Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 111: Guarantee and Douyin Promotion Plan

"Ding-dong~ Ding-dong~~"

Chen Sicheng, wearing pajama bottoms, opened the door with annoyance at being woken up.

Chen Sicheng paused for a moment when he saw Wei Feng and Chen Zhixi standing side by side outside the door, and then a lewd smile appeared on his sleepy face.

"Hey, are you two planning to go public?"

"Tsk."

Chen Zhixi glared at Chen Sicheng, her face contorted with malice, and said, "Shut your stinking mouth!"

"Okay, okay, I was just talking nonsense because I wasn't fully awake. May I ask what brings the two producers here to see me?"

Chen Sicheng raised his hands, looking at the silent Wei Feng with a mocking expression.

In his understanding, this current situation meant that Wei Feng had asked Chen Zhixi to mediate their disagreement from the early hours of the morning.

If that's the case, Chen Sicheng would be happy to give Chen Zhixi face, since they're all in the same industry.

However, Wei Feng's first words directly overturned his guess.

"Director Chen, based on the doctor's diagnosis and the joint opinion of Producer Chen and me, we believe that your recent work stress has affected your health. You will need to stay in your room and rest for the next four days!"

"No, what do you mean?"

Chen Sicheng frowned, somewhat unable to process the amount of information conveyed by Wei Feng's long string of words.

"you do not understand?"

Wei Feng revealed a deliberate look of disdain as he explained, "It means that you don't need to go to the film set for the next four days. You can just stay in your room and 'recover'."

"recuperate?"

Chen Sicheng repeated those two words with a blank expression.

He had considered many possibilities, but he never imagined that he would be asked to stay in his room and rest...

After a moment, Chen Sicheng realized what was happening, and his face instantly darkened: "You mean, I'm being restricted in my freedom and confined to my room, is that right?"

"Restricting freedom? Confinement?"

Wei Feng looked at Chen Sicheng with an exaggerated expression, then shook his head with a sneer before he could lash out.

"No, no, no, you misunderstood! It was the doctor's advice to keep you in the room to 'recover,' and it was also a personal concern of Producer Chen and me. If you want to go out, of course you can, but the crew has just increased security measures and won't allow any colleagues who are unwell to enter."

"You keep saying I'm sick, but I'm asking you, what's wrong with me?!"

Chen Sicheng sternly questioned Wei Feng.

However, Wei Feng only used two words to shut him up.

"Heatstroke."

"You!"

Breaking through his guard and swearing, Chen Sicheng almost wanted to punch Wei Feng in the face.

He really wanted to ask this bastard, "Is it strange to get heatstroke when filming outdoor scenes in a place like Bangkok?"

Since June, haven't three or four people on the crew been suffering from mild heatstroke every day? Why is it that when it comes to him, he has to stay in his room to recuperate? Do they really think he, Chen Sicheng, is some kind of popsicle?

Looking at Chen Sicheng's flushed face and Wei Feng, who was also quite angry this morning, he felt a surge of satisfaction!
After he finished enjoying himself, he remembered Chen Xiu's instructions and continued, "Director Chen, if I remember correctly, the day before yesterday when you were filming, you said you felt a little dizzy and even got some Huoxiang Zhengqi Water from the crew doctor, right?"

"I had a bit of heatstroke at the time..."

"That's fine! For your health, please stay in your room and rest for the next four days."

"His~~"

Staring at the infuriating Wei Feng, Chen Sicheng remained silent for a moment before suddenly bursting into laughter.

"Hahaha! You're letting me rest, but what about the crew? Are you going to be the director, or is Zhixi going to direct?"

"I won't bother you with that."

Wei Feng shut Chen Sicheng down with a single sentence, then turned to look at Chen Zhixi under his questioning gaze.

"Sister Zhixi, we've already delivered the message, so let's not disturb Director Chen's rest, okay?"

"Okay. Let's go then."

After speaking, Chen Zhixi glanced at Chen Sicheng.

She actually had a good relationship with Chen Sicheng, but before she came over, Wei Feng had already persuaded her, so choosing to take sides wasn't that difficult.

Wei Feng turned around directly, ignoring Chen Sicheng's murderous glare, and walked out of the room side by side with Chen Zhixi, just like when they came in.

Wei Feng closed the door behind him and walked all the way to the elevator before stopping.

"Sister Zhixi, I need to make a phone call."

"You need to report to your boss? Okay, I'll be going now."

Chen Zhixi glanced at Wei Feng, nodded, and stepped into the elevator.

