Liu Liang was quite certain that other streaming platforms would receive the same information around the same time: Mr. Pei’s Rabbit Tail streaming would not constitute direct competition with them.
After all, Liu Liang and these other streaming platforms were old rivals who knew each other well.
And based on Liu Liang’s understanding of Mr. Pei, this statement was most likely true.
Because Mr. Pei had always been forthright, primarily using open strategies in business and rarely employing deception against competitors.
Of course, sometimes Mr. Pei would tactically mislead competitors, but even then he wouldn’t deceive or lie. Instead, he would use more sophisticated methods, such as rhetoric and “partial truths” to divert his opponents’ attention elsewhere.
Liu Liang believed that other streaming platforms would likely relax and stop investigating further after hearing Mr. Pei’s statement.
Taking the words at face value, Rabbit Tail streaming seemed to be positioning itself as a knowledge streaming platform, similar to online courses.
If they were pursuing this model, it would be equivalent to entering the knowledge payment sector. For example, a professor’s series of courses might have the first half free and the second half paid, which could generate decent revenue if the audience was large enough.
Following this line of thinking, Rabbit Tail’s main competitors would be websites selling open courses and knowledge content, not other streaming platforms.
Liu Liang instinctively believed this interpretation.
But after long-term interactions with Zhang Yuan and hearing about some of Mr. Pei’s accomplishments, Liu Liang suddenly felt his analysis might be too superficial.
Although everything seemed perfectly reasonable, the fact that Mr. Pei’s behavior appeared so reasonable was itself the greatest unreasonableness!
Everyone knew that when Mr. Pei first entered a new field, he invariably made a series of unconventional moves. This was true whether it was food delivery, internet cafés, or gyms.
All of Mr. Pei’s business moves were unexpected yet logical. That is, his initial business actions in a new field seemed puzzling, but after the model proved successful, people would have sudden revelations.
In contrast, Mr. Pei’s entry into the streaming platform industry, while seemingly unexpected on the surface, hadn’t achieved that level of shock value.
Did this mean… that Mr. Pei’s true business model was still hidden beneath Rabbit Tail? Was Rabbit Tail’s current state merely a smokescreen?
The more Liu Liang thought about it, the more suspicious he became.
Other streaming platform executives definitely hadn’t thought as deeply as he had, but Liu Liang, possibly due to excessive work pressure, tended to overthink and dig deeper into matters.
But once he started thinking this way, he couldn’t stop!
“If Mr. Pei just wanted to create a knowledge payment platform, why did he specifically make it a streaming platform and name it XX Streaming? He could have easily created an open course platform with video collections like other websites!”
“Mr. Pei said he wouldn’t constitute direct competition with our platforms, so… does that imply he might constitute indirect competition?”
“Mr. Pei must have seen potential in the streaming platform industry to enter it. Simply creating a knowledge payment platform couldn’t be his ultimate goal, so what is his final objective?”
Liu Liang quickly opened Rabbit Tail’s website on his computer and studied it carefully.
The interface was very simple, and the streaming content was very limited. It looked like a platform that had just started, seemingly without many special features.
Suddenly, Liu Liang noticed something different: all broadcasters’ streaming rooms on Rabbit Tail were also their personal channels, meaning that live streams and videos appeared to be integrated into one system!
Although these broadcasters’ personal channels didn’t have any videos uploaded yet, with a bit of imagination, one could envision these channels filled with videos in the future.
Clearly, Mr. Pei’s Rabbit Tail wasn’t just a streaming platform; it was more like a combination of streaming and video platforms!
Compared to traditional streaming platforms, Rabbit Tail would have a wealth of content-rich, streamlined videos that, after screening, viewers could watch repeatedly.
Compared to traditional video platforms, Rabbit Tail’s video section was more concise, with content recommendations based on the live streams viewers had watched. Additionally, with streamers and content creators unified into one identity, viewer stickiness would increase more easily.
Considering the vast resources Tenda had at its disposal, once Rabbit Tail gained momentum, it might develop rapidly, snowballing into a force that could greatly impact all streaming platforms and even video websites like AiLiDao!
It’s worth noting that AiLiDao had only truly risen in the past two years. Mr. Pei had already created so many business opportunities—who’s to say he couldn’t overtake them from behind?
Liu Liang suddenly realized: “This vision is much more in line with Mr. Pei’s perspective!”
“Could it be that the future development trend Mr. Pei foresees is the integration of streaming platforms, video websites, and even short video platforms?”
“Is that why he’s aggressively entering the streaming circle?”
“At the same time, to appease us streaming platforms, Mr. Pei deliberately released false information, saying Rabbit Tail wouldn’t directly compete with us, making us lower our guard.”
“That statement is indeed true, but only for the early and middle stages! Once Rabbit Tail develops rapidly and reaches a certain scale, it will inevitably have a huge impact on all streaming platforms and even video websites. By then, even if Mr. Pei doesn’t intend to compete with us, we’ll definitely be in a bad position!”
