The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Time flies.

Before we knew it, the day arrived for the short drama invested by Tencent Video Group to be released.

The huge Tencent Video platform is filled with short drama ads.

In the countryside, an elderly man named Zhang was squatting idly at his doorstep, casually watching a TV series on his phone.

I suddenly saw a headline: "God of War's Daughter Lives in a Doghouse."

When the God of War is enraged, blood will splatter for thousands of miles.

What a stupid headline! These clickbait headlines are getting more and more ridiculous these days.

Grandpa Zhang was one of the few low-ranking cadres in the village who received a pension, and seeing this opening, he couldn't help but curse a couple of times.

Click to take a look.

It's about a little girl who looks like a beggar, who is locked in a doghouse. Each episode is only five minutes long, pitifully short.

Finally, she made a phone call to her father, asking him to come quickly and save Xiao An'an.

Then in the next episode, Dad came back.

They arrived in Yuncheng in unison, leading 100,000 border guards (four extras).

Then, one by one, they unleashed their fury and dealt with the four great families of Yuncheng.

They even plan to send a nuclear submarine into the Yunpu River.

To be honest, the plot is absolutely idiotic.

It was so addictive that after a while, I had to pay to watch it.

It was only a few dollars anyway, so Grandpa Zhang just topped it up casually.

They watched and cursed simultaneously, and while cursing, they spent money on in-game purchases.

And that's not all; there's an even more outrageous one coming up.

The God of War came to become the son-in-law, agreeing to a five-year agreement not to reveal his extraordinary martial prowess.

The war god, hiding his identity, serves his wife foot bath water every day, taking meticulous care of her.

He ended up being cheated on by his wife, who even threatened to divorce him.

And break his leg.

Who could stand this? We had to keep watching.

Before you know it, you're starting to spend money.

As darkness fell, I had spent nearly a hundred yuan.

This is just too outrageous! The comments below are all full of curses and insults.

Despite the criticism, those in charge are still genuinely hooked.

"Damn it, which idiot took this picture?"

"Holy crap, Ultraman is even becoming a son-in-law? Can you guys get any more outrageous?"

"That's nothing. What I'm really looking for is a celestial emperor descending to earth to be my son-in-law."

"Editor, you fucking step forward! I promise I won't kill you! Xiao An'an is furious."

The outcry didn't affect the fact that the entire Tengying Group was completely stunned.

Five short dramas were released in one day, all of which were in cooperation with the three major platforms.

Attract viewers by streaming on video websites and short video platforms.

I thought that no normal person would pay to watch a story like this.

The result was that the pressure of modern life was underestimated.

If there weren't any pressure, why would anyone watch such a ridiculous plot?

Even those within their own organization found it hard to believe when they saw it for the first time—that such a ridiculous plot could have been filmed by their own company.

The director's only request when he received the money was that his name not be credited.

Can't afford to lose that person.

Also no one.

Zhang Wanyi was monitoring the real-time data in the background. On the first day of the online streaming, the Yateng Short Drama APP had been downloaded more than 500,000 times.

Looking at the conversion data, more than half of the people spent no less than twenty yuan.

In just one day, they raked in tens of millions in recharge fees.

Keep in mind that this is just the testing phase, mainly to determine whether short dramas can really make money!

As a result, it exploded completely.

It's much better than I imagined.

It's worth noting that the total production cost of these five short dramas was less than one million.

The filming time was less than half a month.

Not just one movie, but the entire series.

The focus of short drama production is on the storyline; everything else can be ignored.

Despite such shoddy workmanship, it managed to generate tens of millions in transactions in a single day.

I have to say, idiotic short dramas really have potential.

With the boss away, Zhang Wanyi increased the amount of advertising on the second day based on the data.

The price jumped directly from one million to two million. As a result, the transaction volume reached over twenty million the next day, with more than half a million people willing to pay to watch the short drama.

These figures clearly exceeded everyone's expectations.

