How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 184 What a fuss

Counterfeiting is a craft that has been passed down for thousands of years.

From large-scale counterfeiting of coins during the Shang and Zhou dynasties to small-scale forgeries of silk dyeing and painting, the number of fakes is countless.

The underlying reason is the unavoidable accompanying phenomenon caused by premium in the development of human commodity economy.

Nowadays, with the proliferation of technology and products, all sorts of niche categories have emerged, among which counterfeit goods are one of the most prevalent.

The term "A-grade" originated from the quality inspection standards of Nike and Adidas' OEM factories at the beginning of China's transformation into the world's factory in the 90s. It adopted the "A/B grade" system, where A-grade represents qualified products that meet the brand's standards, while B-grade represents defective products or leftover stock.

However, as OEM factories have become smaller in scale, many of them have realized that the actual cost of goods sold overseas for hundreds or thousands of dollars is only a few dozen dollars. The huge difference has attracted many people to try their luck, so counterfeit goods have gradually changed from meeting the standard to being close to the standard of genuine products.

Counterfeit goods were initially supplied to neighboring developed countries such as Japan and Korea from coastal areas. Later, with the rise of consumerism and the increased status value brought by luxury goods, the internal market for 'symbolic consumption' grew. Consumers obtained social recognition from brand logos through counterfeit goods while avoiding the high costs of genuine products.

Although counterfeit goods have been managed since the 90s, due to the secrecy of their channels and consumer groups, there has been little progress by 2010. In fact, in the future era of micro-businesses, the counterfeit market almost destroyed the brand market.

To combat counterfeit goods in China, foreign brands have come up with numerous anti-counterfeiting measures, but most of the time they have been ineffective because the target audience for counterfeit goods only needs the fleeting sense of vanity that counterfeit goods bring.

Therefore, counterfeit goods have always been in a gray area where they are not investigated unless reported by the public. As long as they are not too blatant, they can be sold without being investigated. However, with the development of e-commerce, the cost of acquiring customers for counterfeit goods has decreased, and counterfeit goods have ushered in a short period of prosperity.

As long as consumerism cannot resolve the balance between brand premium and product essence, the counterfeit industry will not disappear; it will only shift or become more covert.

It is against this backdrop that Taobao has become the primary target of complaints.

Since the beginning of May, various complaints have been pouring in. The most outrageous one is about a merchant who made millions by selling counterfeit luxury goods as genuine products. After being exposed, the news even alarmed his uncle, and the news also became a trending topic.

However, this cannot be considered a bad thing for the platform, because legally speaking, the platform has no obligation to supervise C-stores. These are all individual actions of the merchants, and the platform has already done more than enough by cooperating with the seizure.

This is the advantage of a platform that profits from both ends.

More importantly, it can also gain a lot of traffic and targeted customers. Because China is a pragmatic country with little brand awareness and culture, the A-grade culture focuses on a "survival wisdom" of spending little money to achieve great things, making brand names affordable for everyone, which will gain a lot of recognition.

This can be seen as a way of demystifying foreign brands that were originally considered high-end.

The shoes that used to sell for a few hundred yuan were also produced at my house. Anyway, they're all from the same production line, so who's real and who's fake?
Sometimes they even turn around and mock those who wear genuine products as "suckers".

Therefore, platforms generally don't respond to these kinds of complaints.

But this time it was different.

Because the whistleblower is a foreign national.

An American bought a batch of Adidas shoes online, only to find they were counterfeit after receiving them. Coincidentally, this man was an employee of Adidas, so he immediately reported the news back to headquarters. He then bought several more pairs from other stores and discovered that 60% of them were counterfeit.

So AD Company personally granted this foreigner the right to file a complaint, and even announced that it would join forces with several internationally renowned brands to file a lawsuit against him.

Furthermore, various complaint videos about Huaxia's counterfeit products being of the same quality as genuine products but priced at only one-tenth of the price have begun to gain considerable popularity on platforms such as YouTube.

Within two days of the incident, Alibaba's stock price in Hong Kong had already fallen by 1%.

Ma Yun keenly sensed the conspiracy, but had no time to deal with it for the time being because of the international complaint, and the fact that it was a complaint from the brand itself, which made the situation quite serious.

Yahu further fueled the fire by publicly stating in the news that, as a major shareholder, they would urge Alibaba to handle this counterfeit goods incident.

