Volume 3: Taking Roots 2016 Chapter 646 The Wind Rises
Although the two major media companies in Zhou Dongsheng's hands are both indispensable and rare bargaining chips in the market, Zhou Dongsheng has no intention of doing so, and many investment institutions that are salivating over them can only give up.
After all, only Zhou Dongsheng knows the true value of the two media companies. Other investors are not worms in his stomach, so they naturally cannot know their value, let alone blindly raise the price.
Ultimately, their purpose in investing is to make money, not to give money away.
As for the so-called off-the-board tactics, those crude means are too disgraceful for capital institutions, and it is also a simple arithmetic problem.
The cost is too high, the effort and reward are totally disproportionate, and there is no need for it at all. Such thoughts will never appear in their minds from beginning to end.
Although the criminal law records many ways to make money, for the capital market, is it necessary to break the law to make money?
Since Zhou Dongsheng "doesn't know how to appreciate a favor", he can only look for other bargaining chips, even though Papi Jiang, who Zhou Dongsheng has now become very famous and is known as the "No. 1 Internet Celebrity of the Year".
Looking at the budding internet celebrity industry, apart from the special case of Principal Wang, there are basically no other internet celebrities who can be compared with him.
However, traffic is never static, and the same is true for the industry structure. Even the entertainment industry is not supported by a single star.
Flowers need green leaves to set them off. Only after going through the process of competition and blooming of all flowers can an industry mature. The same is true for the internet celebrity industry as a new thing.
Although Papi Jiang is the most popular person at the moment, there are dozens of potential stars with unlimited potential below her in the annual Internet celebrity ranking list compiled by authoritative media.
Even though the fan base of the IP [Papi Jiang] is larger than that of all internet celebrities, it does not mean that [Papi Jiang Jiang] can dominate the industry alone.
Even if the second and third place are not as good as her in terms of data, but judging from the data alone, 1+1 is always greater than 2, right? If not, 1+1+1 is always greater than 2, right?
Of course, [Papi Jiang] has irreplaceable content quality to support her, but you have a plan and I have a ladder. If I can't beat you in quality, can't I also beat you in quantity?
Therefore, capital institutions, having to settle for second best, followed the clues and began looking for similar online media to invest in. A large amount of hot money flowed into related companies in the "Internet celebrity economy" sector.
Capital institutions see potential for future growth in the industry, while a large number of internet celebrity media outlets are struggling with limited funding and development is difficult. Both parties get what they need and hit it off.
After receiving large amounts of financing from capital institutions, whether it is the Internet celebrities who appeared at the Internet Celebrities Festival or those on the annual Internet Celebrities ranking list.
All of them have received olive branches from various online media, which also means that the Internet celebrity industry has officially entered the regular army stage from the ragtag army stage.
Originally, their success may have been just due to chance. By showing their personality and expressing themselves on the Internet platform, they gained the support of many fans. As for operation and monetization, they just made decisions based on their own preferences.
At the same time, you encountered a wild growth stage when the industry was emerging, and you thrived under the irrigation of industry dividends. However, no matter how hard God chased you to feed you, it would only be temporary.
If they have made it through the early stages of the industry and have not learned to make a living on their own, then as industry competition intensifies, these lucky ones will soon understand what it means that "all gifts from fate are secretly marked with a price tag."
Compared to fighting alone and taking all the risks, if there is a mature company to provide logistical support, you don’t have to worry about anything at all. You can concentrate on doing what you are best at and focus on content output...
To a certain extent, this undoubtedly greatly extends the lifespan of Internet celebrities while also reducing risks.
The power of an individual is always minimal, and all great beginnings begin with teamwork. Although the personal heroism of conquering the world single-handedly makes people yearn for it...
But heroes are not gods after all, they also need to eat. Without sufficient logistical support, how can heroes concentrate on conquering the world?
Therefore, under the stimulation of successive "good" news, the entire Internet celebrity industry has shown an unprecedented vitality and entered a stage of growth.
A rain of capital has been poured down, and the first beneficiaries are naturally the first batch of entrepreneurs who have taken root in this land and have already established a solid foundation.
