Chapter 569 Round E

"Wolf Warrior 2" is a huge hit, and the person who benefited the most is definitely the director and lead actor Wu Jing. He is now just like Gu Wei when "Detective Chinatown" which he directed and starred in was a big hit, but he is even more popular than Gu Wei at that time. After all, the box office of the first "Detective Chinatown" is far behind that of "Wolf Warrior 2".

The second is naturally Gu Wei. Regardless of how much money "Wolf Warrior 2" made him, this success has completely solidified Gu Wei's title of "Box Office King" in the domestic entertainment industry.

Even though "Wolf Warrior 2" has not yet been released, the total box office of the movies he starred in has exceeded 16 billion.

This data is unique to Scorpion Baba in the current domestic entertainment industry.

Xu Zheng, Huang Bo, Deng Chao, Chen Teng, these future billion-dollar actors are still far behind Gu Wei.

Most importantly, Gu Wei never fails. Although the reputations of the movies he starred in have been mixed, they have all been big hits at the box office.

This is very scary. Whether it is because of Gu Wei's strong box office appeal or his good vision, everyone only looks at the results.

Gu Wei has been in the industry for 6 years and has completely established himself as a golden brand with the success of one movie after another.

Whether in the eyes of his peers or the audience, he is a guarantee of box office success.

The last one is the heroine of the movie, Zhang Tianai. Her role in "Wolf Warrior 2" is not that many, and she is just a vase embellishment, but it is undeniable that she is the absolute heroine of the movie.

As the leading actress in a movie that grossed over 5 billion yuan, her qualifications and achievements are unmatched, needless to say.

Together with previous films such as "The Richest Man in Xihong City", "Assassin's Blade 2" and "Passing by Your World", Zhang Tianai has completely established herself as a top movie star.

If we only look at the box office results, there are only a handful of actresses in the entertainment industry who can compare with her.

The celebration party ended late, and everyone had a great time. Wu Jing even got into the car drunk with the help of Xie Nan.

"In fact, it's not just Director Wu who feels incredible. I also think the box office performance of Wolf Warrior 2 is too exaggerated every day."

In Gu Wei's car, Zhang Tianai snuggled up to him.

"We filmed well and happened to be in the right time. The current results are the result of many factors.

Netizens say that Wolf Warrior 2 is a box office miracle. If it is a miracle, it must be extraordinary." Gu Wei hugged Zhang Tianai's slender waist and sniffed her hair.

Although Wu Jing could drink a lot, he was no match for him after all.

"Do you think Wolf Warrior 2 can really reach 6 billion?" She obviously heard the conversation between Gu Wei and Wu Jing at the main table.

"There's hope, but I can't guarantee it 100%."

"Do you think that in the future, will there be more and more movies with box office revenues of 4 billion or 5 billion?"

“It’s not that easy, our film is a special case.

Considering the current size of the domestic film market, there will definitely be more and more films that sell 20 to 30 billion yuan. However, to reach the heights of Wolf Warrior 2, it’s not enough to just make a good film.” Gu Wei thought for a moment.

"This science fiction film I'm making now has the potential to hit 5 billion yuan at the box office."

"Your collaboration with Wu Jing again will definitely generate a lot of buzz, but can it be a domestic science fiction film? Don't ruin your reputation." Zhang Tianai was still a little worried about him.

"Haha. Don't worry, I never fight a battle I'm not sure of. Since I dare to challenge a domestic science fiction film, I must have my reasons."

The black nanny car drove through the streets of Beijing and soon arrived at the community where Zhang Tianai lived.

".Actually, you could consider gaining some weight. You used to have a pretty standard figure. After filming Operation Red Sea and being busy with the movie promotions these days, you probably weigh less than 90 pounds now."

On the big bed in the bedroom, Zhang Tianai unscrupulously showed off her perfectly proportioned body. She had a slender figure and delicate skin, but her original height seemed to have become a little smaller.

