Just like previous Oscars, once the award ceremony ends, the war of verbal around the ownership of the grand prize begins again.

You said this was not worthy, I said that that was not worthy, and finally pointed the finger at the college, and the college continued to pretend to be dead and said nothing. Everyone was very skilled.

This kind of verbal war does not involve the company's business, so Lehman naturally has no energy to pay attention. On the contrary, after going to Amber, he also got good news from management director Edward.

"Does Apple look forward to us?"

With the multi-party negotiations in recent days, investors who are optimistic about Amber have become more and more advanced.

"Because the streaming environment has improved again, the existence of self-made dramas has greatly offset the strength of content supply, neither Netflix nor us are so passive.

In addition, there is an internal news. I heard that Comcast wants to introduce streaming media to the set-top box port. If it does happen, our channel to connect with users is wider and the development prospects are better. Of course, the market trend is focusing on the content segment of streaming media."

People with red shirts can help and receive information faster. Although Lehman can understand these positive principles, he did not expect that all aspects of updates are so fast. Are everyone stupid?

"Well, the question now is, where is the negotiation progress?"

"There are only some details left. We can handle it in about two days. We will have a meeting with Google Venture Capital and Apple representatives later. Chairman, are you coming?"

"Yes, yes."

After participating in the Oscars, he has no other outing schedule these days, which is enough for him to handle the company's projects well.

Soon, he met representatives from both sides in the conference room and the Los Angeles District Office of the Consumer Accounting Firm, and the team responsible for clearing the terms.

"Mr. Rust, we are very optimistic about your streaming platform."

Google's people are already relatively familiar, while two white middle-level Apple's people come to greet him politely.

"Sit down, if it goes well, we are all from the same front."

"Let's start, we've talked a few times, and solve some problems as soon as possible." Edward echoed.

Everyone was no longer bored and polite. Yongdao's people took out relevant documents on behalf of Lehman's side.

"At present, Amber's turnover, total assets, and net assets in the first quarter have been discussed before. We also used a model to deduce the retention rate issue in the second quarter. The situation is very optimistic because its value has increased rapidly during this period. I believe we have no reason to think it suddenly becomes worse."

"Yes, our needs remain unchanged. It's still the traffic and some business transactions. When it comes to the streaming field, Amber must be treated the most favorably." Edward continued to emphasize this point.

"No, no, no, we can give discounts on e-commerce, but you require deliberately guiding users to recommend Netflix between Amber and Netflix. We are not able to do this. In this way, the credibility lost by Apple stores cannot be afforded in a round A." Apple people took the lead in expressing their opinions.

"The same is true for us. Netflix's download volume and user stock are higher than Amber. We cannot ignore the facts and deliberately conceal this fact. At most, we will put the two at the same level, and Netflix's ranking is ahead of Amber."

"But according to our previous discussion, you can see the incremental and public favorability brought by Game of Thrones, and multiply the height of the model coefficient. We can basically ensure that by the second half of this year, member users can naturally accumulate to 8 million, which is seriously inconsistent with Amber's valuation at this time, isn't it?"

"We have not denied that amber is growing rapidly and the market prospects are promising."

If it weren't for the performance of "Game of Thrones", Apple would not have opened up a new investment battlefield in advance.

According to the sentence from their CEO Tim Cook after reading the analysis report, "This is undoubtedly an underestimated gold medal. You will definitely not regret finding a way to get online."

Apple is so active that it can still draw energy and resources to open up the battlefield in the streaming field when it is already scrambling with many giants and the battle is fierce. In addition to valuing Amber, they also hope to ensure their relationship with some suppliers.

Apple Store is their most successful service community. If there is an APP that has some involvement with them in the long video field, its strategic significance lies there.

To be honest, Apple has been doing similar things in recent years, either attracting companies in sub-sectors or rolling up its sleeves and ending up in person.

In comparison, Google's mentality is more ordinary. The reason why their senior management is willing to provide some traffic to Amber in terms of downstream traffic in the core search field of business is just a way to exchange resources for resources. Another way is to simply think that Amber has investment value, and you can get huge returns when you enter the market.

After this post was refuted, Edward was prepared and changed directions to continue to strive for benefits. "Okay, your party has its own recommendation mechanism, but we have no problem asking for searching for secret recommendation windows like the words."

