Who said this top flow is crazy! This top flow is awesome!

Chapter 371 Real-name registration for fucking! Let's get fucked together, let's go crazy together.

6 month 30 number.

The day before the start of Ikeno's Soundwave Unleashed global concert at the Bird's Nest.

In just one day, the #IkenoFansRefundTickets# incident skyrocketed, its popularity exploded, and it escalated rapidly.

Following the incident where exorbitantly priced tickets failed to sell, and Ikeno's "fans" were feared to become the biggest clowns, several more fans publicly denounced Ikeno's concert team online.

In an instant, everyone in Ikeno's team knew that they had encountered a master this time.

The Chinese entertainment industry has always been the core of a public opinion battleground. In recent years, the Chinese entertainment industry has long since evolved from the old-fashioned media to a world dominated by marketing.

What is marketing?

In professional terms, marketing is about expanding a product's reach and increasing its promotional efforts in order to achieve one's business objectives.

Marketing in the Chinese entertainment industry is the same, except that the products in the Chinese entertainment industry are "artists" and "personas". And this is one of the circles that uses marketing in the most despicable way, basically giving rise to all sorts of methods.

Black marketing is one of the most profitable alternative methods for marketing accounts.

The smear campaign targeting Ikeno's concert was clearly not accidental, but rather an organized and premeditated attack aimed at striking at the heart of the matter.

From the moment Ikeno began preparing for his concert, or perhaps even earlier, some people were already plotting how to "bring him down from his pedestal"—the success of "The Martian" gave Ikeno unparalleled confidence, but also brought him enough jealousy and envy.

The film and television industries, which have never bothered to associate with the music scene, may be making a concerted effort this time.

The exorbitant ticket prices were just a prelude; the real killer moves were the failed ticket refunds before the concert started, the more sensitive issue of fraudulent ticket purchases, and misleading promotion.

Ikeno admires this kind of opponent because he makes him feel a long-lost sense of being a "living person".

It turns out there are quite a few "smart people" in the Chinese entertainment industry.

Even if this "smart" person is only half-smart, they shouldn't be in such a hurry to deal with him.

"Brother Chi, the lawyer's letter has been drafted. When should we send it?"

Coco walked in, her face not showing much panic, but the unexpected incident two days before the concert had indeed caught everyone off guard, and she looked somewhat tired.

"A lawyer's letter? Have we reached the point where we're getting a lawyer's letter warning...?"

Chino inexplicably felt a sense of impending doom, like a dragon destined to become evil, and gently waved his hand: "No need to send a lawyer's letter."

"Huh? Why? They're clearly slandering us. We're sure to win the lawsuit."

Chi Ye shook his head again: "The media and netizens don't care about these things. Even if you win, no one cares. They only care about venting their emotions now. Once they've vented, they don't care if it's true or false."

Coco: "...Then what do we do? These recent incidents...have had a huge impact on our reputation."

"...The same old rule applies, help them out, but the current effort isn't enough."

"?"

Coco was taken aback and didn't immediately understand what Ikeno meant.

After a long while, seeing the other person's eyes, she realized it and looked completely bewildered: "Ah... this time you also hired people to curse each other? This... this time is different from before, Brother Chi."

Ikeno used to love sailing. When others criticized him, he would hire online trolls to attack him, ultimately achieving a "reverse effect" goal.

But this time is different. This time, the opponent is clearly a master, who has figured out that no matter how Ikeno responds, he will be helpless. This time, the loss of public favor and the "collapse" of reputation are almost a foregone conclusion.

Because Ikeno Kata currently only has two paths to take.

1. To silently endure and remain silent is seen as tacit acceptance by the public.

2. Rise up in resistance. Whether it's them opening their own accounts to buy scalped tickets or those wealthy fans of Ikeno buying tickets in a fit of anger, firstly, they didn't actually sell tickets. Secondly, and most importantly, even if they did buy tickets, everyone would think it's because there are too many crazy Ikeno fans.

This will only make the public dislike Ikeno and his fan club even more.

This kind of reputation may not matter much to Ikeno now, and it's limited to the music scene, but in the long run, it will definitely affect Ikeno's reputation in film and television, without a doubt.

Therefore, no matter how smart or good at marketing Ikeno is, it's all useless.

Coco understood this, which is why she was a little anxious. She didn't want what was supposed to be a good thing to become a stain on Ikeno's career.

