How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 171 Student No. 00001 [10,000 words update, please subscribe]

The controversy surrounding Fan Bingbing's "refusal to speak" on the internet has not only swept across China but also had a significant impact overseas. After all, unspoken rules are a very common thing, especially in the world of fame and fortune, where they are a topic of much discussion and entertainment.

Even the global entertainment industry has been affected, with several well-known producers and directors being exposed for harassment and exploitation, causing fluctuations in global entertainment stocks.

In the domestic business community, the sudden collapse of Meishe has also triggered a series of chain reactions, affecting at least several cultural and entertainment/internet companies that were originally planning to go public this year.

The first to be affected are companies like Bernard and Les, with many securities firms and venture capital institutions readjusting their valuations of these asset-light companies.

Both entrepreneurs and investors are filled with anxiety as a result.

While the outside world was in turmoil, Wang Yao chose to retreat into his seclusion and manage the public opinion risks surrounding Feng Jiao. He then politely declined all visits and focused on preparing for tomorrow's "Taobao Boss Event".

Actually, there's not much to prepare for this kind of basic course. The first two days are spent introducing the basic rules and logic of e-commerce, and the third day is spent guiding students through the process of opening a store, managing products, and managing traffic, and then it's over.

After all, the truly valuable parts are the advanced courses at 19888 and 198888.

As the face of the agency, Ni Ni naturally had to give a speech on stage. She had undergone intensive training in the "Jinling" crew for almost a month, and she had lost a lot of weight, but her physical condition and acting skills had indeed improved significantly.

The script Wang Yao prepared for her was ready for a smooth rehearsal in less than an afternoon.

After the rehearsal, Ni Ni returned to the small town, took a couple of walks around to familiarize herself with the new changes at the company, and then visited two film crews. She found Zhang Meng in Wang Yao's newly bought unfinished villa, where she was discussing the renovation plan with the designer.

Wang Yao's newly purchased villa is to be decorated in a style specifically for filming and business entertainment. Although Zhang Meng is a fashion designer, after the hit drama "Fairy Robe", she was invited to participate in several domestic design-related programs, such as "Exchange Space".

After all, in the show "Fairy Robe", Zhang Meng and Zhang Tianai are already considered "aesthetic" representatives in the eyes of the public because of their basic costume design skills and the value of the scripted characters, and they also bring their own traffic.

Wang Yao didn't waste the opportunity and directly discussed with the production team whether they could replace the villa design with other program materials. This would not only save them a lot of renovation costs, but also allow them to get a lot of sponsorships for free.

Then Zhang Meng took on this heavy responsibility.

"Sister Meng, congratulations! I heard the show broke 5 points tonight." Ni Ni handed out milk tea to everyone.

"I have to thank 'If You Are the One' for taking a break from airing, otherwise how could we have such high ratings?" Zhang Meng said with a smile.

“Even without this advantage, our show would still be the ratings champion,” Ni Ni praised, and then followed Zhang Meng to stroll around the villa.

This was the set she wanted to buy for Wang Yao, but unfortunately she was short of money. Unexpectedly, Wang Yao turned around and bought it for himself.

Zhang Meng valued this right-hand woman of Wang Yao very much and enthusiastically shared with her the plans that had been discussed in the past two days.

To everyone's surprise, after listening, Ni Ni patted Zhang Meng's shoulder with a look of regret, "Sister Meng, just thinking about how much effort you put into designing his house..."

Then, after he moved into his new house, he did this on the washing machine, the refrigerator, the water heater, the rice cooker, the gas stove, the sink, the compressor, and the floor drain. I felt so sorry for him.

Zhang Meng was taken aback for a moment, then forced herself to remain calm and asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing, I just felt sorry for President Yao, he really doesn't treat us beauties like animals." Ni Ni said with a grin.

Zhang Meng glanced at Ni Ni's penniless state, chuckled, and shook her head. "President Wang has given me such a relaxed working environment and excellent benefits, so of course I have to do my best to fulfill all his requirements."

"Sister Meng, you'd better be careful. His demands are all sorts of things." Ni Ni pouted and shook her head.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Meng raised an eyebrow and sized up Ni Ni. "I heard there have been a lot of personnel changes in the company recently, with quite a few people leaving?"

"Not many, mainly because Alibaba poached people before. But the Taobao Girl business doesn't lack people. President Yao has quite a few fair-skinned, beautiful, and long-legged Korean ladies under his wing." Ni Ni smiled.

Although she was in closed training with the film crew, she also handled company business almost every day, and Wang Yao would inform her of any major adjustments.

"It's good that it hasn't affected anything. President Wang has had a tough time, shouldering such a large company at such a young age," Zhang Meng said softly.

"Sister, never feel sorry for men, it will only bring you misfortune," Ni Ni said with a smile.

