The next day, in the president's office of Xiao An Company.
Lin An and Xu Mo are discussing their entrepreneurial direction.
"If you ask me, we should just keep mining." Xu Mo had tasted the sweetness of success and really didn't want to give up the lucrative opportunity.
"No, I disagree. This thing consumes too much electricity and doesn't create any real value."
"This is worth so much and it's not value?" Xu Mo was shocked. Money isn't value, so what is?
"It's just a game of capital. If you're going to do something, be a people's entrepreneur and do something meaningful." Lin An's tone was deep, and his gaze was as firm as if he were about to join the Party.
Xu Mo was taken aback. Was this guy acting? He'd just come of age and was already acting like this. After a long pause, he finally spoke:
"Then what do you mean by serving the people?"
"Let's do live-streaming e-commerce and bring down the prices of things in the mall."
Lin An got angry at the thought that a random piece of clothing in the mall cost four figures. It was 2015, and live-streaming e-commerce had not yet taken off. It was a good time to make plans in advance.
Xu Mo did have friends who had made their fortunes in e-commerce, but none in live streaming. He quickly asked, "Then what should we sell?"
“There are many small cities with developed manufacturing industries around Haishi. For example, Ningzhou is the largest garment production area in China. We will take some time to go and investigate and select a good source of goods for cooperation.”
"OK!"
Lin An continued, "Also, we can do entertainment live streaming."
Entertainment live streaming started relatively early, and Xu Mo didn't understand what the potential was in it:
"Isn't this something that a lot of people are doing? We should start a union too."
Lin An couldn't very well tell him that the short video industry would soon take off. Douyin had just launched in 2015, and many big internet celebrities hadn't even registered yet. Lin An planned to sign as many of them as possible.
"We are an MCN agency."
"Huh? What's that?"
"It's an entertainment agency that signs internet celebrities."
Although many MCNs later evolved into profit-making organizations that relied on extorting breach of contract fees, Lin An clearly did not intend to do that. His original intention was simple: to control public opinion so that he could promote whatever he did in the future.
Xu Mo didn't understand MCN, but he knew Lin An was no ordinary person. Lin An was in charge of the planning, and he was in charge of the execution. He readily agreed.
"Okay, you assign me to do it!"
"Rent two more floors of office space and divide them into several live streaming rooms. The styles of live streaming sales and entertainment should be differentiated to target different customer groups."
Xu Mo's first thought when he thought about live streaming was to cultivate one or two top streamers to create a star effect. He then asked, "Do we need to run many live streaming rooms at the same time?"
"Yes, especially for live-streaming e-commerce, we must cultivate multiple hosts. We need to establish our own brand, strictly control product selection, and create a brand effect. We cannot let customers develop the habit of ordering based on the hosts' broadcasts, or be led by the hosts."
Once a livestreamer achieves a "livestreamer effect" in the sales process, the company essentially ends up benefiting the livestreamer. If the livestreamer then switches platforms, the company will be in serious trouble.
In the realm of entertainment live streaming, it's impossible to succeed without streamers, but cultivating multiple streamers can create checks and balances, preventing the company from collapsing if even one leaves.
Xu Mo looked at Lin An with admiration in his eyes. He was so young yet so far-sighted. He was indeed the man he had chosen.
"Those guys outside, if you can, let them team up and stream the game. It doesn't matter if they're not good at it, as long as they're funny," Lin An said, pointing through the glass window to the five employees in suits playing games together.
"This works?" Xu Mo asked, looking puzzled.
"Trust me, it will definitely work! Let's get started, let's set up a few live streaming rooms first."
Those employees were internet cafe managers that Xu Mo poached from various internet cafes. They certainly didn't expect that their boss would directly form an e-sports team for them. Lin An didn't expect it either. He was overly worried that these employees wouldn't play well. You can't judge a book by its cover. Now, three out of the five people are national server players.
"Okay, I'll take care of it right away."
Lin An admires Xu Mo's initiative the most.
Lin An left the company and hailed a car to go to the 4S store to choose a car for commuting.
After getting his driver's license, he wanted to get a car as soon as possible to make it easier for him to travel.
He's still in the startup phase and plans to buy a commercial vehicle worth around 500,000 yuan first, so as not to lose face or be ostentatious.
Cars in this price range are probably the BMW 5 Series, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, or Audi A6 from the BBA (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi).
