What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 492 Guardian of the Gods
Douyin and Weishi were launched at the same time. Judging from the public opinion alone, the former is better. However, neither side has released real-time user data, making it difficult for outsiders to directly measure the actual situation of this competition.

From the perspective of Carbon Silicon Data Company, the overall situation is satisfactory. The number of users quickly exceeded 100,000 on the first day of launch, and there was a significant acceleration in the evening, eventually bringing the number of users to 350,000.

Compared to overseas Mus, this is also the first time that Lü Haiying's team has tried all-format content. With tight deadlines and heavy tasks, they naturally adopted their previous experience and also used short video templates with lip-sync music.

In addition, since the exposure of MUS, Carbon Silicon Data Company has been organizing an offline team to develop "campus-related" content for Douyin, aiming to create a more eye-catching software appearance. Furthermore, it also needs to encompass a wide range of "lifestyle" content, which, in comparison, doesn't have many templates and is an area that Douyin needs to further explore.

Music, campus life, and daily life are the three main themes that Lü Haiying has set for the current launch phase, in order to quickly form a relatively accurate understanding among users and the public.

However, Douyin has already made a surprise move to win the bid for the 2015 Spring Festival Gala. The fourth major direction that Douyin is internally planning is the "editing" content that will be released in February next year. Douyin also regards this time as a key point for a major offensive.

The viewership of CCTV's Spring Festival Gala is declining, but the Spring Festival period is still the best time of year for software viral marketing, and many people still habitually want to know the content of wonderful programs such as skits and crosstalk.

Douyin's "editing category" will involve obtaining authorization and cooperation from local Spring Festival galas to deliver the most exciting content to users at the most suitable time for viral spread. For users who don't even care about this aspect, the "lifestyle" category, which includes New Year's gatherings, New Year's greetings, games, and other sub-categories, will also provide appropriate traffic.

The competitive landscape is already clear; Tencent has entered the fray. Lü Haiying, considering the MUS mode chosen by "Weishi," believes that this Spring Festival is the best opportunity to widen the gap and establish an advantage of "taking the lead and staying ahead in every step."

If this is the case, the more advanced Tencent becomes, the more disorganized it will be, and the more difficult it will be to focus on refining its underlying technical algorithms.

"If Weishi insists on differentiating itself from the MUS category, it will be difficult for it to put pressure on us in other directions. If it wants to shift to a comprehensive competition like Douyin, the allocation of resources for Weichao will also be a problem."

“If WeChat fully cooperates, it will simply mean embedding Weishi into it. In terms of users’ minds, we still have an advantage. What they see is a pure short video platform, while WeChat is a social platform.”

"Opening Douyin is to watch short videos, and opening Wechat is to send communication messages."

"We have a significant advantage."

At a high-level meeting of Silicon Carbon Data, Lü Haiying elaborated on the competitive analysis between Douyin and Weishi.

Of course, she didn't mention a prerequisite: the premise of having a significant advantage is not being defeated by the opponent's financial resources.

Lü Haiying felt that the behind-the-scenes support work should play a more important role this time.

Yu Xing did not attend the meeting, but only briefly looked at the meeting minutes and felt there was no problem. Tencent's relaunch of Weishi was aimed at MusVid, but its competitive situation overseas was different from that in China.

Currently, there are no competing companies overseas that are relentlessly pursuing MusVid, but Weishi needs to face a carbon silicon data that it has been preparing for for a long time.

"Xiaoying, you should go first to the meeting with the investors on Saturday. We can talk more about the content of today's meeting." Yu Xing instructed Lü Haiying, "Also, talk more about the differences between Weishi and Mus in China and abroad. After all, you led the team to develop it, so people will trust your words more."

Lu Haiying asked, "How many organizations will be there on Saturday?"

"This round of financing won't be quick. We're just doing preliminary outreach to let everyone know our goals and plans," Yu Xing replied. "It's basically five institutions that IDG, Capital Today, and Qiming Venture Partners have introduced us to, which we have a good relationship with. Just be mindful of your approach when the time comes."

Lu Haiying pondered the advice to "pay attention to your posture," feeling confident that Douyin's current competitive landscape still relies heavily on external funding.

Yu Xing instructed his secretary, Zhang Yangxu, to send the information about the Saturday meeting to Lü Haiying.

Because of the existence of the mountain peak, he is relatively calm about this round of competition.

Yu Xing has been focusing a lot of attention on Douyin this month. Since he came to Carbon Silicon Data today, he asked about the voice project that Carbon Silicon Data and Carbon Silicon Group are collaborating on.

