China Entertainment started from Nortel 2002

Chapter 761 Great Cleverness

Although the ticket refund incident of "Us and Them" caused quite a stir and public opinion, the box office on the first day was indeed very exaggerated, directly raking in 2.8 million yuan.

It is inevitable that the company will go downhill due to the influence of negative news and not-so-good reputation.

Despite this, the box office of "Us and Them" on the second day still gave the industry a big shock, earning 2.76 million yuan.

For major producers in the industry, it is unbelievable that a low-budget, art film directed by a novice director can achieve such a result.

This is simply a super dark horse.

As for the two major online ticketing platforms, "Us and Them" won completely, almost single-handedly, while several Chinese-language films such as "God of War", "The Trough" and "Golden Flower" all lost.

Ticket refunds are still happening, but the craze has obviously subsided a bit

It was May 5nd, and Li Mu was also communicating about this matter with Wang Changtian.

"Boss Wang, any news?"

"Without any clues, it is indeed difficult to investigate using the Internet." Wang Changtian shook his head.

"What about the headquarters?"

"It's May Day holiday." Wang Changtian smiled helplessly, then thought of something and said slowly, "Director Li, it feels a little calm. According to Ali's style, they will not miss this opportunity."

You know, now that Maoyan is in trouble, the happiest one is Taopiaopiao.

At this moment, Wang Changtian estimated that the top management of Tao Piaopiao were grinning from ear to ear. There were even doubts in the industry as to whether Tao Piaopiao had done this.

"What is coming will eventually come. Maybe they are waiting for us." Li Mu said lightly.

"."

Sure enough, not long after Li Mu said this, Taopiaopiao did not miss this excellent opportunity.

At around 5:2 am on May 11, Tao Piaopiao’s official Weibo account released a statement titled “It’s not easy to tell the truth, and being a platform means we have a responsibility”, which goes straight to the point.

First of all, of course, they showed the overall refund rate of Tao Piaopiao in 2018, which was 3.17%. Then they mentioned that the refund rate of "Us and Them" on the first day was 9.16%, and the change rate was 2.11%, which was far higher than the films released in the same period and the daily refund rate. They also popularized the change and refund of tickets on the Tao Piaopiao platform.

Secondly, the data illustrates the seriousness of the incident, for example: the closure of the ticket refund function has affected hundreds of thousands of users and thousands of cinemas, affecting all movies in the schedule.

If it is true that during the pre-sale stage, data was falsified through false ticket purchases, theaters were deceived into increasing screenings, and a large number of tickets were refunded afterwards, this would be a serious commercial fraud.

Taopiaopiao promises that it has never provided and will never provide the backend batch locking of venues and seats without real users purchasing tickets.

I have to say that Tao Piaopiao played this trick really well. One link after another, it was all comparison and damage, and it was the average comparison of individuals.
Of course, the most important ones are not the above points, but the fatal suggestion: this incident is of a bad nature, which has destroyed the healthy and orderly business environment of the film industry, seriously affected the interests of moviegoers, and caused serious dissatisfaction among theaters. We implore the relevant departments to deal with it seriously as soon as possible. Tao Piaopiao is willing to provide support and utmost assistance.

I have to say, "friendly competitors" are "friendly competitors", and at this time they can't wait to kill you.

His intentions were almost written on his face.

In the evening, Maoyan’s senior management held a meeting, and the most important content was naturally tomorrow’s media briefing.

“It’s very simple. Let’s make three things clear tomorrow. First, the data on ticket refunds. Second, let’s explain clearly that Maoyan has no motive for doing so. Third, let’s criticize Tao Piao Piao. Otherwise, our competitors will think we are going to fail soon.
Of course, we can’t say anything too filthy in the media, lest we be accused of being impolite.”

After Li Mu finished speaking, Wang Changtian couldn't help laughing, while several executives held back their laughter. After all, they were responsible for this incident.

"I see, Mr. Li, do you have anything to say to them?"

COO Conley then asked, at this time, his own ideas are often not the best, so he naturally has to ask his leader first.

"Well, let me tell you."

After Li Mu finished speaking, laughter broke out in the online meeting and the atmosphere became much more cheerful.

On the afternoon of May 5, Maoyan held a media briefing.

This meeting attracted a lot of media.

At the beginning of the meeting, the media focused on two sets of numbers that appeared in Maoyan’s two statements:

38 refunded tickets, about 1300 million yuan in box office revenue, and 54% of them were normal ticket changes by users, while 46% were confirmed to be malicious ticket swiping.
Maoyan's COO Conley also gave a corresponding explanation and responded to Maoyan's motives.

"What is Maoyan's motive? The film not only has a high desire-to-watch index on the Maoyan platform, but also has a high popularity in Baidu Index and other aspects. In addition, the film's first-day box office was 2.8 million yuan, and the current abnormal box office is only a few million yuan. Why would such an advantageous film do something that would affect the box office of several million yuan?

