How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 170 I Can Still Operate

People live to solve one problem after another.

No one can escape this law.

Therefore, in human civilization, those who create problems are the strong, those who discover problems are the weak, and those who solve problems are the wise.

Ma Yun considers herself a person who can create problems, so she needs a lot of people who can solve problems to assist her.

I thought Wang Yao was a problem solver like Cai Chongxin and the others, but I never expected that this kid would actually be a problem creator just like me.

The same applies to the business world.

Those who can create demand are scarce talents.

'Women's safety'.

This topic encompasses the most targeted consumer group and creates a pseudo-essential need.

In this discussion, Ma Yun saw that Wang Yao had precisely crafted a 'necessity' for the target audience, and that this was a necessity with a potential audience of over 100 million.

This is not an ordinary marketing event.

It is highly likely that this was a deliberately orchestrated marketing mishap, and such an incident could have a profound impact on a group.

In genetics, there is a hypothesis called the population memory hypothesis, which suggests that through the influence of the collective unconscious, the ancestors of a population can pass on memories, emotions, and thoughts to their offspring.

For example, the human fear of darkness may stem from an ancient genetic fear of being hunted and attacked by wild animals at night.

The keyword "women's safety" has a similar effect.

Under the influence of this pseudo-essential demand, starting today, there will be one more sensitive word in the daily social interactions of Chinese people, which will also give rise to a huge emerging market and drive consumption in related industries.

Ma Yun was certain that the stores selling self-defense equipment on JD.com were all owned by Wang Yao, because the post on Mulan Street had been there for three months, indicating that he had been preparing to expand into this market.

It's just that today, whether by accident or by design, it's harvest time.

Physical security is important, but what about psychological security?

In an instant, Ma Yun immediately thought of several niche markets related to this pseudo-essential need, and these pseudo-needs would accompany the target group for a lifetime.

Ma Yun's secret to success in e-commerce is relying on women, so he is also known as the man behind Chinese women. But today, he feels that Wang Yao may understand women better than he does.

All I could think of was to meet their ingrained needs and then provide services.

But Wang Yao has already begun to create necessities for them.

Such a person is very dangerous, especially if he falls into the hands of the enemy.

Although Ma Yun didn't take platforms like JD.com and Vancl seriously, things would be different if Wang Yao were added to the mix.

Since Alibaba's valuation exceeded 200 billion US dollars, Cai Chongxin has rarely seen Ma Yun in such high spirits. The last time was when she was humiliated by that old woman Carol at the Yahoo headquarters.

Although he wasn't quite sure why he was so agitated, Cai Chongxin felt there must be a reason, and signaled Cheng Wei to contact him immediately.

"Given the popularity of this topic and the conversion rate of Mulan Street, it could provide a significant boost to JD.com," Cai Chongxin tentatively suggested.

"A boost? I'm afraid tomorrow there'll be another trending topic: 'JD.com, the e-commerce platform that understands women best,'" Ma Yun chuckled.

“Liu Qiangdong probably wouldn’t dare, after all, 3C is his main strategy. If he diverts his energy to compete with us in other categories, he would be digging his own grave,” Cai Chongxin said, frowning.

“Women’s purchasing power is not limited to products, but only to emotions,” Ma Yun shook her head.

Cai Chongxin was taken aback.

"Mr. Ma, the phone is off, and we can't reach anyone else." Cheng Wei returned shortly after leaving, looking somewhat embarrassed.

"It seems he's deliberately keeping everyone hanging. He contacted me and told me to keep a close eye on traffic and conversion rates on JD.com and Vancl tonight," Ma Yun nodded.

When a market segment becomes overcrowded, you should either switch to another segment or develop a niche market segment. You should never plunge headlong into the fierce competition.

This is a lesson Wang Yao learned.

Don't look down on niche markets; true happiness lies in being the first to market or even achieving a monopoly.

When Wang Yao started working on the issue of 'rejecting unspoken rules', he had already prepared several monetization paths for specific segments.

There are many kinds of unspoken rules, and different industries face different dilemmas.

The workplace revolves around survival and promotion, which can lead to office politics, exploitative obedience, team building activities, drinking parties, and even picking up and dropping off the boss's children.

