Chapter 3322: Taking the First Step

Hearing Ye Chen's words, Tawana instinctively let out a gasp: "Ah? You... you mean you want me to hold a concert in China?"

"Yes." Ye Chen said calmly: "You probably haven't held a concert in China yet, right? This is a perfect opportunity to give Chinese fans a surprise, which would also be good for your career, and I can promise you that once you arrive in China, you will absolutely face no safety issues—it just depends on whether you're willing."

Tawana said without hesitation: "I... I am willing."

Normally, Tawana might have other considerations, but now, deep in her heart, there was no thought of refusal whatsoever; it felt as if multiple voices inside her were constantly urging her to agree quickly.

Seeing her nod, Ye Chen said: "In that case, let's discuss the specific cooperation. Mr. Mitsui is also here, and he's a shareholder of Universal, so the three of us can settle this—Tawana's concert in China, with all performance fees following your normal business cooperation model, whether it's a buyout or box-office split, I have no problem with either. My requirements are as follows:"

"First, the total number of concerts in China must not be less than eight;"

"Second, the organizing rights for these no-less-than-eight concerts must be entirely handed over to me;"

"Third, regarding ticketing, I will designate the exclusive agency."

Tawana again said without hesitation: "I have no problem with that."

Mitsui Yoshitaka clearly understood in his heart that Tawana, as a world-class top-tier singer, wherever she holds a concert, the economic boost she brings to the local area is enormous.

A single concert can sell tens of millions just from tens of thousands of tickets, and can also bring hundreds of millions or even more in tourism revenue to the locality, and even keep the city in the headlines of world news for several days, with the commercial value behind it being astonishingly large.

Therefore, many countries' performance companies wanting to invite Tawana to perform locally usually have to offer enormous concessions, and even local governments often have to provide certain subsidies.

Moreover, Tawana's team and her management company have extremely strong control over performances, with very high autonomy.

Even just the ticketing aspect alone contains enormous hidden revenue.

If it's a concert in a popular country or popular city, with a stadium capacity of fifty thousand, the total box office from ticket face value would be around ten million US dollars, but considering Tawana's immense fame and the extremely high premium on her concert tickets, there are countless ways to secretly raise ticket prices.

The most commonly used method is ticket hoarding and scalping.

Out of fifty thousand tickets, only five thousand are actually sold to ordinary spectators, and those five thousand depend entirely on who has better luck, faster internet speed, or quicker reflexes—whoever clicks fastest might get one.

If there are technical scalpers using software to compete with ordinary spectators for those five thousand tickets, then it's a matter between the scalpers and the spectators, and the organizers basically don't interfere, because organizers care only about the real big money.

The real big money is the forty-five thousand tickets kept off the market and not publicly released.

As the top-selling superstar, tickets are almost impossible to remain unsold, so the organizers can directly sell those forty-five thousand tickets at double the premium, bundled to a general contractor.

In some concerts, ticket prices for prime seats can even be ten times, or even dozens of times, the face value.

Don't even mention Tawana, this world-class top-tier singer—even if it's just a top-tier singer in the Mandopop scene, the face value of a front-row seat in the inner circle is at most two thousand RMB, but the actual transaction price at the end is often twenty to thirty times the face value.

If you try to buy a ticket to a certain heavenly king's concert in a first-tier city with a budget of fifty thousand RMB, you probably won't even get a middle seat in the first row, let alone Tawana, this world-class top-tier act.

Tawana's concert tickets in North America, especially in Canada, for good seats in the inner circle start at seven or eight thousand Canadian dollars, and for the most central positions, it's not uncommon for tickets to be fifty thousand or even one hundred thousand US dollars each, with wealthy people rushing to grab them.

And what the organizers are holding onto is not just the golden front-row inner-circle seats—they might be holding forty-five thousand tickets of various positions, not just golden seats selling for dozens of times the norm, but even the worst mountain-top seats can sell for two or three times their face value.

It's very easy for organizers to make this money—those who want to take it all can just become scalpers themselves, passing money from left hand to right hand; those who don't want the hassle can simply find a capable local ticket distributor, let him buy all forty-five thousand tickets at three times the price, and the organizers directly pocket three times the box office.

