Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 401: Take Advantage of It
"Mr. Meng, can you tell me why you chose to invest in Pinduoduo when the e-commerce market was already considered saturated?"

"It's actually very simple. I think a dynamic market will never be saturated. Just like the film and television industry, when I first entered the industry, many people said that the film and television market had stabilized, and then online dramas appeared..."

"Mr. Meng, there has been a lot of discussion online about you recently, with labels like 'genius creator' and 'richest man born in the 90s'. What do you think of these labels?"

"Haha, I have indeed seen a lot of similar comments recently, and I have also read some discussions among netizens, which are mainly based on memes. As for how people view it... Actually, I don't have any opinion. As long as it is not a rumor, everyone is happy."

"Mr. Meng, we would like to ask..."

"..."

In the arc-lit reception room, several cameras were set up next to each other, aiming at Meng Bai who was sitting in the middle. Opposite him were a dozen reporters who were taking notes conscientiously.

Ever since Meng Bai’s identity as a “billionaire” was exposed, he has become extremely popular on the Internet and his popularity is almost approaching those of top stars.

The "young people" born in the 90s built a huge business empire in just five years. As a newcomer, he surpassed a number of old forces in the industry and became a billionaire from scratch...

Each of these stories taken individually is worth writing about, but now that they are all gathered together in one person, they are naturally even more legendary.

How popular is Meng Bai now?
Let’s put it this way, many self-media marketing accounts on the Internet have begun to publish a large number of “success study” articles such as "Five Secrets of Success That Meng Bai Once Said", "Ten Top Thinking of Post-90s Billionaires", and "Business Rules That Even Jack Ma, Lei Jun, and Meng Bai Are Following".

Meng Bai had always thought that he was on the same level as these bigwigs, probably at some financial investment summit or "list of outstanding entrepreneurs" or something like that. Unexpectedly, he didn't meet them in person, but instead "met" them in a marketing account's soft article.

With such high popularity, the media would naturally not let it go. For a time, interview invitations from various news platforms were sent to Arclight's publicity department, and then passed on to their boss.

Meng Bai did not hesitate and directly turned down most of the invitations.

This time it wasn’t because he wanted to keep a low profile—given his current popularity, it would be impossible for him to keep a low profile—it was mainly because there were too many of them and he simply couldn’t handle it.

However, not all media can be turned down. Official central media such as People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and CCTV still need to be given some face.

Meng Bai simply asked the company to contact various media outlets and conduct a centralized interview. Anyway, the reporting ideas of these official media outlets are all in the same tone, and the content is similar, so it is better to say it all at once to save trouble.

Today's interview involved seven or eight media outlets, all of which were top official platforms. The interview lasted two hours, and the questions were mostly about big topics.

Seeing that the scheduled interview time was almost up, the reporter asked one last question.

"Mr. Meng, regarding the 'film and television winter' that the film and television industry has been talking about recently, what do you think?"

Meng Bai pondered for a while and slowly said, "From my personal point of view, there is no such thing as a 'film winter'. It's just that this industry is not like before where anyone can make money."

"I remember that it was around 2015, which was probably the best time for this industry to make money. Any practitioner could get investment with a script. Any film and television company would have someone to raise funds as long as they had a project, even if a work had not yet been filmed."

"In just over a year, more than 20,000 film and television companies of all sizes flooded into the industry. It can be said that it was the most prosperous time for the film and television industry. Including our Arclight Films, we actually grew up at that time by taking advantage of the industry's boom."

"The result of this rapid development is that everything is mixed together. No one talks about quality and content anymore, and everyone is focusing on traffic and IP. It doesn't matter if the work is good or bad, or if the quality is good or bad. In short, as long as there is popularity, financing can be obtained, and then rounds A and B, and IPOs are all capital operations."

"Then when the audience gets tired of this set of traffic works and the capital market can't make up new stories, it will naturally collapse. So I don't think this is called a 'cold winter', it just allows the overheated industry to return to its original position."

"And for those companies that always stick to quality, these impacts are not that big. For example, Arclight Films has been working on many more pioneering projects in recent years..."

At this point, Meng Bai coughed lightly and said in a natural tone: "For example, we cooperated with China Film and spent four or five years to complete a science fiction film project called "The Wandering Earth." That's right, just like all the previous interviews over the years, Meng Bai's real purpose was to take advantage of this popularity to promote the upcoming "The Wandering Earth."

After all, the entire "Wandering Earth" project has few selling points. The science fiction theme itself is niche, and it has the debuff of being a "domestic production", which makes it even more difficult to attract the audience's interest. And the cast is mostly newcomers, and only Wu Jing and Uncle Da have some appeal.

In addition, almost all of the crew’s funds were spent on filming and post-production, leaving little for publicity and promotion, so any extra money could be saved.

The reporters thought that the interview would end soon after the last question, but Meng Bai dragged everyone to talk about the film promotion for more than half an hour. It was not until a long time after the scheduled time that the interview finally ended with a sense of unfulfilled desire.

The reporters didn't really care. They just provided interview material, so the more the better.

Besides, the fact that it is the first "domestic science fiction movie" with such a large production volume is quite eye-catching, and it is also good to include it in the interview.
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It will take some time for the media to release the exclusive interview, but Meng Bai's popularity on the Internet continues to grow.

Because of the previous "ratings fraud" incident, his Weibo account has been exposed. In just less than a week, the number of followers of this small account, which does not even have a certification mark, has increased by more than 2 million.

The comment section was also a mess, with some expressing respect, some hurling insults; there were those who were just joking and said "Mr. Meng, give me a V-level to see my strength", there were those looking for jobs, and there were even quite a few fans of Arc Light who urged for updates online.

Of course, these messy "activities" are mainly from male fans, while the messages from female fans are much simpler, and they basically just call him "husband".

[It doesn’t matter if he has money or not, the key is that this guy’s looks really impress me. 】

[Excuse me, does any sister have a clearer photo of my husband? I think it can be used at night. ]

[I'm sorry, Sicong, please don't call me again. I'm afraid Meng Bai will misunderstand.]

[I really don't understand what these people like? They just look at his money and face, right? Doesn't anyone know that Meng Bai is a scumbag? ]

[What is the dog barking about above? He doesn't read the rumors or clarifications, but just grabs on the rumors spread by those junk marketing accounts every day. Besides, he is handsome and rich, so what's wrong with changing a few girlfriends? ]

【…】

Speaking of which, not long ago, Meng Bai was somewhat labeled as "Sea King" and "Scumbag". As his assets and status were announced, he was naturally forgiven by the public.

There are even many people who expressed "understanding" for him - he works in the entertainment industry, and is surrounded by all kinds of beautiful actresses and female stars every day. Faced with such industry bigwigs, each one is more proactive than the other, so it is quite "normal" for him to have more girlfriends.

There are also some who have had "rumors" like Li Qin. Many fans said before, "Sister, don't be so love-minded. Run away when you see a scumbag." But now, the tone has changed. Many people are saying, "Sister, you should take the initiative and don't let your brother-in-law run away."

It has to be said that netizens’ moral standards may often be more flexible than those of the parties involved.

For Meng Bai, this is a good thing. At least if there is a scandal with a girl in the future, there won't be too many criticisms.

Otherwise, the character setting at the beginning is crucial. As long as the basin appears, there is no room to collapse.

But at this moment, Meng Bai didn't care much about this aspect. He had another thing to worry about.

"You mean, these are all the projects that were recently submitted to the company, and they have already been screened by the Film and Television Department?"

In the office, Meng Bai looked at the hundreds of new script projects in the company's script library and asked Hua Yan with a confused look on his face.

(End of this chapter)