Once he was alone, Wei Feng took out his phone and reported everything that had just happened to Chen Xiu.

"OK, you did a good job. I'm on my way to the company now, and I have some time to go. Let's review what happened today."

"Um, boss, I really didn't perform very well today."

"for example."

"You've already told me about the possible scenarios, but I wasn't prepared at all. Instead, after things happened, you're left to clean up the mess..."

"wrong."

Chen Xiu's voice was concise and powerful, yet it puzzled Wei Feng.

"What's wrong?"

"I entrusted the crew to your care because I trusted your abilities. I explained the scope of the work and potential risks in advance, also because I believed you could handle it properly. In fact, your approach was correct. The only problem was that you were worried about not being able to take responsibility for the consequences. But since I entrusted the work to you, it means I will cover all the consequences. Do you understand?"

"understood."

"You're inexperienced, so I'll let it go this time. But if you contact me again for something this trivial, you'll have wasted all this time with me."

Chen Xiu's tone suddenly softened, and her originally harsh words turned into a joke at Wei Feng.

Wei Feng nodded repeatedly in agreement, understanding that Chen Xiu was intentionally training him.

"Boss, there won't be a next time."

"OK, I'm at the office. You can get back to work."

As Chen Xiu's voice faded away, Wei Feng put away his phone and walked into the elevator with a determined look in his eyes.

On the other side, Chen Xiu, who got out of the car, told Xiong Ben to take the peaches she had just picked with him, and briefly recounted Wei Feng's story.

In response, Xiong Ben only asked one question: "Boss, you're not going to let Chen Sicheng get away with this, are you?"

"Heh, Xiao Feng treated him to an appetizer, so as the boss, I can't be stingy."

Chen Xiu chuckled, then led Xiong Ben into the elevator of Yingdu Building and headed straight for Douyin Company.

The receptionist at the company already knew Chen Xiu, and when she saw him come in, she greeted him sweetly as he said, "Hello, Mr. Chen!"

Chen Xiu, who was friendly to strangers, naturally didn't put on any airs of a boss with them: "Hello, I came back in a bit of a rush and didn't prepare any gifts, so I just picked some peaches at home. Would you like to have some with me?" "Thank you, Ms. Chen."

The young lady smiled happily. Although it was just an ordinary peach, she always felt something different when she received it from Chen Xiu.

After handing out the first peach, Chen Xiu didn't linger at the door. She went straight into the product development department and greeted the programmers who had been working overtime for several days, debugging the beta version of Douyin.

"Everyone, come and get your peaches when you're done with your work!"

"Xiao Xiu, you're back?"

Suddenly, a bird's-nest hairstyle popped out from behind the computer screen.

Chen Xiu looked closely and realized it was Su Yu.

"These peaches are all grown at home. Please distribute them to them later. I'm going to check on Sister Xiaoxiao. I'll treat you to dinner later."

"If you want to see my sister, just go downstairs to the ByteDance store. Zhang Yiming has taken her to a meeting."

"Oh, okay."

Chen Xiu nodded silently, then asked Xiong Ben to stay and distribute the peaches to them. She picked out a few more herself and took them downstairs.

……

In Zhang Yiming's office at ByteDance.

Looking at the few peaches on the fruit bowl, their green skin tinged with red and water droplets still clinging to their surfaces, Zhang Yiming felt a strange sense of happiness.

After thinking about it carefully, he realized that this was the only "gift" Chen Xiu had brought when he visited him many times over the years, and he had even washed the peaches himself.

Zhang Yi pursed his lips, a hint of disdain rising within his easily satisfied heart.

"Old Zhang, want some peaches?"

"Eat, eat, eat!"

Reaching out to take the peach from Chen Xiu, Zhang Yiming felt even more disgusted with himself.

After glancing at Zhang Yiming's strange expression, Chen Xiu handed another dried peach to Su Xiao, and then wiped one for herself.

The first high-level meeting before the release of the Douyin beta version started with the three of them eating peaches and talking.

"In April, 58.com and Ganji.com also announced their merger, and there are rumors that Meituan and Dianping are in talks to merge..."

Zhang Yiming stopped, swallowed the peach in his mouth, and said, "Including Didi and Kuaidi, there have been three major mergers in the O2O field this year."

"There's also Tencent Literature's acquisition of Shanda, and Ctrip and Qunar are also negotiating a merger. This year can be considered the year of mergers in the internet industry," Chen Xiu added, picking up the conversation.

Although he was busy filming, he didn't neglect anything related to the internet industry.

Hearing their reflections, Su Xiao wiped her mouth with a tissue and began to offer her analysis.

