Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

The next day…

 Pei Qian sent a document over to Lu Mingliang. “Do as it says.”

Pei Qian trusted in Lu Mingliang’s ability to listen to instructions. Ever since they started research and development of Game Designer, Lu Mingliang had been loyally acceding to Pei Qian’s requests. Even when Pei Qian asked him to do voice-overs, he did it.

Pei Qian was very satisfied with this special characteristic of Lu Mingliang’s. Employees who did not create trouble for him were good employees!

Lu Mingliang opened the document that Pei Qian sent to him. There were three parts to the contents. They were… which content creator to find for marketing, the script for marketing, and the fees for marketing.

 It was quite detailed. Lu Mingliang scanned the document from top to bottom.

 “I’m finished. Why is it that I cannot understand Boss Pei’s intentions at all?!”

Lu Mingliang began to panic. In the past, he could vaguely guess Boss Pei’s intentions. However, he was at a complete loss now! Every single sentence in this document was very clear. Why was it so hard to understand when they were all put together?

First, which content creator should he find for marketing?

Lu Mingliang read through the contents. There were all sorts of content creators from every area listed there. Even those from the beauty area were included! However, these content creators were all the bland ones; not a single famous content creator was listed!

The most famous content creator listed here who had come into contact with games was ‘Teacher Qiao’, Qiao Liang. In other words, it was the same content creator who dissed The Lonely Desert Road.

 However, Boss Pei purposely cautioned Lu Mingliang not to market the game in the Trash Games Diss, but in the New Recommended Games of the Month.

 On the surface, this was a perfectly reasonable request. This was because Trash Games Diss listed all the lousy games. If they were to run an advertisement in that, the marketing strategy would backfire.

 That was why Qiao Liang purposely created another segment—New Recommended Games of the Month, that was meant for sponsored partnerships.

However, if one took a look at how popular each of these segments was, they would discover a problem. The New Recommended Games of the Month series was used especially for sponsored partnerships. The number of views that it got was not even one-tenth of that for Trash Games Diss!

Given that it was so much less popular, what would be the effect of marketing the game there?

The other content creators looked even more ridiculous. They were from the lifestyle area, the beauty area, the science area. Even if these content creators from all sorts of backgrounds worked hard to market the game, how many real players could they attract to play Game Designer?

 When one ran advertisements, they focused on the conversion rate.

 People who looked at videos in the gaming area were mostly gamers themselves. Once they saw a good recommendation, they would probably search for the game and try it out. For every hundred views—if one person tried the game out, that would still be a satisfactory result.

 However, in other areas like the beauty industry—for example, the audience was filled with girls who loved to doll up. Even if they thought that the game looked fun, they might not even bother to search for it. So what if they got a million views? If only one person in every ten thousand people tried the game, it would be disastrous!

Thus, looking at the various types of content creators listed on the document, Lu Mingliang felt confused and exhausted. Yet, more confusing and exhausting things were to follow!

 Second, how to market…

 Normally, content creators who created videos were people with refreshing personalities. For instance, they might like cursing or saying riddles or might be especially good at coming up with storylines or special effects.

 Therefore, when people offered sponsored partnerships, they were normally respectful of the creative intent behind the content creators’ work. This meant they would provide necessary materials and props and leave the content creators to come up with their own content.

Of course, as the receiving parties, if they wanted to make a name for themselves; content creators had to satisfy every single one of the sponsors’ requests. Still, no matter what, sponsors had to respect content creators’ freedom and right to create their own content. This way, both parties would win.

The document that Boss Pei sent over contained a script to be used in videos.

 Whether the content creator was from the gaming area, the beauty area, the science area, or the electronics area… every single one of them had to follow the script in their video!

This alone would have been fine.

 However, just reading the script made Lu Mingliang’s head hurt. He had never seen a commentary like that… with English mixed with Mandarin, lacking both in tact and tone.

 Take this for example:

“Uh-oh, this is my own moment, right¹?”

