How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 243: Why does it feel like there are business opportunities everywhere?!
The collapse of giants always brings countless reflections to future generations.

Although Xuanji's development is currently healthy, it is indeed facing a severe development dilemma. If it takes too big a step, it may cause serious problems; if it takes too small a step, it may fall behind. It is caught in a dilemma.

"Companies that focus solely on creating content will face this situation because it doesn't align with the laws of business development, and they are likely to incur losses," Wang Yao shook his head.

"Is President Wang confident that he can turn Hongmeng's situation around?" Shen Ping asked in a deep voice.

"Turning the tide won't be an option, but we can at least manage to survive and wait for the right opportunity. If Hongmeng collapses, the loss of thousands of artists will be a huge blow to the industry. Chinese animation has been stagnant for many years, and we've finally cultivated a new generation of core talent; we can't afford to let it die out again."
"Spark can at least provide them with some small-scale illustrations and basic orders, which should be enough to maintain the status quo," Wang Yao smiled.

"President Wang has a grand vision," Shen Ping exclaimed sincerely.

"I'll do what I can. If I lose money, I'll just consider it money I'm paying for my hobby of buying comics," Wang Yao said with a wave of his hand and a smile.

A company with over a thousand artists must spend at least 40 million yuan on salaries alone each year. Wang Yao's hobby is indeed quite expensive.

However, this indirectly confirms Wang Yao's optimism about the animation industry. According to this calculation, Wang Yao's cost of acquiring Hongmeng Cartoon exceeded 100 million yuan. If he was willing to invest such a large sum in a company that was about to go bankrupt, he would definitely invest even more in a profitable company like Xuanji.

"What are your thoughts on the development of Xuanji, Mr. Wang?" Shen Ping pondered for a moment before speaking again.

"I really like Mr. Shen's company culture of 'history as the bone and art as the wings.' Actually, we can also add 'technology as the core.' Human civilization will eventually move towards the virtual world, and I hope that Xuanji will become a 'virtual reality' technology company in the future to create a parallel universe that belongs to history."

I will not interfere with the development of the content direction of "Qin's Moon". At the same time, I will bring the IP of the work to various fields and produce a series of historical content. Initially, I will focus on popular science content. Two projects have been approved: the cartoon "That Year, That Month, That Rabbit" adapted from modern history and the popular science cartoon "History Cat" for ancient history. Both of them use anthropomorphism to tell history.

If Mr. Shen accepts the acquisition, then it will become a core subsidiary of Xinghuo Animation, specializing in 3D animation. In the future, 3D technology for some film and television productions will also be preferentially contracted to Xuanji, as well as priority rights for the adaptation of other IPs.

"My plan is to provide at least 3 to 5 million yuan annually for creative work and business development in the first five years, assuming no profit. If we become profitable, we will initially invest all of that in technology and product development. As for going public and raising funds, that will depend on the company's performance," Wang Yao said.

Given the current influence of "Qin's Moon", Wang Yao can basically make a profit after acquiring it. He can first license it to game IPs for collaboration, and then consider live-action TV series/stage play adaptations. As long as he controls the costs, the losses will be limited.

However, the hype surrounding China's first "live-action adaptation of anime" will generate continuous publicity benefits, representing a strategic loss.

In Shen Ping's mind, Wang Yao was essentially providing unconditional annual funding of tens of millions to support Xuanji's development. This meant that he no longer needed to consider issues such as attracting investment and commercialization, and could focus all his energy on the work itself.

This is a huge temptation for a creative CEO.

"What is Mr. Wang's valuation of Xuanji?" Shen Ping was already considering asking.

"The real secret behind the acquisition is that it involves 1000 million in cash plus a portion of Xingyou's technology as equity, giving us a 70% stake," Wang Yao said.

"I'll go back and discuss it with the team." Shen Ping raised an eyebrow slightly. This was equivalent to a valuation of 2 to 3000 million, which far exceeded his expectations, considering that Xuanji's annual net profit was less than one million.

"Bilibili will be dedicated to serving as the main communication platform for the ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) community. After the new version is launched, two special sections for anime and manga will be added. Even if it can't be broadcast on TV, it can still be broadcast on Bilibili." Wang Yao turned to look at the projection in the live stream room, which already had 3 viewers.

Shen Ping was taken aback.

I'm a little confused as to why Wang Yao suddenly brought up the issue of not being able to broadcast it.

"Brother Yuan, tickets for the Magic Comic Con are being resold for 150 yuan now."

Since starting his small purchasing agent business at school, Yuan Shanjiu has plunged headlong into the entrepreneurial craze among college students sparked by Wang Yao. During the summer vacation, he and several of his downline team members saw the potential in the crowds at the World Expo and started a scalping business by relying on a large number of internal groups.

He posted on Mulan Street, leveraging his status as a local Shanghai university student to offer free guidance and consultation services.

As summer vacation began, parents from all over the country brought their children to participate and broaden their horizons. However, tickets for the World Expo were in short supply. Yuan Shanjiu saw an opportunity in this and started attracting customers online while also collaborating with scalpers offline to sell tickets.

