2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 322 Keep it up, Ghost Fire Boy!

Some things, once they appear, you know they're going to be a hit.

Kaixin.com acquired 500,000 registered users in just one week after its launch, with a daily active user rate of nearly 70% of the registered users. The astonishing daily active user rate made the statistics agency think they had made a mistake. After repeated confirmation, they were certain that they had not made a mistake!
"Holy crap, this website is weird. It's similar to Renren.com, but its growth rate is much more exaggerated than Renren.com."

"Right? When I was doing the statistics yesterday, I thought I had misread it and compared it several times."

"His growth is almost geometric, it's terrifying. The curve looks frightening. How did he do it? I don't think I've seen any big publicity about it."

"I checked. If you say he did any advertising, he did a lot of advertising, just posting on various forums and collaborating with an electric vehicle manufacturer, using celebrities to attract attention. It doesn't seem like a particularly big amount of advertising."

"Let's see if we can continue tonight. This website is going to be a hit."

"You guys are also researching this website? I just went on it for a while, wow, it's really interesting. Their marketing is probably viral marketing, attracting users and then retaining them with content and mini-games. I just don't know how they make a profit."

The mobile internet era is a winner-takes-all era, but this concept didn't seem particularly clear in the PC era. Both investment institutions and websites themselves focused more on how to make immediate profits and monetize.

QQ was so struggling to find a way to generate revenue that it really worried Pony Ma (Ma Huateng, CEO of Tencent), until the end of last year when he decided to use games as a breakthrough point for transformation.

Kaixin001's exaggerated growth rate and retention rate caught the attention of its peers, but after much research, they couldn't seem to find out how it should make a profit.

Besides Renren and QQ Zone, there are many other social networking sites competing with each other. Whether they can survive in the fierce competition remains to be seen.

Therefore, although Kaixin.com has attracted the attention of some investment institutions and Internet peers, it is only an attention.

The internet winter has only been over for a few years, and many investment institutions are still in the shadow of the winter's arrival, being very cautious about investing in early-stage websites. However, some websites with a keen sense of smell have begun to investigate Orange Technology, the company behind Kaixin.com.

This includes an investment firm called Northern Light Venture Capital and Qiming Venture Partners, which was established at the beginning of this year.

Especially Qiming Venture Partners.

Qiming Venture Partners, with its foreign investment background, is a newly established domestic venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage and growth-stage companies in the technology, consumer, and healthcare industries.

The rapid growth of Kaixin001 caught the attention of its managing partner, Kuang Ping.

This managing partner, who studied in the United States and holds a bachelor's degree in computer science, is the partner at Qiming Information responsible for investments in information technology.

Before founding Qiming Venture Partners, he was the Director of Intel Capital's China Region, leading Intel's strategic investment business in China. He had extensive investment experience and was considered a well-known figure in the investment field in China.

Tan Jincheng was unaware of these things, but it was still a remarkable achievement that Kaixin.com had attracted the attention of investors after only one week of operation.

Kaixin.com's future development will definitely require more money, and Tan Jincheng can no longer use his own money to burn through funds, so attracting investment institutions is inevitable.

The most important things in the internet industry are burning money and building connections. Investors not only bring funds, but also a wealth of connections. Many small companies have grown into large companies because of the connections brought by investors.

Tan Jincheng, who had caught the attention of the bigwig, was currently in Long Danni's office at Tianyu Xiangcheng Company discussing the contract details for Chun Ge's contract renewal, while waiting for Chun Ge.

Chun Ge has another event this morning, so he can only come over to sign the contract after it's finished.

Celebrities may seem glamorous, but their lives are not as glamorous as they appear.

Unlike last year, this year, Chun Ge, who received more attention, had all the contract details during the renewal process personally controlled by Long Danni, and Chun Ge and her agent had almost no say.

All Brother Chun has to do is come back and sign his name after the event.

Then, I had to rush to the next event.

Not all celebrities are as lucky as Liu Yifei, who has a dedicated agency set up for her, and whose scripts, development plans, and partner companies are all personally selected by her mother.

The contract is closely related to my income for the next few years, but I have no say in where I perform commercially or what kind of commercial performances I do. This job is quite frustrating.

With such an overbearing style, it's no wonder that in the following years, many reality show stars even went so far as to take legal action to terminate their contracts.

Lunch was at Tianyu Company, and it was indeed good. You could tell it wasn't specially prepared. No wonder it's a company that makes money quickly. No wonder there was a famous scene in a variety show in my past life where a breakfast cost 600 yuan.

The treatment was that of a second-tier celebrity, with an annual endorsement fee of 1.6 million yuan, and the contract was renewed until July 2010.

Compared to the first contract, the endorsement fee has increased fourfold. However, Tan Jincheng seemed to have gotten a better deal with last year's contract. Even if it had been 10 days later, the price wouldn't have been this high. Tianyu was essentially tricked by Tan Jincheng.

