Chapter 153: 153: Nineteen Percent Share, Happy Collaboration

“Profit sharing, did the other party mention it?” Xu Yang asked.

As long as the conditions were met that could make the host earn more money than usual through live stream sales, he wasn’t opposed to proceeding.

Xiao Dongsheng was about to reply when Xu Yang’s phone rang.

It was a strange number, from the capital.

“Hello,” Xu Yang answered the call.

“President Xu, hello, I am Xue Zhanhua.” Xue Zhanhua’s hearty laughter came through.

“President Xue, so it’s you.” Xu Yang didn’t have Xue Zhanhua’s phone number, which indicated that despite their previous settlement, there genuinely had been some lingering awkwardness, for they hadn’t exchanged phone numbers.

“President Xu, regarding the investment amount for ‘War Panther 2’ last time, it was all my fault, and our company has paid a heavy price for it. I apologize to you once again.”

“This time I’m calling to hope for a complete resolution and to discuss a potential collaboration with you on celebrity live stream sales. What do you think?”

Xue Zhanhua’s tone was extremely sincere.

“Since President Xue has put it this way, it would seem petty of me not to agree, but regarding the collaboration, how would the profits be shared?” Xu Yang asked.

“A thirty-seventy split, you take seventy and I take thirty. You should know, when other film and television companies collaborate with other live stream guilds, it’s also a thirty-seventy split, but it’s usually the film companies that take seventy percent, the guilds take thirty percent. We’ve reversed it; isn’t that a sincere enough gesture?” Xue Zhanhua laughed.

“”A thirty-seventy split won’t do,” Xu Yang pursued.

“Then how much do you want?” Xue Zhanhua asked.

“Ninety-ten, I take ninety and you take ten,” Xu Yang said.

“What!” Xue Zhanhua was shocked. “President Xu, isn’t ten percent too little?”

Xu Yang said indifferently, “President Xue, that’s my condition. If you agree, we can collaborate. If not, let’s forget it.”

Xue Zhanhua gave a wry smile, “President Xu, must you be so tough, can’t it be a little higher? If we only get ten percent, we’ll just be making enough to get by.”

Xu Yang laughed, “President Xue, don’t call me ruthless. Let me ask you one question, why would you be willing to only take thirty percent and work with our guild instead of other companies?”

Xu Yang was aware of what Xue Zhanhua was thinking and directly prompted him to say it.

“President Xu, I’ve seen a lot of collaborations between live stream guilds and film companies, and many of the products sold are of substandard quality, leading to numerous consumer complaints.”

“If this continues, there will be problems, and inevitably, it will affect the celebrities involved in the live stream sales.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“The products your Fengcai Guild sells are still market-tested, quality-assured brand products, so we don’t have these issues,” said Xue Zhanhua, giving his reasons.

“That’s right, and there’s another point you haven’t mentioned: our company’s hosts are of high quality, and through collaboration with your company’s celebrities, they can gain significant exposure,” Xu Yang pointed out.

“Without a partnership with our company, to maintain such exposure for your stars would require a considerable amount of advertising expenses,” he continued.

“By collaborating with us, you’ll be saving on that marketing budget, and at the same time raising the popularity of your company’s celebrities.”

“Should the issue with substandard products arise, celebrities who collaborated with other guilds will definitely be implicated.”

“Your company’s celebrities will not have this problem and can even use it as an opportunity to promote themselves, thereby improving their popularity and reputation, which will greatly increase their value.”

“These are all intangible assets that will earn your company an unknown amount of money in the future,” he added.

Xu Yang saw that Xue Zhanhua wasn’t being entirely forthright and decided to lay it out directly.

“President Xu, your vision is indeed penetrating,” Xue Zhanhua couldn’t help but exclaim.

Indeed, his willingness to accept a lower profit share to partner with Fengcai Guild was based on these two points.

He only mentioned one, not expecting Xu Yang to directly point out the other.

Impressive indeed.

This isn’t something an average person outside the industry could come up with.

Immediately, he said, “Alright, let’s do a one-to-nine profit share, I’ll take one and you take nine.”

Xu Yang laughed and said, “Good, pleasure doing business with you. My company’s General Manager Xiao Dongsheng will take full charge of this; just have someone coordinate with him.”

After ending the call, Xu Yang said to Xiao Dongsheng, “Old Xiao, you heard the conversation. A one-to-nine profit share, we take nine, Hua’an Film and Television takes one, you handle the coordination with them.”

“Boss Xu, you’re too impressive,” Xiao Dongsheng flattered, then added, “All right, I’ll get to it. I’ll make sure there are no problems.”

…

On the other side.

Chen Guanglei arrived at Jia Sheng Guild.

He went straight to Zhao Yulu’s office.

“What brings you here?” asked Zhao Yulu.

“Just came to see how you’re doing,” Chen Guanglei said as he sat on the sofa. “How’s the company doing? Celebrity-endorsed sales are still booming, right?”

Celebrity live-streaming for product endorsements was an initiative he had started.

Truth be told, as the creator of this trend, he was quite proud.

This time, he had Xu Yang under his foot, achieving a complete victory.

“Indeed, it’s still very popular.” Zhao Yulu nodded.

“I see Fengcai Guild hasn’t started celebrity live-stream endorsements. It must be because of the last investment issue with ‘War Panther 2.’ Xu Yang has completely offended Hua’an Film and Television.”

“To offend Hua’an Film and Television is almost like offending most of the film industry. I’m afraid he wants to cooperate with film companies, but no film company would be willing to work with his Fengcai Guild.”

Chen Guanglei couldn’t help but feel a touch of schadenfreude.

Celebrity live-streaming for product endorsements was obviously a huge opportunity, and it made no sense for any guild not to take a bite of this big cake.

Even the smallest live-streaming guilds would now invite celebrities over.

If they couldn’t get an A-list celebrity, they’d get a B-list one; if not B-list, then C, D, or E-list celebrities would do.

Regardless, they were all proactively trying to carve out a piece of this cake, regardless of the size—they all wanted a share.

Yet, Fengcai Guild remained silent, showing no intention of collaborating with celebrities.

In his eyes, it wasn’t that Xu Yang didn’t want to cooperate with film companies; it was that he couldn’t even if he wanted to.

No one wanted to work with Xu Yang.

“Maybe.” Although Chen Guanglei made sense, Zhao Yulu always felt it might not be for that reason.

“It’s not ‘maybe,’ but ‘definitely,’” declared Chen Guanglei.

“The celebrity live streams are still popular now, but there’s a problem,” Zhao Yulu suddenly mentioned.

“What problem?” Chen Guanglei inquired.

“The products the streamers are selling are of poor quality. Lately, quite a few consumers have complained about this issue, and it seems to be getting worse. I’m worried that it might cause trouble,” Zhao Yulu explained.

“That’s nothing,” Chen Guanglei scoffed with a laugh. “Everyone is doing it this way. Otherwise, how can there be much profit from collaborating with celebrities? It’s by selling those products that we can earn more. Plus, if there are any issues, it’s not our concern. Let the consumers take it up with the manufacturers. We have agreements with the manufacturers. We only handle sales; everything else is none of our business.”

Zhao Yulu frowned and said, “But if there’s an issue and the state or Douyin cracks down on this, our guild will still be affected.”

Chen Guanglei laughed, “Zhao Yulu, don’t worry at all. Everyone is doing this. Do you think Douyin or the country will penalize us?”

Zhao Yulu questioned doubtfully, “They won’t?”