Chinese Entertainment Intelligence King

Chapter 300 The First Weibo Goddess Competition Begins, the Lunar New Year Film Season Begins

Zhichun Road, Weibo Conference Room

The head of the operations department reported the results to Yan Li: "Our online and offline promotion and publicity have been carried out smoothly, and the 100 Stars entry event is also in full swing."

"As of 10 a.m. today, Weibo has over 5 registered users."

"More than 40 celebrities have passed the verification process, and we are in contact with others. It is expected that at least 100 to 150 celebrities will pass the verification and post their first Weibo posts in the next two days."

"While verifying the celebrity's identity, we will specifically promote the product on their personal Baidu Tieba, fan groups, blogs, and other places where fans gather to attract more followers."

"Last night we also contacted several media outlets and portal websites to widely publicize the entry of Weibo's 100 Stars."

"..."

Yan Li listened very carefully. The celebrity strategy sounds simple, but it's not just about bringing people over and that's it.

You need to leverage the influence of this celebrity, target specific audiences, and promote the platform's influence. In short, you need to make the most of this opportunity to quickly make the outside world and the public aware of Weibo's existence.

Currently, there are more than just Weibo and Fanfou on microblogging platforms; there's also TaoTao, owned by Tencent.

Fanfou targets an elite demographic, with its users being a small circle of college students. It wins with its content and has a very small scale.

Penguin's TaoTao has a large user base; Penguin's traffic pool is too powerful, with various pop-up recommendations, and more than 10 users registered on the first day.

However, Tencent didn't do a good job with TaoTao's project. It lacked content and unique features, and it was also overshadowed by its older sibling, QQ Space. Despite its large scale, its actual momentum was not as good as Fanfou, which had a high user activity and stickiness.

Weibo's strategy of targeting celebrities and influencers is something that Fanfou and Tencent cannot or will find difficult to do.

Let's not even talk about Fanfou; it's a startup company that has no access to celebrity resources.

Despite its immense power, most of the businesses Tencent is currently involved in have no connection to the entertainment industry. If it wants to implement a celebrity strategy, it can only do so by spending a lot of money, and the results are still uncertain.

Therefore, without recklessly spending money, the only way to put pressure on Yan Li is through connections with celebrities and stars.

It's Sina and Sohu!
These two websites started as portal sites and later expanded into blogs. Sohu also launched a video website. Over the years, they have become, to some extent, representatives of new media and have accumulated a large network of celebrities and public figures.

Other internet companies, including Tencent, also have these resources, but due to reasons such as starting later or not paying enough attention, they are not as good as these two.

At least for Yan Li, an entertainment tycoon, he only pays attention to Sohu and Sina in the short term.

Weibo is still in its early stages and hasn't shown much brilliance yet; various parties are still observing it.

Sohu's attention is more focused on the current trend of video websites, while Sina is somewhat tempted and has internally considered microblogging, but a large ship is difficult to turn around.

Sina Blog is currently the most popular blog platform, and its development is going well. It has many internal resources and stakeholders, so it's unlikely that a single microblog could directly shake the company's strategy.

Yan Li estimates that even if Sina immediately prepares for Sina Weibo, it won't have all the resources available, and there might even be some internal friction between Sina Blog and Sina Weibo.

When Sina realized that microblogs would replace blogs and become the general trend, it made up its mind to develop Sina Microblog business.

Yan Li's Weibo account has also accumulated a significant first-mover advantage!

After listening to the various reports in silence, Yan Li spoke up: "The entry of 100 stars is definitely the biggest traffic-generating tool so far. We must explore it thoroughly and spread it widely, making full use of this card."

"Don't slack off on online and offline promotion. It may not seem as effective as joining the 100 Stars program, but it's a long-term and effective way to build momentum."

"Afterwards, we will also arrange for the 100 most famous people, 100 most successful companies, and 100 most influential organizations to join. Their influence may not be as great as that of the 100 most famous people, but it will greatly enrich the usability and value of our Weibo account."

"By the time before the Spring Festival, I don't care what methods you use, get me over a million registered users in about two months."

If you don't have enough people, you can change the data. In the internet industry, if you don't have a million users, it's hard to tell a story.

Weibo has actually been holding back a card, and that card is Yan Li himself.

