(Observer Network Text/Zhuang Yi) The rumors of the collective resignation of the executives of the Reading Group have finally landed.
On the evening of April 27, the Observer Network learned that Yuwen Group announced the adjustment of the management team, the current co-CEO Wu Wenhui and Liang Xiaodong, President Shang Xuesong, Senior Vice President Lin Tingfeng and other senior management team members retired and resigned from their current management positions, Wu Wenhui will be transferred to non-executive director and vice chairman of the board, Liang Xiaodong and other senior executives will serve as group consultants.
At the same time, the board of directors will appoint Cheng Wu, current vice president of Tencent Group and CEO of Tencent Pictures, as the CEO and executive director of Yuwen Group, and Hou Xiaonan, vice president of Tencent Platform and Content Business Group, will serve as the president and executive director of Yuwen Group.
In the media response, Yuwen said that Wu Wenhui led the core management team, not only based on the starting point Chinese network to create a business model, operation system and writer incubation system of online literature, but also achieved important milestones such as the company's IPO, the acquisition of Xinli Media and the establishment of a literary IP copyright system, laying a solid foundation for the development of Reading Group in the new era of cultural creation. With the in-depth development of the industry, the trend of online literature and digital content formats such as film and television, animation, and games to integrate high-quality IP and content ecology has become more and more significant, and online literature has entered a new stage of upgrading. In the process of promoting this, Wu Wenhui and some other senior management team members decided to retire together after completing the mission of the stage of the group's development.
According to public information, in October 2003, Wu Wenhui planned the first paid reading system in the online literature industry - the VIP payment system, which also made the starting point Chinese network become the leader of the online literature industry at that time, and the VIP payment system of online literature has been used to this day;
In 2013, Wu Wenhui led the main team of the starting point Chinese network to leave Shanda and established the Genesis Chinese Network, and then "Tencent Literature" appeared;
In 2014, Tencent acquired Shanda Literature;
In January 2015, Tencent Literature and Shanda Literature officially integrated to establish Reading Group;
On November 8, 2017, Reading Group successfully landed on the Hong Kong stock market, becoming the "first stock of Online Literature in China".
Wu Wenhui said in an internal email, "From the beginning of the Chinese network to today, we have completed the phased glorious mission of business model creation and integration of high-quality resources, next, Reading needs to hold an open and determined, through a more thorough management transformation, to promote Reading in business innovation, technological breakthroughs, IP construction, ecological construction and other aspects, to a new level." ”
Wu Wenhui Infographic
Cheng Wuze, who took over as CEO of Yuwen Group, said that the foreseeable upgrade includes three aspects: first, the internal strong core, to achieve the upgrading of IP cultivation capabilities, to consolidate its own foundation and accelerate cross-format development, and to promote the faster growth of IP; secondly, the robust platform, to achieve the upgrade of connectivity capabilities, by integrating Multiple Product Platforms under Yuwen and Tencent's rich product platforms and traffic advantages, to help creators and users establish a stronger connection bond; and finally, the outreach space, on the basis of maintaining and consolidating the existing paid reading model. Through the upgrading of business models, we will open up more diversified value space at the level of embracing new technologies and industrial Internet.
Cheng Wu Infographic
According to the reading, Cheng Wu joined Tencent in 2009 and is currently the vice president of Tencent Group and the CEO of Tencent Pictures, and is responsible for the marketing and public relations department of the group and the marketing department of Tencent Interactive Entertainment Group. In 2011, Cheng Wu initiated the "pan-entertainment strategy" with IP as the core in the industry, and with the strong support of Tencent, promoted the launch of new businesses such as online animation, online literature, film and television, and e-sports. In 2013, he and Wu Wenhui jointly promoted the establishment of Tencent Literature, serving as the chairman of Tencent Literature and the CEO of Tencent Literature respectively, and in March 2015, after the establishment of Reading Group, he served as a director, and had business linkage with Wu Wenhui and the management team. In April 2018, Cheng Wu further proposed the strategic concept of "new cultural creation" on the basis of the "pan-entertainment" strategy. At present, based on Tencent's positioning of "technology + culture", "new cultural creation" has become Tencent's core strategy in the cultural dimension.
