Chapter 809: Chapter 703: A Beating (Subscribe please!) December 24. Saturday. It had been exactly three days since the press conference for "Civilization: Soul of the Stars". It was during these three days. Comet Entertainment’s momentum-building campaign had achieved tremendous success. Tang Qing had only then become aware that Meng Rongfei and the others had actually taken the initiative to bias their exposure towards the promotion of the movie, starting with CCTV’s evening news, followed by local news channels nationwide broadcasting information about the movie. Some treated it as current affairs news, others as entertainment news, and some even as financial news—although the exposure varied, it was exposure nonetheless. The print media were no different. The so-called trickle-down effect meant there were even more media channels covering it than the ones Comet Entertainment’s public relations had originally planned, and this was beginning to have a snowball effect. Combined with Comet Video’s daily top positioning, the spread exceeded previous estimates by far. It was a pleasing trend. ... Ten o’clock in the morning. Tudou’s headquarters. Inside the main conference room. All the members of the company’s board of directors and senior management were present. Although it was the weekend, they were not in the mood to rest, each of them looking grave. The atmosphere in the conference room was as somber as if dark clouds hung overhead. They were all deeply worried, far from their usual spirited and vigorous selves. Tudou had previously been the largest video sharing website in the country, unrivaled and second to none, all set to make a big splash by following the lead of mature models abroad and creating a vast traffic platform. But then, just two weeks ago. Comet Entertainment sent an acquisition request. Of course, they didn’t agree. Holding out cash as if to buy their ’land of dreams’, they could have talked about shares, as the price Comet Entertainment offered was not low, but Comet Entertainment actually wanted controlling rights. That was something the shareholders of Tudou’s board of directors couldn’t accept. They were all bullish about the video service industry. After all, mature profit models already existed abroad. As long as they followed in their footsteps, combined with innovation adapted to local conditions, Tudou could eventually become a leading provider in the Huaxia video service industry. They had already achieved that status. Therefore, no matter how much money you had, we simply wouldn’t sell to you. ...unless you forced us. They knew something about the backgrounds of this company’s board members; they were all from the same industry. It was not difficult to investigate a company’s shareholders. If Zheng Lin decided to interfere, they would likely compromise. Actually, they preferred that Comet Entertainment invested in Tudou, which would allow them to develop a relationship with Zheng Lin. But Comet Entertainment was not interested and did not force the issue. They decisively gave up on the acquisition. This relieved them all. Later, when they learned that Comet Entertainment was also actively preparing to launch its own video website, they were not optimistic. Do you really think running a video website is easy? All aspects of technology must be in place, along with a clear profit model. So much more was needed. Think about all the difficulties Tudou had encountered from its inception to its development—it was a journey filled with bitter tears. Therefore. On Monday. When Comet Video went live. They were shocked out of their wits. The senior executives of Tudou were dumbfounded. Big brother. In less than a week. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖 How did you manage to create this website? Had you already been preparing in advance? This was everyone’s thought, otherwise, they simply couldn’t believe it. The most critical issue wasn’t about going live, but that, in just one week, Comet Entertainment had them pinned to the ground and gave them a thorough beating, leaving them battered and bruised. If they didn’t come up with a solution soon, they were going to be killed off by Comet Video. That’s right. Comet Video. Although it had been live for only a week. It had almost killed off the industry’s number one. Chairman and President Liu Quan said gravely, "The situation is such that Comet Video, with its rich video categories, as well as a large number of genuine TV and movie licenses, super-fast webpage refresh speeds, and unique video decoding, has garnered a substantial user base. It is said to have already surpassed one million registered users, with daily click traffic exceeding 80 million, and it’s still rapidly expanding. I believe that in another week, it will surpass Tudou in all respects, and there’s no doubt about it any longer. Let’s discuss what we should do." A vice president sighed and said, "I didn’t expect Comet Video to be so unreasonable, launching so many high-quality and diverse programs and video services. Were they planning to acquire us then integrate it with Tudou? If that’s the case, we might have really missed an opportunity." This statement was subtle, but its true meaning was: regret. "Indeed, if we had known this strategic plan and project technology was Tudou’s, I think we might have agreed to the controlling rights," a board member said with disappointment. "Now is not the time for regrets. Comet Video is coming on strong, and even if we were to copy them, we would need at least a week to adjust. The categorization can be easily imitated, but what counts is the provision of a diverse video service. But the most important thing is their video