Chapter 349 The Bell of Nasdaq

It is still too early to consider whether Arclight's next drama should continue to be sold to CCTV. After all, there is no sign of their next drama yet.

In fact, before the broadcast of "Peace Hotel", Meng Bai already had a plan for a new drama, which was the spy drama mentioned to Zhang Ruoyun a few days ago.

Even the review and approval process has been completed.

It's just that Meng Bai wanted to wait and see how the first drama performs before deciding whether to start preparations, which has been delayed until now.

After all, the audiences of TV stations and video platforms are different, and he dare not guarantee that the style shot by Arclight will be accepted by the audience.

But looking at the performance of "Peace Hotel" now, I found that I was a little too cautious, and the fragments of inspiration in my mind are still very trustworthy.

In this case, there is no need to wait for "Peace Hotel" to finish broadcasting. Anyway, he has already chosen Lao Zhang as the male lead, so he will start preparations while his next schedule is suitable.

As for the director, Meng Bai has used his own people from the Arclight Alliance this time.

Wu Bai is still doing the post-production of City Lights, so the person who can take on this task is naturally Wang Wei.

After filming Day and Night last year, this guy went to work on experimental short films for a while, and just happened to come back a while ago.

"Have you rested enough?" Meng Bai asked.

Wang Wei was still dressed in his usual black suit. When he heard Meng Bai's question, he smiled and said, "It's enough to rest for half a year. I was thinking about starting a new project some time ago, and it's a good opportunity for you to find me. I heard that the new project is about spy war?"

"Yes, but it depends on your own choice."

Meng Bai took out two scripts, one thick and one thin: "Next, two projects will be operated at the same time. One is the fifth drama of the 'Green Ivy Series' "Hunting Crime Picture Book", and the other is the spy war drama I just mentioned. The tentative name is "Secret and Great."

"Secret and Great?" Wang Wei looked at the thicker script, picked it up and flipped through it. "It sounds familiar. I remember there was a movie with the same name."

"In a Korean action movie before, the protagonist was also set to be a spy." Meng Bai said, "But it's just the name that's the same, there is no connection in the content."

[After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Gu Yaodong, a top law student who grew up in a Shanghai alley, graduated from university, carried the ideal of "upholding justice and protecting the people", and got his wish to become a policeman. However, Gu Yaodong, who had just entered the workplace, not only encountered the exclusion and suppression of his colleagues in the police station, but was also involved in the fierce game between our party and the Kuomintang police...】

Wang Wei flipped through the synopsis of the script, and it was indeed as Meng Bai said, it had nothing to do with the movie.

"How about it, do you want to feel the difference between filming a TV series and filming a web series?" Meng Bai asked.

"Since you said so, how else can I choose." Wang Wei patted the script of "Secret and Great" in his hand, "This is it."

"Okay, since you have chosen it, let's start preparing in the next few days. At present, except for the male lead, all other matters have not been decided, you have to grasp it."

Wang Wei asked curiously: "Who did you choose for the male lead?"

"Lao Zhang, Zhang Ruoyun."

Wang Wei suddenly realized that he and Zhang Ruoyun had also worked together many times, and he had a good understanding of his image style and acting skills.

Although I just took a rough look at the plot and character settings, thinking back to his previous performance, it is quite suitable.

In addition, since the screenwriter Meng Bai has appointed him to play, it must be possible.

Thinking of this, Wang Wei nodded and said, "Okay, then I will check with Ruoyun later."

Wang Wei and Zhang Ruoyun are the same age, and they have worked together many times before, so they are quite familiar with each other.

"What about the female lead? Is there any candidate in advance?"

"...It has not been determined yet, you can find one first." Meng Bai hesitated for a moment and did not give a candidate.

The female lead "Shen Qinghe" in "Secret and Great" is set to be a broker who runs a business on her own, but in fact she is a comrade on the covert front of our party.

Because of her public identity, this character is different from the image of the female lead in previous spy war dramas. She is neither a lady like "Cheng Jinyun", nor a celebrity like "Yu Xiaonan", nor a guerrilla female fighter like "Cui Ping".

As a person who runs a business on her own, she has a strong habit of the underworld. On the surface, she is careless, greedy for money, and can get along with all kinds of people.

Generally speaking, this image appears more often in male protagonists, but rarely in female protagonists.

