Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 248 The second big-name internet celebrity on Douyin, Lei Jun!
After a ridiculous night, Chen Xiu arrived at the agreed-upon place 10 minutes early the next day.

Led by the waiter to the private room, after knocking on the door, it wasn't Lei Jun who opened it, but someone else that Chen Xiu recognized.

"Conserving capital?"

"Mr. Chen, it's been a long time!"

The person who greeted Chen Xiu was Zhou Shouzi, the former head of DST Investments' China region and now the CFO of Xiaomi.

When Didi was conducting its Series D financing, Chen Xiu had several in-depth conversations with him, and they both had a very good impression of each other.

After shaking hands at the door, Chen Xiu glanced into the private room, and Zhou Shouzi nodded with an unchanged smile.

After exchanging pleasantries, the two entered the private room side by side. Before they had even finished walking through the entrance hall, Lei Jun's slightly accented Mandarin could already be heard.

"Mr. Chen, I'm sorry, I suddenly invited an extra friend without telling you in advance."

Before he could finish speaking, Lei Jun greeted Chen Xiu with a beaming smile.

Seeing that Lei Jun looked a little puffy compared to their last meeting, Chen Xiu shook his hand casually.

“Shouzi and I have been friends for a long time, so it’s perfect that President Lei invited him to come along.”

"Haha! I only thought of it after we made plans yesterday. I figured you might be busy, so I didn't call you again."

Chen Xiu smiled understandingly and walked inside with the two of them.

Inside the private room, there was a large round table with baskets of Cantonese dim sum on it, and a pot of black tea with steaming white vapor in the center.

After they took their seats, Lei Jun didn't immediately start talking about business. Instead, he ate first, as is customary.

Chen Xiu, who came on an empty stomach, didn't stand on ceremony. She picked up her chopsticks and reached for the shrimp dumplings.

Lei Jun and Zhou Shouzi probably hadn't eaten breakfast, because after seeing that a third of the shrimp dumplings had disappeared, they both reached for the dumplings at the same time.

Chen Xiu had expended a lot of energy last night, so he ate his morning tea very carefully.

After the glass turntable on the large round table had spun back and forth many times, and most of the pot of black tea had disappeared, the three people at the table put down their chopsticks one after another.

Chen Xiu picked up her teacup, washing away the greasiness of the morning tea, and then looked up at Lei Jun.

"Mr. Lei, you invited me here today, it can't be just for a simple meal, right?"

"Hehe, there is something I'd like to ask you about."

Setting down his teacup, Chen Xiu nodded slightly to him, signaling him to continue.

Seeing this, Lei Jun pondered for a moment with a gloomy expression, and then began to talk about the past.

"Mr. Chen, do you remember the first time we met?"

"It's hard to forget even if you want to."

"Thinking back on what you said to me back then, I feel a little embarrassed."

"how come?"

Chen Xiu watched Lei Busi without changing his expression, but in his heart he was trying to figure out the purpose of Lei Busi bringing up the past.

Is it an attempt to appeal to emotions?
That shouldn't be the case! The relationship between the two is far from being one where you can play the emotional card. If that's not the case, then it can only be that Lei Jun is trying to get closer to him.

If someone tries to build a relationship with you for no apparent reason, even if they don't need something from you, they must at least want to ask for your advice...

Sure enough, after briefly recalling the past, Lei Jun suddenly changed the subject.

"At that time, the company's supply chain encountered some problems. Although they were resolved afterward, the new mobile phones of that year were still significantly affected. Last year, we were caught in an unexpected crisis, and our mobile phone sales share was surpassed by our competitors by a large margin."

In 16, Xiaomi's annual shipments dropped by 36%, and its market share also fell from 15.9% to 8.9%. Under the siege of the three major Chinese smartphone manufacturers (OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi), its sales ranking plummeted to fourth among domestic mobile phone brands.

However, the current situation is also closely related to the company's development strategy formulated by Lei Jun in the early stages.

While other brands are working hard to open offline stores, Xiaomi is still blindly following Apple's lead in online marketing, neglecting offline channels. It's not surprising that its sales have been surpassed.

Lei Jun himself was aware of this and took immediate remedial action.

"Mr. Lei, didn't you announce at the end of last year that you would vigorously promote the construction of ground channels and add 1000 Xiaomi direct-sale stores? I believe the situation will improve this year."

Chen Xiu offered words of comfort, though her tone wasn't particularly sincere; she was more trying to gauge the purpose of today's dinner.

However, this simple word of comfort caused a glint of light to flash in Lei Jun's narrowed eyes, as if he had finally found the key to start the conversation.

"What I want to ask Mr. Chen today is about this directly operated store issue!"

"what?!"

Chen Xiu looked at Lei Busi with a blank expression, thinking: Did you get the wrong person?
Lei Jun explained, "Yesterday morning, Mr. Chen, the live stream you hosted was a real lesson in online marketing for me."

"That's an exaggeration. When it comes to marketing, I can't compare to you..."

"It's no exaggeration at all! The idea of ​​using live streaming to sell products is absolutely cutting-edge."