In the business world, the culture of drinking and exchanging favors is prevalent.

In the academic field, issues such as plagiarism, delayed graduation, professional title evaluation, and college admissions are prevalent.

The entertainment industry revolves around drinking parties, social engagements, and capital operations.

Even in daily social interactions, there are all sorts of unspoken rules such as gift-giving, keeping up with the Joneses, and moral blackmail.

There are at least a dozen topics that can be discussed and expanded upon. Wang Yao has laid the groundwork in advance on various social media platforms. No matter if you are male or female, old or young, as long as you are a human being with emotions and feel pressure, you will resonate with the relevant marketing articles and eventually be led to the right store to make a purchase.

Among them, the issue of women's safety, which was promoted by Fan Bingbing, received the most discussion, especially on the MS platform. In the posts popularizing various self-defense techniques or ways to refuse harassment for women, self-defense tools specifically for girls were subtly embedded.

A small-powered stun gun flashlight costs 50 to 80 yuan to produce, but it sells for 299 yuan on JD.com, and tens of thousands of orders were sold in less than two hours.

Secondly, there's Vancl's T-shirts. They only changed five characters on them, but because of their high cost-performance ratio and the influence of emotions, they sold over 100,000 units in one night. Pre-orders were booked a week in advance and people were still placing orders.

After Wang Yao received news of Fan Bingbing back in China, he flew directly back to Shanghai.

The problems between Meishe and Chengtian cannot be solved in a day or two; they require a long period of back and forth. Therefore, he needs to give everyone enough time to calm down and think.

Moreover, Taobao's event starts the day after tomorrow, and he still has to teach classes to his students.

When Wang Yao woke up the next day, the missed calls and text messages on his phone almost crashed it. He tossed it aside and first checked how the 'refusal to dive' controversy was gaining traction.

Because Ms was the origin of the event discussion and the "one person, one photo" activity, 300,000 new registered users were added overnight, and nearly 100,000 people participated in the check-in activity.

Even with the high registration threshold, Ms has finally surpassed 200 million users, and from today onwards it can no longer be considered a niche social media platform. Moreover, with female users accounting for as much as 86%, it can be said to be very popular.

Because Mulan Street purchased a large number of redirects to the keyword 'women's safety', its traffic yesterday reached a staggering nearly 100 million visits, driving sales of over 30 million yuan, almost 10 times higher than usual, and all in less than 24 hours.

The signed artists who responded to Fan Bingbing's event yesterday also gained a lot of followers and popularity on various platforms.

The overall returns are very substantial.

At 8:00 AM sharp, the official account of Skyfire Media, managed by Kevin Rudd, officially released information about Feng Jiao's coercion case, posting the judgment and a solemn statement.

"Tianhuo Company will take legal action against any inappropriate behavior that spreads or defames the parties involved on the internet."

First, Fan Bingbing spoke out on the international stage for a tragic Korean actress, and then a Chinese internet celebrity model was coerced.

It was subsequently reposted by high-profile figures such as Qu Shou, A Jiao, and Zhang Baizhi, pushing the topics of "women's safety" and "online shopping chaos" to a new peak.

At 8 a.m. on Saturday, while most netizens were still dreaming, the internet was already buzzing with excitement.

Although Feng Jiao is not very famous, she has appeared on three episodes of "If You Are the One" and has gained some popularity due to her sweet and ladylike image and the fact that she is a fellow student of Qu Shou and Ma Ruo.

This incident doesn't need much embellishment; simply stating what happened is enough to evoke everyone's sympathy and anger.

However, the notion that the modeling industry is chaotic was naturally inevitable, and soon the major platforms were once again in an uproar. Wu Kebo, the Taoist priest Chongxu, who had been in the top three of the trending searches yesterday, finally dropped off the trending list, but because Feng Jiao also came from Meishe (美摄) and was used as a target again, Meishe.com also suffered a lot of condemnation and reports from righteous netizens.

At 1 p.m., Tianhuo's official account released another statement across all platforms, joining forces with the Women's Support Association, Shiba Group, and several Chinese-language modeling agencies to launch a campaign to regulate and protect the rights of online shopping/modeling industries.

