How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 55 Foolish Three-Dimensional Humans
Wang Yao arranged to meet Cai Haoyu at a coffee shop near Jiaotong University under the pretext of commissioning a collaboration.

Wang Yao found the agreed-upon location number and met a handsome, introverted man who was typing on his laptop even when he was out and about.

"Are you President Wang?" Cai Haoyu felt someone sit down and looked up to see a handsome but overly young face.

"Hello, Senior Brother Cai. I am a student of Teacher Zheng. Teacher Zheng and your mentor are from the same school, so we can be considered fellow students as well." Wang Yao smiled warmly.

"Ah, well, sort of, but I didn't expect you to be so young." Cai Haoyu scratched his head awkwardly.

He was quite happy when he received the call, thinking it was some lucrative part-time job, but judging from Wang Yao's age, it was probably just a small order worth a few thousand yuan at most.

Oh well, even a mosquito's leg is meat.

Cai Haoyu roused himself and sighed.

But soon, after hearing Wang Yao's requirements, he felt a little lost. "Wait, you mean you want to create a waterfall layout platform? And you want to use APIs to link to Taobao Affiliate? This is no small project. Explain what a waterfall layout is."

Wang Yao was taken aback. "You didn't know?"

"Should I know? I've never heard of it." Cai Haoyu scratched his head.

Wang Yao frowned and thought for a moment. He only remembered the term "waterfall interface" because it had left a deep impression on him among all the platforms. The infamous feeling of endless scrolling through short videos originated from this idea.

He only remembered that this thing seemed to have existed as early as 2010, and that Pinterest, one of the three major social media companies in the United States, was the creator. Later, it was copied in China and became known as Xiaohongshu, Mogujie, and Huaban.

Has it not been released yet this month?
Wang Yao could only briefly describe the display method and characteristics of the waterfall interface.

"That's acceptable, quite novel, but displaying so many pictures at once? Won't it be visually overwhelming?" Cai Haoyu stroked his chin.

"So keep it simple, clearly distinguish each piece of content, and you can arrange them irregularly," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Then we need JavaScript's dynamic element position calculation technology. Frequent DOM manipulation may cause page reflow, triggering browser repaint and reflow, reducing rendering efficiency. Hmm, it's not difficult, but it feels like the cost-effectiveness isn't high," Cai Haoyu gave his opinion honestly.

"It's okay, let's give it a try first. How much would it cost to build such a platform?" Wang Yao didn't explain further.

“You can do one front-end, one back-end, and one UI, but it will take about four or five months. And you’ll probably have to integrate open-source libraries yourself. Image processing will also cost a lot. The technical threshold is quite high. It’ll cost at least 500,000 yuan, tsk.” Cai Haoyu calculated.

“Not cheap.” Wang Yao frowned upon hearing this.

The internet platform industry is really expensive. Just setting up a platform costs 500,000 yuan, and there are also costs for operation, traffic acquisition, content, etc. Moreover, it is unknown how long it will take to start losing money before it becomes profitable.

Moreover, there's the worry that after a year or two of hard work and dedication to building up the user base and preparing for fundraising, it's time to start looking for funding.

As a result, the big companies simply send a team to copy your work in a month. Then, leveraging their oligopolistic traffic and financial advantages, they flood your audience with traffic, leaving you with no risk of even having the courage to sue.

50, in the same amount of time, could be worth more than ten times more in e-commerce.

Of course, if it succeeds, the return on investment can be quite substantial.

"It's expensive, and all flashy." Cai Haoyu touched his nose, finding Wang Yao's words quite amusing. Expensive is expensive, but he still said it wasn't cheap.

However, he seems to know nothing about the internet. He thinks that he can start a business from scratch with just a few tens of thousands of yuan after seeing the entrepreneurial experiences of Jack Ma and Pony Ma. He is a young man who has no idea about the cost of building a business.

Why do these guys who don't even know how to program think it's easy to make money on the internet?

Foolish three-dimensional humans!

"Senior brother, are you interested in games?" Wang Yao changed the subject.

“Of course, I studied computer science to make games. You play games too?” Cai Haoyu’s eyes lit up.

"Yeah, I used to play Legend of Mir and CrossFire," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Hmm, it's good." Cai Haoyu's lips twitched, and he held back the curse that was about to come out of his mouth.

That's what you call a game?
"I heard that Tencent's gaming division made tens of billions last year, with CF alone making nearly 100 billion. Is that true?" Wang Yao asked curiously.

"Hmph, it's true, but the money they made was... well, let's just say it wasn't good." Cai Haoyu said with a sneer.

“Games are so profitable! Why don’t we start making games together and earn money, senior brother?” Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Huh?" Cai Haoyu was taken aback, not expecting the topic to suddenly shift to investing in games.

However, he has recently been thinking about making his own game. The game's background design and framework are all complete, and he's just waiting to raise some money to start.

In recent years, led by top game companies such as Tencent, Duowan, and Shanda, the domestic game market has become increasingly mature.

Online games and web games are particularly promising directions, as are indie games. The success of Minecraft has inspired countless game enthusiasts to start their own businesses.

But Cai Haoyu is different from them. He makes games not for money, but simply because of his love and passion, and he wants to create his own game world.

However, he is currently under academic pressure and doesn't have much money, so he can only save up and see how it goes. Moreover, he is well aware that the mobile platform is not yet mature, so there's no rush; he still has time.

