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

The three-day registration period passed in the blink of an eye.

They left behind traces of 1,400 people, accounting for 70% of the total students at the Central Academy of Drama.

The submission status remained at 432.

"This one won't do, it's politically sensitive." She clicked the mouse, added a comment, and returned it.

"This one won't do either; it's too gory and has a strong connection to organized crime." (Return to previous post.)

"This one..." She looked at it carefully. Although the quality wasn't great, it passed the compliance test.

Ma Xiaojun leaned closer, "So fast?"

"It's not about reviewing quality, it's about reviewing red lines," Chen Shu said without looking up.

Leave the quality issue to the market and to the teachers.

Their job is to prevent the immortal name from sticking to the pan.

At 2 p.m., a young man in his early twenties stood at the door.

He was clutching a brown paper document bag tightly in his hands, his face showing a hint of unease.

"Excuse me... is this part of the Immortal Name Culture?"

The receptionist greeted me: "Yes, who are you, student? Registration has already ended."

The boy shook his head. "My name is Tian Yusheng. I graduated from the Department of Dramatic Literature in 01 last year."

"I heard you've co-organized an essay contest with your alma mater and are about to start filming a movie, so I came to try my luck."

The receptionist was unsure, so she dialed Wang Song's number.

Wang Song personally received him.

Half an hour later, Tian Yusheng came out, his steps much steadyer than when he came in.

……

On October 26, 2006, the submission period ended completely, and the results were released for public review.

The essay voting channel will open soon.

At 8:00 AM, outside the photography studio in the East District of the Central Academy of Drama.

A red banner with white lettering was unfurled, rustling in the wind.

Ma Xiaojun stood on tiptoe to stabilize the position again.

Old Zheng, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, was squatting next to the light fixture, checking the wiring, muttering, "Don't let it break down."

Wang Song stood at the front of the crowd, while Ding Ruru gave him instructions.

"This is their graduation play, and it's a script that Teacher Chang Li has read."

"Saying 'good luck with the start of filming' is just empty talk. Focus on making a good film and don't tarnish the reputation of the Central Academy of Drama."

Wang Song smiled and said, "I'm determined to win."

He looked over at the acting class led by teacher Chang Li.

Bai Baihe and Wen Zhang were being scolded, Yang Shuo and Tang Yan were honest and unassuming, and Tong Yao was like a transparent person in the corner.

It seems to be a competition among teachers to see who can best teach.

Tian Yusheng stood at the edge of the crowd, clutching his script for "Ex-Files".

Perhaps if I had been more charming and sweet-talking back then, I could have received the same support from the school.

It's not that bad; they submitted applications to so many film and television companies.

It was rejected because of a student's work, which was deemed inappropriate for serious writing.

And now, it seems there really is a chance.

He looked at Wang Song, who was full of vigor and confidence on the stage.

"Thank you all for being willing to go crazy with us students this time."

See you at the cinema on New Year's Eve.

After Wang Song finished speaking, he took the clapperboard from Ma Xiaojun.

"Scene 1, Shot 1 of 'Love is Not Blind'"

"Smack."

The clapperboard fell, making a crisp, loud sound like a clarion call.

Almost at the same second, inside the Immortal Name Pavilion, Wu Yue pressed the full activation button for the essay submission channel.

The "Central Academy of Drama x Fairy Name Original Story Writing Contest" is now fully online.

Those browsing the webpage saw it, but those not browsing didn't know.

But the news is getting out.

In a rented room in Hangzhou, a young man named Chen Xu is surfing the internet.

"Wow, she's only twenty years old and she's already running a company and making movies."

"I'm still messing around with my dick at twenty, it's really infuriating to compare myself to others."

He switched pages and slammed his hand on the keyboard.

"Grass!"

His novel, "The Young Stock God," which he had been serializing on Tianya for a long time, was locked by the moderator once again.

The reason given was that the content did not comply with the section guidelines.

Below is a string of sarcastic remarks, all from long-time authors who are usually on good terms with the moderator.

"The newbie doesn't know the rules," "This business strategy is neither fish nor fowl," "He deserves to be buried."

The moderator didn't offer any explanation, and when he sent a private message asking, the other party didn't reply.

If you post again, your account will be banned for three days.

Just when he was feeling extremely frustrated, the user named papi姜 sent him another message.

"Oh! The 'Immortal Name' writing contest has started. Let's go check it out."

I received an invitation to join Xianming a couple of days ago, and he has already discussed it with another author.

Once the essay on the immortal's name started strong but ended weakly, he went back to work obediently.

After all, I've seen too many platforms that claim to support newcomers, only to reveal their true colors in the end.

He had already looked at the interface; it was quite clean, with no pop-ups, which was a problem.

The song is alright, the only downside is that it's only thirty seconds long.