Among them, perhaps the most worth mentioning is Ruhan Holdings, which is rooted in Hangzhou. As a company that started out as an Internet e-commerce company, Ruhan Holdings has very keenly captured the potential sales ability of Internet celebrities.
The biggest advantage of offline physical stores is obviously that they have visible and tangible goods on display in real time, allowing consumers to fully experience the characteristics of the product itself.
On the invisible and intangible Internet, all information can only be displayed to consumers on flat screens. How to impress consumers and make them willingly pay for their products requires different methods.
In the early years, Ruhan Holdings, which accumulated the first pot of gold from Internet e-commerce, keenly realized that the beauty of print models had a crucial impact on product sales.
To put it bluntly, humans are visual animals. Under the influence of preconceived ideas, the first impression is the most important factor affecting consumer decision-making, if not the only one.
Hence the term “eyeball economy” came into being. Products that can attract consumers’ attention can generate corresponding economic benefits.
The rise of the Internet era is perhaps the best interpretation of the "eyeball economy". After all, the rise of the Internet relies on attracting consumers' attention from television to the Internet.
The same piece of clothing will naturally not look the same when worn by a celebrity and an ordinary person. At the same time, people's yearning for beauty is an innate nature.
Thus, the idea that using handsome men and beautiful women to display products can directly increase product sales was born in such a simple and unpretentious way.
From models to celebrities, they all essentially follow this principle: consumers are willing to pay for beauty.
Celebrity endorsements are the most effective rule in the consumer market that has been formed over a long period of time under the subtle influence of consumers.
But for Internet e-commerce, I understand the logic, and everyone knows that celebrity endorsements are effective, but this method is obviously not something that everyone can afford.
Even if they have the money, celebrities generally won't choose to take endorsements that lower their own value in order to maintain their own status.
Of course, this premise is based on the overall economic environment. Once the overall environment is not good, it will be another story, which we will not discuss here for the time being.
Since being a celebrity is not an option, we can only settle for the next best thing. If we put aside the celebrity halo and pay for the same beauty, models are undoubtedly the best substitutes.
When Ruhan Holdings was making its first fortune on e-commerce platforms, it discovered that there were differences between models.
This gap does not simply refer to appearance. After all, everyone has different tastes. Aesthetics is a relatively subjective feeling and naturally varies from person to person.
But sales volume will never lie. For merchants, this data related to their own interests is what they care about most. As for whether the products are beautiful or not, can they make a living no matter how beautiful they are?
Hmm? It seems to be possible!
My lord, times have changed!
Ruhan Holdings has obviously keenly captured this demand that users are not even aware of, and began to work hard in 2012 to try and incubate its own e-commerce celebrities.
Relying on its complete supply chain derived from the e-commerce platform, it cooperates with various print models, allowing the models to give full play to their "beautiful looks" and leave the dirty work of "making money to support the family" to them.
The two parties hit it off immediately. Relying on this cooperation model and the original accumulation in Internet e-commerce, Ruhan Holdings quickly opened up the situation and reaped the benefits.
Under this cooperation model, a brand model who has a stable cooperative relationship with Ruhan Holdings quickly stood out and became a leader among the many influencers under Ruhan Holdings.
This person is Zhang Dayi!
With her unique dressing style and understanding of fashion, Zhang Dayi has not only become famous on the Internet, attracting countless fans, but also willing to pay money to support her.
The greater the fame, the wider the audience, the higher the sales, and the higher the income. A simple positive feedback is formed, driving Zhang Dayi to continue climbing.
And as Zhang Dayi's share in Ruhan Holdings becomes higher and higher, she almost single-handedly supports half of the company's sales!
If you have friends who have worked in the sales industry, you will probably understand how irreplaceable a salesperson's position is when he controls about half of the company's sales.
Not only do they have a domineering attitude towards the company, but even the boss has to be courteous to them and even has to offer stock dividends as an incentive to retain such sales elites.
Zhang Dayi is such a vivid example. The e-commerce store she founded in cooperation with Ruhan Holdings quickly became popular on the e-commerce platform under the leadership of Zhang Dayi, who was responsible for shaping the style of the online store and the aesthetic output of the internet celebrity brand.
In just one year, it became a star merchant ranked among the top in the women's clothing category, and became famous during the Double Eleven in 2015, becoming the only one among many Internet celebrity stores to be included in the women's clothing rankings across all platforms!
