How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 174 Seek Assistance from the Power of Circumstances, Not Blame Others [3rd Update, Please Subscribe]

After Ma Yun asked Cheng Wei to schedule Wang Yao's appointment on Saturday but was refused, he developed a negative impression of Wang Yao as arrogant. After gathering information from various sources, he initially thought Wang Yao was a talented but arrogant and domineering young man.

After all, if you put yourself in Ma Yun's shoes, you would be incredibly arrogant if you had two companies with a market value of over 2 billion each at the age of 19, and your personal net worth was estimated to be over 1 billion.

This isn't just about achieving early success; it's about taking off at a young age.

But after meeting him in person, I found that Wang Yao did not have any of the arrogance that comes with his age. Instead, he was calm and composed.

This further aroused Ma Yun's vigilance; this kid was not only a rare talent, but his personality was also quite rare.

Ma Yun looked Wang Yao up and down again, seemingly trying to determine whether he was sincere or cunning, and decided to test him further.

"What are your thoughts on Alibaba's one-click matching feature and the competition between Taobao Girls?" Ma Yun asked with a smile.

"I think there's some misunderstanding," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Oh? Tell me about it." Ma Yun raised an eyebrow.

"Taobao Girl is an intermediary service platform that provides services to merchants, online auctioneers, e-commerce professionals, and other parties."

Alibaba provides services specifically for merchants. Although the two services seem to overlap, they are not actually in direct competition. If they must be related, the relationship can only be one of talent transfer.

"Taobao Girls are responsible for training and selecting various e-commerce professionals, and then distributing them to the entire e-commerce industry. We Taobao Girls are more like a school, while Alibaba is the company," Wang Yao explained.

After hearing this, Ma Yun remained silent for a while. "This interpretation is quite interesting. It seems that Alibaba's positioning of Taobao Girls is somewhat one-sided."

He could accept Wang Yao's statement because Alibaba had spent tens of millions of yuan poaching models from Taobao Girls during this period, and these models seemed to have been cultivated by Taobao Girls or Tianhuo Media behind them.

From this perspective, Taobao models seem more like producers, while Alibaba seems more like a distribution channel.

The relationship between the two seems to be one of supply and demand, but the problem is that Taobao Girls can continuously incubate and cultivate models, while Alibaba seems to be able to only continuously consume the value of models.

Does that mean we have to rely on Taobao models for supplies until we find other sources?
Moreover, even if Meishe.com hadn't run into trouble, it seems it couldn't have replaced Taobao's models, because Meishe's model for cultivating models and internet celebrities is far inferior to Tianhuo's.

"What are your thoughts on Meishe.com's predicament, Mr. Wang?" Ma Yun asked again.

"This tragedy is a result of inadequate regulation by the industry and the platform. It's not a predicament, but an inevitability. Every industry must be 'people-oriented'," Wang Yao shook his head.

“I prefer partners who are principled, because I value reputation and trust above all else.” Ma Yun nodded approvingly, then asked, “What does Mr. Wang think of Alibaba?”

“A pioneer worthy of respect,” Wang Yao said solemnly.

The so-called pioneers are nothing more than the achievements of boldness and luck.

"That's all?" Ma Yun frowned. He was used to hearing people call Alibaba a great company that changed the world, and he was somewhat displeased to hear such a mediocre evaluation.

"Mr. Ma, you think that's not enough?" Wang Yao feigned surprise.

"It seems Mr. Wang's vision is limited to this." Ma Yun smiled and shook her head, offering no explanation. Feeling she had probed enough, she cut to the chase.

"My sudden visit was primarily to see for myself whether this young and talented Mr. Wang is as rumored as he is today. I can confirm that he lives up to his reputation."

The second reason was for the merger of Meishe and Tianhuo. I admire Mr. Wang's talent, and I also know that acquiring Tianhuo would be quite difficult, so as a second choice, the two companies merged, with Alibaba becoming one of Tianhuo's major shareholders, forming a stable and reliable strategic alliance.

When the "one-click matching" function of Alibaba's Qianniu backend is integrated with the Taobao Girl platform, we only charge a 10% handling fee.

Ma Yun wanted to push for the merger of the two companies, and then have the "one-click matching" service directly managed by Taobao models to collect handling fees, so that there would be no need to invest repeatedly in the same area.

