How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 127 I Was Cuckolded
When a whale falls, all things are born.

The predicament of Shufei, a leading brand with over 15% market share, presents a good opportunity for other brands to make a comeback.

That same day, Qu Shou received collaboration invitations from dozens of sanitary napkin brands, with the highest endorsement fee reaching eight figures, all of which Wang Yao rejected.

The next day, Qu Shou's account posted another update, which was a notice announcing a lawsuit against Shufei Company.

Qu ShouV: This endorsement controversy made me realize that endorsers are responsible to both the brand and the consumers. It also made me realize that even large international companies can make mistakes for the slightest gain. After careful consideration, and for the safety of myself and those around me,

I co-founded the daily-use brand 'TA Research Society' with the Women's Aid Association. Due to limited capabilities, this brand may not be the most technologically advanced, but at least it's a product that I and those around me dare to use. For more details, please follow the official website updates. Thank you to all the friends who supported and helped us in this rights protection effort. Finally, I'd like to share a quote from my husband.

Those who can do something, do it; those who can speak out, speak out. Even a little warmth or light can contribute, like a firefly, illuminating the darkness. We don't need to wait for a torch; you and I are light ourselves.

The fact that you and those around you dare to use a product is enough to make it resonate with people's minds, and it also sets a standard for judging a spokesperson.

Qu Shou's MVP speeches always go viral online. This girl, who has gained attention for her private photos, seems to be showing everyone what it means to turn adversity into victory and be reborn from the brink of death.

Moreover, his actions are insightful, his vision is grand, and his rationality and objectivity combined with his emotional impulsiveness make him seem unlike a 'human being' at all.

In fact, many people have already realized that Qu Shou is not a 'person', but they dare not say it.

Netizens cheered and celebrated the victory over evil foreign capital, which also solidified Qu's status as the number one person with internet influence. His number of fans on the Sina platform alone has exceeded ten million.

Meanwhile, the brand trademark 'TA Research House' has just been registered and has already become a highly anticipated new brand, with other participants in the [Women's Support Association] also sharing in the traffic support.

The biggest beneficiaries are the music promotion events on the Myspace platform. Yesterday, the first batch of releases featured versions featuring six top-tier artists: Bingbing, Dan, and Bingbing.

Riding on this wave of popularity, the album sold 8 copies in 24 hours. Although the price of 29 yuan per copy was not expensive, 2010 was already the era of the decline of CDs, and now everyone was slowly moving towards digital music.

Moreover, there is no favorable environment for chart ranking in China. Most people who buy albums are true fans, and the rest basically listen to pirated copies.

The sales figures of these six top influencers on the first day were already quite impressive, especially Fan Bingbing, who sold 2 copies, ranking first. Li Bingbing came in second with 1.6 copies. It is estimated that as more versions are released, the total sales will eventually exceed three million copies.

Therefore, the Women's Aid Association's account, including previous box office donations, already has nearly ten million yuan in funds. In addition to using a portion to help those in need protect their rights, another portion is for investment.

Taking advantage of the controversy surrounding Shu Fei, the foundation can enter the low-end manufacturing industry of daily necessities. This industrial chain can provide a large number of basic labor jobs, thus realizing the foundation's value.

With increased brand influence, Wang Yao could earn over 100 million yuan in cash flow from just the sanitary napkin category alone, with an annual commission of 5% for operations.

Besides, the biggest gain was not in China, but abroad. The topic of the "poisonous concubine" caused an even bigger sensation on foreign websites. Not only in Japan, but also in Korea and Europe and the United States, the response was faster than expected.

Even without Wang Yao's intervention, discussions about women's health and safety had already spread on major platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, bringing the international version of Myspace, which had long disappeared from public view, back into the sight of its old users.

This time, although the website was still as cumbersome and outdated as ever, its content attracted a lot of female users and gained their approval. The main focus was the promotional event for the all-star version of "Labour" on the homepage.

Previously, this platform was a music sharing platform, so most long-time users would focus on the music section first.

