How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 247 Kissing and Kissing
Spread a rumor and break a leg.

Creating a major negative news story is easy, but clarifying it is much more difficult.

They either need to create bigger news to divert attention, or invest several times the cost to clarify.

However, the "kidney-selling teenager" incident in "Dream West" not only failed to clarify but also added fuel to the fire with its reverse public relations, which is somewhat puzzling. It's unclear whether it was an accidental misunderstanding or a rebellious outburst.

Internet addiction is a sensitive topic, and now, with the introduction of new regulations, the entire gaming industry has been hit hard. NetEase's move has clearly put everyone in the spotlight once again.

If it's all for the sake of popularity, then they're going too far. Aren't they afraid of being reported and having their service shut down?

However, those in the industry are more concerned about DuoY's actions in helping NetEase clarify the rumors. The feud between Ding Lei and Lei Jun is no secret, and the source of this rumor was DuoY platform. Lei's actions are also very confusing to them.

So, have the two reconciled and gotten back together?
Or is there some kind of secret collaboration that can't be revealed to the public?

However, in the public opinion sphere, the news of DuoY coming forward to clarify did not attract much attention. Those who wanted to criticize still did so. However, after a night of fermentation, the focus of the discussion shifted from the theory of the harm of online games to the topic of exorbitantly priced equipment.

The practice of marketing exorbitantly priced equipment has been a recurring theme from "Legend of Mir" to "Conquer Online." Shi Yuzhu, a marketing genius, once coined the slogan "Play games, get paid," which has been used by the gaming industry for over a decade, even into the era of mini-program game red envelopes.

The reason for the introduction of these new regulations is largely due to the series of chaotic issues surrounding the ownership and trading of virtual assets triggered by the game "Zhengtu".

However, the most reported price was around 100,000 for a single item, while the kidney-selling incident raised the price of the exorbitantly priced equipment to 300,000, and even to the absurd level of rumored million.

When the value of information exceeds the public's perception to a certain extent, the information will appear illusory, and the public's discussion will gradually deviate from its practical significance. The question of how much virtual assets are worth has become a topic of debate among netizens. However, soon in addition to the condemnation and debate, another new voice emerged under the related topic.

Many people claim to run game studios. Although they don't know if rare game items can sell for hundreds of thousands, they believe they can earn hundreds of thousands a year by playing games and doing game boosting services. They have also revealed some inside stories about game boosting and how to make money.

These comments quickly introduced many netizens to a new industry.

A game studio? Can playing games really be a substitute for a regular job?
Soon, these comments received numerous replies and private messages asking for mentorship, turning the area into a large-scale job fair.

Riding on the huge popularity of "Dream West", the fourth day of the Magic Comic Con maintained its huge online popularity, with Bilibili's live stream still having a stable average of over 5 real online viewers.

Moreover, it's not just the anime and gaming community that's now attracting a new audience: K-pop fans.

Last night, a netizen on the overseas Korean social media platform posted a photo of the members of the popular girl group T-ara, who have recently been embroiled in a contract dispute over exorbitant fees due to their agency's alleged exploitation, appearing at the China International Comics and Animation Exhibition. The photo shows them panting and helping people shake milk tea at a bubble tea shop, and even hitting a fresh orange with a stick.

The argument that "national idols are forced to go overseas to work as milk tea shops to earn money and terminate their contracts, what kind of state will these bloodsucking management companies put our cultural export idols in?" has once again sparked national sympathy and a new round of online bullying against the management company.

I also gave Michelle a little exposure in Korea.

This trending topic from overseas was subsequently relayed back to the domestic MS platform, drawing attention from fans across the Korean entertainment industry, especially fans of Super Junior and TVXQ, whose idols are also involved in contract termination lawsuits with their agencies.

The thought that if the contract termination fails, the brothers will not only lose their stage, but may only be able to do ordinary jobs in milk tea shops to earn money like Tara, inevitably makes them feel a sense of shared sorrow.

For the first time, fans in the K-pop fandom, which has always been in a state of chaos, disdainfully comparing and belittling each other, have united to send a lot of support to T-ara. Some local fans in Shanghai even lined up offline that day to attend the Magic Comic Exhibition, hoping to send their blessings and support their idols.

To some extent, the fan community is very similar to the anime/manga community. Although idols are real people, what fans yearn for is the "persona" that the stars and idols are packaged or portrayed, which is almost no different from a virtual character.

Both involve projecting one's emotions and feelings onto a 'virtual product,' and in essence, they are both pursuing a process of stress relief and enjoyment.

Bilibili needs this highly engaged fan community to create conflict and chemistry, because there is a very controversial category in the fan creation category called 'shipping'.

