Chapter 482 - 261: The Importance of Chen Jincheng
Yuan Peng had been feeling pretty smug when he first saw the sales data for the five products featured in his OST videos. But when he saw the two leaderboards, he was completely dumbfounded:
Sales Revenue Leaderboard:
1. Jiang Xiaobai: 7,314,880 yuan.
2. Yinyin: 4,526,770 yuan
3. Sister Feiye: 3,212,725 yuan
4. Mikami Youya: 3,057,812 yuan
5. Ximeng: 2,660,770 yuan
6. Gui Zi: 2,626,470 yuan.
7. Gao Yanyan: 2,172,420 yuan.
8. Brother Yi: 2,168,650 yuan
9. Ran’Er: 2,167,140 yuan
...
Order Count Leaderboard:
1. Yinyin: 185,452
2. Jiang Xiaobai: 104,921
3. Sister Feiye: 46,254
4. Gui Zi: 31,250
5. Gao Yanyan: 26,256
6. Brother Yi: 25,512
7. ...
The top spots on both leaderboards were shockingly dominated by artists from Second-Life Star.
Yuan Peng felt an even more crushing blow after he tallied up the sales figures for the people from Second-Life Star.
Jiang Xiaobai’s total sales exceeded 7.3 million in the first hour alone. It was simply unbelievable.
His company, OST, had prepared meticulously for so long. Their video concepts were revised and reshot over and over, and so many people across the company had poured their efforts into it. Yet their best performer, Gui Zi, only brought in a little over 2.6 million.
The disparity was just too great.
Seeing Jiang Xiaobai’s staggering number of orders in just one hour, Yuan Peng knew that even if the volume was front-loaded due to initial hype and would taper off, her total sales for this video would likely be no less than her last one.
It was one thing for Jiang Xiaobai to post numbers like this, given her previous success. That was understandable.
But for Yinyin to pull in over 4.5 million and Sister Feiye over 3.2 million, both landing in the top three, was downright terrifying.
The top three on both leaderboards were all from Second-Life Star.
Moreover, he was certain that all these ad campaigns had been planned by Chen Jincheng.
’What a monster.’
And the crazy part was, Chen Jincheng himself hadn’t even seemed to start selling anything yet.
"We can’t compete. We just can’t compete," Yuan Peng lamented, marveling at the sheer potential of video e-commerce now that the shopping cart function was live.
After all, his company, OST, had prepared for so long and felt their sales data for their five products was pretty good. Yet they had only managed to snag two spots in the top ten for sales revenue.
Their other three products hadn’t even broken into the top twenty.
But what could they do? The other side’s videos were getting over 300,000 likes in an hour. The sheer volume of traffic they attracted was orders of magnitude greater than their own.
It just went to show that when it came to video e-commerce, Chen Jincheng—hailed as the best video creator on Tiao Yin—held a natural, insurmountable advantage.
Of course, the people at OST weren’t the only ones watching the leaderboards refresh. Many others were watching too, including the staff at Ah Hao Media.
Lin Hao was eating all his meals at the office today.
He had learned about the video e-commerce feature from Lao Cheng a long time ago. After preparing for so long, it was finally time to reap the rewards.
Naturally, Lin Jian had come over today as well.
He wanted to see what kind of results his son would deliver. Besides, of the 26 products his son was featuring today, more than 20 of them were from his own corporate group.
As soon as the first hour was up, company staff immediately reported the video sales results to the father and son.
"Over three million yuan in sales in one hour!" Lin Jian was surprised when he saw the sales data from the video of that woman from the Island Country who worked with his son.
While three million yuan wasn’t a huge sum for their family, it had been earned so effortlessly. All they did was shoot a video and post a link.
And that was just in the first hour. What would the total be after ten hours?
He recalled that the entire promotional campaign for Radiant Square had cost them fifty million yuan.
The key was that this was a long-term business, not just a one-off video.
What about ten videos? A hundred?
"What’s the profit margin on this?" Lin Jian couldn’t help but ask.
Lin Hao didn’t hide anything. "The cost of the clothes is 15%, and with labor and overhead, it comes to about 20%. The rest is profit. We take a 10% commission on sales, and 50% of that goes to Mikami. As for the apparel company’s profits, Mikami has a 30% stake, since the brand was built on her reputation, after all."
Lin Hao wasn’t lying. The clothes Mikami was selling in her video this time were based on the uniforms she had once worn in her "instructional films."
To avoid copyright issues, they had modified some of the details. Then they had Mikami wear the outfit for the promotional cover, and that familiar feeling came rushing back instantly.
The allure was enough to make anyone want to buy.
Men would naturally want to buy them for their girlfriends or wives—or perhaps for other female companions, but that was another story.
And women who knew their husbands or boyfriends were into that sort of thing would definitely buy them.
Lin Jian nodded. This was the first time he truly understood the commercial value of this woman from the Island Country.
He then said, "Let’s see how our group’s products are selling."
Lin Hao nodded, took the data, and continued to review it. For the twenty-odd products from his father’s group, he had assigned the artists with the largest fan bases at his company, like Big Pendulum and the Blue-clothed War God.
He had also included himself.
After all, he, Ah Hao, was a male influencer with a sizable following.
The numbers were nowhere near as good as Mikami Youya’s. Big Pendulum Qianqian had the best results, but she only managed a million yuan in the first hour. And that was after he’d had her imitate Second-Life Star’s Yinyin by having her sell stockings.
After all, both she and Yinyin were known as one of Tiao Yin’s "Three Great Big Pendulums."
But her numbers didn’t explode. The video’s likes were mediocre, and its ability to attract traffic was insufficient.
’The planners at my company are just so far behind Lao Cheng,’ he thought.
Still, thanks to the sheer number of people promoting the products—twenty-some influencers in total—the sales for his old man’s group still reached over seven million yuan in the first hour.
Lin Jian was naturally delighted to hear these numbers. This was indeed a viable sales channel, one that could at least bypass many of the problems associated with traditional distribution.
With those distributors, there were always serious issues with collecting the final payments on shipments. There were also all sorts of discounts and concessions, and the costs eaten up by the middlemen were just too high.
But now, having his son handle sales, the commission was only around 10%. After doing the math, even after factoring in costs for things like express shipping, cutting out the middlemen meant their overall profit was actually slightly higher than before.