Although a 10% handling fee may seem low, if Tianhuo Shares' share is included, Alibaba can take away at least 35% of the profit from this business.

If this sector can truly achieve revenue of tens or even hundreds of billions in the future, Alibaba's investment will definitely be a sure thing.

With Alibaba's backing, Tianhuo's presence, whether as a Taobao model or a Taobao boss, has provided absolute support for its monopoly in these two sectors.

Moreover, Alibaba has cleverly secured its own control over key upstream merchant resources.

Because merchants use Qianniu more frequently than third-party platforms like Taonulang.

“I have no objection to the merger, but there’s the issue of valuation ratios.” Wang Yao frowned.

Alibaba's real intention is simply to use the merger as an excuse to transfer the remaining value of Meishe's products to the new company and acquire a larger share.

"Although Meishe.com is temporarily under rectification, it is still a platform with more than 300 million high-quality paying users. In addition, considering the cross-shareholding of Chengtian Entertainment, even if we suffer some losses, the total valuation is 5 million."
"Based on Tianhuo's current valuation of 30 billion, if we give Alibaba a 6% stake, that means after the merger, Alibaba (formerly Meishe) will hold 51% of Tianhuo's shares. Alternatively, Tianhuo could acquire it by paying cash," Ma Yun said with a smile.

"Mr. Ma's calculations are quite clever," Wang Yao chuckled.

The current asset value of Meishe Company is only equivalent to the cigarette butt shares that Chengtian and Bernard hold in each other.

This is equivalent to acquiring 30.824% of Chengtian and 5% of Berna for 5 million, plus the already defunct Meishe.com and its mess.

No matter which option is chosen, Tianhuo will suffer a huge loss, because Meishe's assets are all garbage, even the assets it holds are the same. The only thing that might still have some value is the 5% that it will hold in mutual shares after Berna goes public in the future.

If Alibaba were to acquire shares, it would become the most influential shareholder in the future, threatening Wang Yao's core power.

If the payment is made in cash, Alibaba will remain one of the major shareholders and will be able to cash out 2.2 million yuan, which is equivalent to directly recovering part of its cash investment.

This blatant bullying stems from Alibaba's overwhelming advantage over Tianhuo.

If Wang Yao does not accept, then the Taobao Girl business will continue to suffer heavy losses and malicious competition from Alibaba in the short term.

Then, because of Ma Yun's presence at the event today, rumors might spread back, causing enrollment difficulties for Taobao's business, directly cutting off the business line, or Alibaba might also launch its own "Taobao Boss" campaign.

This acquisition is more like a protection fee payment.

Seek help from the prevailing circumstances, not from individuals.

The situation is stronger than the person.

Ma Yun looked at Wang Yao calmly, and although the other party was trying his best to hide the anger in his eyes, he still keenly sensed it.

He had the same expression a few years ago when facing the merger with Yahoo!

That time and that moment, exactly this moment!
However, the positions have been reversed.

Ma Yun suddenly felt a little dazed.

In the blink of an eye, Alibaba has become able to exert its influence and pressure others.

"After the restructuring, if Tianhuo develops well in the future, Alibaba will consider acquiring it first. At that time, President Wang can be one of the candidates for Taobao CEO." Seemingly out of compassion, Ma Yun spoke again, making a promise.

Currently, Taobao's CEO is Temujin Lu Zhaoxi, one of Ma Yun's most trusted confidants, and one of the candidates for this position, which can also be considered as one of the potential successors to Alibaba.

Whether it's empty promises or something else, verbal promises always have some value.

"Mr. Ma, please allow me to consider it," Wang Yao said in a deep voice, taking a deep breath.

“Okay, no rush.” Ma Yun nodded.

Hearing that Wang Yao did not refuse, Ma Yun breathed a sigh of relief.

Trying to recruit someone like Wang Yao is like training a hawk; if you succeeded immediately, what challenge and value would it have?

After chatting for a few more minutes, Ma Yun said goodbye due to her busy schedule. As she left, she made a point of patting Chen Qi, the CEO who jumped ship from Alibaba to Mulan Street, and Wei Bo, the CEO of Taobao Girl.

"Work hard under General Manager Wang and don't embarrass Alibaba."

