1980 My Literary Era.

Chapter 908 The mystery of profit
Lao Cheng retired, and such an important position as the editor-in-chief of the Chinese Literature Society cannot be left vacant. After discussions and voting in the society, Gao Xianjun was finally elected as the new editor-in-chief of the Chinese Literature Society with a high vote.

Gao Xianjun joined the company the same year as Li Xin, but he went to college relatively late. He graduated from college at the age of 35 and only joined the company in 1982.

The editor-in-chief's office, which had been empty all day, welcomed its new owner. People were coming and going, and it looked very busy.

Li Xin sat on the sofa in the office, his words full of envy, and said: "Who would have thought that among our generation, the first one to get a full-time job in the company would be you, Lao Gao!"

The two joined the club in the same year and had very similar experiences in the Chinese Literature Society. They have always had a good relationship, so they had no scruples about chatting in private.

Having just been promoted to editor-in-chief, Gao Xianjun is proud of his success, but his attitude remains modest.

"Others can say this, but it's inappropriate for you to say it."

Li Xin had been the president of Tongwen Society the year before last. Although he was not a full-time official of Tongwen Society, he was still considered a prince in the group.

It is extremely rare that the two of them joined the company together and reached their current positions.

However, unlike Li Xin, who was transferred to Tongwen News Agency halfway through the agency and worked his way up to a leadership position through Tongwen News Agency, Gao Xianjun was able to stand out among the many senior editors and reviewers of Tongwen News Agency because of hard work.

Not to mention anything else, he has been responsible for the editing and review work of the Buhu series of books in recent years. His daily workload is super saturated, almost comparable to that of the 996 coders in later generations, so much so that he has suffered from many physical problems in the past two years. .

Gao Xianjun is a non-competitive person, but his workload and work achievements are obvious to all, so it is a natural thing to move to the position of editor-in-chief.

After chatting for about half an hour, Li Xin stood up and was about to leave. He reminded Gao Xianjun: "Don't forget to go and sit with the chairman."

Gao Xianjun nodded, "I'll be there in a minute."

After Li Xin left, Gao Xianjun went to Lin Weimin's office.

In the Chinese Literature Society, Lin Weimin is the president and Gao Xianjun is the editor-in-chief. They seem to have equal status, but Lin Weimin also holds a position in the Chinese Literature Group and belongs to Gao Xianjun's leadership.

The Chinese Literature Society has a new editor-in-chief, but the atmosphere in the society has not changed at all. As Lao Cheng said when he retired, it is still a pure publishing house.

But from the perspective of Guowen Group, there have been a lot of changes.

In addition to the newly established legal department in the first half of the year, the advertising service department, which has been established for half a year, has now fully coordinated the advertising and publicity business within the agency, carried out cluster management of the previously scattered advertising business, and is still expanding outward. The business scope is expected to achieve a revenue scale of over [-] million yuan this year.

The changes that the Advertising Service Department has brought to Guowen Group in a short period of time are undoubtedly huge, and this is inseparable from a female leader who strongly joined Guowen Group.

In November 1994, in the first CCTV advertising bidding, Kongfu Yanjiu won the 11 "Bidding King" crown with a price of 3079 million yuan.

Almost overnight, the CCTV advertisement of "Drink Confucius's banquet and make a contribution to the world" made this little-known entrepreneur a household name.

In 1994, before winning the bid, the turnover of Confucius Banquet was 1.7 million.

In the year of winning the bid, Kongfu Yanjiu achieved sales revenue of 9.18 million yuan and profits and taxes of 3.8 million yuan. Its main economic indicators entered the top three in the national liquor industry and became a well-known domestic brand.

The driving force behind all this is Tan Xisong, who joined CCTV's advertising department in 1993.

When Tan Xisong took over the job of CCTV’s advertising department, CCTV’s premium time slots were not yet considered prime, but this resource had actually become a scarce advertising time slot.At that time, many advertisers and manufacturers used back doors to get advertising time in a certain period of time, such as sending notes and making phone calls. Any leader could get involved and the situation was completely out of control.

In desperation, Tan Xisong thought of bidding.

Since the birth of the first bidding king in 1994, almost every manufacturer that has won the CCTV advertising bidding king has benefited a lot from it. It has quickly skyrocketed from being unknown, which shows the influence of the CCTV advertising bidding king.

