After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 464 Ratings Survey

Because "Everyone's Art" is going to be taken off the air, the production team has relaxed.

No need to go to work early in the morning anymore.

In the dead of winter, everyone loves to sleep in.

That morning, Zhou Haoran held Qiao Suiqing in his arms, and amidst her complaints and resistance, they completed another round of tender lovemaking that belonged to the early morning.

It took Qiao Suiqing quite a while to recover.

Zhou Haoran always bought breakfast from the breakfast shop.

"Sister Qingmei, are you still not up?"

After Zhou Haoran got home, he looked around and found her washing up.

"I'm here, I'm coming."

Qiao Suiqing took a quick shower.

Zhou Haoran suggested, "Since there's nothing much going on right now, you don't need to go to work this morning. If you're tired, just rest more."

Qiao Suiqing rolled her eyes at him, "Working isn't tiring, but doing that kind of thing with you is."

Zhou Haoran laughed heartily, "Isn't that enjoyable?"

"I don't enjoy it."

Qiao Suiqing gave a soft snort.

Zhou Haoran paused for a moment, then slowly said, "That might be because you're a bit indifferent. Aunt Wan and Teacher Jiang are enjoying it and they're addicted to it. You can ask them if you have time."

Qiao Suiqing was too embarrassed to discuss this kind of thing, and said reproachfully, "Minmin also said that you always bully her, and you wish you could make her kneel down and pay her respects to you every day. Where did you learn that from?"

“This is called setting rules, which is a traditional virtue. If you don’t know how to set rules, I have to help you, otherwise there will be disharmony in the family in the future.”

Zhou Haoran spoke with righteous indignation.

"what?!"

Qiao Suiqing found it absurd and inexplicable.

"Alright, come and have breakfast." Zhou Haoran pulled her over and casually asked, "How's the house purchase going?"

Qiao Suiqing said with great concern, "Now many houses are being put up for sale. The sharp drop in housing prices is terrifying; many families have lost the savings of several generations."

"what?"

Zhou Haoran peeled a hard-boiled egg and put it in her bowl.

Qiao Suiqing said with great concern, "The housing prices in the harbor are too high. Many houses are bought with mortgages, and the down payment is as high as 100,000. Many families have used up their parents' life savings and taken out loans for 20 or 30 years to buy a house. Now the housing prices have dropped by 30%, and the savings of two generations are all gone!"

Zhou Haoran nodded, not surprised. "Yes, they say the financial crisis won't affect the domestic market. But in reality, with this sharp drop in housing prices, I don't know how many families will lose everything."

Qiao Suiqing said, "Two months ago, when I went to look at houses, all the good ones were still not for sale. But recently, there have been a lot more houses available, and many houses that were purchased with mortgages are now being sold off at a clearance price."

Zhou Haoran expressed his understanding: "A sharp drop in housing prices causes market panic. If they sell early, they might only lose their down payment. If they sell late, and prices fall further, the loan will become unbearable. That's why Buffett said never to leverage your investments. When risks come, you simply can't withstand them!"

Qiao Suiqing sighed softly, losing her appetite. "There's a young couple who are from out of town. They've been working hard in the port for seven or eight years and wanted to buy a house to settle down... Now they're really desperate and want to sell the house and go back to their hometown."

Zhou Haoran chuckled and said, "The agent told you, right?"

"Huh?" Qiao Suiqing was taken aback. "You mean the real estate agent is lying to me?"

Zhou Haoran said calmly, "Just listen to those kinds of words. Excessive sympathy is a shackle that prevents many people from achieving upward social mobility. Investment is investment, and business is business; keep them separate. With housing prices plummeting and the market in panic, this is your opportunity to enter the market!"

"Oh, then I'll listen to you."

Qiao Suiqing nodded slightly, agreeing with his opinion.

Zhou Haoran said, "Anyway, 'Everyone's Art Up' has been suspended now. Go find Aunt Wan and Teacher Jiang. Don't do anything else for the time being, just buy a house!"

……

"Zhou Haoran, another job is coming up!"

Qiao Hai made a very urgent phone call.

Zhou Haoran was on his way to work to have some discussions with Gu Hao from Red Star TV when he asked, "What's up?"

Qiao Hai laughed, "A Frenchman came, saying he wanted to cooperate with us and asked us to provide technical support in data statistics. Those big-nosed foreigners are all very rich; it might be another good opportunity to extort money from them!"

Zhou Haoran retorted angrily, "We are legitimate business people!"

Qiao Hai said seriously, "They are a big French company. It seems they are going to set up a joint venture in China. They are very rich."

"what company?"

Zhou Haoran knew that the best way to make big money in China these days was twofold: one was to profit from state-owned enterprises, and the other was to provide services to foreign companies.

Qiao Hai chuckled and said, "It's related to your business!"

"Say it!"

"A company that does viewership rating statistics!"

"Huh?" Zhou Haoran was taken aback. "A TV station?"

Qiao Haidao: "Yes, it's a TV station. The company is called CSM (Sofres), and it seems to be the third largest market research company in Europe. They want to come to China and enter the viewership ratings research market."

