Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 409 The Fission of a Singularity User
April 20, 2007, an ordinary Friday.

Fortune Center Apartments, East Third Ring Road, Beijing.

Xiao Chen woke up to the gentle, gradual ringing of his Sony Ericsson Walkman alarm. Still half asleep, he reached for his bedside table, picked up his phone, and glanced at the time.

7:35.

get up.

As he entered the bathroom, he picked up his phone and played A-Sun's "Always Quiet".

Soothing music played around the sink, putting him in a good mood while washing his face and brushing his teeth.

He was a migrant worker in Beijing, working nearby.

Although the apartment was small, the music from the Walkman and the luxurious office building of the company he was about to go to made him feel the atmosphere of the big city all the time. He seemed to be the boy in the advertisement who was surfing in the city on a skateboard and wearing headphones.

Well, this Sony W800i is a bit pricey, but it's worth the money.

After he finished packing, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed out to work full of energy.

As I exited the elevator, I happened to see a group of workers installing a small freestanding billboard in the elevator lobby on the first floor.

The exquisite, high-definition billboard design made him stop and stare at it for a few seconds.

Against a modern street backdrop, a stylish couple, each holding a large-screen phone and smiling brightly at a camera.

The two people's phone screens displayed web pages; one screen showed a lot of news information, while the other screen resembled a QQ space, showing updates from many netizens.

Below the billboard, there are two lines of eye-catching text:

"My lord, times have changed!"

"Singularity Weibo × Kirin Smartphone"

It seems to be a joint promotional campaign by some brand.

The somewhat flamboyant mobile webpage screen made him doubt for two seconds, then he picked up the W800i in his hand, looked at it, and smiled.

What? A Kirin phone? It sounds like a domestic product, so why is the advertisement so flashy and exaggerated? That's ridiculous!

However, the existence of this "Singularity Weibo" left him with a seed of curiosity.

8:17.

Xiao Chen saw the newly posted "Singularity Weibo × Kirin Smartphone" poster again in the elevator of her company.

This experience sparked some work-related thoughts in him: his company was looking for websites to advertise its products, and advertising on new websites was generally cheaper. If this website had a certain level of popularity, would it be a cheap and affordable option?

Hmm, maybe I can include it in my work report.

He pressed his employee number on the time clock at the door, went to his workstation, turned on his computer, and with ten minutes left before starting work, he searched for "Singularity Weibo" on the web.

There seems to be very little relevant information online.

He was puzzled. The posters were put up in the elevators of his apartment and company, but there were no advertisements online.
However, the first message seems to be from an official website.

Click to enter, and a Flash animation with a sky-blue tone appears, showing a boy and a girl lying on the lawn, taking pictures of the white clouds in the sky with their mobile phones, leisurely recording the sunshine of the day.

What does that mean? A camera phone?

He found that the screen did not redirect, so he picked up the mouse and clicked it, and only semi-transparent text popped up.

[Stay tuned, launching on April 20th at 9:30 AM]

He glanced at the time, a series of question marks lingering in his mind, and closed the webpage.

9:45.

The company is already in a busy state.

Xiao Chen returned to her workstation after delivering several newly printed documents to her supervisor. While waiting for the supervisor's approval, she had a few moments of leisure.

He searched for "Singularity Weibo" again and found that many related pages had suddenly appeared in just over an hour.

The official website's URL has become very prominent, displaying more information than other websites.

——【Promotion】Singularity Weibo Official Website

Share your latest happenings anytime, anywhere! Register with your mobile phone to receive free MMS messages and view exclusive celebrity photos for free.

The following information comes from various websites:

—The entire cast and crew of "Assembly" logged onto Weibo.

——Singularity Weibo Registration Portal_MMS Gift Upon Launch Today

—Sohu IT: Experience Report | Singularity Weibo WAP Version Test

—Tianya Forum: Has anyone received the MMS from Qidian's Weibo post?
The thread kept scrolling down, filled with discussions and reviews about "Singularity Weibo," but there seemed to be no official news reports about it on major portal websites.

He was certain that these link titles were all newly appeared; when he searched just over an hour ago, the third result was still "Sina Blog".

Singularity's Weibo account seems to have suddenly become popular.

He paused on the search page for a moment before opening the official website again.

The Flash splash screen animation from before still popped up, but after clicking it, I was redirected to the official website with a sky-blue background.

The top features: Weibo (cloud-shaped logo).

Search: Who do you want to see?
Hot Recommendation: Deng Chao: On His Role as a Younger Brother in the Family

Deng Chao (verified by a verified influencer): My woman, I'll pamper her.
[Image] (Sun Li is lying on the sofa, her profile showing a comfortable expression, with a hand on her back, as if giving her a massage)

Sun Li!

