Top of the big era

Spotify’s new round of financing, with a valuation that may exceed US$1 billion, is already beginning to take shape. The next step is to launch a global layout.

Doing music streaming is relatively easier than doing video streaming.

Because the amount of music data is small, operating costs are lower.

Simple means there will be more competitors. Make arrangements as early as possible and occupy the track first.

Zhou Buqi told Daniel that the current mainstream music products are mainly music websites and music software, all of which are built around the PC Internet. Next, is the era of mobile Internet, this is an opportunity!

Spotify must grasp the pulse of the times. Even if its share of the PC side is not increased, it doesn’t matter. This is already a thing of the past. How many people use computers to listen to music?

In the past, Sony's Walkman and Apple's iPod were so successful because they captured the essence of how consumers listen to music. Listening to music is more about anytime, anywhere, and a fragment of time. This has a high degree of logical overlap with smartphones and mobile Internet.

Spotify’s next focus on the market must be to launch multiple versions of smartphone-based apps. This is the future!

This was Spotify’s Series C round of financing, and Zhou Buqi made three major requests to Daniel.

1. Develop the North American, Korean and Japanese markets.

Second, the strategic focus is tilted towards mobile Internet.

Third, look for space for cooperation with cloud computing platforms.

Of course, the cloud computing platform here can only be Ziwei Cloud. The music streaming products developed by Zhou Buqi will never be sold to competitors.

To this end, Zhou Buqi used his little knowledge of cloud computing to briefly popularize Daniel Ek, "Listening to music online is actually a downloading process. Whether it is a computer or a mobile phone, listening to music and watching videos are all It downloads and caches the data content to the terminal and then reads it. It's okay on the computer because the hard disk space is relatively large, but the mobile phone does not have such an advantage. Cloud computing is the solution."

Daniel Ek believes deeply, "Yes, cloud computing is the ultimate solution for online services and represents the future of the Internet. The cooperation between Spotify and Ziweiyun in the UK has achieved very good results. It is very important The reason is that when young people use smartphones to listen to music, other music apps will freeze after listening for a long time, but our products will not."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "This is the meaning of cloud computing."

The acquisition of Internet data requires transmission and downloading.

Reading news, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, etc. on the Internet are actually all data downloading processes. However, this data is generally not discovered by users and will be hidden in the cache.

If the cache accumulates too much, it will become stuck.

The solution is to find the cached folder and clear it. If you can't find it, you can use a product like Micropoint Security Guard to clean it.

After freeing up space, the operation will be smoother and the computer boot time can also be shortened.

The same goes for smartphones.

Why does the Android system often freeze, but Apple's iOS system is very smooth?

There are many reasons, and there are two pain points based on the cache level.

First, the iOS system has an automatic cleaning mechanism, which means that the system will automatically clean up cache files that are not used by users to ensure that the iPhone is clean and runs smoothly. The Android system later actually had similar functions, but it was a service installed on GMS and was not available in China.

The second is cloud computing services.

Cloud services are cloud services.

Comparing with the cloud is the user's terminal, that is, the user's computer, tablet, and mobile phone. These are all terminal devices.

The traditional technical logic of watching movies and listening to music online is that the terminal device sends a request to the platform's server through the Internet, requesting to download relevant data files into the terminal's cache, and then reads the cache to play videos and music. .

Cloud services can bypass this hurdle and be performed directly in the cloud. The data content is not downloaded to the terminal, but to the cloud... In this way, there is no need to occupy the cache space of the terminal.

The terminal device will be clean and run smoothly without lag.

The iOS system is smoother because Apple has launched a cloud computing business in China, namely iCloud, and every iPhone is connected to iCloud. The computing, storage and operation consumption of the terminal are reduced through the cloud, and many complex processes are completed in the iCloud cloud. The iPhone terminal only receives signals or processes some simple calculations, and the operation is of course smooth.

Google Cloud is several orders of magnitude more powerful than Apple Cloud, and Google can certainly do the same.

However, Google Cloud is blocked in China.

Google Cloud cannot enter the domestic market.

As a result, the domestic Android system cannot use cloud services similar to the iOS system, which means that all work must be completed by the terminal's mobile phone. The workload is large and the task load is large, and of course it will be very laggy.

For domestic mobile phones of the same model, such as Xiaomi, Huawei, OV, and ZTE, the configurations of the foreign versions are lower than those of the domestic ones. Not to trick foreigners, but because foreign countries can use Google Cloud and the technology is not enough, so they use configuration to make up for it. With the support of cloud computing, even if the configuration is very low, it can still run more smoothly than the high configuration in China.

For example, when sending WeChat in China, there will be a delay on the iPhone, but there will be no delay on the Android phone. The reason is cloud computing.

Sending WeChat on an Android phone is "user-user".

To send WeChat on iPhone, it is "User—iCloud—User". With one more intermediate link, there will be a slight delay.

