sbdcsierra Chapter 232 Tencent, with its deep pockets
Chapter 232 Tencent, with its deep pockets
TUTU's daily active user curve is soaring like a rocket.
Twenty-four million.
Twenty-five million.
Twenty-six million.
Every time I refresh the backend, I find that the data has increased significantly.
"Mr. Lu," the operations guy kept going in and out of Lu Ran's office, so much so that his expression had gone from excited to numb, "Daily active users have increased again."
"How much did it go up?"
"It's already over 2,700."
Lu Ran nodded and leisurely put down the teacup in his hand.
Zhou Mingzhe peeked out from behind the screen and asked, "Are you already this calm?"
"I'm used to it," Lu Ran laughed. "It's like eating braised pork every day; once you've had it too much, it doesn't taste so good anymore."
Zhou Mingzhe: "I never liked braised pork in the first place."
"You son of a bitch..."
Lu Ran stood up, walked to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and said, "Come on, let's analyze the current situation."
He wrote several numbers on the whiteboard:
[Starlight Entertainment: 12 artists including Lin Weiwei and Zhang Xincheng have joined, gaining a total of 1000 million followers]
[Xinghua Entertainment: Li Yixin, Wang Chengcheng and 9 other artists joined the platform, gaining a total of 800 million followers]
[Starry Entertainment: The top 36 contestants of "Super Girl" have all joined the platform, and together with F4, they have gained a total of 800 million followers]
[The "Left-Behind Rabbits Alliance": From 200 million to 800 million, and still growing]
[GG Merchant: From half of our customers leaving to now having 27 brands lining up to offer us money, we're already in talks for collaborations]
Although there is a lot of overlap in the fan base here, it is quite obvious that it has brought in a large number of fans.
And given the size of Weibo's fan base, this number of fans is expected to increase significantly.
If the other side has no means of retaliation, the number of fans brought by this group of celebrities alone could increase by tens of millions.
Other second- and third-tier celebrities from the following companies can also join one after another, eventually forming a group.
Although Lu Ran was somewhat disgusted by this overly celebrity-esque atmosphere, he believed that if these celebrities had more positive energy, it could have a certain positive effect.
He put down his pen and looked at Zhou Mingzhe: "What did you figure out?"
Zhou Mingzhe stared at the whiteboard for a few seconds, then slowly said, "We seem to be... kind of awesome?"
"Let's forget about the 'seems' part; we're truly amazing." Lu Ran laughed. "Twenty-seven million daily active users already surpasses our peak. And it's still growing. At this rate, breaking thirty million by the end of the next few days isn't a dream."
Zhou Mingzhe asked, "What's the mood on WeChat now?"
Lu Ran: "It must be quite complicated. I don't know why they don't eat braised pork."
Zhou Mingzhe: "You're so shameless."
...
Meanwhile, at Weibo Technology headquarters.
Wang Huabing's feelings were indeed very complicated.
He stared at the data on the screen, his face greener than the plants in the conference room.
WeChat's gaming platform has 1.8 million active users today.
It has fallen by a full 20 million from its peak.
Logically speaking, 1.8 million is still a lot, enough to crush TUTU.
The problem is that this data is declining.
Moreover, the rate of decline was much faster than expected.
"Mr. Wang," the assistant carefully handed over a report, "TUTU's daily active users have exceeded 27 million."
Wang Huabing took the report, glanced at it, and then threw it on the table.
"Twenty-seven million," he murmured. "Not long ago, they only had fifteen million."
The assistant listened to Wang Huabing's roar and didn't dare to say anything.
Wang Huabing stood up, walked to the French windows, and looked out at the sky over Beijing.
He initially thought TUTU was a minor character and didn't take him seriously.
Even the earliest reason they became enemies with TUTU was because they had their eyes on his Happy Farm.
Back then, he even thought that Starlight Entertainment was too useless, unable to even deal with Lu Ran.
As a result, after they took to Weibo, they only enjoyed their moment of glory for a few days before Lu Ran turned the tables on them by using his pets.
Even after acquiring several game companies, they still couldn't stop the decline.
Now that WeChat, which is even stronger than their Weibo, has met its end, Wang Huabing thought, this time we can't afford to fail again.
As a result, TUTU managed to revive itself after its data declined for several days, in collaboration with other entertainment companies.
What angered him most was that Starlight Entertainment, with whom he had just collaborated, was among them.
Indeed, there are no permanent friends in the business world.
Wang Huabing even forgot that he was the first to neglect this partner and the first to look down on him.
Because at that time he felt that the battle was bound to be won.
But now?
Now TUTU has not only climbed up, but it has climbed even higher than before.
"Call Mr. Chen," he said, turning to his assistant. "Schedule a video conference now."
...
Ten minutes later, the video call connected.
On the other side of the screen, Chen Mo still looked like a university professor, with frameless glasses and a gentle smile, as if he wouldn't even flinch if the sky were to fall.
"Mr. Wang, is there something you need?"
"Mr. Chen," Wang Huabing said bluntly, "Have you looked at TUTU's data?"
"I've seen it." Chen Mo nodded. "Twenty-seven million, that's indeed a pretty fast increase."
"Aren't you in a hurry?"
"In a hurry? Why the hurry?" Chen Mo smiled. "Mr. Wang, let me ask you a question. TUTU has 27 million now, how much do we have?"
"1.8 million."
"Yes, 1.8 million." Chen Mo picked up his teacup, took a slow sip, and said, "Our fraction is more than theirs. What's the rush?"
Wang Huabing paused for a moment, then said, "But their prices are rising, while ours are falling."
"What's causing the price increase? Celebrity endorsements, fan communities, and the Watcher Badge." Chen Mo put down his teacup. "Can we do things like that?"
"Yes, but..."
"But what? But it takes time?" Chen Mo interrupted him. "President Wang, who's behind us? It's Tencent. What does Tencent have? Money, people, technology, and resources. TUTU can hire celebrities, can we? Yes. TUTU can build a fan community, can we? Yes. TUTU can issue badges, can we issue badges? Yes."
He paused, his tone tinged with disdain: "TUTU's 27 million was propped up by the three entertainment companies, Starlight, StarHua, and StarShining. But how many artists can those three companies have combined? How many fans? How much content? At most, it's only 30 million. Our 180 million is something they can't catch up to no matter how hard they try."
Wang Huabing listened and felt that it made some sense.
"Furthermore," Chen Mo continued, "don't forget, we have Tencent Games behind us. What games does TUTU have? Gold Miner, Fire and Ice, Rolling Sky—all small games. What does Tencent Games have? Dou Dizhu, Mahjong, Bubble Fighter, Temple Run, Rhythm Master—aren't they all better?"
"Once we've built up the gaming ecosystem, users will naturally come back. By then, how much of TUTU's 27 million will be left?"
Wang Huabing nodded thoughtfully: "So you mean..."
"What I mean is, no rush," Chen Mo smiled. "Let them jump around. The higher they jump, the harder they'll fall. What we need to do now isn't to fight them hand-to-hand, but to build a fence."
"Build a fence?"
"That's right." Chen Mo pushed up his glasses. "Have you noticed what TUTU relied on to turn things around this time? It's the artist resources of entertainment companies. Starlight, StarHua, and StarShining—these three companies basically occupy half of the entertainment industry in China. When they join forces, it's like they've brought artists and fans into TUTU."
"If we don't have our own artist resources, we'll just be watching TUTU reap the rewards while we only get the scraps."
Wang Huabing frowned: "You mean, we'll sign artists too?"
"No, signing is too slow." Chen Mo shook his head. "Let's buy it."
...