My capital is quite large.

Chapter 122 The Penguins' Counterattack

In September 2010, as universities across the country began their new semester, another massive wave of young people flooded into the vast ocean of the internet.

After months of silence, the video streaming battlefield has finally seen the long-awaited counterattack from the Tencent empire this early autumn!

Shenzhen, Fiyta Building.

At Tencent Video's strategic launch event, Pony Ma made a rare personal appearance, dropping a bombshell on the entire internet!

"Tencent Video officially launches 'Classic Drama Channel' and 'Korean Wave Zone' starting today!"

At the press conference, Tencent executives announced with great enthusiasm, "We've invested hundreds of millions to acquire the exclusive high-definition online streaming rights to the Four Great Classical Novels: *Journey to the West*, *Dream of the Red Chamber*, *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, and *Water Margin*! We've also bought out the Greater China rights to over a hundred popular Korean dramas, including *Dae Jang Geum*, *Autumn in My Heart*, and *Full House*!"

Moreover, a familiar figure appeared on the big screen at the press conference: Mr. Jia, the boss of LeTV!

On stage, Mr. Jia delivered a passionate speech, announcing that LeTV had officially accepted a strategic investment of 200 million RMB from Tencent, and that the two parties would form a deep-sharing alliance in film and television copyright acquisition and self-produced drama development!

The news caused an uproar in the industry.

Everyone understood that Tencent was driven to desperation by Haofeng Network's previous "scorched earth" approach to buying up goods!

Since Li Feng has bought up all the domestic hit dramas after 2000, Tencent will go and buy classic old dramas from before the millennium!

If you can't buy it domestically, buy it in South Korea! If you can't buy it all yourself, rally allies you can to fight back!

……

Jinling, Haofeng Group Headquarters Building.

Han, the director of the film and television department, hurriedly walked into the president's office with the press release for the Tencent press conference in his hand, his forehead covered in a fine layer of sweat.

"Mr. Li! Tencent has really gone all out this time! With the Four Great Classical Novels and so many classic Korean dramas, the audience reach is incredibly broad! And they've even partnered with LeTV on copyright sharing; Tencent Video's film library is now incredibly thick!"

Sitting in the boss's chair, Li Feng looked at the news on the computer screen and revealed a mocking sneer.

"What's the panic? Let them buy it."

"Old Han, you still haven't figured out the underlying logic of video websites."

"Are the Four Great Classical Novels classics? They certainly are, arguably the pinnacle of Chinese television dramas. But the problem is, how many netizens today, especially the post-90s and post-95s students who account for over 70% of the daily active users on Weibo and iQiyi, actually rewatch the Four Great Classical Novels online two or three times a day?"

"As for Korean dramas, those are all relics from over a decade ago. They might fool middle-aged women in lower-tier cities, but can they really trigger a nationwide frenzy of fan wars?"

Li Feng stood up and pointed out the fatal flaw in the penguin's counterattack:

"In the streaming era, what we want is never the artistic value of the work itself; what we want is [traffic]!"

"Even if it's a trashy drama with a melodramatic plot and ridiculous dialogue, as long as it has popular idols in it, and as long as its fans can vote, fight, and create trending topics on our Haofeng Weibo, then it's a successful cash cow!"

"Tencent buys a bunch of old videos and lets them gather dust in their archives. What makes them think they can shake Weibo's niche?"

Li Feng threw the press release into the trash can, setting the tone with an air of dominance:

"As long as Haofeng Film & Television holds top actresses and leading actors, and as long as our hit self-produced dramas continue to be exclusively broadcast on iQiyi, Tencent Video will forever be left to follow in our footsteps and eat our leftovers!"

After calming Lao Han down, Li Feng turned his gaze to Xu Yi, the person in charge of Bilibili, who was standing to the side.

"In the battle for video copyrights, Tencent can't make a ripple. We must turn our attention to the next battlefield!"

"Xu Yi, how's the beta testing of Bilibili's live streaming section going?"

Xu Yi swallowed hard, somewhat embarrassed, and reported to his supervisor, "President Li... it's still very laggy. The domestic broadband upload speed is too slow. Once the number of broadcasters increases, the server can't handle it. Right now, the live broadcasts are basically still 'audio radio,' and the video can only show a few still images or, to put it another way, some blurry slides."

"We need the card too!"

Li Feng's instructions were absolute: "I don't expect it to be able to deliver 1080p Blu-ray esports live streaming right now! But I must secure my place in this market as soon as possible!"

"Don't be afraid to spend money! The group headquarters will cover the server and broadband costs without limit!"

"First, cultivate users' 'tipping' habits with voice-based live streaming and blurry video quality! Recruit people from various guilds and offline internet cafes. Bring in any girl who can sing, chat, is good-looking, and can act cute to start a live stream! Give them a guaranteed base salary!"

"In this chaotic era, whoever secures their position first will become the undisputed king of live streaming once 4G networks and smartphones become widespread!"

Not just live streaming and videos.

Li Feng's demands on the technical team were almost demanding: "The lossless audio decoding for Soft Music and the H.264 image compression algorithm for iQiyi must be iterated at a frequency of once a month! In terms of infrastructure, we must achieve a dimensional reduction victory over Tencent!"

……

After the work was assigned, Lao Han did not rush to leave, but instead hesitated for a moment before taking out another report.

"Mr. Li, the second season of 'The Voice of China' concluded last week. Although this season's popularity wasn't as exaggerated as the first season, it still firmly held the top spot in national viewership ratings."

"Following our tradition from last year, this year's champion..." Old Han flipped through the files, pointing to a photo of a boy wearing black-rimmed glasses who looked rather refined, "is an amateur singer named Hu Xia. His singing is indeed very delicate, and the judges gave him high praise. Should we follow the procedure and sign him into Haofeng's music division?"

Li Feng glanced at the photo, and memories of this singer from his past life surfaced in his mind.

Is her singing good? Yes, it is. "Those Years" can be considered a legendary song of its time.

but!

"I won't sign," Li Feng refused.

"President Li? This is the champion! He comes with his own fan base and popularity. Wouldn't it be a shame not to sign him?" Old Han asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Old Han, as I just said, what we need is traffic that can generate a frenzy. Singers like Hu Xia are too mild-mannered and their musical style is too limited. They might be able to make one or two OSTs popular, but they definitely don't have the potential to become a top star and dominate Weibo's trending topics!"

Li Feng has an excellent eye for talent. Singers like Hu Xia, who are typically "famous for their songs but not for themselves," simply cannot boost the fan economy of Haofeng Music.

"The champion of The Voice of China will not be associated with Haofeng. From today onwards, this will be our practice. We are only responsible for producing the show to make money and attract viewers, not for supporting the music industry."

Hearing the boss's ruthless decision, Lao Han had no choice but to give up, but a hint of difficulty still showed on his face.

"But Mr. Li, if we don't sign any new artists, our current self-managed artists in the Soft Music division are only Deng Ziqi, Li Ronghao, Xue Zhiqian, and Xu Song."

"These four are all very talented, but to be honest... currently, apart from Deng Ziqi who is somewhat famous, the other three are not very popular online."

Old Han is telling the truth. Deng Ziqi is still in the accumulation period, Xue Zhiqian's current daily routine is still writing jokes and selling women's clothing on Weibo, Xu Song is an online singer, and as for Li Ronghao, those small eyes are really not very attractive.

How can these four "oddly shaped" singers compete against Penguin Music's massive library of traditional songs?