How can you become a star without money?

What does Chapter 59 mean? Does it mean they don't like me?

Selling tickets is essentially a scalping business.

Damai.cn doesn't do movie ticket business because it's uncontrollable and the return on investment is not high, unlike offline concerts and theater tickets, where the number of shows and seats is fixed and they can control the price they want to sell at.

However, the movie ticket market is different. Not only are the interests of cinema chains across the country intricately intertwined, but there are also hundreds of thousands of seats changing daily in thousands of cinemas nationwide. The cost of statistics alone is extremely high. Moreover, it is necessary to replace the equipment and systems with unified ones. The rise of online ticketing was due to subsidies from the group-buying industry, but the real reason for its widespread adoption is actually the emergence of QR codes.

Businesses that require significant initial investment and are not monopolies are not considered good businesses.

In 2010, starting an online ticketing company was almost a thankless and thankless task, a thankless job that would benefit others. Even "Gewara," which claimed to be the first online movie ticketing platform in China, was nothing more than a small local scalper company in Shanghai.

Gewara was originally a social networking site that collected popular movie schedules, shared movie information, and facilitated casual conversations among movie fans. However, the explosive popularity of Avatar after its release in 2010 led to a nationwide shortage of IMAX tickets.

After discovering this demand, the owner of Gewara directly booked most of the IMAX theaters in Shanghai and then sold them at the original price to other scalpers, which brought a lot of traffic to the website and laid the foundation for the online ticketing revenue model.

At this time, the so-called online ticket purchase actually still used the traditional methods of human scalpers. They collected information on the screening schedules of major cinemas every day, and then negotiated commission rebates with the cinemas. They could basically get a rebate of 30-50%. Then they sold these tickets on the website at an 80% or 90% discount. When redeeming the tickets, they also had to use a secret code.

For cinemas, ticket sales are only part of their revenue; the bigger profit comes from selling drinks, popcorn, and other similar products. So, as long as they can attract people to the cinema, they are willing to use box office revenue as customer acquisition costs.

After listening to Wang Yao's breakdown of the online ticketing business model and its prospects, he fell into a long silence, finally sighing, "Is the internet industry really this complicated?"

“The platform industry is very complicated.” Wang Yao smiled. “Gewara’s model has value for reference, but it is difficult to develop because phenomenal movies like Avatar are rare and unpredictable. An unsustainable sales channel cannot make a business model work.”

Actually, we can break it down. First, let's analyze our advantages, then how we generate profit. As for how to execute that, we can leave that for last.

"If we were to do it, we would definitely have an advantage over him. We cooperate with theaters and film producers, so we can get the best ticket prices and screenings. As for profits, we'll take a cut from the movie tickets."
"And then there's the distribution and marketing company we started with Director Hu and Sister Juan. Basically, 30% of the theatrical films need to cooperate with us every year. There's money to be made from that. And as the user base grows, there will be revenue from film reviews, promotions, and more. Thinking about it this way, it actually has potential," Ren Quan analyzed.

"By the way, if it's just about selling movie tickets, this business won't grow much, but considering various factors and resources, it does have some potential." Wang Yao nodded; Ren Quan did indeed have a good business sense.

The ultimate form of online ticketing companies in the future is online ticketing + distribution and promotion + content-driven. The path for Maoyan Entertainment to reach a market value of tens of billions of yuan in the future is that these three segments achieve an internal cycle: making money from selling tickets, making money from promotion and investment, making money again from boosting box office revenue and speculation, and if the box office is ridiculously high, it can also participate in the financial stock market to make some pocket money.

Objectively speaking, Ren Quan did indeed possess all the essential elements to undertake this project.

"So, brother, how much do you think this project will cost in the early stages?" Ren Quan's eyes gleamed. After having his mind opened, he felt the project was more and more feasible.

"Let me give you a simple calculation. The ticketing model involves assigning one employee to each partner cinema to handle customers who place orders online and to update cinema seating and ticketing information in real time. This only requires labor costs, which is calculated at 4000 yuan per cinema per month. The cost of consumables can be spread out by commissions."

There are over a thousand cinemas nationwide, and if we capture 20% of that market, that's 200 cinemas. That's roughly 80 RMB per month, or 960 million RMB per year in offline expenses.
"The development and operation of the online platform should cost around 1 million a year. It's hard to calculate the later costs for platform promotion and operation, but if you want to get started, you'll need to prepare at least 10 million," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"So much money? How much money can you make?" Ren Quan was startled.

"Assuming we don't count any extra revenue, this year's total box office is 10 billion. If we can achieve a 10% market share through online ticket sales, that's 1 billion. If we take 10%, that's roughly 100 million in revenue. Net profit is hard to calculate," Wang Yao roughly calculated.

"Twenty-five million tickets, 200 stores selling an average of 345 tickets a day, if you include other revenue, well, actually it seems not bad." Ren Quan's breathing became rapid.

During this period, the "Confucius" movie held a series of celebrity-sponsored screenings to boost box office revenue. On average, each company gave away seven or eight hundred tickets every day. Even if it was used to subsidize the publicity and distribution costs for boosting box office revenue, it seems that they could still make a profit.

Moreover, Wang Yao could only see the business on paper, while Ren Quan had a business plan hidden beneath the surface.

Humans shouldn't do accounting. Once they start calculating and see the numbers, they easily get confused and overlook the risks and special circumstances.

However, Wang Yao's proposed solutions were based on the most ideal returns. In reality, getting 10% of moviegoers to place orders online was a high-cost and risky endeavor in 2010, both in terms of operational costs and the difficulty of cultivating users' consumption habits.