compression algorithm. You all know the state of Internet speeds in the country—very frustrating. For many users, their bandwidth cannot fully guarantee the contracted speed due to the operators and Level 2 operators." Therefore, their technology, which can almost adapt to a 1M bandwidth, is very hard for us to compete with. You must understand that we are a video service provider, and speed is the most important thing. There was no comparison before, and we were always at the forefront. Now, when compared, our disadvantages will quickly become apparent. To be honest, I have used Comet Video’s website, and frankly, once I was on it, I had absolutely no desire to visit Tudou." Liu Quan laid out the facts right in front of the company executives. This was an almost unsolvable problem. For Tudou now, the best-case scenario is to have half of their territory snatched away by Comet Video. If things go poorly, Tudou could end up playing a losing game, facing the danger of closure. "How about we propose a technical cooperation with Comet Video?" the head of the technology department suggested. "What do we have? Why would anyone want to cooperate with us?" the vice president shook his head. The head of the operations department said, "We have users, we can share accounts." The vice president still threw cold water on the idea: "Do you think Comet Video would agree? They are already in an invincible position, and they just need to maintain this advantage to wear us down. It’s not that I want to reduce our own morale, but we simply have nothing to offer for a cooperation. Put yourself in their shoes—would you cooperate with an opponent who could be easily taken down at any time?" "But... we can’t just sit by and wait for death," the operations department head said weakly. "..." The discussion fell into a deadlock. This situation was most headache-inducing. Without something others need, there’s no talking about negotiations or cooperation, and when everyone is a competitor, it’s like a battlefield in the marketplace. If you don’t take your opponent out, that’s not business logic. They just couldn’t think of a solution. A refusal. That had pushed the once-bright Tudou to the edge of a cliff. They don’t even need to strike at you. You’ll fall off on your own, dying without a complete corpse. There really was no regret medicine to take now. Before, they had thought of themselves as industry big shots, but they didn’t expect their competitors to knock them down with just one move—a move that was completely aboveboard. They were almost beaten to the point where they could not get up. "Don’t their video uploads have any loopholes?" a board member suddenly asked. Everyone present understood the implication. Uploading prohibited videos would amount to non-standard business competition—a dishonorable tactic they had never used before because they had no competitors. Facing Comet Video now, they resorted to this approach out of sheer desperation. "We’ve tried that, it doesn’t work. They manually review all videos uploaded by users. Only those that pass the review are displayed in the search interface, so that method is out of the question," the operations department head said softly. Video websites are not like live broadcast platforms. It’s comparatively easier to bring down a live broadcast site. Just flood it with people creating certain types of content, along with other dangerous and prohibited material; public opinion will do the rest, eventually earning a severe reprimand from regulatory authorities. But video websites are different. They don’t have real-time video uploads and they have staff who review content. This is why it is hard for competition between video websites to be resolved with a single strike. To compete, one must improve aspects such as video services. It’s difficult to decisively win or lose with one blow. "Hiss... So we really have no way to deal with Comet Video?" a bald director said, touching his nonexistent hair in distress. Liu Quan nodded helplessly and said, "For now, yes, that’s the case. Next Monday, I will personally visit Comet Film and Television Headquarters to see if there’s any possibility for cooperation. In the next few days, both the technology and operations departments will need to work overtime. Even if we have to imitate, we can’t fall too far behind." "Yes." "Yes." The heads of both departments were serious. If Tudou went under, they would have to look for new jobs, which was frustrating. This beating was truly damn painful. After the meeting. All departments of Tudou became busy. They began research and copying... No. This is called ’great minds think alike’." .... While Tudou was working overtime. Comet Film and Television Headquarters was also in an overtime mode. Likened to a news website, such a company cannot simply stop reporting news over the weekend; it’s impossible, so overtime and shift work are necessary. As a fledgling company, everyone at Comet Video was enthusiastic. They were all working with full spirit. They had only one goal. To pull down Tudou. Beat them. Beat them hard. Beat them until they couldn’t get up from the ground. Business is like a battlefield. And they are competitors after all. For websites like these, battling for internet traffic is the most significant matter, because traffic represents users, users represent advertising fees, and advertising fees represent profit. Profits also mean the year-end bonus for everyone. Though Chinese New Year was still a month away, the superiors had spoken. Before the end of the year, if they wanted a large year-end bonus, they must make all netizens know and accept that Comet Video is the number one video sharing website in Huaxia.