Top of the big era

This is actually a change in business model and business thinking.

In the past, movie fans needed to buy movie tickets or DVDs to watch a movie. For most people, there is no unlimited budget.

This requires them to choose from a vast selection of different movies.

At this time, the powerful advantages of channels are reflected.

Whether the content is good or not is not the main factor.

There is a powerful channel to push movies in front of movie fans, let them discover and see them, and then they can pay for them.

If they don't even know that such a movie exists, no matter how good the content of the movie is, it will fade into the dust and no one will pay attention to it.

Hollywood giants rely on the advantage of channels being king under this traditional film model to control many independent film companies and independent filmmakers.

A membership subscription system like Netflix has a completely different approach.

For a monthly membership fee of $10, you can watch unlimited movies on the platform. This eliminates budget difficulties and you can really watch whatever you want.

For movie fans, there is no need to pick and choose; for movies, there are more opportunities to show in front of movie fans.

Moreover, the platform will also have a recommendation algorithm that can intelligently find movies fans like from the dust.

Many movies that are unknown in traditional channels can enter the eyes of countless movie fans under this model. As long as the content of the movie is good, it can have more display opportunities.

The past model will form the dominant power of the channel.

Just like Harvey Weinstein, because he has mastered the channels, he can hunt for fun in various different film festivals because he occupies a dominant position.

If you don't please him, no matter how good the movie is, you won't get channel resources and won't be able to present it to movie fans.

The membership subscription model is different.

The traditional channel advantages formed by the "limited budget constraints" of the audience have disappeared. When audiences are no longer constrained by limited budgets, the advantages of the channel are lost.

Under the new model, the audience's "limited budget constraints" have been changed to "limited time constraints."

It would be a fairer system.

Some people are rich and don't have budget constraints; some people are poor and have to think twice and pick and choose when watching movies.

This is very unfair.

But changing the constraint from "budget" to "time" is different.

No matter who you are, everyone is the same, there are only 24 hours in a day.

Therefore, the underlying logic from channel as king to content as king emerged.

The former is "budget" and the latter is "time".

Under the membership subscription model, movie fans can watch countless movies without restrictions, but they are subject to time constraints... This requires that if a movie wants to be truly popular, it must be a good movie and must be popular. Fans need to be willing to give their time.

Even if a bad movie is recommended to a movie fan, he may give up after watching it for three minutes and stop watching it.

This is not the same as buying movie tickets or DVDs.

This kind of real money is spent, even if it doesn't look good, you still have to grit your teeth and look at it. If you don't look at it, it will be wasted, and you can only passively spend your time. In fact, it is a process of being deceived.

What a lie.

For example, in Japan's adult short film market, there is a deeply disgusted "cover killing" phenomenon. Some actresses are so beautiful on the cover that it makes people's hearts beat. Fans enthusiastically bought the DVD and took it home to watch... Damn! be cheated!

With the membership subscription system, there is no such thing as being cheated.

If this movie doesn't look good, then don't watch it and just switch to the next movie. In short, you have to find the best movie within a limited time.

This model will be more in line with the development of the film industry.

Whether it’s a movie or a TV series, it’s all content.

Channel parties should not be allowed to dominate.

Many old-school filmmakers today simply cannot see the benefits of this subscription-based streaming platform and believe that it will lead the development of movies astray.

But in fact, this can guide the film and television industry back from a chaotic market to the right direction of content creation.

This is true even in China.

After streaming media replaced TV stations and became the dominant platform for TV series...the most popular and influential TV series are not those TV series with huge investment, celebrity gathering, and unparalleled marketing, but are truly based on content.

"The Ming Dynasty" has no market in traditional channels, but it has become a miracle drama in streaming channels. Even some sideline online dramas such as "Undocumented Crime" and "The Hidden Corner" have become national-level TV dramas.

If the content is good, it’s invincible!

Not only movies and TV series, but the content also includes games.

The next day, Zhou Buqi left Cannes and went to Rennes to meet Joel Hart, vice president of Ziweixing International and president of the interactive game department, and his party.

The main reason they came to Rennes this time was to discuss cooperation with the gaming giant Ubisoft.

How to cooperate?

Subscription membership!

Zhou Buqi was really surprised, which was why he agreed to Joel Hart's request and went to Rennes in person despite his busy schedule.

This is a reward for Joel Hart.

This is not an idea proposed by Zhou Buqi, but Joel Hart's own idea.

Joel Hart had only met Big Boss Zhou five or six times in total, so he was somewhat nervous. In the hotel, he had to communicate with Big Boss first, explain his business clearly, and then go to Ubisoft together.