All relevant practitioners can get help through the newly established rights protection channel on the [Women's Support Association] platform, with a response time of 1 hour, and free consultation services are provided to all newcomers who want to learn about the modeling industry.

Several media accounts have published articles on how to identify illegal private photo shoots, reminding people to be wary of bad people and to report any suspicious activity to the police immediately.

Finally, the official WeChat account of the Mutual Trust Office issued a statement, ordering Meishe.com to temporarily shut down for rectification due to platform risks, and also stating that the program "If You Are the One" involved the falsification of guest identities, which affected the audience's trust, and that the program's content was controversial due to its frivolous values ​​and biased content orientation.

When the official account took action, netizens applauded, and a new round of discussion ensued.

Wang Gangren, the director of "If You Are the One," was completely stunned when he received the last-minute notification. He had been excited when he saw the news about Feng Jiao that morning, because such a big controversy would definitely boost the show's ratings.

Last week, because he was overshadowed by "Fairy Robe", he specially bought a lot of controversial traffic for Feng Jiao this week, intending to use it up.

But to my utter surprise, I was the one who was crippled first.

Taking a break from airing for just one episode means losing millions in advertising revenue! That damned Tianhuo Media, how could they be so good at making things worse!
No, this loss must be recovered from Tianhuo.

Wang Gang became increasingly angry, so he picked up his phone and called Wang Yao.

Just as he was about to give Wang Yao a good talking-to, the other party unexpectedly asked first, "Director Wang, the show has been canceled, so should Feng Jiao's schedule be extended?"

"Continue? Mr. Wang, because your artist caused my entire program to be suspended, I still need to seek compensation from you for this loss," Wang Gang said in a deep voice.

"Because of us?" Wang Yao asked doubtfully. "Director Wang, isn't what you're saying a bit unreasonable?"

"Your artist has caused such a huge scandal, which has also tarnished our program. I'm already being polite by speaking to you like this," Wang Gang sneered.

"Director Wang, we reserve the right to sue for your defamation of our artists. If you don't apologize, just wait for our lawyer's letter." Wang Yao's tone suddenly turned cold.

Wang Gang was taken aback, then laughed angrily, "Sue us? Do you still want to work in the television industry?"

"Director Wang, haven't you seen the recent trending topics? 'Rejecting unspoken rules.'" Wang Yao also sneered. "But thanks still, Director Wang, for making way for us. This weekend's 9 PM slot shouldn't be so crowded now."

Wang Gang was taken aback by the tone of the voice and was about to retort when the phone was hung up.

"The villain succeeds!"

When something expected happens, it can still be hard for people to accept.

Meishe.com has actually been shut down.

Lehman was disappointed, but eventually accepted reality and called Xu Chen to discuss how to handle the situation.

Unexpectedly, the other party told me even worse news.

Because Meishe.com was shut down, many orders that have not yet been completed may face compensation and refunds. Moreover, due to the Feng Jiao incident, many contracted models have been subjected to a large number of private messages, text messages and even phone calls from unknown sources.

Many models hope that their companies can intervene and help resolve the issue. Moreover, because the website was blocked, the contracted models are all feeling anxious and worried about losing their jobs.

"Where's Wang Yao? He's the new CEO, shouldn't he be handling these things?" Lehman hadn't slept well to begin with, and now his head ached even more.

"Well, he resigned via email yesterday, and I'll be acting as CEO for now," Xu Chen sighed.

"What? He's so irresponsible!" Lehman exclaimed angrily.

“President Lei, President Wang doesn’t have much of a business relationship with Meishe.” Xu Chen sighed again.

"Where is President Wang?" Lehman was stunned. He had almost forgotten that Wang Yao didn't even own any shares in Meishe.

"He's already back in Shanghai. Tianhuo must be quite busy too," Xu Chen said.

"Gone?" Lehman's pupils contracted. "What does he mean? Is he abandoning us?"

"Mr. Lei, they have no obligation to take care of us," Xu Chen said with a wry smile.

Lehman remained silent for a long time before asking, "How is the company doing now?"

