How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 147 A transaction requires both buying and selling [10,000 words update, please subscribe]

DaMai and TaiMai are long-term partners, one responsible for concert content and the other for ticket sales. Moreover, the investor behind both companies is Junlian Capital of Changxiang Group.

Although Taimai focuses on the music industry, it also has a large number of concert or singer promotion needs every year. It was once one of Meishe/Tianhuo's clients. This tripartite meeting was facilitated through Chi Xin's introduction.

"Mr. Wang, I've long admired your name. My name is Min Genyuan, and this is Zhao Jie from Damai.com. I apologize for the intrusion and hope you will forgive me." Although Min Genyuan is Korean, he speaks fluent Mandarin.

He is in charge of Taimai's international business, specializing in connecting concerts and artist events in Korea and Japan. In the past two years, he has been the one to handle the arrangements for foreign artists' concerts and connect them with Damai.com to sell tickets. He is also a nominal partner of Damai.com.

"Mr. Min and Mr. Zhao, thank you for waiting. This place is a bit hard to find," Wang Yao said with a smile, shaking hands with the two men.

"President Wang is even younger than I imagined. It's true that talent emerges in every generation." Zhao Jie looked somewhat like an IT guy.

As everyone took their seats and the dishes were served, the conversation naturally began with the celebrity Qiu Cixuan. Min Genyuan came from the Goryeo conglomerate SK Entertainment, which was the same company as Qiu Cixuan's. He had helped her manage things for a period of time after she came to China, so they were acquaintances.

After three rounds of wine, five flavors of food.

Zhao Jie couldn't contain himself and cut to the chase: "I heard that President Wang acquired Kaixin Mahua? Is he planning to get into the small theater business?"

"Mr. Zhao is quite well-informed; I just signed this contract a few days ago," Wang Yao said, somewhat surprised.

“Kaixin Mahua has always been our long-term partner. After receiving the news a few days ago that the contract would not be renewed, we made a special inquiry,” Zhao Jie said with a smile.

“It’s not that we want to get involved in small theaters, it’s just that our own ticketing system happens to cover it. Mr. Zhao, there’s no need to be so nervous. If Kanpian.com wants to expand offline, the first thing we should do is talk to Mr. Min first,” Wang Yao said with a light laugh.

Zhao Jie breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. Although DaMai.com's operations were currently stable, the outcome was uncertain if the other party were to actually enter the competition.

Moreover, they are forced into cutthroat competition because the market is too small.

“Taimai can’t compare to big companies like Mango Tianyu. If Mr. Wang really wants to get involved, he can’t go wrong by contacting them first,” Min Genyuan said politely.

Taimai is indeed not a large company in the music industry now, with a market value of only around 5 to 8 million, but it has accumulated a lot of talent and international experience. On the other hand, Mango Tianyu, due to various questionable actions in the later stages, actually gave up the industry.

“You two don’t need to test us anymore. For now, our Kanpianer.com is only focused on the film market, and our goal this year is to reach around 10 billion in revenue,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

“The film industry is indeed a huge market, with a total volume of tens of billions, unlike our offline business, which at most has a volume of a few billion. However, Mr. Wang is indeed bold, daring to invest heavily in this industry from the very beginning,” Zhao Jie said in a deep voice.

“But since we’re talking about this, there might actually be room for cooperation between us.” Wang Yao narrowed his eyes.

Although the offline ticketing market is not large now, the profit margin is very high. Wang Yao remembers that after they were acquired by Alibaba, they released a financial report one year with 10 billion yuan in revenue and 7 million yuan in net profit, which is a terrifying profit margin of over 70%.

If mergers and acquisitions or collaborations are possible, future development in areas such as small theaters and script-based murder mystery games is likely to be further promoted.

"Mr. Wang still has ambitions for offline expansion," Zhao Jie sighed.

"Actually, the total size of the ticketing market is not large, and not many companies will survive in the future because the entry barrier is too low," Wang Yao said seriously.

This is an industry that will eventually be monopolized, both online and offline.

"What is Mr. Wang's valuation of Kanpianer.com?" Zhao Jie asked in return.

“Ten billion,” Wang Yao replied.

"? Then the box office market size must have exceeded 100 billion, right? So optimistic?" Zhao Jie was surprised.

Even though he had been in the ticketing market for ten years, he didn't think that the domestic film market could develop so much in the future. With a box office of hundreds of billions, wouldn't that mean that a billion people across the country would have to watch two movies a year?

What kind of life did they lead?
"Not just domestically, but also internationally?" Wang Yao smiled. "If we only focus on the domestic market, the size of Kanpianer.com will at most double. Besides box office revenue, we also have marketing and distribution, and there may be other types of revenue sources in the future. This is not optimism about the industry, but optimism about the development of China."

