Actor: Thank you.

"Beauty products?"

Some time later, Zhang Yuan called Fan Bingbing.

He proposed a business deal to her.

Fan Bingbing certainly knows what beauty products are, but she doesn't know what Zhang Yuan meant by bringing it up.

"I mean, you can do beauty makeup."

"Teach people how to do makeup?" Fan Xiaopang still didn't understand what she meant.

"No."

"You found a brand for me to endorse?"

"You're usually so generous, how come you're being so petty now?" Zhang Yuan complained with a smile.

"What I mean is, you build your own beauty brand and make money by selling products."

Fan Bingbing's reaction was the same as Zhao Jin's when he heard that he wanted to build a factory.

I always felt like this had nothing to do with me.

I'm an artist, and factories are a part of manufacturing; they're unrelated!
"That's right, I'm having dinner with Ms. Li Jing and her husband, as well as Dai Jun, at my home right now."

"Li Jing started her own online shopping platform for women. I don't know if you're aware of it."

"My thought is that you're so famous, you must have a lot of female fans."

"Instead of endorsing other brands, why not create your own brand, do your own advertising, and make money directly through the fan economy?"

What was the original purpose of the cosmetics brand hiring her as a spokesperson?
Isn't it all just to increase brand awareness and attract people who like Fan Bingbing or know her to buy her products?

Similarly, doing it yourself and endorsing it yourself follows the same principle.

However, there are several major problems with celebrities engaging in real-world businesses.

No experience, no connections, no sales channels.

The biggest problem is the lack of sales channels.

But once Zhang Yuan invests in Lefeng.com, he'll have a sales channel!

This practice of celebrities creating their own brands, especially female celebrities in the beauty industry, or investing in beauty brands, has become very common in later generations.

Li Jiaqi, Viya, and other livestreamers have also invested in a number of companies because they control sales channels, which also serves as a form of "brand endorsement."

It doesn't matter if it's true or false, as long as there are die-hard fans who believe in it and buy it, that's enough.

Zhang Yuan bringing this up now is really ahead of his time.

Currently, because there is no live streaming or product sales, very few celebrities are doing this.

There are many overseas locations, especially Hollywood, but very few domestic ones.

Moreover, it's not something an average person can easily carry.

This is not just idle talk. Not to mention Cheng Hao, even Xixi, Li Bingbing, or Yang Tianbao, who recently became popular because of her relationship with Huang Xiaoming in "Hot Summer Days," do not have this ability.

They can't build a brand of their own.

But Fan Bingbing is different!
First, she established her own brand, which aligns with her persona as an independent and powerful woman.

In addition, she is one of the highest-paid actresses in the Chinese-speaking world right now.

In addition, and most importantly, Fan Bingbing will be bringing Wang Xiaoshuai's film "Chongqing Blues" to this year's Cannes Film Festival.

This trip to Cannes marked the beginning of her "deification".

Because that dragon robe dress was worn at this year's Cannes Film Festival!

The title of "China's No. 1 Carpet Star" is no exaggeration.

For many years afterward, Fan Bingbing remained the top female celebrity in the Chinese entertainment industry in terms of popularity.

It has even generated a certain degree of international influence.

Even after she was "blacklisted" by the Chinese entertainment industry and could only make it in Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea, she could still wear custom-made gowns from top brands and famous designers.

Now that Zhang Ziyi's international career has suddenly faded, Bingbing, Fan Bingbing, and other actresses have all keenly jumped out to seize the resources she has "leaked".

With Huayi backing her, Li Bingbing secured the most professional resources.

Fan Bingbing, on the other hand, grabbed the lion's share in the business fashion segment.

After all, she is younger than Lao Li and her appearance is more widely accepted.

Zhang Yuan had calculated it perfectly: as soon as the "dragon robe" was unveiled, her fashion influence would inevitably skyrocket!

Launching your own brand at this time will definitely be twice as effective.

All he can do is act as a go-between, bringing everyone together to benefit, so that he can also make money.

"To be an artist, you must first develop yourself to the fullest." After Zhang Yuan finished explaining his plans, Fan Xiaopang remained silent for a while.

"You certainly didn't hold back in developing me..." she replied.

Zhang Yuan: …

Although it was a joke, she reacted quickly, realizing it might be a way to make money.

"But where did these things come from?"

Have you ever heard of private labeling?

"This is just the simplest and most direct method."

"What I mean is, let's find a small cosmetics contract manufacturer, invest together to buy shares, and then cooperate."

There are fewer now. Nowadays, the main cosmetic factories in China are concentrated in Huzhou and Yiwu in Zhejiang Province.

Zhejiang businessmen are quite good at making money.

Moreover, many of the cosmetic factories in these two places originally operated as OEM exporters.

After the domestic beauty industry took off in later years, Huadu in Guangdong Province and Fengxian in Shanghai established professional beauty industry parks, and the beauty industry in these two places cooled down a little.