Joel Hart seemed a little unconfident, "Steam is the largest gaming platform, and it was acquired by you in the past few years. There is no doubt that this is another brilliant transaction in your great investment career. In just a few short years there has been tremendous growth and..."

Zhou Buqi smiled and waved his hand, "Let's talk about business."

Joel Hart coughed slightly to relieve his tension and said slowly: "Currently, there are three main profit strategies for Steam. The first is the embedded platform advertising; the second is the recommendation position in the platform. Bidding; third, payment to purchase the game."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "There are two types of payment for the game, one is the one-time payment based on the buyout system, and the other is the in-game purchase payment."

"Yes, both." Joel Hart was still unfamiliar with the big boss, and he subconsciously flattered him. "In fact, the game industry at the beginning was based on a buyout system. Later, you changed the rules of the game industry. , the in-app purchase consumption model of games is becoming more and more popular.”

The entire software industry has been like this in the past.

A software vendor develops a piece of software and then sells it. Once consumers buy it, they can use it for life. The same is true for games, such as EA's game "FIFA 2010". As long as the player purchases it, he can play the game for free for a lifetime.

Zhou Buqi shook his head, "In the Internet era, the traditional sales model has changed, and the sales proportion of digital games will become larger and larger."

Joel Hart said: "Not only digital games, I think it can also develop towards a subscription system."

"oh?"

"The entire industry is changing, and even traditional software giants like Adobe and Microsoft are changing. In the past, Photoshop was a one-time consumption and lifelong use. Now they have adopted a membership system, as long as you use Adobe's cloud platform , if you purchase an Adobe membership, you can use all Adobe software for free. You only need to pay the monthly membership fee."

What Joel Hart was talking about happened to be something Boss Zhou was involved in, which was a big help to Adobe.

Adobe's cloud platform is built under Ziweiyun's system.

This is a new trend.

In Hollywood, those filmmakers simply do not understand the changes brought about by the times, and they are slow to respond and have poor understanding. But in Silicon Valley, countless people have caught up and made strategic changes.

Many traditional software manufacturers are changing from a software purchase and sales system to a software subscription membership system.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Yes, Silicon Valley's response is fast enough, and many manufacturers have caught up one after another."

Joel Hart said: "So I think games should also keep up. We must use our Steam platform to change games from the past purchase system to a membership system."

Zhou Buqi thought this was a very good idea, "This is the game streaming media I mentioned before."

Joel Hart smiled and said: "Yes, it is game streaming. When I heard this word at first, I didn't quite understand what it meant. Then I saw Netflix and the subscription platform launched by Adobe. Finally figured out what game streaming really means.”

Zhou Buqi asked: "What do you want to do?"

Joel Hart said: "The game industry is relatively complex, and the thinking of many gamers has not kept up with the pace of the Internet era. Many game manufacturers are still obsessed with producing large-scale stand-alone games and rely on selling game discs to make money. And this kind of Membership will also have some troubles in terms of short-term income.”

Zhou Buqi smiled and asked, "What's the trouble?"

Joel Hart said: "Some games rely on publicity and hype, and take advantage of channels to be sold to players. But after players buy it, they find that they have been deceived. This is a bad game. But for games As far as the company is concerned, it has already made money by buying and selling."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "It's just like a movie. If you buy a movie ticket and go to the cinema, no matter how ugly the movie is, you can't refund the ticket."

Joel Hart was no longer as nervous as he was at the beginning and smiled, "Yes, that's what I mean. But I think this is wrong. It deceives players and damages the gaming industry. Steam is the world's largest The gaming platform should create a good gaming environment for global players."

"It should!"

Zhou Buqi came to France.

This is a big enough responsibility.

Having just shouldered the important task of maintaining the healthy development of the global film industry in Cannes, it is now our turn to take responsibility for the good development of the gaming industry.

Joel Hart tentatively said: "I have a preliminary plan to develop a membership package containing 100 games. Players only need to pay $9.9 per month and purchase a Steam membership to play these 100 games. Games. If players want to purchase these 100 games individually, they may need to spend US$5,000. Now, they only need to pay US$9.9 per month to play all 100 games.”

Zhou Buqi supported this direction, but was also a little surprised, "100 games? So many?"

Joel Hart said: "This is just a preliminary plan. Next, we may need to further cooperate with the cooperative game manufacturers to determine which games are included in the membership package, how many games there are, as well as the membership fee and future share ratio."

Zhou Buqi was very decisive. Before he even started, he made a decision, "We must do this! This represents the new direction of the game industry in the future! In games, content must be king!"