Zhao Jie looked at Wang Yao in surprise upon hearing this, not expecting that this young man had such a high level of vision.
Min Genyuan, being a foreigner, didn't understand these things and simply listened quietly.

"The improvement of living standards will inevitably drive entertainment consumption, but how to provide high-quality content to promote consumption requires the joint efforts of all links in the industry chain. Mr. Zhao's current model is very stable, but with the advancement of the real-name system, other factors may emerge in the future, and they may not necessarily come from competitors." Wang Yao said with a smile, trying to put Zhao Jie in his place.

This implies that his scalping model is short-sighted and detrimental to offline businesses.

Even though fans may be foolish and rich, they shouldn't be treated like animals.

"Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Wang." Zhao Jie nodded with a smile, pondering to himself.

"Does Taimai need investment?" Wang Yao turned to look at Min Genyuan.

"Is President Wang also interested in the music industry?" Min Genyuan, who was watching the show, was taken aback.

Why did the topic suddenly shift to me?

“Of course, music is an essential part of entertainment. Although album sales are getting worse, the value of digital copyrights is increasing,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

“Without solving the piracy problem, the music industry can’t develop. As a veteran in the industry, I advise Mr. Wang to be more cautious. The same amount of money can be invested anywhere else than in music.” Min Genyuan shook his head sincerely.

"If Mr. Min's company has any news about financing, please feel free to contact me anytime. Also, we can cooperate more on the publicity and promotion of your artists or events," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Can the Skyfire model also be applied to the music industry?" Min Genyuan asked with some curiosity.

“Aren’t Xu Song and Wang Sulong successful examples of online singers? Of course, they may not have much profit in the short term, but I’m still optimistic about their long-term development. Let’s all be more optimistic about domestic copyrights,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

Zhao Jie and Min Genyuan exchanged a glance and then began to greet each other.

After confirming that Kanpianer.com had no plans to get involved in theater ticketing in the short term, Zhao Jie relaxed a lot and shared some insights into the ticketing industry in the subsequent chat.

But these were all tricks about ticket speculation, and they were of no use to Wang Yao.

As their conversation was nearing its end, someone knocked on the door of the private room, and Min Genyuan's men ran over and whispered something in his ear.

“Then let them come over. Girls’ Generation from SM Entertainment next door is having a celebration party after their tour ended. They heard I was here and wanted to say hello,” Min Genyuan explained to Wang Yao.

I don't know if it was a genuine coincidence or if it was pre-arranged.

Soon, Girls' Generation's managers brought the nine members over with wine glasses to offer a toast. After all, they are the national girl group of Korea, and they had met Choo Ja-hyun once on a show. Min Geun-won specially introduced Wang Yao to them, and the girls left in a hurry after greeting each other.

"Wow, Qiu Cixuan is here too! But the handsome guy next to her is actually her president in China? He's so young!" Lin Yoona couldn't help but gossip as soon as she returned to the private room.

"And it looks kind of familiar?" Choi Soo-young asked, puzzled.

“He visited our company before, and we sold him the rights to the card back then,” Lee Soon-kyu said.

"Oh! I remember now, that day in the practice room, I thought he was a new trainee!" Jessica Jung exclaimed softly.

"Aren't you face-blind? How come you remember him as soon as you see a handsome guy?" Kim Tae-yeon teased.

"So Kim Ji-won signed with a Chinese company. No wonder her Myspace followers are growing so fast," Hwang Mi-young said, frowning.

Myspace has recently become popular among Korean women because Wang Yao added a music sharing and commenting function, imitating NetEase Cloud Music by creating many inspirational and melancholic comments. SM Entertainment specifically required all artists to register accounts on it to share information and gain fans.

Moreover, the recent hot topic of all-female variety shows is something that idols are quite concerned about. After all, if they can participate in such variety shows, they can reduce their interaction with male artists and greatly reduce the chances of attracting haters.

Kim Ji-won is the second Korean artist in China to be revealed by PD Lee Yoo-jung. Coupled with the effect of the mobile phone advertisement she filmed with BB at the beginning of the year, she has suddenly become a candidate for the most promising new actress in the eyes of online media.

This kind of debut resource is clearly a sign of the company's strong support. Even though Girls' Generation has become a national-level girl group, they still may not be able to easily obtain such high-quality resources. They have always been speculating about which conglomerate Kim Ji-won is backed by.

I never expected that the mystery would be solved today.

"No wonder they say China has so many resources it can't use them all," Lin Yoona remarked.

She originally wanted to be an actress, but being an idol took up too much of her time and energy, and the company didn't give her any acting opportunities, which caused her some trouble.

