How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 250 You Might Be in Big Trouble

Accountant Jia considered himself to be full of energy and dedicated to his business, but he still felt that Wang Yao's expansion speed was somewhat astonishing.

As an accountant by training, he could deduce the company's operating accounts from various details. The Skynet was more solid than he had imagined, and Wang Yao also had e-commerce/gaming sectors to support him and provide financial support, which reduced his original concerns.

"And you? How did your conversation with General Manager Wang go?" Gan Wei asked, noticing the change in Accountant Jia's expression.

"It went very smoothly. I originally thought there would be some barriers in communication, but it was unexpectedly smooth." Accountant Jia smiled upon hearing this, "It's just that it went too smoothly, which makes me a little worried."

"President Wang is willing to accept Le's investment in the cinema chain?" Gan Wei was somewhat surprised.

Even she knew that cinemas, as assets with potential for appreciation, were a sure-fire way to make money, and she wouldn't just share them with others if her cash flow was secure.

"Not only that, Wang Yao is even preparing to take over the remaining shares of Le's Group, so we don't need to go to Hong Kong for roadshows to raise funds anymore," Accountant Jia grinned.

“We still have nearly 10% of the shares, worth about 3 million, left.” Gan Wei was surprised.

The final round of fundraising for Le's was priced at 30 yuan per share, with a total of 2500 million shares issued, aiming to raise 7.5 million yuan. So far, the roadshow brokers have raised 4.5 million yuan and are still waiting for 3 million yuan. However, there are less than six days left before the listing. If the funds are not raised in the end, the share price is likely to fall, affecting the post-listing price increase and market sentiment towards Le's.

For them, time was tight and the task was heavy, so they went directly to Hong Kong to raise another round of funds. But in fact, they didn't have much confidence because it was a listing in mainland China. Capital in Hong Kong would be very cautious. In addition, they valued Tudou, which was going on roadshow next month, and Youku, which was going to be listed at the end of the year. Compared with them, Leshi was not the best choice. They could only try their best to raise as much as they could.

But unexpectedly, the goal was achieved directly on Wang Yao's side, which was a pleasant surprise.

“However, Chengtian was swallowed up because President Wang took over its shares.” Gan Wei frowned with some worry as she thought about Wang Yao’s rise to power.

“Wu Kebo ruined his own business by being greedy and bringing down Meishe. Le’s is doing well and healthy. Besides, Wang Yao already has Bilibili and Tianhuo Cinemas, so there’s no need for him to take over Le’s. Moreover, I’m not a fool like Wu Kebo,” Accountant Jia scoffed.

“That’s true. Wu Kebo is just a speculator. How can he be compared to my husband who built such a huge business from scratch?” Gan Wei hugged Accountant Jia’s arm, coaxing him until he couldn’t stop smiling.

“However, it’s not that easy. Wang Yao suggested that I put the Le’s terminal on mobile phones first, and not on TVs or TV boxes,” Accountant Jia said, frowning.

"Make mobile phones? We have that technology?" Gan Wei was taken aback.

"No, and he said that Lei Jun's coarse grains are not only developing systems, but also integrating the supply chain market to make OEM smartphones and realize a closed-loop ecosystem model of software + hardware + application development services."
But after making inquiries, none of the domestic mobile phone component manufacturers had received any news. Unless Lei Jun really does have all the processing done overseas, it's impossible that there's no word of it. Accountant Jia naturally wouldn't believe Wang Yao's one-sided information; after receiving the news, he immediately used his connections to verify it.

But the result was that Wang Yao seemed to be lying.

But why did he lie?

Was it just to guide Le's strategy in the mobile terminal market? Assuming Wang Yao also invested real money, then there wouldn't be any other malicious deception. He couldn't possibly have gotten involved himself, could he?

Moreover, in the current market environment, no matter which terminal Le's company announces it will develop, the market sentiment is positive, and its ecological synergy can continue to be explained. So what exactly is Wang Yao's purpose?

"Do you remember the news about the gaming industry that Lao Shen mentioned before?" Gan Wei suddenly asked.

Recently, Le's Group held a roadshow. Although Sequoia Capital's Shen Nanpeng did not invest, he participated in and observed several of Jia Yueting's roadshows because he invested in Tudou, which is about to go public. During a casual conversation, new regulations for the gaming industry were introduced, which directly affected the stock prices of three gaming giants: NetEase, Tencent, and Shanda Games. Moreover, the subsequent "kidney-selling incident" and NetEase's inexplicable outbursts further fueled the controversy, causing all gaming-related sectors to decline.

