Half a year ago, I met a freshman at Peking University, I interned in an investment company during the summer vacation of my first year, I am a Beijing native, not afraid of involvement, diligent and simple, I was surprised that he was a fan of Li Bai, "It must be a heavenly immortal who is drunk and crumples the white clouds", he took the last six words as his WeChat name. Today's young people may not be able to remember Li Shimin, and they don't know why they launched the Xuanwu Gate Change, and how they opened the rule of Zhenguan, but they like Li Bai and can chant "Will Enter Wine".
The Tang Dynasty, when Chang'an was as famous as Paris and today's New York, was one of only three true world centers in human history. But the heyday of the Great Tang Dynasty has been in ashes for more than a thousand years, and today it is necessary to pass Li Bai's poems to make people worry about it. The Great Tang civilization is like an operating system, holding up an immortal soul for a lifetime. The Great Tang civilization is like a strong father, struggling in the water, and before finally sinking to the bottom, he exerted all his strength to lift a newborn baby ashore, this baby is Li Bai, who wrote poetry.
As long as the poem of the Yellow Crane Tower is there, the Yellow Crane Tower is there. As long as Li Bai's poems are there, the Great Tang is there. The so-called poetry is the soul of the times, and the poet is the person who can shout out the soul.
When browsing the subtitles of "Chang'an 30,000 Li", I suddenly found that there was a screenwriter named Wang Wei, this person is the founder of Tudou.com and the founder of chasing light animation, "Chang'an 30,000 Li" is a work of chasing light animation, and his founder, in this work, plays the role of a screenwriter, a storyteller.
In 2012, Tudou.com and Youku.com, the top two online video companies, merged, and one listed Internet company acquired another listed company, the first time in China. At that much-anticipated ceremony, Wang Wei and Gu Yongqiao sat on the stage, facing the public in almost the same sitting position, representing a close merger. Even people who don't know the inside but are sensitive enough can read the ending from the smiles of the two, Gu Yongqiao laughs heartily, although with cunning, while Wang smiles restrainedly, although still sincere. Apparently Koo Yongcheng won.
When Tudou was released, there was no YouTube, and Wang Wei was the pioneer of video sharing. But in 2012, Tudou lost to Youku in every metric. Tudou is 10 months behind the listing, less revenue, more losses, market share is a lot worse, the market value is only 1/4 of the opponent, cash can not last a year, and Gu Yongming's shares in Youku are more than 40%, absolutely control, Wang Wei's shares in Tudou are below 10%, although there is a veto, is already alone.
My old colleague Lei Xiaoyu wrote a "Showdown between Poet and Banker" at the time, and history has been frozen since then, and no second pen can overturn and rewrite this history. In the confrontation between private and bankers, in the commercial battlefield, victory or defeat is certain. Unless the poet can fight back on another battlefield, unless we look at this duel in another dimension.
Wang Wei turned out to be a poet, and indeed he was a poet. After the college entrance examination, he wandered the streets, suddenly wanted to go to another country to start over, afraid that he would not get a visa, and he also thought about squatting in a container and crossing the sea. Even when he was a businessman, he spent a lot of time writing screenplays, rehearsing plays, going to Spain to learn guitar, climbing Kilimanjaro, and once wanted to buy 100 hectares of wasteland in New Zealand. When the bell rang in New York, he went to visit his mentor who had studied in the United States, and this Jew first made Wang Wei think about "the meaning of life", when the teacher repeated the old story, "If you just do a big business, life will be boring." ”
In the last two years of potatoes, Wang Wei had no happiness, only pain, no product innovation but capital games, and he didn't love the industry anymore. The dream is gone, only silent persistence remains, and going public is to complete the responsibility. He also doesn't like Gu Yongming, and if he wants to sell it, he doesn't want to sell it to Youku, Tencent and Sina are better. Before ringing the bell, he told reporters, "I have not found meaning in life." He once wanted to portray a man who was experiencing a midlife crisis, and there was a lover outside, and suddenly felt that the previous ones were not important, and he wanted to throw away his wife and want to destroy his world.
Zhang Suyang of IDG, a first-round investor in Tudou, said that the reason for his vote for Wang Wei was that "he is not looking for a company, he is looking for himself, and this power from the heart is the most powerful." "But when the company can no longer carry itself, things change.
