Restart life

Chapter 347 0344 [School Anniversary]

The fact that a bunch of second- and third-rate newspapers in China are using Weibo posts as their front-page headlines has caused quite a stir in the media industry.

The relevant newspapers have received stern warnings!
This was followed by various meetings and discussions, and detailed regulations were quickly formulated:
First, major political and diplomatic news must be reported using official news agency press releases and no third-party information may be used.

Secondly, in general international events (such as this gathering of Chinese people), the use of third-party information should be approached with extreme caution. Moreover, before using such information, it must be verified through official channels (such as by contacting the local embassy for confirmation).

Third, for non-sensitive areas (such as overseas cultural tourism), third-party information can be used, but it must be labeled "unverified".

There were similar regulations before, but they weren't explained in such detail and didn't cover internet tools like Weibo.

A professor from Peking University's School of Journalism and Communication quickly came to ByteDance, wanting to learn the details of the incident.

A few days later, Professor Xie, the vice dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, said in a lecture to students of the Department of New Media and Internet Communication: "'New media' has existed for more than 40 years. The person who coined this term was P. Goldmark, the inventor of the phonograph and electronic video recording. What was new media at that time? It was electronic video recording and related applications..."

"The term 'new media' used to specifically refer to portal websites a few years ago. Now it has changed again; the UGC model allows ordinary people to generate news content. Especially with Weibo this time, it has created a rapid interaction between new and old media... Of course, this is against the rules..."

"For the news industry, this is a historic landmark event. We are all witnesses to the history of journalism... Ten or twenty years from now, journalism textbooks will definitely mention that newspapers using Weibo posts as front-page headlines symbolizes that the internet and new media have entered a new stage..."

As Professor Xie said, Weibo has absolutely made history this time.

While new media platforms have existed before, they all required journalists to conduct interviews, and these journalists were essentially employed by the websites. This time, however, netizens have taken over the role of journalists and have even formed a collaborative network with traditional newspapers.

A large number of reporters rushed to open Weibo accounts and were unusually active. They wanted to attract more followers and then ask them to provide more news leads in the future.

Although regulations prohibit the use of foreign news information indiscriminately, domestic news can be used freely. At most, when encountering sensitive news, reporters might conduct an on-site investigation.

Nowadays, many journalists spend their free time browsing Weibo (and text messages), searching for news leads from a wide variety of content.

"I have some news to announce: HaiNei.com became profitable last month!"

As soon as Chen Guiliang said this, all the employees cheered.

In the past few months, ByteDance's revenue and expenditure have become increasingly balanced, and Weibo finally kicked the door to profitability.

Weibo is a paid service!
You need a monthly SMS or MMS subscription to receive Weibo content.

As for the "I Love China" T-shirt design, ByteDance also turned it into profile pictures and emojis. However, since it's all free to use, charging for it is likely to cause controversy.

Many users on Renren and HaiNei.com are now following the trend and using "I love China" as their profile picture.

Some netizens who are good at art and Photoshop made slight modifications to the pattern, creating a redesign that was different from others.

Chen Guiliang called Chang Zhongxiang over: "They've issued a profit forecast in the US, announcing that HaiNei.com has achieved profitability. Let's see if that can boost the stock price."

"I'll do it right away!" Chang Zhongxiang said with a big smile.

ByteDance's stock price didn't fall to the point of triggering a buyback agreement; in fact, it even rebounded slightly for a few days.

This really surprised Chen Guiliang.

The financial sector suffered the most, followed by the real estate sector, then the industrial sector, then the consumer discretionary sector... and finally the IT sector.

Take the first week of May as an example: the stock prices of Apple, Microsoft, and Visa all rose. Google, despite its dismal earnings report, only saw a slight decline.

The poor performance of financial and real estate stocks makes IT stocks seem like a worthwhile investment.

However, Chen Guiliang was already preparing for the share buyback and had held a meeting with the shareholders.

ByteDance didn't have the money, so Youke naturally provided the funding.

This operation is very complicated, and you can easily violate the rules if you're not careful.

Specifically, ByteDance will launch a capital increase and share expansion plan, determining the issuance price, quantity, and use of funds. Youke will subscribe to the newly issued shares of ByteDance with cash. ByteDance will then use these funds to repurchase shares on the market.

This would dilute the equity of existing shareholders, but in the current situation, no one cares about equity; everyone only cares about the value of their shares. All shareholders unanimously agreed to increase capital and expand shares.

……

In early May, the Peking University campus was bustling with activity.

Because of the school's 110th anniversary.

On May Fourth, even graduates like Ao Yanchen, Guo Feng, and Dong Qianqiu wanted to ask for leave to go back to school to participate in the activities.

It was during the May Day holiday, so saying I was taking leave was just a way of saying I didn't have to work overtime.

Chen Guiliang rode his bicycle around the campus, seeing all sorts of activities along the way, with various student clubs already taking action.

"Master Chen!"

Chen Guiliang turned his head and saw that it was his old high school classmate Wu Meng calling him from the roadside.

Chen Guiliang braked and rode past: "You're a senior and you're still participating in club activities?"

Wu Meng said, "I was doing an internship, but I came back to school to revise my thesis and also participate in the school's anniversary celebration."

"Where will you be interning?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Wu Meng said, "The Commercial Press."

