Chapter 894 Idol
Every year around the heating season, the weather in Yanjing always becomes particularly bad.
The sensational impact caused by "My Fair Princess" is continuing to ferment in China, and its influence is even greater than that of "Season of Youth and Rain" in previous years. This TV series also made several young actors in the series become popular idols and became a popular cultural phenomenon.
Starting from mid-November, "My Fair Princess" was broadcast on Yanjing Cable TV. Several main creators of the TV series came to Yanjing to promote the show. Xiao Doubao was clamoring to meet her idol.
Lin Weimin had no choice but to say hello to Zheng Xiaolong and ask if he could invite the main creators to dinner so that the children could meet their idol.
Zheng Xiaolong, on the other hand, just said hello to the station and directly took a few people to Lin Weimin's house.
"Aren't you afraid that the agency will have objections?" Lin Weimin asked.
"What can they object to? I'm not taking them to dine with a local tycoon. I told them before they came. When they heard that we were coming to your place, they were very happy!"
Xiao Doubao was so excited when she saw some TV actors. She was only in the first grade of primary school and she treated the TV series as real. She pulled Xiaoyanzi and asked them to teach her Qinggong.
Tao Huimin stopped her, "Don't mess around. Sister doesn't know kung fu, that's just a plot from a TV show."
Xiaoyanzi has a pair of big eyes that are bigger than Xiaodoubao’s. She is young and beautiful, and is indeed very smart, especially popular with children.
Xiaodou surrounded her, and she smiled and played with the little bean bun in a very friendly manner, which made Jinsuo, who was standing aside, jealous.
There are three actors in total here today, Xiaoyanzi, Jinsuo and Erkang. All three of them have just become famous and look young and ignorant.
During the promotion, Zheng Xiaolong dragged them to a private banquet. The three were initially reluctant, but after Zheng Xiaolong pulled their agent and whispered a few words to him, the agent could not wait to push them to the banquet.
On the way here they found out that they were visiting Lin Weimin's home today. The famous writer's daughter liked "My Fair Princess" so she specially invited them to dinner so that they could meet their idol in person.
For these three young actors, even if one of their TV series became famous all over the country, they could only look up to Lin Weimin.
In the words of the agent, "Being able to have a family dinner is a blessing you have earned in eight lifetimes. Even if it's just a one-time encounter, you never know when it will come in handy in the future. One opportunity is enough for you to move up a level."
It took two hours from the time they entered the door to the time they left. After leaving the door, the three of them enthusiastically discussed the great writer they had just met.
Compared with these actors, no matter how many times Lin Weimin is reported, his exposure to the outside world is still very low, and the impression he leaves on the public is full of mystery.
On the way back in the car, Jinsuo asked Zheng Xiaolong, "Director Zheng, I see you are very familiar with Teacher Lin."
"I've known each other for more than ten years." Zheng Xiaolong said with a smile.
"That's an old friend, you are so awesome!"
Jinsuo is only seventeen this year and has not grown up yet. The girl's slightly admiring attitude made Zheng Xiaolong feel a little proud, and he couldn't help but say a few more words.
"You guys were shooting a Qiong Yao TV series, which became popular right away, so you were lucky. Our conditions back then were not as good as yours now. My first TV series was produced under Lin Ruwei.
Later, our center wanted to film Teacher Lin’s "The Sound of Wind", and I visited him to try to get the adaptation rights, but who would have thought that CCTV had already gotten there first.
Teacher Lin didn’t want me to go in vain, so he recommended Hai Yan’s “Plain Clothes Policeman” to me. At that time, the novel had not been published for long…”
Hearing this, Erkang asked, "You are also very familiar with Mr. Hai, right?"
Zheng Xiaolong asked with a smile: "Do you still know Haiyan?"
Erkang waved his hands quickly, looking embarrassed, "How could I know him? It's Mr. Hai who is famous. We are filming a TV series, how could we not know him?"
"Haha, he is really famous now. He is the CEO of 'Haiyan Drama' and Wencheng Film and Television."
Jinsuo said with envy: "You are so amazing!"
The girl had little social experience, and her flattery seemed awkward, but the more this happened, the more Zheng Xiaolong enjoyed it, and he started chatting with the few people like an elder.
At this time, at Lin Weimin's home, Xiao Doubao was playing with the photo he had just taken with several actors.
In the group photo, the little girl stands in the C position and smiles like a flower, with the three actors treating her like a star.
This girl will have something to show off again when she goes to school tomorrow.
In addition, Xiao Doubao took several photos with each person, and even took several individual photos of them.
In view of the fact that this girl had a previous "criminal" record, Lin Weimin seriously suspected that these photos would become hot items that the little kids in this girl's class would compete for tomorrow.
"That little swallow is so pretty, with watery eyes that are bigger than our daughter's eyes, just like a cartoon character."
"Jinsuo is also a beauty, but unfortunately she hasn't grown up yet. But that girl seems to be a bit scheming."
"That Erkang is a bit rigid..."
Tao Huimin commented on the actors who had just walked in and asked Lin Weimin: "Do you think so?"
What can Lin Weimin say?
"Yes, yes, yes."
None of these three people is easy to deal with. When Lin Weimin was seeing them off just now, he couldn't help but want to give some advice to these young people.
Don't speculate in stocks or do business, don't evade taxes, and don't drive and hit security guards.
Just kidding, this is just thought.
She just became famous, it has nothing to do with him.
