Chapter 623 Breaking through 180 billion US dollars! Chen Yansen: Xiao Ma, I want to be the big brother, do you have any objection?
Ma Wenteng wants to use big entertainment to expand the business boundaries and boost Penguin's stock price, while Chen Yansen also uses the entertainment industry to add new employees to Senlian Capital and thus obtain a lot of humanitarian support.
When two tigers fight, one of them will be injured.
What's more, to be honest, Xiao Ma Ge felt scared when he thought about going to war with Senlian Capital.
It’s nonsense to say that you are not worried when facing an opponent who has never lost.
"How much has the number of Penguin Video members increased in the past month?"
Thinking of this, Ma Wenteng asked casually.
"Around 9.1 million, and we expect it to reach 10 million before the 15th."
Liu Zhiping was very familiar with the data in this area and answered without hesitation.
"What is the proportion of Pinbei Prime super members?" Ma Wenteng asked again.
"89.1%." Liu Zhiping picked up the teacup and took a sip.
"What if Pinbei changed the Prime super membership sign-up gift to Youku Video?" Pony Ma hesitated to speak.
"Then the number of Youku's paying users will once again return to the top of the industry." Liu Zhiping said with certainty.
In less than a month, Pinbei brought more than 8 million annual card users to Penguin Video, which is by no means a small number.
You know, Wang Xin of Kuaibo had just been arrested, and the users’ awareness of paying for long video websites was far less than it would be ten years later.
More than 90% of users think “I won’t buy as long as they pay me”!
Before Pinbei launched Prime super membership, Youku, as the industry's leading video website, had only more than 6 million paying users.
iQiyi has more than 4 million users.
Penguin Video ranks third, with just over 3 million paying users.
LeTV ranks fourth with about 1.4 million paying users, but as we all know, buying a LeTV TV comes with a LeTV video annual membership, which seems to be paid, but is actually free.
From this, it is not difficult to see how much revenue Pinbei has created for Penguin Video by utilizing the joint membership sales model.
Today, Penguin Video has become the leading video website with 12 million paying users.
If Chen Yansen and Gu Yongqiang reach a cooperation agreement, Penguin Video will immediately be reduced to its original state.
As for finding new partners, there is no hope at all.
Dong is Pinbei's younger brother, so naturally he follows his big brother.
So can Penguin cooperate with Ali?
Ma Wenteng shook his head. He knew Ma Liyun too well.
This person was the reincarnation of a Pixiu in his previous life. In addition, Ali is about to go public and has no shortage of funds. Even if the other party wants to learn from Pinbei and become a Taobao member, it is likely that he will acquire a video website instead of cooperating with Penguin.
Ma Wenteng's right hand was placed on the table, tapping it unconsciously, his brows furrowed into deep furrows.
Liu Zhiping's words were like a bucket of cold water, extinguishing the last glimmer of hope in his heart.
Pinbei holds the "lifeline" of Penguin Video's membership growth. As long as Chen Yansen lets go, Penguin's position as the "No. 1 in Video" that it has worked so hard to secure will disappear in an instant.
In addition, his attitude towards Sunlink Capital has always been cooperation-based and competition-supplemented.
Especially the other party, who still holds three trump cards in his hand: Orange mobile phone, Tiangong chip and Deep Blue battery.
How was Qiandu defeated?
He saw it all from beginning to end. Although Penguin was stronger than Qiandu, he was not more than ten times stronger.
Therefore, there is no need to compete with Senlian Capital. It is best to cooperate if possible.
"Martin, call Liu Shengyi from the Online Media Division and Cheng Wu from the Interactive Entertainment Division over here. Have them bring the business and financial statements for the last three months."
Ma Wenteng thought about it and gave instructions to Liu Zhiping opposite him.
"Okay." Liu Zhiping nodded in agreement.
He knew that Ma Wenteng had probably made a new decision.
After receiving the notice, Cheng Wu rushed to Ma Wenteng's office ten minutes later, holding a thick stack of reports tightly in his hand.
When he pushed the door open, he saw Ma Wenteng staring at the office buildings outside the window in a daze, while Liu Zhiping was sitting beside him drinking tea. The atmosphere in the office was a little weird.
"Mr. Ma, Mr. Liu, these are the business and financial statements for the Interactive Entertainment Division for the last three months."
Cheng Wu walked quickly forward and gently placed the report on the table.
The business of the Interactive Entertainment Division is mainly based on games, literature and animation products. For Cheng Wu, League of Legends and QQ Games are the money-printing machines.
However, Chuangshi, Yunqi, QQ Reading, QQ Bookstore and Penguin Comics are all money-losing products.
But what he didn't expect was that Ma Wenteng turned aside the data report of the game business and picked up a quarterly financial report of the literature business instead.
"First-quarter revenue was 170 million yuan, and net profit was 26.2 million yuan."
Ma Wenteng muttered silently.