"Are you going to be a guest on 'Fairy Robe'?" Zhang Meng changed the subject, feeling that Ni Ni's figure and fashion sense were both excellent.

“I also wanted to ride the wave of popularity, but I didn’t have time, and Director Zhang doesn’t allow us to get too much exposure. I’m here this time to be a decorative host for Taobao boss,” Ni Ni said with a smile.

"Sister Meng! Oh? President Ni is here too. President Wang wants to have a meeting with you. You didn't bring your phone?" While the two were chatting, Zhao Liying rushed over.

"Oh, I put it aside while chatting." Zhang Meng's expression stiffened.

"What kind of meeting is this late?" Ni Ni asked, puzzled.

“In the later rounds of casting for ‘Fairy Robe,’ several incredible candidates came up, and I’m afraid my spot will be taken away.” Zhao Liying said with a mournful face.

"Aren't you going to be the lead actress in a movie soon? You're getting a good deal and you're still acting innocent." Zhang Meng patted her head.

The news that Zhao Liying, Zhang Tianai, and Gulnazar, along with Director Guan, would be filming "22.22" after finishing "Lost 3" had already spread within their small group.

Yang Mi was incredibly envious. Although she was about to join the cast of "Palace," it still couldn't compare to the movie.

"What kind of movie is it?" Ni Ni asked, intrigued.

She met Zhao Liying for the second time and had a good impression of her. Judging from the lineup of these three people, it's highly likely that the movie is trying to capitalize on the popularity of "Fairy Robe" to promote its stars.

"It's supposed to be a story about female empowerment and growth, but I haven't received the script yet. Instead, they've hired a Japanese language teacher for me, and the daily lessons are driving me crazy," Zhao Liying sighed.

"Why do we have to learn Japanese?" Ni Ni's thoughts immediately went astray.

After all, Zhao Liying had just signed a contract and was not as popular or qualified as Yang Mi, yet she was chosen to play the female lead. It's hard not to suspect that Wang Yao had ulterior motives.

"I don't know, they said there's a foreign film in it." Zhao Liying shook her head, knowing nothing about it.

The script was kept very secret.

"I'm going to a meeting now. You guys chat. If you have time tonight, we can grab some late-night snacks together." Zhang Meng picked up her clothes and phone and headed to the meeting.

When I arrived at Wang Yao's office, I knocked on the door.

"You're here, have a seat for a bit." Wang Yao gestured for her to wait.

Seeing him focused on his work, Zhang Meng walked over, squatted down, and smiled, "This doesn't need a contract, right?"

Wang Yao raised an eyebrow slightly, moved his leg aside, and Zhang Meng snorted softly as she crawled under the desk.

“Starting from the fifth episode, Zhao Liying was unavailable. Nazha and Tian Ai also couldn’t participate after the seventh episode. At most, they could come back for a guest appearance in the last episode,” Wang Yao said.

"Fairy Robe" is filmed and broadcast simultaneously. Because it involves an online voting elimination system, it cannot be recorded all at once, but the main guest lineup and content are basically fixed.

"Ugh, then I need at least 10 more substitutes," Zhang Meng mumbled.

"Okay, I've decided on Yang Ying, Tang Yan, Qin Lan, Jiang Yan, and Zhang Yuqi. You can choose the others yourself." Wang Yao patted her head.

"Zhang Yuqi?" Zhang Meng looked up, her gaze revealing a hint of tenderness and amusement.

The first four candidates were all expected, as they are basically company artists or collaborating artists. Only this one has no direct connection to the company for the time being.

Since the last dinner party, rumors have been circulating about Wang Yao and this woman.

“I took over the artist department of Xinghui Company, and Zhang Yuqi is one of the main talents I’m promoting,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Oh? I wonder how Mr. Wang plans to flatter me?" Zhang Meng gagged.

“Her image is somewhat similar to yours; we both have a mature, sophisticated style. However, you are intellectual and reserved, while she is flamboyant and straightforward. After all, we can’t keep comparing her to Huang Shengyi; otherwise, the audience will get bored,” Wang Yao said, frowning.

"Is the audience tired of it? Or is President Wang tired of it? Are you planning to promote both?" Zhang Meng smiled and nudged him.

“If Liu Tao’s schedule doesn’t conflict, she can take over the mature and sophisticated style, mainly promoting the office professional elite look, and so can this Zhu Zhu!” Wang Yao said to himself.

"Does Mr. Wang have some kind of grudge against the Four Young Masters of Beijing?" Zhang Meng asked curiously. "Correct your attitude, don't be like Zhao Liying, who thinks everything, black or white, is yellow." Wang Yao patted her face.

"No other instructions? Then I'll go find President Ni for a late-night snack." Zhang Meng ducked out.

"Don't eat too much, there's a second meal to come." Wang Yao smiled.

