I am a Big Player
Chapter 668 - 659, North Fort_1

Chapter 668: 659, North Fort_1

West Film City is located on the empty wilderness in the northwest suburb of Yinchuan City, featuring two ancient castle ruins, the famous North Fort ancient city. The castle is a cultural relic protection unit of Yinchuan City and is now the location of West Film City.

Here, the scenery is desolate, making Ren He feel as if he is back in No Man’s Land, with hardly any green in sight as far as the eye can see.

Having come here, he finally understood what the basic art style of "A Chinese Odyssey" from his past life was all about. Is this the sort of birdless place ancient people referred to when they spoke of being banished?

According to the encyclopedia on Qinghe Search, the entire West Film City, located in Huaxi Village, has a population of about 30,000, but some say the actual number is much more.

Now, Qinghe Search has formed a powerful public opinion: when in doubt, ask Qinghe.

Meaning, if you want to know something, you can basically find it on Qinghe Search. This subconscious concept has long propelled Qinghe Search’s traffic ranking to the top spot in China, and despite the high advertising fees, the demand still exceeds supply. By this time, Qinghe Search had become Qinghe Group’s third money printer, following after Qinghe TQ Communication and Qinghe Mall.

Within Qinghe Group, there’s a saying about the three carriages: Qinghe TQ Communication, Qinghe Mall along with its associated Qinghe Pay, and Qinghe Search. These three main projects have become an indispensable part of Qinghe Group’s strategy for territory expansion and development, each more influential and profitable than the last.

And now, on this level, the first half of 2007’s statistics on active user groups showed that Qinghe’s user base exceeded the combined user base of the nine other top internet companies. Some in the industry can’t help but sigh that as long as Qinghe doesn’t kill itself, it will remain an evergreen tree in the internet industry.

Some wonder, in the ever-changing internet era where things could be said to change day by day, is there really such a thing as a company that can last a hundred years?

The tycoon explained: If Qinghe Group began resting on its laurels after achieving these mainstream internet projects, there might be a different outcome. But the ferocity of Qinghe Group’s investment and acquisition department is... beyond words!

The tycoon has met Nie Ting a few times, and although they’re not particularly close, the smart people in the circle know one thing for certain: the biggest workload of Nie Ting’s team is probably deciding which company’s shares to acquire next.

Before the internet entered an era of competing for user numbers, everyone thought it was good as long as they could make money. However, Qinghe Group raised the entire internet industry’s vision up a notch: first get the users, then talk about making money. As long as you have users, you don’t have to worry about not earning money.

What this implies is that we never really thought about making money; money just comes to us on its own!

Listen, how damn infuriating!

In fact, when facing the outside world, Qinghe always promotes its core tenet: changing people’s lives.

At first, everyone thought they were boasting. Talking so nobly, why don’t they ascend to heaven and become gods?

However, it soon became apparent to everyone that this Qinghe Faction truly did intend to change everyone’s lives, and the result was that everyone gradually became dependent on Qinghe!

Now, Cheng Lesheng, who is responsible for Qinghe TQ Communication, says during his lectures: Qinghe has never thought about making money, only about changing people’s lives to make them more convenient.

Change my ass, you speak so righteously, but you’re the ones making all the money!

However, complaints aside, everyone knows deep down that they were cast aside in terms of intention right from the start by Qinghe, who had a starting point that is indeed a notch above just making money.

Or rather, Qinghe never considered any other company as competition.

This is an awkward truth: everyone likes to compare their company with Qinghe, but they’re also acutely aware that Qinghe has never considered anyone a competitor. Qinghe’s competitors are the people’s inherent lifestyles, their concepts of consumption, the pace of the era.

Now, students studying abroad brag to foreigners: in China, you don’t need to carry cash, a phone is all you need to get around the world.

People from developed countries can’t help but exclaim in amazement: Really?

Ren He, however, is well aware that as of 2017 in his past life, someone had even experimented with this, finding that even on the streets of America, you would need to download 6 or 7 apps to try and get by with mobile payments, and even so, it wasn’t very practical.

The fact is, Qinghe indeed brought China’s internet ecosystem to the forefront of the world, a way of life that is ahead of its time.

Now in 2008, Ren He had set out for No Man’s Land in mid-February, and it’s already the beginning of March. Qinghe’s first-quarter financial report is out, with a net profit of 10.76 billion, a doubling over the first quarter of 2007.

Who knows where Qinghe’s limit lies?

Ren He is already quite content. In his previous life, Tencent’s net profit for the first quarter of 2016 was 7.16 billion. Of course, Qinghe isn’t just Qinghe TQ; its dozens of subsidiaries are all profitable.

He glanced at Huaxi Village, where North Fort Film City is located. Though called a village, its bustle is probably not any less than a county with a university town, bustling with people coming and going.

Ren He realized just at a glance that the 30,000 figure was no exaggeration, and it was probably even more.

This is one of China’s three major film bases, with thousands of registered group actors alone—let alone the unregistered ones. Sometimes, the strictness of their management isn’t much of a concern either.

As for 2008, the monthly rent for a common place here is about 100 to 200 yuan, mostly small one-bedrooms, with shared bathrooms and kitchens. Overall, it’s still slightly cheaper than Hengdian.

But few people here cook for themselves, it seems. Beverages cost around 3 yuan, fast food is about 5 yuan, and other dishes like stir-fried rice noodles and noodles are usually around 5 yuan as well.

There are plenty of internet cafes in the village, and many group actors spend the night there, from 11 PM to 8 AM, catching some sleep before they continue to hustle as group actors.

In reality, few group actors ever make it big, which is well-known. But the problem is, everyone thinks they will be the one to succeed.

Here, appearance and height are the only standards for pricing group actors, as group acting doesn’t require much acting skill.

When tourists visit, they go directly to the film city, which seems to have fewer people. But arriving in the nearby village presents a completely different scene. When Ren He and Yang Xi first arrived here, they couldn’t help but heartfeltly lament the difficulty of life.