But Wang Yao's sudden offer to invest did pique his interest. After a moment's thought, he said, "Junior brother, developing a game requires a significant investment, at least tens or hundreds of thousands, and it might take a year or two to see results." He wanted to test Wang Yao's background first; judging from his appearance, he might be a rich second-generation heir.

“Money is no problem. Have you been following the Apple iPad launch event lately, senior brother?” Wang Yao asked with a smile.

"Oh? You also admire Steve Jobs' work?" Cai Haoyu's expression brightened.

He is a typical genius anime and tech geek, born into a highly educated family, a typical second-generation scholar, with an intellectual's aloofness in his genes, so he speaks very bluntly.

I admire Steve Jobs' style of doing things.

"Steve Jobs was amazing, and the iOS system is pretty good." Wang Yao smiled.

Cai Haoyu got interested and started chatting idly.

Wang Yao occasionally chimed in with a few words, and finally laughed, "I heard that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs stole their first pot of gold from Xerox PARC. Is that true?"

"It seems like that's true." Cai Haoyu paused, somewhat surprised.

Dude, you knew this little-known fact?

"So I think that with your ideas and skills, you might become an even more powerful figure in the future. After all, we are all human. Humans cannot create things from nothing. Humans are not gods," Wang Yao said with a light laugh.

"!!! You like EVA too?!" Cai Haoyu suddenly became excited.

"Hmm, Senior Brother also likes EVA?" Wang Yao feigned surprise.

"Huh? Haha, same hobby, same hobby." Cai Haoyu's goodwill towards Wang Yao instantly soared.

Anime/manga fans are just that simple.

“Senior brother, I have an idea. Since tablet computers are also called computers, they should be able to play games. Do you think mobile games have a market prospect?” Wang Yao asked, trying to guide the discussion.

“Of course there are. iOS’s own app store has many small games that have sold for tens of thousands of dollars. As hardware becomes smoother and can support more content, the future development of mobile games may be more promising than that of PC games.” Cai Haoyu was somewhat surprised, not expecting that Wang Yao would share his views.

"How about we start a company together to make mobile games, and then we can develop a platform while we have time?" Wang Yao said with a warm smile.

“Well, running a game company costs much more money than running your platform. Don’t underestimate a mobile game; the development cost is at least two or three hundred thousand yuan,” Cai Haoyu said, waving his hand.

"Money is not a problem. The main thing is whether you are interested, and how much start-up capital you need?" Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Initially, it'll cost at least 100 million, right?" Cai Haoyu swallowed, feeling inexplicably nervous.

“How about I invest 200 million for a 70% stake, my senior’s technology will contribute 20%, and we’ll set aside 10% of the equity as incentives for the future core team?” Wang Yao calculated and made a suggestion.

"Huh? 200 million? You're voting for me?" Cai Haoyu was stunned, thinking he had misheard.

In 2010, the internet industry had just emerged from the bubble and downturn of 2008. Even for a graduate like Cai Haoyu, who graduated from a university, the highest monthly salary he could earn in a big company was over 10,000 yuan, with an annual salary of around 150,000 yuan. This was because the average salary in the programming industry at that time was only 6000 to 8000 yuan, which was indeed a high salary compared to other industries.

However, it did not reach its peak. About three years later, due to the expansion of market demand, the salaries of programmers doubled year after year.

But right now, Wang Yao has essentially given him equity worth 40 yuan, and most importantly, 200 million yuan in start-up capital!
Although he comes from a family with a good academic background, his family background is relatively clean. At most, they are a well-off middle-class family with no worries about food and clothing, but they can't afford to give him too much money to start a business.

With such a large sum of money, he has to be extremely careful even when he dreams about it.

His biggest hope is to save money this year to finish "The Tale of the Saha World", then save up tens of thousands of yuan after graduating next year, and then use his postgraduate status to apply for some loans to raise more than 100,000 yuan to try to make a good game.

But now, he feels like a windfall has fallen from the sky.

Indeed, those who watch EVA will be blessed.

“Yes, 200 million. Let’s make a mobile game together.” Wang Yao chuckled.

"Um, junior brother, are you serious or joking?" Cai Haoyu asked again to confirm.

"Let me introduce myself again. I'm currently the CEO of a brokerage company, and I also run a few online stores as a side business, which have made me some money. Do you surf the internet, senior? Have you heard of Ma Ruo?" Wang Yao began to demonstrate his abilities directly.

“Of course, the BMW girl.” Cai Haoyu nodded blankly.

He doesn't surf the internet much, and when he does, he mostly hangs out in the anime and manga community. But Ma Ruo has become so popular lately that he's practically everywhere.

"She is one of my artists, so you don't need to worry about the money. Go back and think it over. Once you've thought it through, we can schedule a time to sit down at my company and have a proper chat."

"I have a dinner engagement later, so I won't bother you any longer, senior brother." Wang Yao smiled and stood up.

Cai Haoyu unconsciously got up and walked him to the roadside. A red BMW was flashing on the side of the road, but what was even more eye-catching were the three beautiful girls standing next to the car. It was the middle of winter at the end of January, and the three of them were dressed in fashionable and beautiful clothes, which made them a sight to behold for passers-by.

Cai Haoyu watched as the three pretty girls waved to Wang Yao. Upon closer inspection, he realized that one of them was indeed Ma Ruo, the hot topic of discussion online recently!
Only after Wang Yao and the red BMW disappeared around the street corner did Cai Haoyu slowly come back to his senses.

With this money, I can finally meet Yayoi Nanatsuki in the real world, right?

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(End of this chapter)