"It's not as exaggerated as you say. I just weighed 46kg this morning, which is only 4kg less than before.

I have a physique that is prone to gaining weight, and if I don’t pay attention, I will easily gain those 4 pounds back.”

Despite this, Zhang Tianai still decided to try her best to restore her weight to its previous state. She is 165 cm tall, and as long as she keeps her weight within 100 kg, it will not affect her appearance on camera.

Women dress up to please themselves, so of course she would listen to Gu Wei's advice.

"I've already made an agreement with the company. Since you happen to have some free time recently, I can set up your personal studio in the next few days.

The personnel will remain your current team, and the company will hold 60% of the shares, and you will hold 40%."

Zhang Tianai signed a contract with the company quite early. She was already an artist under the company before she became famous. After Gu Wei made her famous with "The Princess Weiyoung", she made a lot of money for the company over the years.

In fact, Gu Wei had planned to help her set up her own studio as early as the beginning of this year, but later she went abroad to film "Operation Red Sea" and had no time, so it has been delayed until now.

"You are so good to me. I don't know how to repay you," Zhang Tianai said softly while hugging Gu Wei's arm.

After so many years in the industry, she certainly knows the benefits of a celebrity studio. Most fundamentally, opening a studio allows the artist to get more money.

For example, if an artist signs a contract with an agency with a 30% profit split, with the company taking 30% and the artist taking 70%. Then according to Gu Wei's share division, her agency contract will be transferred from the company to her own studio, with 70% still hers. Of the remaining 30%, 18% will go to the company and 12% will go to the artist herself, so she can actually get 82%.

Another thing is that with a studio, celebrities are no longer just employees, but have more autonomy.

In the future, we can sign new talents and invest in film and television dramas in the name of the studio, and we can develop into a small film and television company.

Of course, this is not something that ordinary stars can do. Most artists’ studios still serve individuals.

Zhang Tianai and Gu Wei have always had some emotional problems.

She always felt that she was wrong in the past, and her feelings towards Gu Wei were a mixture of admiration, guilt and inferiority.

After the two broke up, Gu Wei, just to fulfill a promise they made when they were dating, spent all his resources to promote her from a small model to the big star she is today without any hesitation, and now he has taken the initiative to open a studio for her.

Looking back on his experiences over the years, how could Zhang Tianai not be moved.

"There's no need to discuss this between us. With your current fame and status, you should also have your own celebrity studio.

It will also be helpful for your future work.”

Zhang Tianai raised his body slightly and put his head on Gu Wei's chest.

"Whether I sign with a company or open a studio, I'll always be at your beck and call. I'll do whatever you ask me to do."

This time when he returned to the capital, in addition to attending the celebration banquet, Gu Wei had another important thing to do.

[ByteDance] is about to raise funds again.

In December last year, ByteDance was valued at US$12 billion after its Series D financing. Now, in just over half a year, the company has started its Series E financing again.

The financing party this time is [Pana Atlantic Investment Group], with a financing amount of US$2 billion and a post-financing valuation of US$26 billion.

[Pan-Atlantic Investments] is a private equity firm founded in the United States in 1980. It controls funds worth hundreds of billions of US dollars and has investments around the world.

However, in recent years, there has been a lot of investment in mainland China, with billions of US dollars flowing in every year to invest in some potential companies.

"We launched the international version of TikTok in May this year, and its development in the North American market is still in its early stages.

It’s just that there is already a similar product called musical.ly.

musical.ly is a music short video platform that was launched in 2014. It now has more than 20 million daily active users worldwide, including more than 6 million active users in North America, which is much more advantageous than ours.

To be honest, our TikTok was actually inspired by musical.ly.

However, our development in China is obviously much faster than musical.ly in North America."

In the office of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming was talking with Gu Wei about the financing.

“After some discussion, we decided that since they were a local company and their products were similar to ours, it would be difficult to compete, so we decided to buy them.

musical.ly completed a round of financing in May last year, with a valuation of US$500 million. A year later, the number of users increased and the valuation also increased relatively.

