Chapter 1330 The Transformation Period of the Internet Industry

When he received Qiu Wuyan's call, Wu Tao was in the president's office, receiving Ivanka who had come from afar.

Through active contact with Netflix and research with its largest competitor Blockbuster, Ivanka came to interview Wu Tao with her own opinions.

"Dear Wu, compared to acquiring Netflix in 2000, now may not be a good time. Although Netflix continues to lose money this year, founders Reed Hastings and Mark Randolph both We are very confident in Netflix’s prospects, so we are not interested in our offer.”

Wu Tao expected such twists and turns when acquiring an Internet company with promising growth value.

However, the information Ivanka provided next was something he did not understand, "Wu, you know that in the United States, there is a DVD rental company Blockbuster that is similar to Netflix."

"...This company, which is mainly engaged in offline DVD rental chain, already has 20 million registered users and annual revenue of more than 400 million US dollars."

Wu Tao shook his head, "Mainly engaged in offline DVD rental business, it is not one of the things I am optimistic about. And Ivanka, you also know that a company with such a large user base is more difficult to acquire than Netflix, which only has 200,000 subscribers. Much more.”

"I understand, Wu." Ivanka puffed up her chest and gave herself more confidence: "But that's not what I want to say. I just discovered some data while collecting data on negotiations with Netflix. Interesting things about Blockbuster."

"Oh?" These words immediately aroused Wu Tao's interest. He took a sip of coffee and said with great interest: "Go on, I'm all ears."

Ivanka's deep eyes showed a confident smile, "I found that Blockbuster is burdened with huge debts, at least no less than 1 billion US dollars! This has restricted the management of Blockbuster, and many emerging decisions and attempts often come to nothing. , cannot continue to be implemented.”

"... Among them, I discovered that Blockbuster had withdrawn from the attempt to play DVD video content online through the Internet in the early 2000s. However, due to insufficient technology and the spread of the Internet bubble, it ultimately ended without any problems."

Wu Tao's eyes lit up, this was exactly what he wanted!

After receiving the information handed over by Ivanka, Wu Tao flipped through it and finally confirmed that, yes, it was this technology.

Just thinking about it, he turned around and asked: "So Ivanka, have you gained anything from research on whether Netflix has such technology?"

After all, Netflix will launch the online DVD content playback business in 2007. According to the cycle of technical preparation and preparation, it is entirely possible that it will enter the preparatory stage at this moment.

However, Ivanka shook her head and said, "No, Wu. As far as I know, Netflix's current technology research and development layout should focus on the screening and statistics of online users' preferences for renting DVDs, and then push targeted recommendations to users accordingly. Related DVD videos."

This is big data push.

Wu Tao nodded secretly. At present, it seems that research on big data push is indeed more promising and more adaptable than online DVD movie playing technology.

So it stands to reason that there is nothing wrong with Reed and Mark doing this.

But this is not so friendly to his goal of acquiring Netflix.

If Netflix, after spending a lot of money to acquire it, still follows the development path of its previous life and did not launch its online broadcast business until 2007, this would be somewhat inconsistent with its original intention.

After many thoughts lingered in his mind for a moment, Wu Tao directly asked Ivanka the question: "What are you going to do, Ivanka?"

At least so far, Wu Tao is very satisfied with Ivanka’s performance of “more investigations and more reports”.

After all, if this matter had been left to Molly and Panis, they would have spent money on Netflix long ago without saying a word.

According to Netflix's current market value of more than 2 billion US dollars, and judging from the situation that it is still on the rise, I am afraid that it will not be able to obtain it at all if it does not have 3 billion US dollars.

Although Wu Tao is not short of this little money, it may not be worth it considering the ultimate goal of this acquisition: online streaming technology.

Ivanka was obviously prepared for this.

"If Wu's goal is the online playback technology of audio and video content, then we can put pressure on Blockbuster by contacting Blockbuster's creditors, and then adopt a certain roundabout strategy to purchase the property rights of this content at a low price."

"...Or, we can directly tap the talents who have done this part of the technology research and development. Some of them left one after another in 2001, and the non-compete period has almost expired. What's more, did Blockbuster treat this at the beginning? It’s possible that some talents have implemented non-compete regulations.”

Both trains of thought came to mind.

Sure enough, she is worthy of being the daughter of the future president.

Wu Tao did not hesitate to express his appreciation: "I agree with your idea, Ivanka. However, I suggest a two-pronged approach to ensure nothing goes wrong. On the premise of stabilizing this part of the technical staff, we can then negotiate with Blockbuster."

"...In addition, since you are going to form a technical team and establish a new company, I suggest that you pay attention to technical talents in user habit data mining and targeted push algorithms."

"...You can properly divide the work with Hu Ning. I look forward to good news from you!"

"In that case," Ivanka stood up immediately and said, "I will compile a record of today's meeting and send it to you later. I plan to take the flight back to the United States later tonight."

Wu Tao expressed his concern at the right time and said: "Would that be too tiring, Ivanka? Don't work so hard, I will feel bad."

Ivanka's beautiful eyes sparkled, "I'm glad to hear this, Wu. But in fact, this kind of schedule density is nothing to me who once worked as a supermodel."

She is indeed a hard-working American girl.

After seeing off Ivanka, Wu Tao returned to the president's office and began to think about the phone call from Qiu Wuyan.

He probably knows a little bit about why NetEase Ding Shisan always goes around the corner to find him.

To be honest, most Internet companies that have truly survived the Internet bubble have entered a delicate period.

The arrival of this period is not sudden or without reason.

In fact, in some articles about the development of the Internet era in my memory, you can even find some clues about network technology innovation.

For example, web2.0 technology, streaming media playback technology, and user viewing habits research and DVD push technology that enabled Netflix to turn a profit...

Most of the Internet companies that survived this period and developed suddenly made use of these technologies intentionally or unintentionally.

After thinking about it, Wu Tao dialed Xiao Zixia's phone number, and after asking, he learned that Ding Shisan had also been looking for her more or less.

"...Let's do this. As a private person, you invite Lao Ding to come to Jinling for a chat. By the way, I'll inform Brother Yang that if it's convenient, our small circle can get together."

Xiao Zixia's heart moved, "Boss, if you are not in a hurry, just take advantage of my marriage to inform them."

This is a good opportunity.

Wu Tao nodded and said with a smile: "I'm not in a hurry anyway, you can figure it out."