Domestic media outlets seized the opportunity to report on the new topic, with Vancl.com even launching an official guarantee of "three times the compensation for fakes," as they are considered the best platform to control quality among all platforms.

But then he was mocked by Dangdang's CEO, Mr. Li, who asked, "Do you even have your own brand?"

This triggered a wave of unrest within the e-commerce platform.

Wang Yao lay on a private beach in Hong Kong, while a film crew set up a scene in the distance. Zhao Liying and Zhang Tianai, who were playing characters from fishing villages, had been learning fishing skills recently. In fact, Zhang Tianai even offered to get a tan to fit the role.

In a Chinese entertainment industry where the pursuit of extreme whiteness is still prevalent, Zhang Tianai's actions seem quite assertive. Furthermore, following Wang Yao's instructions and not excessively reducing body fat, her originally thin figure has become much more rounded, and paired with her tanned skin, she will likely present a very healthy image.

Under the guise of not wasting resources during set construction, Wang Jing encouraged Wang Yao to bring in models from the Hong Kong branch for photoshoots, resulting in a large group of Hong Kong models wearing sexy bikinis on the beach today.

When it comes to enjoying life, Wang Jing really knows what she's doing.

The weather in Hong Kong at the end of May is just right, neither too hot nor too cold, with a pleasant sea breeze, perfect for relaxation.

Wang Yao shifted his gaze back to the tablet, browsing the latest developments in the counterfeit goods scandal. It had been two days, and Boss Ma was still calm and collected. He was truly someone who could handle big things. However, he wasn't in a hurry, as long as the stock price was steadily declining.

"Why are all the girls in Hong Kong so well-built?" Zhao Liying's envious voice came from behind her.

"Your figure isn't bad either," Wang Yao said dismissively, glancing at Zhao Liying who was wearing a children's swimsuit.

She looks so young, and her figure is terrible. Isn't it supposed to be that those with a youthful face are... well, you know?

“There are many beauty pageants in Hong Kong, so many girls start preparing for them from junior high school, intentionally working out or shaping their bodies, so they may indeed look better overall,” Zhang Tianai explained from the side.

She was dressed quite conservatively, in a one-piece swimsuit, but with a large open back, and she had applied tanning oil to it.

"It's too late for me to start now," Zhao Liying sighed.

“Some of them are technologically advanced, but you’re going to take the path of meritocracy, so don’t worry about these things,” Wang Yao reassured him.

"Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Wang." Zhao Liying grinned, revealing her white teeth, and prepared to find an opportunity to inquire about the technology being used.

Women's obsession with bra size is no less than men's blind obsession with size.

"Does Mr. Wang surf?" Zhang Tianai casually moved closer to Wang Yao's recliner and sat down.

“No, I don’t really like extreme sports. Do you surf?” Wang Yao shook his head.

"I don't know how to do it either, but I really want to learn, as well as diving and skydiving," Zhang Tianai said with a smile.

“You like to challenge your limits, huh?” Wang Yao glanced at her sideways. “Surfing does enhance the character’s screen time. I’ll have someone find two instructors to see if she can learn it.”

"Oh? Okay, thank you, Mr. Wang." Zhang Tian'ai was a little embarrassed. She originally just wanted to chat with Wang Yao and find out some of his preferences, but she didn't expect Wang Yao to actually assign her a task.

"Mr. Wang, Miss Zhu Zhu has arrived." The branch office assistant brought Zhu Zhu over.

Seeing that Wang Yao had important business to attend to, Zhao Liying and Zhang Tianai wisely got up and moved to another spot to slack off, but they still kept a close eye on Zhu Zhu, who was wearing a loose chiffon dress and had a unique temperament.

Zhu Zhu has just given up her role as a host and is preparing to transition into a singer and actor. Due to her family background, she has an innate sense of tranquility and relaxation.

"Mr. Wang, I've heard so much about you." Zhu Zhu smiled, his dimples quite striking.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Zhu." Wang Yao shook hands with her. "I originally planned to meet you again when I returned to the capital, but I didn't expect you to come looking for me yourself."

Zhu Zhu, a former TV host, has been responsible for hosting programs for MTV in China. However, because he could not integrate into the mainstream entertainment industry and MTV did not value the Chinese market, he had to find another way out.

