Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness - Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Is this rolling up now?

Translator: 549690339

Following the backstage information, Bi Fang added the in-charge person named Li Liming.

Within a few minutes, the other party agreed, and the message was sent as if it had been prepared in advance, “May I ask if this is the anchor Mr. Bi Fang?”

Li Liming couldn’t afford to delay; his boss had issued a strict order to sign Bi Fang at all costs, and Li Liming didn’t doubt the possibility of losing his job if he failed.

When he received a positive response, Li Liming immediately sent over the terms and perks he had prepared in advance.

“Hello, Mr. Bi, our platform is very optimistic about your potential and has drafted a special contract for you, with an annual salary of six million yuan, and a gift revenue split of sixty-forty, with you taking sixty percent and the platform forty percent.”

“Moreover, considering that your content might not support high-frequency streaming, we only require that you stream for more than a thousand hours a year. This contract, with a term of three years, is extremely generous for a new anchor.”

Li Liming spoke earnestly, and he also believed that the other party would surely agree.

In his years of work, he had never seen a newcomer get such a contract, especially one with an annual salary of six million yuan, which was very generous.

But what he didn’t anticipate was that the other party didn’t agree at all and instead sent over their demands directly.

“Gift revenue split of seventy-thirty, image rights are mine, I can only sign for six months with an annual salary of six million yuan. For a three-year contract, the annual salary must exceed ten million yuan.”

“Hiss!”

Li Liming inhaled sharply; these demands were totally different from the ones his supervisor had laid out! And you, a completely new anchor, even if you have potential, haven’t realized it yet, right?

He decided to negotiate further right away, typing, “I’m sorry, Mr. Bi, but that’s simply impossible. First of all, a six-month term is too short. Given the nature of your streaming content, it’s unlikely to support frequent streaming, right? In such a case, if you jump ship, our investment in resources would be completely unrecoverable!”

But Bi Fang didn’t budge at all; he knew the other side was playing dumb. They were all adults here, surely they had some judgment.

Even if the people of this world didn’t know Bear Grylls or Grandpa De, based solely on the last few days of streaming, his prospects were absolutely vast, and becoming the top broadcaster wasn’t out of the question, as long as one had a bit of vision. Even if the person on the other end was just a manager and hadn’t seen his streams, his leaders should be well aware.

Currently, the top 10 on Shark TV all have annual salaries well above thirty million yuan, and the gift revenue split was twenty-eighty. His ten million was merely a third of what others were making. As for the image rights, selling those was out of the question, since Bi Fang was planning to earn money through endorsements!

The reason he had quoted so low initially was simply to push him down a bit; it was like how the older generation would start by slashing prices in half when shopping for groceries, even though both parties knew it was impossible, but that was the process. After that, they would negotiate slowly, waiting for one side to reach their psychological threshold before relenting.

“This is my bottom line. If you agree, we can sign the contract now.” Seeing the other party hesitating, Bi Fang didn’t beat around the bush.

Li Liming had no choice but to inform his supervisor of the negotiation situation and ask if they should proceed with the contract.

However, upon hearing the news, Wang Weifeng furrowed his brows, not because Bi Fang had made such ambitious demands. On the contrary, the offer hadn’t even reached the limit he had mentally prepared for.

As a supervisor, Wang Weifeng was very sensitive to the quality of the streams. He could see the potential in this path and had prepared for the other party to quote a high price; his real expectation was an annual salary of thirty million yuan, immediately positioning Bi Fang at top broadcaster status.

But that was before Lu Junming arrived…

Three hours ago.

“Manager Wang, how about it? An annual salary of three million yuan, a gift revenue split of sixty-forty, we could sign for three years to start with, and also, we can do even better than him! Lu Wentao himself already has a sizeable fan base, and his regular streaming audience has about thirty thousand—way more than that kid. The starting point is completely different. With the power of our guild behind it, we’ve got the resources. Are you still hesitating?”

Lu Junming sat on the sofa, exuding confidence.

When he saw the other party frown and ponder, he knew he had it in the bag. He wasn’t afraid of the other side weighing pros and cons; he was afraid that they would dig their heels in.