With this unique record, Zhang Dayi directly transformed from a brand cooperation model to one of the shareholders of Ruhan Holdings.
After several years of exploration, they finally found a successful template for Zhang Dayi, which is of great significance to Ruhan Holdings. Zhang Dayi's success means that their model has been successful and a monetization channel has been successfully opened up.
If we say that Papi Jiang's tens of millions of advertising auction provides a direction for many internet celebrities who have been deeply engaged in content but have difficulty monetizing it to monetize their traffic through advertising.
Then Zhang Dayi's success undoubtedly provides a monetization channel from another content direction, that is, selling goods through e-commerce.
Although both are internet celebrities, the content and audience they output on the Internet platform are obviously very different.
In fact, Jiang Yilei had tried to produce content in the fashion direction in the early days, relying on his appearance that resembled Sophie Marceau as a breakthrough, but with little success.
After learning from her mistakes, she chose to do the opposite and tried to produce content in a self-destructive way by portraying herself as an older single woman. Unexpectedly, she hit the user's pain points and quickly became an Internet sensation.
Zhang Dayi is obviously much more pure. She has always insisted on the traditional track of appearance and has accumulated her own fan base with her beauty.
From a model appearing in fashion magazines, to a print model active on e-commerce platforms, to a fashion blogger on Weibo, she has maximized her advantages.
Maybe this is what God has given me. In this era, being good-looking can make a living.
When Zhang Dayi entered the top ten Internet celebrities of the year and won the title of Best Fashion Influencer at the Weibo Super Influencer Festival, it undoubtedly made her career take a step forward.
In addition, Ruhan Holdings, the company behind this successful woman Zhang Dayi, has also entered the vision of many investment institutions.
In particular, Zhang Dayi’s outstanding e-commerce sales ability is enough to become an important criterion for some investment institutions to measure Ruhan Holdings, and it is the only one.
When olive branches came pouring in , Feng Ming, the boss of Ruhan Holdings, realized what it meant to have happy troubles. At the same time, he couldn't help but sigh for the right decision he made at the beginning.
But for Feng Ming, who has tasted the sweetness of the internet celebrity economy, this is obviously not enough to satisfy his appetite. The ambitious man has already planned to "go public through a backdoor listing."
Ruhan Holdings is preparing to list on the New Third Board to "gild" itself. Although it is fundamentally different from listed companies in a broad sense, the New Third Board market is used as a touchstone for the Internet celebrity economy...
In Feng Ming's opinion, it is undoubtedly quite suitable, and with the help of the gilding of the New Third Board market, Ruhan Holdings can also complete a wave of transformation...
However, the evil wind of the internet celebrity economy, under the joint efforts of all parties, is blowing far more violently than expected. Especially under the influence of the variable Zhou Dongsheng, the attention this industry has received has increased exponentially!
If Zhou Dongsheng is not important enough, then the pig factory capital of Ding Sanshi, the Internet tycoon, is enough to force some bigwigs who originally had no time to pay attention to this industry to be cautious.
Invisibly, Zhou Dongsheng accelerated the process of capital entry...
Among them, Ruhan Holdings, as an e-commerce internet celebrity company that started from the Internet e-commerce platform, naturally received attention from e-commerce leaders.
When Alibaba Capital extended a golden olive branch to Ruhan Holdings, even Feng Ming found it difficult to remain calm.
This is not an olive branch at all, it's simply a golden thigh. Even the leg hair is shining golden. As a company that relies on the Internet e-commerce platform for its livelihood, how could Ruhan Holdings refuse Alibaba Capital?
For a moment, Feng Ming began to wonder if the value of the New Third Board was too low, and whether he should look further ahead...
At the same time, Zhou Dongsheng, known as the "source of all evil", was apparently unaware of the undercurrents in the industry. Instead, he came to Mobike's Shanghai headquarters with great interest.
The reason for coming here is because Hu Weiwei reported to Zhou Dongsheng mysteriously that she had carefully prepared a big gift and invited Zhou Dongsheng to come and see it!
Zhou Dongsheng was naturally well aware of this. What other big gift could Hu Weiwei come up with?
It can't be a swimsuit, right? (Funny)