Later, she met her ex-boyfriend Li Quan, who was also Ke Lan's ex-boyfriend. The three of them came from the same circle. After signing with Li Quan's company, she prepared to debut as a singer. However, they had disagreements after less than half a year. Zhu Zhu is a typical Western-style girl, especially when it comes to handling relationships, she is quick and decisive.

After the huge success of "Fairy Robe", almost every artist in the entertainment industry with any connection to design wanted to get a piece of the pie. Zhu Zhu is a graduate of a prestigious international design school, and she had just experienced setbacks in her transition from host to singer.

The main reason was that she had broken up with her boyfriend Li Quan and was preparing to try her hand at acting. After searching around in China, she happened to come across the variety show "Fairy Robe" which became a hit, so she took the initiative to ask someone to contact her and give it a try.

Wang Yao happened to be short of a female artist with potential to mature into a woman to replace Liu Tao, so he made an appointment with her to meet in Beijing in early June. Unexpectedly, Zhu Zhu was also in a hurry. Hearing that Wang Yao was filming in Hong Kong, she flew over herself.

Upon first meeting Wang Yao, Zhu Zhu felt that this boss would be quite to his liking.

Wang Yao chatted with her for a while, inquiring about her thoughts and resume. As far as he remembered, Zhu Zhu's entertainment company was signed with Hollywood giant CAA, attempting to make it in Hollywood as a Chinese person, but ultimately failed. However, the resources given to her at the time were considered average. After all, it is almost impossible for a pure Chinese person to make it in Hollywood, especially since Zhu Zhu could not play any smear roles.

Furthermore, Zhu Zhu's acting skills can only be described as solid, not as talented; his main strength lies in his unique temperament.

“Spark happens to be lacking an employee with experience in external affairs. In addition to her acting work, Ms. Zhu Zhu can occasionally try her hand at the company’s external liaison business,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Does General Manager Wang assign work to employees based on their needs?" Zhu Zhu asked with a smile.

"Everyone should do their job and make the best use of their abilities. I believe in the barrel principle: success or failure is determined by the shortest plank of the barrel, but when multiple strong and weak planks are combined, the result is 1+1<2. For example, you might be the best actor in the hosting world, and I have ways to make you famous."

"But if you've always been a conventional actor, then I probably can't help you. You can think of it as an early multi-talented artist, except we're crossing different dimensions. Of course, this is just my suggestion." Wang Yao smiled.

"So, all the artists in Mr. Wang's company either debuted through social media or variety shows, and none of them have debuted through acting skills yet, right?" Zhu Zhu said with a smile.

“The media should serve the public, and acting should serve the industry. The company has different pursuits, so it’s up to Ms. Zhu to choose. But no matter what, you will have a place in ‘Fairy Robe’.” Wang Yao’s gaze swept over Zhu Zhu’s reclining curves without any attempt to conceal it.

"I heard that Xinghuo is also a 520 company? Can it really do that?" Zhu Zhu asked with some curiosity.

Even she has received many invitations to dinners, but not from business bureaus; they are from higher-level organizations, and sometimes it is really hard to refuse.

"We can be self-sufficient without asking for help," Wang Yao smiled.

"How can a person live without ever needing to ask for help?" Zhu Zhu chuckled, momentarily even thinking that Wang Yao was somewhat naive.

“As long as you have enough value, others will be begging for your help. Of course, sometimes you need some means of checks and balances. Besides, as long as I have enough options, there’s nothing difficult about it. After all, no one can control everything, right?” Wang Yao smiled.

"What kind of movie are they filming?" Zhu Zhu asked thoughtfully, then changed the subject.

Wang Yao gave a brief overview of the plot.

"Female growth? Somewhat similar to 'Walking Through the Ages'?" Zhu Zhu's eyes lit up.

"Pretty much the same, but with different intentions." Wang Yao nodded.

“There are very few films of this kind in China; ‘Du Lala’ is quite a rare find,” Zhu Zhu said with a smile.

“There will be more in the future. The soap opera genre is too competitive. Find a promising genre, specialize in it for a few years, and maybe you can gain a foothold,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Is President Wang unwilling to go along with the crowd?" Zhu Zhu joked.

"If you don't like competing with others for food, you might as well create your own. It's not just about the domestic market, but also the East Asian market, and maybe even the Western market in the future." Wang Yao shook his head.

