How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 158 This life boils down to two words: benevolence and righteousness.

In behavioral psychology, there is a 21-day effect.

This refers to the phenomenon that new habits or ideas can be formed through repeated behaviors or thoughts over 21 consecutive days.

Wu Xuanyi has been shopping online for more than 21 days. It started with buying celebrity photo cards, then she bought a bunch of useless virtual exam preparation materials for her final exams, and during the Chinese New Year she bought various daily necessities such as colored contact lenses, false eyelashes, and skincare tools.

When she looked back, she realized that she no longer enjoyed shopping in stores. She felt that online shopping was not only more convenient but also less tiring. Most importantly, she could share the things she liked with more friends anytime.

Unlike regular offline shopping trips where you have to be mindful of the expressions of salespeople, you can confidently and freely leave comments and discussions.

Online shopping is so convenient!
The only downside is that it's too easy to get a bad product that doesn't match the description. However, after gaining experience, she can find the patterns and try to buy from stores with high sales volume and high ratings.

She's stopped browsing Taobao recently because she discovered another platform that's better suited for online shopping.

If Taobao felt like strolling through an outdoor pedestrian street, then Mulan Street was undoubtedly a high-end shopping mall with luxurious decor and a fragrant atmosphere.

Taobao's homepage uses a very dense layout to display more information, trying to fill every available space. In addition, most of the display images use exaggerated colors and text to grab attention, which can give people a dazzling and cheap feeling.

But Mulan Street is completely different. Not only is the overall color scheme of the webpage clean and simple, but the page can display up to 18 images, and they are all white background images that look very comfortable. Most importantly, if you find content you like, you can use the 'pin' function to pin it to a secondary page and then filter it again after browsing.

This experience is completely different from the shopping cart filtering on Taobao, and most importantly, each post you click on doesn't have the lifeless product detail page descriptions found on Taobao.

Instead, she acts like a professional sales guide or sharer, clearly explaining the core functions and user experience of the product. Moreover, if multiple people introduce a product, there will be many different interpretations, which greatly increases Wu Xuanyi's understanding of the product and reduces her own selection costs.

She has some difficulty making choices, but when shopping on Mulan Street, she can easily choose something after seeing and comparing the items at a glance.

In addition to sharing products, Mulan Street also shares various life hacks. The most popular sections are the kitchen/recipes/money-saving daily necessities sections, as well as the beauty section, where many yoga or beauty/makeup teachers share their experiences.

Recently, a topic has become very popular: 'Korean women's beauty tips'

This topic shared various tips from Korean girls on skin styling to body management, and it received over 10,000 likes in less than a week.

The post says, "Korean girls apply Magic Skin's mung bean mud mask every two days to ensure hydration, which is why their skin has a radiant glow like after a hyaluronic acid injection. Because of the stable hydration, their pores are almost invisible, they rarely get acne, and their skin becomes whiter."

Sixteen-year-old Wu Xuanyi is at the age of hormonal imbalance during puberty, yet she is most concerned about her appearance. She has started to get pimples on her face, and she has always felt that her skin is a bit yellow and dark. After reading this post, she immediately ordered a whole set of Magic World skincare products. After using them for two days, she found that her skin seemed to have improved.

As a result, he became increasingly engrossed in the various posts on Mulan Street.

Online shopping used to be very mentally taxing, but now it not only requires no brainpower, but you can also learn so many practical knowledge and life skills. It's simply amazing!

Later, I came across Zhimeitang's oral collagen supplement, which claims to reduce edema, promote metabolism and collagen synthesis, and is suitable for people with poor skin, a small belly, and those who want to lose weight.

However, because of the high price, a box of 14 bottles costs 299 yuan. Wu Xuanyi then recommended it to her mother. After seeing the post on Mulan Street, her mother immediately ordered ten boxes, and the mother and daughter drank it like water.

In less than a week, Wu Xuanyi and her mother spent tens of thousands of yuan on Mulan Street, and the items they bought were mostly very useful, a completely different experience from Taobao.

There are also some interest groups on Mulan Street. Wu Xuanyi joined a few related to dance from her childhood, and after a while she found that she was even using Tieba less.

