Restart life

Chapter 346 0343 [Weibo is finally trending!]

underground garage.

Wang Shuo stood next to his car, intending to finish his cigarette before getting in.

Chen Guiliang glanced at the license plate: "You can still drive this car? They're cracking down really hard this year."

Wang Shuo casually explained, "The car and license plate were gifts from my comrades."

"Awesome," Chen Guiliang said.

Which comrade-in-arms gave you a car with Beijing military license plates? You're kidding me.

However, in this day and age, it is indeed possible.

With the Olympics approaching, everything is being regulated. More than 2000 vehicles with military license plates have been seized in Beijing, and Wang Shuo's vehicle's license plate is also on the list of vehicles to be investigated.

Damn it, they're defying the rules and still dare to drive around like this.

Wang Shuo asked, "Was your website really protested against in Hong Kong?"

Chen Guiliang nodded and said, "A bunch of stupid college students from Hong Kong are saying that Renren.com's implementation of real-name registration is an infringement of users' privacy rights. They also said that I am an official lackey who is going to collect user information and hand it over to the state, and that anyone who says the wrong thing will be arrested by people from the mainland."

"He's fucking insane," Wang Shuo cursed.

Chen Guiliang said, "Some are genuinely stupid, while others definitely took money."

Renren and HaiNei.com are already going head-to-head with Facebook in Hong Kong.

Facebook does not have a dedicated team in Hong Kong; its servers are located in Singapore, and its operations team is also in Singapore, but it allows registration using Hong Kong IP addresses. Furthermore, it only has an English interface; there are no Traditional Chinese or Cantonese interfaces available.

Renren and Haiwainet have Traditional Chinese interfaces and are currently planning to launch Cantonese functionality. The "vegetable stealing" game was deemed too outdated by Hong Kong users, so they added mini-games like "horse racing."

In January, Renren.com and HaiNei.com officially entered Hong Kong, spending a lot of money on advertising and on-the-ground promotion.

The results were very good, because Hong Kong people are used to using MSN and ICQ, and these two social networking software have a market share of over 95% in Hong Kong. However, there is a lack of SNS websites, leaving the market untapped.

With the help of Mr. Chen's photography, Haiwai.com quickly filled the gap in the Hong Kong market.

However, Renren.com has always been looked down upon by Hong Kong students.

It started with a group of Hong Kong students who used Facebook mocking Renren.com online and offline, especially their games like "Happy Farm," saying that only "mainland students" would use such outdated things.

Those students from mainland China were also disappointing. After being ridiculed for no reason, their first reaction was not to fight back, but to switch to Facebook.

The situation has now become such that Hong Kong residents who don't understand English or are not good at English use Overseas Network, while Hong Kong students and some citizens use Facebook. Campus Network is almost deserted.

Because Facebook users are generally much more educated, they relentlessly mock the Hong Kong public who use the overseas internet.

In comparison, HaiNei.com and XiaoNei.com have developed very smoothly in Macau, and they don't even need to switch to traditional Chinese characters! ByteDance is working hard to find a way to circumvent Macau's regulations and achieve data interoperability between the two websites and the mainland.

"See you later." Wang Shuo threw away his cigarette butt, waved goodbye, and opened the car door.

That's incredibly rude.

Chen Guiliang picked up the cigarette butt and threw it in the trash can. He got into his car and said to Yang Shuo, "Back to the company."

Looking in the rearview mirror, Wang Shuo saw Chen Guiliang picking up cigarette butts and chuckled to himself, "His morals are pretty noble, unlike a scoundrel like me."

Chen Guiliang had just returned to the company when he went to give an exclusive interview to a reporter from Beijing Evening News.

This newspaper is aligned with Chen Guiliang, and even preemptively criticized the Southern Media Group. The dismissal of Chang Ping, deputy editor-in-chief of *Southern Metropolis Weekly*, is highly likely due to the influence of the *Beijing Evening News*'s report.

Mr. Wu, the president of Beijing Evening News, personally wrote an article titled "Changping of Southern Metropolis Daily: The Freedom to Spread Rumors".

"Hello Mr. Chen, I am Xiao Ping, a reporter from Beijing Evening News."

"Hello, Reporter Xiao."

"This time I want to interview Mr. Chen about his work on smartphones."

"Isn't it related to the Southern Clique?"

"The higher-ups said to ignore them for now."

"understood."

