Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled

After New Year’s Day.

Chen Pingsheng took his wife back to the Magic City headquarters.

He was there to check on the development of Antler Coffee, while his wife was busy with the opening events of the two flagship stores of Water Cloud Space.

And to visit those subsequently invested stores.

The music festival had indeed generated immense influence in Magic City, with an exceptionally large publicity drive.

That night, the Antler Coffee emblem was second only to the few large logos of Water Cloud Space.

Antler Coffee had invested a full two billion, and to date, less than a third of the stores were profitable.

Even the profitable ones had extremely low margins.

The core issue was that the pricing was too low, while the rent for those prime locations was too high.

For the moment, the wildly popular Antler Coffee had yet to achieve financial balance.

But the stores kept opening relentlessly, stretching from The Bund in Magic City to the surrounding areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.

Although Chen Pingsheng did not believe that all this was normal, he understood that the initial phase of burning cash was inevitable if he wanted to excel in the coffee business.

This was just an investment of two billion; they had hardly begun.

Let’s wait and see after investing another twenty billion.

His plan for Antler Coffee was to invest four billion. Experience exclusive tales on empire

Then apply for listing on Nasdaq.

Overseas markets clearly value coffee stocks more.

Beyond Antler Coffee, the group had also made substantial investments in the trainee competition.

In Magic City, the competition had made the traditional Chinese-style girl Shen Wanning and the consistently underperforming Yang Chaoyue stars.

In Capital City, thanks to the viral clips of Mars and his peers, the enchanting girl Jiang Peiyao became a sensation.

As well as the high-and-mighty rich second-generation Yang Xiaoxiao.

With these individuals becoming hot topics, their influence on the trainee competition was enormously beneficial.

The competition was to last a year, designed to maintain high exposure for his brands all year round.

Just when everything seemed rather unremarkable.

Chang Fu suddenly came looking for him, being Chen Pingsheng’s childhood friend and brother, he didn’t need an appointment to come directly up to the 22nd floor.

The reason he rushed over this time was because of an earth-shaking change in the live-streaming industry. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Old Chen, have you downloaded Kwai short video app?"

"No."

Frankly, Chen Pingsheng was certainly not young anymore.

Some things that young people liked were not so easy for him to grasp now.

Take this short video; he had only seen spoiled brats playing with it on their phones.

Chang Fu took out his phone and told him, "As of this month, user registrations on Kwai have reached three hundred million. Guess what those live streamers were saying when I went out? They said that today’s youth are all flocking to these short video platforms, where countless young people create and share their own videos."

"It’s wildly popular."

Chen Pingsheng downloaded and registered an account himself and discovered that most people inside were ostentatiously showing off their luxury cars and mansions.

Quite vulgar indeed.

In his view, that is how it was.

He couldn’t understand what was so show-off worthy about an entry-level Mercedes costing just over three hundred thousand.

If not that, it was pretty girls dancing provokingly.

Each video was very short, lasting from few seconds to tens of seconds.

This was a complete fragmentation of time, which compared to the traditional movie watching or television dramas.

Scrolling through short videos evidently suited the current young people much more.

Moreover, he noticed that behind every flashy video, they all seemed rather tacky.

The so-called luxury cars, when compared to the ones he had at home, were not worth mentioning at all.

Yet these videos easily amassed hundreds of thousands of likes.

With Tengying Entertainment under his belt, he naturally understood the value of traffic.

Before he realized it, he had spent over half an hour scrolling.

"Do you have any thoughts?"

Chen Pingsheng closed the app; just like the former Penguin Empire, it didn’t need to lead at everything.

It just needed to, once you showed promise, emulate a bit and then use the vast resources of the Penguin Empire to overpower.

It was easy to surpass the entrepreneurs at the forefront.

Chen Pingsheng felt the same way now; perhaps short videos could truly become the new trend for young people’s consumption and pastime.

Kwai’s launch was in 2011, benefiting from the widespread use of smartphones.

In these two years, short videos had exploded in popularity.

Three hundred million users – imagine the scale of that!

The only other internet apps that could boast such figures were WeChat, Alipay, QQ, and a few others.

Chang Fu exclaimed excitedly, "Old Chen, remember how I’ve been looking for new opportunities in live streaming? I think this is it, look at these creators. They start by building a fanbase with short videos and then quickly monetize it through live-streaming where fans give lots of gifts and selling products makes plenty of money."

"What I’m thinking now is to have all my live-streamers switch to the Kwai short video platform. I’m here to see if I can get some support and help from you."

"I’m all for support and help, but what exactly do you want?"

Chen Pingsheng had previously invested five million in Chang Fu’s small live-streaming guild, which made a full return in less than half a year.

To date, that venture had already made tens of millions.