Initially, it involved piecing together footage of two completely unrelated celebrities or film/television characters to create a sense of CP (couple pairing), allowing them to mutually boost each other's popularity. Many actors in the entertainment industry are able to collaborate because of well-edited fan-made videos that gain popularity and attract attention from the film and television industry.

But what truly made crossover videos go viral were those that crossed dimensions, such as the bizarre pairings like "Lin Daiyu x Voldemort" and "Liu Yifei x Sun Wukong." These unconventional pairings can almost be considered powerful tools for expanding the fanbase, not only generating a lot of abstract buzz but also easily going viral.

However, the truly talented people who excel at creating crossover videos are all in the idol-following circle. Currently, Bilibili's creators of anime-themed, science-oriented, and meme-inspired content are already at the top, but there is a lack of new abstract stimuli to generate a synergy between different fandoms.

We can take advantage of the popularity brought by Tara to attract some creators from Tieba and forums. After all, making videos elsewhere is a passion, but on Bilibili, you can make money from the number of views.

On the fifth day of the Comic Con, as the heat of the kidney-selling incident subsided and the Korean entertainment industry's attention was not yet fully digested, Wang Yao invited members of AKB48 from Japan to perform offline to open the event under the guise of an SNH48 first-generation recruitment event, once again attracting a new wave of attention from Japanese entertainment fans.

Bilibili currently gathers almost all four core niche groups: anime, traditional Chinese style, Korean entertainment, and Japanese entertainment, resulting in an extremely complex composition.

However, the traffic and content it brings to the platform are real. Compared with social platforms like Tieba/forums that are mainly text and image-based, Bilibili's video + bullet screen attributes, as well as its fan circle function, are more attractive to these hardcore otaku and star-chasing groups.

On the sixth day of the Comic Con, the online buzz finally began to wane, and the number of viewers on Bilibili's live stream dropped back to the tens of thousands. After all, the projects broadcast live each day at the convention were pretty much the same, and the total number of viewers per day for the past two days was close to one million, with an overall reach of six to seven million people, which was already the limit of the current online audience.

However, the number of offline visitors remained overwhelming, with long queues. Scalped tickets were even more expensive than those at the neighboring World Expo. Not only was the exhibition hall packed with people, but the area outside the exhibition hall also attracted a large number of vendors and promotional booths spontaneously set up by some fan groups.

According to the local community's summary, the Magic Comic Con attracted more visitors than during the university's opening season, and the economic benefits to the surrounding area were clearly explosive. Wang Fan spearheaded the official designation of the Magic Comic Con as a regular event in Songjiang District, held annually throughout the year. On the seventh day of the Magic Comic Con, the Bilibili livestream focused on the "Water Assassin" booth, where child star Xu Jiao, dressed as Nie Yinniang, announced the "First Global Water Assassin Championship," promoting the game's competitive ranking events across seven continents in Europe, America, Korea, and Japan.

The winners for these regions were announced, with the first round prizes for each region being 50 Apple iPads for the 1st to 50th place finishers, and the top ten sharing a $100,000 prize pool.

With hundreds of tablets and millions in prize money, the total reward for the event approaching one million US dollars has once again given the Chinese gaming industry a huge shock.

Furthermore, a global Waterspine Championship will be held at the end of the year during the Comic Con, inviting the top ten players from seven continents to compete on the same stage, with a top prize of $100,000.

The exorbitant prices of in-game items in games like *Dream West* and *Conquer Online* are understandable, given they are large-scale online games. However, *Water Assassin* is just a mobile game, and since the iPhone only launched in China on August 1st, and considering the even less popular tablets, the number of iOS users in China currently does not exceed 200,000. (In 2010, the number of iOS users in China, including grey market devices, was less than three million.)
Therefore, before that, "Water Sling" was almost unheard of in the public eye in China. Only a few smartphone forums had cracked versions shared. How did a game company with the ability and capital to hold global tournaments suddenly emerge in China?

'Cut fruit and become a millionaire'

'World's Largest Mobile Game Tournament'

Topics such as "Playing on your phone can get you into the Olympics" quickly swept across major social media platforms, spreading Star Game and Water Spine throughout the country, while indirectly bringing a surge of popularity to Apple.

Moreover, the total amount of rewards from the event is close to tens of millions of yuan!
How much money must this company make?

The Water Slingshot tournament is only open to iOS users because the rankings are based on points uploaded from the system's backend, which indirectly makes the game 'scarce'.

Although free Android versions are now readily available, the lack of paid download functionality on Android makes it impossible to collect data. As a result, iOS users, whether in school or at work, have become the focus of attention.

Combined with the previous discussion about selling kidneys, the term "games," besides being labeled as internet addiction, harmful, and detrimental, seems to have become somewhat associated with industry and making money.

The closing ceremony was also held that day, where Bilibili, Xingyou, and Jiedao, among other major organizers, announced the four-season event plan for the Magic Comic Con and welcomed anime/manga enthusiasts from all over the country to participate.