She didn't understand why Ikeno would resort to the same old trick again, so she asked him directly.

Ikeno did not respond directly to her, but thought for a moment before saying, "The core point should be to bring up the ticket price. It's not 'shameful' enough yet. Keep losing face, the bigger the better, and it would be best if everyone knew."

Coco opened her mouth.

Mr. Wang, who had just walked in, also exclaimed "Ah!"

This ticket price was the very thing that was going to kill Ikeno. He had even released so many new songs to curb the price. Now you want to hype it up again and focus on the exorbitant ticket price?
This……

Chi Ye looked at the group, thought for a moment, and said frankly, "I also think this trend is bad. As an individual, I may suffer losses, but as a member of the Chinese entertainment industry, I think we can take this opportunity to crack down on the 'chaos' of exorbitant ticket prices!"

After saying that, he looked righteous, but Coco suddenly realized something and her eyes widened: "Brother Chi, you...you're really fucking bad..."

Chiye: "???"

“Uh… I mean… you doing this… you… well, you’re thinking too fast.”

Mr. Wang next to her hadn't figured it out yet, but Coco didn't explain either, because time was running out, and tomorrow at noon would be the first performance at the Ikeno Bird's Nest Station... She... she was excited.

Brother Chi is indeed too wicked, and as sinister as ever... In this situation, he actually figured this out so quickly.

……

Ikeno's team acted quickly. While the entire industry was still affected by the #IkenoTicketRefund# controversy and watching the drama unfold, the already explosive issue of ticket refunds, ticket prices, and most importantly, the fact that Ikeno's fans couldn't sell the exorbitantly priced tickets, escalated even further.

On Weibo's trending topics, more than a dozen influential marketing accounts that have long collaborated with Chiye Company collectively launched an attack, joining in various attacks to condemn the Chiye team and Chiye's brainless fans for the negative social impact they have caused.

Those involved behind the scenes and those just watching the drama unfold were all bewildered.

Outsiders were surprised that Ikeno was so quickly "hated by everyone." After all, although more than five months have passed since the Spring Festival, the triumphant scenes of "The Martian" and the pioneering spirit of the Chinese science fiction film are still fresh in everyone's mind.

The industry was utterly bewildered. "What...what is he doing?"

"If I remember correctly, these are the marketing accounts they've been supporting for years, right?"

"If I remember correctly, especially this entertainment gossip guy, he's always one of the ones who criticizes the Beijing entertainment circle."

"...I don't understand, I don't understand."

At first, it was incomprehensible, but soon everyone "got it".

As the refund controversy escalated, many people who had stockpiled Ikeno concert tickets began to feel uneasy.

Among them, even the real middlemen, who were planning to wait for the opening day of the Ikeno Bird's Nest Station and sell their goods at a "historic high price," suddenly panicked.

They tentatively tested the waters a few times, just like the "fans" who initially jumped out.

Because of the huge buzz, they even lowered the price of Ikeno concert tickets to avoid losing money.

The result—the result is fucking wrong!
"How did all the tickets sell out in a second?!"

A scalper stared dumbfounded at the scene before him. He had just listed the tickets for the inner circle on the secondary market. He had bought them for 100 million when he first started, and now he was listing them for 80 to test the waters, but they sold out in a second.

This…

This position is in the front row of the second row!
Based on the previous trend, there should have been someone willing to take the job even with a minimum guarantee of two million.

It was only because "so many people" had their online scams back that they thought they were going to lose a lot of money too, so they posted 80 yuan on the platform, but now it seems...

"It's not like Ikeno's tickets aren't selling; they're incredibly popular, aren't they?"

The scalper leader, realizing what was happening, burst into a tirade: "I've already screwed those people in the entertainment industry! Fine, you can scheme and plot, but why the hell are you ripping off us scalpers?! Damn it, do you think it's easy for me to earn a little money?!"

Yes, he naively thought that he was just caught in the crossfire and suffered the consequences, and he didn't think about Ikeno's team at all... After all, Ikeno's team had previously shown extreme disgust towards scalpers—without these bastards, there wouldn't have been so much trouble.

No one would have thought that Ikeno, who originally despised scalpers, could so smoothly "use" them.

Indeed, scalpers played a "decisive" role in this incident.