Hou Xiaonan, who took over as the president of Yuwen Group, is currently the vice president of Tencent's platform and content business group, and holds management positions in Tencent Open Platform, Tencent Application Treasure, Tencent Creative Space, Qingteng University and Tencent Content Open Platform. According to Yuwen, he has extensive and in-depth management experience in product planning and operation, business model innovation, resource integration and ecosystem cooperation.
Turn the page to see the original text of Wu Wenhui, Cheng Wu, and Hou Xiaonan's internal emails
Attached: Wu Wenhui internal mail
Email Subject: Our New Beginnings A New Journey to Read Articles
Dear brothers and sisters who read the text,
This year, it is the 5th anniversary of the establishment of The Reading Group, and the 18th anniversary of the starting point Chinese Network, as the founder, it is like seeing your "child" finally come of age. At this moment, like many "parents", we must not only accompany the "child" to grow up together, but also take a step back in a timely manner, learn to let go, and let the "child" start a new life course. Therefore, I and several founding partners who have been side by side to the present have made a decision to continue to accompany The Reading in another way from today: I will be transferred to the vice chairman of the board of directors and non-executive directors, and I will also switch from management positions to group consultants with Xiaodong, Xuesong, Tingfeng and other senior management team members, and continue to support the development of Reading in a new capacity. Mr. Cheng Wu (Edward), who has co-founded Tencent Literature, is currently the vice president of Tencent Group and CEO of Tencent Pictures, and Mr. Hou Xiaonan (Monkey), vice president of Tencent Platform and Content Business Group, will serve as the CEO and president of Yuwen Group respectively, leading Yuwen and everyone to start a new journey.
In 2001, together with Xue Song, Ting Feng, Qingchen, Luo Li and several other friends who also loved online literature, I started from the forum and established the starting point Chinese network step by step, which has also become an important starting point for our important life journey. Since then, we have been driving and witnessing every step of the industry together.
At the earliest in the team, Xuesong and I were programmers, responsible for code farmers such as programming and technical maintenance, and Ting Feng, Qingchen, and Luo Li were responsible for discovering more excellent authors by virtue of their fame in the online literary circle. Later, we got to know Xiaodong, Zhu Jing, Zhu Jia and more and more partners and friends, and with everyone's trust and support, together with millions of literary creators and hundreds of millions of online literature lovers, we worked together to develop China's online literature into a world-leading cultural and creative industry and cultural phenomenon.
More than a decade ago, it may be difficult for us to imagine that online literature would develop to where it is today. However, we have successfully created the business model, operating system and copyright expansion mechanism of online literature from scratch, especially laying the far-reaching basic business rules such as paid reading, laying the cornerstone of the development of the entire industry. Everyone's pure original intention and unremitting efforts have stimulated the enthusiasm and potential of more and more creators, literary lovers and industry partners, brought together their love, talent and dedication, sent out unprecedented light and heat, and promoted the industry from the niche to the public, and has greater energy and new possibilities. From our platform, countless outstanding writers have emerged, and countless imaginative and infectious stories have been born, and it is they who bring continuous companionship and unspeakable emotional comfort to users.
Not only that, we also see that the value of high-quality literary works has lasted for a long time, and the film, television, animation and game works created with this as the source of IP have emerged in an endless stream, affecting generations of people; and the new business environment and technological revolution are also slowly opening up new doors for our development.
After years of deep cultivation and cultivation, Yuwen Group has a perfect creative ecology and high-quality content reserves, and has become an important IP source for the entire digital content industry. Facing the future, the development of online literature is nurturing new industrial possibilities, and it is urgent to lead the industry to further build a more open ecology and new business rules that are more in line with future trends based on IP. This is a new journey, for me and the founding team, from the beginning of the Chinese network to today, we have completed the business model creation and high-quality resource integration of the stage of glorious mission, next, reading text needs to hold an open and determined, through a more thorough management transformation, to promote reading in business innovation, technological breakthroughs, IP construction, ecological construction and other aspects, to a new level.
