Restart life

Chapter 198-0195 [The Situation is Opening Up]

ByteDance.

Xie Yang pulled out a stack of printed data: "I sent three promotion specialists to Hengdian and other bases to stay for more than a month. The results were neither good nor bad. They mainly attracted some second- and third-tier artists to register on Kaixin.com. Some were willing to open mobile Weibo accounts, while others were rather indifferent."

"Zhou Jie, who played Grandma Xiaoyu in 'The Lotus Lantern,' is considered quite proactive. This is because she opened a performing arts school and can use Kaixin.com and Weibo for promotion."

"Tong Lei, who played Li Yunlong's wife in 'Bright Sword,' wasn't a big star before the series aired, so our promotion specialist was easy to reach. She readily registered an account and posted some updates. But now that she's famous, she basically stops posting updates, and when she does, it's all work-related promotional content."

"The above two categories represent the mainstream situation."

“It’s very difficult for us to get in touch with big-name actors. They have nannies or agents who always stop our promotion staff. Sometimes the production crew will even kick us out, treating us like paparazzi.”

"There are quite a few extras from Hengdian who have proactively registered Kaixin.com accounts. However, the vast majority of them have relatively cheap mobile phones, and some cannot even activate wireless value-added services. These extras are very enthusiastic about posting updates, but they all do so at internet cafes."

“Among cultural figures, they prefer to publish long articles rather than use Weibo. Li Ao wrote three articles in a month, averaging more than 2000 words each. He resolutely refuses to use Weibo. Other cultural figures are similar.”

"The fans of these cultural figures also enjoy reading long articles and have no intention of opening a Weibo account."

"Although all the artists under Tangren Media have joined Kaixin.com, only Hu Ge and Yuan Hong like to post updates. Hu Ge mainly uploads his photography works, while Yuan Hong posts his reading notes. Neither of them likes to use Weibo. Hu Ge says that he can't post clear photos on Weibo, and Yuan Hong says that the few dozen characters on Weibo affect his performance."

"Zhang Liangying's endorsement advertisement this time was very successful. In just five days, more than 600 fans opened mobile Weibo accounts specifically for her. Among them, more than 400 opened SMS receiving, and the rest opened MMS as well."

"These 600-plus people also pay special attention to other celebrities. They don't need to pay again to receive other celebrities' Weibo posts. This can be used to persuade other celebrities to post more on Weibo."

"Our next target is Huayi Music, where Zhang Liangying is signed. If we can sign Yu Quan, the number of users opening mobile Weibo accounts will definitely increase significantly."

Chen Guiliang nodded and said, "Then let's take this opportunity to contact Huayi Music."

Yu Quan and his wife are both active users on Weibo.

Chen Yufan, in particular, is a heavy user of Weibo, and he has to show off everything he does.

……

A few days later, Huayi Music.

Brokerage Director Li Xuming and Publicity Manager Zhai Jia went to find the company's General Manager Yuan Tao.

"Boss, these are some data sets provided by Kaixin.com." Li Xuming handed over the materials.

Yuan Tao used to be a senior executive at Rock Records. Two years ago, he left with Yu Quan and Huang Zheng. He founded Warring States Music Company, which was later invested in by Huayi Brothers and renamed Huayi Music Company.

This year, Rock Records sued Yu Quan and Huang Zheng for unilaterally terminating their contract, winning the first instance and applying for enforcement. The two sides will continue the lawsuit, which could last up to five years.

During the lawsuit, Rock Records launched a full-scale crackdown on singers under Huayi Brothers.

That's not all; Yu Quan and Huang Zheng are currently under a ban—banned by CCTV!

The incident began this summer when CCTV held its 7th MTV Music Awards. Huang Zheng left the stage without warning, and Yu Quan angrily smashed their trophy on stage.

Huayi Music explained that all awards had been pre-selected and the artists informed, but Huang Zheng's award was unexpectedly given to another singer. Unable to reach an agreement, Huang Zheng left in anger. To express their dissatisfaction, Yu Quan smashed the trophy.

The last-minute change of award recipients was more or less orchestrated by Rock Records; frankly, it was retaliation for Huang Zheng's defection. Since Rock Records couldn't get Yu Quan involved, they targeted Huang Zheng.

Li Xuming said, "It's difficult to reach a settlement with CCTV, at least not within a year. My plan is to try to ease tensions with CCTV and have Yu Quan attend next year's music awards ceremony as guests. They should be able to receive the award again the year after. Without CCTV's channels, and with Rock Records blocking them, Yu Quan and Huang Zheng can only promote themselves through local TV stations and the internet."

Publicity director Zhai Jia said, "In the past year, the internet has had an increasingly greater influence on celebrities. We have already partnered with the entertainment channels of several major portal websites. Kaixin001 is an emerging internet community with a continuously growing user base, and it has already become the number one website of its kind."

Yuan Tao carefully examined the information: "I understand Kaixin.com now, but what's going on with this Weibo?"

Li Xuming took out his phone: "This is Zhang Liangying's second Weibo post. She posted it while eating breakfast. The text only has 28 characters, plus a picture of beef noodles. Her ordinary fans can see this content on Kaixin.com. If you have a mobile Weibo account, you can receive SMS and MMS messages."