As a highly renowned rising star in the business world, he can bring traffic to JD.com, and naturally, he can also bring traffic to Weibo.

Therefore, Yan Li will link Weibo with himself, telling his story and the story of Weibo together, not only to investors but also to the general public, thus greatly increasing and expanding the influence of Weibo.

But there's a right time to tell a story. Weibo is just starting out, so it's pointless for Yan Li to step in. He might just turn Weibo into his personal website.

So we have to wait until Weibo achieves certain results and influence before Yan Li can step in and add fuel to the fire, making Weibo burn even brighter.

Afterwards, Yan Li held a special meeting with the content department.

If the content isn't good, attracting a lot of people won't help if you can't retain them; it's all for nothing.

Therefore, Yan Li attaches great importance to this. If the content is good, it doesn't matter if the traffic is slow. With a hit event, a large number of users can be attracted quickly.

At the same time, the content can also enhance user stickiness and loyalty, so that even if other competitors come out, they can't take away users.

"This photography and literature competition is still a bit niche and doesn't generate enough buzz. We need to do something exciting, popular, and with high public participation."

Currently, Weibo's content mainly comes from user posts and interactions, reposts of news, and small events and competitions.

Yan Li looked at it and saw that it had an effect, but the effect was not obvious.

"In this way, we'll plan two big events. One is related to the Lunar New Year film season: movie reviews, box office comparisons, interviews with the main creators, anything related to the Lunar New Year films will be posted. We'll even copy any good posts from other platforms and post them on our own account."

"Another option is to hold a beauty pageant. At this stage, most of our users are entertainment fans. Let's give them something to do and hold the 'First Weibo Goddess' selection. We'll follow the World Cup model: first, a preliminary selection, then group eliminations, and finally, we'll select one winner and give them an award."

"First select the women, then select the men. It's not just about goddesses and gods; we'll have a beauty pageant with the four beauties of ancient costumes or the four young masters of the Republic of China."

"It doesn't necessarily have to be done in one go. We can select them every now and then, and after that, we need to promote them extensively to solidify their reputation. The more famous they are, the more our Weibo will benefit."

"..."

Yan Li's move is also a product of later internet wisdom. Well, strictly speaking, this tactic has existed for a long time; it was commonly used in Hong Kong in the past.

But it doesn't matter if the tricks are old, as long as they work. Fans rush to join in, onlookers join in the fun, and Weibo gains traffic.

The content team is scribbling notes; this beauty pageant definitely has potential.

Each user gets one vote per day, so they have to vote every day. They also get an extra vote for referring a new user, which helps attract more users.

Then create a voting area and a discussion forum for them to debate and argue, and even have the original creators campaign for votes, which will generate buzz and activity.

"However, Mr. Yan, isn't what we're doing a bit risky and offending someone?"

Leading the charge in stirring up trouble and riding on the coattails of celebrities must make someone feel uncomfortable.

Yan Li looked at those who raised objections and said, "If we're afraid of offending people, let's not do it. Let's all pack our bags and go our separate ways."

So what if you offend someone?
Weibo is a public opinion platform; how many more times will it offend people in the future?
Once Weibo takes off, especially for these celebrities, they'll all have to watch their step. So what if they offend someone?

Besides, although this event capitalized on the hype, it also provided exposure, so everyone wins. If you can't win, blame it on your low popularity and unattractive appearance.

These days, being a nice guy won't make you money, let alone become a big shot.

Yan Li's words made the content department even more agitated. They weren't worried about offending anyone, but rather about causing some negative impact later and being pulled from the show or becoming scapegoats.

Now that the boss is backing us up, let's go all out. They're all veterans of the internet industry; stirring things up is their forte.

"Let me emphasize again, I'm not afraid of offending people, I'll cover for you, but you must not touch anything sensitive. At the same time, we must be vigilant and guard against certain remarks. Sensitive words and phrases must be updated in real time, and we must not be careless."

Yan Li was very serious; there were some people he could afford to offend, and some he couldn't.

A public opinion platform with no or lax regulation is terrifying; Fanfou died because of this.

Yan Li repeatedly emphasized from the very beginning of his Weibo account that he must strictly adhere to the red lines.

He would rather Weibo become a mouthpiece for some people than a gathering place for dissidents.

