Zhou Buqi is an Internet person.

Almost all the businesses he is personally involved in are related to the Internet.

Is it important whether "The Hobbit" will be made into a movie or a TV series, whether it will be a good or bad movie after it is made, and whether it will make more or less money?

For Boss Zhou, this is just a little thing for playing house.

What he cares about is the core strategy of Ziweixing Global - streaming media!

With the fame and appeal of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit", if it is linked to the capital market, it is very likely to set off a wave of stock market surges!

Netflix’s current market value is only about $2.4 billion.

There are 15 million member users, most of whom are users of the DVD mailing business.

At the beginning of the year, only 40% of members used Netflix's streaming service, and now only 70% of members try to watch streaming videos on Netflix.

The reason is that there is too little content.

Renting DVDs has a lot of content. You can rent any movie you want to watch. There is so little streaming content that you can hardly find anything you want to watch.

The self-produced drama model is the future of Netflix.

But not now.

Netflix's market value is too low.

A low market value means that Netflix is ​​very poor and cannot spend much money to make movies. We have to find a good way to push up Netflix's market value!

When Netflix's market value increases, for example, if it reaches a market value of US$10 billion, it can issue corporate bonds of US$1 billion or US$2 billion.

After raising the money and making a film and television series, Netflix's market value will further increase. As the market value increases, more bonds can be issued.

Accumulate step by step.

Continuously issue bonds and make movies to attract users and increase market value. Issue more bonds and make more movies to attract more users and create higher market value.

Basically, when Netflix's debt reaches 10 billion to 12 billion US dollars, the entire Netflix ecosystem will be stable, and it will be able to have hundreds of millions of users and collect tens of billions of dollars in membership fees every year.

The key point now is to find ways to increase Netflix’s market value!

How to push it higher?

The answer given by Zhou Buqi is the TV series version of "The Hobbit".

This is grand strategy!

Whether "The Hobbit" will be made into a movie or a TV series, whether it will make 500 million US dollars or 1 billion US dollars, these are all trivial matters, not worth mentioning.

Zhou Buqi would personally participate in such a trivial matter. There must be a more long-term strategic design related to the Internet behind this.

Ann Sarnoff was the assistant, and Zhou Buqi did not hesitate to reveal the truth to her.

Zhou Buqi gently took a sip of the honey-flavored black tea, feeling that it tasted strange, and said: "The Internet is changing the world in every aspect. Movie rating websites have banned the traditional Hollywood offline research model. In the future, there will be

There are more and more changes."

An Sanoff understood, took a deep breath, and said, "The direction of Ziweixing Global is the Internet!"

"right."

“It’s streaming media!”

Ann Sarnoff exclaimed.

Zhou Buqi smiled and admitted: "Yes, this is an important reason why I choose you as my assistant."

The sports industry in the United States is highly technological and has many elites.

As early as seven or eight years ago, the baseball league tried to launch live streaming events. Ann Sarnoff previously served as the chief operating officer of WNBA (Women's NBA League), and he also examined the direction of live streaming.

So she understands it very well.

It is also more accepting of the strategic direction of streaming media.

Ann Sarnoff said: "Indeed, more and more young people like to watch things on the Internet. Whenever there is an important game, ESPN's online live broadcast website will crash because there are too many viewers."

Zhou Buqi said: "Espn belongs to Disney, so it's not surprising that the technology content is low. The last thing Ziweixing Global needs to worry about is technical problems."

Ann Sarnoff smiled and said: "Yes, you are an Internet entrepreneur, and no one is more professional than you."

Zhou Buqi said modestly: "I don't know anything about technology. I just have a very strong team. Ziweixing International will also be a shareholder of Ziweixing Global."

Ann Sarnoff asked tentatively: "So... Ziweixing Global will launch our own streaming media platform? And then use the appeal of the "Hobbit" TV series to attract users?"

"Take your time, you can bite off more than you can chew." Zhou Buqi stretched out his right palm and said half-jokingly, "Just like these five fingers, if they are separated, they will be limp and powerless. Only when you clench your fists and hold them together can you

Punch hard."

"Greed for too much?"

Ann Sarnoff was thinking a lot, but he also didn’t quite understand. Is there another streaming media platform under Ziweixing Global? Is it Hulu? NBC Global holds 40% of Hulu’s equity. But in this case, Hulu’s

The equity will belong to Comcast along with the NBC television network.

