Chapter 704 - 723: Shameless Plagiarist
Chapter 704: Chapter 723: Shameless Plagiarist
Previously, Jiang Qiuqiu had proposed creating Taobao Food.
It was originally intended as a fan perk to retain her followers, but unexpectedly, the subsidiary app became a massive hit right after its release.
Who wouldn’t want to eat real food every day instead of drinking Nutrient Liquid?
Who wouldn’t want to try something new every day?
Not to mention, the sourcing was transparent, and the food was cheap.
Basically, anyone who wanted to open a shop on Taobao Food had to be vetted by a special team sent by Little President Qian.
The team required prospective shop owners to provide health certifications and their real names. They also collected various information and videos of the selling locations. A review team was established—recruiting some fans with free time to help out—that required sellers to upload a full video of their food preparation process.
The review team would check for any violations. If any were found, the product would be delisted. Only those who passed inspection could continue selling.
It was clean and hygienic, and the app even set a specific price range. Everyone wanted to give it a try.
At first, it was only some of Jiang Qiuqiu’s fans. But then her incredible fans pushed the app to the top of the Star Network’s trending list. As a result, many outsiders were also amazed by this business model and came to check it out.
Good products retain customers, and this wave of first-time users was quickly brought into New Star’s fold.
Seeing all the traffic, Little President Qian struck while the iron was hot and launched the Jiang Qiuqiu Fan Cooking Exchange.
This brought another wave of traffic to Taobao Food.
After a few promotional cycles, Taobao Food had already amassed roughly four billion downloads on the Star Network, successfully becoming a Level 2 app.
After Taobao Food took off, the Federation Live Broadcast Company quickly caught wind of the trend and launched a similar app, albeit with more comprehensive features.
However, because their app was too popular, too many people registered to become sellers. The company couldn’t keep up with the vetting process, and in the end, the sellers on the app were of uneven quality.
When people placed orders, they might just find themselves falling into a massive trap.
And if they chose to buy from streamers with established fanbases, their products were just too expensive.
Being too expensive shrank the consumer base, and people’s purchasing habits shifted from "daily meal replacement" to "an occasional splurge."
And when you only eat something occasionally as a treat, your expectations for the food naturally get higher.
But then they would find the taste to be nothing special.
As for the food that was truly amazing... the price was comparable to a revolving restaurant.
With that kind of money, why not just go to an actual revolving restaurant?
For these reasons, the Federation Live Broadcast Company’s app never really took off or achieved any significant scale.
However, they did pioneer a new path.
Teaching.
It was a proposal spearheaded by Qian Song: they would create a special class for Master Huang, a chef poached from a revolving restaurant. He would teach home-style cooking, charging a tuition fee that was neither too high nor too low, and even providing dedicated teaching assistants.
With the prestige of a chef from a revolving restaurant, plus dedicated teaching assistants, the price didn’t seem particularly exorbitant.
Many people signed up for Master Huang’s class.
Normally, New Star wouldn’t have interfered with a competitor’s new ideas.
However, Qian Xingxing soon discovered that this damned Master Huang was actually teaching the very same home-style dishes in his paid class that Jiang Qiuqiu had previously released detailed tutorials for.
"..."
This was just a scummy thing to do.
So recently, New Star had been locked in a copyright dispute with the Federation Live Broadcast Company.
But it was a difficult thing to adjudicate, and the authorities probably wouldn’t be able to make a ruling. Little President Qian was furious. "What kind of master chef is this guy? He has his own signature dishes he could be teaching, but instead, he specifically teaches yours!"
Jiang Qiuqiu, however, was calm and composed. "If it’s public knowledge, it’s fair game to learn," she said. "But using it to make money—that’s where he’s in the wrong."
So, New Star simply compiled all of Jiang Qiuqiu’s previous tutorial videos into a collection titled "Jiang Qiuqiu’s Home-Style Cooking Tutorials." They bundled it all for free, making it available for anyone on the network to download and watch.
Then, Jiang Qiuqiu herself started live-streaming tutorials... for Master Huang’s signature dishes.
The real deal.
She broke down every step, guaranteeing that anyone with even a little cooking experience could master them.
Oh, and it was also free.