The lyrics that resonate with the audience, the powerful melody, and the unfamiliar yet novel Eastern faces all brought a fresh and exciting experience to these foreigners.

The combined traffic from both sources quickly crashed Myspace's international servers. After daily active users declined to around 100,000 starting the year before last, the company laid off a large number of servers and practically abandoned the project.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have been Wang Yao's turn to buy at the bottom, since even he didn't expect so many users to flock in because of these two hot topics.

That afternoon, Deng Wendi called to say she had good news for Wang Yao.

The following evening, Deng Wendi arrived at Wang Yao's office with two contracts.

One is a previously signed performance-based agreement, a 20% equity transfer contract for Myspace Group.

The other document is a letter of authorization from the CEO of Myspace's Asian branch, as well as the transfer of 40% equity in the Asian branch.

"What is this?" Wang Yao raised an eyebrow slightly. The first contract was as expected. Myspace's domestic version already had 50 users, which were high-threshold core users, and the daily active users (DAU) were stable at around 15.

Although its overall volume is not as large as Sina and NetEase, its daily page views are in the millions, second only to large social forums like Tianya, placing it at the level of a second-tier platform in China.

They almost exceeded the performance target of the contract.

The second contract was somewhat unexpected. Myspace Group has five subsidiaries. Previously, the CEO of the Asia division was Deng Wendi. Now, not only is the position being handed over to Wang Yao, but he is also being given 40% of the shares.

"Thanks to you, the influx of new traffic and topics into Myspace has given the head office the illusion that it's about to be revived. Add to that the stable operation of the domestic version, and my proactive efforts..."
"I'm already the CEO of Myspace Group headquarters, and the CEO position for the Asia region will naturally be handed over to you. As for the shares, consider it a personal gift from me." Although Deng Wendi looked a little tired, there was an undisguised joy in her eyes.

Clearly, this time she officially demonstrated her abilities to her husband and gained his approval. Although Myspace Group is a semi-abandoned project, it is still valued at tens of millions of US dollars.

Wang Yao's success with the domestic version, coupled with his previous transformation and mobile strategy, impressed the old man, leading him to persuade the board to hand the project over to Deng Wendi. Myspace's CEO was desperate to find a scapegoat; after all, the project, acquired for $600 million, had depreciated to almost 0.6 times its original value—not just a 50% loss, but a complete collapse. If this project fell through his hands, he would have a hard time surviving in the industry—bad luck indeed.

Just when he thought his career was over, that stupid woman Deng Wendi actually offered to take over, so he went along with it and gave up all his stock options, leaving them all to Deng Wendi, and resigned on his own initiative.

"Oh? Congratulations, Sister Di, your dream has come true." Wang Yao was somewhat surprised. "But isn't it a bit suspicious that the company was handed over to you so easily?"

“Of course, they just want me to take the blame, but it doesn’t matter. I have control of the company now. We were able to turn things around with just $100 million before, and now the old man has lent me another $1000 million as operating capital. How could things be worse than before?” Deng Wendi laughed freely.

She didn't expect the surprise to come so quickly. Her original plan was to first make the domestic version mature and then infiltrate the headquarters, but she didn't expect that the platform crash would attract the old man's attention.

Wang Yao smiled and nodded. "So, what are your plans for the future, Sister Di?"

"Of course I'll listen to you." Deng Wendi grinned. "I came here as soon as I got control because I wanted to hear your thoughts."

"To be honest, ten million US dollars is almost impossible to make a splash on international social media platforms. Myspace's traffic surge this time was an unexpected event. Our previous platform strategy was to gradually penetrate the market."

Therefore, I suggest that, apart from the Asia region, other regions should maintain their previous normal operations, first establish a successful model in the Asia region, mainly focusing on Korea and Japan. Once the user base reaches tens of millions, then we can consider strategies for other regions. We need a solid foundation.” Wang Yao pondered for a moment and said seriously.