"Half of the 4 million yuan raised by Alibaba was given to Chengtian. There is still more than 2 million yuan in the account as stagnant funds. However, if the other party wants to exercise the priority exit mechanism, we may face the pressure of compensation," Xu Chen said in a deep voice.

In order to quickly introduce Alibaba's funds and boost the valuation, an unfair deal was signed, stipulating that if the company made any major operational mistakes or faced any risks, Meishe would have to repurchase Alibaba's shares at the original price.

"Wang Yao mentioned before that there might be risks of contract termination lawsuits and compensation claims? How much is that?" Lehman asked again.

“Not yet, but it might take a long time. More importantly, if other people at Meishe come forward and say they’ve experienced something similar to Feng Jiao, Meishe.com could face the risk of indefinitely extending the rectification period. The money in our account can only last for a maximum of six months. If we lay off employees ahead of schedule, we might even incur debt.” Xu Chen’s voice sounded somewhat weak.

Lehman's temples throbbed with anger. Just a week ago, Meishe was full of vigor and had a bright future. How could she suddenly be facing a crisis of destruction?

He couldn't figure it out.

Wu Kebo was equally puzzled, even though the weekend market closure gave him two days of buffer time.

But he still couldn't come up with any solutions.

Moreover, the online storm has indirectly declared that he is drifting further and further away from the positions of CEO and Chairman.

Disgraced celebrities are not accepted by the public, and the same goes for disgraced CEOs.

“Mr. Wu, I know you’re under a lot of pressure right now, but I’m under just as much pressure. Could you pay back the money we borrowed earlier?” Yang Zi only realized today, after seeing that Meishe.com had been shut down, that Chengtian’s acquisition of Meishe might have run into serious problems.

So they hurriedly called to urge payment.

Of the 6 million yuan Wu Kebo spent to acquire 20% of Tianhuo shares from Wang Yao, 1 million yuan was borrowed from Yang Zi. Yang Zi, greedy for the future CEO position of the new company, agreed on a whim.

Unexpectedly, just a week later, such a large acquisition plan fell through, and Meishe Company seems to have encountered fatal operational problems, with its valuation likely to plummet, which could directly drag down the entire company.

Although he believed that his fixed assets would be enough to cover his liabilities, he still wanted to secure his profits as soon as possible.

Why is it that every time someone tries to scheme against Wang Yao, they always end up with an unexpected outcome?
This is too dangerous, too eerie!
Yang Zi decided that he would never have anything to do with Wang Yao again. If he couldn't afford to offend him, he could at least avoid him.
"Mr. Yang, you're in such a hurry to ask for money after only a month? What do you mean by that?" Wu Kebo was already in a bad mood, and he became even angrier after hearing that Yang was planning to run away.

“The company is about to start a few more projects, and we don’t have enough funds in the accounts. I’m not trying to kick you when you’re down after seeing the news, I’m really short of money. How about I ask you to lend me some? I’ll give you an IOU, 5000 million will be enough.” Yangzi quickly changed the subject and said in a soft voice.

"That money was for the acquisition of Tianhuo when we agreed to do it together. President Yang is thinking of withdrawing before it even started. Isn't that a bit unethical?" Wu Kebo said coldly.

Morality? You can't eat that stuff.

And who said the merger wasn't even started? Wasn't it already over?
"So I thought I'd borrow some first, I didn't say I was giving up," Yangzi said with a sheepish smile.

"We're already discussing the merger and restructuring plan with Wang Yao. Mr. Yang, just wait for further news." Wu Kebo sneered and hung up the phone.

In fact, Yangzi was not the first to call to collect debts. Starting last night, several securities firms and creditors began to try to negotiate.

However, Wu Kebo could not respond to any of them, and he brushed them off by saying that he was negotiating a restructuring. Tianhuo has not yet defaulted, so the 6 million yuan is not considered a debt.

The real problem is the 30% stake held by Meishe. If Meishe were to collapse like a bubble because of this, that would be the most infamous situation. Fortunately, Meishe still holds 45% of Tianhuo's shares. As long as Tianhuo doesn't encounter any problems, the losses won't be as severe as imagined.

still have a chance.

I can still operate it.

Wu Kebo calmed down and began to think about how to break the deadlock.

(End of this chapter)