Therefore, it can be judged from technical logic that if Apple phones and Android phones with the same configuration are used to grab red envelopes in the domestic Internet environment, the Android phone will be faster because of the lack of "middlemen." If the Android phone has not been snatched, it means that the configuration is too low, or there are too many junk files inside the phone and need to be cleaned up in time.

The storage space is too small for a smartphone.

Using traditional technical means to develop Spotify's mobile app is prone to problems. Every time you listen to a piece of music, you have to download the data of this music to your phone... The more songs you listen to, the phone will be full. Stuttered. Users don’t know why and think that Spotify’s product is too rubbish, thus reducing their recognition of this product.

Cooperating with Ziweiyun and putting the relevant processes in the cloud can perfectly solve this problem.

This is a relatively common understanding of cloud services, and Daniel Ek also knows it.

However, now that Zhou Buqi has talked about it, he must have some other insights to provide some strategic guidance for Spotify's future development.

Zhou Buqi said: "Piracy of music is the common enemy of the entire music industry. In the past few years, the music industry has been relatively conservative in its attitude towards digital music. A very important reason is the rampant piracy market. Cloud computing can solve this problem."

"ah?"

Daniel was slightly startled.

Zhou Buqi said: "A lot of pirated music is not downloaded from pirated resources, but downloaded from genuine channels. However, after users download it, they will spread it privately, which forms piracy infringement."

Daniel's eyes lit up, and he seemed to understand what Boss Zhou was going to say, "Yes, the cloud service downloads music to the cloud, not the terminal!"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Yes, in order to prevent the spread of piracy, many genuine music have closed download channels. However, the transmission mechanism of Internet data is downloading. For some computer-savvy users, even if the platform does not provide download channels It doesn’t matter, once you listen to the song online, the song will be completely saved in the terminal cache. Then, just go to the cache file to find the corresponding song file, which is equivalent to a disguised download.”

With cloud computing platform services, this problem can be solved.

If the data is cached in the cloud instead of the terminal, users will not be able to find it in the terminal’s cache. (In fact, it’s possible, but the threshold is higher. Cloud computing platforms keep changing caching strategies, and users have to keep looking for cracking methods.)

Daniel Ek reacted quickly and immediately realized that this idea was likely to become a negotiating advantage for Spotify to cooperate with the four major record giants!

Other digital music websites and music software will breed the proliferation of pirated music and seriously erode the interests of music groups.

But Spotify is different. Spotify is a formal data music platform. It not only supports genuine music, but can also effectively limit the spread of pirated music through technical means.

Zhou Buqi said: "I can tell you privately that Ziweixing Global has reached a plan with Citigroup. In the next few months, Ziweixing Global will complete the acquisition of EMI Records."

"Great!" Daniel was excited, as if it was not Zhou Buqi who completed the deal but him, "Next, with the full support of EMI Records, Spotify will definitely be able to move forward on the road of digital music transformation. farther."

Zhou Buqi said: "You have to find a good angle for cooperation. The music industry's thinking is still relatively traditional. You have to tell them that Spotify is different from other music websites. With the support of cloud computing, Spotify will not destroy the industry, but will It will make the pie in the music market bigger. Through smartphones, it will provide a wider and more popular dissemination channel for music."

Daniel took a deep breath, "Okay, I understand. Mr. Zhou, you are really the noble person in my life!"

Jiang Shuying was honored to have the opportunity to accompany Mr. Zhou to investigate this office building.

Her English is very good and she can understand their communication.

My heart was shaken, ups and downs.

When she was in China, she took a trip with Mr. Zhou and saw many big scenes. A big shot like Mr. Huayi always had to be submissive in front of Mr. Zhou.

This being London, she felt even more deeply.

Mr. Zhou is so great!

Look at these blue-eyed, white-skinned foreigners following him step by step. They are all social elites, the most influential group of people in Europe's upper class. In front of Mr. Zhou, they all become subservient followers.

Daniel Icke's words of "the destined nobleman" made Jiang Shuying feel the same way. The small fire in her heart could not be suppressed no matter how hard it was. The fire was getting bigger and bigger, and it was about to burn all the propriety, justice and integrity.

She is becoming more and more enthusiastic, and she hopes that Mr. Zhou can also become her "destined nobleman".

I don’t know if Mr. Zhou can take a liking to me...

no!

Mr. Zhou is a big shot. Even if he really likes me, he may not show it with his demeanor, cultivation and superior status.

Jiang Shuying took a deep breath and felt very determined: "There is no need to be reserved about this kind of thing. I have to be more proactive. I have to find a step for Mr. Zhou."

She knew she was not worthy of Mr. Zhou, but the impact of power and wealth brought by Mr. Zhou was really intoxicating. Even if you can have sex with him for one night, it will be enough to last a lifetime and will be a valuable asset in life.