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

"The music section has attracted enough visitors; the China Audio-Video Copyright Association (CAVCA) should be too busy to handle its own affairs."

"But we can't retain people. There are still too few publishers of story collections and funny pictures and texts. They're all our own people."

Looking at the data in the central office, Wang Song made up his mind and picked up the phone on the table: "Ma Xiaojun and Chen Shu have a call."

……

Ma Xiaojun stared blankly at the screen for half an hour.

In the "Funny Stories with Pictures and Text" section, 3 new posts were added yesterday.

He posted them all himself, and he even changed his own account to comment.

It's not funny at all.

He didn't know why his boss had asked him to create a curated selection of trending topics and comments, once a week.

After racking my brains, I finally decided to plagiarize.

"Wait, why is no one replying to this?" he shouted at Liu Jianjun, turning his head.

"I wrote a poem in the pear blossom style on the forum and it turned out to be very good. They must not know how to appreciate it."

Liu Jianjun didn't even look up: "Clumsy imitation? Couldn't you have searched for a collection of lame jokes?"

"That makes sense, I'll look it up."

He stared at the screen and read aloud, "How can you quiet a sparrow? Press it down, because it will be completely silent."

Liu Jianjun looked speechless. "Just read it yourself, don't read it aloud, it's kind of lame."

Chen Shu, from the other screenwriting team, also encountered the same problem.

"The story started off well, but why hasn't anyone answered the phone all night?"

"I'll do it myself; they're too narrow-minded to understand."

She didn't know why the boss wanted to pin this story relay feature at the top of the story section.

"Let me think about it~"

Just then, Jiang Yilei's voice interrupted Chen Shu's thoughts.

"Sister Chen Shu, this is the story that the music group selected from the MV writing contest that best fits the description."

"See if you can improve it."

Jiang Yilei walked over with several printed copies of the MV writing prompts.

Chen Shu loosened her clenched fist and sighed, "Put it anywhere, I'll check on it later."

Jiang Yilei shrank back when he saw Chen Shu's murderous gaze.

"Does this mean I've arrived at the wrong time?"

Chen Shu gave a kind smile.

"No, you've come at the perfect time. You've interrupted my train of thought, so..."

"You need to use a different account to continue this opening I wrote."

With a long face, Jiang Yilei joined the brainstorming problem once again.

The lively Xianming Building, usually reserved for students, was suddenly invaded by two middle school students, both over forty years old.

"Mr. Chen, is this your friend?"

Zhao Lan, holding the documents, slowed down when she saw the stranger standing behind Lao Chen.

Old Chen nodded. "Is this batch of documents to be sent for bulk copyright registration?"

Zhao Lan glanced down and said, "Yes, there are over three hundred more. The contracts and formats have all been confirmed."

She stepped aside to make way for the stranger, nodded to him, and walked away with the documents in her arms.

The man behind Old Chen remained silent, his gaze following Zhao Lan's retreating figure before sweeping across the lobby on the first floor.

I heard the sounds of playful fighting coming from the IP group.

The middle-aged man smiled at Old Chen: "Old Chen, this place is still quite vibrant."

"Fresh and alive?" Old Chen chuckled. "You mean chaotic, right?"

The man didn't reply.

Old Chen stood up, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Come on, I'll take you to see the source of the chaos."

On the second floor, the door to Wang Song's office was open.

"Mr. Wang," Old Chen walked in, "to thank you for helping me make money in the stock market, I've brought you a guest."

Wang Song smiled and put down his pen: "Oh?"

Old Chen stepped aside to let the middle-aged man behind him pass.

"This is Mr. Zhou, who owns a record company. I used to get songs from him when I was working at SP."

The middle-aged man quickly stepped forward and grasped Wang Song's hands with both of them.

"Mr. Wang, I've heard so much about you! My name is Zhou Hai. I'm here today to discuss cooperation with you."

Wang Song stepped forward. "How do you want to cooperate?"

"I run a small company. I used to be able to survive on ringback tones, but this year the telecom operators made some changes, and my income has been cut by more than half."

He spoke with a hint of bitterness in his voice.

"The China Audio-Video Copyright Association contacted me and asked me to join the association and submit my copyrights so they could manage them uniformly."

"And then?" Wang Song asked.

Zhou Hai gave a wry smile: "I want to ask, is this a path we can take?"

"Come and see for yourself what kind of place it is that can hold those people from the Music Copyright Society of China up and prevent them from moving."

Wang Song nodded, gesturing for him to sit down.

Zhou Hai sat down and took out a stack of documents, placing them on the table.

"I'm not going to beat around the bush anymore."

He pushed the ringtone forward: "These are the songs I have left, not many, seventeen."

"The singers are all signed by me; they're minor artists with little fame."

"But I funded the song myself, and I have the copyright and all the necessary authorization documents."

Wang Song pondered for a moment and then asked in return:

"If your song is uploaded to our platform, how do you plan to explain it to the China Audio-Video Copyright Association?"

