The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Beijing Tengying Entertainment Headquarters.

Although the big boss moved the group headquarters to Shanghai, it did not affect Bai Xin, the top secretary in Beijing, in the slightest. She held a special and high-ranking position within the group.

In Beijing, the headquarters of Tencent Entertainment is the main business, along with other companies such as Deer Antler Coffee and Bobo Milk Tea.

They've actually already moved to Shanghai.

Now the big boss has defined the newly established Snack Run as an S+ support project of the group.

Naturally, resources should be allocated across the board.

Bai Xin operated the computer, quickly typed out a message, and immediately sent it to the top-tier celebrity group of Tencent Entertainment.

A group of top celebrities from Tencent Entertainment.

Bai Xin: "The big boss has instructed that Snack Run has been officially upgraded to the group's S+ project. Please come up with your own topics to attract traffic."

Yang Mi, who is currently filming in Guangdong, was the first to respond, "Selling snacks has become an S+ level?"

"Received. Watch me for the next ten days. You can come back after ten days."

Liu Yifei, who is currently filming in Hengdian, Zhejiang, also replied: "Received, I will think of a topic as soon as possible."

Zhao Liying: "Received. Say hello to Brother Chen."

Wu Jing: "Even a tough guy like me eats snacks."

Shen Teng: "No problem, boss, please rest assured."

Below them are a series of big-name celebrities such as Bai Lu and Song Wu.

Bai Xin sent another message to the trainee competition organizers. Currently, the traditional Chinese style girl Shen Wanning and Yang Chaoyue are quite popular.

So many big stars are streaming it.

In a short period of time, Snack Run can be transformed into a super brand.

It's not just this side that's utilizing all its star resources.

On Xin Teng's live stream, there are thousands of female anchors simultaneously promoting snacks.

In an instant, snacks flew everywhere.

July 3rd.

Xiao Wu, a factory worker, was browsing the news after get off work when the entertainment headline was that Yang Mi had gained weight.

Upon opening the link, I discovered that I had bought several bags of snacks because they were so cheap.

As a result, I gained weight after going home.

They even asked netizens to take a closer look and point out exactly where the person had gained weight.

Xiao Wu left a comment below with a chuckle: "Butt."

He thought it was just a random news story and didn't pay much attention to it, but after opening the short video...

My favorite female livestreamers are all selling snacks online.

I've tried several, and they're all the same.

He thought he was the only one who had seen so many news reports about snacks, but when he returned to the factory, he found that many of his colleagues were talking about it.

They even asked where they could find a store selling this snack.

They probably haven't realized it yet, after Tencent defined this project as S+.

News and short videos are everywhere, you can see them all the time.

Not only has it consistently topped the entertainment charts, but it also dominates half of the short video market.

Even the trainee competition, which has recently gained a lot of popularity, is the same.

This massive influx of traffic simultaneously hit factories, schools, rural areas, and countless households.

Unless you never look at your phone, as long as you have a phone, you can't avoid seeing its news.

Some people dislike it, but most are just curious.

What's the story behind this "Snack Run" that it's so incredibly popular, dominating online traffic?

In just a few days, its popularity can skyrocket at an exponential rate.

All of this is merely Tencent Pictures Group providing traffic for Snack Express's initial phase.

The subsequent series of actions truly allowed small shops or mom-and-pop stores in traditional sectors to quickly feel the boundless influence of the giants' maneuvering.

Having secured 500 million yuan, Zhao Mingyu quickly poured the funds into Beijing and Guangzhou.

At the same time, we are preparing for the national franchise recruitment conference for the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai snack food industry.

Opening directly operated stores is a must, but in the future, we will rely more on franchising to expand the national market.

The biggest advantage of this low-barrier-to-entry snack business is that it is easy to replicate quickly.

This will inevitably lead to fierce competition in the future snack market.

Chen Pingsheng quickly set up a strategy, constantly boosting traffic to the franchise while also vigorously promoting the first national franchise recruitment conference for snacks on July 18th.

The cities that have opened up franchising opportunities so far are only a few major regions like Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.

We expect to recruit 500 to 800 franchisees.

The franchising model is the same as that of Deer Antler Coffee and Bobo Milk Tea; they have long been masters of the franchising field.

This is just repeating the same old tricks.

The rapid development of Snack Express has attracted the attention of the capital market.

Many people waved their banknotes, eager to invest and seek cooperation.