Therefore, we need a new management team and collaboration model to better strengthen the linkage between online literature and Tencent's digital content businesses such as online animation, film and television, games, and e-sports, and to cooperate more widely with the industry to further stimulate the potential energy of online literature ecology and high-quality IP. Next, I and some of the founding executives will take the initiative to retreat behind the scenes and hand over the future development of Reading to Edward and Monkey, believing that they will definitely lead Reading to more deeply link Tencent's new cultural and creative ecology, promote the technological reform and business innovation of Reading, and make the ecology of Reading bloom with greater energy and value.
Edward is an old friend and partner of mine. As science and engineering graduates, Edward and I have always had the same love for cultural content, including literature. As far as I know, Edward himself is a book fan, and he has been chasing "Qing Yu Nian" for more than ten years. Because of our love, but also because of our consistent understanding and vision of the industry, we have been a good partner and good friend for many years. In the establishment of Tencent Literature, the acquisition and merger of Shanda Literature, and the establishment and listing of Reading Group, Edward has always given me very strong support, at the same time, Edward's pan-entertainment and new cultural and creative thinking and strategic execution, whether it is for the organic linkage of Reading and Tencent's overall business, or for the transformation of the industry, have played a key role in promoting, "Qing Yu Nian" and other excellent cases are the results of co-creation and close collaboration. The new president, Monkey, also has rich management experience in product operation, business model innovation and ecological cooperation. Therefore, I believe that under the leadership of the two, Reading Group will definitely have more possibilities and a better future.
For reading, my long-standing ideal is to let anyone find their favorite literary genre on the platform of Reading Group, and maximize the promotion of content creation in various themes and forms, in the future, as vice chairman, I will continue to help the smooth transition of the management team, and I will always do my best to support the development of reading and be with everyone!
At the same time, as everyone knows, for me personally, I have always had an ideal, that is, after "retirement", find a quiet reading by the sea. Now, I feel closer to this ideal, and I am full of expectations for my future life.
Thank you to all your brothers and sisters, and thank you to all the author friends and industry partners for their continued support and trust, and to be able to work with you to this day. After years of deep cultivation and cultivation, Yuwen Group has a perfect creative ecology and high-quality content reserves, and has become an important IP source for the entire digital content industry. Since the beginning of this year, the company's overall business is also growing healthily! I hope that under the leadership of the new management team, we will continue to maintain our original intention, continue to explore and innovate, and create a better tomorrow for online literature together!
Heart of Darkness Wu Wenhui
April 27, 2020
Cheng Wu internal email: (Reply to Wu Wenhui)
Email Subject: With the hope of upgrading the reading, continue to move towards the future
Thanks Wenhui! Thank you to Xiaodong, Xuesong, Ting Feng and other founding senior management teams and all the reading partners for their hard work and everything they have created for Reading!
Wen Hui's letter reminds me of the many bits and pieces we have experienced together in the past seven years. I remember that at the beginning, when I invited Wenhui and the team to join Tencent on behalf of the company, what touched me the most was the pure love and persistence of everyone for the literary cause. At that time, the idea of pan-entertainment had just been proposed, the business matrix was still under construction, and as a fan of many years of catty books, the idea of starting Tencent Literature at that time was also very pure, so we both joked that this was the pursuit of literary dreams by two polytechnic men. Although we didn't know where the future would go, we began our journey from then on, from the creation of the Chinese online, to the establishment of Tencent Literature, to the establishment of the Reading Group, together witnessed many important moments of the growth of the literary business.
Today, under the leadership of Wenhui and the efforts of the team, many of the original ideas have become a reality one by one: today's Reading has not only grown into a leading digital reading platform and a literary IP cultivation platform, with as many as 8.1 million creators, 12.2 million works reserves, reaching hundreds of millions of users; it has successfully achieved one important milestone after another such as the company's IPO, the acquisition of Xinli Media and the establishment of a literary IP copyright system, which has laid a solid foundation for our development in the new era of cultural creation.
Behind these data are the talents, sweat and dreams of countless creators. From the earliest starting point Chinese.com to the current Reading Group, Wenhui and the team have made a large number of pioneering explorations and attempts in the business model, talent cultivation, copyright mechanism and online literature going to sea. Today's online literature, as a unique cultural phenomenon in China, has not only become the most important SOURCE of IP for film and television drama adaptation, but also shows the global cultural universality and rapid development trend, has more and more readers in the world, and has become one of the important carriers for telling and transmitting "Chinese stories".