"It's okay to have some good advertising spaces for our APP promotion."

"In addition, when promoting dramas, some traffic effects? We will be partners in the future, right?"

"It's a bit difficult. We can't give up other business cooperation for your family. At most, we can only increase the priority."

Everyone puts all the details in detail.

In a flash, two hours passed and everyone was a little tired.

"After chatting so much, there should be no problem." Google's people couldn't wait the most, "I officially signed the contract in 2 days?"

"Trade?" Edward smiled.

"The deal." Apple people also breathed a sigh of relief, "So, we will get 3% of your equity and subsequent financing priority for 390 million yuan in cash and this large and small cooperation matters. Is this right?"

"It cannot interfere with the management of the film library." Lehman emphasized.

"Yes, yes, we have no objection to this. I believe your professionalism in content, but we will also send a director representative to Amber to protect our rights and interests. This is not supervision, but protection. Our people generally do not disturb your daily operations," said the Apple representative.

"We are the same." Google Venture Capital nodded and agreed.

"I'm fine with this."

The financing rules, and most of the parties reached a consensus. The Apple representative said seriously: "The last question is, I want to know how you want to use this financing. Just say it roughly. In addition, under what conditions are the conditions to start the B round?"

What venture capital is most afraid of is that the person in charge of the investment company has no direction for the future and has invested real money. The investor will definitely hope that every penny can be spent on the edge, rather than doing it, and they don’t know what to do next.

In fact, there are countless companies that need financing to grow. There is no such thing in the industry: 90% of companies can raise angel rounds or even rounds A, but from rounds A, round B will die 60%; from round B to round C, and then 70% will die. When you grit your teeth and survive round C and support it until you go public, you will be less than 5% of them at the beginning.

And the key reason for being eliminated here is generally not in the market environment, but in the management of the company itself.

Start a business with a passionate heart, and then be hit by reality or expanded to the point of being so swollen or relying on momentary inspiration, but when these people spend all their money, the project does not meet the expected growth, the market share does not improve much, and the investors lose confidence, the project will basically be ruined.

Amber starts financing, which itself represents an independence. Mann Media’s reserve cash will no longer be transfusions to Amber. Whether it succeeds or not, not everyone is worried about it.

"I can at least guarantee that half of this money will be spent on expanding new markets and increasing inventory of film sources to consolidate user choices. The other part is fixed expenditures for technical services such as computer rooms and cloud services. Basically, we have a relatively complete plan to burn money to the right place to expand competitiveness.

As for the B round, my idea is to start when 15 million to 20 million paid users, what is the answer?”

...

Apple and Google Venture Capital left with satisfaction.

The A round was almost finalized, and Lehman was in a good mood.

At present, Amber's next stage of action is no longer bothered. When the traffic and funds are both in place, they can make a big move towards Latin markets such as Britain, the United States, Germany, France and Mexico.

Putting aside the kingly stimulating content that attracts users, as long as the Internet traffic port is added, its positive feedback cannot be underestimated.

First, deeply shaping the platform image; second, through recommendation positions, users can think of Amber when choosing streaming APPs, and naturally have a basis for their impression when competing with Netflix for new users. A considerable part offset Netflix's natural suppression of other homogeneous platforms and user traffic diversion by Netflix as the industry leader.

It's evening.

Before signing the contract to be implemented in the A round, Lehman asked Ron to arrange a leadership meeting and invited Perlman, Brian and some backbones of the same-level department.

Like the technical team, Amber currently has more than 70 engineers, roughly divided into 6 groups, and is managed by Ron.

When the staff came, Leman first announced the good news about financing, which made the Amber veterans who were tied with corresponding options and were a little excited and full of energy.

Then, Lehman led Perlman to sit in the top position and continued, "Get to the point. Today's meeting has two main things to discuss. The first is the A round that has just been notified. After we get the money and resources, we have a clear goal to further expand our market share;

The second thing is about the adjustments and new planning of the platform itself.”

While speaking, Lehman wrote a brief summary of "Round A and B financing, product structure" on the upright board.