However, after finding a way to make money this year, Gewara received several million yuan in investment from Shanda in the second half of the year. Three years later, it raised 4 million yuan in its Series C round and its valuation was close to 20 billion yuan.

Unfortunately, without strong capital backing, it was caught in a fierce competition of burning money on subsidies under the pressure of Alibaba's two giants, Maoyan and Taopiaopiao. In the end, its capital chain broke and it was forced out of the market. When it was acquired by Tencent's Weiying, its valuation was less than 4 million yuan.

Ren Quan's resources are much better than Guevara's, so there isn't much risk involved, but unforeseen circumstances can't be ruled out. In any case, this project is a relatively large investment.

"Actually, if you're worried about the risks in the early stages, you don't have to expand too much. Brother Quan, you can look into that Shanghai-based company called Gewara that I mentioned earlier if you're interested."
"If that doesn't work, we can invest or acquire it first. I estimate it should only take a million or two. Let's see how it fares in Shanghai first to avoid risks," Wang Yao suggested.

"Oh? How are they doing online?" Ren Quan asked, intrigued.

"I'm not entirely sure, but online traffic seems average. However, it's been doing quite well this month because of Avatar, so we should be starting to make money offline now," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Brother, to be honest, I would rather not invest in this project than have you involved," Ren Quan suddenly changed the subject, his face becoming solemn.

What he valued was Wang Yao's online operational capabilities, not just his offline business.

"Brother Quan, I have a lot of things to do right now. President He suddenly quit, and I really don't have the energy," Wang Yao politely declined.

"Your company only has those few artists, right? Director Hu and I can just give them some roles in movies and TV series, that should be enough to support them, right?"
"Besides, no matter how well you do for Meishe, you're still working for Lao Xu and the others. You said before that He Ming was kind to you, but now that he's gone, you should think about yourself. We brothers are just doing our own thing," Ren Quan earnestly advised.

He only knew that He Ming was in trouble, but he didn't know the specifics, let alone that Wang Yao had actually taken control of Tianhuo Media.

"But I don't have much money to get involved," Wang Yao said with a wry smile.

“I’ll figure out the money problem. Just tell me if you’re confident you can generate online traffic and conversions,” Ren Quan said with a smile, waving his hand.

“If it’s a local Shanghai film, I have a method that can capture 20-30% of the box office share within two or three months,” Wang Yao said after a moment’s thought.

Ren Quan's eyes lit up. The four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Yanghe, and Penghu account for more than one-third of the national box office. Even if they only take over Shanghai, they can still make at least 20 to 30 million yuan in revenue every year. Then, they can expand the same model to the other three major cities and then radiate downwards. Basically, this business will be successful.

"Brother, wait for my news." Ren Quan was extremely excited and got out of the car to make a phone call.

Wang Yao smiled and closed his eyes to rest.

He wasn't afraid that Ren Quan wouldn't be tempted. The order in which he proposed the two plans was intentional, using a little trick: the demolition effect.

First, they proposed a plan that could generate hundreds of millions in revenue with a cost of 1000 million, and then they proposed an alternative plan that could generate tens of millions with a cost of two or three million. However, in Ren Quan's view, the investment risk of 1000 million was indeed too high.

However, compared to that, an investment of two or three million has almost no risk, and the ultimate returns are huge businesses worth hundreds of millions.

Under this kind of psychological suggestion, his positive psychology will be amplified, making him more willing to make this happen.

"Brother! Brother!" Wang Yao had been dozing off for a while when he was woken up by Naza's excited voice.

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Nazha's slightly naive little face.

"Finished the exam? How was it?" Wang Yao rubbed his eyes.

"Well, I think my performance was just average, but the teacher's reaction was okay. But I've found you a girl who's a really good dancer and has a supermodel vibe. Come on." Naza pulled Wang Yao out of the car.

From afar, I could see Dilraba and another tall, slender girl.

Although she doesn't have the stunning beauty of someone like Gulnazar, her sunny and confident aura is still quite eye-catching.

Oh? It's Jam Hsiao, isn't it?

“Brother, her name is Zhong Chuxi, and she’s an amazing dancer,” Naza introduced proudly.

Zhong Chuxi was attracted by Gulnazar's beauty and took the initiative to strike up a conversation when they took the exam together. However, she did not expect that Gulnazar, who seemed aloof, would say that she would introduce her to a part-time job at the company she was signed with.

Although her family was relatively well-off, they weren't exactly wealthy. She was genuinely curious about what kind of part-time jobs a pretty girl like Nazha could do in Shanghai.

She paused for a moment when she saw the young man getting out of the expensive Trident van.

"Hello, hello, I'm Zhong Chuxi." After regaining her senses, Zhong Chuxi only panicked for a moment before calmly extending her hand.

This confident demeanor completely overshadows her peers, such as Gulnazar and Dilraba.

"Hello, you do have a great presence, a natural clothes hanger. I'm the head of Tianhuo Media. If you have any part-time needs for magazine or Taobao commercial photography in the future, you can contact Nazha," Wang Yao said politely.

However, there was no intention to have in-depth communication, and even the contact information left was Naza's.

Zhong Chuxi is a person with a strong sense of self-esteem. Even if she acknowledges that she is not as pretty as Gulnazar or Dilraba, she is still considered a beauty. This man's distant and polite attitude made her feel somewhat uncomfortable.

What do you mean?
You don't like me?

I've been being scouted by modeling agencies since I was 13!

"Okay, okay." Zhong Chuxi kept smiling, but she was secretly plotting something.

"Are there any other exams later?" Wang Yao asked, turning his head.

"All the exams are over." Naza hadn't realized she'd been playing matchmaker; she even thought it was a new job Wang Yao had arranged for her.

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(End of this chapter)