The leadership of the Southern Media Group is definitely going to undergo a major reshuffle this year. However, those guys are all high-ranking, so whether they're dismissed or transferred, they'll have to go through the proper procedures.

The Beijing Evening News was quite interesting; they took the initiative to help Chen Guiliang promote HarmonyOS phones.

This is a case of finding someone you like; it's probably because Director Wu of the Beijing Evening News thinks Chen Guiliang has a firm stance and is one of their own.

Chen Guiliang naturally wanted to reciprocate, and would contact Beijing Evening News whenever there was any news, and he would not refuse any interview requests.

They rave about the phone, which is still in the research and development stage, and that's how they got this interview.

Chen Guiliang asked the reporter for President Wu's phone number, called him, and said, "Hello President Wu, this is Chen Guiliang from ByteDance."

"Haha, hello Mr. Chen." President Wu laughed heartily.

Chen Guiliang said, "I will certainly remember President Wu's kindness. Is Beijing Evening News interested in a long-term collaboration?"

President Wu asked, "Sure, how about we hold a joint essay competition this year during the university graduation season?"

“Good idea,” Chen Guiliang suggested. “The Beijing Evening News could also register an official account on HaiNei.com to promote itself to a wider audience of netizens. Articles with high monthly click rates on HaiNei.com and XiaoNei.com could also be published in a special column on the Beijing Evening News.”

President Wu said, "I'll hold a meeting to discuss it. You can also send someone to participate in the meeting so we can all discuss how to deepen our cooperation."

……

KD Community is still closed for rectification.

Who knows when it will recover?

But the toilet was blown up, and a swarm of maggots poured out, making a mess of other websites.

The talk show "Qiang Qiang San Ren Xing" was broadcast soon, and Chen Guiliang called Chang Ping a traitor by name, which prompted Southern Metropolis Weekly to publish another article refuting Chen Guiliang's remarks.

In an instant, a fierce debate broke out again, both online and offline.

Wu, the editor-in-chief of the Beijing Evening News, was clearly hot-tempered. He personally wrote an article titled "Several Factual Basis Proving Changping Was a Traitor."

Chen Guiliang's fan base grew rapidly, and the number of registered users on HaiNei.com also increased at an accelerated pace!
Of course, many new users came specifically to criticize Chen Guiliang.

Merchants were delighted by this and became more generous in bidding, taking the opportunity to spend money on advertising on domestic and international websites.

At this critical moment, in front of CNN headquarters in San Francisco, over 5000 Chinese Americans held a rally to protest CNN's inaccurate reporting and demand an apology.

A small number of other ethnic groups, including some white people, also came to show their support.

The American media collectively turned a deaf ear, not sending a single reporter, as if nothing had happened today.

"Quick, take a picture of that young man!" a reporter from China News Service shouted to the photographer.

A foreign student surnamed Liu is holding up the national flag and wearing a T-shirt he designed himself that says "I love China".

Many people were waving national flags at the scene, but this T-shirt was unique.

Liu's photo was quickly taken by a photographer from China News Service.

But before the China News Service reporter could send the news back to China, related photos had already appeared on Weibo, a Chinese social networking site, showing that some of the international students participating in the rally and demonstration were mobile Weibo users.

Due to technical limitations, Weibo posts cannot be directly forwarded at this time, but they can be reposted by copying SMS and MMS messages.

The San Francisco Chinese community gathering was at 9 a.m., but it was in the early hours of the morning in China.

A group of night owls received the Weibo message and quickly copied and forwarded it. Within just a few dozen minutes, the related images and text went viral on the Chinese internet.

Meanwhile, a reporter from China News Service was still conducting interviews at the scene.

Countless newspaper editors in China were woken from their sleep by phone calls, urging them to report back to the office immediately to revise the layout. The goal was to get the newspaper edited before 2:30 AM and then rush it to print and distribute.

Major portal websites reacted even faster, directly copying and pasting those Weibo posts and images.

Some website editors had also activated their Weibo accounts in advance, adding and contacting the Weibo users who sent back messages in order to get more on-site information.

This is absolutely big news.

More than 5000 Chinese people gathered at CNN headquarters to protest, along with other ethnic groups. The protest was related to the Olympics and a certain unspeakable event.

Absolutely deserving of a front-page headline!

The scene of the rally.

A reporter from China News Service was conducting an interview when his cell phone suddenly rang.

When the reporter answered the phone, the voice on the other end sounded anxious: "Hurry up, the pictures and text from the scene have already spread all over the internet!"

