, but you are not sure whether you can achieve profitability? Instead of buying a semi-finished product, it is better to buy a small island and feel at ease.

Thirty million, this is only the first expenditure. If Sisyphus Pictures really acquired the crack, the next price to fill the original film library and build a complete streaming media platform would be one billion, twenty 100 million or more, the number of "ten billion" is definitely not a joke.

A simple horizontal comparison can be made. In 2017, Netflix’s budget for original content was 8 billion U.S. dollars. This is only in North America. At the same time, it is still trying to open the European and South Asian markets. Correspondingly, Amazon and hbo are The investment in original content is less than US$2 billion. As for Hulu.com, which is jointly owned by Disney, Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox, the investment budget is only a mere US$1 billion.

Of course, this is just a comparative data. When it comes to Sisyphus Pictures, they will inevitably need to make further adjustments according to their own circumstances.

However, it can be seen from the side that filling the original content library is a “bottomless pit” that must be carried out for a long time. The disadvantage of Netflix is ​​that their original content accumulation is only a short decade, but Disney, hbo, etc. The giant crocodiles have a rich accumulation of twenty, fifty, or even a whole century.

So, how should Sisyphus Pictures' online streaming media positioning be determined?

This is a huge subject, and things are far beyond imagination.

Andre left a little room for reaction and thinking, poured himself a glass of red wine again, and then continued to speak, "I haven't made a deal yet, it's up to you now. If we start, this thing will not happen. If we are going back, we must go on like this. Of course, if we are not greedy, we can move forward steadily, and the investment ratio of the first three years can be the first to work out a one billion plan. But..."

Andre shrugged, "You should also know that everything in the Internet age has been updated too quickly. Perhaps, online streaming has reached its peak in just three years and five years, and then began to decline. , Our original content filling speed cannot keep up with the pace of changes of the times, so being eliminated is the only destiny."

Such alarmist remarks, Andre said lightly.

"Of course, there is another possibility. We don't need the era to be eliminated, we will not be able to make it successfully, and we will go bankrupt." Matthew said silently next to it.

Andre doesn't mind, "This is naturally a possibility. But for entrepreneurship, that is not our goal."

"The billion-dollar plan ~lightnovelpub.net~ right?" Lan Li is a complete layman for establishing and operating companies. He can't help at all, and may even help more and more, so his mind is always I kept it clear and didn’t worry about those potential possibilities. “If Sony Columbia is willing to invest in copyright, it’s actually a good thing. I’ve always coveted their copyright library, and I’ve always refused to play online and piled up in the warehouse. , This is really wasteful."

Sony Columbia’s movie copyright library and music copyright library are second to none in the world, and are at the same level as Disney and Warner Bros.

"Sony does not think that streaming online playback can recoup too much profit." Andre explained.

Lan Li lightly chins his head, "In this case, we can shoot the movie first, then fill the library with the copyrights of Sundance and Sony, then shoot the TV series, leave the subscription audience with the TV series, and then step by step Bring the independent movie channel online and win with quality."

This is not the wisdom of Lan Li, but the experience summarized by online streaming media such as Netflix and Amazon. Lan Li just copied it.

"As for investment..." Lan Li pondered for a moment.

Although the US$1 billion in the first stage does not seem to be an astronomical figure; however, the founding company does not operate like this. They should make money with money, either bank loans or venture capital funds, in this way to create more Interest, rather than creating a company by yourself, this is a method suitable for small-cost companies.

At this moment, Matthew interrupted Lan Li's thinking.