Tan Xisong's contribution to the advertising department of CCTV is indispensable, but CCTV is a public institution after all. At the end of last year, Tan Xisong decided to go overseas. After hearing the news, Lin Weimin took advantage of the opportunity and poached her to the Guowen Group.

After half a year, Tan Xisong has fully proved her ability and Lin Weimin's vision.

Recently, Wenhua Film and Television has digested Xiangjiang Tomson Pictures and is already preparing for its listing.

We are all holding companies of the group and are engaged in film and television. Wenhua is about to go public, and Haiyan is very unhappy.

That day he came to Lin Weimin's office. He wanted Wencheng to experience the joy of going public.

Lin Weimin couldn't help but support his subordinates for being so motivated. However, Guowen Group only had so many resources. If Wencheng wanted to go public, it would have to wait until Wenhua was listed.

After getting Lin Weimin's promise, Haiyan was overjoyed.

Just as he was about to leave, Lin Weimin told him: "The club published a book called "The Sky of History" some time ago. The content of the novel is good. You can try to adapt it."

Haiyan said hurriedly: "Yes, I will implement it when I get back."

A few days later, Zhu William invited Lin Weimin to be a guest under the banyan tree.

The office of Rongshuxia is located in a courtyard in the Second Ring Road of Yanjing. The house belongs to Lin Weimin, and the nameplate of "Yanjing Rongshuxia Computer Co., Ltd." is hung on the door.

As soon as Lin Weimin walked in, he heard the sound of laughter coming from the courtyard.

"Teacher Lin, you are here!" Zhu William came out and welcomed Lin Weimin into the room.

Since moving under the banyan tree to Yanjing, Lin Weimin has only been here once, when they moved. Now that he comes back, the whole courtyard is completely different from before.

There are more than a dozen houses in the courtyard as soon as you enter, and they have all been converted into offices. There are people working in each office.

There is a fake banyan tree in the courtyard, which corresponds to the name "Under the Banyan Tree".

The sound of laughter and laughter that Lin Weimin heard when he entered the door was from several young editors grabbing snacks.

Lin Weimin had met several of them before, at the Chinese Literature Society's Internet Creation Competition.

"William, you have caught all the winners of our Internet creation competition!" Lin Weimin joked.

William Zhu smiled and said: "There is no way, the people selected for the creative competition are all elites. Instead of taking advantage of others, it is better to take advantage of our own family."

Among the young editors under the banyan tree are Lu Jinbo, who won the first Internet Creation Competition, and whose pen name is Li Xunhuan, and Chen Wanning and Li Jie, who won the second competition. Chen Wanning is Ning Caishen, and Li Jie is Annie Baby.

Under the introduction of William Zhu, Lin Weimin chatted with the editors for a while, and then he was invited into the office by William Zhu.

This time, William Zhu invited Lin Weimin over, saying that he wanted to discuss the future development under the banyan tree with him.It has been more than a year since the website moved to Yanjing. This year has also been a year of rapid development under the banyan tree. The number of registered users has increased from 10 to nearly 80. The results are gratifying.

It is a well-deserved elder brother in the field of domestic literary websites, but it is of no use.

Along with rapid development, hidden worries under the banyan tree also began to appear at this time.

As the website continues to develop, the company is burning money faster and faster. The company's basic operating expenses alone require 30 yuan per month. However, so far this year, Rongshuxia's income is only 15 yuan, with an average of 3 yuan. Every month, it is less than [-] yuan, which is one-tenth of the expenditure.

Nowadays, online literature is in the ascendant. Although Rongshuxia has 80 registered users on the Internet, its monetization channels are very single.

Due to the nature of the website, the number and price of advertisements they can receive now are relatively low.

With the support of the Chinese Literature Society for more than a year, the offline publishing channel has gone relatively smoothly, but publishing is of greater use to the author, and the help to the website is almost negligible.

During this period of time, Rongshuxia has been unable to make ends meet. The financing of the Chinese Literature Society has been exhausted this month, but Rongshuxia has not yet found a decent profit point.

William Zhu himself is rich, and he doesn’t mind burning some under the banyan tree, but now he doesn’t own the banyan tree after all, and besides, it’s always so hard to get in and out, so how much money he has is not enough for him to burn!

Lin Weimin fell into deep thought after listening to William Zhu's troubles.