"How is that possible? The rally here isn't even over yet." The reporter looked completely bewildered.

The person on the other end of the phone said, "Someone posted pictures and text about the rally on Weibo, and all the major portal websites reposted it. It's also spread all over forums and online communities. If you delay any longer, it will only be reported in China the next day or in the afternoon. By then, this perfectly good news will have become old news!"

The reporter said, "No, Weibo doesn't even have a press license, let alone the right to conduct interviews."

The person on the other end of the phone said, "It wasn't reported by ByteDance; it spread spontaneously among Weibo users and was then cited and reposted by major websites. I heard that many newspapers are also working overtime to revise their layouts!"

The reporter felt wronged: "How could they do this? Aren't they taking away our jobs as reporters?"

It was too late. The China News Service reporter rushed back to the office, but the deadline for the midnight redesign had already passed.

The next day.

A bunch of second- and third-rate newspapers reported the news on their front pages. On the contrary, the top-tier newspapers dared not act recklessly and could only delay and wait for the official information from China News Service.

Readers were surprised to find that the news article was not preceded by "according to China News Service," but rather by "according to a message sent back by a mobile Weibo user on HaiNei.com."

Is this some kind of trendy reporting method?

People are asking what "microblog" is.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! This user growth rate..." The Weibo operations manager exclaimed excitedly, swearing repeatedly.

More than two years after its launch, the mobile Weibo app has only accumulated over 70 users.

From midnight to noon, the number of new cases surged by 38!
It's still rising.

Netizens with both money and free time quickly registered for mobile Weibo accounts and subscribed to SMS and MMS monthly plans, attempting to contact participants in the rally and obtain firsthand information directly from Weibo.

The first user to post a Weibo message at the rally saw their follower count surge to over 40.

This person was so excited that he kept editing pictures and text to post on Weibo to return to China—mobile phone charges skyrocketed because he needed to use overseas roaming services to post on Weibo.

"Weibo users have exceeded one million just like that?" Huang Xinyuan, the SP manager, said in disbelief.

Chen Guiliang was already secretly delighted: "That's normal. We should strike while the iron is hot, plan Olympic activities, and encourage netizens to post Olympic-related Weibo posts anytime, anywhere. The slogan for the activities will be: My Olympics, My Weibo."

"Furthermore, we collaborated with Beijing Evening News on an Olympic essay contest. In addition to cash prizes, winners also received specially customized 'I Love China' T-shirts."

Huang Xinyuan said, "That T-shirt is definitely going to be a hit."

Chen Guiliang called Bian Guanyue again: "Have your cousin make some T-shirts urgently, the 'I Love China' T-shirts that are very popular online right now."

“Okay, I’ll make the call right away,” Bian Guanyue said.

A photo of a Chinese student surnamed Liu holding up the national flag made the front page of dozens of newspapers. In particular, the photo of him wearing a T-shirt he designed himself that read "I Love China," even though the low resolution printing made it very blurry, did not diminish the love that Chinese people had for this T-shirt.

Those with a keen business sense have already begun production.

This T-shirt was absolutely a nationwide sensation around the time of the Olympics. And in the decade or so that followed, it would occasionally resurface and become popular again.

In the following days, media outlets across the country reported on the Chinese community rally.

Southern media outlets are still courting disaster!
First, the Southern Metropolis Daily's international edition selectively presented some facts, downplaying the political nature of the incident as much as possible.

Next came a front-page report in Southern Weekly, which was then carried out on page three. The headline was particularly sarcastic: "Protest Scene in San Francisco - When Patriotism Becomes an Emotional Necessity."

Southern Weekly openly criticized this patriotic sentiment, saying it would obscure people's rational understanding of the operating logic of Western media—in other words, it was saying that CNN's distorted reporting had its reasons, and that Chinese people going to protest was just reckless.

The article also stated that slogans like "Down with CNN" are overly emotional, and that protests should be rational.

The leaders of the State Administration of Press and Publication were finally angered and issued a strongly worded regulatory opinion.

Southern Weekly was forced to recall that issue of the newspaper (which had not yet been sold), and the online version was republished after being edited.

As time went by, the related news gradually cooled down, and traditional media actually began to discuss Weibo: "The role of emerging Internet tools (Weibo) in news reporting".

The number of Weibo users continued to grow, reaching 180 million in just one week thanks to Chen Guiliang's opportunistic promotion.

Using Weibo has suddenly become a sophisticated trend!
(End of this chapter)