The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Chapter 138 Tong Zhelan's Advice
The day's classes ended quickly.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, many students followed Chen Pingsheng to his Tengying Entertainment.

They're all within the Second Ring Road, not too far apart. This isn't some special reception; it's just a simple visit.

After all, everyone in the class knew that he had made three or four hundred million yuan from investing in a TV series, and now he was teaming up with Tong Zhelan and toy tycoon Hu Ding to prepare for the production and sale of Hua Qiangu derivative products.

It's clear that Hua Qiangu's revenue is far from reaching its peak; what's sold is only the exclusive broadcasting rights for the TV series.

In the future, it can be available on major online platforms and even made into a game.

It can be said that as long as Hua Qiangu becomes the king of dramas, Tencent Film can live off its profits for ten years.

They set off for his Tencent Entertainment, which was currently on holiday, but Yang Qian's public relations department was already waiting for them.

After all, his classmates are all big bosses, so the hospitality should be a bit more impressive.

He drives a white Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Most of the other students rode in MVP vans like the Alphard.

Tong Zhelan, on the other hand, rode in a Mercedes-Benz Brabus V-Class.

He also has one, which he placed in Shacheng during the Chinese New Year.

For people at their level, cars are simply a means of transportation; there's no question of keeping up with the Joneses.

If you like it, just buy a little more.

When they arrived at the headquarters of Tengying Entertainment, parking was very convenient, and Yang Qian waited there.

"Brother Chen, your company has a lot of beautiful women."

"It's so-so. We're not doing this to see pretty girls; the key is to make money."

The main purpose of this visit is to develop derivative products of Hua Qiangu.

The props used by the crew during filming, such as the palace bell and the sword of severance, are still here.

Yang Qian introduced them one by one, and Hu Ding planned to take these things back and reproduce them on a one-to-one scale.

Of course, swords can only be made to look good, never to be sharp.

Hu Ding took a dozen or so props for the filming of "The Legend of Hua Qian Gu". After he finished producing them, Tong Zhelan would need to find someone to handle the online sales.

Chen Pingsheng himself only had to publish the rights and Zhao Liying was the spokesperson, which was arguably the easiest job for him.

"Brother Chen, haven't you taken too long of a vacation?"

Giving all employees a two-week break is equivalent to the company ceasing operations for two weeks.

Chen Pingsheng said, "It's alright. Anyway, there's not much going on at Tengying. I'm not a professional in the entertainment industry. Zhao Liying is affiliated with my personal studio. Whether she takes on a role or anything else, she makes all the arrangements herself. I just handle the investment."

"You've certainly had an easy time being a boss."

Tong Zhelan scoffed; he was indeed being a bit too relaxed.

If even his own artists can have studios listed under him, doesn't that mean he's his own boss?

It's just hanging under the big tree of Tengying.

She'll take on any available resources; if there aren't, she'll find any outside resources she can find.

Teng Ying won't care.

"There's no other way. I can't act, I can't write scripts, and I can't teach people to act. If I don't do this, I'm afraid no one will be willing to sign with my company."

Chen Pingsheng led them up to the fifth floor, where the Tenghui Capital sign was very eye-catching.

Lin Jia and the others are still working here.

"Tenghui Capital Investment Co., Ltd."

Tong Zhelan smiled and said, "I didn't expect that you, Chen Pingsheng, would actually start an investment company. Tell me which projects you've invested in so I can take a look."

"No... my company is just a nameplate."

Chen Pingsheng dared not presume to show off his limited skills in front of a true investment expert.

"I'd like to in the future, but I don't have the ability."

“You have enough to invest in your own projects, why do you need to go out and look for projects?”

Tong Zhelan asked him, "You've started Tengsheng Full-Category Fresh Food Supermarket, haven't you? How's it going? I haven't heard you mention it."

"Okay."

Chen Pingsheng asked Yang Qian to pour a cup of tea for each of them:
"Compared to traditional fruit supermarkets, fresh produce has a completely different level of customer traffic. To put it simply, our Tengsheng Fruit Supermarket is considered to be doing very well in Beijing, with a daily customer flow of about four to five hundred people."

“Since the day it opened, Tengsheng Fresh has never had fewer than 800 customers a day. From this perspective, it is still very necessary to develop a full range of fresh produce.”

"It seems you've done a really good job in this area."

Tong Zhelan said, "Over the years, we have tried to invest in innovative internet companies in the fresh food sector, and we have even launched small-scale cash-burning wars, either against others or against traditional small vendors."