Mao Geping, a well-known domestic makeup artist, started his own cosmetics brand in 99.

When it went public in 24, its market value reached more than HK$200 billion, earning it the nickname "cosmetics Moutai".

This is the celebrity effect.

In fact, he wanted to go public as early as 16, but the "Jiuding Group" he was backed by collapsed, which led to the failure of his IPO attempt. It took him many years to reorganize and finally go public.

In Hollywood, this applies to both Kylie Jenner of the Kardashian family and Nicola Peltz, David Beckham's daughter-in-law.

These "socialites" leveraged their celebrity status to build beauty brands, which they then sold to European and American beauty giants after several years, each earning hundreds of millions of dollars.

Kylie Jenner, the youngest daughter of the Kardashians, shamelessly claimed to be on the "self-made female billionaires list" based on this, only to be ridiculed by many for her nonsensical claim of being "self-made."

The beauty industry has unlimited potential, and it is highly beneficial to plan ahead.

Fan Bingbing still believed in him, and she was willing to do anything that could make money.

After discussing it with her, I went back to Li Jing and told her about it.

"Okay, great."

Having a big star like Fan Bingbing join the platform would be wonderful.

She was delighted that Zhang Yuan brought both money and people.

Li Jing herself works in the skincare industry, and her essential oil brand is manufactured by an OEM.

Upon hearing this, he said he could introduce me to factories in Wenzhou.

Moreover, factories are worthless; it's the internet platforms that cost money.

Like other fast-moving consumer goods, the biggest cost of cosmetics is not materials or manufacturing, but marketing and promotion, which accounts for at least 5% and can even reach 8% or 9%.

This is called "connections," where if you don't have connections, you'll rack your brains trying to find someone; but if you do, you can get through with just one phone call.

Li Jing was deeply shocked after hearing this.

Either don't do it at all, or do it big! Good!

And even bigger things are yet to come.

How much of a stake do you want to invest?

“At least 30%.” Zhang Yuan held up three fingers.

They discussed investing in Lefeng.com.

“I checked, Lefeng.com is now owned by Baodui, and its total valuation is less than 100 million.”

“I can offer you a 3% premium and bring Fan Bingbing to join us.”

"But the prerequisite is that I must obtain at least 30% of the shares."

"If you're going to do something, do it big..." Li Jing exclaimed, "Not only are they ambitious, but they also have huge appetites."

Zhang Yuan knew that Lefeng.com would make a fortune if it were sold to Vipshop in the future.

But these days, she's not the only female celebrity on a fast-moving consumer goods website.

Who knows if Lefeng.com will go public or go bankrupt tomorrow? Just like Vancl, which was valued at over 100 million yuan in just one year, but almost went bankrupt in three or four years and was burdened with debts of over 1 billion yuan.

If it weren't for Jun'er's constant support and keeping him alive, he would have died long ago.

Hua Yi is so eager for the shares of Tudou because, in their eyes or anyone else's, Tudou's listing is a sure thing, a guaranteed profit.

In the investment banking industry, if you invest in 10 companies and only one survives, you'll make a fortune.

So, although Zhang Yuan was very ambitious and seemed to want to devour her, my older sister hesitated repeatedly before nodding to indicate that she would consider it carefully.

When Zhang Yuan offered 4000 million for a 30% stake, the man's brow furrowed even deeper, clearly becoming more hesitant due to the lure of money.

Dai Jun was also startled.

He had heard that Zhang Yuan had made a lot of money investing in movies, but he didn't expect him to be so generous.

Even a large investment firm like Sequoia Capital might not be willing to take on so much money.

The same question remains: Sequoia Capital didn't know if Lefeng.com could succeed, but Zhang Yuan did.

Therefore, "going all in is a kind of wisdom".

"There's one more thing," Zhang Yuan said, letting her think about it slowly.

Unless she's completely stupid, she'll definitely agree.

He turned to look at Li Jing's husband, Huang Xiaomao, a veteran of the Chinese music scene.

"Mr. Huang, I heard that your career seems to be having some trouble lately."

Zhang Yuan's words were too direct, causing Brother Huang to look somewhat embarrassed.

"Just admit it when they bring it up."

“We’re all friends, what’s there to be embarrassed about?” His wife, Li Jing, reassured him.

My older sister believes that with Zhang Yuan's financial resources, he has the right to speak directly.

The situation is that Huang Xiaomao, a veteran in the music industry, former general manager of Warner Music and now general manager of Sony Music, is about to "step down".

He hasn't reached retirement age yet, but he lost the internal power struggle and will soon be stepping down from his position as general manager.

They only gave him the nominal position of "special advisor," which was a way of saving him some face.

“Brother Huang, life has its ups and downs, you know better than me, so I won’t try to persuade you.”

"It's all in the wine," Zhang Yuan said, raising his glass.

Huang Xiaomao swallowed the bitter wine, his face showing distress. Then, like most middle-aged men, he rambled on for a while.