“Since last year, the growth of the domestic mobile phone market has stagnated, which means that the incremental market is becoming saturated, cheap data traffic is disappearing, and it is becoming more difficult to acquire new online users. A single niche market can no longer accommodate two oligopolies.”

"Clap clap clap!"

Chen Xiu had a peach in her mouth, clapping her hands gently, her movements natural, her eyes sincere.

Su Xiao, who was usually serious, subtly curled the corners of her mouth.

Zhang Yiming, who was standing to the side, was stunned. He thought to himself, "Damn, you're so good at flirting. I've never seen you teach me before!"

Having provided emotional value, Chen Xiu took the peach out of her mouth and gave her summary.

"The second half of the internet era lies in the realization of the average value of users, that is, the competition in the existing market. Before big data and artificial intelligence achieve breakthroughs, personal self-media will become the next big trend."

"Your theory has many supporters in the industry, but monetization of self-media is difficult and its scale remains limited."

Zhang Yiming adjusted his glasses and offered a rational analysis.

There are also many self-media bloggers on the Toutiao app who make money based on the number of views their articles receive, but judging from the backend data, the scale is indeed not large.

"Monetization comes down to user volume. There are definitely more people watching short videos than reading text. If our app has 100 million daily active users, are you still worried about not being able to monetize?"

"1 million daily active users? Are you talking about QQ?"

"Isn't QQ worth anything?"

Chen Xiu's question left Zhang Yiming speechless.

However, on second thought, if Douyin app can be as successful as QQ, as a short video sharing software, it seems that there are more ways to monetize it than text-based and social apps.

Even without Chen Xiu's precognitive advantage, Zhang Yiming's own internet thinking is excellent enough.

After Chen Xiu's provocative request, he had already glimpsed a corner of the grand scale of the Douyin app.

"Getting back to the main topic, the Douyin beta version will be officially launched in the next few days. Currently, our only promotional method is advertising on websites and the App Store. Do you think there are any other more efficient ways?"

Zhang Yiming threw away the peach pit after eating, rubbed his hands with a tissue, and his eyes darted back and forth between Chen Xiu and Su Xiao.

His act of deliberately waiting for Chen Xiu and Su Xiao to ask him, when he clearly had something to say, was really a bit obnoxious.

Chen Xiu sucked on her cheek, glanced at Zhang Yiming, and said, "You wouldn't be suggesting we use Didi's channels for advertising, would you?"

"Right now, Didi's traffic is the best besides Tencent and Ali. Don't you think this is a great way to promote it?"

"Are you seriously ill?"

Chen Xiu didn't hold back in her criticism, completely rejecting Zhang Yiming's suggestion.

However, Su Xiao had a different opinion: "Although we've left Didi, normal business dealings won't be affected. If we want to promote the Douyin app, Didi is indeed a good channel, and I can talk to them..."

"Hey, that's more like it!"

"No! Don't look at me like that."

Chen Xiu threw away the peach pit and explained to Zhang Yiming, "I have no psychological burden about Didi. I just thought of a better way to promote it."

"I don't quite believe the first half of your statement. Tell me about the second half."

Zhang Yiming's吐槽 (tu cao, a Chinese internet slang term for sarcastic or critical remarks) was only a second slower than Chen Xiu's.

Glancing at this brooding tech geek, Chen Xiu didn't bother arguing with him and simply discussed her promotion plan.

“The most direct way to spread information is through film and television works. I’ve taken on a TV series that will start filming next month. It’s a modern urban campus romance and entrepreneurship drama. If I can integrate Douyin app ads into this TV series, wouldn’t the effect be better than Didi?”

Chen Xiu's idea of ​​advertising the Douyin app in the TV series "Love O2O" was to achieve three goals at once.

First, he can use this drama to complete the system's tasks and increase his popularity and status.

Secondly, Douyin app can successfully promote itself to young users when the TV series airs next year.

Third, leveraging the advantages of the advertising platform, securing a supporting role for Meng Ziyi would be a piece of cake.

By cooking a fish in three ways, Chen Xiu has truly extracted all the value from a hit drama.

The impact of a phenomenal hit drama on the audience is enormous; film and television dissemination is always a powerful tool for promotion!

However, after hearing Chen Xiu's proposal, Zhang Yiming's doubts and criticisms still arrived, albeit belatedly.

How do you know this show will be a hit after it airs?

"Tsk, can't you have a little more faith in me? Besides, it's not like we can't afford a few million in advertising fees!"

(End of this chapter)