Chapter 497: Planning Short Videos

Originally in history, "Smartly Seizing Weihu Mountain" started filming on December 19, and wrapped up in April the following year, which can be said to have taken one winter to finish.

And the Lantern Festival of 2014 fell on February 14; even if filming started that day, there weren't many days available to shoot snow scenery.

So Xu Ke's shooting plan was to first film the snow-related scenes after starting production, while the remaining indoor scenes or small scenes that could be solved with a snow machine could be left for later shooting.

If the temperature still isn't suitable, then only special effects can be used.

In short, waiting another year is out of the question, and Jiang Heng has no objection to this.

As for casting, it differs slightly from the previous life.

The actor playing Yang Zirong remains unchanged, still Zhang Han Yu; the casting for the bandits Zuoshan Diao, Qing Lian, and others is roughly the same as in the previous life, only the members of the 203rd Squad have seen relatively large changes.

Among them, the role of squad leader Shao Jianbo is no longer played by Lin Geng Xin but by Han Dong from iQiyi's stable; the role of Gao Bo is now played by Zheng Kai; and the role of Bai Ru is played by Zhao Liying.

As for the film's investment, the preliminary budget is 200 million RMB.

Xu Lao Guai has a habit of going over budget when filming, but Jiang Heng and Yu Dong won't let him run wild; spending a little less is fine, but any more is definitely unacceptable.

The three of them discussed further, confirmed there was nothing to change, and then Yu Dong and Xu Lao Guai left.

In the afternoon, Gao Fei, the CEO of the Group's subsidiary Weibo, came over. He looked somewhat uneasy, thinking that Gu Lina Zha's appearance on the hot search had displeased Jiang Heng, and had summoned him for a review.

But Jiang Heng's first sentence left him stunned.

"What do you think of the product Miaopai?"

Gao Fei was dumbfounded; he never expected Jiang Heng to ask that.

"Um, it's a very good product. After our company partnered with Yixia Technology's Miaopai, we achieved a win‑win result. Our Weibo mobile client has the Miaopai app built in, giving rise to a format where text, images, and video coexist. Together with Yixia Company we opened a path of shared traffic, and we both enjoy the dividends brought by short videos."

Gao Fei's thoughts raced, and he came up with a passage he thought was not bad.

Jiang Heng fell silent for a moment, then asked, "Do you think Yixia Company would be willing to be acquired by us?"

Gao Fei was stunned again; he never imagined that Jiang Heng, the director who was single‑mindedly focused on shooting effects‑heavy blockbusters, would turn his gaze to the mobile short‑video track—what a mismatch!

"Um, it's probably not easy; the boss of Yixia, Han Kun, thinks very highly of this product and is also very ambitious!"

Jiang Heng laughed, "Then let's start from scratch and make our own!"

"Ah, build our own short‑video app?"

"Of course!"

"What about our cooperation with Miaopai?"

Jiang Heng snorted and said, "Why are you worrying about them?"

Speaking of which, many people don't realize that the Miaopai that originally partnered with Weibo should be considered China's earliest short‑video app; its parent company was founded in August 2011 and launched the Paike app.

The original Paike had no time limit, and its reception was mediocre.

In order to compete for users' limited attention, by 2013 Han Kun improved Paike, resulting in the birth of Miaopai with video lengths of ten seconds or less, achieving the true meaning of "short." And Han Kun, the boss of Yixia Technology, also became the first person in China to propose the ten‑second short‑video concept.

Not long after Miaopai launched, Han Kun sought out Weibo's CEO Gao Fei, hoping to initiate a strategic partnership.

Gao Fei also thought short videos would be an opportunity for Weibo's development, so they hit it off immediately; the two companies launched a strategic partnership, and Miaopai became Weibo's built‑in application.

With Weibo's "opening the floodgates," Miaopai experienced explosive traffic growth, and its user base kept increasing.

While other short‑video app platforms were still burning money to buy traffic, Miaopai, leveraging Weibo's power, shot up like a rocket, instantly leaving similar products far behind and ascended to the throne of short‑video supremacy.

Weibo also relied on Miaopai to achieve a substantial increase in revenue, its market value soared, and it enjoyed several years of easy days.

However, looking at future developments, this long‑term partnership has inflicted considerable harm on the strategic development of both sides.

First, Weibo Company was too late in developing its own short‑video app, only launching the new product "Kuoran" in 2017, by which time Douyin had already appeared; trying to break out in the fiercely competitive short‑video track is nearly impossible.

Without Miaopai, Weibo is still Weibo.

But without Weibo's traffic boost, Miaopai instantly fell from heaven to rock bottom.

Because its standalone app has a very low open rate, user stickiness remains on Weibo.

Because its rapid rise relied on Weibo's traffic and topics.

Put simply, it became Weibo's player, without putting effort into creating its own content to attract users.

At the end of the day, it succeeded too easily and too fortuitously!

To talk about Miaopai's rise, its catalyst also came from the 2014 sudden craze of the "Ice Bucket Challenge."

Weibo and Yixia Technology quickly launched the Ice Bucket Challenge activity domestically, with many celebrities and big names participating in the relay; Weibo's topic kept fermenting and quickly became a social hotspot.

Miaopai indeed rose rapidly thanks to the Ice Bucket Challenge, with daily active users breaking through 2 million and total daily playback reaching 1 billion times.

Perhaps because they tasted the sweetness of drawing traffic from stars, thereafter Miaopai kept its operational focus on celebrities, with over 3,000 stars stationed, and even invited many celebrities to serve as company executives—Zhao Liying as vice president, Zhang Yingying as chief dazzle‑sound officer, Jia Nailiang as chief creative officer—looking back, it was simply crazy.

Nevertheless, relying on these, Miaopai once enjoyed a brief brilliance: in 2017 its monthly active users reached 286 million, with a penetration rate of 61.7%, ranking first in the short‑video industry.

But after parting ways with Weibo, its traffic began to plummet sharply.

Furthermore, due to content issues it was punished with rectification, and it remained offline for a full 79 days before being relisted.

But when Miaopai returned after rectification, Douyin and Kuaishou both had daily active users exceeding 100 million, Weishi, bolstered by Penguin Company, surged in pursuit, and giants like Ali and Bai Du also increased their investment in short videos, turning the whole industry into a bloody red sea—where could Miaopai find a place? Therefore, Jiang Heng, with the hindsight of Zhuge Liang, reviewed the matter: the cooperation between Weibo and Miaopai was sweet in the short term, but over time it turned into poison.

Since acquisition isn't possible, it's better to split early and develop our own independent short‑video app.

Moreover, it's already 2014, and the birth of the later short‑video king Douyin is only a little over two years away—time waits for no one!

It's a pity Gao Fei lacks such awareness; instead he explained, "Director Jiang, I'm not worried about Miaopai—it's that users have already grown accustomed to Weibo having short videos, and if the partnership ends, it will affect our product!"

Jiang Heng smiled and said, "I never said you had to terminate the partnership right away; I'm just setting about building a R&D team… Forget it, I'll personally oversee this! When you go back, recommend a project manager to me, pick some technically competent programmers, and send over the list!" (End of chapter)