Let’s look at Penguin Animation, which suffered a loss of 13 million.
No money at all!
He is a typical Chaoshan businessman who values practical interests more. It is not worthwhile to become an enemy of Chen Yansen for a mere few hundred million in net profit.
At this time, Liu Shengyi from the Internet Media Division also arrived and handed Ma Wenteng a copy of the latest business report.
After an unknown amount of time, Brother Ma suddenly put down the documents in his hand, looked at Liu Zhiping and said, "Martin, help me run a trip to Luzhou."
Liu Zhiping was stunned when he heard this, and then he realized that Ma Wenteng wanted him to find Chen Yansen to discuss cooperation.
"Okay, I'll arrange the itinerary right away and fly to Luzhou tomorrow morning at the latest."
A hint of understanding flashed in Liu Zhiping's eyes, and he responded immediately.
Ma Wenteng nodded slightly and then instructed, "Don't rush into negotiating terms. Meet Chen Yansen first and listen to his ideas. Remember, you can lower your stance, but you can't compromise Penguin's core bottom line. You can negotiate on the literature, animation, and video businesses, but nothing else."
Although Xiao Ma Ge spoke vaguely, Liu Zhiping had worked under him for many years and understood what he meant almost immediately.
It is nothing more than using the cooperation model of Penguin and Sogou, investing, exchanging stocks, and merging, turning from a fight between dragons and tigers into an offensive and defensive alliance, and exchanging business binding for survival space.
Liu Zhiping immediately took out his cell phone and called Chen Yansen.
“Beep—beep—beep!”
The waiting tone sounded more than ten times before the receiver finally connected.
"Martin, you haven't called me for a long time. Tell me, what's the big deal?"
Chen Yansen chuckled and joked.
"Mr. Chen, you're joking. I'm usually afraid of disturbing you, but this time I have something important to discuss with you in person. I'm flying to Luzhou tomorrow. Do you have time?"
Liu Zhiping greeted very politely.
From the way he addressed Chen Yansen, one can clearly see the trajectory of changes in Chen Yansen's status and identity.
At first, Chen Yansen was the founder of FoxTao, and he was the vice president of Penguin, so of course they called him by his first name.
Later, Chen Yansen founded Pinbei and Orange Technology, and became very successful in the e-commerce and smartphone industries. During this period, he quietly changed his way of addressing Chen Yansen to "Mr. Chen."
Now, Chen Yansen is the richest Chinese, the richest man in the world, and co-mentor of the Davos Economic Forum. Liu Zhiping's way of addressing him has changed again, and he even uses honorifics.
"Martin, I'm sorry, I have to go to Yanjing tomorrow and visit Europe with Mr. Li next Monday."
Chen Yansen politely declined.
Mr. Li?
European visit?
After hearing this, Ma Wenteng, who was standing by, couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness in his heart. He had been in the business world for more than 20 years and had never enjoyed such treatment.
But he knew in his heart that Chen Yansen's weight in the eyes of the upper class was indeed different.
Tiangong chips, deep blue batteries and Orange mobile phones, any one of them can be part of the display of the business association's visiting delegation.
Especially in recent years, the European Environmental Protection Association has been like a possessed person, organizing protests all day long and forcing local central authorities to shut down thermal power plants and nuclear power plants and instead promote solar and wind power generation models, resulting in occasional instability in the power supply in Europe.
It's okay in spring and autumn, but in summer and winter, once the power goes out, residents in some extremely cold areas will have trouble even getting basic heating.
The Deep Blue battery is suitable for home energy storage devices. Last year's pilot projects in Germany and Sweden have helped solve the emergency power outage needs of nearly 10,000 households in the area.
Based on this point alone, no one dared to say anything about Chen Yansen following Li Qingsong to Europe.
Even if Ma Wenteng wanted to fight for this treatment, he did not have the corresponding hard power to support it.
To put it bluntly, Deep Blue Battery's supply order can bring China some valuable optical and medical equipment orders.
Ma Wenteng's face darkened slightly. He took the phone from Liu Zhiping and said slowly, "Mr. Chen, this is Pony. I'd like to take a few minutes of your time. I'd like to talk to you directly about the entertainment cooperation between Penguin and Senlian."
"Entertainment projects? Looks like Mr. Ma has heard about it."
Chen Yansen said meaningfully.
He had just met with Youku's Gu Yongqiang when he unexpectedly received a call from Pony Ma.
Ma Wenteng took a long breath and said in a calm tone, "In fact, I have wanted to talk to Mr. Chen for a long time. I can see what Senlian Capital is doing in the entertainment field.
If Penguin and Sunlink Capital compete head-on, it will only waste money and resources, so my idea is that we should work together to expand the pie.
After all, with Senlian Capital's industrial chain construction and Penguin's traffic, cooperation is far more cost-effective than internal friction."