This has nothing to do with Ziweixing Global!

You can't take huge risks and lower your expected income to make "The Hobbit" into a TV series, and then turn around and use it as a wedding dress for others, right?

Zhou Buqi gave the answer, "It's Netflix."

"Naflix?" An Sarnoff was very cautious, "Isn't Netflix related to Ziweixing Global?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "So after completing the acquisition and integration of Universal Pictures, the next step is to strategically finance Netflix. Streaming media platforms are now collectively suppressed by Hollywood, let alone Netflix, even Hulu

Everything is difficult. After the reorganization of Ziweixing Universal is completed, there will be a massive library of more than 8,000 movies and 40,000 TV series."

Ann Sarnoff took a deep breath.

This is quite courageous.

This is going against the trend!

Zhou Buqi said impassionedly: "We have strength, but we must also have confidence. Ziweixing Global can lead the new era of Hollywood! The industrial Internet is the next era, and Hollywood is no exception!"

Ann Sarnoff silently settled the score in his heart.

If "The Hobbit" is made into a trilogy of movies, the profits will be shared equally with Warner Bros. If all channels are used, the profit will probably reach US$700 million to US$800 million.

But if it is made into a TV series and released to Netflix... the result is inevitable, Netflix's market value will skyrocket!

If Ziweixing Global abandons the distribution of DVDs, TV stations, on-demand channels and other channels, and broadcasts it exclusively to Netflix. All viewers around the world who want to watch the drama version of "The Hobbit" will have to register and subscribe to Netflix. At that time

Even Netflix’s market capitalization of US$10 billion cannot stop it!

Netflix's current market value is about $2.5 billion.

Ziweixing Global uses "The Hobbit" to exchange shares of Netflix and enter into strategic cooperation, and can get at least 25% of the shares. By the time the "Hobbit" series is officially launched on Netflix, Netflix's market value is likely to have soared.

At US$10 billion, the value of this share has reached US$2.5 billion!

hiss!

Indeed it is!

Capital operations can make money much faster than making movies!

However, An Sarnoff immediately thought of another major event that might cause internal conflicts within Ziweixing Global!

There are business differences between the streaming media business and the home entertainment business.

The home entertainment business mainly relies on DVD sales and rentals, as well as royalties from TV stations, cable TV stations, and on-demand channels.

If the copyright of "The Hobbit" is exclusively licensed to Netflix, it means that the home entertainment business will not be able to benefit from this mega project!

This will inevitably arouse dissatisfaction from the traditional forces in Hollywood, and Kevin Tsujihara will be very unhappy!

Originally he wanted to promote "The Hobbit" to be made into a movie.

This suggestion was rejected.

It’s okay to be rejected. Even after “The Hobbit” was made into a TV series, he still couldn’t get the light, which might cause internal turmoil! Especially in the early days of Ziweixing Global’s establishment, stability was more important than anything else, and there was no room for chaos!

Ann Sarnoff felt that this matter was very serious, so he described the possible management risks involved with a serious look.

Zhou Buqi was calm and calm, and said with a smile: "It doesn't matter, he is of Japanese descent."

"ah?"

Ann Sarnoff was stunned for a moment, what does this bloodline have to do with it?

Zhou Buqi said: "Kevin Tsujihara is so conservative. If I had to choose, I wouldn't let him come over to be a senior executive. Fortunately, he is Japanese and he was brought here by Masayoshi Son. They are compatriots and have If they don’t understand anything, they can figure it out themselves.”

He had already thought of it, but he was confident.

The initial management of Ziweixing Global is the most difficult, and the ability to withstand pressure is the worst. If at this critical stage, Sun Zhengyi’s trusted relatives are causing trouble internally and causing trouble...

That would be interesting.

At that time, Zhou Buqi will have a reason to talk to Sun Zhengyi, and he can bleed more blood from him and get more benefits. At least he will extort 1% or 2% of the shares.

It is inconvenient for Xiao Jiujiu to say more. Zhou Buqi said: "The key area of ​​SoftBank's investment is the Internet. SoftBank invested one to two billion US dollars this time, and their purpose is not for the entertainment industry."

Ann Sarnoff had a sudden realization, "No wonder!"
To be continued...