"Hmph, Mr. Wang, you can eat it yourself." Zhang Meng rolled her eyes at him.

The Taobao Boss event, which claimed to have a limited run of 999 participants, actually attracted nearly 1400 people. More than 400 of them bought tickets from scalpers at inflated prices, generating nearly 10 million yuan in revenue for Wang Yao.

As it turns out, DaMai.com's approach to offline ticketing was correct; scalped tickets are indeed profitable.

The event started at 8 a.m. There was no fancy opening ceremony or welcoming ceremony, just simple ticket checking and check-in. At the same time, everyone received a copy of "The Complete Guide to E-commerce" compiled by Wang Yao.

The meeting will officially begin at around 9 o'clock. Guests are required to bring their own laptops. If they do not have one, they can rent one from the organizer for 99 yuan per day for the purpose of learning and demonstration.

There are many ways to generate revenue from these offline activities. The rebates from designated partner hotels alone can generate a huge amount of income. There are also opportunities for brand promotion and product placement.

Ni Ni, as the host, caused a commotion as soon as she appeared on stage.

After all, the public's perception of the e-commerce industry is not glamorous. The sudden appearance of such a good-looking professional is enough to boost the confidence of those who have not yet entered the industry.

Every vanity project has some value.

Wang Yao scanned the entire scene through the surveillance cameras and was surprised to find that one-fifth of the participants were women, and they all looked quite young, in their early twenties.

Wang Yao initially thought it was due to the influence of the audience on Mulan Street, but to his surprise, the girls in the audience suddenly burst into cheers and screams as soon as he stepped on stage.

It felt like being at a concert.

Not only was Wang Yao stunned, but everyone else preparing backstage was also stunned.

"Is this a business conference or a fan meeting?" Ni Ni frowned and muttered.

Taobao Girl CEO Wei Bo scratched his head and turned to his subordinates, instructing, "Have the photographers take more photos of the female trainees and post them on various promotional accounts. Then do some publicity, saying that there is a gender imbalance in the e-commerce industry, with more women than men."

"President Wei has indeed inherited President Yao's true skills." Ni Ni chuckled upon hearing this.

She and Wei Bo were already quite familiar with each other. In March and April, the two of them joined forces to secure a nearly 50 million yuan agency operation service. Originally, Ni Ni wanted him to come to Xinghuo Cooperative as the vice president, but unexpectedly, Wang Yao transferred him to Taobao Girl, making them a sister unit.

"I've benefited greatly from following Mr. Wang for so long," Wei Bo said with a shy smile.

Although Taobao Girls' online shopping business was severely impacted, Taobao Boss's business saw an opportunity. He recruited 23 Taobao employees from within the company, and based on the outline and SOPs set by Wang Yao, they are now basically capable of teaching independently in the future.

He calculated that if a lecturer can hold 5 conferences with 100 participants each month, they can recruit 6000 students in a year. Assuming a 1% conversion rate, 60 of them will start e-commerce businesses. With subsequent service fees and commission systems, a lecturer can generate at least tens of millions of yuan in revenue each year, and the gross profit margin is extremely high.

This is clearly more profitable than online auctions. Today's event serves as a test. If all goes well, Taobao's business will immediately expand to 13 first- and second-tier cities in mainland China, establishing branches and leveraging Wang Yao's influence and comprehensive operational support system to quickly monopolize the market.

Even without the Taobao Girl business, Weibo could still generate at least 100 million yuan in revenue this year, and it wouldn't be difficult for them.

The Taobao Boss activity is a full-day program that includes meals. All the participants felt like they were back in school. Two-fifths of the participants are already running online stores, even though the activity only teaches some basic knowledge.

However, as long as some 'mysterious' platform rules, category secrets, and some real cases and data are added, everyone will feel impressed but confused.

The core of paid knowledge services is to educate and train learners to be obedient, not to impart skills and let them do whatever they want.

Therefore, when faced with questions and doubts from students, as long as you first deny and suppress them, and then present data and cases to persuade them, most students will self-control.

Therefore, the essence of paid knowledge services is a screening and probability model. If only one out of 100 students succeeds, the benefits can last for a long time.

Wang Yao's e-commerce operation services have served hundreds of clients of all sizes. He can easily convince most people with just a few case studies of his stores.

This is the knowledge-paying market; it's really easy, and its efficiency in fleecing people is second only to Myanmar's A-shares market.

In addition to Wang Yao and Ni Ni, a total of 6 lecturers took the stage during the day's course. Their identities have undoubtedly transformed from Taobao staff members to 'teachers' in the e-commerce industry.

Two of the young men were a few years older than Wang Yao and hadn't even finished junior high school. Now, they were being addressed as "teacher" by a group of high-status students, which made them quite arrogant.

After the first day of classes, Wang Yao marked and categorized the participants. He only appeared twice today: once to establish his authority at the beginning and the other to attract customers at the end.