Being repeatedly ignored in Bi Fang’s live streaming room, and later getting pushed out by his fans, was a thorn in Lu Junming’s side. Ever since that day, he had been looking for ways to retaliate, and he had found one.

If you’re doing Wilderness Survivalist, then we’ll do it too, and we’ll do it better than you. How can you compete then?

In his guild, there were plenty of outdoor anchors—is there none who can excel at Wilderness Survivalist?

When someone else has a guild backing them, it’s all about competition. His own guild had been deeply cultivating the outdoor section for so long; a single mountain can’t harbor two tigers, so Lu Junming managed to persuade his superiors quite easily.

The resources at Shark TV were limited; it wasn’t possible to promote two same-genre live streams at once. Doing that would be too unseemly and turn off the audience.

Thus, the key to choosing between them came down to who could bring in more profit.

Their own guild was stronger and more experienced, and they practically owned all the well-known outdoor live streamers on the block. This time, their newly promoted streamer already had a solid fan base…

Sure enough, the next second, Wang Weifeng stood up and extended his hand towards Lu Junming.

“Pleasure doing business with you.”

“Pleasure doing business with you!”

…

Resources were limited and could only lean towards one side; there was no doubt about that. One side would get the lion’s share, while the other would only get the crumbs.

Although Wang Weifeng was just a director, he understood a principle: to the capitalists, a good recommendation slot that couldn’t bring in enough profit was a loss.

And to whom the resources should be provided first was actually a simple question of profitability.

Perhaps Bi Fang could make a hundred, but he would ask for sixty, while Lu Wentao could only make seventy but would only ask for twenty. Who to choose was a no-brainer.

Moreover, Lu Wentao might not even be worse off; as Lu Junming had said, their conditions were actually better, and they understood live streaming more.

However, one should not put all their eggs in one basket; it was better to wait and see the reaction first. It would be even better if they could benefit from both sides.

Thinking this, Wang Weifeng said to Li Liming, “No worries, just agree to it first to reassure him, but drafting the new contract will take some time; it may be delayed by a few days.”

Li Liming was taken aback, and without much thought, relayed the message to Bi Fang respectively.

Seeing the agreement from the other party, Bi Fang also breathed a sigh of relief; Shark TV was his ideal platform, where his benefits could be maximized.

Although he loved adventure and freedom and liked to share these experiences with others, he ultimately had worldly desires.

Waiting a few days was fine; after all, there was still time before the next mission, and there was no hurry.

However, before that, he needed to register his own studio. It wasn’t expensive, and with Bi Fang’s current wealth, it was completely affordable.

With a studio in place, it would be much more convenient to negotiate with Shark, offering a bigger advantage than personal signing.

With this in mind, Bi Fang immediately contacted an agent, ready to get things done as soon as possible.

Now registering a studio wasn’t complicated, mainly involving a nominal fee and some taxes, and the whole process would only cost a few thousand yuan.

Once the registration was completed in the evening, Bi Fang opened QQ, planning to check if he had joined the fan group, only to find dozens of new friend requests on his phone.

Bi Fang didn’t accept any of them but instead entered the fan group to check the situation.

He soon discovered that this large group of two thousand people was nearly full!

The chat history was filled with all kinds of topics from all over the world, occasionally mentioning him, mostly asking when the next live stream would be, and whether the edited video was ready and where to watch it.

Seeing all this, Bi Fang remembered that he hadn’t edited his video yet.

He immediately took out his drone, transferred the videos to his computer, and was about to start editing himself when he suddenly remembered the handy System.

If it could take a video, could it edit one too?

Bi Fang immediately inquired with the System using his thoughts and found out that it indeed could! And not just editing; the System could also handle post-production voice-overs and subtitles!

[Ding! Automatic editing with post-production voice-over and subtitles, 10 Points per use, would you like to use it?]

Without any hesitation, Bi Fang clicked yes. 10 Points was not expensive, and rather than wasting a lot of effort to produce a mediocre product, it made more sense to outsource it to the System.

After he confirmed the System’s editing work, it took less than ten minutes for the System to prompt him again, saying the editing was completed and the video had been imported back into the drone.