Enter the event page.

"The voting period lasts seven days?"

"Yeah! It's quite stressful for students to finish serializing a story."

"Reader voting rights are awarded based on reading time or music listening time."

There are no moderator pinned posts, only chronological order and keyword search.

And the number of views, favorites, and comments for each post.

Chen Xu randomly clicked on a post: "Li Jiajun, Class of 06, Production Department, Central Academy of Drama".

"Campus romance, hahaha, such an innocent story, the writing is a bit immature."

Chen Xu subconsciously wanted to express his opinion.

When I opened the comments section, I was surprised to find that an old acquaintance from the forum had already commented.

He saw the supportive voices from his classmates, and they helped each other with comments.

The author replied to each message carefully and in a very polite tone.

It definitely has the feel of an old-fashioned forum where people encourage and comment on each other.

Chen Xu smiled and clicked on the next story.

Listening to music while reading stories about students around my age.

Before I knew it, two hours had passed, during which I also browsed the funny pictures and stories section.

Chen Xu snapped out of his daze and claimed a ticket on the page.

I found my favorite piece and submitted it.

Chen Xu, as if possessed, clicked on the submission guidelines for Xianming and read them line by line.

The moderators retain the final right of interpretation, and there is no requirement to abide by the forum's rules. There are only four points:

"No involvement with organized crime, politics, or gore and violence; works are not plagiarized."

He scrolled down and saw the section about copyright:

"The copyright of this work belongs to the author."

"If you require Xianming to register the copyright, please provide the materials yourself."

"Immortal Name has only obtained non-exclusive online distribution rights; the distribution period is negotiable."

He returned to Tianya Forum and looked at the incomplete post of his "Young Stock God".

Only the first two chapters remain; the rest were all cut.

The last comment in the comment section was posted two months ago.

"Where's the author? Why haven't they updated?"

He hasn't replied.

At this moment, Chen Xu stared at those few replies for a long time, as if he had made up his mind.

Finally, he replied.

"I've updated the latest chapter on the Xianming Original Platform, come check it out!"

"The Young Stock Market Prodigy"

Author: Zijin Chen

……

Meanwhile, inside the Immortal Name Pavilion...

Wu Yue's technical team breathed a sigh of relief, "We finally made it through."

Wang Song praised, "Thank you all for your hard work. How much has the data increased?"

"See for yourself." Wu Yue moved the screen aside.

"Daily visits have tripled, and more than 400 new non-Central Academy of Drama users have registered."

Wu Yue paused for a moment,

"These are just the registered users; there are many more visitors."

"Of the 823 submissions submitted to the story magazine, fifty were rejected."

Wu Yue switched to another interface, "and the number of plays in the music section has also increased significantly."

"In the area of ​​sharing funny pictures and stories, there are still mostly mutual help posts, and even music and stories are shared together."

Wang Song was somewhat amused and exasperated, as Ma Xiaojun's humorous comment was still pinned to the top of his comment list.

Wu Yue concluded.

People on the forum come to read stories, casually turn on music, and those who listen to music browse through pictures and texts about embarrassing moments when they have nothing else to do.

"Haha, boss, the closed loop is really working! The retention rate has indeed improved significantly."

Wang Song smiled and nodded.

He then handed him a news article.

Tudou.com completes tens of millions of US dollars in financing.

"This is the third one already. Youku and 56.com are both raising funds."

The battle among video websites has officially begun.

Wang Song asked疑惑地问道, "Does their spending on bandwidth acquisition affect us?"

Wu Yue paused for a moment, then said, "Yes, but not much."

He continued, "Their spending only makes the operators feel..."

"Oh! So you guys are really willing to spend money on bandwidth."

"So...the price was raised slightly."

"Their 10,000 users on their video platform are completely different from our 10,000 users on text, images, and music platforms."

"Due to the difference in size, the price increase will not have a significant impact on us."

Wang Song pondered for a moment.

The platform has to burn through bandwidth on one hand and burn money on the other to attract users.

They will no longer invest huge sums of money to buy expensive exclusive content.

mean.

High-quality content can be promoted on more platforms.

Wang Song nodded, "Then there's no rush."

"They fight their capital wars, we cultivate our content fields."

Wang Song closed the news, got up, and went downstairs.

On the first floor, Jiang Yilei, who rarely had a moment to spare, watched his old video work.

It is also a scene of great prosperity.

"Tomorrow, bring your DV camera and come with me to the film set."

"Join the crew?"

"Filming behind-the-scenes footage and actors' activities."

Jiang Yilei looked puzzled. "Don't other directors all keep it a secret?"

"They also release fake news from time to time to confuse netizens, as if they're afraid that people won't read it if they find out."

Wang Song picked up the DV camera and handed it to her, saying, "You just do the work, and leave the rest to the market."