Chapter 390 Public Opinion vs. Public Opinion
"Piracy on Internet video websites has spread to a shocking level. If we do not crack down on piracy, it will have a huge blow to the entire entertainment and cultural industry, and it will also strangle the future of video websites."
Sohu CEO Zhang Chaoyang gave a righteous speech in an interview with Sohu reporters, criticizing the various chaos on the current video website.
Zhang Chaoyang said sadly that the current situation in the video website market is not optimistic.
"They blindly indulged in the proliferation of piracy and were immersed in the rapid growth of user numbers and active data, but they had no idea that they were eroding the foundation of the video website."
"The core of a video website is high-quality content. Only a steady stream of high-quality content can attract users."
"The production of high-quality content is inseparable from the protection of the intellectual property rights of creators. If the interests of creators cannot be guaranteed, how can they create more and better content?"
"The website is full of piracy, and content from other websites is copied everywhere. Even the name of the creator has been erased and turned into someone else's work."
"Some websites blatantly disseminate pirated movies and TV series in the name of users uploading and sharing, which seriously infringes the interests of the cultural and entertainment industry. I call on the cultural and entertainment industry, as well as film and TV drama companies, to stand up and jointly condemn and boycott this phenomenon."
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"I call on my colleagues on the Internet to respect intellectual copyright, protect copyright, and cultivate users' awareness of authenticity without delay."
Zhang Chaoyang strongly criticized the entire video website industry, and Sohu published several news items in a prominent position on the homepage.
Tencent, NetEase, and Sina all reprinted it, verbatim, with the mentality of watching the excitement and not being afraid of trouble, watching Sohu blasting the entire video website industry.
……
"Childish!" Gu Yongqiang dropped the mouse on the table with a sullen face, and said bitterly, "Boring! Crazy!"
Gu Yongqiang gave three consecutive comments to Zhang Chaoyang, his former boss, which made him laugh out loud.
Zhang Chaoyang is not criticizing the proliferation of piracy. He is making fun of his colleagues and firing an AOE map cannon.
He really felt that Zhang Chaoyang was out of his mind. Are there any pirated videos on the video website now?
How can we open a video website without pirated resources?
Even Qvod.com, which claims to support genuine resources, has many pirated American dramas transferred from YouTube.
Gu Yongqiang was startled when he thought of this, vaguely feeling that something was not quite right.
Zhang Chaoyang would not talk about piracy for no reason, there must be a conspiracy here.
Gu Yongqiang immediately picked up his mobile phone and called Wang Wei of Tudou.com, as well as the bosses of Ku6.com, 56.com, Liujianfang and other websites.
About an hour later.
A few people made an appointment at a teahouse and sat in a private room, holding teacups and talking to each other in silence.
Gu Yongqiang looked at his colleagues and was the first to speak: "Tell me, guys, have you figured out what our boss Zhang is going to do?"
Wang Wei from Tudou.com turned his head and looked at the people around him, and suddenly felt that he seemed out of tune with them.
The CEO of Youku.com, Gu Yongqiang, was originally the president of Sohu. The CEO of Ku6.com, Li Shanyou, was originally the senior vice president of Sohu. The vice president of 56.com, Wang Jianjun, was also the senior vice president of Sohu.
Except for Wang Wei from Tudou.com and Liu Yan from Six Rooms, all the people sitting in the box are from Sohu, so there is nothing wrong with what Gu Yongqiang said about our boss Zhang.
Li Shanyou from Ku6.com took a sip of tea and sighed, "Mr. Zhang, this is a bad person."
Wang Jianjun of 56.com sneered, "I don't think he will come for us."
Gu Yongqiang shook his head, "Look at this attitude, he is not coming for us, but for the entire video website industry."
Liu Yan, the owner of Six Rooms, is still a 25-year-old young man. He acted very relaxed and said with a smile: "Zhang Chaoyang is crazy enough. Their Sohu video can't even compare to my Six Rooms. You have to take such a big tone." The entire video website industry.”
"If he wants to target the entire industry, he must first face Qvod Internet Cafe. If the sky falls, there will be tall people watching. Now there will be excitement."
Seeing Liu Yan's gloating expression, Gu Yongqiang said coldly with a sullen face, "Yiku.com and Qvod.com have formed an alliance, as well as Sohu Video. They are now a team."
Liu Yan's face froze, a little confused, and he sat up straight, "What are they going to do?"
"What are you doing?" Wang Wei sneered, "Of course I'm here to grab it."
"Just grab food and grab it. Why are you doing this?" Liu Yan frowned. "It's inexplicable. They talk about protecting intellectual property rights. It seems like Sohu respects intellectual property rights."