The company's negotiators have already negotiated with musical.ly to acquire their entire company for $1 billion.

As a result, the $1 billion raised last year is no longer enough, and the company has also spent a lot on development in the past six months.

In addition, as TikTok entered the North American market, we also needed a strong ally's support there, so we started this Series E financing.

General Atlantic is the right ally.”

Gu Wei had read reports about ByteDance's several rounds of financing in the news. At that time, he only skimmed the surface and was only amazed at the rapid growth of ByteDance's valuation and the huge amount of financing. He did not know that the amount of each financing and the choice of financing targets were actually carefully planned.

If you want to invest in a fast-growing company, especially a unicorn company with huge potential like ByteDance, you need more than just money to make a profit.

Either they can help the company when it encounters difficulties, or they can provide resources that others do not have.

Gu Wei was able to acquire shares at the time when ByteDance was caught in a public opinion crisis. TikTok had not yet been released, and its flagship products Toutiao and Neihan Duanzi had caused a lot of trouble. One involved infringement of other news websites, and the other had vulgar content and misleading content.

That period was also the time when ByteDance was most undervalued since its establishment.

Later, the new flagship product [Tik Tok] came out. Gu Wei, the major shareholder, relied on his fame and influence in the entertainment industry to help [Tik Tok] gain popularity and direct his own traffic into this new music short video.

Douyin, which has only been on the market for a year, has grown rapidly and has now become the second largest short video platform in China after Kuaishou.

Only then did he tie himself to ByteDance and become Zhang's most reliable partner.

The timely assistance and subsequent resource support were what enabled Gu Wei to enter the core layer of ByteDance.

If he is simply rich, even if he relies on chance to raise funds in the early stage, he will still be marginalized by the management through various means in the later stage.

"You decide on these matters. I've said since I bought your shares that I believe in your abilities."

Zhang Yiming smiled and said nothing about Gu Wei's trust.

"Your movie is very popular recently." After finishing the business, the two started chatting again.

"Are you talking about Wolf Warrior 2? You're so busy with work, do you still have time to watch a movie?"

“Although I’m busy at work, I have to relax occasionally. I’m not made of iron, and I need to relax and work hard to last.

In the first few years after starting my business, I really couldn't take care of anything. Now, although the company is getting bigger and bigger, many tasks are handled by dedicated people. I only need to control the general direction, which is relatively easy.

Besides, your film "Wolf Warrior 2" is extremely popular right now."

Gu Wei picked up the tea in front of him and took a sip.

"How do you feel? Did you take a good picture?"

“That’s pretty good. Although I’m a layman in the film and television industry, I still have some basic appreciation skills.

The whole movie made my blood boil.

I plan to book some screenings at a cinema near the company in the next few days so that all employees can watch them together as a welfare organization."

"Haha. Thank you, Boss Zhang, for your support of the box office."

"You are also the boss, it is only natural that everyone supports your work," Zhang Yiming smiled.

"But then again, is making movies this profitable these days? The box office is about to break 5 billion these past two days. Our company's revenue for the whole of last year was only 6 billion, which is about the same as the box office of your movie."

Although ByteDance's current valuation is so high and the amount of financing it received is as high as 2 billion US dollars, its annual revenue in 2016 was only 6 billion RMB.

However, Internet companies cannot just look at revenue; the most important things are market share and growth rate.

ByteDance is developing at an extremely fast pace, and its market share is increasing year by year. It is only August now, and the company's revenue this year has already exceeded 10 billion yuan.

Moreover, Gu Wei knew that with the popularity of TikTok, ByteDance's revenue would basically double every year. He remembered that in 2019, advertising revenue alone exceeded 120 billion yuan.

The full-year revenue in 2022 even exceeded US$80 billion, of which operating profit was US$20 billion.

This is the charm of Internet companies. When it comes to making movies, let alone Gu Wei himself, the entire domestic film market's annual box office is only 60 billion yuan, which is far less than the developed ByteDance.

