Business Closed Loop: Starting with Ringback Tones to Take Down Giants

At eight o'clock in the morning, the conference room of Xianming Building was packed.

The young man, who had been working tirelessly for over half a month, still had bloodshot eyes.

A night's rest did not completely dispel their fatigue, but everyone was full of energy.

The door was pushed open, and Wang Song walked in front, followed by Wu Yue carrying a laptop bag.

There was no grand and impassioned opening speech.

Wang Song glanced around at everyone in the room and smiled, "I'm sorry you all suffered these past two weeks."

One sentence brought tears to the eyes of many.

They stayed up countless nights, were attacked by online trolls, and had their employees poached by competitors, but everyone persevered.

When care and concern arrive, pent-up grievances can suddenly surface.

"Don't blame yourself, and don't doubt yourself," Wang Song comforted her.

"We didn't do anything wrong. Being responsible, having a conscience, and protecting creators are never wrong."

"The mistake is that some people want to use the resources of big companies to block the ladder for ordinary people to move up."

Wang Song raised his hand.

Jiang Yilei placed the prepared statement on the wall.

"To all the creators who trusted Xianming, we're sorry, we did our best."

"But that doesn't mean we've given up. We've finally found a good solution and fixed the known issues."

"In three days, the new music creation platform of Xianming will be officially launched. We promise you won't be disappointed."

"Just this?" Ma Xiaojun was taken aback.

"If we don't clarify our plan, some people on the forum are stirring up trouble, saying we're about to collapse!"

"Now that everything's clear, what's left to wonder?" Wang Song said with a smile, tapping the table.

Let the bullet fly for a while.

Old Chen nodded.

The less clearly it's explained, the greater the curiosity becomes, the higher the discussion becomes, and the louder the online buzz becomes.

As for Tencent, not knowing their hand, they dared not make any rash moves.

"Jiang Yilei, now, release this statement simultaneously across all platforms and forums."

Wang Song's instructions were swift and decisive: "No need to control the comments, no need to respond, just leave it running for three days."

"clear!"

Wang Song took a step back and looked at Wu Yue. "This is Wu Yue, our future colleague. She's still evaluating us."

"Everyone, cheer up, don't embarrass yourselves."

The studio was filled with laughter.

Wu Yue, a tech geek, had never seen anything like this before. Her face flushed, and she stood up and nodded in acknowledgment.

"Technician Wu, it's your turn." Wang Song gave up the head seat.

Wu Yue looked at everyone in the studio; they were all young people like herself, and it didn't seem like anything special.

He organized his thoughts and walked to the head of the table.

"Ahem, I'm Wu Yue, the technical lead who helped Mr. Wang build the Xianming original content platform."

Applause erupted from below.

They already knew that when the boss went out, he wasn't running away, but rather that he had seen the road before all of them.

The projector was replaced with the webpage he had spent ten days building.

"This is the Xianming original content platform."

Everyone stared in disbelief at the contents on the wall, listening to Wu Yue's eloquent explanation of the website's functions.

Their boss seems to have done something extraordinary.

……

Just then, there was a knock on the door of the small building, and the receptionist's phone call broke the silence of the conference room.

Wang Song went downstairs to greet Lao Xiong, the head of Qiandu Public Relations.

He was followed by five legal professionals in formal attire.

Old Xiong stepped forward. "President Wang, President Li sent us over to lend a hand to Xianming."

He got straight to the point, revealing all his cards up his sleeve.

After thinking for a moment, Wang Song understood Baidu's intention, given the presence of Penguin Horse Racing outside.

"Please thank Mr. Li for me. I'll remember this favor. Please have a seat for a while."

Wang Song left amidst the puzzled gazes of Lao Xiong and the others.

This doesn't make sense, does it?

Shouldn't the other party be grateful and thankful for the help we extended? Why are they so calm?

Less than half an hour.

Wang Song pushed a printed document in front of them.

"Qiandu MP3 Advanced Product Solution".

Old Xiong took it with a puzzled look, and the more he looked at it, the more shocked he became. Even though he wasn't in operations, he could intuitively understand how good this plan was.

"Mr. Wang... what's this?"

"Just a small idea," Wang Song said calmly. "Take it back to President Li. We appreciate the thought."

"We only need two experienced legal professionals to mentor these young people, and we can handle the rest."

Old Xiong took a deep breath. "Alright, since Mr. Wang has a solution, then we'll head back."

He looked at the legal team and carefully selected two people to stay in Xianming.

Wang Song nodded. "We have something good to launch in three days, and we'll need to trouble Baidu to help us generate some traffic."