"I don't believe how clean his Sohu videos are. Even Qvod.com is full of pirated copies. Zhang Chaoyang is so shameless to say such a thing."
Video websites all rely on carrying other people's content, claiming to be shared by users under the banner of UGC.
It seems that the content is all uploaded spontaneously by users, but in fact the website has specially hired people to register accounts to upload pirated content in the name of the user, using pirated film and television resources, variety shows, and even high-quality videos from other websites to attract traffic to its own website.
Basically, more than 70% of page views on all video websites are supported by pirated content. It can be said that pirated content is the lifeblood of their traffic.
Therefore, Liu Yan found it completely inexplicable that Zhang Chaoyang mentioned protecting intellectual property rights and combating piracy.
As soon as I started, I dug into the roots of the entire video website industry. How much water did I have to think to do such a thing that is harmful to others and not beneficial to myself?
Does Zhang Chaoyang think that his Sohu video can become bigger and stronger by knocking down other video websites through piracy?
It's simply impossible.
Without pirated film and television drama resources to attract traffic, what kind of content do you rely on to support your broken website?
The other people in the box were silent and had no comment on Liu Yan's statement.
Don’t they know that piracy is illegal?
Of course they know, but this is the current situation. The current situation of video websites is that they cannot survive without relying on those pirated traffic websites.
But relying on pirated resources is doomed to not last long. Putting aside other issues, large-scale piracy cannot be allowed to exist just by listing a website.
These bosses have not thought of other methods before, intending to change this situation. They want to rely on completely user-made content to attract users and gradually get rid of the embarrassing situation of piracy and drainage.
But all this takes time, and right now they don't have time.
The video website has been established for less than a year, so there is no time to transform.
Cleaning up piracy now is tantamount to suicide.
It can be said that Zhang Chaoyang hit everyone on the seven inches, making everyone's teeth itch with hatred.
Liu Yan couldn't sit still. He was under the greatest pressure among several people. Before opening the website, he had not expected that the bandwidth expenditure of the video website would be so huge. He still owes money to the bandwidth service provider.
If Zhang Chaoyang really came to stir things up, it would be unbearable for investors just to cause a public controversy and frighten them.
Video websites cannot be weaned. Without continuous investment, they cannot survive.
In order to get investment, the website must have results and be valuable before others will invest.
What is the most valuable thing about a website is, of course, data.
The current situation is that without pirated resources, there will be no users, and without users, there will be no value.
Liu Yan was the first to stand up, "I am the youngest here, so I will say anything unpleasant!"
"I don't care what Zhang Chaoyang wants to do. I can't just watch him destroy our industry. If he wants to cause trouble, I won't sit back and wait to die."
Wang Wei grabbed him, frowned and said, "You see you are in a hurry." "Can you not be in a hurry?" Liu Yan said angrily, "They want to bleed us."
"You have to calm down now." Li Shanyou said slowly, "Sohu just yelled a few words, and you couldn't sit still. What can you do when he really takes action?"
"Boss Zhang may be just testing the waters right now, and may not really take any action."
Gu Yongqiang put the teacup back on the table and said seriously: "We can't let this wind blow now. After the public hype, who knows whether it will cause the consequences of the administrative department."
The people present were silent again.
This is what they are most worried about. No matter how much Zhang Chaoyang sprays, although it is annoying, the damage is limited. Just relying on words will not kill you.
If the iron fist of the administrative agencies is brought in to rectify an industry, then it will really be over.
Li Shanyou said slowly: "The most important thing right now is to reverse the direction of public opinion and confront public opinion with public opinion."
"You know, the majority of users are on our side when it comes to piracy."
Liu Yan's eyes lit up and he immediately patted the armrest of the chair and echoed, "Yes, he can spray, and so can we. We can't just let him speak out. We also need to have our own voices."
Gu Yongqiang frowned and said: "You can't directly say that the website engages in piracy. You have to use a roundabout strategy, and don't expect this to have much effect."
"The entry point we choose should be to kidnap the public opinion of the Internet, rather than struggle with the issue of piracy, and we cannot fall into the other party's trap."
"That's right." Li Shanyou nodded, "Mr. Gu's words are of great help to the country. We must not only kidnap public opinion, but also make good use of our video website industry."
"Don't we have an anti-quick broadcast alliance? We organize everyone, explain the interests to everyone, and ask colleagues to speak out together."
"Our video website has only been around for less than a year. Administrative agencies will not issue regulatory policies so quickly. We still have time and room."
"Mr. Li is right." Gu Yongqiang said while tapping the armrest of his chair with his fingers, "The purpose of anti-piracy is to force all colleagues to death. This will destroy the industry. The administrative agency will not let Zhang Chaoyang act so randomly."
"We still have time, we have at least three years, which is enough for us to transform."