So, is the entertainment industry profitable? Compared to ordinary people and even the middle class, it is very lucrative. Small stars have assets of hundreds of millions, and A-list celebrities can basically earn hundreds of millions.

However, compared with the bigwigs in other industries, the ceiling is relatively low. Cheng Long, Uncle Benshan, the two brothers of Huayi, Yu Dong, Wang Changtian and others, their net worth is almost a few billion and that’s the limit. Those with a net worth of over 10 billion can already compete for the position of the richest man in the entertainment industry.

If Gu Wei were to disclose all his assets now, he would be the real richest man in the entertainment industry.

Unfortunately, even though he is the “richest man”, he is still not good enough in front of those big guys.

In the entertainment industry, the most important thing is actually fame. If you are famous and have great influence, money and status will naturally not be a problem.

"You can't compare it that way. The company only received $20 in cash from this round of financing. How many movies do I have to make to earn that much money?

We have to compete with Tencent and Alibaba and become a leading company in the internet industry in the future. When that happens, I will still need Boss Zhang’s support.”

"Haha. Let's work together. We're still a long way off."

"The company's development has entered the fast lane, and in my opinion, it has only happened in the past few years."

"Then I'll borrow your good words."

For this financing, the preliminary work has basically been completed. The contract has been formally signed and Gu Wei, as a shareholder, only needs to sign the agreement.

After the completion of the E round of financing, ByteDance's valuation became US$26 billion, and Gu Wei's shares were also diluted slightly to 10.23%.

Since the angel round of the company's establishment in 2012, ByteDance has raised funds six times, and its shareholder composition is extremely complex. Gu Wei's 10.23% may not seem like much, but he is already the second largest individual shareholder after Zhang Yi.

This amount of assets seems exaggerated, even close to 20 billion yuan, but it actually has little impact on him.

[ByteDance] is not listed, and as long as Gu Wei does not intend to sell these shares, they are ultimately just paper wealth.

Ultimately, the money he spent on buying a manor, a big plane, and other personal expenses still came from his income as a star and the income from the entertainment industry company.

"Don't forget the cocktail party tonight."

After the contract was signed, ByteDance’s senior management, led by Zhang Yiming, were obviously very excited.

"Forget it. I don't have anything in common with these people in the financial circle, so I won't show up."

Zhang Yiming thought about it and realized that Gu Wei was indeed a bit out of place at the last financing reception, and nodded.

"That's fine, since you're so busy I won't take up any more of your time.

But if you have time, you should come to the company more often."

"What's wrong?" Gu Wei asked curiously.

"Every time you come, the young people in the company are very excited. Some newcomers' work efficiency has improved after they knew you were a shareholder," Zhang Yiming said with a smile, pushing his black-framed glasses.

“You’re treating me like the company’s mascot.

Lao Zhang, you are worthy of being a boss. You really make the best use of everything."

“You are the spokesperson for TikTok, and I am doing this for the development of the company and for the welfare of my employees.

At this year's annual meeting, you're going to go on stage and sing a song or something, right?"

"How much are you paying for appearance?"

"Your own company also wants an appearance fee?"

"Brothers should settle accounts clearly. You know that my current commercial performances are not in demand." Gu Wei has almost stopped doing commercial performances in recent years. It is also because he is not short of money now. If he has time, he would rather stay at home and rest than go out to work.

"You name your price"

"Old Zhang, if you perform on stage with me, I can do it for free." Gu Wei rolled his eyes and turned the tables.

"Well, I can sing, but I'm tone-deaf." Zhang Yiming hesitated.

Even though he was very happy to instigate Gu Wei, he started to back off when it came to his turn.

"Why are you afraid of us singing together? I'm here for you.

Someone just said they would give benefits to employees."

Zhang Yiming looked at Gu Wei's half-smile and gritted his teeth.

"Okay, then we'll go on stage together and make everyone happy."

(End of this chapter)