Spent a whole day wrapping up company matters.
For the next week until "Black Swan Entertainment" goes online, it’s Gu Bai’s laid-back time.
The next evening at six, Gu Bai sat in the sky garden of his 160 million luxury mansion chatting with Principal Wang and Li Zhun, Zhao Weiwei.
Meanwhile, inside the house, Xing Na was leading a group to set up the party scene.
The assistant team built by Construction Bank for Gu Bai is essentially more for lifestyle than business, aimed at providing convenience for Gu Bai’s life. If there were real company matters to handle, how dare Gu Bai use outsiders?
This party was absolutely luxurious.
Just the drinks cost Gu Bai over 1 million, and combined with other expenses, the total exceeded 2 million.
While chatting casually, Li Zhun suddenly brought up a serious topic.
"Old Gu, the influencer festival is almost prepared, set for November 1st, just after Ah Li’s Double 11. Most major influencers have been invited."
Gu Bai nodded and asked, "Have you contacted the platform officials?"
"Douyin and Weibo both agreed to attend officially. However, the naming rights haven’t been sold yet. Those companies are still observing."
Gu Bai laughed upon hearing this.
"That’s normal. Since the influencer festival is a new idea, they’re unsure about it, but once the hype builds, many companies will scramble for advertising space and naming rights."
Li Zhun had no doubt about this. Besides, just their Xingnai Media influencers, excluding overlapping fans, already have over a billion in influence. Not to mention, top-tier influencers like PAPA Sauce and Memories专用小马甲 were invited. This influencer festival is the grandest since the influencer boom in 2016.
Speaking of this, Gu Bai couldn’t help but tease Principal Wang: "Does Principal Wang have any interest in attending this influencer festival? You know, you’re also a top-tier influencer; your presence would overshadow the others."
Hearing this, Principal Wang rolled his eyes at Gu Bai.
"I have no interest in attending the influencer festival, but I’m quite interested in your naming rights. Name your price."
Principal Wang was among the earliest to know Xingnai Media was hosting the influencer festival and was clearly aware of the investment, which included venue rental and various invitations, exceeding tens of millions.
Normally, offline events influencer festival wouldn’t cost so much.
But Gu Bai specifically instructed that the first influencer festival seeks name recognition, not profit. Hence, all expenses followed the highest standards, with major spending mainly on influencer appearance fees. This excludes many major influencers from their company who appear out of friendship for free.
For Gu Bai, however, no expense is regrettable. Once the name is established, whenever someone mentions influencer festivals, Xingnai Media’s influencer festival will be the first thought, and this official effect can’t be bought for any amount of money.
To use the simplest example:
The world hosts countless film festivals, but only three are recognized by the public:
The Venice International Film Festival, Cannes International Film Festival, and Berlin International Film Festival.
What Gu Bai aims to do is make Xingnai Influencer Festival the most authoritative influencer festival.
"I’m afraid you’d pang me if I named a price. You’d better negotiate with Brother Zhun."
Hearing Gu Bai’s words, Principal Wang looked at Li Zhun.
"Is Principal serious?"
"Do you think I am joking? Recently, Douyu is making moves again, likely opening a D round of fundraising, and Huya’s $75 million raised in May is nearly depleted, so they’ll likely open a D round soon too.
Right now, the live streaming industry is in great upheaval. Every platform wants a piece of Douyu and Huya’s pie. Those who succeed can stand tall alongside them; those who fail wait for demise, given the streaming cake isn’t big enough for hundreds to share.
Since the $1 billion fundraising this year, I announced the B+ round months ago, but no investors were interested, so I’m considering expanding Panda’s influence in other ways."
Li Zhun understood Principal Wang’s intent and immediately suggested, "If Principal truly wants to expand Panda’s influence, typical naming won’t mean much. If you’re interested, I’ll offer the exclusive naming to you and sell the official broadcast of the event as well. What do you think?"
That’s precisely what Principal Wang wanted.
This influencer festival’s success is assured, given the top-tier influencers invited. In essence, all influential figures in the influencer circle are attending, with the fan base indirectly proving the event’s popularity.
The most appealing element for Principal Wang is the official broadcast rights mentioned by Li Zhun.
If he could acquire broadcast rights, absorbing just 1% of influencer fans into his platform would mean millions of new users—all pure traffic!
Li Zhun glanced at Gu Bai, noticed no reaction, then slowly stated a number.
"Exclusive naming and official broadcast together for 45 million."
Principal Wang was shocked.
"You rascal, exploiting acquaintances, huh? The entire event costs only tens of millions, but you quote me 45 million?"
Before Li Zhun could continue, Gu Bai calmly replied to Principal Wang: "Principal, you know this price isn’t high."
Seeing Gu Bai speak calmly, Principal Wang unabashedly said, "I knew it was your idea; Li Zhun, this honest kid, wouldn’t be so sly!"
Li Zhun, hearing Principal Wang’s assessment, felt lines of frustration slide from his head, thinking it was a serious business negotiation but realizing Principal Wang was joking.
Gu Bai also knew Principal Wang was jesting, so he wasn’t bothered, instead taking out his phone, revealing his chat with Douyu’s GM Cheng Shaojie about the official broadcast rights and exclusive naming. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⁂𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢⁂𝔫𝔢𝔱
Gu Bai’s price was 65 million.
Though initial, the true negotiation would likely see the price around 50 million. Any lower, Gu Bai would rather forgo it than diminish the influencer festival’s prestige.
This is where Gu Bai seized the itch of the streaming platforms.
For any physical enterprise, hearing influencer festival naming plus broadcast cost 65 million would deem Gu Bai crazy, unwillingly paying even 5 million, given the low conversion between output and revenue. Why advertise at a festival when a few billion could secure exclusive naming for a popular variety show?
But streaming platforms differ; it’s a prime chance to harvest traffic. If this flow properly converts into users, millions spent yields big profits!
Principal Wang also understood this logic.
But Panda truly couldn’t afford this sum; the earlier 1 billion was long spent.