Celebrity private photos!
Below is a comment section icon, displaying several comments:

Mr. Li: Celebrities' family lives are no different from ours [laughing] [laughing] I just finished my shift with my wife.
Dudu Baby: That older sister isn't even married yet! [Cursing] [Cursing]

Deng Chao (V): Hahahaha, Sun Yitiao is mine!

In an interview this year, the Southern Metropolis Daily interviewed Gao Xixi, the director of "Sweet Honey". In the interview, he revealed that Sun Li could get 90% of her scenes done in one take, so the crew members called her "Sun One Take".

This news spread widely among Sun Li's fan base.

Xiao Chen stared blankly at the reply with Deng Chao's profile picture.

The celebrity himself?
really?
But this name seems different; it has a special identifier at the end.

This was the first time he had ever seen such a way of obtaining and interacting with information, so he curiously clicked on the input box below.

Two options pop up.

Visitor comments: Text input box
Singularity User Registration: Bind your mobile phone to receive free MMS and WAP browsing.
Xiao Chen thought for a moment, then chose to register as a Singularity user, and was immediately redirected to the Singularity official website registration page.

Enter nickname: Yu Zichen's Weibo

The "Mobile Phone" section of the registration information is considered security information, and it says "You can retrieve your account via SMS".

He became cautious, entered his mobile phone number in the registration field, checked it again, and then clicked register.

Congratulations! You've become the 37105th user of Qidian!

He was very curious about what this singularity was for, but his phone almost immediately beeped with a text message notification.

It's a multimedia message:

[Weibo] × [Huayi Brothers] present together

Dear user, you have received a Weibo VIP membership: [Free access to news MMS messages for six months]!
Exclusive behind-the-scenes look at "Assembly"! Officially authorized by Huayi Brothers, bringing you previously unreleased footage from the film.

→Click to go directly to:
The image below took a few seconds to load, and Xiao Chen was still somewhat incredulous as the image gradually unfolded.

It's really free?

Don't all these services require a subscription?
The image once again drew his attention.

The close-up shows Zhang Hanyu's weathered face, covered in gunpowder and scars.

His eyes were incredibly expressive, conveying determination, persistence, sorrow, and a hint of confusion.

The background, however, was somewhat comical: Ren Quan, wearing a helmet and a worn-out military uniform, was sweeping the ground with a large broom in the background, and several other men were also working, but they were all looking at the camera, as if someone had called out to them. Among them, Deng Chao, who had just appeared on the Weibo homepage, could be vaguely seen.

The scene of several men working contrasts sharply with Zhang Hanyu's immersive performance, making it seem like behind-the-scenes footage from a film set—an inside photo that would never appear in mainstream news.

The MMS message that "first visit to the page is free of data charges" and the automatically recognized URL highlighted the website address, making him very eager to click on it.

He pressed the arrow keys, then pressed the left soft key at the URL, and a menu popped up.

Go.

It is an article.

Assembly Call - The Heroes' Waiting

Below is some information about the film and interviews with the actors, which to some extent explains the meaning behind Zhang Hanyu's weathered look in the previous picture.

Scrolling to the bottom of the webpage reveals another difference from typical webpages.

The minimalist webpage even has a comment section, and it displays two highly popular replies.

Alpaca: "Is this Dandong? I see my hometown!"

Liao Fan (V) replied: Shh~!

What coffee should I have today? Who's that actor in front of me? Their eyes are so expressive!
Zhang Hanyu (V) replied: I'm not very talented, please excuse my poor skills! [laughing] [laughing]

Xiao Chen was a little surprised. Was it the celebrity himself who replied?
He looked at the "comment" input box at the bottom of the webpage and felt a surge of excitement. He tried leaving a comment: "Weibo, great."

This time there was no login prompt, and the first comment became Guest 85452236: Weibo, very good.

He was delighted; this was the first time he had ever experienced such a smooth mobile internet connection.

"Tan Lin, I remember you like Ren Quan, right? I just found a website where you can leave him messages, and he might even reply to you!"

He remembered the female colleague behind him who was infatuated with Ren Quan, and turned his head to say something.

"Ah? Impossible?"

His female colleague quickly got up and came over; the fragrance emanating from her beautiful hair stirred his heart.

He looked at the expensive Walkman in his hand, smiled confidently, and handed over the phone: "Look!"

"Wow, it really is! Huh? Back to the homepage? First time free browsing?"

"Ok?"

"Really! Look! It's marked here! First time free!"

"Click it and take a look?"

By 11 o'clock, almost all the young people in the company were secretly browsing a website and exchanging information they had discovered.

"Haha, this is hilarious! You guys should search for Huang Xiaoming! Deng Chao must be furious!"