Moreover, Wu Xuanyi recently noticed that it wasn't just her; the frequency of keywords related to Mulan Street in the daily chats of the girls at school was also increasing. In the past, the girls only discussed movies and TV dramas and celebrity gossip, but recently, in addition to these, there have been many more topics about skincare and fashion.

Wu Xuanyi's feelings were complicated. It was as if her secretly treasured little treasure had been discovered, and she felt a bit possessive and unhappy, but at the same time, she also felt a sense of vanity that her appreciation had been recognized by others.

She also registered an account on Mulan Street and regularly posts online shopping reviews. Although she doesn't show her face, she has gained a lot of attention and comments. Especially recently, the platform seems to have suddenly seen a surge of new users, and the post update frequency has increased significantly.

Girls her age generally don't pay much attention to current affairs or business news, so she didn't know why Mulan Street suddenly became popular. However, because she followed gossip, she learned from the news that Girls' Generation's Jessica Jung attended a banquet with a wealthy Chinese businessman that the owner of Mulan Street was actually a handsome guy not much older than her, which instantly made her more loyal to the platform.

She and her best friend even created a fan group for Wang Yao.

Who says you have to be a fan of celebrities?
"Xuanyi, President Wang is going to hold an offline fan meeting! Look at Mulan Street." Wu Xuanyi woke up to find a text message from her best friend sharing some big news.

Wu Xuanyi, instantly dispelling her sleepiness, quickly opened the website.

The front page featured a headline that read, "Taobao Boss, the First National E-commerce Entrepreneur Recruitment Conference in 2010 is Now Open for Registration," accompanied by a promotional photo of Wang Yao.

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered to be a joint event between Taobao Girl and Mulan Street, open to all those interested in the e-commerce industry nationwide. The registration fee is 1998 yuan per person. The event will last three days and two nights, with a limited capacity of 999 participants.

"This isn't a fan meeting, it's more like a business promotion event!" Wu Xuanyi complained in a message.

“A small gathering of a thousand people, with seats almost touching and opportunities for live interaction—isn’t that much better than going to a concert where you’re hundreds of meters away? Plus, there’s an offline salon on the last day; maybe I can even have a face-to-face chat with Mr. Wang,” my best friend quickly replied.

Upon reflection, Wu Xuanyi realized that it made sense.

2000 yuan is only enough to buy a halftime ticket for Girls' Generation's concert, which only allows you to see them on the big screen. If you want to attend an autograph session, you need to spend at least tens of thousands of yuan to help boost their rankings.

Attending Wang Yao's investment promotion event not only allows you to hear your idol give a lecture in person, but also gives you the opportunity to get up close and personal with him. How can this not be considered a fan meeting?
"Order placed."

Normally, Series A financing takes at least 4 weeks, but because this financing was led by Shanghai Commercial Investment, a local institution, the entire process from evaluation to submission for review was compressed to about 72 hours.

The day after Wang Yao reached a cooperation agreement with Guo Guangchang/Wang Fan, he announced the news.

Because it was released discreetly, and amidst the public discourse surrounding "charity debt collection in the entertainment industry," it did not generate much public discussion.

However, it caused a great upheaval in the Chinese business community.

A media brokerage service company that transformed into an internet e-commerce service in less than six months has received a valuation of 30 billion yuan, which has left many people in the internet e-commerce industry with extremely mixed feelings.

Startups saw hope and set their sights on the e-commerce industry.

However, established platforms like Vancl are somewhat incomprehensible. Vancl just completed its Series D funding round with a valuation of $5 million, which is only slightly higher than Tianhuo (Taobao Girl).

Vancl's sales in the first quarter had already exceeded 600 million yuan, and the expected revenue growth rate for this year is 500%, reaching more than 2 billion yuan. In addition, the number of users has exceeded 2 million and is still growing. This asset-light + high-growth model has only achieved around 3 billion yuan. What makes Tianhuo so special?
Taobao Girl is just a platform with tens of thousands of users. Even if B-end users have high value, it shouldn't be overestimated like this, right?

It's not just Vancl that thinks this way; Vipshop, Mecox Lane, and Dangdang all think the same way. But once you realize that Shanghai Commercial Investment and Fuxing are leading the way, you can understand why.

It seems that Shanghai is trying to launch a representative local e-commerce company.