Ma Yun laughed as she got into the car, and drove off with a large entourage, enjoying unparalleled fame.

Chen Qi and Wei Bo looked embarrassed and sat on pins and needles, stealing glances at Wang Yao.

Wang Yao stood alone, watching the convoy depart. He turned and patted the two men on the shoulder, saying, "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river."

Upon hearing this, the two immediately shook off their dejection.

Beijing, Chengtian Company.

Ma Yun's exposure value is no less than that of A-list celebrities. The news of his appearance at Taobao Boss was known to almost everyone in less than half an hour, but different people saw different information.

"How is the situation?" Wu Kebo asked Morita Ryu with a worried expression.

"Sun Jun reported that Wang Yao did not refuse President Ma, which greatly increases the chances of a merger." Morita Ryu frowned and looked at Wu Kebo with a complicated expression.

It has to be said that although this kid isn't very good at running a company, he's definitely got some skills when it comes to this kind of capital operation.

On Monday, the stock price plummeted by more than 40% due to a barrage of negative news and manipulation by Liu Haifeng. The price dropped from 9 yuan to around 5.4 yuan, resulting in a market capitalization loss of 5 million yuan and a total market capitalization of around 10 million yuan, falling below 7.5 billion yuan.

With the market value almost at rock bottom, Liu Haifeng dared not continue to dump shares, fearing that Wu Kebo might retaliate and try to delist the company again, which would be a huge loss, since the fixed assets had not changed at all.

Morita Ryu was originally planning to join forces with Wang Yao to remove Wu Kebo from office, but unexpectedly, this kid came up with another trick: using a dog to devour a tiger.

He instructed Morita Ryu to contact Sun Zhengyi, Alibaba's major shareholder, and propose that Tianhuo/Meishe be merged first. If it were a cash + share merger, Chengtian, holding 28% of the shares, could also receive 1.4 million yuan in cash, which could be used to repay part of the debt owed to Meishe.

Meanwhile, since Cheng Tian also has 20% of Tianhuo's shares, which he pledged to Alibaba in exchange for 6 million yuan, Alibaba will hold 20% of Tianhuo's shares after the merger. Together, they will hold about 40%, and in the future, they will definitely be able to join forces to contain Wang Yao. Alibaba would definitely be willing to do so.

Once the merger is finalized, although the total debt of 14 billion yuan will remain unchanged, the creditors will change, from major securities firms and banks to Alibaba, as long as Alibaba does not rush to withdraw the 6 million yuan loan.

With the remaining 8 million yuan in debt, Wu Kebo can honestly adjust it gradually through business operations. Even with a debt ratio of 64%, as long as the risk of loan withdrawal is resolved, he can still continue operating.

Moreover, if Tianhuo receives support from Alibaba and its overall valuation doubles again, then the stocks in hand will become a powerful tool for debt reduction!

This is a common method of cyclical pledging in capital operations. The only condition is finding an institution willing to take on the debt as a bridge loan. He was betting that Alibaba was determined to acquire Tianhuo.

After hearing his method, Morita Ryu thought it wasn't a bad idea. After all, if Wang Yao were replaced as CEO, the valuation might be guaranteed, but it would be uncontrollable.

They control Chengtian Entertainment behind the scenes, not just for the simple purpose of making money.

So Morita Ryu contacted Sun Zhengyi through the parent company, which ultimately led to the classic scene of Ma Yun personally appearing at the Taobao Boss event and shaking hands with Wang Yao.

"If the acquisition fails, we will buy back your 16% stake at the original price, and your days of lording it over will come to an end," Morita Ryu said coldly.

Wu Kebo also faced costs in promoting this plan; failure would mean being completely out of the game.

But he had no choice. After all, the 16% stake he held was only worth about 1 million yuan at the current market value. He had invested nearly 3 million yuan to acquire these shares back then, and now that he had lost so much, how could he possibly be willing to cut his losses?

So we have no choice but to take a gamble.

"Don't worry, Morita-kun, I'm a man of my word." Wu Kebo said with a smile.

But she was incredibly anxious, hoping that Wang Yao would make the right decision.

Ma Yun's appearance brought about tremendous changes to Taobao Boss's activities.

