Business Closed Loop: Starting with Ringback Tones to Take Down Giants

2007 1 Month 25 Day.

The conference room on the second floor of Xianming Building.

Zhao Lan pushed a stack of documents in front of each person one by one.

The Capital Contribution Confirmation Form of Youlong Zeling Limited Partnership shall take effect upon signature.

With this, the core architecture of Immortal Name was fully implemented.

Legal, financial, content, music, technology, film and television, and compliance advisors.

The scattered soldiers have officially transformed into a community bound by shared interests.

At 2 p.m., Wang Song appeared at the entrance of China Film Group with Tian Yusheng.

Talk? Talk about what?

They've all agreed to join the young director support program; it's like getting a discount on Pinduoduo.

Not only did Wang Song get fired, but he also brought in a new user.

It is euphemistically called providing fresh blood for the support program.

To put it bluntly, it's about taking advantage of the plan to get more resources for Xianming.

We must thoroughly implement the principle of "increasing first to drive subsequent increases."

Now that you've joined, and there are two scripts for Immortal Name, where should you provide support?

As long as the money is in place, it can be implemented immediately. That's not unreasonable, is it?

When Han Sanping saw the two of them, he skipped most of the formalities.

After all, these days, it's rare to find a young team that can produce tangible results and deliver high-quality scripts.

That's really quite rare.

Okay, here you go, one big and one small, take a look.

John Wick: The Longest Nite - China Collection Special Plus Edition

Without the Hollywood industry as a foundation, where do you get the special effects? Spy movies are pretty good, though.

Action, revenge, and suit-wearing thugs—it's all about being entertaining to watch.

With some adaptation, it becomes an action film more suitable for the Chinese censorship system.

After all, next year will see the release of a movie IP featuring Master Ip taking on ten opponents single-handedly.

Another small production that Tian Yusheng treasured was "Ex-Files".

Low-budget, urban romance, riding on the popularity of "Love is Not Blind".

The main idea is to create a mix of high and low-end products, ensuring that everyone benefits.

Tian Yusheng stood aside like a lackey.

Han Sanping picked up "John Wick" and flipped through it, raising an eyebrow slightly:

"So young, and already rocking the Hong Kong style?"

I picked up "Ex-Files" again, read it quickly, and put it down after five minutes.

"Put the big one here. I'll have my men go through it, and I'll give you an answer in a while."

Wang Song remained expressionless: "Chairman Han, surely the younger one has to agree to one of them?"

"Supporting young directors, capitalizing on the heartbreak trend, and even completing the storyboards."

"Could you agree to make a low-budget production first, to give young people a chance?"

Han Sanping glanced at him and suddenly laughed: "You're not here to ask for help, you're here to collect a debt."

He paused.

"For 'Ex-Files,' China Film Group will take a 30% cut of the 100 million yuan budget, and the distribution will be handled by China Film Group's cinema chain. As for the director..."

He looked at Tian Yusheng: "Make sure the storyboard is detailed, so you don't end up in a mess later."

Tian Yusheng was taken aback for a moment, then nodded vigorously: "Thank you, Chairman Han!"

Wang Song nodded. The conditions were already very good, but he was shameless enough to eat his fill.

"So, Mr. Han, what are your thoughts on the box office revenue sharing settlement?"

Students have it tough, here's another two hundred yuan.

They were asked to leave.

Tian Yusheng was still grinning foolishly to the side, asking, "Boss, what do I need to do before we start filming?"

"Stay calm."

A week later, Old Chen pushed open the door to Wang Song's office with the bank receipt in hand.

"The settlement payment for the 'Love is Not Blind' project has arrived."

"After deducting taxes, distribution fees, and theater revenue sharing, the distributable profit is 1020 million."

Wang Song took the order and glanced at it: "Accounts will be processed proportionally, with Xianming Holdings taking the majority and me personally taking 30%."

Rodin calculated the accounts: "Xianming Culture received 714 million, which went into the company's public account."

"Mr. Wang personally received 306 million, and after tax, it's approximately... around 245 million."

Wang Song felt a pang of heartache; this tax…

No wonder the two kings of Huayi Brothers are sleeping around and not paying their taxes.

Wang Song nodded: "Keep the money for now, it'll be useful later."

"I'll divide mine among myself, and make sure the taxes are handled properly."

Three days later, 245 million yuan was deposited into Wang Song's personal account.

That afternoon, he went to the securities company.

All in!! Go all in!!

Inside the Immortal's Pavilion, a silent reshuffling is underway.

The cause was an email sent by Zhao Lan: "In accordance with company restructuring, the following appointments are hereby formally made:"

Ma Xiaojun: Head of Operations for the "Funny Stories with Pictures and Text" section

Chen Shu: Head of Storytelling Section Operations

Liu Jianjun: IP Mining Collaboration

From being an employee to being in charge, significant contributions have increased incentive stock options.

This is a test for Wang Song.

If you can't keep up, just stay in operations and live off past glories.

If you keep up, you'll have the opportunity to move into the controlling stake and share in the dividends.