Liu Liang grew increasingly anxious.
Although this idea seemed absurd, which of Mr. Pei’s previous moves wasn’t absurd?
The more absurd it seemed, the more likely it was something Mr. Pei would do!
Liu Liang had recently been extremely stressed about ZZ Streaming’s competition with other platforms, and his mindset was already unstable. How could he not overthink when Mr. Pei suddenly entered the fray?
“What should we do? We can’t just sit back and wait for our doom.”
“Hmm… why don’t we do the same thing!”
Liu Liang suddenly had an idea, a plan forming in his mind.
ZZ Streaming could implement this feature too!
It was simply a matter of transforming all streamers’ spaces into their personal channels on the existing platform, where they could update recordings of their streams!
This feature shouldn’t be too difficult to implement.
The only problem was that few people would watch mere recordings. After all, most streams were quite casual, not as concise as videos. The entertainment value would drop significantly in recorded form.
“Mr. Pei must have considered this issue. So, what would Mr. Pei do…”
“Employ a team of people specifically to edit videos for these streamers?”
“Yes, that’s probably it!”
It was unrealistic to expect streamers to edit their own videos, as they were busy streaming and most lacked good editing skills.
AI automatic editing? Technology hadn’t developed to that level yet, and probably wouldn’t in their lifetime.
So the only solution was to specifically recruit a team to help edit these videos.
But this approach involved a key issue: with so many streamers, even if they only provided dedicated editors for top streamers, it would still be a significant number. Paying each editor a few thousand yuan, and assuming they only provided dedicated editors for the top 100 streamers, would still cost hundreds of thousands every month. If they added performance bonuses, it would easily exceed a million.
After all, to get good results, they needed to spend money to find skilled editors. Such talented individuals had plenty of job options and generally commanded high salaries—it would definitely not be cheap to hire them.
But after some consideration, Liu Liang felt the expense was worthwhile.
Spending over a million yuan each month to bet on a future.
And not just any future, but the one Mr. Pei envisioned.
With this in mind, Liu Liang immediately called his staff and summoned them to his office.
“Develop a new feature, quickly!”
……
……
February 28, Tuesday.
Rabbit Tail Streaming.
Ma Yang was in a good mood.
Yesterday, Rabbit Tail released its promotional video and officially launched. From yesterday’s official launch until now, Rabbit Tail hadn’t experienced any lag or disconnection issues. Combined with the positive danmu atmosphere, the viewing experience was excellent.
Of course, this wasn’t surprising, considering they had spent a lot of money on bandwidth. The actual number of viewers was far below the website’s capacity limit—it would be bizarre if there were still lag issues.
Many streaming websites had made this mistake before: launching with great fanfare, having several newly poached popular streamers broadcast simultaneously to create an illusion of popularity, only to find that the sudden influx of viewers exceeded the website’s bandwidth, resulting in unbearable lag and unwatchable streams.
As a result, viewers who had been painstakingly attracted would leave in frustration, metaphorically spitting in disgust as they departed—a counterproductive outcome.
Rabbit Tail streaming wouldn’t encounter such problems.
Not just on the first day of launch, but probably for a long time to come, the bandwidth wouldn’t be fully utilized…
Although young scholars and lecturers were still streaming today, the heat had noticeably plummeted. This aligned with Pei Qian’s prediction: many people had only checked out the site out of curiosity when it first launched. After the novelty wore off, only a small fraction of knowledge seekers remained.
However, starting today, some independent streamers had joined. Because Rabbit Tail had extremely relaxed restrictions for streamers, many people saw a new streaming platform as an opportunity and came to try it out when conditions allowed.
Ma Yang never looked at complicated data; for him, as long as the streaming website didn’t lag, it was fine.
Just then, Chen Yufeng walked over, looking somewhat hurried.
“Director Ma, I need to report something to you.”
“We just got news from YaiYai Streaming that several websites are developing new features to integrate live streaming and recorded videos—essentially copying Rabbit Tail’s model!”
Ma Yang was stunned: “Uh… so what?”
Chen Yufeng raised his eyebrows: “It’s very bad news, of course! These streaming platforms have a first-mover advantage with a large number of streamers and viewers. If they blindly follow Rabbit Tail’s operation model, it will severely squeeze our survival space!”
Ma Yang finally understood and nodded in realization: “I see. According to what you’re saying, the situation is quite serious! What should we do?”
Chen Yufeng shook his head slightly: “This is difficult to handle. There’s no patent on this kind of model, so other streaming platforms can implement it if they want. Why don’t we… consult Mr. Pei?”
Ma Yang was somewhat displeased: “Always consulting Qian-ge makes us look like useless rice buckets who can’t solve any problems.”
“Let’s try to come up with a solution ourselves first!”
Ma Yang and Chen Yufeng stared at each other for five minutes.
Ma Yang picked up the phone: “Never mind, I can’t think of anything. Let’s ask Qian-ge what we should do.”