Wang Yao announced the advanced course service for 19888 and the value-added services for the CEO class for 198888.

Although it was only the first day, the trainees were already hooked by the massive daily sales figures of thousands or even tens of thousands on the online store.

Wang Yao didn't even need to use any sales tactics to force sales; the number of people signing up for the advanced class on the spot exceeded two hundred.

Another person directly enrolled in the CEO training program; they weren't a plant hired by Wang Yao.

Wang Yao personally presented a beautifully crafted, gold-plated "Taobao Boss CEO Class Admission Notice" and a school badge with student number 00001, maximizing the sense of ceremony.

To show his respect for the first CEO trainee, Wang Yao specially invited him to dinner after the event, which was at the crew's canteen.

"Mr. Wang, let me introduce myself. I am Zhang Hongchao from Yuzhou. I run an offline ice cream and tea business. Because of the difficulties in expanding offline, I would like to ask if some internet models can empower our traditional offline business?" Zhang Hongchao was a somewhat old-fashioned man.

He heard the word "empowerment" from Wang Yao, so he used it somewhat awkwardly.

"You should know about movie ticketing websites, right? Online ticketing is an essential channel for driving offline traffic and sales in the future. The internet age has arrived; everything is interconnected. There's no such thing as a traditional business anymore; it's all about 'internet plus' in the future," Wang Yao corrected with a smile. "How big is your store?"

Since Zhang Hongchao can afford to spend 20 yuan to enroll in a CEO training program, he must be quite influential.

“I entered this industry relatively early, so I reaped some benefits. At its peak, I had 600 branches the year before last. However, due to the chaos among franchisees, in order to protect the brand’s reputation, we had to start a cleanup last year, which led to the closure of half of the franchisees. Now there are probably less than 300 left.” Zhang Hongchao said with a bitter smile.

Wang Yao raised an eyebrow.

With 600 branches in Yuzhou in 2008? Even with a franchise fee of 20,000 yuan, the annual revenue would be at least tens of millions of yuan, not to mention the profits from raw materials, management fees, etc. Without a doubt, this is a tea beverage brand with annual sales of over 100 million yuan.

"Excuse me, Mr. Zhang, is your brand related to honey?" Wang Yao blinked.

"Oh? Mr. Wang has heard of our brand? That's a real honor." Zhang Hongchao's face lit up with joy upon hearing this.

You, Xue Wang, dare to come to Shanghai at this time? Aren't you afraid of being wiped out by the Oriental Pearl Tower?
A hint of surprise flashed through Wang Yao's mind. He knew that Taobao Boss would definitely attract a large number of e-commerce talents who had not yet taken off, but he never expected that it would unexpectedly attract Xue Wang.

"I once traveled to Yuzhou and ate your ice cream. It was delicious and cheap, so I ate six sticks in one go and ended up with diarrhea for a whole day. So it left a deep impression on me," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Our store's ice cream is all about quality, but eating six sticks can really upset your stomach. But to be honest, the ice cream in Shanghai is really expensive. The cheapest one costs 4 yuan a stick, and the ingredients are less than half as good as ours."

"Not to mention milk tea, one cup of it costs as much as four or five of ours," Zhang Hongchao couldn't help but complain.

“Every product has its owner. Price isn’t the only measure of the market. Your products are indeed economical and affordable, but not all consumers are looking for that. However, Mr. Zhang’s strategy is correct. Value for money and conscientious service are the fundamental reasons for establishing a foothold.” Wang Yao smiled.

"Mr. Wang is absolutely right. It's the same thing—a thirst-quenching drink. Other companies can sell it for over ten yuan by giving it a name like 'Four Seasons Milk Tea.' It tastes almost the same whether you buy a bag of milk and mix it with iced green tea."

But our fruit tea is different. We use fresh fruit to make our own juice, which is both nutritious and inexpensive. However, we dare not sell it at a high price, so our gross profit margin has always been low, and we dare not expand excessively. Now we are encountering some problems in our business and want to travel around to learn more.

"I was unexpectedly recommended Taobao Boss's courses by a friend. After listening to Mr. Wang's analysis of the e-commerce industry, I had a sudden realization, which is why I enrolled in the CEO program. I hope to get more valuable advice." Zhang Hongchao said solemnly.

"If Alibaba were to launch an offline tea beverage brand, do you think you could win?" Wang Yao asked.

This is a classic problem in the investment world, originating from Tencent. Tencent excels at copying and leverages its massive social media traffic and capital to replicate any industry in a short period, causing a very negative impact on the entire investment community.

After all, nobody wants their investment of money and effort to turn into a penguin shape.

Therefore, when investors face entrepreneurs, they will ask this question: If you are competing with giants like BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), what are your chances of winning?

Upon hearing this question, Zhang Hongchao's expression changed.

(End of this chapter)