Such a thing naturally attracted a lot of discussion. According to Lao Shen's guess at the time, the reason might be that Xingyou Company had suddenly risen to prominence and did not give Lei Jun much face. The subsequent Magic Comic Exhibition involved the game industry and did not inform him, which made him, the new leader of the Five Mountains Alliance, lose face. So he wanted to intimidate him.

Unexpectedly, all the negative news happened at the same time, initially affecting the entire gaming industry. Although it was quickly overshadowed by other news, NetEase, Perfect World, Soogame, and Stargame suddenly teamed up at the Magic Comic Exhibition, and the collaboration was quite successful, essentially establishing their own independent entity.

It seems that Lei Jun and Wang Yao have developed an irreconcilable conflict.

Is it really targeting Lei Jun?
Upon hearing Gan Wei's words, Accountant Jia's mind raced.

But there seems to be no need to beat around the bush like this. Anyway, he and Boss Lei don't have a deep relationship, and they're not on the same page.

"That's possible. After all, they're young people, and they certainly wouldn't want to swallow their anger." Accountant Jia nodded.

"So we're really going to restructure our strategy for mobile terminals?" Gan Wei asked curiously.

"Of course, both televisions and mobile phones are hardware carriers for entertainment and are part of the ecosystem. However, while it's said to be part of a plan, no one has yet promised when it will be implemented."

"Let's take a look at the domestic supply chain first, get a feel for it, then make a PowerPoint presentation for Wang Yao to see. We'll see if we proceed once he has the funds." Accountant Jia grinned, revealing a mocking smile.

This little brat is trying to boss me around. If it weren't for the fact that your money is so easy to get, I wouldn't bother with him at all.

“That’s right, we can’t let outsiders control us. I trust my husband’s judgment won’t be wrong.” Gan Wei chuckled, but a strange light flickered in her eyes.

Wang Yao wasn't entirely sure exactly when Lei Jun started developing Xiaomi phones, but if you wanted to find someone who could rival Lei Jun's strategy in the mobile phone industry during that period, there were very few, and Jia Yueting would definitely be one of them.

In terms of financing ability, network resources, and marketing strategies, he is even better than Lei Jun in some aspects.

However, he was also certain that with Accountant Jia's personality, he would not easily listen to his advice. The accountant might agree verbally, but he would definitely disobey behind his back. Most likely, he only agreed because he was after Wang Yao's money.

Coincidentally, Wang Yao also took a liking to the Le family's framework and President Jia's talent.

As for the implementation of mobile phone/tablet hardware, he has other options.

We're just waiting for Accountant Jia to finish preparing the professional PPT and send it over.

Fueled by the buzz generated by yesterday's Bilibili livestream of the "Water Slingshot National Championship Event Announcement," Water Slingshot's downloads have surged again globally, propelling it back to the top of the sales charts.

For "Kai Xiao", which has been released for a week, Wang Yao only made a marketing budget of 20 US dollars, and it was targeted at female players through Mulan Street and Ms platform, because "Kai Xiao" has a cute and eye-catching art style and was developed for female audiences.

The core revenue of "Kaixiao" comes from selling "resurrection coins" and unlocking various cartoon character storylines to increase emotional value each time a certain amount of progress is made.

Therefore, there is no need for extensive publicity in the early stages. It is only necessary to target a limited group of women. As the difficulty of the levels increases, they will have no choice but to ask for help from others, mainly men, in addition to buying revival coins. In this way, through indirect word-of-mouth, a two-way effect of 'entertainment + social interaction' can be achieved.

Or, to put it another way, Wang Yao defines "Kaixiao" as an "ambiguous/stress-relieving tool".

So the number of downloads in a week was only over 50,000, but the daily growth rate, though slow, was quite considerable. It is estimated that revenue will see a surge in about six months as the next batch of iPhone 4s sells out.

After the Magic Comic Con unexpectedly brought together the four companies 'Pig, Play, Swoosh, and Star' into a small alliance, Wang Yao not only took on some of their PC game promotion work, but also reached a mobile game/web game IP licensing cooperation agreement.

The three of them continued to focus on the development of PC games, keeping an eye on Shengda's market share being eroded, while Wang Yao provided new revenue growth points in mobile/web games and IP. Therefore, Xingyou will soon launch a new round of recruitment and expansion.

While the hype surrounding general internet traffic hasn't died down, Bilibili has launched a series of large-scale events.

The "Where Dreams Begin" campaign is open to all video creators online. From the start of the campaign until next month, the top 99 original works with the highest number of views on the platform will be selected and 99 iPads will be given away as prizes, ushering in an era of creation for all.

Water Slingshot indirectly boosted the popularity of the iPad, with rewards averaging over $4000 that were enough to attract anyone interested in content creation.