"Without exception, they all failed. Many internet investors actually know that the demand for vegetables and the fish and meat products we eat every day is huge. If done well, it could be a trillion-dollar market. Unfortunately, this industry is far from being something that can be done simply by throwing money at it."

"I never imagined that you internet people would even be eyeing the livelihoods of street vendors."

This was the first time Chen Pingsheng had heard Tong Zhelan mention this; he had no idea that the internet had already set its sights on the vegetable market.

"You're not the same yet."

Tong Zhelan rolled her eyes at him: "Your company has grown to this point, and you're still doing business in the vegetable market." "That's a completely different concept."

Chen Pingsheng said, "No matter what, I'm still doing traditional business, and I'm only competing for customers in a small area. The reason I'm developing a full range of fresh produce is twofold: first, to seek greater development for my Tengsheng Fruits, and second, to lay a foundation for the large supermarket I plan to build next year."

"You still want to build a large supermarket?"

While traditional supermarkets have a large market, the competition is incredibly fierce.

It's safe to say that if you still want to grab a piece of the pie in this industry, it's going to be incredibly difficult.

Of course, Tong Zhelan believed that with his abilities, opening four or five stores in a small area of ​​Beijing should not be a problem.

She has lost all interest in investing in traditional hypermarkets, mainly because they are unable to innovate.

She couldn't think of any new and innovative ways to break through in this industry.

She could understand why Chen Pingsheng did this.

After all, he has already established a very solid foundation in traditional industries. Developing hypermarkets now is just a way to further consolidate his position in those industries.

Tong Zhelan didn't have much interest in learning more.

We then talked about some other things.

Once Hua Qian Gu becomes a huge hit, Tong Zhelan suggests opening a milk tea shop.

How should I put it about this industry?

The profit margin is exceptionally high; a cup of milk tea that costs 15 yuan only costs two or three yuan to produce.

Moreover, young people nowadays also like to drink this stuff. If Hua Qiangu becomes a hit, we can immediately release a co-branded version.

One shot is enough to make it red.

Then we can directly pursue capital financing to rapidly expand into the national market.

Five hundred to a thousand stores can be opened in a year.

It has to be said that this woman has a pretty good eye for things.

The milk tea business originated in Taiwan; it became popular there.

The domestic milk tea market is far from saturated.

It could even be said that it's still in its early stages, so this is definitely the best time for dry milk tea.

In terms of making money alone, it's far better than traditional hypermarkets, which are already fiercely competitive.

Tong Zhelan suggested that he enter the milk tea market mainly because she valued his resources at Tencent Entertainment and his strong traditional management skills.

Without these two factors, she probably wouldn't have brought it up.

After all, for top investors like them, relevant data from all industries across the country are readily available on their desks.

Which industries are emerging, and which industries are already saturated?

Everything is crystal clear.

Do you think investors just sit in an office making decisions? There are countless market researchers working behind the scenes.

Tong Zhelan judged that the milk tea industry had great potential after conducting market research.

The main reason is the high gross profit margin and the high frequency of customer purchases.

In addition, the market gap is large, and the combination of these factors has created a huge emerging market.

Chen Pingsheng was a little interested, but he never drank milk tea, so how could he do this?

It seems he needs to find a professional small milk tea shop to invest in first.

He remained outwardly calm, but secretly he was plotting something.

Having an investor as a friend is actually quite nice.

They won't even mention whether they'll give you money or not; they'll just say that they can give you priority access to highly lucrative emerging markets.

That would already put you out of the running for 90% of entrepreneurs.

Choice is more important than effort; everyone knows that.

For example, starting a business on Taobao in 08 is still doing the same thing as starting a business on Taobao now.

But the timing is different, and the results are vastly different.

I started doing this in 08. With just a little knowledge of e-commerce operations, earning hundreds of thousands a year is a piece of cake.

If you start now, even if you're working on it 24/7, it'll be hard not to lose money.

Not to mention making money.

As the market gets closer to saturation, the difficulty of making money naturally increases.

This is one of the advantages of having Tong Zhelan as a friend; she can clearly tell you which entrepreneurial direction is right at this point in time.

She really has no interest in large supermarkets.

If Chen Pingsheng could run a milk tea shop like Tengsheng Fruit, she wouldn't mind investing hundreds of millions.

This industry has such high potential for future development.

(End of this chapter)