“How freaking cool!”

“Slurp, gulp. Slurp, gulp. Slurp, gulp… (Sounds of your tongue slurping and you swallowing saliva)”

 “Awesome¹!”

 “What a beautiful image to start the game with! This picture alone makes me feel like the game is worth… three thousand yuan.”

“Okay, I’m going to try and take this as a simple running exercise. I’m not going to glorify it¹… I won’t overstate it.”

 “Uh-oh x14 (continuously).”

Everything else was similar to the above.

 After reading the entire script, Lu Mingliang became deeply puzzled. He began questioning himself.

 Has my IQ… deteriorated so much?

 Why did he feel like this script for the video would be extremely insulting to the content creators?

Speaking in English mixed with Mandarin would be irritating enough; he was even laying down requirements for their use of onomatopoeia? They had to say ‘uh-oh’ fourteen times and not a single time less? Did he think that content creators were not losing fans quickly enough?

The final matter was about the fees.

 The content creators were to be paid according to the number of fans they had. However, overall, the fees that Boss Pei was offering were too… too generous! Pei Qian even prepared an additional amount to be used to raise the offer!

It was obvious that Pei Qian had predicted some content creators would reject this high-value sponsorship request (mainly due to their own pride or ego).

It was alright even if they wanted to reject it at first; Boss Pei would offer them more money! Of course, it was not a limitless amount. The highest they could raise the fees offer to was two times.

 Lu Mingliang guessed that it would be hard for these content creators to reject this amount. This was because Pei Qian selected the less-famous content creators. These people were finding it hard enough to make a living; there was no reason for them to cherish their own pride and ego that much.

However, for Tengda, this seemed like a lose-lose situation.

The content creators would surely be cursed by their fans. Then, people would stop watching them and recommending them to their friends. Tengda would be spending this huge amount of money to achieve limited marketing success. They would lose money.

 Just thinking about this outcome made Lu Mingliang feel helpless.

 “Calm down. Boss Pei must have his own reasons for doing this. If you don’t understand this document, don’t act of your own accord. Just do as it says.”

 Lu Mingliang had no choice but to log on to various video websites to contact the content creators on Pei Qian’s list.

 …

…

In a certain rented house in Beijing…

 Qiao Liang looked dispirited. He was holding up a bowl of instant noodles and slurping for it. It was a bowl, not a cup. This was because he could no longer afford cup noodles. He could only afford the packet ones.

 Business was bad these days!

It was not that he did not want to work hard. The important thing was there were no good games to talk about. There were no fun games; neither were there extraordinarily lame games! All in all, he could not ride on the popularity of any games or become popular on his own.

What’s more, nobody was offering him sponsored partnerships these days. All of these things made Qiao Liang feel like he was stuck in a deep pit. He was even considering changing his career.

 Look at what Boss Pei Daily Life had become!

His face was twisted with jealousy. Those videos were getting so many views. He guessed that the creators’ hands were getting tired from taking up so many sponsored partnerships.

 As he ate his noodles, he mindlessly surfed the web. Suddenly, he received a private message from someone on Potato Web.

 “Teacher Qiao, how are you? I am Lu Mingliang, the chief planner for Tengda games. I wanted to talk to you about a business partnership. Is now a convenient time for you?”

Qiao Liang did not read the contents of the message in detail. His eyes were transfixed on the words ‘business partnership’.

 Convenient?

 Of course, it is! It was very convenient! He was starving to death. He was counting on Lu Mingliang to have money to eat!

 Qiao Liang’s mind was completely overtaken by the words ‘beggars can’t be choosers’. The thought of making a living perked him up at once. Both of them liaised with each other on the website and quickly became friends.

 “I wonder how much they will offer me. How much should I ask for? 1,500 yuan? Would that be too much…?”

Qiao Liang hesitated.

 Unexpectedly, the man named Lu Mingliang started a conversation. “Teacher Qiao, would three thousand yuan per video do?”