Zhai Jia put it more clearly: "With mobile Weibo, celebrities can post updates anytime, anywhere, and their fans can receive the messages anytime, anywhere. It's faster and more efficient than any previous media method, which is equivalent to celebrities communicating directly with their fans!"

Yuan Tao frowned and said, "Posting about eating beef noodles, especially at a roadside restaurant, won't that damage a celebrity's image and dispel that aloof and mysterious aura?"

"Mr. Yuan, what's the point of maintaining any mystery now?"

Zhai Jia said, "This year, grassroots culture is on the rise. Fans don't want mystery; they want a sense of intimacy. The more approachable a celebrity is, the more fans like them. Especially for talent show stars like Zhang Liangying, if she posts a photo of herself eating noodles at a roadside restaurant, fans will only feel that she hasn't become detached from the masses. The more interaction there is between celebrities and fans, the closer their connection becomes. If they hold a concert someday, a single Weibo post will generate a huge number of fans buying tickets!" Yuan Tao's thinking about celebrity promotion is still stuck in the era of traditional media. But he also felt that it seemed to make some sense: "Then let Yu Quan and Huang Zheng try it?"

Zhai Jia said, "Our company can also open an account."

"A company will do too?" Yuan Tao asked doubtfully.

Zhai Jia said, "Tangren Media has a company account on Kaixin.com, and they have a lot of followers. When they want to make a TV series, they can post a few hundred words and a set of stills on Kaixin.com, and thousands of fans will see it."

Li Xuming said, "I suggest that all artists under Huayi Music join Kaixin.com. If the artists are too busy, their managers can help them post updates. They should post at least one set of photos and one article per week to maintain frequent interaction with fans. They should also activate the mobile Weibo function, which the artists themselves can use to post more about their daily lives."

Zhai Jia said, "The company's accounts should also be managed by a designated person. In addition, I think we should also pay attention to the Baidu Tieba forum."

“We are now in the internet age,” Li Xuming said. “Especially since CCTV is still censoring Yu Quan and Huang Zheng, and Rolling Stone is also blocking our channels. At this time, the internet is a good breakthrough point.”

After thinking for a long time, Yuan Tao said, "Let's try it according to your idea."

Huayi Music is a subsidiary of Huayi Brothers. If they achieve promotional results on Kaixin.com, Huayi Brothers will likely follow suit quickly.

Huayi Brothers has a lot of stars!
……

"Huayi Music has joined the platform, and we're currently verifying and adding 'V' badges to their accounts." Xie Yang walked into Chen Guiliang's office with a broad smile.

Chen Guiliang was in high spirits and praised, "Well done!"

Xie Yang said, "Tangren Media saw that Zhang Liangying's mobile Weibo was doing well, so they agreed to encourage their artists to post more on Weibo and guide fans to activate the mobile Weibo function."

Chen Guiliang asked, "How many users have activated their mobile Weibo accounts so far?"

"Including artists, there are more than 1600 people in total," Xie Yang said. "Once Tangren Media and Huayi Music step up their efforts, we estimate that we will be able to quickly break through the 2000 mark."

If there are 2000 mobile Weibo users, and they only subscribe to the 8 yuan monthly SMS package, that's 16000 yuan a month. After China Mobile and China Unicom take their cut, plus various other fees, ByteDance can earn nearly 7000 yuan per month.

However, quite a few people have subscribed to the 12 yuan monthly MMS package. This is another source of income.

Moreover, as the compatibility of mobile phones from various brands improves, the proportion of users who have activated MMS will continue to increase.

To develop mobile Weibo at this stage, it's essential to leverage celebrity influence. Only those who follow celebrities are willing to spend 8 or 20 yuan per month for a subscription!
Especially after spending money, you can follow many celebrities.

This means that for just 8 or 20 yuan a month, you can follow dozens or even hundreds of celebrities simultaneously. It's much cheaper than how they used to follow celebrities.

Although the monthly profits are not much, things are gradually improving.

……

Zhuo Wei, who was working as a paparazzi for "Bigstar" magazine, is about to switch jobs to "The New Beijing News".

He had been following celebrity news and soon discovered on Baidu Tieba that Tangren Media and Huayi Music, along with their artists, had collectively joined Kaixin001.

Zhuo Wei quickly registered a Kaixin.com account and discovered that it not only featured celebrities but also the daily activities of many other famous people. Although the overall star power wasn't as high as that of the big names on Sina Blog, the activity level of these celebrities far exceeded that of Sina Blog.

Especially the photo album feature, it blows Sina Blog out of the water!

Brother Hu is practically a "photo album fanatic." This guy loves photography and uploads a set of photos every few days. He always manages to attract a large number of fans to comment on them.

Yu Quan, who recently joined the group, has already transformed into a "Weibo fanatic."

At its peak, Chen Yufan posted five Weibo posts in a single day! Even when he went out for a stroll, he would take a selfie with his phone and then describe his mood.

Zhuo Wei followed a large number of celebrities on Kaixin.com and also focused on following and opening a mobile Weibo account. It was as if a new world had been opened for him, and he wrote one entertainment article after another, leaving the editor-in-chief at a loss as to how to select articles.

This change also occurred in other entertainment gossip media. Paparazzi flocked to register accounts on Kaixin.com and didn't hesitate to open mobile Weibo accounts.

Following this, entertainment channel editors from several major portal websites also became loyal users of Kaixin001.

Then there are journalists and editors from traditional media...

(End of this chapter)