In the competition of business and business, Wang Wei will definitely lose, just like Li Bai must have a bumpy road. However, when he admitted defeat, Wang Wei had already decided to fight back, just like Li Bai when he was angry, he put his blood full of blood on wine and poetry. Wang Wei finally sank his heart, picked up a pen, and worked hard for ten years, achieving a "Chang'an 30,000 Li". Without Shitu's resentment, there would be no "Will Enter Wine". If there is no commercial failure, it will not inspire Wang Wei. He knew that he could not be a businessman who did not spare any plans, so he decided to release the hot soul.
Life must be proud, and I am born to be useful.
Bankers will definitely win. Youku came out later than Tudou, but Koo has the perfect business background, bordering on cold shrewd calculations. Complete talent structure, financing closely coordinated with the plan, more copyright and bandwidth, higher efficiency and more traffic, these coordinated growth flywheels once turned, gradually strangled the first mover potatoes.
But the bankers didn't win all the time. There is no coldest business machine, only a colder business machine. At the moment when Youku defeated potatoes and bankers defeated poets, BAT's determination to enter the field was even stronger, since this is a cold calculation and a rigorous march, not about innovation or mutation, then BAT's iron hoof can be flattened. Many years after Youku was taken down by Ali and Gu Yongcheng retired, BAT did not win a complete victory today, and their rivers and mountains were intercepted by short videos.
All emperors and bankers are consumables of civilization, and civilization is a consumable of poets. With the anger of being defeated, the perception of life, a fallen poet, found his destined battlefield.
Gu Yongcheng was Wang Wei's nobleman, and the banker helped the poet end an impossible war and gave him anger and freedom at the same time, but the banker himself put on red dancing shoes and had to keep dancing without an end. What Wang Wei lost is not so important, what Gu Yongqiao won is not so important, and it can only be picked up again because of losing, which may be very important.
Tudou's slogan is, "Everyone is the director of life", and the poet's original intention was to let people share their creations, but they used it to watch pirated film and television dramas. This is the war that the poet is destined to lose, and this is not his original intention. Today's short video is really realized, everyone is the director of life. But the realization of this original intention has paid a heavy price, most people just want to attract attention by any means, brainwash more people, demagogue more people, and sell more three-nil products. When everyone becomes a director, the result is a carnival of poisoning each other, with only a few people stimulated by creativity and most locked in cocoons by algorithms.
From Tudou.com to "Chang'an 30,000 Li", it is a change in world view. Do not make tools, but awaken people's hearts. Tools give freedom, and freedom urges depravity. In turn, use tools to make a good content, point directly to people's hearts, and penetrate time and space. In another 1,000 years, Tudou Youku short videos will already fall apart like the former Tang Dynasty, but people at that time should still read Li Bai's poems, Su Dongpo's words, Cao Xueqin's novels, and maybe a "Chang'an 30,000 Li".
All people are consumables of algorithms, and algorithms are consumables of civilization, and civilization is consumables of the soul.
Screenwriter Wang Wei said, "The work is different from the company, the essence of the company is to survive, grow, and then it will be gone." If the work has vitality, it may be seen year by year. I didn't find meaning in my life before going public, but now I clearly feel that it is very meaningful. I would imagine one day sitting in front of the big screen with my son watching our movie together. He's going to laugh and we can talk about some issues, and we can look at it again when we're 5 or 8. This is completely different from potatoes, and I can't explain to him what potatoes are, not to mention that they have grown into completely different shapes now. ”
Lin Yifu said that the masters of economics in the 21st century must come from China. It is not economics that breeds prosperity, but prosperity that inspires economics. Before art nourishes life, life first inspires art. History proves that Smith, Keynes and Friedman were born in the largest economies of their time. Because doctrine provides causal explanations of reality, where the greatest volume is, where the greatest growth and transformation are, the most powerful explanation is where the master comes from.
Who wrote history for 10,000 years. I look forward to Wang Wei's next play, called "Kongqiu and Socrates", or "Shakya and Jesus", since it tells stories, then tell the best stories, and if you want to awaken the soul, call the greatest soul. Today we are not satisfied with telling our own old stories from 1,000 years ago, but dare to tell today's stories, as well as the overall and ultimate story of mankind.
Sell with Er.