Each ticket could earn about twenty yuan, and in less than half a month, they made a small fortune. Later, they discovered that these visiting parents, in addition to their desire to visit the World Expo, also frequently inquired about what good food and fun things there were to do in Shanghai.

So Yuan Shanjiu started offering secondary services, using coupons from group-buying platforms like Meituan to resell at a premium and make another profit. Customers enjoyed extra discounts and avoided the hassle of selecting coupons themselves.

Therefore, Yuan Shanjiu's team compiled several standardized packages, covering all aspects of clothing, food, accommodation, and transportation, and recommended them to relevant customers at any time. Recently, the CJoy event has been the most interesting event besides the World Expo, and they have made a fortune by reselling CJoy tickets.

Yuan Shanjiu discovered that most people are more interested in and willing to spend money on entertainment than on food, so he had his team collect special tickets to resell.

But today's customers were a bit strange, all asking about tickets to the 'Magic Comic Con'. At first, Yuan Shanjiu didn't pay much attention, but as more and more people asked, he took a closer look and discovered that such a large-scale event had suddenly appeared in Shanghai.

Although he didn't know much about comic conventions, he was still a bit of an otaku and had read a lot of popular comics. Seeing that in less than an afternoon, the price of a 15 yuan ticket had risen to 150 yuan, Yuan Shanjiu finally couldn't hold back and personally led a group to the event to take a look.

Unexpectedly, the address is in Thames Town, not far from Shanghai University of Sport. Since several companies moved here, this place has become one of the hot topics of discussion in the university town. This is not only related to their own employment, but more importantly, there is a film and television company there. Every day, many handsome men and beautiful women come and go, and college students with nowhere to vent their energy will go there to stroll around.

While it used to be lively, it was far from crowded. Today, long queues formed on both sides of the road outside several doors, attracting many vendors to come and do business.

Yuan Shanjiu looked around at the price entrance and found that each door had two channels: a normal channel and a member channel. It was said that those who had Bilibili membership and were level 3 or above would have extra entry slots.

He's been doing scalping lately and immediately noticed the information gap.

He borrowed a Bilibili membership from a classmate who was also a homebody. After giving the membership number to the ticket seller, he bought a ticket and finally entered after queuing for half an hour.

Furthermore, we learned that there are only a few hundred people on the entire platform who hold these three levels of membership, making them a scarce resource.

Yuan Shanjiu decided to check out what was going on inside. He had never attended a comic convention before, but he had been hanging around CJoy recently. Judging from the format, it seemed similar, except that this Magic Comic Convention seemed to be more refined.

Not only are there dashing heavy cavalrymen as security guards at the entrance, but the entire park is also patrolled by imperial guards dressed in various ancient styles. Moreover, the familiar European-style buildings are now filled with mobile stalls with Chinese style, creating a stark contrast between the two styles.

However, what attracted Yuan Shanjiu the most was the long legs under the bright sun. Apart from swimsuit fashion shows on TV, Yuan Shanjiu had never seen so many legs before, and most of the girls were wearing strange clothes, which was refreshing.

He kept an eye on the information displayed at the stalls, occasionally stopping to look at familiar cartoon characters. He was quite taken aback when he saw fans with cartoon characters printed on them selling for over a hundred yuan. Who on earth would be so foolish as to buy something like that?

However, when he arrived at the exhibition hall for the card draw area, his worldview was once again refreshed. Most boys have collected cards when they were young, especially Pokémon cards. Yuan Shanjiu still has a whole drawer full of them.

But when he saw someone opening boxes of cards, and not opening them themselves, but entrusting the stall owner to do so, he was very surprised, since this box usually costs 199 yuan for 20 bags.

The vendor slashed open 10 card holders with a pair of scissors, poured out 50 cards, and quickly picked out some special cards as he ran his fingers across them, causing gasps from the crowd. Yuan Shanjiu couldn't help but stop and look at them for a while.

These cards are different from the power index cards I bought when I was a kid. These cards are divided into three types: R, SR, and SSR, and each type has a number. The vendors will display the gameplay in front of them. For example, if you draw an SR card, you will receive 3 extra packs; if you draw an SSR card, you will receive 10 extra packs. Consumers can specify the cards they want, and there is no limit to how many packs they can get.

A pack of cards costs 10 yuan and contains 5 cards. The probability of drawing an SR card is 1%, but there are basically at least 10 different SR cards with a probability equivalent to 0.1%. If you actually draw one, it feels like winning the lottery.

Yuan Shanjiu had absolutely no interest in gambling, but when he saw someone open a bag and then win several bags in a row, he found that an evil thought had also popped into his mind.

How about we buy a pack and try it?
What if I keep getting the right answer?
But he quickly realized that even if he won, so what? These were just printed cards, worthless.

That was dangerous; I almost ended up spending 10 yuan for no reason.

But when he turned around, he found that many people around him were exchanging decks, seemingly waiting to complete their decks, and some were even trading rare cards.

