Hastings’ thoughts were not entirely wrong, because Boss Huang’s expression was extremely grim after he left. Boss Huang had lost this round.
After learning that Hastings had begun preparing to steal company assets, Huang He had guessed that Hastings would definitely leave evidence. If he gave Hastings more time, he might destroy all the evidence.
Therefore, Huang He decided to launch a surprise attack, not giving Hastings any time to react, and directly raided his lair, expecting to find evidence.
To his surprise, Huang He had miscalculated. Hastings was indeed meticulous to the extreme, cleaning up very thoroughly. Boss Huang couldn’t find any evidence, but instead alerted Hastings, raising his vigilance to a high level.
“But it’s not a complete loss. At least I got all the company’s data and snatched the algorithm. Even if Hastings wants to leave in the future, he can’t destroy the company’s data before leaving!” Boss Huang fell into deep thought. “Forget it, the integration of Netflix and Los Gatos is imminent. It’s more important to get Hastings out of here quickly!”
The next day, Hastings received an invitation from Huang He, and the two went to the most luxurious hotel in the area for dinner.
“Boss, if you need any guidance on work, or if you want to copy any data, you could have just brought a few armed bodyguards. Why bother inviting me to dinner!” Hastings said sarcastically.
“You don’t need to be passive-aggressive with me here. Let’s talk openly. We’ve lost all trust between us. If you continue to stay at Netflix, you’ll only mess up the company. So I think we should resolve this issue peacefully. You leave the company, and I’ll forget all about what you’ve done before!” Huang He said directly.
“Joke, what have I done that requires you to forget about it?” Hastings sneered. “I run the company, everything is legal and compliant. I am a law-abiding and excellent taxpayer, with no legal issues. I don’t need you to let bygones be bygones.”
“If you insist that I did something wrong, then present the evidence now. If I have indeed committed a crime, you don’t need to drive me away; the court will directly lock me up!”
Hastings spoke with confidence because he was certain that Huang He did not have any useful evidence. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have directly negotiated with him to leave Netflix.
“I indeed don’t have any evidence that would put you in jail!” Huang He admitted frankly. “So I’m making you a business deal. How about this? Don’t you want the company’s data? I’ll let you take it away openly.”
“We can sign an agreement allowing you to take away any data and people you want from the company, except for the algorithms. These are all authorized by me and are legal operations!” Boss Huang presented his terms, and Hastings’ expression quickly changed.
Hastings had to admit that he was somewhat tempted by this offer.
What Hastings feared most was being caught with evidence while transferring company data, which would land him in jail. Now, having a legitimate and legal means to take all the data away was naturally an excellent option.
Huang He agreed to this condition. While it seemed like a huge loss, it wasn’t really. This was because the company’s most important customer account data had already been taken away by Hastings through the lottery. As for other data, Hastings had either already transferred it or could easily get it by recruiting programmers in the future. xxs
Therefore, apart from the algorithms, there was nothing Hastings couldn’t get from Netflix. So giving all data except the algorithms to Hastings wasn’t a loss, it was just an act of self-disgust.
However, Hastings soon realized this as well. Agreeing to this condition seemed to offer no additional benefits, only ensuring that he had no legal risks. But now he had already minimized the legal risks. Since he wouldn’t get anything more, it was like a free ride!
So Hastings said, “If you want me to consider this condition, then I also want to take the algorithms, and I want them as an unconditional package! Furthermore, I want to take any employee I deem fit, and you cannot obstruct them programmatically!”
“This is absolutely impossible!” Huang He said very decisively. The algorithms were the most valuable things at Netflix now, and one of the keys to Netflix’s future rise. They absolutely could not be handed over to Hastings!
Some people might not understand how important an algorithm was to Netflix’s operations, but the fact was, the algorithm was the key to Netflix’s rise in the streaming era.
Netflix’s main business was DVD rentals, which had little to do with online video. At that time, there were over thousands of online video platforms on the internet, like YouTube.
And after Netflix entered the streaming media, there were more than 10 platforms larger than Netflix.
How did Netflix rise in the streaming media field?
First, of course, was Netflix’s 12 million (2012 data) core paying users. Secondly, it was Netflix’s exclusive video content.
At this time, on the internet, including YouTube, all video network platforms did not produce any video content themselves. They all relied on cooperation to obtain copyrights of films and television works from other film and television production companies and then played them on their platforms. This was the model.
Netflix had just started its transformation, and almost all its funds were used to purchase servers and build a new online service platform. When they wanted to buy various video content, they were a bit short of funds.
It is said that Netflix’s funds for purchasing copyrights did not exceed 50 million US dollars at the time, and the online copyrights of the top 10 most popular movies alone exceeded 50 million US dollars.
Compared to other film and television platforms that spent hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase various copyrighted content libraries, Netflix’s content library appeared very inferior.
At the same time, Hastings also realized that even if he squeezed out more funds to buy copyrights, it would only be copying the content libraries of other online video platforms. And more critically, many online video platforms signed exclusive agreements with film and television producers. Those excellent film and television works were already monopolized by various online platforms. Even with money, Netflix couldn’t obtain these high-quality resources.
Hastings at this time truly showed his courage as a qualified entrepreneur. He decided not to buy copyrights from these film and television production companies, but to produce film and television content himself. This way, these items would belong only to his platform, and Netflix would have something unique to attract audiences.
But the problem was that Netflix’s funds were insufficient at the time, and its content library was not large. The 50 million US dollars were ultimately used to purchase hundreds of different works to expand Netflix’s own content library, providing sufficient video resources first. Finally, they had to find ways to borrow another 30 million US dollars to produce their own works.
And one production was not enough. Hastings decided to use 30 million US dollars to produce ten of Netflix’s own works, with an average budget of only 3 million US dollars per work.
In 2012, such a meager budget was undoubtedly insufficient to produce any quality works. After all, any TV station, any TV series, had a production cost exceeding tens of millions of dollars at that time.
Moreover, even works with a budget of tens of millions of dollars were likely to be failures, unable to generate any discussion or attract traffic to the company.
And according to Hastings’ requirements for these ten Netflix works, it was not necessary for every piece to be a classic, but each piece had to be loved by the audience. Even if it was garbage, it had to be garbage that the audience liked to watch.
This was undoubtedly an almost impossible task. After all, even a great director like Spielberg had more than half of his works not recognized by the market, and Netflix’s ten works required each to attract audiences. How was this possible?
What seemed impossible to outsiders became possible through the operation of Netflix’s algorithms.
At this time, Netflix had collected user data for 15 years, and they poured all this user preference data into it, and then this most valuable big data algorithm of Netflix emerged.
This big data algorithm could automatically calculate which film and television themes, actors, stories, IPs, and even which filters were most preferred by users across the United States under the current circumstances.
It is said that this big data algorithm could provide more than 280 different tags for film and television works, shaping a film and television work from 280 angles… This essentially directly outlined a film and television work.
And the most magical thing was that it could also customize the audience’s preferences according to your needs.
For example, it is said that when selecting ten works, Hastings gave specific requirements for the first nine works: investment within 2 million, and then labels for comedy, sci-fi, western, political, and other different types of films.
Then this big data algorithm directly generated different film and television outlines, including script requirements, various film and television elements, actor selection, and even which IPs to directly purchase, all displayed. One only needed to fill in the content mindlessly according to this outline.
And for the last work, Hastings only gave the standard of investing 10 million US dollars, with no other restrictions. In the end, this big data algorithm gave the answer: remake House of Cards.