"I'll go right away!"

Zhou Haoran immediately realized the importance of this matter.

Afterwards, I met two foreigners with big noses.

As expected, it was an executive from the French research firm CSM (Sofres), who specifically named Zhou Haoran as someone who wanted to see "Good Man Zhou." From that address alone, Zhou Haoran understood.

"Zhou Haoran" is a renowned expert in the field of IT academia, but due to information asymmetry, only people within the industry know about him. Even at Fudan University, let alone at television stations, only a small number of people in the Computer Science Department know that Zhou Haoran is "Zhou Haoran."

The other party immediately mentioned "Zhou the Good Man".

They're probably here for academic purposes.

There might actually be an opportunity to "extort" them!

However, after some communication, I was somewhat disappointed.

The other party explained that CSM is a research company, and their research system is supported by Oracle technology, which is very expensive, costing more than $700 million a year in service fees!
Oracle's pricing is based on the number of customers whose systems are used.

With such a large domestic market and population, using Oracle's services would be too expensive. Furthermore, the domestic market is very immature, and ratings companies don't make much money there.

Therefore, this visit by CSM Media Research to China is the biggest difference between it and Nielsen's previous visits to China to conduct viewership ratings surveys.

With Nelson's preliminary exploration.

CSM has identified the shortcomings of the domestic market, and they need to change their strategy to be profitable.

There are mainly two moves.

First, establish a joint venture.

It merged with Crown Media's media research center to form Crown-Sofres Research.

Second, find low-cost local service companies to provide some technical guarantees.

Zhongbo Software is the best partner.

I don't know about it in China, but it's been reported in foreign newspapers that Mr. Zhou Haoren once provided technical guidance to Oracle and helped them improve their products.

That's real strength!
CSM Media Research is supported by Oracle, but Oracle is seeking technical support from Zhou Haoren.

In that case, why doesn't CSM just go directly to Zhou Haoren?

That saves money!
Upon hearing this, Qiao Hai immediately became disappointed.

Depend on!
These two Frenchmen were actually poor!
They wanted to make money in China but didn't want to invest too much, so they partnered with Crown TV for a joint venture and wanted to hire Zhongbo Software from China at a low price to provide them with some data statistics technical support...

This is trying to have both!
Qiao Hai instinctively wanted to refuse.

Zhongbo Software is too busy!

We do not accept small orders!
Zhou Haoran wasn't concerned about the technical funding for the collaboration. He immediately demanded that Qiao Hai be deeply involved and help them run the newly established Crown TV-Sofres Investigation joint venture well!

If necessary, we can acquire a stake!
A three-way joint venture, using shares to forcibly bind the parties together!

The French were very satisfied.

Zhou Haoran was really looking forward to it.

Qiao Hai was completely confused.

When Zhou Haoran returned to his workplace, things weren't over yet; he had to meet with Gu Hao, the executive vice president of the station.

It might not be possible to succeed by relying on Song Yongjun alone.

Little did they know, Gu Hao and Song Yongjun had a very good relationship and had already made arrangements.

"Haoran!" Gu Hao waved warmly when he saw him. "Come, sit down!"

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "Director Gu, are you busy?"

Gu Hao said meaningfully, "I've heard about the cancellation of 'Everyone's Art'. Hmm, you've done a good job. You've done a great job, so you don't need to worry about anything else. I'll take care of the rest."

Zhou Haoran sighed, "Even if Director Song has his own ideas, without 'Everyone's Art,' he might have a tough time on the lifestyle channel."

"will not."

"He's on the lifestyle channel, but he's not very popular."

"Red Star Station is the nation's Red Star Station, not a place where any one person can control everything. Any personnel transfer or appointment within the station must be reported to the superior authority."

Gu Hao remained calm.

Zhou Haoran understood immediately; Director Gu was also involved!

"Director Gu, after three trial episodes, 'Everyone's Art' was taken off the air. Actually, there were some requirements for the program. We need a lot of excellent post-production directors and editors, and most of the talents in our unit are at Red Star TV."

"Then we should definitely schedule 'Everyone's Art' to be broadcast on Red Star TV."

Gu Hao laughed heartily, very satisfied.

This small request must be met!
Zhou Haoran then asked, "Director Gu, how are the ratings for our Red Star TV station nationwide?"

"It's very high!"

Gu Hao's words were perfectly reasonable.

Zhou Haoran pressed further: "What's your national ranking?"

Gu Hao pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "Crown TV is number one in the country, without a doubt. They have seven or eight channels, all of which are satellite. Other local stations only have one satellite channel, which is inherently unfair in terms of policy."

Zhou Haoran asked with a smile, "How does it compare to a volcano?"

Gu Hao was silent for a moment, then sighed, "Last year, Red Star TV was far ahead of Volcano TV. This year, their 'Happy Camp' was a huge success, making Volcano TV famous nationwide and the most well-known local channel."

Zhou Haoran hummed in agreement. "How exactly are the ratings calculated?"

(End of this chapter)