"Alright, let's eat quickly. We have to fly to Japan for rehearsals tomorrow." Leader Kim Tae-yeon noticed that her teammates' conversation was tinged with resentment and quickly tried to lighten the mood.

This year, the company arranged an extremely demanding schedule for them, and the extreme fatigue caused the team's morale to be low, with teammates arguing almost every two days.

"Sunny, who is this Mr. Wang?" Jessica Jung asked in a low voice.

"I don't know, but I heard that he acquired Lee Yong-woo PD's company, and he can dine at the same table as President Min, so he must be quite powerful. He even specifically sought out Song Qian at the last dinner party, so the two of them might know each other," Lee Soon-kyu said casually.

"Oh?" Jessica Jung raised an eyebrow slightly and went to the side to send a text message to her sister.

After finishing his dinner with Min Genyuan, Wang Yao returned to the company and had someone collect and organize information on Da Mai and Tai Mai before calling Zhang Meng into his office.

"Mr. Wang is looking for me?" Zhang Meng was wearing a well-tailored cheongsam that accentuated her figure.

"Come with me to the 'Shiba' gala dinner tomorrow," Wang Yao said, handing over a beautifully wrapped invitation.

“Me?” Zhang Meng was stunned.

This banquet is quite famous in the industry. Those who are invited can basically be called celebrities from all walks of life. The female celebrities are at least near-top-tier, and they only have a chance if they have a good relationship with Su Mang or other brands.

Zhang Meng, a third-tier celebrity, has almost no right to participate.

And most importantly, why her?
She hasn't decided which contract to sign yet.

The overwhelming surprise and disappointment even made her feel a little embarrassed and unworthy. "If we're representing the brand, Nazha and Tian Ai would be more suitable," Zhang Meng said, placing the invitation on the table with a hint of pain in her eyes.

This is arguably her closest chance to get into the inner circle.

"Don't overthink it. The main reason I chose you is because you can hold your liquor well. There will definitely be a lot of difficult situations that night, and I'll have to rely on you to get me out of those situations." Wang Yao said with a smile.

Zhang Meng was stunned, then snapped back to reality from her imagined happiness and inner turmoil, giving Wang Yao a resentful glare. "Aren't you a little too honest?"

"Otherwise, why do you think it is?" Wang Yao curled the corners of his mouth, his smile carrying a hint of amusement.

"Tsk, what am I supposed to wear? It's too late to order a dress now." Zhang Meng rolled her eyes.

"Just wear something casual, we're guests, we're not walking the red carpet," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Understood." Zhang Meng picked up the invitation and swayed her slender waist as she left.

So you're just a tool to shield someone from drinking, huh?

But her lighter, more brisk steps suggested that she was in a good mood.

"I hope he really understands." Wang Yao chuckled and shook his head, then began to handle his work.

As dinner time approached, Wang Yao unexpectedly received a call from Song Qian.

"Mr. Wang, are you familiar with the recent event called the 'Shiba' Gala Dinner?" Song Qian asked in a soft, ingratiating tone.

“I know, so what? You guys are participating too?” Wang Yao raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Our group didn't receive an invitation, but they said they invited WG to be the opening act," Song Qian explained. "Is this event difficult to get into?"

"It's quite difficult, but if you'd like to come, I can show you around," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Hehe, actually it wasn't me, it was a friend who wanted to participate," Song Qian said with a sheepish smile.

"Such a big favor, you're giving it away to someone else?" Wang Yao narrowed his eyes.

"You asked me to investigate some things last time, right? I don't have any leads, but my friend has a wider network of connections, so I'm just a messenger," Song Qian quickly said.

"Hmm? That's interesting. Who is it?" Wang Yao asked, intrigued.

He had indeed previously instructed Song Qian to keep a close eye on the dark side of the Korean entertainment industry, to use as material for the future.

If the material is valuable, it can be exchanged for some help in the future.

"You should know Jessica Jung of Girls' Generation, right?" Song Qian hesitated for a moment, then lowered her voice.

“Her? I saw her this afternoon.” Wang Yao was taken aback.

Jessica Jung's blonde hair and grumpy face when she was toasting made it hard not to leave an impression. Who would have thought that she would turn out to be the person who privately contacts people to find resources?

“She told me, ‘Why don’t I give you her contact information and you two can chat?’” Song Qian said with a smile.

“Okay,” Wang Yao replied.

"Then, can this information be exchanged for a chance to help?" Song Qian asked quickly.

"Have you run into trouble lately?" Wang Yao asked.

"Not at the moment," Song Qian denied.

"If I manage to disband Girls' Generation through Jessica Jung, that'll be a huge achievement for you," Wang Yao chuckled.

"Huh? Then President Kim will come after you to the death." Song Qian was stunned for a moment, not knowing whether Wang Yao was joking or serious.

