Ma Dong announced his venture and completed the first round of financing and led the investment by Innovation Works

On September 16, Miwei Media held a press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beijing with the theme of "More than Fun". Founder Ma Dong officially announced the establishment of a content-oriented Internet company at the press conference and has completed the first round of financing led by Innovation Works. Ma Dong will specialize in content research and development, production and marketing in the new company, and carry out IP derivative expansion in vertical fields.

Lead:Ma Dong, former chief content officer of iQiyi and CCTV host, founded Miwei Media, focusing on content research and development, production and marketing. He has currently completed the first round of financing led by Innovation Works. Innovation Works has invested in more than 20 companies in the content entertainment industry chain, and has a complete layout in content production, dissemination, channels and monetization. It hopes to help invested companies in this industry ecosystem form mutual assistance and complete the closed loop. So why did Innovation Works invest in Ma Dong? What changes will the team that is good at operating online variety shows bring to the "pure online variety show" and the video industry?

Leading the investment in Miwei

Innovation Works continues to develop its efforts in the content entertainment industry

On September 16, Miwei Media held a press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beijing with the theme of "More than Interesting". Founder Ma Dong officially announced the establishment of a content-oriented Internet company at the press conference and has completed the first round of financing led by Innovation Works. Ma Dong will specialize in content research and development, production and marketing in the new company, and carry out IP derivative expansion in vertical fields.

Dr. Kaifu Lee, founder of Innovation Works, was also invited to attend this conference. At the press conference, he said that Miwei Media is the largest RMB investment project ever made by Innovation Works, and Innovation Works believes that the video field has reached an era when content is king. Innovation Works took a fancy to Ma Dong's content production capabilities in both TV and online video. In addition, Ma Dong's capabilities in content distribution channels and artist relationships are unique in China.

Ma Dong also mentioned in his speech: "Dr. Kai-Fu Lee gave us a lot of praise, but that was from the perspective of Innovation Works. For us, we had to do something. When we started doing it, we were given great attention by investment leaders in the industry like Innovation Works. This kind of encouragement cannot be described in words. The key is that Innovation Works's endorsement allows us to focus on becoming a content-oriented Internet company. Their accumulation in the Internet field will provide us with strong support that is still unimaginable."

Regarding the achievement of this investment, Wang Zhaohui, operating partner of Innovation Works, recalled that Ma Dong had always been very positive about Innovation Works 'investment layout in content industries such as Rambo Comics, SNH48, and Youyao, and had also been involved in the content entertainment industry many times. Maintain communication and share Factory's thinking and layout in the content entertainment industry chain. On a sunny afternoon, Ma Dong mentioned his entrepreneurial plan to him. Wang Zhaohui felt that it was a matter of great commercial value at the time, so he quickly arranged formal communication between Ma Dong and Dr. Kai-fu Lee. This time, it was quick and smooth. Communication laid the foundation for subsequent investment decisions.

Immediately, Wang Hua, the managing partner of Innovation Works in charge of investment in the content industry, and Chen Yuetian, the investment director, met with Ma Dong for a second communication. The two sides had full exchanges on their understanding, investment, and judgment on the content industry, so that both sides quickly reached the investment intention. On the night when the investment intention was reached, the heads of various post-investment finance, legal affairs, and human resources departments of Innovation Works met with Ma Dong respectively, providing comprehensive support for Ma Dong's successful start-up project in the early stage. It can be said that this investment is also a consensus between the two sides on the future understanding of the content industry.

This

is Ma Dong's first venture. He joined iQiyi as Chief Content Officer in early 2013 and is fully responsible for the content editing and production of iQiyi. Under the leadership of Ma Dong, iQiyi's content business has developed rapidly. It not only exclusively broadcasts phenomenon-level TV plays and variety shows such as "You from the Stars,""Love Apartment 4,""Where Dad Goes 2," but also produces original contents such as "Strange Flower Said,""Love Supermodel,""Tomb Robbing Notes," etc., which has won good industry reputation and social response.

As for why Innovation Workshop will invest in Madong team, Chen Yuetian, investment director of Innovation Workshop, said: "Under the background of the perennial battle of video platforms, the core of the video industry chain has changed from 'channel' to 'content', channel sinking has become infrastructure, products and technical barriers in the video industry are getting lower, and the content barriers in the industry chain have become relatively high." Therefore, the real competition in China's online video industry currently comes from the control of content production. Ma Dong's team has rich experience in content production and belongs to the producer who understands the culture of the younger generation most in the industry. It has an excellent position in the industry chain. At the same time, this team has the ability to open the entire closed loop from content to monetization. This is the main reason why we invest in Madong Company."

In addition, according to Innovation Works 'observations on the industry, in this fragmented mobile Internet era,"pure online variety shows" are ushering in a golden age. According to Art Consulting data, since 2013, the number of online variety shows has maintained rapid growth. The five major video websites totaled about 150 in 2014, with a year-on-year growth rate of 200%. At present, Internet content has entered an era of refinement. Online variety shows created based on big data and Internet logic will carry out in-depth industrial chain linkage with a series of derivative links such as e-commerce and games to gain considerable market value.

In the past three years, the online video industry has undergone great changes in its landscape. In particular, iQiyi has come from behind and has made strong advances in the three levels of film industry, solo broadcasting and self-production. Among them, Ma Dong's role is self-evident. Especially in the popular self-made variety show "Strange Talks", Ma Dong's role and role in front and behind the scenes cannot be replaced. Ma Dong was first known from 2001 to 2004. He served as the producer and general director of "Challenge Host" on CCTV. The program also received unanimous praise at that time and its ratings have always been at the forefront; these successful experiences have laid a solid foundation for his creation of a new company.

Today, Ma Dong, as the founder, led the "Qi Qi Shuo" team to hold a press conference to officially announce the establishment of a content-oriented Internet company. The company's three partners are Ma Dong and Mou, chief producer of "Qi Qi Shuo", and Liu Xu, commercial director of "Qi Qi Shuo". Miwei Media completed its first round of financing at the beginning of its establishment, led by Innovation Works led by Kai-Fu Lee. It took a fancy to Ma Dong and his team for their rich content production experience and their ability to create high-value content products.

"Me& We" is young and not simple.

The average age of Miwei Media's team members is 24 years old, most of whom are born in the 1990s. Although they are young, they have been intensively engaged in content production for many years. They have produced "Guinness China Night","Joy Street" and other CCTV ace variety shows, and extended the production experience of TV programs to the Internet field, created China's first talent-talking show "Qi Qi Shuo", and set a number of new records for Internet homemade variety shows in one fell swoop, becoming a new benchmark for video website homemade programs.

"Miwei" stands for "me" and "we". On the one hand, the origin of the company's name is based on market research on young Internet audiences: the biggest tags born in the 1990s are "I" and "we". The original intention of "Miwei Media" was to hope that future content production would pay more attention to individual values and user feelings. On the other hand, the word "Miwei" is simple and easy to understand and easy to recognize. In addition, Miwei Media also highlighted the "value of talents" advocated by the company culture

. Ma Dong, who was born in the 1960s, led a team born in the 1990s to create interesting surprises. It is worth looking forward to. It is believed that under Ma Dong's leadership, the company will inevitably infiltrate Internet logic into all aspects such as content production, broadcast platforms, capital operations, and commercial monetization, allowing the "Internet +" concept to leverage program production as a weapon, and looking forward to providing the entire video industry in the future. bringing disruptive changes.

Editor: vian