Zhang Yuan listened silently, occasionally responding with a few words.

"Brother, I'm a straightforward person."

“It’s not that you’re incompetent or lack ability; you’ve already proven yourself.”

"You're just out of touch with the times!"

Li Jing was glaring at you this time. You're being way too blunt.

It's really that simple. My brother is experienced and capable, but times have changed.

"I have an idea. Would you be willing to start over?"

Zhang Yuan looked at the other person with a sly grin.

"How do we start over?" Old Huang's expression was not good.

You young man are spouting nonsense... but I'll tolerate it if you give my wife money.

"I've got my eye on a company, a startup."

"You know the boss."

“I am interested in investing. Would you be willing to talk to the other party with me?”

"If all goes well, I would like to ask you to use your expertise."

"Oh?" Li Jing, Dai Jun, and Huang Xiaomao looked at each other.

How much money do you actually have?
They had no idea that Zhang Yuan had gotten a large sum of money from Huayi.

The key is that Jun'er didn't give him a chance, which resulted in too much "idle" money in his hands that he had to spend.

Which company are you referring to?

……

A day or two later, Zhang Yuan and Huang Xiaomao arrived together in front of a small office building in Chaoyang District, Beijing.

It's small, not very big.

Stepping inside, the two stopped in front of a transparent glass door on the 8th floor.

You can see all the way to the end of the office at a glance; the total area is less than 100 square meters.

A stainless steel sign hangs outside the door, which reads "Beijing Yuehua Entertainment Culture Co., Ltd."

That's right, this small, run-down company is none other than the later famous Yuehua Entertainment!
The three most prominent female agents in China's early days were Wang Jinghua, Li Xiaowan, and Chang Jihong.

The corresponding second-generation female agents are Yang Siwei, Zeng Jia, and Du Hua, the boss of Yuehua Entertainment.

Now, Zhang Yuan is missing the last piece of the "magical triangle" puzzle, and he needs to complete it.

Du Hua is older and more capable than the other two.

This person was a heavyweight from the very beginning.

Responsible for 8848's public relations and marketing.

8848 is not the company that sells mobile phones, but rather an early domestic internet business giant.

Founded in 99, just like Alibaba, 8848 started much earlier.

IDG, Yahoo, and AsiaInfo have all invested in it.

The problem is that 8848 never intended to do anything properly. From the very beginning, the boss, Wang Juntao, was using e-commerce as a front to play the financial game.

Du Hua felt the company was not good enough, so he switched jobs to Huayou Century.

It's Shanda Holdings, the same company that had a complicated relationship with Huayi Music and almost merged with Enlight Media to form a shell company called Huayou Century.

His highest position was General Manager of the Brokerage Department at Huayou Century.

However, starting in 09, Shanda initiated a full privatization, intending to completely transform Huayou Century into its own subsidiary.

Du Hua felt that once Shanda got things under control, they would definitely put their own people in charge, and he would inevitably have no place to sit in the future.

Fortunately, when the company went public in 05, she received a small number of stock options.

In addition, I met Yang Ning, the founder of Kongzhong Corporation, the internet company that sponsored "Crazy Racer".

Du Hua cashed out her stock options and left the company. In addition, Yang Ning gave her several million yuan, which enabled her to establish Yuehua Entertainment.

When I started my business, I was full of confidence. I had tens of millions of yuan in funds and felt that with my network and experience, I would be extraordinary.

But once you actually start doing it, you realize that money doesn't last long.

In addition, after leaving the prestigious Huayou Century brand, many old relationships turned their backs on them.

She then realized that the people were respecting the company, not her.

How powerful it will become in the future is a matter for the future.

Now things are really bad.

Now, less than six months after starting the business, funds are already running out.

She has already started using her own money to cover the costs.

A few days ago, I called Yang Ning because I was short of money, and he scolded me.

I think she's incompetent.

It's normal for startups to get criticized by investors. A few years after Lei Jun founded Xiaomi, the Xiaomi 3 became too popular, and the nickname "hand warmer" came about at that time. Lei Jun was besieged in the office by investors and berated, almost to the point of becoming depressed.

No matter how big your boss is, it doesn't matter; investors only care whether you've made money or not.

Yuehua Entertainment and Yang Siwei are different from Zeng Jia.

Yang Siwei is particularly skilled in public relations and creating a persona, while Zeng Jia is adept at attracting customers and training powerful, capable individuals.

Du Hua combined the marketing skills he learned at 8848, the agent experience he gained at Huayou Century, and the company's music development experience.

Therefore, Yuehua Entertainment is a music-focused artist management company, not an entertainment company.

This is why Zhang Yuan brought Huang Xiaomao over.

They've known each other for a long time, and their majors are related.

So, just when Sister Du Hua was worrying about money and resources to no avail.

With billions in subsidies at stake, "Zhang Duoduo" swaggered into her company's doorstep... (End of Chapter)