"Mr. Wang is so young, yet his vision already surpasses that of many domestic bosses," Zhu Zhu said with some surprise.

“Having vision alone is useless; you also need talented people to execute it. Talent is the most important thing in the 21st century.” Wang Yao stared into Zhu Zhu’s eyes with a smile.

Zhu Zhu panicked and avoided eye contact. "Are those girls also Mr. Wang's artists?"

“The models from the branch office,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

"The competition among talented people is also fierce," Zhu Zhu said meaningfully.

"That depends on individual talent; scarcity is very important," Wang Yao smiled.

"Am I considered a rare talent?" Zhu Zhu smiled gently, his dimples inviting.

"Of course, when I travel abroad in the future, I'll need a friend who's very familiar with foreign countries to help me find my way and translate," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Tsk, is Mr. Wang going to treat me as his secretary?" Zhu Zhu frowned.

“It could also be the CEO of an overseas branch,” Wang Yao joked.

"Tsk, other company bosses use actress resources to seduce people, but President Wang has come up with a different idea." Zhu Zhu was amused.

This kind of pancake is second only to the proprietress.

“So they are all media companies, and Spark may become a media empire in the future,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Without Tianhuo, valued at 30 billion, backing him up, President Wang's words would be a laughing stock if they got out," Zhu Zhu said with a smile.

"It seems Miss Zhu doesn't know me very well." Wang Yao smiled and shook his head.

"I'll definitely look into it more thoroughly if I have the chance." A subtle smile appeared on Zhu Zhu's lips.

"What do you think they're talking about that makes them so happy?" Zhao Liying squatted in the corner watching Wang Yao and Zhu Zhu interact.

"I don't know, but this lady has a lot of class." Zhang Tianai shook her head.

"She should be an actress too, but I've never seen her on TV. If she joins the company, she might end up looking like Meng Jie." Zhao Liying said with a serious face.

"It's still a bit different, and I heard that Sister Meng is going to focus on running her clothing brand. The company is going to sign this person, which fills the gap," Zhang Tianai said with a smile.

"Tsk, Mr. Wang really has a backup plan," Zhao Liying clicked her tongue.

"Looks like we're done talking. Are you calling us?" Zhang Tianai saw Wang Yao waving at them.

"I'll go take a look." Zhao Liying ran over.

“Miss Zhu has extensive hosting experience. You can have her teach you some tips during this time, and you can also work on your posture.” Wang Yao tapped Zhao Liying on the back.

Of the entire company, Yang Mi has the worst physique, followed by Zhao Liying.

"Oh? Okay, please give me your guidance, Miss Zhu." Zhao Liying was taken aback.

So it turns out that Wang Yao hired the host for her?

"Miss Zhao, please give me your guidance." Zhu Zhu smiled gently, looking Zhao Liying up and down.

She's playing the lead role in a movie at such a young age; it seems she's Wang Yao's favorite.
Sure enough, men all like this kind of small and cute thing.

Zhu Zhu plans to temporarily experience the filming culture of Xinghuo as an extra in this drama. Wang Yao arranged for her to be a performance consultant, making the most of her talents by joining the crew. The salary is not high, but room and board are provided.

Zhu Zhu probably doesn't care, since she's not short of money anyway.

The first thing she did after officially joining the crew was to enjoy the beach. When she appeared on the beach in a bikini, she instantly attracted the attention of most people.

"Wow, such a great figure!" Zhao Liying exclaimed in surprise, spitting out watermelon juice.

"Did she... not put it on?" Zhang Tianai was shocked.

"Making a fuss over nothing." Wang Yao chuckled and shook his head, then put on his sunglasses.

Zhu Zhu's addition had an unexpected effect on the production team: it made them more open and relaxed.

Originally, newcomers like Zhao Liying and Zhang Tianai were a bit reserved because their characters came from fishermen's backgrounds, so their clothing was relatively revealing. However, after Zhu Zhu was incorporated into the production and the Western beach culture was introduced, the actresses in the crew became much more accepting of revealing their skin.

As a result, the consumption of sunscreen increased exponentially. Fortunately, Wang Yao had several sunscreen brand agency operations under his control, and ordered the cast and crew to share their sunscreen experiences on Mulan Street and other social media platforms, which generated a lot of traffic conversion.

(End of this chapter)