"Hello, what are the rewards for collecting this deck?" Yuan Shanjiu couldn't help but ask out of curiosity.

"No, I just like them. These cards are all beautifully drawn," the card collector said with a smile.

“This set must have cost a lot of money to collect.” Yuan Shanjiu looked at the thick card album in his hand.

"It's alright. If you're lucky, you can collect all the common cards for a thousand or two thousand yuan. If you're unlucky, it's hard to say. But if you want to collect all the rare cards, that's another story." The card collector took the initiative to demonstrate and explain the rules of this 'card circle'.

Yuan Shanjiu was greatly shocked upon hearing this. Someone was actually willing to spend tens of thousands of yuan to buy a single card? Couldn't they just print their own?

"These rare cards all have QR codes on the back, so you can verify their authenticity. If you print them out yourself and show them off, people will laugh at you," the card collector laughed.

Yuan Shanjiu seemed to be deep in thought. After leaving the card-drawing area, he went to the most bustling otaku dance exhibition hall.

"Hey, SNH48 is recruiting first-generation members. If you're interested in becoming an idol, feel free to recommend us!"

As soon as I entered, a girl dressed in a JK uniform handed me a flyer.

"An idol? A talent scout?" Yuan Shanjiu was taken aback and glanced at the flyer.

"We are recruiting idol groups, not artists. We mainly focus on offline stage performances, and we have performances almost every day." The JK girl began to enthusiastically introduce what an idol group is.

Yuan Shanjiu is a fan of celebrities. His life was indirectly changed after meeting Ma Ruo in person. When he heard about the idol development program, where he could high-five his idol after a performance and even have regular handshake and chat events, he was instantly attracted.

Although Yuan Shanjiu is a sports student, he is not very interested in romance due to his personality. However, after feeling the enthusiasm and friendliness of the JK girl while chatting with her, he suddenly had a different feeling.

"Are you also a member of this group?" Yuan Shanjiu asked curiously.

Because this girl's appearance is really average, almost the kind of looks you see everywhere in college, can someone like that be an idol?
"We're still in the selection process and haven't debuted yet. Our theater will probably open in September, and we'll announce the debut lineup then," the JK girl said with a smile.

"What are the selection criteria?" Yuan Shanjiu became increasingly curious.

"As for the attention generated by the roadshow, we will start performing in various offline shopping malls in August. The final debut spots will be determined by the number of followers on the Ms account and the mentors' evaluations," the JK girl said.

"Doesn't that mean the more outgoing you are, the more advantageous it is? What if someone cheats by buying followers?" Yuan Shanjiu asked.

"Hey bro, don't underestimate the bond between us and our dreams! How could we possibly cheat?" the JK girl said angrily.

"Uh, just kidding. What's your Ms. name? I'll look into it later and come support you when you perform." Yuan Shanjiu chuckled awkwardly.

Although he's not into anime and manga, he knows that the anime and manga community is full of strange things. However, he heard that SNH48's ticketing system is causing him to have an occupational hazard, so he's going to look into whether there are any scalpers around.

"I'll tell you next time you come to the theater." The JK girl smiled slyly and turned back to find someone to hand out flyers.

Yuan Shanjiu wandered around the otaku dance area, but left early because he couldn't stand the so-called cheering and shouting support mode from the audience and the messy broadcast gymnastics on stage. In the end, he wandered to the 'Chinese style area' where there were the most people.

This area is no longer in the commercial plaza, but rather around the shops. In front of almost every shop, there are young girls dressed in various ancient costumes taking photos and checking in.

Long queues formed in front of several shops that advertised "makeup and costume rental". Yuan Shanjiu went over to take a look. The package of costume, makeup and photography was 199 yuan. Looking at the number of people in line, he figured that this shop must make at least several thousand yuan a day.

Then he looked at the prices of the clothing stores. The cheapest ones cost three to five hundred yuan, and the most expensive ones even cost tens of thousands of yuan. Moreover, they were obviously the kind of strange clothes that could not be worn on the street. This made Yuan Shanjiu's stereotype of the Magic Comic Exhibition even deeper.

What kind of sucker would buy that?

However, when Yuan Shanjiu reached the innermost armor section, he stopped in his tracks. A complete set of armor could be customized for only 8000 yuan?!

Looking again at the tall, imposing mannequin dressed in armor at the store entrance, Yuan Shanjiu couldn't help but feel tempted.

Yuan Shanjiu spent the afternoon browsing the Comic Con, and as if he had discovered a new continent, his thoughts flowed freely and his inspiration burst forth. Although the business of scalpers selling secondhand goods was good, it was still far less than selling anime and manga.

He especially saw the potential in the clothing rental + photo-taking model. If he could attract a group of potential customers online or on campus and connect them with these companies, he could buy a few sets of ancient-style clothing and armor to take back to his dorm and rent them out to students for photo-taking. He estimated that he could break even in a year. He could also introduce buyers, and the commission rate would definitely be high.

This event seems to be rife with business opportunities!
(End of this chapter)