Chapter 52 Ma Huateng is proud of the gate of the rivers and lakes, blocking the way and killing

Major sports events, for the helm of many portals, are not only an opportunity to train troops and increase their influence, but also mean real money.After Sohu became the exclusive Internet sponsor of the Olympic Games, Zhang Chaoyang's high-profile seemed to make Ma Huateng, Ding Lei, and Chen Tong somewhat annoyed. Just as the event was held, the three of them shook hands and cooperated very rarely, smashing Zhang Chaoyang's "exclusive" privilege step by step. Ma Huateng blocked the way in the battle to share the profits of the Olympics, which put Zhang Chaoyang's promise of "60 seconds faster than any website" into a dilemma.Olympic coverage is a battle among Internet portals, and this campaign has assembled many top-level personalities from domestic Internet portals.

In mid-July 2008, the three major domestic portals Sina, NetEase and Tencent launched an Olympic reporting attack on Sohu, and signed a contract with CCTV, the official new media broadcast organization of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, to obtain the Internet broadcast authorization of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.The CEOs of Sina, Tencent, and Netease Cao Guowei, Ma Huateng, and Ding Lei all appeared at the press conference, and signed an Olympic video licensing agreement with CCTV International General Manager Wang Wenbin on the spot, announcing that the three major portals have obtained all video licensing for the opening ceremony, closing ceremony, and key events. .Before June 15, Sohu first signed a contract with CCTV.Afterwards, Zhang Chaoyang announced in a high-profile manner that Sohu has the exclusive right to broadcast video. Sohu will have a total length of 3,800 hours of Olympic video content, including 2,500 hours of Olympic game video content, which will be jointly produced and broadcast exclusively by Sohu and CCTV. .In addition, Zhang Chaoyang also said that Sohu's technical system has been directly connected with the Olympic scoring system and the Olympic News Service (ONS), which can ensure that "the live broadcast content is at least 60 seconds ahead of other websites" in reporting the score.

"The content authorized by the three major portals this time will be no less than any other Internet site." Chen Tong said this, which was considered to be a response to Zhang Chaoyang's exclusive remarks.This incident is another confrontation between Sohu and several major portals regarding the Olympic monopoly resources before the Olympics. In July 2007, Zhang Chaoyang publicly declared that the partners and sponsors of the Olympic Games can only place advertisements on Sohu.com, while advertising on other websites cannot use any logos and brands related to the Olympic Games.Soon, Sina, NetEase and Tencent announced in Beijing the establishment of the "Olympic Reporting Alliance", and will jointly build an Olympic reporting team, share Olympic reporting and interview resources, and jointly build an Olympic advertising and marketing platform.

In the past ten years, Sina's top management has changed, but the boss of the portal has not changed.For Zhang Chaoyang, the veteran Sohu will always be the second symbol of China's Internet. Because of the existence of Sina, the number one portal, Zhang Chaoyang has the title of "the second in a thousand years". Relying on the contribution of online games to the financial report, Sohu's revenue in the second fiscal quarter of 2008 was 102 million US dollars, becoming the first "100 million portal". "Our opponent is Sina, surpassing Sina is a very proud thing, very very proud." Zhang Chaoyang told the media.Sina does not seem to recognize Sohu's portal "boss" status, Sina insiders told reporters that portals should mainly look at advertising indicators.

Statistics show that in the second quarter of 2008, Sohu's total online advertising reached US$43.4 million, with a growth rate of 40%, but failed to surpass Sina's total amount of US$47.8 million and 51% growth rate in the first quarter of the off-season advertising.The competition between Sina and Sohu has a long history, and this war for eyeballs has been going on for several years.The core of portal competition is information competition, and the main battlefield is news. Sohu's becoming an Olympic sponsor has always been regarded by Zhang Chaoyang as the best opportunity to surpass Sina.Sohu's sponsorship of Internet content services for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was called by Zhang Chaoyang "the happiest thing in the past ten years".At that time, Sohu's press release had a description that "Sohu will create the No. 1 portal website in Chinese that is far ahead of its peers." Zhang Chaoyang believed that from this day on, the pattern of portal websites would change.In fact, what does being a sponsor mean to Zhang Chaoyang? What does it mean to Zhang Chaoyang's competitors?