In fact, Gu Yongqiang knew that these three years were purely comforting.
He estimated that one to two years would be good, because the website cannot be sustained for that long by financing from venture capital institutions alone, and going public is an inevitable option.
Before listing, removing pirated resources is a necessary step.
While everyone was discussing, Gu Yongqiang suddenly received a call. After hearing this, his expression changed.
After putting down the phone, he said in a deep voice: "Everyone, we don't have much time, we need to act quickly."
Li Shanchang felt something was wrong, so he asked: "What happened?"
"Yiku.com is over." Gu Yongqiang sighed, "Sohu News just announced that Zhang Chaoyang proposed the establishment of an online video anti-piracy alliance. Yiku.com was the first to express support and expressed its intention to participate."
Everyone immediately found a computer and found the homepage of the Sohu website to read the news.
Then I saw it written in the most conspicuous position, calling for the creation of the "China Online Video Anti-Piracy Alliance"
Sohu Video advocates that all rights holders of Internet video copyrights should take active actions to form an anti-piracy alliance.
The alliance aims to jointly resist online infringement and piracy, maintain the normal order of the online video market, and promote the process of legalizing online videos.
Together we form a broad anti-piracy united front, which is a collective sword against video piracy websites and an unprecedented self-revolution in China's online video industry chain.
At the same time, Zhang Chaoyang issued 10 action slogans issued by the anti-piracy alliance.
Call on online video websites not to disseminate video works without legal authorization, and require resource sharing websites to filter uploads of video works without legal authorization.
We call on advertisers and advertising companies to increase their copyright awareness, refrain from placing ads on any suspected infringing video websites and content, and safeguard advertisers’ interests and brand image in genuine Internet video advertising.
It calls on judicial authorities to increase criminal penalties for infringement and piracy in the field of online videos, and calls on all sectors of society to increase citizen awareness of respecting intellectual property rights.
The Anti-Piracy Alliance will resolutely crack down on piracy in the online video industry through unified and joint legal actions.
Everyone's faces turned green after reading this article, "Qvod.com will soon follow suit. We must act as soon as possible."
"Go and mobilize friends from the media immediately. If any of you have connections in this area, please stop being reserved and contact us immediately."
Wang Wei hesitated and said, "This will cost a lot of money."
Gu Yongqiang glared at him, "How long has it been and you still care about this? If you don't spend this money, you won't have the chance to spend it."
Liu Yan echoed: "Mr. Gu is right, this money cannot be saved."
At this critical moment of life and death, everyone did not dare to neglect, and immediately contacted everyone, contacted reporters and the media, and spent a lot of money to hire gunmen to write soft public relations articles to clear the ground.
Then, while waiting for public opinion to ferment, the "Anti-Quick Broadcast Alliance" had an extra thought and did not directly post in the media.
Instead, they first find small accounts to distribute soft articles in various forum communities, Baidu Tieba, campus networks, Tianya and other places on the Internet to attract the attention of netizens and win everyone's sympathy.
You must know that piracy is popular among the people on the Internet. Everyone thinks that the Internet is about the spirit of sharing.
See what’s happening with piracy, we just need to support piracy more.
If you want to engage in "anti-piracy", you are standing against the interests of the majority of netizens, which will definitely arouse the scorn of netizens.
A powerful article "Anti-Piracy Alliance: A Product Driven by Profit" appeared online and was quickly forwarded to major forums, attracting the attention of netizens.
In the article, the origin and development of the video website are written eloquently, and the video website is used to facilitate users to upload and share content. Its birth has given it this sacred mission.
Users have the right to upload the content they want, and no one can interfere.
The spirit of video websites is openness, tolerance, and sharing, rather than blocking and depriving netizens of their right to freely watch videos.
At the same time, the article also wrote about the huge costs of video websites, and also described the difficulties of several video website owners in starting a business.
They spend a lot of money and resources just to make netizens interested in pirated resources.
What kind of spirit is this!
This is the true spirit of free sharing on the Internet!
These articles in the article have touched the hearts of netizens, and they feel that they are so damn right.
I can watch whatever I want, it’s all uploaded and shared by users, you don’t care if it’s pirated or not.
Some people who watched the excitement and were not afraid of serious trouble called on netizens to take action and held a petition campaign with tens of thousands of people signing petitions to boycott the so-called "anti-piracy alliance."
We netizens will not accept this!
Then, a media article was published, "How far can you go in the "Online Video Anti-Piracy Alliance"? 》
The article makes it clear directly that establishing an anti-piracy alliance on the domestic Internet is simply unrealistic and is a complete fantasy.
For a time, several media outlets followed suit and published articles expressing their disapproval of the so-called anti-piracy alliance.
(End of chapter)