"What about domestically?" Deng Wendi asked, somewhat dissatisfied upon hearing the scale of tens of millions.

“The competition is much fiercer domestically. In Japan and Korea, I’m confident I can compete with Twitter and Facebook, but domestically, I’m not so confident I can compete with Tencent,” Wang Yao said with a slight smile.

"Hmm, that makes sense." Deng Wendi suppressed her smile and nodded. "Okay, then I'll listen to you and take it one step at a time."

"How many major shareholders does the Asia Pacific company have?" Wang Yao asked.

“I gave you 40%, kept 30% for myself, and the remaining 30% is held by the parent company,” Deng Wendi said.

The Asia Pacific company was established at the very end because of Deng Wendi. In the early days, the headquarters did not even value this market much because of the impact of the Gu Ge incident at the time.

"To ensure the efficiency of my decision-making, I would like to hold Sister Di's shares on her behalf," Wang Yao said in a deep voice.

“No problem.” Deng Wendi readily agreed, after all, she had no intention of getting involved in Wang Yao’s operations; her greatest strengths were perseverance and listening to advice.

"How will the start-up funds for the Naya region be allocated?" Wang Yao asked the crucial question.

“I can give you six million US dollars first, and the rest will be just enough for the company’s operation.” Deng Wendi pondered for a moment.

Wang Yao nodded in satisfaction. "Those people the company doesn't need can be laid off. After all, we only need to keep the team responsible for daily website maintenance and business development."

Deng Wendi readily agreed, and after asking a few questions about platform operation and future development, she hurriedly returned to the United States, as there were still a series of matters that she needed to handle personally.

Wang Yao sent the contract to Zhang San's team to review for any risks. The procedures for holding shares in foreign companies were quite complicated. In the end, following Liu Haifeng's advice, they set up a multi-layered investment company called "Weigu" overseas to facilitate future operations.

It took a week to finalize the shareholding matters. As soon as the shares were confirmed, Wang Yao asked Liu Haifeng to help him find a financial institution to pledge the shares.

Following this week's global live stream on the progress of 'Shu Fei's rights protection' and the impact of 'Labour' on Feminism, Myspace Group has attracted many new and old users. In particular, Wang Yao has been having Kevin Rudd create various marketing accounts for the LGBT community on foreign websites, all of which are versions that have never been seen abroad. Currently, the daily active users (DAU) are close to one million, recovering to one-fiftieth of the peak.

Therefore, the valuation of Myspace Group by institutions has rebounded slightly, and the last 20% of the shares were pledged for 5000 million RMB with an annual interest rate of 5%.

Wang Yao transferred the cash to his wholly-owned company, Xinghuo Media, and purchased a property in Thames Town, Shanghai, for a total price of 1 million yuan. He then rented it out to Tianhuo Network Media at a 10% rent-to-sale ratio as office space and employee dormitories, thus covering all interest costs. He then waited for the property to appreciate in value.

The finance team estimated for Wang Yao that, in this way, the fixed assets and other assets of [Xinghuo Media] alone would approach 3 million.

They've finally reached a net worth of hundreds of millions. Although their cash flow still comes from the stable income of several million from their online store, their current available cash flow is close to hundreds of millions.

Because of the influence of his past life, Wang Yao's definition of wealth is different from others. In particular, the equity of major shareholders is basically an asset that cannot be cashed out or used. If he makes any rash moves, it will affect the operation of the entire company. Instead, he attaches great importance to cash flow and available funds.

Rights and benefits are acceptable, but risks and unrealistic promises are not.

Most of the funds that Wang Yao could use were not his own, but in the end, he was the one who enjoyed the benefits.

Just like how he wasn't Zhang Yuqi's husband, yet Zhang Yuqi angrily showed up at his door with a sexual consent form.

"I've been cheated on!" Zhang Yuqi slammed the signed consent form on the desk, leaving Wang Yao stunned.

Anyone who didn't know better would think that Wang Yao had cheated on her and cuckolded her.

(End of this chapter)