Huayu: The young actress is heavily dependent on me

Kiwi Fruit Conference Room.

A dozen or so people sat on either side of the long table, and the site's data curve for "So Cute Us" was displayed on the projection screen.

The line climbed steadily in the first week, then suddenly steepened in the third week, surging all the way to the featured position on the Tencent Video homepage.

"Everyone saw it." Dai Ying put down the laser pointer and placed her hands on the edge of the table.

"This show, 'So Cute Us,' had less than two million views in its first week, but it has now increased nearly tenfold. It has an 8.2 rating on Douban and a 91% positive review rate from the comments."

"More importantly, Chen Li, the director of this series and a freshman in the Department of Performing Arts at the Taipei Film Academy, came up with a concept when he was discussing procurement with the penguin company next door."

She pressed a button on the remote, the PowerPoint presentation flipped to the next page, and three large words popped up on the screen: Rated Drama.

There was a half-second of silence in the conference room.

"Rated series?" Old Zhang from the copyright department was the first to speak up.

"Is this supposed to be the revenue-sharing drama we proposed last year? A student wants to teach us how to do business?"

"Listen to what he has to say." Dai Ying briefly recounted the hierarchical framework that Chen Li proposed in the Penguin Conference Room.

As soon as he finished speaking, a few soft laughs with mixed meanings rang out in the conference room.

"Then let me ask you," a marketing director slammed his pen on the table, "what rating would his own film reviews be based on this rating system?"

"Initially it was grade C, a low rating given by Tencent according to traditional procurement standards. Later, the data exploded, and it was upgraded to grade A."

"A-level?" The man chuckled, glancing around. "He proposed his own rating system, and he can only get an A at most? Doesn't that mean—even though I'm smart, my shows aren't good enough for the highest rating?"

Dai Ying did not speak.

She recalled that at the last BJ web drama industry summit, when the platform first proposed the revenue-sharing drama model, she mentioned in an internal meeting that "rating" was just a concept, and there hadn't been time to discuss how to implement it.

Now, this student named Chen Li has clearly listed the unit price, recommendation slot allocation, and operational priority for the three levels (A, B, and C).

They even drew a line that revenue-sharing dramas cannot touch the S-level rating.

However, the marketing department's questions hit the nail on the head.

The framework for rating revenue-sharing dramas is indeed brilliant, but Chen Li is neither a renowned director nor a platform executive, so his proposal naturally lacks authoritative endorsement.

"I think we could follow up and study this further," she finally said.

"But let's not officially adopt it yet. Let's send someone to Tencent to find out exactly how they operate, and then release our version next year when the time is right."

She closed the PowerPoint presentation, looked at the frozen image of the "So Cute Us" poster on the screen, and added, "As for Chen Li—keep an eye on him."

Penguin Video Conference Room.

At the same time, Wang Yi sat at one end of a long table, with the latest data report of "So Lovely Us" spread out in front of him.

The viewership curve has soared from the purchase price of 115 million that he personally negotiated last month to more than 10 million now. The rating on the site is stable at 9.1, the positive review rate of bullet comments is 91%, and the retention rate of users who follow the show the next day is more than ten percentage points higher than that of A-level dramas in the same period.

"Everyone has seen the data." Wang Yi pushed the report onto the table.

"The main reason I called everyone here today is to discuss two things. First, the rating adjustment for 'So Cute Us'—from C to A. Second, whether we should officially implement the tiered revenue-sharing system proposed by Chen Li."

As soon as he finished speaking, Marketing Director Zhao was the first to speak up:

"Director Wang, I have no objection to raising the rating to A—the data is there, it wouldn't be right not to mention it. But I have to say a few words about the tiered accounting and revenue sharing." He opened the evaluation form in his hand.

"I saw Chen Li last time. He is talented, but the system he proposed is too advanced. iQiyi's revenue-sharing dramas are just starting out and are still in the trial stage. No one in the industry dares to say with certainty how revenue-sharing dramas should be classified and priced."