Don't think this is a fantasy—many major ticket distributors actually have this kind of money, and facing such a guaranteed-profit mega-performance, they are certainly willing to put up the funds; even if they can't afford it alone, they will join forces with many capital providers to pool money and buy up these tickets, then redistribute after markup.

After the ticket distributors buy up those forty-five thousand tickets, they can add a portion of profit, then distribute them to secondary distributors across the network, finally reaching the scalpers' hands, who then sell these tickets to spectators at five times or more the price, so the entire industry chain benefits enormously, while those who end up paying several times the price for concert tickets are the deluded fans.

Tawana has been explosively popular worldwide for several years, and so far has never held a concert in China. Ye Chen can thus infer that once she goes to China to perform, if ticket sales are not controlled, the tickets will definitely be scalped to astronomical prices.

For those true tycoons, spending several hundred thousand RMB to sit in the first row to watch Tawana's concert—just showing off on their social media circle is worth the ticket price, let alone those big internet celebrities who can earn hundreds of millions from a single product promotion; to them, money has completely lost its normal measure, they only need to touch their upper lip to their lower lip, shout a few "brothers," "family members," "beauties," and in a year they might earn more than Tawana; spending several hundred thousand to watch Tawana, for them, is not only a way to show off but also to ride a wave of traffic and热度, and no matter how you calculate it, it's worth it.

Moreover, Ye Chen demanded exclusive ticketing agency for all eight concerts, and the profit potential behind this could even reach several hundred million US dollars.

Although Mitsui Yoshitaka is already very wealthy, as a businessman, his commercial mindset does not become lax just because he has money—on the contrary, the more successful a businessman is, the less likely he is to let others take advantage of him financially.

So at this moment, he almost blurted out a refusal to Ye Chen, or a polite decline, and then wanted to discuss the ticketing agency details properly with him; his idea was simple: you can earn this huge hidden income, but you can't keep it all yourself—you have to return part of it to us, and at least fifty percent.

Seeing Mitsui's hesitant expression, Ye Chen knew roughly what he was thinking, and immediately said: "Mr. Mitsui, I first want to emphasize one point: I invited Miss Svetlana to perform in China not because I admire her, or because I want to make money from the opportunity, but because I simply feel that such a big star, facing such a huge market in China, so many fans, and not holding a concert for so many years, is hard to justify, so I'm using this opportunity to help Miss Svetlana take her first step, and also to bring some benefits to Chinese fans."

Saying that, Ye Chen added: "As for the tickets to these eight concerts, I will adhere to the principle of fairness and justice in selling them at face value, and I will make sufficient preparations to resist all resale activities; if I add even a single cent to any ticket in these eight concerts, I will give you all the box office revenue, and compensate you with an additional one billion US dollars."

Mitsui Yoshitaka gasped upon hearing this—compensation of one billion US dollars? Can Ye Chen actually come up with one billion US dollars?

Beside him, Fei Kexin, seeing his surprised expression, said somewhat displeased: "Mr. Mitsui, there's no need to doubt Mr. Ye's promise; if the situation Mr. Ye described actually occurs, I will compensate you with this ten billion."

Seeing Fei Kexin so firmly supporting Ye Chen, Mitsui Yoshitaka dared not raise any further doubts at the moment, and immediately nodded, saying: "It seems Mr. Ye is truly trying to bring benefits to Chinese fans; I just want to remind you personally that ticket scalping is very hard to control, Miss Svetlana's concert is already extremely popular, and if this is her first time performing in China, the commemorative significance for fans will be even greater—such a concert, tickets in the core area can easily sell for dozens of times the face value, and many people will resort to shady means just for this price difference."

Saying that, Mitsui Yoshitaka added: "Even if Mr. Ye implements real-name ticket purchase, ordinary people still find it hard to beat professional scalpers, who have technical means and also use human-wave tactics, always managing to get a higher probability than ordinary people."

"Don't worry." Ye Chen said calmly: "I have my own way."