If Weibo is no longer viable, Yan Li has other businesses, but if Weibo is "dead," he'll be in real trouble...

...

After the meeting, Yan Li went to Weibo's office. As a startup, the office here was much smaller than Yan Li's other offices.

It's less than 10 square meters. A table, a bookcase, and two sofas are basically all you need. Even the coffee table is small.

Surprisingly, being in such a small office actually fueled Yan Li's motivation to "conquer the world".

Many entrepreneurs are not short of money, but they continue to work. Besides the enjoyment of being the boss and having power in the company, they also get a sense of accomplishment from their business success.

It's a wonderful feeling to have a large company born from your own hands.

He took out his phone, walked to the door, took a picture of the office, and then posted his first official Weibo post since registering.

[A new Weibo account, a new beginning!]

Yan Li's Weibo account was definitely one of the earliest Weibo accounts; it was in his hands even before Weibo was launched.

The profile picture is Weibo's logo, a simple and abstract tech blue sound wave pattern, symbolizing the release, dissemination, and connection of information on Weibo.

This was the final decision made by Yan Li after considering several options; it's simple, easy to remember, and highlights the selling points.

There is a golden V mark behind the profile picture, which is the official Weibo verification. Individuals use the yellow V, while enterprises, organizations and other official accounts use the blue V, which distinguishes them from ordinary accounts and is also to prevent counterfeiting.

The name is simply the two characters 【颜礼】, and the following personal introduction or official verification description is also very simple.

[Businessman and actor, employed by Weibo, Yi'an Film & Television, and Yi'an Cinema Circuit; representative works include "The Legend of Xue Rengui," "Emperor Wu of Han," and "Bright Sword"...]

He has quite a few fans; I wonder if Weibo gave him a featured spot. At this point, his fan count had already exceeded 2000.

With relatively few followers, only a handful of high-level Weibo executives, Yan Li simply started looking for acquaintances among his followers to follow back, and also to observe their Weibo accounts.

Fan Xiaopang was among the first batch of users to join. She was famous, popular, and an insider, making her a key target for Weibo's promotion. At this time, her number of followers was approaching 5000.

Although he has only been on Weibo for a short time, Fan Xiaopang has already posted two or three Weibo posts.

The first post was a somewhat official greeting, the second was a selfie, and the third was a request for followers and casual viewers to follow her, mentioning that she frequently uses Weibo, blah blah blah. Yan Li casually clicked "follow," and then searched for Li Bingbing. She had fewer followers, only a little over 3000, and had also posted two Weibo posts with roughly the same message.

Yan Li frowned slightly, sensing that the two were still a bit reserved, or perhaps they didn't quite know how to use Weibo.

This is quite normal. Even many people within Weibo don't really understand this. It's just a matter of time before we can get used to it.

We still need to look into this and send a Weibo usage guide to the celebrities or teams we work with, teaching and guiding them on how to use Weibo correctly.

A blog is a diary, a collection of essays and summaries; a microblog is a daily activity, a platform for speaking and sharing anytime, anywhere.

You can't use Weibo as a platform for blogging; you have to leverage Weibo's unique advantages.

Yan Li looked around and found that most of the others were doing the same thing, until he clicked on Huo Siyan's Weibo.

This woman doesn't have many followers, only a little over 1000.

It's not that she's not popular, but that others are more popular. The influx of celebrities has created too much buzz, diverting users' attention and resulting in a relatively scattered fan base.

Although they have few fans, they are quite active.

Perhaps Yan Li had spoken to her, because Huo Siyan was particularly active on Weibo. She probably stayed glued to her computer after registering, though she didn't post much. However, she directly chatted with her fans in the comments section.

In addition to interacting with fans, she also interacted with the Teddy Sisters group in various ways, and even created a public celebrity chat room on Weibo.

Although it was a bit off track, Yan Li was impressed by this approach of not putting on airs like a celebrity.

Weibo is all about strong interaction; it doesn't have to break down barriers, but it should at least shorten the distance between celebrities and the public.

Whether Huo Siyan did it through research or by chance, she did find the key to using Weibo.

Thinking of this, Yan Li picked up the phone in his office and called the relevant person in charge at Weibo, asking them to pay attention to Huo Siyan and to divert traffic to her if necessary.