After seeing off Lao Xiong and his group, everyone at the meeting was also very puzzled.

"Boss, their Baidu is pretty good, why don't you accept it?" Jiang Yilei asked, puzzled.

Wang Song thought for a moment, "The debts of gratitude are the hardest to repay; there is no such thing as a free lunch."

Wu Yue was confused. "You gave away such a great idea, what a waste of all the time I spent working on it."

Wang Song waved his hand, "This is not my original creation; people internationally are already using it."

"If we launch this feature today, everyone will know how to use it the day after tomorrow."

"It's better to repay the favor sooner rather than later."

Wu Yue didn't quite understand people's intricacies; she found cold, hard code much more comfortable to look at.

Wang Song clapped his hands. "Now, all the functions of the webpage have been introduced."

"Jiang Yilei recorded a one-stop tutorial video on web page usage, and then compiled it into text and images to be uploaded to the platform."

Jiang Yilei stood up. "No problem."

Wang Song looked in the direction of Ma Xiaojun, Liu Jianjun, and Chen Shu.

"The IP team is on standby at all times. Apart from works serialized on a certain platform, all of them need to be turned into stories on this webpage."

The IP group all nodded in agreement.

"Music team, you can continue to create what you want, and be completely free."

Yao Beina chuckled and joked, "If you don't let us write songs soon, we're really leaving."

"Zhao Lan, thank you for staying behind with your legal team after the meeting to discuss things with the legal team from Qiandu."

"How do I avoid the pitfalls of using third-party copyright registration services?"

Zhao Lan nodded deeply. This was a problem she had been worried about, but she couldn't solve it.

Finally, Wang Song's gaze swept over the finance team and landed on Wu Yue.

"Wu Yue, report your budget for servers and data storage directly to the finance department."

"You said three days, so I announced it to the outside world for three days. We, the Immortals, will accompany you."

Wu Yue made a three-pointing gesture: "I said it!"

Wang Song smiled and said, "Everyone, Tencent is using resources and traffic to force us into the race."

"Dare to race our horses?"

"We want them to know that they don't have the final say on where the horse races are held."

"Alright, we've revealed all our cards."

"Keep it up, everyone!"

The crowd was filled with excitement.

Old Chen watched the whole thing silently, and he didn't know why the corners of his mouth kept turning up.

It was as if he saw again that trader who dared to set up a hidden bid with SP.

Baidu MP3, Li Yanhei's office.

"So, not only did that young man return, but he also came up with a plan?"

Old Xiong nodded and pointed to the documents on the table.

"Mr. Li, I already read through this proposal on my way here. They're not giving us a chance to owe them a favor."

"Is it really that good?"

"Genuine or genuine."

Li Yanhei picked it up; it contained less than five pages, and he finished reading it in less than ten minutes.

He muttered to himself, "The comment section for each song incorporates the kind of interaction that's usually only found in online forums."

"Playback interface, desktop lyrics."

"Favorites, songs I like, playlist creation, loop playback, shuffle playback, and sharing."

Old Xiong added, "Each one isn't particularly innovative, but each one increases stickiness."

"Moreover, the function is extremely simple. I don't need to explain it; the technical team can develop it in a week at most."

Li Yan reluctantly closed the file.

"It's not just about stickiness; single song comments can increase the time spent on the track, which in turn increases GG inventory."

"And then there's the data. These collection and creation behaviors are even more valuable than search data."

"Now we know what he loves and how he built his musical world."

"This can feed back into the recommendation algorithm, and even... pave the way for future music subscriptions."

He leaned back in his chair, all the models forming in his mind.

"Share songs, share playlists, share screenshots with lyrics."

"This involves turning idling search accounts into registered accounts, forming social relationships, and then spreading the word a second time."

"Old Xiong," Li Yanhei concluded, his tone carrying a hint of complexity.

"These features will transform Baidu MP3 from a music listening tool into a service, and even a part of life."

Old Xiong was just a PR person, but he had completely understood from Li Yanhei's speech.

"So, Mr. Li, they're returning a favor?"

Li Yanhei shook his head. "This isn't an exchange; it's value, a show of strength, and it's worth the long-term investment."

"Alright, alright."

Li Yanhei sorted out his thoughts, "Send it to the operations and technology departments, I need to see the implementation plan tomorrow."

Old Bear nodded and left.

……

"Achoo~ Achoo~ Wu Yue, what are you babbling about?"

Wang Song paused for a moment.

"Don't use any technical jargon. Explain the underlying logic and principles of this code to me using analogies."

Wu Yue pouted, "This program uploads the entire song, but only allows a 30-second preview..."