Huang Xiaoming's first Weibo post after logging in, tagging Deng Chao: "Your woman is clearly being pampered by me [haha]"

The picture is a still from the TV series "New Shanghai Bund" which was released at the beginning of the year, showing Huang Xiaoming holding an umbrella for Sun Li.

"Haha, look, look! Chow Yun-fat is online too!"

Chow Yun-fat (V): Young people don't understand love. Your Feng Chengcheng is soaked. Look at how the seniors hold their umbrellas. @Huang Xiaoming Below is a comparison of a still from the 80 version of "Shanghai Bund". Chow Yun-fat's umbrella is held sideways towards Zhao Yazhi.

Sun Li's portrayal of Feng Chengcheng looks so aggrieved that she appears to be crying.

The two Shanghai Bund events have joined forces, and the number of comments from netizens quickly exceeded 100,000.

Within just a few hours of its launch on Weibo, the trending topics shifted from "Assembly" (which was used to attract traffic) to "Deng Chao's Family Position" and then to "Huang Xiaoming, Chow Yun-fat teaches you how to use an umbrella".

The number of registered users has surged.

Everyone has more knowledge points, including but not limited to the following:
A new film called "Assembly" is being filmed, which tells the story of the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War.

Deng Chao and Sun Li are a couple.

The original "Shanghai Bund" was released in 80. The new "Shanghai Bund" has a 96 film version and a 07 TV series version.

Searches for related celebrities and films are also skyrocketing.

When Xiao Chen went downstairs for lunch, he was queuing in the elevator lobby.

The people in front were chattering.

"The trending topics have been updated!"

Li Bingbing and Ren Quan shared unflattering college photos of each other, reminiscing about their youth!

"Are they classmates?"

Xiao Chen noticed a group of people surrounding his colleague Han Rui, looking at his phone. He quickly opened his own phone and browsed Weibo again.

This time, the "Return to Homepage" option no longer has the "Free" icon, but the attention it receives has made him somewhat eager, so even though it requires payment, he opened the homepage without hesitation.

It's quite convenient; it redirects quickly with just one click.

To his disappointment, the WAP webpage did not display the trending topics being discussed.

"Where did you guys watch it? I can't watch it." Xiao Chen asked.

"A trending sector!"

Xiao Chen frowned: "No!"

A colleague came over to take a look: "Oh, is that a Sony phone? It can only access WAP! Han Rui's phone is a Nokia 5200, and he uses UC Browser!"

"Can I download a browser on my phone? Where can I download it?" Xiao Chen asked.

"Is yours a Sony W800i? This is a feature phone, it can't be downloaded!"

"Impossible, right? My phone costs over three thousand yuan. I've seen the Nokia 5200, it's only a little over a thousand yuan, isn't it?" Xiao Chen was somewhat astonished, with a hint of disbelief.

"It has nothing to do with the price. The Nokia 5200 is a new model, and Nokia has its own optimized JAVA software! As for Sony, it's just for listening to music."

My colleague said, giving me a look that said, "You're so outdated."

Xiao Chen was extremely sad.

He looked at his beloved phone, wanting to exchange it, but also feeling a little reluctant.

Once inside the elevator, he saw the webpage Han Rui was browsing on his Nokia 5200, which looked quite cool, but it still made him hesitate.

Xiao Chen went to the company cafeteria and ate with a group of colleagues.

The large screen TV on the wall was playing a music channel.

The screen flashed, and someone whispered, "Weibo!"

Xiao Chen looked up and saw that on the TV screen, a very thin blue light, like an circuit, had just outlined the four characters "Singularity Weibo" in the center of the screen.

A slight hum of electricity followed by a crisp "ding".

A steady male voice narrated: "The world has changed."

This sentence seems to echo the advertising slogan I saw in the elevator this morning.

Many eyes were also fixed on the screen.

The screen lit up.

A young man used a Kirin phone to capture a sunset over the city. With a light tap of his finger, the camera zoomed in on the phone screen, which appeared to be the Weibo posting interface, with the text "The splendor of this moment".

"Whoosh." A rhythmic electronic sound effect.

The screen flashed, and an office worker saw the Weibo post during a break in a meeting and quickly commented with a smiley face emoji.

"Shh."

The screen flashed again, and a famous singer took a selfie backstage and posted a message: "Concert countdown: 1 hour!"

"Shhhhh."

Thousands of comments and likes poured into the trailer like a river of stars.

All the dynamic images instantly converged, finally freezing on the clean screen of the "Kirin" phone, displaying the singer's Weibo post. The interface was clear and smooth.

The phone flips gracefully, revealing its streamlined metal body.

The narrator powerfully proclaims: "Your voice resonates globally."

The combined text of "[Singularity Weibo App + Kirin Smartphone]" appears below.

Then eight words appeared: "World in sync, right now."