"It's a pleasure to work with you, Mr. Tan. I look forward to more opportunities to cooperate." "It's a pleasure to work with you. FlashDrive also hopes to have more opportunities to cooperate with your company."

Both parties, including Chun Ge, were quite satisfied with the contract. What celebrities value most is their net worth. A year ago, their net worth was 40, and a year later it is 160 million. This is a great publicity stunt.

Flash is quite satisfied with being able to renew the contract for three years. There is no doubt about Chun Ge's popularity, and his image is very compatible with the Flash series, making him a very qualified spokesperson.

Based on feedback from the marketing department during this period, the Flash Series, after the significant discounts, has been favored by many non-mainstream young people, many of whom are fans of "Brother Chun" and bought the car because of his reputation during the discount period.

This is a good sign. Brand building is not something that can be done overnight. The "ghost fire" kids are "ghost fire" kids now, but that doesn't mean they will always be "ghost fire" kids. Their current spending power and aesthetic sense are not up to par, but that doesn't mean they won't be up to par in the future.

Tan Jincheng himself came from the Martian language era and knows this well. As long as they approve of Flash's products, there are endless possibilities for them to continue using them in the future, whether it's electric vehicles or cars.

Keep it up, you little devils!
Work hard to earn money and grow up quickly!

"By the way, in the poll on Kaixin.com, Chun Ge's fans came in first place. I wonder what Chun Ge's thoughts are on where to put this 100 million yuan donation?"

The cooperation went smoothly, and Tan Jincheng decided to do the other party a favor.

Chun Ge looked blank, clearly not having thought of this issue. She had no say in the contract, let alone how the donations would be used.

Compared to her youthful inexperience last year, Chun Ge has grown a lot, but that's all. Endless activities and commercial performances have taken up a lot of her time, leaving her no time to reflect.

After all, she's only 20 years old.

She's a CD artist, and her family was relatively well-off when she was young. These days, there aren't many poor people who study art. In the year or so since her debut, apart from commercial performances and recording albums, she hasn't had any real contact with the lower classes of society.

By the way, Chris Lee's first album will also be released this September. She has been in the industry for over a year, and her first album is still not out. It is clear that Tianyu Entertainment is just using her popularity as a cash cow and doesn't have much long-term planning.

Chun Ge looked at Manyang and Long Danni with some helplessness. This was a question that couldn't be answered casually. It was an honor for her fans, and if the answer was not given well and it got out, it would be irresponsible to the fans and would affect her image.

"How about finding a poor county in Hunan or Sichuan provinces?" Long Danni replied with a smile.

Actually, she wanted to bring up this issue even if Tan Jincheng hadn't mentioned it, because she wanted to bring up the matter of some city leaders in Hunan Province asking her to introduce them to Tan Jincheng.

Nodding, Tan Jincheng looked at Chun Ge and said, "Okay, how about in Sichuan Province? Since you're from Sichuan, it would be a good deed to help impoverished students in your hometown in the name of your fans."

Chun Ge had no objections. One million yuan is not a small amount. It's quite generous of FlashTech to donate one million yuan to impoverished mountainous areas and help students go to school.

Tan Jincheng has actually donated a lot of money over the years, including in Beicang, his hometown, and Tianjin. He has made donations to varying degrees, partly to help secure projects, and partly out of his own conscience.

However, none of them have been actively publicized. Tan Jincheng strictly forbids the FlashCheer publicity department from using donations to promote the company or himself. This 100 million yuan donation is the first proactive donation, but it is still not in the name of FlashCheer.

Donating money is fine, but Tan Jincheng doesn't want to be labeled as a philanthropist.

“Okay, I’ll leave the rest to our company’s marketing department after we decide on the location. Our idea is to build a new teaching building at the location you’ve chosen, in the name of your fans.”

"As for the location, Chun Ge, you can check which places that are not very economically developed are suitable, or you can interact with your fans in Sichuan Province online and ask for their opinions. This is also a way to get closer to your fans."

2008 is almost here, so let's do what we can. Let's choose a location silently in the name of our fans, so that it can be done subtly and effectively.

Long Dani's eyes lit up; this was indeed a good promotional plan that would allow idols to interact with their fans.

"I've long heard that Mr. Tan is a marketing master. He captured the essence of promotion in just one sentence. He's truly brilliant."

Nowadays, celebrities are all high and mighty. The reason why talent show stars are so popular is that most of them come from humble backgrounds and their lives are very close to those of their fans. Fans see their own reflections in them.

How idols maintain these relationships is a problem that management companies need to solve.

My initial disappointment at not being able to keep up with the conversation because the location was Sichuan Province instantly lifted.

"Never mind, I'll ask her privately later. Even if she refuses, it won't be a loss of face."

The highway was blocked, and I didn't get off until late at night. I'm catching up on sleep during the day, and now I'm writing as fast as I can to try and finish another chapter.

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(End of this chapter)