Chapter 543 - 286: More Explosive Than Expected
"President Lei, you were right," Wei Yuan said, full of admiration. "Mr. Chen was the mastermind behind all of this. He’s truly incredible."
"So, from today on, Mr. Chen is no longer just an internet celebrity. He’s an entrepreneur now," Lei Jun said, full of praise.
He even took out his phone to film a selfie video. "Congratulations to Mr. Chen on the massive success of his Soda. I’ve always admired his marketing genius, and now it’s clear that he not only has strong marketing skills, but also an excellent eye for business."
"Moreover, he has once again shown us the terrifying power of modern marketing and promotion."
Wei Yuan smiled at the sight. ’Honestly, among all the big bosses out there, only our President Lei would so openly admit to admiring an internet celebrity, right?’
Lei Xiaojun didn’t hesitate for a moment, posting the video to his Tiao Yin account.
With all the hype, Lei Xiaojun’s video naturally attracted a lot of attention. It left even more people astonished, but it just went to show how incredible Chen Jincheng truly was.
Just think about it. An investment of 300 million that no one believed in, and he quietly launches a Soda brand. In such a short time, total sales have already hit 130 million.
That was a feat many long-established companies could only dream of achieving.
Perhaps this was why most people never got rich. It was just like how everyone thought Chen Jincheng’s investment would fail—they simply lacked the business acumen to see the opportunity.
Lei Xiaojun’s video had just been released when another social media post caught everyone’s attention. It was from Yu the Big Mouth of Huawei, and it also congratulated Chen Jincheng, expressing admiration for his business acumen.
The content was basically the same as Lei Xiaojun’s.
The posts from the heads of Rice Group and Huawei made the entire affair even more sensational.
It was as if he had been gilded in gold.
No internet celebrity had ever received such treatment.
This naturally caught the attention of both Tiao Yin and Kuaishou.
This was especially true for President Chen Yixiao of Kuaishou. At first, he had only been paying attention to Chen Jincheng’s 300 million investment. But he was truly astonished when Chen Jincheng’s video promoting his own Soda racked up over 1.25 million orders in such a short time.
Chen Jincheng had once again proven his unparalleled prowess in video-based sales.
But with the videos and posts from Lei Xiaojun and Yu the Big Mouth, the situation seemed to have changed once more.
’These two men had proven that Chen Jincheng possessed real business acumen. So, if we can poach him, won’t that prove he has more faith in Kuaishou? That Tiao Yin offers him no future?’
’The blow to Tiao Yin’s morale would be even greater, wouldn’t it? It might even become a crucial turning point in our fight to crush them.’
With that thought, he immediately ordered his assistant, "Get on it. Keep trying to contact Chen Jincheng. You must get him to budge!"
「Tiao Yin.」
After Han Shangyou took notice of the situation, he realized that Chen Jincheng’s value had seemingly increased yet again. He knew with certainty that Kuaishou would now redouble their efforts to poach him.
Yesterday, Kuaishou had poached quite a few of Tiao Yin’s smaller influencers, and they had also approached several major ones. There was no reason they wouldn’t go after Chen Jincheng.
Right now, Chen Jincheng was the star attraction of Tiao Yin’s e-commerce feature, and the key to defeating Kuaishou.
With that in mind, he immediately instructed his assistant, "Contact Second-Life Star. First, congratulate Chen Jincheng on his product’s explosive success and another record-breaking achievement in video sales. Also, let them know that Tiao Yin will promote his Soda across the entire platform."
"Understood, President Han." The assistant nodded, understanding the reasoning.
For now, ordinary users on both platforms continued to scroll through videos each day, oblivious. On the surface, everything seemed calm.
But behind the scenes, an undercurrent was surging between the two companies. They were already drawing their weapons.
At a time like this, Chen Jincheng’s latest move only proved how crucial he was. Naturally, they had to secure his loyalty.
「Second-Life Star.」
Chen Jincheng, Sister Hong, and Wang Yuan were looking over the back-end sales data from the promotional video.
Sister Hong looked at her boss, her face filled with admiration.
She had known her boss was starting a beverage company, but her entire career had been in the online world. She had no experience with investments in physical industries, so she hadn’t been sure how successful he could be.
But she never expected that as soon as her boss launched the Soda, it would instantly become a viral hit. He even received video congratulations and social media posts from figures like Lei Xiaojun and Yu the Big Mouth.