Chen Guiliang exclaimed, "Awesome!"

In Chen Guiliang's memory, Wu Meng seemed to have gone abroad and eventually settled in Lijiapo.

I don't know which year they went abroad.

Wu Meng said, "Interning at the Commercial Press is so boring. Is your company still hiring?"

“Yes, we are hiring, especially at ByteDance. You are welcome to apply,” Chen Guiliang said. Wu Meng replied, “Then after my internship at the Commercial Press ends, I will apply to your company. I don’t need you to pull strings; I will get in based on my own merit.”

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "Okay."

The school anniversary celebration will officially begin tomorrow, but various school activities have already started ahead of time.

Everywhere you can see alumni strolling around, some of whom are even elderly people who went to Taiwan and then immigrated to the United States decades ago. Despite their advanced age, they still fly back and are being helped around the campus by younger people.

Chen Guiliang rode his bicycle to the dean's office: "Is the speech finalized?"

Dean Zhu handed over a draft: "It's settled. The Student Affairs Department and the School Youth League were very frustrated with the changes and revised it three or four times."

This is Chen Guiliang's speech as a student representative at the school's anniversary celebration.

After being submitted to the department, it will go through five review processes.

Don't talk nonsense!

Because a large number of leaders will be attending, CCTV reporters will also be there, and they will even be featured on the evening news program "Xinwen Lianbo".

Chen Guiliang glanced at the speech and couldn't help but complain, "What's the difference between this and rewriting it? It's all perfectly correct platitudes."

Dean Zhu said irritably, "Don't act innocent after getting the benefit. Do you know how fierce the competition is? There are plenty of outstanding students at Peking University. I've risked my reputation to help you get this opportunity."

"Hehe, thank you, Dean." Chen Guiliang didn't really care.

Dean Zhu said, "Take it and practice it carefully. If you can't memorize it, read it from the script tomorrow, and you can't mispronounce a single word."

“Okay,” Chen Guiliang replied.

After finishing the business, Dean Zhu started chatting casually: "You've had quite a big falling out with the Southern Clique."

Chen Guiliang said, "If you don't like something, just write an article to refute it. My first article didn't contain any swear words; it was all about presenting facts and reasoning. Those filthy maggots kept chasing after me and cursing me, so I had no choice but to fight back."

"Take it easy, you're a businessman," Dean Zhu advised.

Many celebrities have been involved in this online feud, and Chen Guiliang is just one of the more well-known ones. He's not particularly outstanding and doesn't have to bear the brunt of the attack alone.

Damn it, the war of words is still going on. The Southern Media Group is really like a dead pig that doesn't fear boiling water.

However, Chen Guiliang was very pleased because the Kaidi Community was still closed for rectification—judging from the situation, the rectification could continue until the end of the Olympics.

After leaving Dean Zhu's place, Chen Guiliang returned to his dormitory to catch up with his classmates.

Of the more than 140 students who entered the Yuanpei Class together, three are now interning at Chen Guiliang's company. One of them was even the top scorer in the provincial exams. It's unclear whether they'll want to stay.

There's a college event tonight.

Chen Guiliang had to attend, because apart from the graduation ceremony, this was probably the last reunion of his classmates.

After the event ended that evening, Chen Guiliang treated everyone to a late-night snack.

They were all drunk and confused, and many students broke down in tears.

The following morning, I attended the school anniversary celebration.

Security at the conference entrance was very strict, similar to airport security, indicating that some important figures were present today.

There were many middle-aged and elderly people inside, who were probably invited alumni.

Chen Guiliang glanced around and saw several familiar faces, all of whom he had only seen on television before.

A guy dressed as a reporter wandered around with a camera, snapping a picture of any celebrity he saw, then approaching them with a grin to strike up a conversation.

This fellow ran into Chen Guiliang and clearly recognized him, but pretended not to see him.

They walked right past Chen Guiliang.

Famous public intellectual: Donald Duck!

This man went to photograph wild giant pandas in 1988, and spent four months in the Hoh Xil no-man's-land in 1990. He then infiltrated Iraq alone, navigating between the warring parties. He then spent two or three years in the Middle East. In 1995, he went to Shennongjia to search for the "Yeren" (wild man)... His experiences are incredibly diverse; he even suffered from nuclear radiation exposure on the battlefield.

As a reporter for New H Agency, Donald Duck actually compared Emperor Guangxu to the teacher and concluded that Emperor Guangxu built the country better than the teacher.

Outrageous statements!
This guy can even be an Olympic torchbearer.

"Hello, Senior Brother Tang!" Chen Guiliang took the initiative to shake hands.

Hey, the more you don't want to deal with me, the more I'm going to have a chat with you.

Donald Duck looked puzzled: "Who are you?"

Chen Guiliang said, "I am Chen Guiliang from the class of 04. Senior Brother Tang is an alumnus. I didn't expect him to come back to our alma mater today."

Donald Duck seemed not to recognize Chen Guiliang: "Oh, hello, hello."

Chen Guiliang said, "You seem to have insulted me online?"

Donald Duck stopped smiling: "That's just normal discussion!"

"Heh," Chen Guiliang said in a low voice, "Are you discussing your dad? Normally, but you're using profanity in a discussion?"

Donald Duck's face darkened: "Don't cause trouble today, let's practice one-on-one another day!"

(End of this chapter)