Originally, there were fewer than 2000 people who had made reservations for the second phase of the Mulan Street event, but within a few hours, the number suddenly increased to 5000 and is still increasing rapidly. The number of people participating in the discussion has also soared from more than 10,000 to more than 200,000.

After all, that's Ma Yun.

An e-commerce teaching activity endorsed by Ma Yun!

It's just a matter of a sage pointing the way!

Faced with this situation, Wei Bo was both surprised and delighted. He was delighted because, among so many applicants, he could hold three consecutive conferences with thousands of attendees in a short period of time, and with the addition of some scalped tickets, he could directly generate tens of millions in revenue.

Because Wang Yao was personally involved in the first session, scalped tickets could fetch a high price. However, starting from the second session, Wang Yao was no longer a regular lecturer. Moreover, after the first session ended, related activity tutorials would definitely have been leaked online, and there would inevitably have been people secretly taking photos or recordings at the event.

This is unavoidable, so the only way to avoid it is by adjusting lesson plans and special guests. That's why scalped tickets become increasingly difficult to sell at higher prices as time goes on.

However, there are also advanced classes and executive classes.

After Ma Yun left, more than 300 students from the first cohort enrolled in the advanced course, and two enrolled in the CEO course, resulting in an additional revenue of over 6 million yuan.

If this ratio is maintained and several more sessions are held, the benefits of the advanced class will increase significantly.

In other words, by the end of the second quarter, Taobao Boss should be able to generate at least 2000 million yuan in revenue from tuition fees.

The revenue from scalped tickets is Wang Yao's income from other channels and is not included in Taobao Boss's revenue; it is estimated to be over 1000 million yuan.

This is definitely a major breakthrough for a project that has been established for less than a month.

However, given the positive word-of-mouth effect brought by Ma Yun, what if Wang Yao refuses to cooperate with Alibaba?

With just one sentence from Ma Yun, nearly half of Taobao Boss's project would collapse.

So he was both surprised and delighted, caught in a dilemma.

He could only discuss it with Chen Qi. Since the Mulan Street project was not under Tianhuo's control, Chen Qi was not greatly affected. However, both of them felt that Ma Yun's move was really too ruthless.

It's a threat on par with the H-2 bomb.

The two drank all night, cursing the damn Ali, but couldn't come up with a suitable solution. In the end, they wanted to consult Wang Yao for his opinion.

"Like I said, let him do his thing, we'll do ours. At least for now, it seems like a good thing, doesn't it? As for whether or not we cooperate with Alibaba, our projects still need to move forward. Mr. Wei, if you don't want to be controlled by others, either take the initiative or give up." Wang Yao shook his head with a smile after hearing this.

Seeing Wang Yao's calm and composed demeanor, Wei Bo suddenly felt the pressure.

“President Wei, it’s true that people have a lot of faith in President Ma, but I’d like to ask, has Ma Yun ever run a Taobao store?” Wang Yao frowned as he saw Wei’s uncertain expression.

Wei Bo was stunned.

Ma Yun probably never opened a Taobao store, but she did open a Taobao website!

"Since he has never opened an online store and has no impressive data, why should we, the operators of hundreds of online stores with total monthly sales of nearly 20 million, be afraid of his remarks?"
By what right does he have? Does he dare cut off traffic to my online store because of this? If he dares to cut it off today, his reputation for paid traffic will be ruined tomorrow.
The platform can intervene in store traffic. As long as the evidence is conclusive, other e-commerce platforms will treat us like gods because this is the only chance to defeat Taobao.

What I lost was only a million in daily sales, but he might have lost over 100 million in daily sales and a market value of hundreds of billions!
In the field of online store marketing, everyone speaks with data and revenue, so what are you afraid of? Wang Yao's tone was somewhat serious, but he didn't get angry.

Wei Bo was completely stunned.

Yes.

Taobao bosses need to rely on real performance to promote their businesses, not on the endorsement of Alibaba or Jack Ma.

I've really put the cart before the horse.

"President Wang, I know I was wrong." Wei Bo was somewhat ashamed, because he knew very well that what he feared most was Ma Yun.

"A common man's anger can spill blood five steps away. Mr. Wei, you need to recognize your own position." Wang Yao shook his head.

"President Wang, wait for my good news." Upon hearing this, Wei Bo's expression gradually hardened, and he stood up to take his leave.