In fact, there is a company in Shanghai called Mecox Lane, which is temporarily known as the first B2C stock in China. It claims to have 600 million users, annual sales of 10 billion yuan, and an omnichannel model of "mail order catalog + online platform + offline stores". However, because it is a joint venture and it is said that it was snatched away by Nanjing, it is not a typical Shanghai-based company.

Tianhuo, on the other hand, was nurtured by Shanghai and is more representative of Shanghai merchants.

So everyone can understand, but at the same time, they all tacitly don't have a high opinion of this upstart company.

Although these industry peers didn't discuss it publicly, they were communicating and coordinating privately because the influence of Taobao models is crucial for Taobao, and no one believed that Tianhuo had any chance of breaking the deadlock. Some were even already researching 'Mulan Street', in case Tianhuo was targeted, then Shanghai Commercial Investment would likely not support another Mulan Street, and might even have a chance to take over.

For two consecutive days, the entire internet industry has been in a somewhat turbulent atmosphere, with everyone closely watching the dynamics between Tianhuo and Alibaba, wanting to see how Alibaba will react.

The last day of April, a Friday, was the last day before the variety show "Fairy Robe" aired.

But Alibaba's warning has been in effect for two days.

"This is the 76th termination application we've received so far. When are you going to submit your termination report, folks?" Wang Yao joked as he looked at Zhao Yihuan, who had come to deliver the documents.

"President Wang, please stop testing me. Even if Tianhuo goes bankrupt, I will still go to Xinghuo to work for you. I'll be yours in life and in death! I, Zhao Yihuan, only live by two words: benevolence and righteousness!" Zhao Yihuan put down the documents, patted his chest, and swore tremblingly.

Wang Yao wasn't entirely unresponsive to Alibaba's recent aggressive poaching, but he adopted a laissez-faire approach towards mid-tier models, given their limited value and his desire to use this opportunity to gauge the loyalty of Tianhuo's employees.

However, he still personally cared about top models like Ma Ruo, Feng Jiao, and Zhao Yihuan. These three were essentially promoted by Wang Yao, and their monthly income has increased from 20,000 to 30,000 yuan to a stable monthly income of over 100,000 yuan. They also don't need to accompany clients for business drinks or attend offline social events. They all remembered this favor.

Ma Ruo was the first to proactively report being headhunted, and the headhunter was even willing to pay nearly ten million yuan in breach of contract fees for her, and double her income and benefits, but Ma Ruo did not agree.

Feng Jiao and Zhao Yihuan aren't worth that much, but the offer from the other party is probably not low either. Yet they still took the initiative to express their determination, vowing to live and die with the company.

Therefore, Wang Yao responded to their loyalty by switching them all to an independent artist studio model. Although it was the lowest-level D-level contract, it still gave them a chance to officially enter the entertainment industry.

Wang Yao gave the online film "Adolescence" to Zhao Yihuan, who is here today to deliver the contract.

“We Northeasterners are people of our word, so from now on you’ll be the company’s number one benevolent person,” Wang Yao said with a light laugh.

"President Wang, as the saying goes, 'Those who have abandoned me are yesterday and cannot be retained, and those who trouble my heart are today and bring much worry.' These fools who terminated their contracts are just freeloaders if they stay in the company. They can't see the situation clearly and have no conscience. Please don't get upset." Zhao Yihuan said with concern.

There has been a lot of unrest and unease within Tianhuo recently, and as one of its members, she could naturally sense it.

Although the company's valuation of 30 billion is a shot in the arm, it doesn't really affect most employees, while the other side is poaching people with real money.

"Reading more books is good, so you won't have trouble understanding the characters and plots when filming later. Don't worry, just prepare well for the promotion of the variety show 'Fairy Robe'." Wang Yao waved his hand.

"I'm leaving now. If you're bored, you can come drink with me." Zhao Yihuan smiled, her crescent-shaped eyes crinkling.

Tianhuo currently has less than 200 models, and Alibaba poached a third of them, all of whom were relatively promising. The breach of contract penalties alone amounted to more than 50 million yuan, averaging 700,000 yuan per person. All of this was left to Zhang San's legal team to handle.