Wang Yao got Jessica Jung's contact information and sent her a text message.

"Where are you going so late?"

As Jessica Jung tiptoed out of the house, she was suddenly startled by a sound behind her.

Turning his head, he saw Kim Tae-yeon standing small in the shadows, staring intently at him.

"Oh, I've arranged to meet a friend outside," Jessica Jung said, trying to remain calm.

"It's so late, and you're unfamiliar with the area, so let your assistant go with you," Kim Tae-yeon said in a deep voice.

"Hey, you're just the captain, not my guardian." Jessica Jung's tone turned somewhat cold upon hearing this.

"So, the company can't know about this friend of yours?" Kim Tae-yeon asked expressionlessly.

“Are you a supervisor sent by the company? I’m a person, I have my own life, and I don’t have to revolve around the company in everything.” Jessica Jung’s face darkened.

"I just don't want our career, which has just started to take a hit, to suffer an accident. I know everyone is very tired lately, and I also know that there will be many temptations after we become popular," Kim Tae-yeon said, seemingly nagging.

“Enough.” Jessica Jung interrupted coldly. “If you’re willing to be a commodity and be manipulated, I won’t stop you, but you can’t stop others from pursuing independence and freedom.”

Kim Tae-yeon was speechless, silently exchanging glances with Jessica Jung, and after a long while sighed, "Well then, remember to come back early. You need to be at the airport around 9 o'clock tomorrow."

"Hmm." Upon hearing this, Jessica Jung loosened her clenched fists, which she had been holding tightly due to nervousness.

She was genuinely afraid of alerting her agent and assistant.

Kim Tae-yeon watched silently from the window as Jessica Jung got into a Porsche, her feelings a complex mix.

I prayed silently that I would see her again tomorrow.

Kim Tae-yeon stared out the window for a while, then turned around and found someone sitting on the sofa behind her. She was so startled that she almost screamed.

"She's gone?" Lee Soon-kyu asked with a smile, her hair still damp from a shower.

Kim Tae-yeon remained silent in the face of this relative of the big boss.

“Everyone has their own ideas, especially as they have more and more. We are just a team, not a unified entity, so you don’t need to feel too much pressure.” Lee Soon-kyu seemed to see Kim Tae-yeon’s pain and smiled softly.

"Why can't you just focus on your work?" Kim Tae-yeon blinked and asked innocently.

“Because in the beginning, people probably didn’t see being an idol as a job.” Lee Soon-kyu shrugged. “Many times, people are forced into it because they have no other choice. Once they have a choice, it’s different.”

“She said she would come back,” Kim Tae-yeon said in a deep voice.

"Don't worry, I won't tell on you, but I don't think she will." Lee Soon-kyu smiled, her tone slightly sarcastic.

Kim Tae-yeon fell silent again.

"You mean you're planning to go to this event against the company's arrangements?" Wang Yao didn't run far after picking up Jessica Jung; he stopped by the river.

After listening to Jessica Jung's account of the events leading up to this, it seems that the company planned too many marketing campaigns that were detrimental to her in the early stages, without her consent. This essentially sacrificed her to bring a lot of attention to the team.

However, she was not given equal compensation afterward. She had some expectations for acting and singing, but the good resources were taken by her teammates. Then she was labeled as 'lazy' by the company and attacked by the fans of her teammates.

Although she is currently among the top three most popular members of the group thanks to her charm, she believes that the company is wasting her life and talent.

Although she is only 21 years old, she has 11 years of work experience including her trainee period. Moreover, the company made so much money last year, yet they still didn't increase their share of the profits. This behavior is unacceptable to her. As a Korean-American, she cannot accept this distorted system in Korea, not to mention the culture of serving drinks.

Although she has attended several business dinners since her debut, she still feels very uncomfortable. Moreover, it's not just her; her sister, Krystal Jung, is also in the company and has just debuted, and she has also suffered more malicious marketing.

So she is already preparing a plan to negotiate with the company to fight for her interests. Since the company cannot provide her with the resources and treatment she deserves, she is prepared to fight for it herself.

Anyway, she felt that the team was currently on the rise and a cash cow, so the company wouldn't dare to do anything to her.

This is a typical escape plan of a rebellious girl who is somewhat intelligent but not very bright.

Although it's a bit naive, it's quite imaginative.

"That's right, I heard this banquet is very high-end, and it features many top international designers. If I manage to sneak in, the company can't do anything to me."
On the contrary, they will promote it positively because this is the first time a Girls' Generation member has participated in an event of this caliber. Jessica Jung said in a coquettish tone, with a proud expression.

It was as if he had already successfully taken control of the company.

"What will I get in return?" Wang Yao blinked and asked curiously.

after all.

A transaction requires both an entry and an exit.

(End of this chapter)