Chen Yansen on the other end of the phone smiled lightly: "Mr. Ma is quite frank, but it's easy to say 'grow big together', but the difficulty lies in how to divide the cake?
What Senlian wants is not a simple traffic exchange, but a deep integration that can connect 'IP→content→derivatives→overseas channels'. What can Penguin provide?
Deep binding?
Ma Wenteng smiled indifferently. He could package QQ Input Method and Penguin Soso and hand them over to Sogou for operation, and merge the two companies' input method and search engine businesses.
It is not difficult to see that in business competition, he prefers capital operation rather than fighting for who will be the boss.
"The deep integration Mr. Chen wants is essentially the complementarity of industries and ecosystems, which happens to be what Penguin excels at. Just like last year's cooperation with Sogou, which exchanged business mergers for market share, we can also follow a similar path with Senlian."
Ma Wenteng said after pondering for a few seconds.
"What do you mean by percentage of shares? I want absolute controlling rights."
Seeing that Xiao Ma Ge was so understanding, Chen Yansen stopped beating around the bush and went straight to the point.
Absolute controlling rights?
Although Ma Wenteng was mentally prepared, he still couldn't help but gasp after hearing Chen Yansen's words.
Will you give it or not?
The expression on Ma Wenteng's face was hesitant.
Giving up the controlling stake is equivalent to handing over the "steering wheel" of the entertainment business completely to Senlian Capital; if it does not, Pinbei will turn to cooperate with Youku, and Penguin Video's "number one" status will be reduced to its original state in a blink of an eye. The 12 million paying users accumulated before may be lost by most in a year.
Penguin cooperates with Sogou, with Penguin being the big brother.
Now cooperating with Senlian Capital, Chen Yansen clearly wants to be the big brother.
This is not only a concession of equity, but also a compromise of industry status!
"Mr. Chen, the demand for absolute controlling rights exceeds Penguin's bottom line for cooperation." Ma Wenteng's voice was low, but with unquestionable persistence.
He paused and continued, "Penguin and Sogou are cooperating, each contributing its own strengths and jointly managing the company. Penguin holds a slight advantage in terms of shareholding ratio, but the day-to-day management work is handed over to Sogou.
If Senlian wants to be deeply integrated, we can discuss a business split, but we can't give up the controlling stake. This is the red line of the Penguin board of directors, and I can't make the decision."
He deliberately used the "board of directors" as a shield, but in fact he wanted to gain some buffer space for himself.
In fact, his reaction was completely within Chen Yansen's expectations.
"Since we can't agree on the preconditions, there's no need for us to continue the discussion."
Chen Yansen said lightly.
Ma Wenteng was stunned. He knew Chen Yansen's style of doing things too well. Once he said "no talk", he would never drag his feet.
He thought for a moment and softened his tone: "Mr. Chen, everything can be discussed. There is no need to block the road.
We can change our thinking: establish a joint venture for the animation business, with Senlian Capital holding a 51% stake and having relative controlling rights. Daily operations can also be handed over to Senlian Capital, but the core decision-making power of IP belongs to Penguin; for the literature business, Senlian Capital can hold a 15% stake, and the overseas distribution rights will be given priority to Orange Literature.
In the video business, Senlian has invested in Orange Short Drama. This not only satisfies Senlian's need for 'dominance', but also protects Penguin's core interests. What do you think?
"That's not called deep integration! Pony, my idea is that you take Penguin Video, QQ Music, Penguin Literature, and Penguin Animation, and I'll take Orange Literature, Orange Short Drama, Kuaiying, and Wanhe Tianyi. We'll merge them to form a large entertainment group, and both sides will share resources. Senlian Capital will hold a 51% stake, and Penguin will hold a 49% stake."
Chen Yansen said bluntly.
"Merge to form a large entertainment group?"
Ma Wenteng was slightly surprised.
He originally thought that Chen Yansen just wanted a controlling stake in a certain entertainment business, but he didn't expect the other party to have such a big appetite.
It is necessary to merge Penguin Entertainment's core assets with Senlian's entertainment business and obtain an absolute controlling stake of 51%.
"Mr. Chen, I can't answer you for now. When you come back from Europe, we can meet and talk."
Ma Wenteng was unable to give an immediate answer, so he suggested postponing the discussion.
"Sure, no problem." Chen Yansen also knew that this cooperation project involving tens of billions of dollars would definitely not be finalized in a short time.
Afterwards, the two of them stopped talking and simply ended the call.
For Chen Yansen, he has two options: first, to improve the entertainment ecosystem of Senlian Capital through acquisitions; second, to join forces with Penguin to complete the industrial layout as quickly as possible.
Both paths have their advantages and disadvantages, but he had already made up his mind.
The other side.
Pinbei surpassed Ali in terms of single-day transaction volume, which was also reflected in its stock price, which hit the daily limit as soon as it opened.
In just half an hour, the market value exceeded 180 billion US dollars!
(End of this chapter)
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