When updating the number of paid viewers for the short drama, it was also found that most of them were middle-aged and elderly people in rural areas.

Short dramas are not only lucrative, they can be incredibly lucrative.

In the following days, Zhang Wanyi continued to increase her advertising spending, from two million to six million a day.

And the Guangzhou-based Yateng short drama team was instructed to expedite filming.

This thing doesn't need approval; you can upload it as soon as you film it.

They simply grew wildly, producing a 200-episode series in less than a week.

They have so many directors; they could easily shoot fifty films a month.

This is practically making money without lifting a finger!

When a trend emerges, no one can predict it.

Short dramas emerged out of nowhere and, in terms of paid viewership, far surpassed the memberships of the three major platforms.

It turns out that stress relief and getting excited are the most popular ways for middle-aged and elderly people in rural areas to watch TV shows.

I originally thought that Yateng Short Drama, a newly established project of Tencent Film Group, was just a small-scale operation.

The result was still beyond expectations.

Based on this data, Tencent Film Group is undoubtedly about to become another cash cow.

Chen Pingsheng's outrageous actions are becoming more and more frequent.

They were originally a giant in the entertainment industry, yet they turned around and started making such stupid short dramas.

You said you'd take pictures, and you actually made so much money from it.

This left a group of entertainment industry bigwigs speechless.

Unfortunately, he doesn't pay much attention to these details.

As he himself said, for investments below 200 million, the group's vice presidents can make their own decisions.

There's absolutely no need for him to sign.

On the 9th, he rushed to Hong Kong to attend the CEO training program.

Tong Zhelan, who frequently travels around the world, was the first to seek cooperation with him.

"Old Chen, your short drama about Yateng is pretty good!"

"It's alright, making ten million or so a day is no big deal."

"I'll invest 300 million for a 30% stake, and I'll help you get listed within a year. How about that?"

Tong Zhelan was well aware that short dramas could be profitable.

Ultimately, the data speaks for itself. If you showed her a story about a war god's daughter living in a doghouse before the data was available, it would be a disaster.

They also told her she could make money.

She'll retort and accuse you of treating her like an idiot.
This has nothing to do with her ability, but rather with her personal perception.

Who would believe that these CEO training programs make more money filming silly short dramas than filming TV series?

Chen Pingsheng thought about it and agreed. The main reason was that his golden finger could only be maximized by going public.

The listing process is extremely complicated, with countless approval procedures.

The goal is to take a short drama company, which has been established for less than three years, public within a year.

That's extremely difficult.

"Okay, if you say OK, then OK."

The two chatted for a while, but they would have to go back to Shanghai to sign the contract. For now, they had only established a basic intention to cooperate.

Guo Ziyi came to find them shortly afterward, asking if they wanted to attend a gambling game that evening.

"The dealer's scheme," as the name suggests, refers to manipulating the stock market.

They make huge profits by manipulating stock prices, and that's where they are at their level.

The revenue from a single bookmaker's scheme can start at tens or hundreds of billions.

Chen Pingsheng was also quite curious about these stock market manipulators, and he thought he might as well go and take a look tonight.

Tong Zhelan frequently attends these kinds of drinking parties abroad, so she naturally knows very well what the so-called "bookmakers" rely on to make money.

If we're talking about the best manipulation tactic of the past decade, it has to be Bitcoin.

They managed to drive up the price of Bitcoin, which was worthless, to tens of thousands of US dollars per coin.

The strength of the bookmaker is unimaginable; it is completely unfathomable.

Among the major players in the Bitcoin market, Tong Zhelan knew of was Mitsui & Co., Ltd., a company that was relatively small in scale.

Mitsui was recognized as the number one zaibatsu in Asia and even the world in the 1990s.

Its assets are beyond what outsiders can imagine.

Besides Mitsui, there's also Samsung from South Korea.

In addition, a few top financial groups joined forces to use Bitcoin as a tool to massively reap global wealth.

This is also recognized worldwide as the strongest bookmaker scheme.

(End of this chapter)