After all, Tencent Film Group has too much of an advantage in this field. By going this far, everyone knows that it has discovered another niche market.

Of China's 1.3 billion people, at least 300 million probably enjoy snacking.

Can you say that something consumed by 300 million people has no future?
Tong Zhelan also came to him. Now that Chen Pingsheng is starting a business, he doesn't need any angel rounds (A, B, C).

He can complete the whole thing by himself; if he needs to raise funds, it will be through the final IPO. Tong Zhelan is leading the project, which is valued at four billion yuan.

It sounds like a huge sum, but you should know that he himself took out 16 billion in total.

Now, the entire system is supplying power to it.

In terms of traffic, only Tencent can rival Tencent Video.

There's no way around it, WeChat is just too powerful.

However, that's an online platform. If we're talking about offline, Tencent isn't any better.

After all, his Tencent Entertainment has so many top-tier celebrities.

Xin Teng's live stream also has thousands of female anchors, with so many people flooding the chat with viewers.

Ordinary people simply cannot escape its inescapable net.

Indeed, Tencent Pictures has been able to easily create a massive online traffic network.

It fully covers all kinds of entertainment and financial news that you usually see on your phone.

Chen Pingsheng hadn't originally planned to take the money, but after thinking about it, he decided to accept it anyway.

After diluting his 30% stake, he still has 42%.

The benefit is that Snack Run suddenly has an extra 15 billion yuan in its accounts.

Of the 12 billion yuan, Tong Zhelan and her team invested, and 300 million yuan was previously received by Zhao Liying.

She also owns 15% of the brand, which, after a 30% dilution, would leave her with 10.5%.

Chen Pingsheng used 1 billion to open a store, but this 1.5 billion is not for opening a store at all.

Instead, it was used to hold alliance meetings with manufacturers.

To put it bluntly, unless your brand is as big as Yibao, Wahaha, or Pepsi, making it indispensable for his stores to enter, it won't work.

Most snack food brands are required to participate.

He plans to use these 1.5 billion yuan to invest in upstream companies.

To form further strategic alliances and quickly complete the end-to-end industry layout in the market.

Of course, not every manufacturer is qualified to let him invest; they must first withstand the research conducted by his marketing team.

The rapid expansion of Snack Run offline has also made its bargaining power with manufacturers extremely important.

Its slogan is very simple: 10,000 stores in eight months.

It covers both directly operated and franchised businesses.

Chen Pingsheng never makes empty promises; that's why he started setting up factories even before the goal of 10,000 stores was achieved.

The main reason is that we want to save time and speed up.

When so many large capital firms wanted to invest in him, he only gave Tong Zhelan and a few other families the opportunity to invest.

When others hold cash and watch opportunities slip away, they will inevitably invest in their competitors in the market.

Although he currently dominates the snack industry.

That doesn't guarantee that he will be able to maintain his dominant position in the future.

Especially when the capital market is eyeing this piece of the pie.

What he needs to do is run fast.

In terms of time, it has left capital far behind.

The feedback from the marketing department was that the beverage segment had extremely high gross margins, especially mineral water.

Sales volume far exceeds that of other countries.

He has to invest in one or two companies that act as "porters of nature," that is, companies that sell water.

Selling water is undoubtedly extremely profitable; otherwise, Hengda, a real estate developer, wouldn't have entered this industry.

Although it was a complete mess.

However, it is undeniable that the profit margin for selling water is indeed high.

Chen Pingsheng will definitely invest in one or two water-selling companies.

It can only be said that after Snack Run developed, its profit model will not be simple retail at all.

Instead, they leverage physical stores to connect with upstream manufacturers.

Then, by listing upstream manufacturers, they can quickly obtain capital gains.

Just think about it, when he has tens of thousands of snack stores, even supporting just one spicy snack shop can quickly make that spicy snack business profitable.

Thus, they obtained the qualification to go public.

This is the future profit model he designed for Snack Run.

It's all about diversity.

Making money from the capital market is much faster than making profit from snacks.

How many brands does a snack shop have?

Chen Pingsheng felt that Snack Run would soon become his trump card and cash cow again.

This feeling is absolutely wonderful.

However, for dried foods, the primary concern is health and safety; without these two aspects...

He would never consider a partnership or franchise.

After all, his daughter, Big Paw, also loves to eat snacks.

(End of this chapter)