In the era of new cultural creation, online literature has begun to show the value and possibility beyond words. Just now Wenhui also said that the new business environment and technological revolution are opening up a new door for our development. Facing the future, Yuwen also has a very good foundation and opportunities to upgrade and build a content ecology with more IP cultivation capabilities, more openness, and more able to lead future business trends. In advancing this process, Wenhui and the founding team showed an admirable mindset, passed the baton to the new management team, and will continue to support the development of Reading.
Monkey and I are very grateful to Wenhui and the founding team for their trust, as well as the strong support of the Group Board. The heavy responsibility is on the shoulders, and only by studying modestly, uniting as one, and forging ahead courageously can we live up to the trust. We are also confident to continue to promote the upgrading of reading from "the largest industry genuine digital reading and literary IP cultivation platform" to a new stage of "stronger literary content ecology". Now, we are standing at an important historical juncture in the development of reading to foresee the prospects of opportunities in the future:
First of all, it is the internal strong core to achieve the upgrading of IP cultivation capabilities. Can we consolidate our core ability to build a literary IP, attract more new creators to join through the improvement of platform and ecological capabilities, stimulate the enthusiasm of high-quality creators, and then attract more new users? I believe that the two-way connection between creators and readers will surely make Reading Continue to lead in incubation IP. At present, literary IP has become the source of new cultural and creative original IP, and I will do my best to further promote the synergy between Yuwen, Xinli and the film industry, animation and games, give play to the value of film and television as an IP super amplifier, and promote the cross-field development of literary IP.
Secondly, it is a robust platform that realizes the upgrade of connectivity. Can we help creators and users build stronger connections by integrating Tencent's rich product platforms and traffic advantages? Yuwen has many leading reading products and platforms, and Tencent has a rich digital content format and social and content products that reach hundreds of millions of users, covering many aspects from WeChat, QQ, QQ Reading and WeChat Reading, Animation, Long and Short Videos, Information and Information Flow, and Game Matrix. High-quality content and content platforms are like "magnets and amplifiers", and the virtuous circle of each other will surely create greater value for users.
Third, it is the outreach space to explore the upgrading of the business model on the basis of maintaining and consolidating the existing paid reading model. Business innovation, embracing new technologies and the industrial Internet level will open up more diversified value space for us. Can we leverage the technical advantages of massive content and intelligent recommendation on the basis of the current reading methods and business models to attract new users and make them grow into deep reading users? At the same time, I also believe that IP not only has great value in the field of digital content, but also has unlimited potential in commodity development and industrial Internet such as cultural tourism. Tencent has participated in the creation of cultural tourism IP projects in Yunnan Province through games, animation, and film, and has also had rich experience in cooperation with super cultural and bo IP. New technologies such as 5G and AI have opened up the space for imagination, can we carry out more exploration in the direction of intelligent recommendation of works, dubbing of text combined with audio and video technology, and short video creation?
And the most important thing about the realization of all this is people. It is our own continuous specialization, as well as the attention and value recognition of the creative community, and the extensive links to partners that have achieved each other and formed a vibrant online literature ecology. In the future, we will still take creator services as the core, focus on strengthening partnerships and building an open content cooperation platform, and always think about the evolution direction of the business around the reader experience and user value.
The future can be expected, and the most important thing at the moment is to quickly integrate into the team and work of the reading text. As the saying goes, whether a thing can be done well depends on "the time, place, and people.". We not only have the "tianshi" of the rapid development of the mobile Internet and digital content industry and the "geographical advantage" of the new cultural and creative ecology, but more importantly, there are "people" who are united and trust each other. Here, I would also like to thank Wenhui once again for continuing to serve as vice chairman of the board of directors and non-executive director, and to serve as a group advisor together with founding members such as Xiaodong, Xuesong and Tingfeng to continue to support the smooth transition of the management team and the future development of the company.