In later generations, Banyan Tree developed extremely rapidly around 2000. In just a few years, the number of registered users exceeded the 450 million mark, making it the well-deserved No. [-] literary platform on the Chinese Internet at that time.

But behind the rapid development of the website, there are dangers.

Joint publishing, paper publishing, radio station cooperation, brand cooperation...

Under the banyan tree, I have tried many times to break through the predicament, but in the end I always found that this way is unreachable.

So in 2002, William Zhu had to sell the Banyan Tree to the Bertelsmann Group for a price of 1000 million meters.

In today's timeline, with the help of Guowen Group under the banyan tree, development is more rapid than in later generations, but the crisis has also arrived early.

If you can't find a suitable profit model, sooner or later there will be a day when you can't hold on under the banyan tree.

The development dilemma under the banyan tree is a problem for William Zhu, but it is not difficult for Lin Weimin, just like an open-book exam.

But he did not give advice to William Zhu. Guowen Group is still just a shareholder under the banyan tree.

"Let's do this. Our group will invest another sum of money in Banyan Tree."

Hearing Lin Weimin's words, Zhu William looked embarrassed.

Of course, Guowen Group's money is not free, which means that the shares under the banyan tree in his hands will inevitably be diluted.

It’s not a good feeling to end up with a website that I created only as a minority shareholder.

“Where’s the valuation?” William Zhu’s voice was dry.

"1200 yuan."

The valuation of 1200 million yuan has tripled compared to when Guowenshe first invested.

William Zhu looked hesitant, and his mood was contradictory at the moment.

On the one hand, the development momentum of Banyan Tree is rapid and the future seems bright. On the other hand, the website has not found a profit point so far, and all the good prospects look more like a mirage.

Observing William Zhu's expression, Lin Weimin said: "I can understand your mood, but you should also be aware of the problems faced by the banyan tree now. Before a clear profit model is found, this is a gold-eating beast. The only thing is to survive. First priority under the banyan tree.

If you are worried that your shareholding is too low, we can jointly contribute capital.

If you don’t want to invest any more money into the website, we can also lend another sum of money to Banyan Tree to help it develop. "

At this point, Lin Weimin has already placed the answer in front of William Zhu, and it depends on how he chooses.

William Zhu's heart was in a mess at this time, and he was extremely entangled. He originally asked Lin Weimin for advice, but he didn't expect to have to face such a situation.

You have to bear risks when you invest money. If you don't invest money, your shares will be diluted. You cannot give up the money, otherwise the website will hardly be able to pay the salary next month.

"The valuation is 1500 million, raise 300 million, and lend us another 300 million." William Zhu said through gritted teeth.

Lin Weimin did not speak, but looked thoughtful, and William Zhu fell into anxiety.

He invited Lin Weimin to come today. He said he was asking for advice, but the most fundamental thing was to ask for help. However, he did not expect that Lin Weimin blocked the option of voluntary help for him when he came up.

After some ideological struggle, he still chose financing. Now it depends on Lin Weimin's decision.

"Okay!" After pondering for a long time, Lin Weimin finally said.

The huge stone in Zhu William's heart fell to the ground. At this time, he had no time to think about the shares. As Lin Weimin said, surviving is the first priority under the banyan tree.

With this 600 million yuan, it won’t be a problem to stay under the banyan tree for another year or two. Maybe we will be able to find a profit model by then?
To take a step back, Guowen Group has become the major shareholder of Rongshuxia, and the risks he has to bear are also much smaller.

"Don't be too stressed. All domestic websites are now exploring ways to make profits, including Sohu. Now is the time for Banyan Tree to make big strides in development, so you can take your time to think about profitability."

After the financing was discussed, Lin Weimin comforted William Zhu a few words.

William Zhu nodded with a heavy expression, “That’s what you said.”

In the next two days, Chinese Publishing House officially signed an investment agreement with Rongshuxia, once again investing heavily in this gold-eating beast.

No matter in later generations or now, everyone under the banyan tree is a loser. Lin Weimin, who made the investment decision, knew this very well.

But for the Chinese Literature Society, it is an important tool that affects the field of domestic online literature. It is an indispensable piece of the Chinese Literature Society’s literary map. If you are able, you still have to grasp it in your own hands.

Besides, just because there is no way to make a profit for the time being does not mean that there will be no way to make a profit in the future. The premise is that Guowen Group must be the major shareholder.

(End of this chapter)