"If we're the first to try something new, we'll be pioneers if we succeed, but if we fail, we'll become a laughing stock in the entire industry."

Director Li of the Copyright Department took off his glasses and wiped them, his tone calm but every word barbed:

"There's another issue. The core logic of this system is to use data to filter out good content and allocate resources to projects with real potential."

"But we don't even have enough data samples for revenue-sharing dramas right now. There are only about a hundred online dramas this year, and even fewer of them are on the revenue-sharing model. With such a small sample size, who will set the rating standards?"

"If the price is set too low, good projects will go to iQiyi and Youku; if the price is set too high, the platform will have to subsidize a bunch of C-level dramas. Director Zhao is right, it's okay to be a pioneer, but you have to make sure the crab is alive or dead first."

"And to put it bluntly," Director Li put on his glasses, then changed the subject.

"Chen Li brought this plan with him; it wasn't developed internally by us. It's illogical for any company to use something given to us by an outsider as its core strategy."

Wang Yi leaned back in his chair and listened to them finish speaking, then tapped his fingers rhythmically three times on the table.

"You're all right. The sample size is insufficient, the risk is too great, and external proposals cannot be a core strategy." He stood up, walked to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and drew two lines on it.

One is the viewership curve of "So Cute Us", and the other is the average viewership curve of C-level youth dramas in the same period.

The two lines diverged by nearly tenfold after the second week.

"But have you ever thought about this?" He tapped the steep, upward-curving line with the cap of his pen.

Why did "So Cute Us" only get two million views in its first week? Because it doesn't have a big IP, doesn't have well-known actors, and can't even get a spot on the homepage recommendation list.

"If we follow our traditional purchasing rating system, this kind of show will only stay in the C category for life, and it will never even have the chance to be seen by the audience."

"But what Chen Li gave us wasn't just a concept, it was a proven result. This show went from C to A not because of connections, but because of the viewers' votes based on viewership."

"What does this show? It shows that good content can indeed achieve success through word of mouth without the need for resource allocation—but the prerequisite is that it must first be seen by the audience."

He turned and drew an arrow between "C" and "A", circled it, and marked it with an asterisk:

"When iQiyi launched its revenue-sharing drama series last year, no one in the industry was confident that it would be a success. Now they have become the industry benchmark, and we are following suit and learning from them—that's called being prudent."

"But if we add a tiered system to the revenue-sharing model and get this model working before Kiwi, then by this time next year, Kiwi will no longer be the industry benchmark."

Director Li pushed up his glasses and said nothing more.

Director Zhao glanced down at the evaluation form in his hand, his expression clearly wavering.

"Of course," Wang Yi put down his marker, his tone softening slightly.

"I have considered the issue of external proposals that Director Li mentioned. Even if this system is to be implemented, it will not be a direct copy of Chen Li's plan. The core framework can be used as a reference, but the specific implementation will be developed and determined internally."

"We already knew that S-level ratings could only be given to dramas produced by the platform itself, even without him saying it. But this bottom line he set is exactly what we must uphold."

Xiao Zhao from the marketing department suddenly raised his hand:

"Director Wang, let me state my position first—I support pushing this forward internally. I was there when Chen Li came last time, and what he said was actually more comprehensive than you think."

Director Zhao glanced at her but didn't say anything.

At the end of the meeting, Wang Yi walked to the projection screen and opened the in-site recommendation schedule for "So Cute Us".

The previously empty recommendation slot on the schedule is now labeled with three tags: "Homepage Carousel, Homepage Fixed, External Joint Promotion".

"As you all should understand, our promotional support this time is not just for this one drama. It is also to give our 'online drama rating and revenue sharing' system a great start."

Wang Yi stood in front of the curtain, his gaze sweeping across the entire conference room.

"The data from 'So Cute Us' has already validated the value of this rating system for us. Now, let's maximize its reach and establish the 'A-level' benchmark as soon as possible."

He didn't say anything more, nor did he wait for everyone to express their opinions.

If Tencent Video wants to secure good content in this booming market, it needs to invest real money and resources.

This time, he decided to give it a try.