Meng Bai had actually thought of Jin Chen for this role at first. Her whole style in real life is basically very similar to the image of "Shen Qinghe" on the surface. However

, this girl is now in court with the company and is in trouble, so Meng Bai gave up.

Then, he thought of his own Zhou Yutong.

I don't know why, as long as keywords like "workplace" are mentioned, Meng Bai always thinks of this girl.

However, this girl looks a little younger and lacks the kind of smooth temperament of "speaking to people and speaking to ghosts", so she can only be regarded as a backup.

In this case, Meng Bai simply did not say it, so as not to affect Wang Wei's feelings about the role, and directly handed over the casting work to him.

When the audition comes back, Zhou Yutong can also try, whether she can be selected depends on her luck.

The two chatted about the matters that need to be prepared. Meng Bai looked at the time. He had an appointment with someone else later, so he would end it today.

After seeing Wang Wei off, Meng Bai waited in the room for a while, and there was a knock on the office door.

Then, Gu Fei, who was dressed in a standard OL style, walked in.

She came to report to Meng Bai about the status of several investments made by Qiming Venture Partners.

"Qiyi TV rang the bell on the Nasdaq the night before yesterday, and the opening price was $18.2, and then it rose slightly. As of the close, the price per share was $19.65, and the current total market value is $11.6 billion."

Qiyi TV has been seeking to go public since the beginning of last year. In the past year or so, it has reached a strategic cooperation with Netflix and announced that it will work with Arclight to create a new series of dramas, all in order to increase the platform's bargaining chips and successfully complete the listing.

Until the day before yesterday, this wish was finally fulfilled as Gong Yu and his team pressed the "ring the bell" at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

Speaking of which, Gong Yu actually invited Meng Bai to go to New York with them to watch the ceremony some time ago.

But at that time, he was busy with the launch of "Peace Hotel", so he declined the invitation.

Anyway, whether they go public or not has little to do with Arclight, and Meng Bai only has a few tenths of a share in total. According to the current market value, it is only 30 to 40 million US dollars, which is not as high as the box office share of "Wolf Warrior 2".

What's more, his main purpose of investing in Qiyi TV was not to make money, but to have more say in the platform.

He will not cash out, so the high or low point of the stock price has no practical effect except for the change of paper wealth.

On the contrary, Meng Bai is very happy to see the stock price of Qiyi TV fall a little more. If it is cheap enough, he can consider increasing his holdings, and maybe he can become an independent director in the future.

But these are just thoughts at the moment. Even if the stock price falls to a lower price, he can't afford it now.

There is a project that is even bigger than Qiyi TV and is also going to be listed this year. Meng Bai has recently invested almost all the funds he can mobilize into that project.

"Pinduoduo has basically completed the D round of financing." Gu Fei said, "According to Mr. Huang, this is the last round of financing before Pinduoduo goes public, so the respective equity will be determined after the financing is completed."

At the beginning of this year, Pinduoduo, which was just established two and a half years ago, announced that it would submit an application for listing to Nasdaq this year.

As soon as this news came out, it immediately caused an uproar in the entire domestic capital market.

As the third largest e-commerce platform in China, Pinduoduo's development potential and speed have surprised everyone.

At the beginning of this year, the number of Pinduoduo's paying users has exceeded 300 million, and the total transaction volume has exceeded 100 billion.

The "100 million people are using Pinduoduo" advertisement that Meng Bai saw at the end of the year before last was changed twice in just one year, becoming the current "300 million people are using it".

JD.com took 10 years, Taobao took 5 years, and Pinduoduo took less than 3 years to achieve the same goal.

It is precisely this amazing achievement that gave Pinduoduo the courage to go public, and the hope is not low.

This round of D financing after the new year is to prepare for the listing. Led by Tencent, in conjunction with Sequoia Capital and others, a total of US$1.3 billion in financing was jointly launched.

As a "veteran" investor who has followed Pinduoduo since the angel round, Qiming Venture Partners' share has been diluted by more than half in the previous rounds of financing.

So in order to ensure that there are more chips to enter the future IPO market, Meng Bai also followed up again, raising US$70 million in funds to join this round of D financing.

Despite this, it can only be said that the degree of dilution has been reduced, and the share ratio has still dropped a lot.