This project was supported by machine learning technology, which unexpectedly sparked enthusiasm from the silicon carbon data community. In particular, several game enthusiasts thought that the voice empowerment mentioned by Yu Xing would be quite interesting, and they had a lot of fun playing with it in the joint lab.

In the evening, Yu Xing tried out their results, which involved inputting voice and attempting to generate a facial shape that matched the user's features.

As a result... the input and output are really quite different.

“Your research on this technology seems to have gone a bit astray.” Yu Xing wasn’t angry about what he saw and heard, but simply said, “It doesn’t matter if it goes astray, as long as it brings enjoyment to the final product.”

Upon hearing this, the person in charge, Cen Yuang, became somewhat embarrassed: "President Yu, this is something we're just doing for fun right now. The overall recognition accuracy for use in car infotainment systems is pretty good. The company is currently discussing whether to develop a mobile phone input method for it."

He used this to prove that he hadn't neglected his work.

“I’m not blaming you. Interest gives you motivation.” Yu Xing thought for a moment and smiled. “You guys can continue working on related projects. If the results are good, I’ll take you to Sina or NetEase to see if we can collaborate.”

Cen Yuang was overjoyed and looked forward to the opportunity to play his favorite games in the future.

Yu Xing walked around the company again, and before leaving, he received a call from Director Zhu Zehui of Lingang inquiring about him.

Zhu Zehui has high expectations for the projects in Lingang. He used to only look forward to the new energy vehicles of the Silicon Carbon Group, but recently he has discovered that Silicon Carbon Data Company is not bad either. This time, it seems that it can directly compete with Tencent.

Yu Xing was surprised that Director Zhu came up to ask about Douyin.

He briefly explained the situation, using precise language to make the other party understand: "We can't win against TikTok quickly, but we are still confident."

Zhu Zehui offered a few words of praise, then changed the subject: "President Yu, I heard that your new car launch event has been scheduled for February next year?"

Yu Xing was surprised that Director Zhu was reading Weibo and laughed, "Yes, we've chosen an auspicious day and plan to release it on the day the dragon raises its head. Currently, we plan to have a one-month pre-sale period, and we'll make adjustments based on the pre-sale situation."

Zhu Zehui's voice was somewhat grave: "President Yu, this, this..."

He couldn't help but lick his lips on the other end of the phone before continuing, "The future of Lingang's new energy industry rests on your shoulders."

Yu Xing hummed in agreement, offering no grand promises: "We'll do our best."

Zhu Zehui's emotions were somewhat complicated. After offering encouragement, he ended the call.

Yu Xing put his phone in his pocket, called his secretary, and drove the "Jiuzhou" prototype vehicle along the coast for a spin. He smoked two cigarettes before returning to the Silicon Carbon Group. He felt both anticipation and pressure for this year's Spring Festival, as he would have to review the data from both projects.

On the last day of August, which was also the 6th day since Douyin and Weishi were launched, five venture capital firms gathered in Lingang to meet with a subsidiary of Carbon Silicon Data.

The collaboration between Tencent and Silicon Carbon Data has attracted much attention. First, there was the exposure of MUS's overseas trial, then Douyin's surprise bid for the Spring Festival Gala, and the simultaneous launch of the two apps. In addition, there is the past connection between Mr. Yu and Tencent. Therefore, the five firms that came, including Matrix Partners, Temasek, and GGV Capital, are all very powerful.

On Saturday morning at 9:5 AM, representatives from five organizations met with Zhong Zhiling, CEO of Silicon Carbon Data, and Lü Haiying, CEO of Douyin.

The organizations were familiar with these two individuals, but they were somewhat dissatisfied that they did not see President Yu.

Du Yuchen of Matrix Partners China didn't hide his dissatisfaction. He interrupted Lu Haiying when she was about to discuss the company's situation and asked, "Where's President Yu? Isn't President Yu coming over to talk?"

Lu Haiying smiled at General Manager Du: "General Manager Yu has a supplier meeting next door today. Since we're going to talk about Mus's situation overseas, he asked me to talk about that."

Mus's overseas expansion is no longer a secret; her previous contributions are already known within the industry.

Du Yuchen pursed his lips and nodded, saying, "Alright, then let's hear what President Lü has to say."

Lü Haiying didn't pay attention to such a minor incident, and talked about the company's internal positioning and planning, as well as the decisive support from institutions such as IDG and Today Capital.

Zeng Jia, Senior Vice President from Temasek, is somewhat special, since MUS is registered in Singapore, and Temasek is backed by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, making it a very powerful company.

After Mr. Lü finished his introduction, he asked about the situation of Mus and Weishi.

Mus is doing well overseas, but the domestic version of Douyin did not choose this model. Instead, its competitor Weishi followed suit. This is a situation that worries investors. Who made the right judgment?
Furthermore, for Temasek, if Lu Haiying argues that TikTok's logic is better, then Singapore's MUS rating should drop.