Most of the refunded tickets for "Us and Them" were for the special price of 19.9 yuan, which does not conform to the logic of the ticket-swiping party to quickly increase the box office.

Moreover, no matter whether it is the film producer or the distributor, first of all, the cinema is the final terminal facing the audience. Subjectively, it is impossible for the film producer and the distributor to do anything that offends the interests of the cinema, including Maoyan.

Because the audience's money first goes to the cinema, then to the theater chain, then to the theater chain to the distributor, and finally back to the film company, and it is the cinema that ultimately decides your screening and scheduling."

Li Mu and Wang Changtian were watching the meeting online.

"I've explained it clearly. If it were more complicated, I'm afraid netizens wouldn't understand." Li Mu nodded.

"It's OK. In fact, even if we don't hold a meeting, most people will forget about it after a few days."

"Having said that, the Internet has memory. Maoyan has caused resentment among the general public, and the cost outweighs the gain. We still have to do what we need to do." As a platform, the biggest fear is actually the lack of traffic. Even though an ordinary user is very small, the accumulated number is very terrifying.

Wang Changtian nodded thoughtfully.

At the meeting, Conley answered all the questions from the media and never avoided them, including sensitive questions, which left a good impression on many media.

At least Maoyan did not fear trouble or simply give up, and its attitude was very strong, which made people feel that things did not seem that simple.

"Here, I would like to raise a few questions with our dear friendly competitor 'Tao Piaopiao'."

As the media gradually had no more questions, Conley remembered the task assigned by Li Mu and said.

This made the media very happy, they loved this segment so much.

I really want to teach him my unique swearing skills.

"First of all, I have two questions. The first is that Tao Piaopiao used the average refund rate for the whole year of 2018 to compare the refund rate for the single film "Us and Them".

The average value is not comparable to the peak value of a single film. As we all know, the box office can be as low as 12 to million a day or as high as billion. In fact, the peaks and troughs are very obvious, so this comparison is biased.

Logically, the top executives of Tao Piao Piao are all elites, who have either studied abroad or graduated from the top 5 universities in China. Logically, this kind of mistake shouldn't have happened, or is it that we don't understand it correctly?"

The media were recording these words attentively. The irony of these words was so great that it almost meant that the other party was uneducated.

"The second point is that if you buy first and then refund, the change will not be recorded as a refund. Whether you buy first and then refund or refund first and then buy, it does not change the record of a refund in the cinema. This is a logical problem.

I also hope that our competitors can be more rigorous in describing the current situation, rather than rushing to submit their papers. "

"Finally, our chairman told me to give our competitors a nickname: 'Great Smart'!"

"Wait, Mr. Kang, what does it mean that our competitors are all 'very smart'?"

"Mr. Kang."

"Maoyan held a media briefing, Conley said Maoyan had no motive and no reason to engage in 'unfair competition', and the distributor would not do anything that would offend the interests of the cinema."

"Maoyan gave Taopiaopiao a nickname: Great Smartness!"

"The box office of Us and Them remains strong, approaching 10 billion."

"."

"Director Li even used the gags from our movie."

Yan Fei couldn't help but laugh after seeing the report.

"Once our movie is shown, they will know what this means."

Shen Teng said with a grin, and it seemed that his teeth were about to show through when he smiled.

"I asked if you want to fix your teeth."

"What do you want to make up for? Isn't this good? It's special."

"."

"Huh? You said that nickname is related to the movie?" Liu Yifei asked Li Mu curiously that night.

After all, everyone in the industry knows about this matter, and for the time being, they just think of it as a satire on Tao Piaopiao, but they don’t quite understand the details.

"People nicknamed him 'Great Smart Guy! '" Li Mu couldn't help but smile when he said this, and that profound picture emerged in his mind.

When Liu Yifei saw this, she became even more curious and couldn't help stamping her feet, "Can't you just tell me the plot?"

"The plot doesn't sound interesting when I tell you about it, let's wait and see the finished film. If you can't wait, go to Tiancai."

“Well, it’s still two more months.

Humph, Tao Piao Piao is really not a good person, he can't wait to add insult to injury, you should give them a few more nicknames."

Liu Yifei crossed her arms across her chest and said angrily.

"This is what real business wars are like. Everyone wants you to go bankrupt tomorrow."

In fact, this is the reality. If they meet in a meeting, people from both sides will probably communicate with each other with a smile. They will be very friendly in front of the media, and it seems that they are friends in private.

But if there is a real chance, both sides would not mind giving the other side a fatal blow.

There are still doubts about the ticket refund incident of "Us and Them", but the heat has gradually dissipated over time.

On the contrary, after the box office broke through 10 billion, the momentum was not strong, and there was basically no hope of reaching 15 billion. The Douban score was only 6.0, which was just on the edge of being qualified.

(End of this chapter)