"The meaning of Amber's existence is not just to supplement the company's copyright business. If you want to do it, you want to be in-depth operators in the content field. More importantly, you must be able to stand firm in this field and dare to compete without fear of competition. Therefore, we have integrated the A round and seek strategic allies. Whether we can develop enough to ring the bell on Nasdaq in the future, I hope that everyone here can't live without it."

As he said that, Lehman said again: "Of course, when I communicated with you before, I didn't say much about some directions of the product. Today, I am here, because the money from the A round will come in soon. Let's discuss it together. Ron, come first."

As Amber's CTO, it is already a community of interests, and even the value of career must be realized here. When Ron Brandon sighed at Amber's development prospects, he also took a report to summarize:

"Our current paid users have reached 6.7 million, and the annual users are still a minority, and most of them are still monthly users. However, due to the existence of "Game of Thrones", the activity level in the past few weeks and even in the next few weeks can be maintained at the level of tens of millions. In terms of results alone, Hulu, which has exceeded 5 million users, has become the second streaming media platform with the second largest number of users (youtube does not calculate the long video business separately, and it is not included. Everyone's business deepening direction is different)."

Lehman took the lead in applauding, "No, but we are also facing the first difficulty. How to continue to increase user dependence or reduce user loss? The number of monthly subscriptions also means that this group of users will not renew further."

“Yes, this is the point we always need to work on.”

The biggest embarrassment of streaming media is that it is too substitutable. Whether from the trend of background access or from the perspective of users, once there is no content that is of interest, it will be difficult for them to spend their energy on amber.

Like "Game of Thrones" is popular, although the users increase rapidly, there is a problem of overlap. These people were originally Netflix users. Netflix couldn't see our own content, so they came here to book monthly. It is the most difficult to keep users who are freely selected by several homogeneous platforms. Secondly, those TV users and new and old users who have changed their new and guided ways to watch dramas have similar problems.

"So, we need to increase the investment and output of self-produced dramas, right? I believe that "American Terror" which takes over "Game of Thrones" will also achieve good results, and then maintain the situation. In addition, purchasing new film sources and expanding overseas regional business are good ways to increase user growth and retention." Brian said.

"This is a good thing. We are already ready to do after getting the A round, but I still want to start with the service itself and enhance my sense of belonging to the audience."

Lehman nodded and shook his head: "To put it bluntly, streaming media sells content, and the differences are mostly focus, scale, and their respective highlights. For example, Netflix has relatively the largest and most complete types, but what we can provide is not a necessity, otherwise users will not jump around.

The concept I want to express at this moment is not based on supplementing the source, but whether we can create some way to achieve the significance of enveloping users themselves rather than precipitating the breadth of services. The former needs to be done, and the latter needs to be pondered and prepared for both."

Hearing this, everyone understood a little.

As for your previous question, it is not about how to use it to expand user acceptance, but if you think about it carefully, the streaming media says "incompetence" and "afford" seems a bit incompatible.

Even Ron, who knows the most technology, thinks that he has made the attribute wrong. Social software requires that connections are indispensable and irreplaceable. For example, Amber, Netflix is ​​irreplaceable. It seems meaningless to be confused about irreplaceable. As long as people have the need to watch online dramas, they have to choose Amber and Hulu if they don’t choose Netflix. More of them are used, and they will go to which one of them updates the good content.

Lehman didn't know what everyone was thinking. He just based on his future experience, he felt that with millions of relatively loyal users, he could develop stickiness.

"Market nature and strong demand are both indispensable. At present, Amber's strong demand is only the exclusive source of self-produced dramas and Netflix that is not available. There are too few. I have an idea..."

Several technicians, including Ron, were cheering up when they heard this and waiting for the boss's following.

"Didn't we learn Netflix's recommendation mechanism and user rating mechanism? The effect has always been good. If we add the mechanism technology to send real-time comments and display them on this basis, it should also improve the user's dependence on amber."

That’s right, after the A round, in addition to buying content, shooting homemade content, and expanding servers, the killer weapon that Leman has shown is the best "barrage" mechanism in B station and the live broadcast field that will be popular in the future.

In Lehman's eyes, this is simply a genius idea of ​​emotional needs.

What do audiences watch dramas to get?

Fill in the void? Pass the time?

After all, it is nothing more than the people's emotional needs based on their inner heart.
To be continued...