Zhou Hai was taken aback. "I can neither afford to pay the fee nor dare to give out the copyright."

Even if I trusted them, I couldn't afford to. This is all I have left.

"If I throw it all away, I'll really have nothing left."

Wang Song handed the materials to Lao Chen and then flipped through them himself.

It didn't take long to confirm that they had brought all their belongings with them.

Wang Song put down the materials and asked, "What's the situation with the China Audio-Visual Copyright Association?"

Zhou Hai was silent for a few seconds: "I've heard some things from people in the industry recently, it's chaotic, very chaotic."

"The pilot program is stalled, KTVs aren't paying, and there's a lot of internal wrangling."

"Taihe keeps banging on the table, saying that if things continue like this, the China Audio-Video Copyright Association will just be an empty shell."

"A few days ago at a meeting, someone mentioned the Internet, but it was immediately suppressed."

"If you just lost the case, jumping back in would be like slapping yourself in the face."

He paused, then lowered his voice slightly: "So now nobody mentions the internet in meetings; anyone who does is considered ignorant."

Wang Song remained silent.

Zhou Hai looked at him and added, "So they act as if you don't exist."

"And you all act as if they don't exist."

Wang Song suddenly smiled. He had won, or more accurately, he hadn't lost.

He put the stack of documents away. "Advisor Chen, treat your old friend well."

Old Chen nodded. "Shall we go to the conference room to discuss this in detail?"

"Mr. Wang, I have a friend who also runs a small factory. He has over twenty songs stuck with him, just like me."

"He asked me to scout ahead first..."

Wang Song waved his hand: "Let him come. Just follow the normal procedures."

The door closed.

The office fell silent.

He was absolutely certain of one thing: the China Audio-Video Copyright Association (CAVCA) was already overwhelmed with its own problems.

Wang Song gathered his thoughts and looked at the screen in the background.

"We have an average of 13,000 visitors per day, and 30% of them listen to music while reading the story collection."

"Then 60-70% of people will go and browse the pictures and texts of embarrassing moments."

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Ma Xiaojun poked half his head in, looking distressed: "Boss, that 'Selected Top Comments' topic... I can't think of any topics."

Wang Song looked up: "Can't figure it out?"

Ma Xiaojun chuckled: "I posted three embarrassing stories, then commented on them using a different account, and then it got stuck."

Wang Song thought for a moment, "Here's what you'll do: go find a picture of a bamboo pit viper in the wild."

"The title should be: If you encounter this on the road, should you run?"

Ma Xiaojun was stunned: "And then?"

"I've already thought of a reply for you, sir." Wang Song leaned back in his chair.

"Triangles are stable, and green represents health and environmental protection, non-toxic, and no need to run."

Ma Xiaojun's eyes lit up, but then they slumped again: "But there are too few people here, even if we post it, not many people will see it."

Wang Song tapped the table: "Can't you just take a screenshot and post it on Baidu Tieba or Tianya's 'Hanging Picture' forum to attract some traffic?"

Ma Xiaojun rubbed his hands together: "Boss, could we have two more?"

"I'll tell you, and you'll remember."

Ma Xiaojun took out his notebook and wrote down the first step of the picture and text topic plus witty comments mode.

"That's enough, a month's supply is more than enough." Wang Song waved his hand, signaling Ma Xiaojun to hurry up.

He turned and ran, his voice echoing down the corridor: "Liu Jianjun, hurry! Find me a picture of bamboo viper!"

Chen Shu entered before the door was fully closed.

Wang Song, seeing her expression, asked, "You got stuck too? Did you conspire with him?"

Chen Shu nodded, then shook her head.

"Boss, I wrote three beginnings. My old readers only read two or three posts before stopping on the first two."

"No one answered the third one, even Jiang Yilei got stuck. Did I set the bar too high?"

Wang Song nodded. "I've seen it, and I was just about to tell you."

"Start with a lower pitch; all that complicated setup and character backstory is useless."

"I drove my wife, son, daughter, and a dog back to the countryside for a vacation."

"Midway through the journey, the car suddenly stalled."

"There are so many directions this can be explored; it can be suspenseful, rural, or family-oriented."

Chen Shu was taken aback for a moment, then laughed: "Well... anyone could chime in with a few words."

"And another thing," Wang Song added.

"Use the trumpet to take the lead yourself, make it a little off-key, a little outrageous, to get the atmosphere going, and then bring it back down later."

"Once you've written enough, take a screenshot of Ma Xiaojun and have him post it on other forums to attract traffic."

Chen Shu nodded: "Understood."

After the two left, the area below the small building became lively again.

Wang Song smiled and shook his head, saying that Tencent's CEO, Ma Huateng, was willing to dress up as a girl to attract users for his character, Qiuqiu.

While it's not feasible to burn money to incentivize creators when building a content community, directing and acting in one's own show isn't unreasonable.