The advertisement brought a moment of silence to the entire hall.

"This is a mobile phone ad? The quality is pretty good. Our company's products should take a look," a middle-aged manager said loudly, pushing up his glasses.

The young people remained silent.

The news of Weibo spread among them in the morning. Some people tried the WAP and UC Browser versions of the website on their mobile phones. Now, seeing the combination of TV commercials and that mobile phone has sparked their imagination about the future of social networking.

This advertisement teaches them how to use Weibo.

Play on your phone.

The image of a smartphone has become tangible in their minds.

Xiao Chen was slightly shocked, but he thought it was an advertisement for Weibo. A fan of international brands, he couldn't believe that a domestically produced phone could be made like this. Chewing on a piece of eggplant, he subconsciously said:

"If a phone could really be made like that, I would buy it."

This sentence is actually just his own inner monologue.

My colleague chimed in, "That's just how Kirin phones are! They held a launch event last November, with a physical demonstration! You've been browsing Weibo all morning, didn't you watch their official launch event video when you registered your account? They said Weibo evolved from some features in the comment section of the launch event!"

When Xiao Chen heard this, he noticed that his other colleagues were also looking at him.

My colleagues were giving me strange looks.

Xiao Chen was the first person in the company to discover Weibo.

"Huh? I didn't notice. I'll check in a bit."

Xiao Chen quickly finished his meal, went to his workstation, opened the "Singularity" webpage that had been sitting on his computer, found the video, and put on his headphones.

"Steve Jobs, what do you think this press conference means?"

The scene that had just appeared immediately invigorated him.

Steve Jobs! Apple's Steve Jobs!

Half an hour later, Xiao Chen was still intently staring at the screen.

Star Alliance!

Why isn't Weibo being displayed?

Oh, right, they showed it in their new ad.

Finally, they arrived at the price, a point he was increasingly concerned about.

This kind of phone must be very expensive, right?
"How about we discuss how much we should sell this phone for?"

Xiao Chen laughed. Qi Dian's boss was quite humorous; this kind of thing was negotiable.

I said, "Three thousand five hundred yuan, the same as my Walkman, can you sell it to me?"

"3265, that's our parts cost."

Upon hearing the sound, Xiao Chen thought to himself, "Sure enough, the cost is almost as high as the price of a Walkman."

"We should price it at 6000 yuan."

"5999!"

Xiao Chen's eyes darkened. It seemed she could only think about it next month; she definitely wouldn't be able to afford it when it went live on May 1st.

And it's a bit expensive, maybe we should look around some more?
"4999!"

A drop of a thousand! Xiao Chen's mouth gaped open.

"JD.com, 4399!"

Xiao Chen felt her breathing become rapid along with the emotions on site.

"Ordered from Qidian's official website, 3999!"

"Thump!" Xiao Chen slammed his fist on the chair.

Bought!

It'll be available on May 1st, so it'll be ready to get in a few days, right?
He quickly searched the official website's booking page and found that the price of 3999 was no longer available, only 4199 was left, and he could not place an order at that time.

I'm late.

Enter JD.com, and you'll easily find information about the pre-sale of the Kirin on the homepage, priced at 4399.

The pre-order option is red, indicating that you can purchase it.

The bottom also shows that 29950 people have placed orders, and 20050 items remain.

He was puzzled as to why people would buy the same product online for 200 yuan more expensive here.
I checked the comments section and found out that the price of 4199 on the Qidian official website requires you to grab a spot on May 1st, and only a portion of the production capacity is released each week, while the first batch of 50,000 pre-orders on JD.com can guarantee delivery on May 1st.

JD.com is a Beijing-based company with first-tier warehouses in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, guaranteeing delivery within 48 hours.

Users in these areas mostly choose JD.com.

The logistics for Qidian's official website are handled by JD.com and SF Express, and there are definitely scalpers waiting around. It's unclear whether you can get a ticket, and the delivery time for each region has not yet been announced.

Another way to purchase a phone is through a mobile contract. You prepay 208 yuan for a 24-month contract, and the final purchase price is 4992 yuan. The prepayment is refunded monthly. The contract package includes 1.1GB of data, 950 minutes of calls, and 120 text messages.

The choice of the big shots.

However, this was not the best option for Xiao Chen, because he learned from the comments section that Qidian had offline 3G Cube stores where he could download software and use their Wi-Fi. One of the two 3G Cube stores in Beijing was not far from him.

After reading the comments section, he returned to JD.com, refreshed the page, and found that 30065 people had already placed orders, with 19935 items remaining.

Many people were scrambling to buy them; over a hundred units were sold in just a few minutes!
He suddenly tensed up and rummaged through drawers and cabinets looking for his bank card and USB key.

I can't wait any longer, I'm placing the order!

(End of this chapter)