He stood tall with a resolute air of going to his death.

Wang Yao twirled the 80 yuan art pen in his fingers, staring at the screen showing Tianhuo's Q2 revenue and expenditure. After a moment of contemplation, he picked up his phone and called Liu Qiangdong.

"Mr. Wang, I heard you shook hands and made peace with Lao Ma?" Liu Qiangdong's somewhat hoarse voice was heard as soon as the call was connected.

He had naturally seen the news about the e-commerce giant's rise to fame yesterday, and he refrained from calling Wang Yao, but he was still very anxious.

If Wang Yao really reconciles with Alibaba, it would be a disaster for JD.com.

"I guess so. He wanted to push me to acquire Meishe." Wang Yao smiled.

"If only we had known this would happen, we could have just spent more money to buy the Taobao models back then. Alibaba is just so petty," Liu Qiangdong complained.

"Who would have thought that Meishe would suddenly crash?" Wang Yao laughed.

"However, Alibaba doesn't have a great reputation in the investment world, so you should be careful," Liu Qiangdong whispered behind his back.

"Don't worry, I'm still considering it. But I thought about it yesterday, and I can offer a new category for JD.com's revenue. The overall volume isn't large, but it should still be around 10 billion RMB per year. But most importantly, it can elevate JD.com's overall positioning and image," Wang Yao said in a deep voice.

"Oh? That's quite a lot. What categories?" Liu Qiangdong suddenly perked up.

If it were possible to add a category with annual sales of 10 billion RMB without affecting JD.com's high-end positioning, it would be entirely beneficial.

“I can only say that the average order value is above 5000 yuan. My condition is that if JD.com needs to continue financing, I want 10%, and the equity will still be held by you on my behalf. In addition, JD.com’s online payment business will have to cooperate with me in the future,” Wang Yao proposed.

"Online payment service?" Liu Qiangdong immediately perked up. "You have that business? Can you get the license?"

In the past two years, one of the most talked-about topics in the e-commerce industry has been the first batch of online payment licenses. Obtaining these licenses could even change the landscape of the internet industry, especially the e-commerce sector.

JD.com couldn't participate because they simply didn't have the funds, but that doesn't mean they didn't need to.

"There's a 90% chance we can get it," Wang Yao smiled.

“If you let me hold the shares on your behalf, I have no objection. As for online payment cooperation, I can only promise that I will cooperate with you, but I cannot cooperate with you exclusively,” Liu Qiangdong said in a deep voice.

Online payment also heavily relies on user volume. Currently, the most valuable payment platform in China is Tencent's, followed by Alibaba's.

Liu Qiangdong didn't know which company Wang Yao controlled, but it certainly couldn't have more users than these two, so it couldn't be exclusive.

“Of course it’s not an exclusive platform,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Alright, now you can tell me what industry it is, right?" Liu Qiangdong said with a smile.

"Luxury goods," Wang Yao emphasized.

"Huh?" Liu Qiangdong was stunned.

"I'll explain when everything is ready," Wang Yao said hastily before hanging up, as an even more important call came in.

"Sister Di, is there any news?" Wang Yao asked in a deep voice.

"Ya Hu has indeed expressed interest in Ms's development, but even I think that old woman Carol is difficult to deal with," Deng Wendi said with some doubt.

Yesterday, after suddenly receiving news from Wang Yao that he wanted to collaborate with Yahoo!, she tried to make contact and managed to secure a meeting with Yahoo!'s president, Carol, through her network of friends.

But after thinking it over, she felt that it was still not quite right. After all, the gap between the two sides was too big. She wanted to make Ms. successful, but she did not want to be swallowed up.

“Let’s go talk to them first. If we can get help from Yahoo! Japan, then we can capture half of the East Asian market for Ms., and at least the total number of users will have a chance to exceed 100 million,” Wang Yao said in a deep voice.

"Okay, you set a time, I'll go arrange it." Deng Wendi was relatively obedient to advice, after all, this was the first time Wang Yao had formally made such a request.

“Okay.” The artistic brush in Wang Yao’s hand shimmered with dazzling firelight under the sunlight, illuminating the smile on his lips.

Mr. Ma, since you're so bored...

I'll find you something to do.

(End of this chapter)