Fishing Livestream-Chapter 202 - The Situation

After lunch, at half past one in the afternoon, the Doll couldn’t wait to call Brother Sheng.

"Hello, mega influencer! What instructions do you have?" Brother Sheng’s voice on the phone was very magnetic, full of strength. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Brother Sheng, I’ve thought about the thing you discussed with me last time!"

"Hm? And?" Brother Sheng was slightly taken aback when he heard it was serious business, but he covered it up well.

It had been quite some time since Brother Sheng first asked the Doll to join, and without a direct response from her, he had nearly given up hope.

"I can join your newly established broadcasting guild, but I want to add some conditions!"

"OK! Just tell me what you want, as long as it’s within my power, absolutely no objections!!"

"I want my friend to also join our guild with the normal signed broadcaster benefits, but with a contract just like mine!!"

"This... What does your friend do? A handsome guy or a beauty? Someone from within the circle? What’s their current situation?"

Brother Sheng didn’t rush to agree, instead he asked a bunch of questions that he was concerned about.

"A guy, his platform ID is Yue Feng Outdoor Fishing Live, currently about eighty thousand followers, with a normal broadcast viewership around one to two thousand, just started not long ago, all added up, less than two months!" The Doll rattled off Yue Feng’s basic situation in one breath.

"A base of less than a hundred thousand followers, with such high broadcast popularity?"

Brother Sheng, after all an industry veteran, was quite sensitive to broadcaster data. Normally, a broadcaster with less than a hundred thousand followers would be doing very well to maintain an audience over a thousand.

Faced with this obviously abnormal situation, his first reaction was to suspect that the Doll had exaggerated the data.

"Yeah, that’s right! Fengfeng is really talented. That MV I posted before was made by him!"

"Ah, I remember now. You’re talking about that Yue Feng who’s the rumored boyfriend all over the internet, right?" Due to professional habits, Brother Sheng chose his words very carefully.

"That’s right! If our company can sign him, I’ll agree to join our guild. No special treatment required, just the same opportunities and conditions as the other broadcasters!" The Doll saw Brother Sheng hesitating and emphasized again.

"Let me think about it, and I’ll give you an answer by tomorrow at the latest, alright?"

"Sure!"

...

After hanging up, Brother Sheng’s own information channels quickly kicked into action, thoroughly investigating Yue Feng!

In the network society, in reality, there were no secrets. Yue Feng’s illustrious resume was quickly unearthed by information professionals who specialize in this field.

Through a comprehensive assessment of the information gathered, Yue Feng was deemed a highly rated potential talent, an attractive male broadcaster. Although he was in the relatively niche category of outdoor fishing, his professional ability and platform performance were outstanding.

What Brother Sheng valued most was the extremely high quality of Yue Feng’s comedy sketches. Whether it was the MV he made for the Doll or the updates on his own homepage, it was clear they were produced by a professional team.

For a broadcaster like this, even without the support of a guild, rising to fame was just a matter of time. With the right opportunity, he had the potential to become an overnight sensation; his overall evaluation was very high.

For a nascent talent agency, what they actually lack the most are top-tier anchors like Baby, who reside at the pinnacle of the pyramid.

Having one or two anchors of this caliber anchoring the company can drive the entire live broadcasting ecosystem, such as transferring fans to similar type of anchors, maximizing the value of fans as much as possible.

However, most top-tier anchors are under contract, and completely independent anchors like Baby who have risen by themselves are extremely rare.

Top-tier anchors are difficult to poach, and even if they were acquired, it would come at a great cost, so agencies often have to settle for middle-tier anchors with hundreds of thousands to millions of fans, also referred to as the minor players in the industry.

This group also has its own characteristics, but they’re not as wildly popular as the big internet celebrities, which gives the agencies room to negotiate and profit in the middle.

Then there’s the Third Level, which is where Yue Feng currently ranks, with varying fan counts from ten thousand to several tens of thousands, high-quality content, and good character, ready to climb the ladder given the right opportunity.

This level is where the agencies get the best value for their contracts, with fewer fans, therefore less bargaining power for the anchors, a burning desire for fame, willing to accept harsh contracts, and many with poor economic conditions, easily tempted by million-level signing fees.

This is also why Yue Feng was targeted by many agencies a while back, frequently contacted in attempts to sign a contract! Once he becomes popular, it’s all profit!

Below that level are the small-time anchors with tens of thousands of fans, who have certain content, but lack in interaction. They have resources and content but come up short, with commercial value that is present but not substantial, the kind that’s tasteless to eat but a waste to discard.

Lastly, there are the hobbyist anchors not worth mentioning.

Under normal circumstances, if an agency could normally sign someone like Yue Feng, it would definitely be a no-lose situation!

But now, Baby has posed a condition that requires an unconditional promotion of a seed-level high-quality anchor! This is causing Brother Sheng quite the headache.

The resources of the anchor agency aren’t free, investing in their own promising anchors can yield many benefits, investing in lesser ones brings not as high returns, but the advantage is stability.

Yet investing in Yue Feng, aside from benefiting someone else’s enterprise, there would hardly be any tangible returns.

No profit is one thing, but not even earning a good reputation or public favor, at least with contractual restrictions, he would still be one of our own signees.

But the trouble is, the terms of the contract with Baby contain a promise of no exit thresholds!

To put it bluntly, if he becomes famous tomorrow, he could seize any opportunity, walk away without a second thought, and we’d be powerless!

It’s such a headache! For a moment, Brother Sheng found himself in a dilemma, unable to make a decisive choice.

Unable to decide on his own, Brother Sheng sought out his business partner, Jin Quan, and briefed him on the situation.

Jin Quan is a person with very strong purpose in action. After simply listening to the situation, he said with a laugh, "Sign him! Why not sign him! It’s just a little nurturing resource, we can afford this cost!"

Brother Sheng hesitated, "But if we sign him, we have no guarantees at all!"

Jin Quan scoffed, "Sheng, how come the more you’re in this business, the more backward you become? Where’s your vision? Tell me, what are we signing Baby for? As long as the main goal is achieved, that’s enough. Those trivial details are just the icing on the cake if we have them, and no big deal if we don’t!"

Challenged with that question, Brother Sheng realized, right, signing Baby is for the purpose of building the new agency’s anchor ecosystem and to give our agency free advertising in this opportunity!

Compared to this, other issues are minor and are acceptable costs.

"Then let’s sign! I’ll get back in touch with Baby soon! It wasn’t easy to get him to loosen up, we can’t afford any slip-ups now!"