Rebirth of the Wild Age

On December 1, 2004, the revision of Sohu Broadband was completed, and users can upload videos independently. Sina followed suit and launched Sina Broadband, but there is no user upload function for the time being.

Why Sohu Broadband and Sina Broadband instead of Sohu Video and Sina Video?

Broadband means broadband in Wanwan, but in mainland China, the real meaning of broadband is broadband Internet video. Sohu named its video website Sohu Broadband, which is tantamount to telling netizens that my videos play very smoothly. After all, broadband is synonymous with speed at this time.

The first broadband website in China is not Sohu or Sina, but 21, one of the top ten portal websites.

21 is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Telecom. It has been a video website for more than a year, and there is no free content, all of which require users to pay for video. In the era when pirated video resources are flying everywhere, there seems to be no market for this model, but people's video pay-on-demand has reached nearly 5 million times. Although they don't make much money, they don't lose much money.

At this time, the general manager of Tencent's public relations will be poached next year to serve as the marketing director of 21, responsible for brand planning and market operations, and later promoted to the vice president of 21. I don’t know if he regretted the job-hopping this time. Anyway, there is no news of this person after 2007. If he stays in Tencent, he may have the opportunity to become a vice president.

In addition to the three large portals, Sohu, Sina, and 21, which have successively launched video websites, there are actually some informal small video websites.

This small-scale video website, also known as dv video website, is similar to a community forum.

The first dv video website is called Three Cups of Water, and its full name is Three Cups of Water dv Culture Network. It was created by a few Fengtian college students and gathered a large group of dv enthusiasts. Everyone uses DV to shoot movies, and then uses VideoStudio to make videos, and then uploads them to the website to share with friends.

These folk dv enthusiasts all have a heart to be a great director. In 2004, there was an old man who spent tens of thousands of dollars from his father to shoot a dv movie and upload it to Three Cups of Water. It was not for money or fame, but for the heartfelt praise of netizens.

On the day Sohu Broadband went online, Sohu announced a video call for activity We are all great directors!

There is no time limit and genre, as long as the film you make does not violate national laws and public morals, you can upload it to Sohu Broadband to participate in the competition. The activity will last for three months, and the first prize, second prize, third prize and excellence award will be determined by voting by netizens. The highest bonus is 100,000 yuan and the lowest is 1,000 yuan. Sohu eo Mr. Zhang Chaoyang will personally issue certificates and bonuses to the winners.

The event launched by Sohu is still very eye-catching, especially on the DV video network like Three Cups of Water, DV lovers simply came out in droves, and all picked up their DVs and ran to shoot movies. Including the webmasters of these websites, they all planned to sign up for the competition, resulting in no one to maintain and manage the websites. When Sohu's activities are over, these websites are about to be shut down. Anyway, users have gone to Sohu, and even the webmaster has become a well-known video author of Sohu Broadband.

So Sohu Video received the first advertising list for DJI aerial photography drone.

Tangchen Golf Course, Song Weiyang held the remote control in his hand, looked up at the drone in the sky, and asked quite speechlessly, Why is there no video transmission system?

Do you think the remote control in your hand can receive images from high altitude? Guo Bing asked back.

Song Weiyang said, The images cannot be transmitted to the ground in real time, so how can you confirm that the images captured by the drone are what the user wants?

Guo Bing said, Based on personal feeling, if it doesn't work the first time, I will do it a second time.

That's useless! Song Weiyang said.

Guo Bing said, It's useful. It's more convenient and cheaper than renting a helicopter for aerial photography.

Song Weiyang suddenly smiled bitterly and said, I gave you 5 million before and after, so you just make this product for me?

It's amazing, alright? Guo Bing said, After half a year of experiments, I successfully connected the gimbal to the motor, which not only reduces weight, but also saves costs. It is a very big initiative, so far I have sold two units!

You are such a genius. Song Weiyang couldn't laugh or cry. It took nearly two years to invest 5 million yuan, and the product was put on the market for three months, with sales of only more than 70,000 yuan (each drone costs 360,000 yuan).

Guo Bing said, Although this is not the most advanced in the world, it is definitely the most practical consumer aerial photography drone in the world. And the flight control system I made is also very stable. The company came, and others gave up the work of the research institute because of this.

If you say yes, then go for it, keep working hard! Song Weiyang said, patting him on the shoulder.

Guo Bing spread his hands and said, I have no money.

No more money? Song Weiyang asked back.

I still had some money, but I spent 100,000 on Sohu's advertisement, and the remaining money is only enough to pay my salary next month. Guo Bing said sternly.

Song Weiyang said cheerfully, You are here to collect debts, so I will give you another 3 million from the head office.

In today's consumer drone aerial photography field, drones and cameras are separate, requiring users to purchase them separately and then assemble them by themselves. Even the gimbal used to stabilize the picture needs to be purchased from a third-party company, and then DIY installed on it. The gopro, which specializes in sports cameras, just launched its first film camera this year, and it will take two years for sports digital cameras to come out.

To put it bluntly, those who play drone aerial photography these days are a bunch of thieves and rich technical nerds.

DJI drones (including digital cameras) priced at 360,000 yuan are already sold very cheaply. Other drones (excluding shooting equipment) cost tens of thousands of yuan, and those that are a little better will sell. More than 100,000. Because the current mainstream is monoplane drones, the manufacturing cost is very expensive.

The reason why monoplane UAVs that are expensive and difficult to operate will become the mainstream is because this kind of UAV is more powerful and can carry heavier things into the sky. However, the current high-end camera equipment is very heavy. Most of the cameras that can be used for high-altitude shooting cannot be carried by multi-rotor drones. Even if they are carried into the sky, they are easy to lose control.

Guo Bing took the lead in developing this quadrotor DJI drone, which uses the most portable digital camera at present, at the expense of slightly blurred pictures.

Not to mention, there is really Kaizi who spent 360,000 yuan to buy this thing after seeing the advertisement of DJI drones in order to participate in the Sohu video event. Then these Kaizi complained about the poor quality of the shooting, while bragging about how convenient and practical DJI drones are, they were both painful and happy.

It’s practical, the pictures can’t be passed down. When taking aerial photography, it all depends on experience and feeling. It often takes more than ten times to take pictures repeatedly to be satisfied.

After more than a year, DJI sold more than 30 drones, with sales of only 1 million yuan, while Song Weiyang's investment in this was as high as 8 million yuan. Many employees of DJI ran away because they felt that there was no future in staying, and only a few students were left to continue playing with Guo Bing.

Before the development of image transmission technology matures, consumer aerial photography drones can only be regarded as toys, and they cannot expand the market size at all, and they will have to continue to lose money for many years. .