"Taobao launched its live-streaming sales service last year, so it's not exactly a new idea."

Not understanding Lei Jun's meaning, Chen Xiu could only keep rejecting the high praise he offered.

Because this scene is all too familiar.

A few days ago, Chen Xiu herself used flattery to coax Ma Yun into doing live streaming. Now that Lei Jun has offered a similar tactic, how could Chen Xiu not be sensitive and suspicious, fearing that she too might be used as Lei Jun's tool?

Seeing that Chen Xiu wasn't falling for his tricks, Lei Jun paused for a moment before realizing that this approach was not working. Feeling that going in circles would be undignified, he had no choice but to be honest with Chen Xiu.

"Mr. Chen, although I'm a little embarrassed, I'll be honest with you."

"Well, please tell me."

"Xiaomi's direct-sale stores are currently being expanded at an accelerated pace, but we are also seeking a listing in Hong Kong. As Shou Zi also mentioned, this year's performance is particularly important for the company. So my idea is, could I partner with you like we did yesterday, and do a live stream to promote Xiaomi's products?"

"Huh?! You want to do live streaming too?"

Chen Xiu looked at Lei Bus with a surprised expression, finding it hard to believe the idea he had proposed.

Lei Jun nodded with a troubled expression: "To be honest, in order to speed up the promotion of directly operated stores, I even planned to go to the front-line market staff to learn from their experience, but I still feel it's not efficient enough."

"It wasn't until I watched your live stream yesterday that I realized the best way to sell is to have the person who best represents the company have a one-on-one, zero-distance conversation with the customer."

"I believe I am quite familiar with Xiaomi's products, but live streaming requires traffic and attention, so I would like to trouble Mr. Chen to step in and help me out."

Having understood the situation, Chen Xiu looked at Lei Bus with a newfound understanding.

After all that, he still just wanted to use me!

The thought crossed Chen Xiu's mind, and she began to calmly consider the feasibility of the matter and the benefits she would gain.

By bringing in Ma Yun for live streaming and using top celebrities like Liu Qianqian and Yang Mi to attract traffic... all these actions, in essence, are Chen Xiu's work for the development of Douyin.

Appearing on live stream with Lei Jun will certainly help promote Douyin and attract traffic.

However, yesterday's live stream was incredibly popular.

If another similar live stream is organized in a short period of time, and there aren't any celebrities to help attract viewers and fans, the effect will inevitably be greatly reduced.

Furthermore, the continued high exposure can also negatively impact oneself, making it a losing proposition.

With this in mind, Chen Xiu already had an answer to Lei Jun's request.

However, he did not refuse immediately. After his eyes darted left and right, a new idea came to him.

"Mr. Lei, you're wrong about one thing."

"what?"

"You just said that live streaming needs traffic and attention, so you want me to step in and support it?"

"Yup!"

"You're wrong, you're underestimating yourself when it comes to topics related to online traffic."

Seeing Chen Xiu shaking her head repeatedly, Lei Busi also became bewildered.

"Mr. Chen, what do you mean?"

"You have no shortage of traffic and popularity, but you've never paid attention to making use of it. Putting aside everything else, that one line of English song on Bilibili alone has attracted at least a million fans for you."

Chen Xiuzhen argued that he was already giving Lei Jun face by only mentioning the English song and not going into the details.

Lei Jun is aware of the netizens' teasing.

Now that Chen Xiu brought it up, he wasn't embarrassed at all; he just thought about it for a moment.

After hesitating for a moment, Lei Jun asked, "You mean I can start my own live stream?"

"Don't start live streaming right away. Give your viewers some time to adjust. For example, register an account on Douyin, complete the identity verification, and then post two or three short videos of your life every day, no, every week, to see the feedback from your viewers."

Chen Xiu patiently guided Lei Bus.

Most internet celebrities aren't worth his personal invitation to join.

But Lei Jun is still worthwhile, after all, he will be the top influencer in Douyin's industry in the future. Inviting him early can help Douyin attract more traffic and fans, so why not?

Chen Xiu's suggestion made Lei Buss ponder.

As he pondered, Chen Xiu turned his gaze to Zhou Shouzi, who hadn't said much from the beginning.

If TikTok is to be spun off and raised further funds, then it will be necessary to find someone familiar with international capital markets and with management experience...

Just then, Zhou Shouzi also looked at him, his eyes sincere and without any other meaning.

Chen Xiu nodded slightly, about to say something, but the thinker answered first.

"Mr. Chen, I think your suggestion is worth a try."

Lei Jun pinched his chin, looking somewhat eager to try.

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiu looked at Lei Jun again and said solemnly, "Then I would like to welcome Mr. Lei to Douyin! If you have any further ideas about live streaming in the future, you can contact me again, and I will try my best to help you plan."

"Definitely. There are still many things I don't know about live streaming and video shooting, and I hope Mr. Chen will be generous in giving me his guidance."

Chen Xiu quickly said no need to be polite, and then got up to shake hands with Lei Jun.

After the handshake ended, Chen Xiu thought to himself: Douyin's second top internet celebrity has been born!

(End of this chapter)