Second: The "Mixue Back-to-School Season 'Find Her Among the Crowd' Campaign" ends at the end of September. It's open to high schools and universities nationwide, with each school selecting one campus beauty. Nominees and winners will receive an iPhone 4. Requirements: Submit photos with the hashtag, but only those photos taken in front of a Mixue Ice Cream store with the "Snow King" will be considered successful. Only members of the site at level 3 or higher can participate in the voting. Voters can also receive a free ice cream/lemonade every week after the start of the school year by presenting their student ID and membership account.

This event is entirely for the purpose of promoting the Mixue IP and its franchisees. Currently, there are nearly 3,000 universities nationwide, but fewer than 500 franchise stores. It is necessary to stimulate franchising.

Moreover, Mixue is now operating in partnership with Ele.me. Where there are Mixue branches, they can automatically connect to the Ele.me system to provide delivery services in the surrounding areas. The goal is to first capture the school surrounding areas across the country this year, establish a delivery base, and wait for the group-buying war to begin.

At the same time, the selection activities for 'Genesis 101' and 'SNH48' were also launched. Wang Yao transformed the only relatively independent lakeside restaurant in the town, which was originally a lakeside restaurant, into a theater that can accommodate about 300 people.

At the same time, ten villas that had been stockpiled were converted into dormitories for trainees. Each villa is over 400 square meters and can accommodate 10 to 15 people, serving as the living area for the recording of 'Produce 101'.

Park Ga-hee and Tara are both available, so they can help the production team manage the dozens of members who have signed up according to the standards for Korean entertainment trainees. Wang Yao will combine the training and recording of the two activities. The first batch of self-signed applicants are basically AKB culture enthusiasts, and they are all just there to make up the numbers.

Since Wang Yao has already decided on the debut spots, 'Genesis 101', as the first 'trainee variety show' in China, will naturally have a grand scale and be different from traditional talent shows.

More than 3 contestants lived and ate together for three months, filming and broadcasting simultaneously, and finally selected a pre-selected 6-person team. As for the rest, it depends on whether talent and superstition can drive the SNH48 and the idol development market.

Because of the language barrier, and the fact that Park Ga-hee and Tara are already well-known idols who debuted in Korea, it puts immense pressure on the amateurs who come to participate in the auditions. Although many people come for auditions every day, quite a few drop out because they can't handle the training and competition.

But those who gave up didn't know how envious Tara and Park Ga-hee were of the conditions Wang Yao provided for these trainees.

They live in detached villas, without the need for shared sleeping quarters, and there are dedicated training and performance stages. For these trainees who grew up in cramped environments, this is practically princess-level treatment.

"I wish I had been born in China in this life." Park Jiyeon returned to her temporary villa dormitory, her cold and serious demeanor in front of the trainees completely changed, and she exclaimed with excitement.

After breaking with the company and signing a "contract of servitude" with Wang Yao, they were sent to the headquarters of Huaxia Mixue to learn about business operations. Whether it was because they were away from the small circle in Korea or because they saw the spectacular sight of large trucks hauling raw materials every day, they were not only anxious about the exorbitant breach of contract fees.

Instead, they became even more enthusiastic about learning the techniques of making coffee and milk tea, as well as management skills. Until a few days ago, when Wang Yao called them back to Shanghai and they passed through Lujiazui for the first time, they thought they had arrived in New York.

Wang Yao also assembled a team to film a documentary, capturing their entrepreneurial journey so that when KT truly takes off, it will have promotional material to enhance its inspirational story.

Aren't all the major cities in China supposed to be backward? It feels like Seoul is the countryside compared to Shanghai!

Upon seeing that Spark Company was located in a European-style dream town, they felt once again that they had been deceived by the media since childhood.

After being taken around by the agents from the Korean branch for a few days, they even started to think that if they couldn't terminate their contracts and were blacklisted, working for Wang Yao here wouldn't be so bad.

"What nonsense are you talking about? If this gets out, you're dead." Park Hyomin kicked her.

"Unnie, I'm telling you this now, you absolutely must take down Chairman Wang! I heard that this entire commercial district and several properties there are under his name, and he also has thousands of employees. If you succeed in taking over, we'll be set for life!" Park Jiyeon wailed, clinging to Park Hyomin's leg.

"Get out of here! If you keep talking nonsense, I'll beat you to death. Go by yourself if you want to." Park Hyomin's face was flushed, partly from anger and partly from shame.

When they met at the movie theater, she genuinely thought Wang Yao had taken a liking to her, and even felt a bit resistant. But after arriving in China, she realized that the difference between her and Wang Yao was like heaven and earth.