Wang Yuan, on the other hand, was visibly thrilled. After all, with the company’s success, he had effectively moved up in the world. He was now the head of a successful and well-known beverage company.
Chen Jincheng wasn’t satisfied with the current order numbers and hype. He wanted to have all the female influencers film videos with the Soda to create a bandwagon effect.
Just then, Sister Hong received a phone call. As she spoke, her expression grew strange as she looked at Chen Jincheng.
"Okay, I’ll let him know." Sister Hong hung up and immediately reported to Chen Jincheng, "Boss, it was Kuaishou. They want to talk to you again. They said if you’re willing to jump ship, you can name your price."
The words had barely left her mouth when the phone rang again. Sister Hong glanced at the caller ID, her expression growing even more peculiar. After hanging up, she reported, "Boss, Tiao Yin called just now. They said they’re going to put their full support behind promoting your product."
She was truly amazed.
’Now I think I’m starting to understand the boss’s plan.’
’Tiao Yin and Kuaishou are clearly at war. Kuaishou is trying everything to poach him, while Tiao Yin is constantly making gestures of goodwill to keep him.’
’And my boss is taking advantage of the situation to profit from both sides.’
’But considering his current influence and the profits he generates, if he were to switch platforms, the impact on both Tiao Yin and Kuaishou would be immense.’
"Boss, should I respond to Kuaishou?" Sister Hong asked tentatively.
"It’s not time yet." Chen Jincheng shook his head. ’The two sides haven’t even really started fighting for real yet. There’s no need to rush.’
Then he instructed Sister Hong, "Sister Hong, call all of our female influencers together. I’ll have Wang Yuan send over a batch of Soda, and I want all of them to film videos related to it."
He had already planned on creating a bandwagon effect for the Soda. Now that Tiao Yin was offering free traffic, it was the perfect opportunity to make it even bigger.
With the current level of hype, he could probably rake in far greater profits than he’d initially estimated in the year it would take for the established beverage brands to react and launch their own sodas.
With that, he dialed Lin Hao. The call connected, and Lin Hao’s laughter immediately came through the line. "Lao Cheng, congratulations! You created your own beverage brand, and it’s a massive hit."
But Chen Jincheng got right to the point. "Lin Hao, how many female influencers does your company have now?"
Lin Hao replied instantly, "We’ve signed over 600. Why?"
Hearing this, Chen Jincheng couldn’t help but feel a little wistful. ’It really is different when you have capital backing you up.’ His own Second-Life Star had a head start, yet they had only signed just over 300 female influencers to date.
He quickly continued, "Come by Second-Life Star later and pick up a batch of Soda. Have your influencers film videos with it. Tiao Yin is going to be pushing my Soda with everything they’ve got, so the traffic will be huge."
"You didn’t forget about me when something this good came up! Good man. I’ll head over later," Lin Hao immediately agreed. He knew Lao Cheng must be plotting something by asking his influencers to film these videos.
But as long as there was hype to ride, he didn’t care what the other man was planning. For him, it was like being handed a free marketing plan with guaranteed traffic.
After Chen Jincheng hung up, Wang Yuan spoke up, his face a mask of misery. "Boss, we have a situation. Our delivery queue is already backed up for 30 days. We can’t accept any new orders for the next month."
"Even though we’ve brought another three distilleries on board and are retrofitting two of their production lines to start manufacturing as fast as possible, it’s still nowhere near enough."
Chen Jincheng said without a moment’s hesitation, "Then keep acquiring distilleries. We need to increase our production capacity as much as possible."
Given the current trend, the Soda was bound to become even more popular.
If he wanted to make more profit than he had originally projected, he had to expand production. Otherwise, he worried they wouldn’t even be able to fulfill the existing orders from the video promotion anytime soon.
Wang Yuan said miserably, "Boss, the problem is we don’t have enough capital. The 300 million you invested has all been spent on acquiring distilleries and ordering raw materials. We need more funding."
"Going by the current rate of increase, once the drink really takes off, the orders will be astronomical. We’ll need to acquire a lot more distilleries. Even if we used the revenue from our current orders, it wouldn’t be enough."
"Leave it to me," Chen Jincheng said at once.
He knew this was a problem. ’Looks like it’s time to have a talk with Boss Lei.’