Ma Xiaojun immediately opened the Qiushi Baike homepage.

He heard this from his boss.

What kind of user retention strategy is needed? Fast-paced entertainment is the future trend.

"20,000 daily active users? Invitation only?" he murmured.

"Isn't this invitation-only system risking them getting themselves killed?"

"But their daily active users are 20,000 for just one section, while our combined text and image posts about embarrassing moments only have 6,000."

Liu Jianjun was passing by when he was grabbed by him.

"Jianjun, what do you think about turning our funny stories into a standalone webpage?"

"If we increase our operational investment, can we outperform them?"

Liu Jianjun glanced at him: "You have a budget?"

"Not yet." Ma Xiaojun released his grip, then added, "But it will be soon."

With increased investment, it can definitely become a birthplace of internet memes.

At that time, all those long articles in the story section will have to rely on him to attract readers.

"Didn't the boss say that traffic is the foundation of everything?"

He muttered to himself, already starting to figure out how to write the budget application.

Learn from the boss's marketing and reportage techniques.

On Chen Shu's computer screen were the box office statistics for "Love is Not Blind".

3520 million.

She looked at those numbers over and over again, and then opened the story club's backend to see the number of submissions from the previous month.

873 articles.

"Of the 873 submissions, if you select just one that's worth filming, that's over 30 million."

She chewed on her pen cap, chuckled, and said, "Take the postgraduate entrance exam? What kind of postgraduate exam?"

"If we invest more money in the essay contest and increase the prize money, we can attract good stories from all over the country..."

She thought of those authors who were still serializing their works on certain platforms.

I'm reminded of those old users on Tianya (a Chinese online forum) whose posts were deleted by moderators.

If Xianming could give them a home, and give them hope for a film or television adaptation...

"IP Mining Team," she read aloud Liu Jianjun's new job title.

"He's in charge of recruiting people, I'm in charge of nurturing them, and in the end, the reorganization still depends on my side."

"Why can't I have more resources?"

Liu Jianjun was the quietest one.

His task was simple: to gradually withdraw Xianming from all online novel serializations on a certain platform.

His "Joy of Life" was already finished by Ma Xiaojun's "Tomb Raider Notes".

And they never opened a bookstore again.

The new writers I'm mentoring, those with good performance will finish their series quickly, those with poor performance, well, let's just leave it unfinished.

With time on their hands, the team scours the internet for potential IPs and grassroots authors on forums.

"If a certain thing can be done, why can't Xianming do it too?"

Each of the three had their own direction and plans, and they all carried the considerations of the protagonist.

the other side,

"And what about me? And what about me?"

Wang Song looked up: "What, you?"

"They've all been assigned to different sections: text and images, storytelling, IP exploration, even music..."

Jiang Yilei walked in, looking aggrieved.

"And me? I'm still holding a deputy position, but am I doing odd jobs?"

Wang Song put down his pen and leaned back in his chair: "What position do you want?"

"I..." Jiang Yilei choked.

She had thought about this question, but couldn't figure it out.

Video shooting? The movie is finished, the short film is finished, it seems like there's really nothing more for her to do.

If all else fails, should we continue with the movie commentary?

Wang Song smiled when he saw her face turn red from holding back her anger: "A semi-qualified COO."

"What?"

"The COO is responsible for coordination, overall planning, and filling in any gaps."

"You have to keep doing what you used to do: shoot behind-the-scenes footage, edit videos, and assist everyone."

"Isn't that the same as before?" Jiang Yilei frowned.

"It's different, look at this." Wang Song pointed to the computer screen on the table.

Youku completes $2500 million funding round, video war about to break out.

"Tudou, Youku, and 56.com are all burning money to grab bandwidth and users."

Wang Song asked casually, "Do you think we should make videos in the future?"

He waved his hand again: "Never mind, never mind, we don't have enough money, we'll talk about it later."

Jiang Yilei understood. "Okay, I'll wait for that day."

The door was closed gently.

Wang Song looked at the news and thought, "This is the last year. Let's keep pushing technology and bandwidth to their limits."

Wait until they have educated the market.

The film and television copyrights that no one else cared about in that corner will belong to Xianming.

Just then.

Wu Yue walked in and plopped down in a chair: "The collaborative filtering algorithm can't run anymore."

"Weren't you running the whole time?"

"We're running, but we're getting too little data," Wu Yue sighed.

Wang Song thought for a moment: "Then what should we do?"

"Feed the data," Wu Yue said succinctly.

"The more users, the more behaviors, the more accurate the tags, but now..."

He paused for a moment: "The growth data from the last time in the content sector has already been digested."

Wang Song laughed: "So you're here to urge me to increase growth?"

"I'm here to tell you that we've done everything the technology can do; the rest is up to you."

Wu Yue stood up. "That's the situation."

"Anyway, I'm always ready. Once the data is plentiful, the algorithm can get to work."

The door closed.

Wang Song turned back to the window and looked down at Ma Xiaojun, Chen Shu, and Liu Jianjun, each busy with their own tasks.

I hope you can keep up.