MusVid is now on Temasek's radar.

Lu Haiying understood the difference in the question from President Zeng, but it was indeed within her expectations.

She quoted her senior's conclusion and the determination it demonstrated, dispelling Zeng Jia's doubts in almost a single sentence.

"The biggest difference between Weishi and MusVid is that it needs to face the direct competition of our silicon carbon data. MusVid's initial model choice was also because silicon carbon data resources had not been extended overseas. Therefore, MusVid was a cold start, while Douyin was a hot start in China."

The treatment for cold and hot starts varies greatly.

Lu Haiying disclosed data from Douyin's first five days: "Douyin has already made it onto the Apple App Store's recommended list and the overall domestic chart this week. Our user base has reached 600,000 this week, with over 200,000 daily active users. This ratio is astonishing, and user time has reached 8 minutes."

Du Yuchen from Matrix Partners China suddenly interjected: "Looking at Douyin's data alone isn't enough, Mr. Lü. You need to know who your competitors are. You're competing with Tencent's Weishi. Weishi used to have tens of millions of daily active users, but it still didn't work out. What's so great about your current 20 daily active users?"

Lu Haiying patiently explained, "President Du, the daily active users (DAU) on Weishi are artificially inflated; it includes clicks in its statistics. Ours is more accurate. I believe you can tell the value of our data by looking at the DAU ratio when you invest in other projects. In just the last few days, we've already seen top-tier videos with millions of views. Based on the current performance..."

Du Yuchen interrupted and emphasized, "President Lü, I have questions about your Douyin operations. Everyone knows that the Spring Festival Gala's ratings are declining. You just received money from the organization and you're spending it so lavishly. Isn't that too reckless?"

Zhong Zhiling then spoke up to explain Douyin's action plan for bidding for the Spring Festival Gala. He did not disclose everything, but he did talk about the special timing, the viral effect, and the marketing activities at that time.

There were five organizations in the conference room. Although they wanted to listen carefully to Mr. Zhong and Mr. Lü's descriptions, they were also happy to see Du Yuchen's questioning approach. The more they did this, the more they could glean insights into the competition on Douyin.

The meeting was somewhat intermittent until 10:00 a.m., when Yu Xing, who had finished his meeting next door, arrived at the conference room.

Yu Xing greeted everyone and gestured for Lü Haiying to continue.

"Wait, Mr. Yu, I have a few questions that I couldn't get a satisfactory answer from Mr. Lü." Du Yuchen became even more energetic when he saw the person in charge.

Yu Xing glanced at Zhong Zhiling and Lü Haiying, then nodded to Du Yuchen, "Please speak, Mr. Du."

Du Yuchen brought up the previous question again.

"President Lü, please share your thoughts." Yu Xing did not answer directly, but instead let Lü Haiying respond.

After a moment's thought, Lü Haiying organized her words to provide a more comprehensive answer to the question.

After listening for a few minutes, Du Yuchen shook his head and said, "President Yu, this competition is a head-on showdown between Tencent and Silicon Carbon Data. To be honest, I still hope to hear your answer personally."

Yu Xing said gently, "That's right, Mr. Du. Douyin is managed by Ms. Lü. Her thinking and experience are superior to mine. I believe her words can bring accurate information, including her communication with IDG and Capital Today, which has also been very good."

Du Yuchen laughed and said, "IDG is IDG, Capital Today is Capital Today, and Matrix Partners is Matrix Partners."

Yu Xing nodded slightly and said naturally, "President Du, I don't think there's much difference. If you don't have confidence in Lingang, there will naturally be other money to invest."

As Lü Haiying listened to her senior brother's words, the "pay attention to posture" that she always kept in mind suddenly felt a little off. Hmm, what exactly does "pay attention to posture" mean...?

Du Yuchen was stunned by what he heard. He hadn't expected President Yu to be so direct, and he was speechless for about ten seconds.

But instead of slamming his fist on the table or becoming enraged, he said somewhat awkwardly, "Hey, Mr. Yu, that's not what I meant. Oh, I just... haha, just kidding. I just like to ask questions; it's one of my flaws."

These steps are a bit hard, but they still count as steps.

Yu Xing laughed, "Is that so? This time, Carbon Silicon Data plans to help everyone make money. I'm quite confident. President Du, don't mind me. Everyone knows I'm always straightforward. President Lü, please continue."

Lü Haiying cleared her throat, a thought suddenly popping into her mind: "I was just teasing you, hmm..."

She suddenly realized that leading others to make money was the best approach.

(End of this chapter)