"The D round of financing will probably be completed in April. According to the share ratio after financing, we will probably have a 4.2% share left, which has fallen below 5%." Gu Fei roughly explained the situation. If the

equity ratio exceeds 5%, even if you are a "major shareholder" of the company, you usually need to have a seat on the board of directors. And no matter any increase or decrease in holdings, it must be announced to the market in advance before you can take action, and it must also be reviewed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Although Pinduoduo has brought in sky-high profits, Meng Bai has no intention of abandoning film and television to do e-commerce, so he does not want to participate in development decisions.

From this perspective, it is better to have a lower share, at least it will be easier for him to cash out in the future.

However, all of this is based on the successful listing of Pinduoduo.

"Are there any problems recently?" Meng Bai asked.

"No problem..." Gu Fei thought for a while, "But Pinduoduo's reputation has not been very good recently. Many sellers have posted online to boycott it."

Unlike the operating logic of Taobao and JD.com, Pinduoduo is almost infinitely biased towards users, that is, buyers, in actual use.

As long as users have a conflict with merchants, unless there is conclusive evidence, they basically stand on the side of buyers.

As for merchants, there are many means such as forced refunds, deduction of deposits, and limited flow promotion.

Because of this, many merchants have great resentment towards Pinduoduo.

Coupled with the "cutting one knife" like pyramid schemes and the fraud-like "collecting 500 yuan red envelopes to withdraw cash", Pinduoduo's reputation has deteriorated.

Let alone complaining online, if they were not worried about breaking the law, these people would have already made trouble offline.

"Did Huang Zheng say anything?" Meng Bai asked curiously.

Gu Fei shook his head: "He said that there is no need to care, just let them scold, it just happens to be more popular."

Meng Bai laughed dumbly.

It must be said that in terms of marketing, Huang Zheng really perfectly inherited the essence of his teacher Duan Yongping, and deeply understood what "being scolded is also popular".

Even if it is put in the entertainment industry, it is estimated that many top stars who take the "black and red route" can be brought out.

"Since he said so, let him go." Meng Bai instructed: "We just follow the money and don't participate in their internal strategic planning. You go back and tell Huang Zheng that if a board of directors is formed, all the voting rights of our Qiming Venture Capital will be handed over to him as an agent."

"Okay, boss, I understand."

After sending Gu Fei away, Meng Bai sat back in his seat and pondered.

Compared with the A-share market, the listing review standards of US stocks are much more relaxed, not to mention Nasdaq. So if nothing unexpected happens, Pinduoduo's listing this year is almost certain.

This is different from Qiyi TV. His only purpose of investing in Pinduoduo is to make money.

After the lock-up period is over, he will see how the stock price moves, and then decide whether to cash out part of it.

And he believes that with Pinduoduo's development speed, the market value will grow faster after listing.

Perhaps in a few years, his "4.2%" will be able to surpass Arclight.

Moreover, Arclight's side is still valuation, but there is real cash that can be obtained, and the two have different meanings.

Meng Bai breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that everything will go well for Huang Zheng.

——In

April, "Peace Hotel" finally ushered in the finale.

The ratings of the following episodes did not continue to rise, but fortunately they did not fall, and they have been maintained in a high range.

In the end, the highest single-episode broadcast volume of this drama reached 2.35, and the average ratings were as high as 1.7.

For CCTV, this result is already a high-level drama that can rank in the top five in the prime-time TV series in recent years.

On the other hand, the online broadcast volume of "Peace Hotel" has also exceeded 5 billion.

Although the online broadcast volume statistics of major video platforms are getting less and less accurate, they still represent the popularity of this drama.

The film and television department of Arclight has already started to discuss the cost of purchasing films for the second round of rebroadcast with other second- and third-tier local satellite TV stations.

It can be said that Arclight Film and Television has completely started on its way in the field of TV dramas.

However, if we really want to talk about the most popular project in the entertainment industry during this period after the New Year, it is not the hit drama "Peace Hotel".

"Idol Producer", which started airing on Qiyi TV in January and ended last week, accounted for more than 70% of the hot searches and attention in the entire first quarter.

The entire program, as well as the members of the "limited boy group" NINE PERCENT who withdrew after the program ended, instantly became popular idols in the domestic entertainment industry.

Especially Cai Xukun, who debuted, was only a niche idol before. In just three months, he was directly promoted to the top of the domestic entertainment industry.

A new "big talent show era" is coming.

(End of this chapter)