The seven-day event, along with the Magic Comic Con and Bilibili, trended on various social media forums almost daily, demonstrating its significant promotional impact.

The comics department signed more than 40 amateur artists, most of whom brought their own works that could be directly marketed. Among them, there were a few particularly outstanding ones, including Qi Du Yu, the author of "Corpse Brother", Tuo Xiao Xin, the author of "Fox Spirit Training Manual" (the predecessor of "Fox Spirit Matchmaker"), Xu Xian Zhe, the author of "The Swordsman", and Shi Tu Zi, the author of "Girl Warrior Alliance MK2". All four works were marked by Wang Yao as key production projects.

Bilibili has signed over 300 online content creators, most of whom are into otaku dance and video editing. Tianhuo's newly established "Talent Department" has signed over 30 cosplayers with good looks to serve as professional cosplayers for future cultural tourism projects and stage plays.

Even Mixue has signed more than forty new franchisees in second- and third-tier cities in the past few days.

The commercial monetization event sold over 260,000 tickets in seven days, with an average spending of 150 yuan per person, generating nearly 40 million yuan in revenue. 30% of the revenue came from the merchandise at several hundred booths, while 70% came from Xinghuo's clothing, Xiaoka, Bawang and other daily necessities merchandise, Mixue and other catering products.

At the same time, it indirectly boosted the consumption of hundreds of millions of people in the surrounding area in terms of clothing, food, housing and transportation, and directly stimulated the cultural consumption power of the entire Songjiang District. It perfectly absorbed and transformed the overflow of traffic from the World Expo and CJoy. Most importantly, it verified the consumption potential of Generation Y and some Generation Z, as well as the feasibility of the ACG industry ecosystem.

However, the actual revenue from the event only came from ticket sales, commission, and booth fees, which just covered personnel expenses and venue costs. There was no profit.

However, Bilibili's live streams burned through more than 20 million yuan of its budget in just seven days. Although the offline collaborations with NetEase, Wanmei, and Soyou recouped some of the losses, it is still likely that the company is still operating at a loss.

However, Bilibili has transformed from a niche video platform with less than 500,000 users into a highly engaged platform with nearly 4 million users and over 300,000 daily active users. This loss can be considered as customer acquisition cost.

One event directly established the Magic Comic Con as the largest domestic ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) community event, and it also leveraged the popularity of Tara and AKB48 to gain an 'international' title, receiving numerous collaboration invitations from overseas fan clubs.

As the event organizer, the overall loss may be less than ten million, but Wang Yao's other businesses are making a fortune, especially the offline card and clothing categories, which have not only accurately opened up the market, but also gained a group of loyal consumers.

The day after the event ended, Thames Town was still bustling with people. Although the Magic Comic Con event was over, some veteran anime and manga fans were still promoting it in the town, and tourists who had queued for several days without getting a turn also flocked into the town as a form of revenge.

The town itself is a unique European-style cultural tourism project. Even without any events, it is a great place to take photos. Moreover, as Wang Yao has driven up the internal rent, the restaurants and consumer businesses he has recruited are also quite distinctive. In particular, the Mixue flagship store, which has been built and has become a landmark, has become a standard internet celebrity photo spot. There are more than a dozen people taking photos with the Snow King mascot every day.

Accountant Jia's car was stuck outside for half an hour without getting in, so in the end she had to get out and follow the crowd on foot across the commercial plaza to reach Wang Yao's office.

"Mr. Wang, your company is really popular, it's even more popular than the City God Temple. No wonder your business is booming." Although Accountant Jia is more than 12 years older, he dared not put on any airs of seniority.

"Mr. Jia, I'm so sorry. I've been extremely busy since the event just ended, so I apologize for not being able to entertain you properly." Wang Yao stood up and shook hands.

"Mr. Wang, you're being too polite. We know you're busy, so we didn't dare to bother you. Besides, with my elder sister here, we're all family, so there's no need to talk about bothering you," Gan Wei said with a smile, holding Qin Lan's hand.

As the eldest sister of the Teddy family, Qin Lan suddenly became a senior executive at Tianhuo Entertainment after rumors circulated that she had broken up with Lu Chuan because of Wang Yao. It was hard for Gan Wei and the others not to have the wrong idea. Even though Qin Lan tried her best to explain that it was entirely her personal abilities that impressed Wang Yao.

With the upcoming IPO of Le's, and with Qi Jianhong from Yaolai acting as a go-between, Le's and Tianhuo are, in a sense, even closer.

"Nonsense, are you trying to make me lose my job?" Qin Lan pinched Gan Wei upon hearing this, then cautiously glanced at Wang Yao.

Seeing that his expression didn't change, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

(End of this chapter)