It wasn't just Huo Siyan; after the initial surge of traffic brought by the influx of celebrities stabilized, Weibo began collaborating with some celebrities or accounts based on their performance data to cultivate top and core accounts.

The rise of Sina Blog is inseparable from the efforts of Han Han, Xu Cai Nu, and others, and naturally, microblogs should also exist.

Huo Siyan is a promising talent, but she alone is not enough.

Yan Li pondered that Deng Chao was quite cheerful and could be given a try. There were also some extroverted celebrities who could be approached. It didn't matter what people thought of them, as long as they didn't cross any lines. What he wanted was traffic.

Unfortunately, influential figures like Andy Lau and Jay Chou, who already have personal websites, tend to be more conservative about Weibo.

If we really want to hire them, it will cost a lot of money, and once that's done, things can get complicated.

Yan Li's attitude was that he wouldn't waste money if he could just use his connections; it wasn't the fiercely competitive, money-burning stage yet, so he didn't need to waste his money.

Even if competitors try to poach them, one or two individuals won't affect the overall situation; at that time, it's all about volume.

In contrast, Jackie Chan was quite accommodating and agreed immediately.

However, Yan Lizhuo considered Cheng Long's high status, so he was not included in the list of 100 Stars. Instead, he appeared as a heavyweight guest after the wave of 100 Stars joined the show.

It's better to have a few big cards up your sleeve every now and then, and to have a little surprise every now and then.

...

As the workday drew to a close, Yan Li checked the data again and realized he was already aiming for 10 users.

Nodding, Yan Li left first to begin his social engagements for the day.

Having gathered so many people on Weibo, Yan Li has accumulated quite a few drinking debts. At the same time, he's been hoping to meet and invite even more people, which has resulted in him not returning home before 10 PM once during his stay in Beijing.

Today's social gathering was quite interesting, mostly with representatives from internet companies, including Li from Baidu.

Yan Li mainly went there because of him; Baidu is currently the most popular search engine, which can bring a lot of traffic to Weibo.

After thinking it over, Yan Li also invited his younger brother, Mr. Liu from JD.com, to join him. The internet circle is a circle, and it's good to show your face more often.

When I arrived, I found that there were quite a few big names there. In addition to Li from Baidu, there was Chen from Xiaonei.com, Gu from Youku, Lei from Kingsoft who had just stepped down as CEO, Li from Dangdang.com, and Wang from Fanfou.

Many people had met Yan Li before, while others had heard of him but never met him in person.

To Yan Li's slight surprise, Boss Liu had quite a few acquaintances among them.

Come to think of it, although JD.com has only been in the e-commerce field for a short time, Liu Qiangdong himself started his business in Zhongguancun, so he is not far removed from these internet companies and it is normal for him to know them.

Since he knew someone there, he didn't need Yan Li to greet him; he went off to chat with Baidu Li on his own.

Baidu has developed very well in the past two years, especially after its listing. It has shown signs of becoming a leading force in the domestic Internet industry. Li himself is also a prominent figure in Beijing's business circles. Yan Li had known him before at some official and business meetings.

The collaboration between Weibo and Baidu wasn't something the two bosses discussed; Yan Li was more interested in having Li Kai open a Weibo account.

However, these internet business owners are also quite cautious. Who knows, maybe one day Baidu will launch a similar service. Wouldn't opening a Weibo account just be asking for trouble?

So when Li from Baidu declined, Yan Li was already prepared and took a step back, asking Baidu to open an official Weibo account.

Li from Baidu couldn't refuse repeatedly, so he agreed. Yan Li seized the opportunity and started talking about some bosses and companies that he hadn't been able to get on good terms with before.

Some were very accommodating, like Mr. Lei and Dangdang.com, who not only opened their own businesses but also agreed to let their companies open them or helped introduce other companies to do so.

There are also those who don't care about saving face, such as Renren and Fanfou, which compete with Weibo to a certain extent, so they naturally won't support the enemy.

Yan Li didn't force it, but he still tried to chat with her frequently, hoping to trigger some inside information or dirt on her.

Some people were enthusiastic about Yan Li, while others were enthusiastic about Yan Li, such as that CEO Lei.

Yan Li was a little confused about what the other party meant. It seemed that there was no room for cooperation between Weibo and Kingsoft, and their other businesses did not overlap.