Lin An personally prefers Mercedes-Benz, so he took a taxi directly to the Mercedes-Benz 4S store.
A young saleswoman saw someone arrive and immediately came to greet them.
She was dressed in the uniform sales attire: a light blue short-sleeved shirt and a gray skirt, with black stockings that clearly showed off her thick calves.
The young lady warmly poured Lin An a glass of water.
"Sir, please wait a moment, let me get the brochure and show it to you." The young lady smiled sincerely and simply, clearly a newcomer to the workplace.
"Okay," Lin An nodded in response.
She had only taken two steps after turning around when a woman behind her hurriedly said:
"Are you stupid? You don't accept just anyone. Look at him, he's barely a child, and he's dressed like that. He's obviously not a rich kid. How could he afford a car? He's just a poor guy trying to freeload on water and air conditioning."
"It's alright, sir. Just treat it as getting familiar with the car model. I already promised to introduce it to him."
She bypassed the woman, took the brochure, and returned to Lin An's small table.
"Sir, what price range of car are you planning to buy?"
"Around 500,000."
As soon as Lin An finished speaking, laughter rang out; it was the woman and several other salespeople speaking together.
"This kid really dares to say that."
"Is Xiao Liang crazy? He's so desperate to close deals that he's accepting all sorts of people."
"Of course, she'll be fired if she doesn't close a deal this month. She hasn't sold a single car in two months, and the boss is furious with her."
"Poor Xiao Liang, where can he go after being fired?"
"Go back to the village to farm, and you can get married and have children."
"Hahaha..." Another burst of laughter erupted.
The young woman clearly heard their laughter, and her eyes welled up with tears. However, she managed to control her emotions and calmly explained to Lin An the differences between the various cars in this price range and their different configurations.
"Let me see the car." Lin An knew a bit about cars and didn't need to listen to so much. He interrupted the young lady's introduction, wanting to get her away from the barking dogs.
They went straight to the car exhibition area. Lin An first took a liking to a premium E300, which he found to be stable and impressive.
Turning around, I saw the S400 again. As expected of a luxury car, it certainly looked more upscale.
Lin An reached out and opened the car door, asking, "Can I get in?"
"Of course," the young woman replied with a smile.
Before Lin An could get into the car, a sharp, angry female voice rang out: "What do you mean 'can'? This is a Mercedes S400! Did you even check the price?"
It was that woman again. Lin An frowned. "I checked. 1.15 million."
"After seeing this, you still dare to sit here? Xiao Liang isn't thinking straight. We're already being generous by introducing you to an E-Class. You still dare to dream of an S-Class? If you don't have the money, don't cause trouble here. We're selling cars, not playing games with people."
Looking at the woman's sharp and sarcastic face, Lin An turned to the young lady and asked, "If I take the car on the spot, how much commission will you get?"
The young woman lowered her head and replied, "I can get a commission of 10,000 for the E300 and 20,000 for the S400."
The woman scoffed.
"I'll make you 20,000 today!" Lin An said, glaring at the woman.
The young woman suddenly looked up, unable to believe her ears: "Really?"
Just then, Lin An's phone rang. The caller was none other than Butler Li, whom he hadn't contacted in a long time.
"Young Master, something terrible has happened! The Lin family's ancestral graves have been blown up."
Lin An didn't react for a moment, and Butler Li continued crying:
“Young master, the cemetery urgently notified me that your grandfather’s grave has been destroyed. When I came over, I saw that the old master’s tombstone was shattered and the grave site was also blown up.”
"Did you tell Lin Haoran?" Lin An asked.
"I told him, and the master said it was the cemetery's responsibility. He said the company has too many things to do and told me to seek redress from the cemetery. But the cemetery says it was struck by lightning. It hasn't even rained lately, so where would lightning come from? Young master, I know you've severed ties with the master, but this is your grandfather's grave. You're not the master's son, but you're still the old master's grandson." Butler Li was afraid that Lin An wouldn't take responsibility for this matter either.
"Wait for me, I'll be right there." Lin An had always felt a deep affection for his grandfather, and he would never stand idly by in this matter.
Upon hearing that Lin An was leaving, the light in the young woman's eyes dimmed again.
Lin An was in a hurry to leave, but before he went out, he suddenly remembered something and turned back to say, "Wait for me, I'll come buy the car as soon as I'm done."
"wait for me!"
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