They became famous as soon as they debuted, and naturally they had met many rich second-generation Koreans, but compared to Wang Yao, those people were simply poor and stingy. The Tianhuo Model Department alone had dozens of tall and long-legged models coming and going every day, and even many beautiful foreign models who looked like dolls.

She used to be quite confident in her figure and appearance, but these past few days her confidence has really crumbled. How come there are so many beautiful girls?
In addition to these models, they also met the Chinese female celebrities whose scandals with Wang Yao they had previously found online, and felt that each of them could outshine them.

The stark contrast with reality completely shattered her initial curiosity and wariness towards Wang Yao.

Moreover, she once again experienced what a real 'large company' is like. There were dozens or even hundreds of trainees signed, and their quality was quite good. Even among the top three trainees in Korea, there were a few who were of average quality.

And the source of all this points to that boy who is younger than her.

The huge gap prevented her from even feeling inferior; she only felt a sense of unreality and melancholy.

It would be a lie to say that I am not moved.

But the probability of her getting into Wang Yao's bed is lower than the probability of her becoming a global pop idol, so recently she has regrouped and focused her energy on the management and planning of KT Cafe and the training of trainees.

But seeing Park Jiyeon, who had stripped down to only her underwear and whose figure was becoming increasingly voluptuous, her resolve wavered.

If she can't handle it on her own, what if she joins Jiyeon's team?

Startled by this absurd thought, she quickly slapped her face.

Wake up, Park Hyomin! Your goal is to work hard and pay off your debts!
Wang Yao waited for three days before finally receiving Accountant Jia's PPT.

While the company's various activities were progressing steadily over the past three days, Wang Yao also took the time to catch up on the gossip surrounding Deyun Club. Guo Degang had already apologized last month for the villa encroachment issue, and recently, due to a media outlet setting a trap that led to his apprentice Biaozi physically assaulting someone, Deyun Club has once again been thrust into the spotlight.

Due to the negative impact, the small film crew was temporarily shut down. Guo Degang prepared for internal restructuring. Following the departure of his eldest disciple at the beginning of the year, original partners He Yunwei and Li Jing also publicly announced their departure. Rumors and gossip poured in, and Deyun Society and Guo Degang ushered in their darkest moment. The internet was also filled with noise.

Wang Yao plans to visit the capital next time he goes there, so he can offer his condolences.

Meanwhile, the number of tourists to the town has not decreased; in fact, it has attracted more anime and manga enthusiasts to set up stalls around the square. Many of them are students studying in Shanghai, and students are a group that naturally possesses petit-bourgeois attributes.

Most of them do not need to sell their labor for remuneration, nor do they have means of production; they only need to numbly pursue the ethereal rules of the school's grades.

But most of the time, they are confused and empty. It is this complex and contradictory state that gives them a strange motivation and persistence, which will gradually change after they graduate and enter society.

For them, time was the least valuable thing, but for Wang Yao, their time was money. So Wang Yao not only did not drive them away or charge them for their stalls, but also provided them with a lot of help in the name of Michelle to promote their hobby.

Just like when Wang Yao received Jia's detailed and beautifully formatted PPT, he also planned to help him promote it.

It must be said that Accountant Jia's calculation ability is indeed very strong and very meticulous. In the past three days, he has basically visited several major mobile phone supply chains in China and listed various data prices very clearly, so that Wang Yao, who knows nothing about manufacturing, can roughly understand the cost calculation and core component issues.

Because of the immense popularity of the iPhone 4, all the world's core components, such as screens, flash memory, and chips, were prioritized for Apple. To obtain these, one had to spend a lot of money and wait in line until the end of September to have a chance to get a small quota.

But it was precisely this scarcity that made Accountant Jia realize that the smartphone market seemed to be more powerful and terrifying than he had imagined or understood. He had already begun to assemble a research and development team to prepare for a closed research and development phase. After the launch the day after tomorrow, he would begin to gradually announce positive news according to the plan he had discussed with Wang Yao.

Whether it was true or false, Wang Yao believed it anyway. In the name of Tianhuo Media, he signed a contract to invest 10% of Le's in a company valued at 3 million yuan. After the official seal was affixed, the contract was faxed over.

Tianhuo Media has become a company that simultaneously holds controlling stakes in two listed companies.

After pondering the possibility of the two companies' market value skyrocketing by stepping on each other's heels, Wang Yao let out a strange laugh and dialed a phone number he had obtained from Li Fuzhen.

"Who is this?" The call was answered after two attempts, and a deep, cold voice came through.

"Mr. Huang, you may be in big trouble."

(End of this chapter)