Wang Yao didn't intend to make things difficult for them. After all, it's normal for people to strive for higher positions and water to flow downhill. What was more gratifying was that there was no turmoil among the staff in other execution departments. It's also possible that Alibaba didn't pay attention to these truly valuable execution staff.

However, several middle managers did submit their resignation reports, and Wang Yao did not make things difficult for them.

After all, he hadn't been idle these past two days. Chen Qi used his connections at Alibaba to quietly poach more than a dozen Taobao employees, including Wei Bo, a manager-level employee, who jumped to become a Taobao model and took on the role of CEO.

Wei Bo not only has a large number of brand resources, but also has some experience in the field of advertising. He can take care of both Taobao models and Taobao bosses. Wang Yao gave him the same treatment and authority as Chen Qi.

Business competition should be fair and transparent.

Orders for Taobao models have surged several times in the last two days, but the departure of models has indeed had a serious impact on these businesses.

However, Wang Yao is not without a record. Last month, the Korean branch acquired several small model agencies, and about 100 foreign models with better conditions, higher professionalism, and lower costs filled the gap.

Therefore, the recent surge of discussions about 'Korean girls' on Mulan Street is precisely to generate buzz for alternatives.

He didn't believe that Alibaba could poach talent overseas. Just opening a branch office and going through the procedures would take at least a week, and during that time, the funding should have arrived by then.

Therefore, Wang Yao was not concerned about Alibaba's offensive. What really bothered him was how to spend the money after it arrived in his account.

3 million is not a small amount; if used properly, it can generate significant profits.

Just as Wang Yao was struggling with how to spend his money, Alibaba launched its official offensive.

The "One-Piece Matching Taobao Girl" service has officially launched. Taobao, which rarely buys traffic recently, has spent a lot of money on advertising on major social media platforms, and even signed Miss World Zhang Zilin as its chief cooperating model, which has generated a lot of buzz.

Furthermore, they created the "real and fake Taobao models" narrative to mislead netizens.

After all, one is the official Taobao platform and the other is a third-party platform. In terms of endorsement and trust, the difference is obvious.

The influence of giants is terrifying. This service caused a significant drop in inquiries on the Taobao Girl platform that day, and many orders were cancelled.

Wei Bo, who had been in office for less than ten hours, felt somewhat ashamed.

"No need to rush, let him fight his own battle, we'll fight ours. Taobao Boss's event is online." Wang Yao smiled dismissively.

Upon hearing this, Wei Bo breathed a sigh of relief and immediately notified Chen Qi to cooperate with the online event on Mulan Street and to pin it to the top of the promotion!
This event, which will take place in two weeks, could determine the fate of the platform. He doesn't want the company to go bankrupt or be acquired within two weeks of taking office; that would be too embarrassing.

Wang Yao's Taobao Boss event didn't involve any advertising; it was simply launched discreetly on Mulan Street. However, the results were amazing; all the spots were snapped up in less than three hours after the event went live.

"Mr. Wang, should we increase the number of slots?" Wei Bo was shocked by Wang Yao's appeal as the 'Number One E-commerce Prodigy', and seeing this effect was like a shot in the arm.

Tickets priced at 2000 yuan can actually be sold?!

“No, things are valued for their rarity.” Wang Yao shook his head with a smile.

Then, behind his back, he had Zhou Cong start reselling scalped tickets in the merchant groups he had previously served, with the highest price reaching over 2 yuan, and the supply still couldn't meet the demand.

This is just like a concert.

It's said to be a limited edition of 999 tickets, but even if there are 2000 people, as long as the venue is big enough, no one will care about the exact number of attendees. Wang Yao's expectation is around 1500 people, and the ticket revenue could reach tens of millions.

Knowledge-based paid services are indeed profitable. This wave of business has directly recouped all the money donated at the banquet. At the same time, Wang Yao, as the keynote speaker, also received a 3% commission on ticket sales.

Moreover, not only will they make money, but at least a hundred of the participating merchants will become downstream e-commerce businesses of Xingdian, ultimately forming an ecological cluster around Xingdian.

"Mr. Wei, this book is for you." Seeing that Wei Bo was a little anxious, Wang Yao took a dusty book from the bookshelf.

Wei Bo was stunned for a moment after taking it.

On Protracted War

(End of this chapter)