This scalper leader wasn't the first to try this. As everyone knows, those in the scalping business don't talk about morality. Colleagues are enemies. Although they have several groups within the business, when it comes down to it, everyone wants to "get out of there" first.

Therefore, there were many scalpers who tentatively sold Ikeno concert tickets at "low prices" in the first batch.

They encountered almost the exact same situation as the first scalper leader, and some were even more serious.

Among them was a scalper who, in a moment of panic, sold first-row inner field tickets for a low price of 50, only to be completely wiped out.

While scalpers were suffering this "epic devastation," many ordinary people who had managed to "snatch" scalped tickets at "low prices" excitedly posted screenshots online, along with captions:

Holy crap, I hit the jackpot! I can't believe I got front-row tickets for such a low price! Unbelievable!

[+1, I got one too! I just checked the page because I heard tickets weren't selling, and I didn't expect so many "discounted" tickets.]

[Those two rich guys in front, you call 100,000 a low-priced ticket?]

I never understood the world of the rich.

[100,000 is indeed very expensive, to be honest, but this ticket sold for as much as 5 million a month ago. Do you still think the price is high now?]

[Five million is still the original amount, haven't you seen Douyin? Many bloggers have said that tickets for Ikeno's concerts are simply not selling.]

【…】

While netizens who managed to snag tickets on various platforms were buzzing with excitement, someone retweeted a Weibo post from an account with over 100,000 followers, labeled "I'm Not a Scalper." The post contained only one sentence: "I, Wang Qiang, hereby publicly denounce those spreading rumors in the Chinese entertainment industry! Damn it, I bought tickets for two million, and they sold for 500,000! Who the hell is spreading these rumors?!"

Everyone was puzzled: "Who is this?"

Someone replied below: "You don't even know one of the biggest scalpers in the Chinese entertainment industry?"

Everyone: "Huh?"

Silence, a long silence followed.

Before they could even speak, more "victims"—the scalper bosses—took the stage.

Scalper A: [Who just bought the ticket I listed on XX? Please cancel it. I don't ship these tickets. The platform will fine me, but I definitely won't give you the ticket. It's worth millions; you think you can buy it for ten thousand? Offline transactions only!]

Scalper B: [Damn you! This entertainment industry is filthy! I've seen dirty stuff, but never anything like this! Is Chi Ye your father? Why are you spreading such rumors about him? Spreading rumors is one thing, but spending so much money on promotion like this is a huge rip-off! Don't let me find out who you are, or you won't be able to sell a single ticket to your concerts in the future!]

Scalper C: [Damn it, my colleagues knew about this but didn't even tell me! I lost millions this time... Damn it, is there no love left in this world? Can't they have any professional ethics? Does this industry have no sense of public morality whatsoever, besides ripping people off?!]

Everyone: "???"

Do scalpers even deserve to shout about "public morality"?
Pah! Shameless!

And what's going on here?
Some curious onlookers clicked in and discovered that scalper C was indeed extremely unlucky.

After the scalpers discovered that the incident was a complete fabrication, many of them, though furious, quickly shut up, being scalpers by nature, and instead began threatening other scalpers in the group chat: "Hurry up and sell! If you're any slower, you really won't be able to sell them! The Ikeno concert has already collapsed; if you're any later, you won't be able to get off the train!"

Similar comments were everywhere. The first batch of scalpers tacitly helped to "spread rumors" in order to quickly buy up tickets from other scalpers. When other scalpers saw that the big shots were saying this, they followed suit one by one.

This is just like the stock market where retail investors are exploited. At the slightest hint of a move by a big player, retail investors rush in (only to get fleeced).

This is a case of reaping what you sow.

These internal conflicts have essentially signaled the "complete collapse" of the scalpers' internal structure, as well as their outward display of profanity and impotent rage.

Ikeno previously said that to eliminate the phenomenon of scalpers, one must "sacrifice oneself" and "achieve success in the domestic entertainment industry," and this is no empty talk!
After this incident, scalpers across China have been "punished" to varying degrees. Those who lost less are better off, but those who lost more have even lost their underwear.

The onlookers and netizens were completely dumbfounded by this unprecedented scene of scalpers crying – what was going on? Wasn't it said that no one was willing to pay high prices for Ikeno's concert tickets?
Judging from this, scalpers are fighting tooth and nail for tickets, and there has even been a historic "major split" among them.

This event is historically known as the Yellow Ox Incident.

(End of this chapter)