Two days later, the results of the Second Guowenshe Internet Creation Competition were announced and the award ceremony was held as scheduled.
Compared with last year's award results, this year's winning works show a wide variety of types and contents. There are not only traditional realism works, magical realism, stream of consciousness and other avant-garde literary works, but also popular literature occupies a number of award-winning places.
This is closely related to the fact that Yu Hua is in charge of the judging of this year's Internet Creation Competition. He also specialized in martial arts novels when he was studying at the National Academy of Literature.
After the results of the Internet Creative Writing Competition were announced, they quickly caused a heated discussion in the domestic literary community.
If the award results of the first Guowenshe Internet Creative Writing Competition were still moving closer to traditional literature, then this time, the Internet Creative Writing Competition has clearly developed its own style and has also influenced the trend of China's contemporary literary scene to some extent.
Many people couldn’t help but think of a high-frequency word mentioned in the news after the award ceremony of the Internet Creation Competition came out last year - online literature.
For this new and unfamiliar word, Guowenshe is gradually giving its definition.
At present, it seems that this kind of text content rooted in the Internet has not deviated from the literary category that everyone knows, but has added more popular literary content to the field dominated by traditional literature.
On the third day after the award ceremony, a big news came from the US Internet industry.
AOL officially acquires Netscape!
Netscape is a browser giant that emerged in the early 1990s in the United States. It was at its peak in the past few years, but in the past two years, its market share has been gradually eroded in the browser war with Microsoft.
Relying on its absolute dominance in the PC operating system market, Microsoft has long been invincible in the competition with Netscape, and Netscape's current situation is not surprising.
The transaction between MI Online and Netscape was said to involve US$4.3 billion, and it immediately became one of the focuses of the global Internet and financial industries, and also caused an uproar in the domestic Internet industry.
4.3 billion meter sword!
That’s a total of 4.3 billion meters of swords!
On the day the news reached China, Zhang Chaoyang contacted Lin Weimin.
"Teacher Lin, what do you think about America Online's acquisition of Netscape?"
Zhang Chaoyang had long discovered that Teacher Lin knew more about the U.S. Internet industry than he, an international student, did.
He asked Lin Weimin out on the pretext of inviting him to drink, and as soon as they met, he raised his doubts to Lin Weimin.
"No matter how you look at it, it's all the result of market competition," Lin Weimin said casually.
"The news said that this transaction involves 4.3 billion US dollars!" Zhang Chaoyang exclaimed.
Lin Weimin shook his head. "It's not that mysterious. Is it Netscape that can pay 4.3 billion US dollars or America Online that can pay 4.3 billion US dollars? It's just a stock-for-stock swap. 0.45 shares of America Online for 1 share of Netscape, all for tax saving."
Zhang Chaoyang was delighted. He guessed correctly. Teacher Lin was able to find out the latest news.
He asked a few more questions, and Lin Weimin did not hide anything. This kind of news would spread in a few days anyway.
It turned out that Netscape and America Online had reached an agreement on the economic terms of the stock swap more than two weeks ago, but the news was only released two days ago, on the 28th.
In any acquisition and merger case, especially in acquisitions of high-tech companies, tax liabilities and liquidation methods are often key issues.
If Netscape chose to sell directly, it would have to pay a considerable amount of taxes, which would have disrupted the opportunity for Netscape and America Online to become "good brothers". In the end, they chose this stock-for-stock transaction.
The figures disclosed to the public look impressive, but they are just to stimulate the stock price.
After listening to Lin Weimin's narration of the details of the Netscape acquisition, Zhang Chaoyang's admiration and fear of his American giants quickly collapsed. After all this time, they were just bluffing!
After learning about the industry insider information, Zhang Chaoyang talked to Lin Weimin about Sohu’s recent situation.
The American CFO that Lin Weimin introduced to Sohu a few days ago has already joined the company. Through these days of contact, Zhang Chaoyang found that he is indeed professional and easy to use.
Sohu now has investment funds from Goldman Sachs and is very wealthy. Recently, it has been spending money lavishly and grabbing territory in the domestic Internet industry. Its methods are simple and crude, but the results are unexpectedly good, and the number of users is reaching new highs every day.
"By the end of the year, our user base is expected to exceed 2 million, which is almost equal to the number of Internet users in China. If this growth rate can continue for half a year, when it reaches nearly 3 million, our advertising revenue will almost cover our financial costs, and I think we can go public by then."
Zhang Chaoyang's expression was very excited. This kind of invincible excitement was really addictive.
Lin Weimin warned: "Don't be happy too soon. NetEase is developing at a fast pace. Their user base is approaching one million. I heard that Sitong Lifang and Huayuan Information have been in frequent contact recently."
Zhang Chaoyang nodded and said, "I've heard about that too. It seems like they're going to merge and set up a new website."
Last year, Sitong Lifang received US$6.5 million in venture capital from Ivanhoe Mines and Walden International of the United States. It is one of the earliest Internet companies in China to receive venture capital, and it is also the largest amount of venture capital received by a domestic Internet company to date. Even Sohu cannot compare to it.
Of course, the shares paid by both parties are different. Wang Zhidong, the founder of Sitonglifang, now only holds 13% of the company's shares.
But no matter what, Sitonglifang has millions of dollars in investment funds and is also a profitable Internet company. Their strong combination with Huayuan Information is not good news for Sohu.
"That's why I want to go public as soon as possible. If we raise funds faster, we will be able to gain an advantage over our competitors," said Zhang Chaoyang.
(End of this chapter)
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