But since the other party took the initiative to make friends, Yan Li didn't give them a cold shoulder. In fact, the other party adopted a humble attitude, and the conversation went quite comfortably.

Compared to bosses in other industries, those in the internet industry are mostly highly educated. Although they also drink, they drink relatively little. For Yan Li, who has been through many battles, it's not even a warm-up.

Qin, Dong, Fan, Wang and others are not in Beijing, but Wu Jiani, who runs a dance studio, is. Yan Li has been staying at her house for the past two days.

Upon entering, Yan Li saw Wu Jiani practicing yoga. She was slim and had a good figure, and she looked great in those tight-fitting clothes. Yan Li liked them quite a bit.

That's why Wu Jiani often dressed like this when she met Yan Li, and she also liked to dance and practice yoga in front of him.

When she saw Yan Li return, Wu Jiani got up, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and without changing her clothes, went barefoot to pour water for Yan Li.

Yan Li sat on the sofa drinking water, slightly raising his chin: "Don't worry about me, you keep practicing."

Wu Jiani blushed. Dancing was fine, she was used to it, but yoga had many more open poses, and she felt a little embarrassed. She usually did it with Wang Ou.

"How about I dance for you? It's a new introductory dance that we choreographed in our dance studio."

"Okay."

Yan Li didn't hesitate, and Wu Jiani adjusted her routine, prepared some music, and started dancing.

The basic dance moves are relatively simple, and they exude youthful energy.

Yan Li's eyes held a slight smile. Dealing with a bunch of old hands every day had aged him, so he needed a show like this to rejuvenate his youth.

"Teach me too."

Yan Li expressed his desire to learn, so Wu Jiani taught him. Unfortunately, Yan Li had only average talent for dance, so Teacher Wu could only take him into the bedroom for a private lesson.

---

Weibo has just been launched and is still working hard to increase its influence. The most watched event in December is still the Lunar New Year film season.

"Call for Love" was released relatively early, premiering on December 8th.

The entire premiere was live-streamed on Weibo with pictures and text, and interviews with the main creators were also conducted. Most of the main creators and the official Weibo account of the production team had opened accounts to promote and interact with the event.

After all, it's Yi An's own film, and it's definitely the movie that best fits Weibo during the entire Lunar New Year season.

"Call for Love" benefited from the influence of its predecessor, was released earlier, and was promoted by Yi An. Its box office performance was very good. Before the release of "The Warlords", it outperformed other films released at the same time and grossed about 1500 million yuan.

This data is almost the same as that of the first installment, "Love Transfer".

If they can maintain their comedic share and avoid being too affected by a few blockbusters at the box office, 3000 million should be no problem, and with luck, they could make even more.

Although the overall cost of the movie "Call for Love" was much higher than that of the first film, it also attracted a lot of advertising, so the actual expenditure of the film was very limited.

With at least 30 million in box office revenue plus other income, minus costs and profit sharing with partner China Film Group, Yi An would easily pocket several million, and with good luck, possibly over 10 million.

The revenue was much higher than Yan Li had imagined, mainly because the product placement saved money, and the box office revenue increased significantly.

After this project, Yi An's reputation for being good at producing low-budget films grew even stronger.

"Call for Love" got off to a great start, and "The Warlords," which was released a few days later, performed even better, grossing over 100 million yuan in a short period of time.

This performance is absolutely top-notch in mainland China, but unfortunately, "The Warlords" had too much ambition.

Previously, director Chen Kexin mentioned that she hoped the box office in mainland China would reach 3 million yuan, and with other box office revenue and income, the entire project would be profitable.

However, when "The Warlords" grossed over 1.3 million yuan, its box office growth began to decline, and when it reached 1.5 million yuan, the growth rate plummeted.

Despite Chen Kexin's celebratory party and the media's praise, it's clear to everyone that this film is lacking momentum, and at this rate, it's hard to say whether it will even reach 2 million.

China Film Group is starting to get angry, and Bona Film Group, which is in charge of distribution, is also having a headache.

Another major investor, Media Asia, fared better, as another film they co-invested in, "Assembly," showed a performance that was even slightly stronger than "The Warlords."

　(3000/132000)

　　
　
(End of this chapter)