Chapter 39 - 37 Mr. Wu, please sign a contract with us!
Signing with an MCN company definitely has its benefits. At least in terms of personal promotion and image packaging, they are professionals, and they can arrange product endorsements and various commercial activities which is much better than trying to get such deals on one’s own.
However, the way Zhang Xiaodong approached him that day had made Wu Li acutely aware of one thing: once you sign with a company, you might become just a commodity, losing your autonomy.
Therefore, Wu Li was somewhat conflicted. Signing with a company would definitely increase his popularity faster, and popularity meant Fan Value, but he worried that some of the company’s arrangements might go against his wishes, which would be really annoying.
Looking at the dozen or so business cards laid out in front of him and the continuous stream of messages on his phone, Wu Li couldn’t help but sigh: I’m dealing with pressures that one shouldn’t have to at this age.
In the end, Wu Li decided to talk to these companies first. What if they were willing to offer enough autonomy?
However, it wasn’t feasible to negotiate with every company. Picking up his phone, Wu Li started to do some research; he wanted to select a few of the most powerful ones.
Lemon Culture, among their internet celebrities, had three with over twenty million fans, two of whom had been phenomenon-level influencers. The company’s market value exceeded ten billion. In the rankings of various MCN agencies, they were always in the top three.
Peak Entertainment had one top internet celebrity with over fifty million fans. Though a bit past their prime now, they were still a significant figure. They also had seven or eight influencers with fan counts ranging from eight to fifteen million. Their level of activity was high, and they had a good ability to attract money, so the company had both face and substance.
Lemon Culture and Peak Entertainment were the two capital-rich MCN companies Wu Li had identified. They had ample funds for promoting their artists, and since they both had top-level influencers, promoting a newcomer was straightforward: just interact between artists to create a topic of discussion.
Besides these two, Wu Li also found a relatively weaker but very spirited company, Qingteng Media.
Qingteng Media had created several influencers over the past six months, all with their distinct characteristics and fan counts between five and ten million, which were still rising. This showed that the company had an excellent system for creating stars, and those in charge had good vision.