As we all know, Sohu.com is the exclusive online sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and the first Internet Olympic sponsor.The official website of the Beijing Olympic Games is hosted by Sohu. Sohu has the right to use or participate in all related rights and interests such as the Olympic LOGO, songs, mascot logos and cultural theme activities, and will also receive courtesy packages, such as certain tickets, certificates and interviews. rights etc.In addition, Sohu can also use the content of its own copyright on the official website of the Olympic Games. These seem to be regarded as the various advantages that the Olympics brought to Zhang Chaoyang to change the "second child in a thousand years".But Zhang Chaoyang faced not only Sina, but also Ma Huateng who blocked the way, and Tencent soon ranked first in the traffic of Chinese portal websites.Tencent released its coverage strategy for the 2008 Olympic Games, with the slogan "2008, your online home stadium".It is reported that Ma Huateng has issued a military order internally: Tencent.com will strive for the number one traffic in Olympic coverage.Tencent's internal staff also revealed here that Ma Huateng personally supervised Tencent's Olympic coverage.

It is said that it only takes 30 seconds for QQ Olympic news to be pushed to the desktops of 300 million QQ users. At present, the company has invested hundreds of millions of yuan in adding new servers as a guarantee. "As long as you are on QQ, you must be the person who knew the first gold medal in China." Ma Huateng said.Tencent's move put Zhang Chaoyang's promise of "60 seconds faster than any website" into a dilemma.The smell of gunpowder in the Olympic video competition was so strong that the industry felt suffocated before the game. The opportunity of the Olympic Games, the dispute between the Internet portals highlights the position of the competition, and behind it, there are interests at stake.An Olympic war among portal websites has heated up.Chen Tong, executive vice president of Sina and editor-in-chief of Sina.com, said that Sina will invest millions of dollars in video broadcasting for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. "We estimate that 10 million to 20 million Chinese Internet users will watch the Olympic games through streaming video at the same time. We will invest tens of millions of yuan to upgrade the bandwidth to meet the needs of users." Ding Lei, who is an ally of Sina Not idle either.It is rumored that Ding Lei paid special attention to Olympic reports, and personally asked about the progress and preparations of Olympic events many times.Colleagues from the Netease Olympic Channel recalled that Ding Lei had stated internally that he would resolutely invest in the construction of Olympic content as long as it can meet the needs of users, and he will not be stingy.

And Ma Huateng's emphasis on Olympic news reports is no less than that of Ding Lei.He said, "If you do it, you may not be the best, but if you don't do it, there will be deficiencies." Facing the strong attack of several major websites, Sohu's advantage does not seem to be obvious.Industry insiders told reporters that, in fact, what Sohu has left is "the only real-time tracking of the torch relay and the sole construction of the official website of the 29th Olympic Games." Moreover, these two points are not advantages at all. In the field of brand advertising revenue, the gap between Sohu, the Olympic partner, and Sina is still quite large.According to Sohu's financial report for the second quarter of 2008, its advertising revenue was US$41.7 million.According to Sina's financial report for the second quarter of that year, its advertising revenue was US$64.9 million, a difference of more than US$20 million.

However, Zhang Chaoyang said that Sohu does not value the income during the Olympic Games. "What I am most concerned about is that Sohu can gain the promotion of the Sohu brand and the switching of users through the Olympic Games, and establish Sohu as the number one portal." Xie Wen, a well-known Internet expert and CEO of Yiyi.com, said that hand-to-hand combat between several major portals is inevitable. It will change the current pattern of the portal, and it will have no impact. What will have an impact on the portal is the innovative service model.