But they were still a year away from truly exploding in popularity.
By next year, the year of TikTok's explosive growth.
The Modeng Brothers' popularity would truly reach its peak.
When they blew up, their follower count reached over 36 million.
Furthermore, the number of likes on every one of their singing videos was terrifying.
Each one had over several million likes.
By then, Liu Yuning would definitely not have taken the initiative to come looking for Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng walked into the meeting room with a hint of majesty on his face.
Without saying a word, he walked to the center of the meeting room and sat down.
Soon, two people walked in from outside the meeting room.
Both of them were carrying thick stacks of documents.
Clearly, these two were likely the assistants of Shen Zheng and Xie Bing.
The two respectfully greeted Jiang Cheng, Shen Zheng, and Xie Bing, then carefully placed the documents in front of Jiang Cheng.
Then, they served each of them a cup of coffee.
Seeing that Jiang Cheng didn't specifically introduce Little Crispy and Liu Yuning.
Shen Zheng and Xie Bing didn't ask either.
They immediately bowed slightly on either side of him; one held the documents while the other began reporting the current situation to Jiang Cheng.
Although Jiang Cheng hadn't asked for a report and usually didn't interfere with their tasks, it was necessary to give the boss an overview when he visited the company.
Seeing their serious and earnest expressions, Little Crispy and Liu Yuning didn't dare to make a sound.
"Chairman Jiang, these are the profiles of the Internet Celebrities we've recently signed. Based on the data you gave us last time, we contacted several Internet Celebrities. Among those signed are Peng Shiliu, with over two million followers on the Social Media Platform and over two million on TikTok, and Liu Siyao, with over one million followers on the Social Media Platform and over two million on TikTok..."
Shen Zheng reported to Jiang Cheng while flipping through the documents.
"Chairman Jiang, these Internet Celebrities were all carefully selected. They have great follower bases and high activity levels on social media. We believe they can bring more exposure and revenue to our company."
Looking at these signed Internet Celebrities, Jiang Cheng was inwardly satisfied.
Shen Zheng and Xie Bing were truly the pillars of the company; their vision was excellent.
Jiang Cheng didn't speak; he just picked up his coffee, took a small sip, and quietly listened to their report, occasionally nodding and asking a few pointed questions.
After Shen Zheng finished, Xie Bing glanced at Jiang Cheng, cleared his throat, and reported, "Chairman Jiang, regarding the establishment of the Live-streaming Guild you mentioned last time, it's already in the works. However, the signing of Li Jiaqi hasn't been finalized yet. The other party's quote is significantly higher than we expected, so..."
Before Shen Zheng could finish, Jiang Cheng waved his hand. "Forget it then. He's not the only one who can carry the title of Lipstick King. I remember there's a male assistant by his side; see if you can poach him instead."
Xie Bing frowned upon hearing this. "The little assistant?? I have some impression of him. The two of them seem inseparable and live-stream together."
"Yes, talk to him. How much was the signing fee we offered Li Jiaqi before?" Jiang Cheng nodded and asked.
"At the highest, it reached a signing fee of 8 million," Xie Bing answered truthfully.
Li Jiaqi's success wasn't just due to his personal talent and hard work.
It was also inseparable from the support of the team and company behind him.
If they could poach Li Jiaqi's assistant, it might bring unexpected gains to the company.
Especially since the two of them weren't super-sized Streamers yet.
Hearing this, Jiang Cheng said calmly, "Then offer him four million."
"This..." Shen Zheng pondered for two seconds before nodding. "Understood, Chairman Jiang. I'll go talk to him."
The reason Jiang Cheng wanted to sign Li Jiaqi was because of his popularity and influence.
Although Li Jiaqi became a bit arrogant for a while after getting famous, leading to a sharp drop in followers and a lot of boycotts.
After all, that phrase "How is this expensive??"
And "Look for the reason within yourself?"
As well as "It's been so many years, has your salary gone up? Have you been working hard?"
This series of rhetorical questions completely overturned the persona he had built over the years.
Though Jiang Cheng didn't care about this incident at all.
His goal was clear; in his eyes, no matter which Internet Celebrity it was, they were just tools for making money.
But since he was unwilling, Jiang Cheng wouldn't force it.
Times have changed; it's now 2017, and Taobao's live-streaming has just begun to rise.
Although Li Jiaqi already had hundreds of thousands of followers.
But the live-streaming industry was only just starting, and he wasn't yet the mega-Streamer who would dominate half the market in the years to come.
Currently, Li Jiaqi was still highly replaceable.
As long as he acted quickly, the forward-looking Jiang Cheng could easily have the company replicate Li Jiaqi's model.
And manually create another Li Jiaqi.
The revenue brought by live-streaming was indeed terrifying; it was common for a single session to break a hundred million or even a billion.
Before coming here, Little Crispy thought her own conditions were pretty good.
After all, if they were poor, she didn't think Jiang Cheng would have taken the initiative to say he wanted to sign her.
But listening from the side, Little Crispy suddenly lost confidence in herself.
Compared to big TikTok Internet Celebrities like Peng Shiqi and Liu Siyao, she was simply incomparable.
At this moment, her face couldn't help but turn a bit red.
Little Crispy pursed her lips and glanced at Liu Yuning beside her.
Liu Yuning, who was usually good at cracking jokes, was also sitting there seriously, feeling a bit constrained.
Liu Yuning had always been a confident person, but here, he also felt unprecedented pressure.
He knew he had to work even harder to stand out in this highly competitive industry.
As he continued to listen, even his expression became serious.
Originally, he had only heard Little Crispy say a big shot wanted to sign her. After finding out it was the recently famous Xingchen Company, he tagged along to see what it was like.
To his surprise, the more he listened, the more shocked he became.
Even his own heart began to waver.
Although they were still under contract with another company, if the terms were good, jumping ship wouldn't matter.
Mainly because he had just heard Jiang Cheng and the others planning to start a Live-streaming Guild.
One had to know that the Modeng Brothers relied on live-streaming and TikTok to become famous.
The two of them were patient, not daring to say a word or even play with their phones, quietly waiting on the side as Jiang Cheng spoke with the company's senior management.