"This is a real permanent exit. I will no longer be a BT website." On December 8, Huang Xiwei, the webmaster of BTChina who had just been shut down, said in an exclusive interview with a special reporter from the "Daily Economic News". "I was already prepared, so when the government said it was going to be shut down, I shut it down. As a personal website, BTChina has already come to an end."
Creating a website is purely a matter of "personal interest"
As the largest BT search engine in China, BTChina was discovered to be shut down by netizens on December 4. Later, news spread that Huang Xiwei, one of the founders of the website, was arrested.
"Later, the news spread more and more widely, and such information was posted on several major portals, which made many relatives and friends who saw the news very worried, so I called Sina to clarify." Huang Xiwei emphasized to reporters. : "I have never accepted any interviews before, and you are the first one." Huang Xiwei said that even he suddenly found out that the website was shut down. "It should be that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television sent a document directly to the Ministry of Information Industry without notifying me." Huang Xiwei then managed to access relevant documents and confirmed that BTChina had finally come to an end.
"I started doing this (referring to BT) in 2003." There was still a group of people doing it before, but Huang Xiwei and a few of his friends spent more energy and eventually made BTChina bigger and stronger. They write their own scripts for the website, pay their own money to rent a server, and maintain it themselves. "It's purely a personal hobby. We saw that technology like BT existed abroad, but our country didn't have it, so we introduced it. As for some problems that occurred later, we were not able to think of it at the time." Huang Xiwei said. He also cited an example as the basis for the existence of BTChina as a "personal interest": "From the establishment of the website to the present, BTChina has always been as simple as it is now, with a blue background, the simplest functions and pictures. Many netizens They are also asking why we don’t change. “From the beginning to now, BTChina has only been run by Huang Xiwei and a few of his friends. They have not set up a company, and everyone has their own work.
“There is no support from pirates behind it”
During the investigation, the reporter found that many domestic BT websites are supported by pirates, or they provide content to some large enterprises in exchange for server support and income. Huang Xiwei said, "We know that such situations exist, but we have never had anything to do with these things. We have no content ourselves. We are just a search engine."
Huang Xiwei admitted using BTChina to attract some advertisers. “It’s not a lot of money, so you won’t lose money, but you don’t make much money either. It’s just to maintain the normal operation of the website.” He reiterated that BTChina is not a commercial website. “Regular commercial websites have sales teams operating advertisements, and formal advertisements cannot make money. No matter what the money, we don’t want to accept bad advertisements. Basically, we only have a few people in charge of technology. Our idea is very simple. We don’t want to be irresponsible, because the influence of the website cannot be suddenly eliminated, and it must be given to netizens. An explanation." But Huang Xiwei gradually realized that there are only two ways out for BTChina: first, to be abandoned by netizens; second, to be shut down.
As several notices from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television were issued, Huang Xiwei already knew that BTChina's time was running out. "I already had the expectation that the website would be shut down." So Huang Xiwei readily accepted the fact that the website was shut down this time. "I don't think this has anything to do with piracy. We have always paid attention to this issue. We have also encountered some companies coming to us in the past. If their rights are infringed, we will delete them immediately. And if they are locked up for piracy, , then there should be a subject whose rights have been violated, but no. It’s just that the documents are incomplete.” He admitted that after all these years, he was still emotionally reluctant.
As for the question of where BTChina will be banned and where netizens will go to download in the future, Huang Xiwei said: "There are already many commercial websites that can meet some of the needs." He feels that the closure of websites such as BTChina and Eden (a BT download website) is just the beginning. There will be more BT download websites that will follow in their footsteps due to incomplete licenses.
What many netizens may not know is that although BTChina is just Huang Xiwei's hobby, his company is closely related to BT - the famous BT download software BT Comet (BitComet) is a product of his company. But Huang Xiwei refused to comment on the survival status of BT download software after BT faced high-pressure policies.
Reporter observation
The industrial chain behind the BT website
Downloading movies and TV shows from any of the websites mentioned in this article is free. So why do these websites provide free lunches? After interviewing many insiders, the reporter learned that pirates played a key role in this. And here I have to mention an organization-ODAY.
What is ODAY? Simply put, ODAY is a non-profit international non-governmental organization that provides us with at least more than 50% of pirated software, movies and games - this number is estimated by industry veterans. Literally understood, the "O" in ODAY originally refers to the Arabic numeral "0", and "DAY" means "day" in English, which means that newly released software, movies, games, etc. will be released in less than one day. Crack it within time and provide sharing. Cracking and sharing are the core of ODAY's spirit. The ODAY organization has members from all over the world and from all walks of life. This huge network presence allows many contents, including movies, to be spread to the ODAY circle even before the original version is released on the market. Such a circle is of course the most popular for pirates. like.
But breaking into the ODAY organization, especially the core, is definitely not something that most pirates can do. So some pirates directly provide free servers for BT websites (the cost of a cabinet is about 100,000 to 250,000 yuan a year). After website members obtain first-hand resources from ODAY, they upload them to the server. In this way, pirates The best-quality film sources were obtained almost immediately, plated, distributed, and entered into the sales process. Generally speaking, after the resources are uploaded to the server, they will not be shared on BT immediately, but will have to wait for the pirates to organize the sales process. The website gathers popularity by providing video downloads and makes money by selling advertisements on the website.
Some other websites use the latest and best videos to increase their popularity and attract the attention of pirates, and then directly sell the film sources to pirates for profit. "In the past, the main channel for purchasing these videos was Internet cafes. Now, due to the rise of video websites, Internet cafes almost no longer buy them."
The third situation is more special. "For example, a certain place or company wants to build a website similar to a certain information port. What should I do if it only has a server and no content? They can provide servers and part of the funds to some BT websites. In exchange for a lot of content.”
There are still some websites that mainly provide high-definition movie downloads and make profits by cooperating with equipment sellers. They directly package and sell high-definition videos and high-definition players. In addition to paying advertising fees, the equipment dealers also receive sales commissions from the website. "As far as I know, a well-known high-definition download site in China can earn over one million yuan a year." However, high profits can also cause conflicts. This famous high-definition download site has been separated many times due to profit distribution issues. However, Huang Xiwei believes that there should be only a few BT websites involved in such a variety of interests: "Moreover, the older the webmaster is, the less likely he is to run a BT website for money."