At the same time, I am very happy to be able to become a closer working partner with Xinli Media and Mr. Cao. Lao Cao and I were very good friends a long time ago. Xinli has become one of the most important strategic partners of Tencent Pictures before it was incorporated into the reading text, and everyone has overcome various difficulties together to create a phenomenon-level work like "Qing Yu Nian". Xinli has a distinct benchmarking role in the entire film and television industry in China, and is looking forward to continuing to work side by side with Lao Cao. I believe that in the future, Xinli will definitely create more excitement for Reading, For Tencent's new cultural and creative ecology and even for the entire Chinese entertainment industry.
In addition, I am very happy that Monkey can join the new management team with me. Monkey has many years of management experience in Tencent, and has held management positions in many businesses such as mobile QQ, QQ Space, Tencent Open Platform, Tencent Application Treasure, Tencent Maker Space, Qingteng University and Tencent Content Open Platform, and has rich management experience in product operation, business model innovation and ecological cooperation. I believe that these experiences are also very valuable for the future upgrading and development of Reading.
The common belief and original intention have led us to come together, and there are countless creators and industry partners who share the same belief and original intention. We cherish every god, creator and partner, who, like everyone else, is the most valuable asset of the reading and even the entire online literature industry. I hope that we can live up to every creative talent and entrust every literary dream.
Technology continues to iterate, but those touching IP is unique and has become the common spiritual wealth of mankind. Behind the IP is people, warm hearts and humanity, and beautiful stories and emotions. Our cause is to bring more beauty, warmth and emotion to the world. I look forward to working with you, with the trust and hope of the founding team, with the love of literature, the expectation of new cultural creation and the ambition of China's cultural industry, with the sail of new culture and creativity and the wind of new technology, continue to march towards a better future!
Edward
2020/4/27
Hou Xiaonan Internal Mail :
Email Subject: Start a new journey together
I was deeply touched by Wenhui's original intentions, Edward's ambitions, and their trust and expectation for all team members.
Here, I would like to thank the Board of Directors of Reading and Edward for giving me such an opportunity to join the reading family and start a new journey with all my friends.
The "family" needs to know more about each other, and I will add some introductions about ourselves. In ten years of Tencent, I have been engaged in management work in a number of businesses, and have been responsible for the construction of Tencent's open ecosystem and related strategy implementation, founding projects including Qingteng University, Co-working Space, Tencent Interest Content Fund and Double Hundred Plan, and also responsible for the product platform construction and commercialization strategy of Tencent App Treasure. Since 2017, I have been mainly responsible for the construction of Tencent's content open platform, engaged in the system construction of products, technologies, operations, data, cooperation and other dimensions, and supported the digital content needs of Tencent's major platforms. Since 2019, he has been responsible for building Tencent's ecological strategic cooperation platform and strengthening strategic cooperative relations with major mobile phone manufacturers and major operators.
Looking back on these experiences, most of the jobs I have been involved in have been from scratch and have strong entrepreneurial attributes. Therefore, I will be more accustomed to looking at the possibilities of business development with a patient and open mind. Probably because of this entrepreneur mentality, on the one hand, I admire wenhui and the founding team's exploration and persistence in the past ten years - it is everyone's attempts and efforts in the business model, talent cultivation, copyright mechanism and online literature going to sea in online literature, which lays a very solid foundation for reading and even the entire industry; on the other hand, in the face of the new field of online literature, I am also ready to do systematic learning and practice with a humble and open mind, and look forward to my own product operation, Some experience in business model innovation and ecological cooperation is better combined with the work of reading, and together with everyone to promote the upgrading of reading from "the largest industry genuine digital reading and literary IP cultivation platform" to "a stronger literary content ecology".
As Edward said, today we are standing at an important historical intersection of the development of reading, and new cultural creation, new technologies and new business models are opening the prelude to a new era. Facing the future, I look forward to working with you to embrace the changes in technology, market and business environment with an open mind, an open vision and an open mind, and explore more new possibilities together. At the same time, I hope that everyone can maintain a strong sense of ownership, reach a deeper connection with our creator groups, readers and partners in various fields, and strive to build a more prosperous reading content ecology!
Looking forward to in-depth exchanges with everyone, and looking forward to working with everyone in the coming days to create a better tomorrow for reading articles!
Your new partner, Monkey
2020.4.27
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