Of course, that was nothing for him, but for Chang Fu, it was proof enough of his reliability in these matters.

Chang Fu said, "After researching for a while, I think the easiest way to quickly become popular on short video platforms is to just flaunt wealth."

"The reason is that most of those who watch short videos are either young folks from rural areas or factory workers. Just think about it, with their limited exposure, when have they ever seen the lifestyle of the wealthy? And who doesn’t aspire to be like them?"

"That’s also why many short videos on Kwai start with someone being bullied and then a luxury car making an entrance."

Chen Pingsheng thought it made sense.

He had scrolled for half an hour earlier, and about half the videos he saw featured some luxury car or people taking photos and dancing next to them.

Honestly, these kinds of videos were of no interest to him; he even found them quite childish.

Do entry-level BBA cars even count as luxury vehicles?

Although that’s what he thought, if you look at it from another angle,

it’s a relief for people who work all day or are under pressure at school.

Watching such short videos must be quite stress-relieving.

Compared to those, he kind of liked watching girls do provocative dances.

The way they shook their little butts was full of sass.

"I quite agree with your thoughts; just tell me what specific support you want!" Chen Pingsheng asked him.

Chang Fu grinned, "Old Chen, speaking of showing off wealth, who among those youngsters on the platform can compare to you?"

That’s entirely on a different level.

It’s simply not comparable.

The wealthy don’t even bother with short videos right now; it’s mostly young people playing around on it.

After making some money, they’ll even take out loans to buy luxury cars, just to flaunt their family’s wealth.

But for someone at his level, it’s considered beneath them to show off these things.

It’s seen as a very low-class behavior.

What Chang Fu was suggesting was simple: don’t show off unless you can become the wealthiest one on Kwai.

With his own modest assets, of course, he couldn’t do it.

Despite the fakes on Kwai, it still has a registered user base of several hundred million.

With so many capable players, there are bound to be some really wealthy people.

Those worth hundreds of millions or even over a billion don’t care about this stuff at all.

Chang Fu said, "Don’t you have a Bugatti and a Koenigsegg? I want to borrow them first. Also, both the convertible Phantom and the top-end Phantom, as well as the Bentley and the LaFerrari would be great if I could borrow them for a while."

"That’s all easy stuff."

Chen Pingsheng made a phone call to Capital City, arranging for some of his cars to be brought to Magic City.

Bugatti, Koenigsegg, LaFerrari.

These are definitely the cream of the crop among supercars.

The starting price for each is at least twenty-five million.

If Chang Fu wanted to use his cars to create short videos to attract followers, he had his full support.

He had seen plenty of young people flaunting wealth on Kwai, but none with these kinds of top-tier supercars.

Bringing out three of his supercars and adding two top-end Rolls-Royce Phantoms would certainly up the ante.

As for Bentley, two more could just be brought along for good measure.

He has so many cars now that he can’t even keep track of how many he owns.

"You’re not just planning to borrow cars, are you?"

Chang Fu chuckled, "Of course, having luxury cars isn’t enough. I hope you can invest another fifty million. That way, my share can increase to 80%. Also, I want to rent a small headquarters for myself. I feel like this could be the biggest opportunity in my life. If I seize it, I might make a huge leap forward; if not, I’ll just coast along, making tens of millions every year just to get by."

His words were somewhat pretentious, but for Chang Fu, it really was that way.

He could easily make tens of millions every year without any pressure.

"Fifty million is a bit too little."

Chen Pingsheng thought for a moment and said, "Since you’re confident about this direction, I’ll give you a hundred million. Also, don’t bother renting a headquarters. If you want to establish your persona as the number one wealthy individual on the platform, you should have your own headquarters building in Magic City."

"How about this: I’ll spend a few more billion to buy a smaller headquarters building and lease it to you to use."

He might not afford to buy an office building in Xiangjiang, but he could certainly afford one in Magic City.

Short videos have an unparalleled attraction to young people.

It might become the next big thing.

Chang Fu has been in the industry for so many years; since he made the request, he must be very confident.

Whether it’s fruitful or not, it’s worth smashing a few billion to secure a good spot first.

If it really turns out to be the next big thing,

then his move today would be incredibly wise.

In the Pudong New District, fifty or sixty million can’t buy an office block with over a dozen floors, but it’s enough for a smaller eight-story building.

The sale was finalized at 580 million.

Located extremely well, just the signage alone would give off a much stronger aura than any young person flashing wealth on Kwai.

Besides, once he moves all his cars there and lines them up,

even without posting any content, shooting just those cars would make Chang Fu confident he could rise rapidly to fame on Kwai.

In the art of short video, first establish the persona.

Attract a million or so followers, then think about making money.

Since this race has begun, he planned to rely on a massive amount of capital.

To crush everything in his path.

Unstoppable all the way.