11: Chapter 11 The Emergence of Competitors

Tencent Group Headquarters.

The lights in the conference room had been on since six in the morning, the coffee cups on the table had been replaced three times, and the ashtray was overflowing with cigarette butts.

More than twenty people sat on both sides of the long table, and no one spoke.

On the projection screen was a screenshot of Douyin's official Weibo account.

Daily active users: 312,000.

Average usage time per person: 41 minutes.

"This data was captured from the official Douyin Weibo."

Standing in front of the projection was the head of the data analysis team, a thin man wearing rimless glasses; his voice was not loud, but every word could be heard clearly in the quiet conference room.

"Our team spent a day cross-verifying this data, and the conclusion is..."

He pushed up his glasses.

"The data is authentic."

A few faint gasps echoed in the conference room.

"Two months after launch, 310,000 daily active users, with an average usage time of 41 minutes."

He turned to the next page.

"What does this duration mean? Tencent Video's average usage time is 50 minutes. We have been running a long-form video platform for ten years, and we are about to be surpassed by an app that launched two months ago."

Sun Qiang leaned back in the main seat, fingers crossed on the desktop, expressionless.

"Continue."

"The more critical point is this."

A new chart appeared on the projection, marking Douyin's advertising unit prices and vendor renewal rate data.

"We obtained feedback from some vendors through channels; Douyin's current advertising unit price is around 50 yuan CPM, which is three to five times that of traditional video websites."

CPM is the advertising cost per thousand impressions.

"Three to five times?"

Zheng Tao, sitting next to Sun Qiang, frowned.

"Yes, three to five times."

The head of the data analysis team turned to the next page.

"Furthermore, the advertising satisfaction rate for vendors on Douyin is nearly 95 percent, and most vendors who have advertised have chosen to increase their investment."

"An app with only 310,000 daily active users has an advertising unit price several times higher than our video website, and vendors are scrambling to advertise?" Zheng Tao's voice carried obvious disbelief.

"Yes."

"How much can their monthly advertising revenue be?"

"According to current data projections, Douyin's advertising revenue this month has already exceeded two million."

The team leader paused.

"That is actual revenue, not the contract amount."

The air in the conference room seemed to have been struck by something.

Two million.

An app that had just launched two months ago with only 310,000 daily active users had achieved a monthly advertising revenue of over two million.

This number tore through the perceptions of everyone present more directly than any technical analysis.

Sun Qiang raised his head, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.

He still remembered clearly.

This group of people had once insisted that Short Video apps had no potential whatsoever.

He then let out a cold snort.

"The software I asked you to initiate as a project before, what stage is it at now?"

A team leader in the corner stood up, his voice sounding somewhat lacking in confidence.

"The features have been copied to eighty percent, and the interface and interaction are basically consistent with Douyin."

"But we discovered that Douyin's recommendation mechanism seems a bit strange; it is not random pushing. We are still testing it, and I am afraid it will take quite some time in this direction..."

"Three days."

Sun Qiang interrupted him.

"Make a complete piece of software within three days."

"Everything else can be slowly perfected after the software is made."

He stood up, hands pressing on the conference table; his voice was not loud, but every word carried an unquestionable sense of oppression.

"In one week, I want netizens across the country to see this software on all major platforms!"

He paused.

"Don't forget the name I gave it before: Weikan."

Everyone in the conference room stood up at the same time.

No one questioned whether Short Video had a future anymore, and no one said that no one would watch ten-second videos.

Although the person in charge of software production looked worried, he nodded; now they could only set aside Douyin's strange recommendation mechanism and just make Weikan.

That afternoon.

Tencent's promotional machine started at full power.

Every user who opened the Tencent Messaging App saw a pop-up window appear in the bottom right corner at the same time.

This had only happened a few times in Tencent's history, and every pop-up meant that Tencent was fully promoting a strategic product.

There was only one line of text on the pop-up.

The Short Video era, your Weikan.

Below it was a download reservation button.

At the same time, every game under Tencent launched a tie-in event.

Reserve a download for Weikan and get Tencent game coupons, register a Weikan account to get limited-edition skins, and log in to Weikan for three consecutive days to get a game item chest.

On the homepage recommendation slot of Tencent Video, the posters for hit dramas that were originally hanging there were taken down and replaced with a promotional video for Weikan.

The video content was very simple: a person kept laughing while scrolling through their phone. The interface was almost exactly the same as Douyin; if not for the different logo in the top left corner, one could not tell who was who.

It has to be said that Tencent's scale is indeed far beyond what Inspur Technology can compare to.

Less than twenty-four hours later.

The number of download reservations for Weikan exceeded ten million!

This was only the first day!

According to Tencent's internal estimates, under their large-scale promotion, the number of download reservations for Weikan would likely exceed fifty million in seven days!

This is Tencent's scale.

And the current promotion was just the beginning for Tencent.

At 9:00 AM the next day, a trending topic dropped onto the Weibo hot search list.

'The Short Video era is coming, reserve Weikan.' It was third on the hot search list.

Clicking into the topic, pinned at the top was a well-produced promotional video.

In the video, a girl was scrolling through Weikan on the subway, laughing uncontrollably, and people around her cast curious glances. Finally, a line of text appeared on the screen—The Short Video era is already here, what are you still waiting for?

In the bottom right corner of the video was the reservation QR code for Weikan and various reservation rewards.

The comment section was filled with nothing but praise.

"What is Short Video? How come I've never heard of it?"

"It seems like it's been a long time since Tencent promoted an app on such a large scale; this Short Video should be interesting."

"I don't care about that much; anyway, there are Q coins to collect."

"I have to say, Tencent is really generous this time, actually giving away skins directly."

And among these discussions, naturally, there were many Douyin users.

"Isn't this that thing called Douyin?"

"Did Tencent copy it again? Or did they acquire it?"

"Short Video is indeed very interesting; I've been scrolling through it these past two days."

However, these scattered comments did not cause any waves under this trending topic.

This trending topic was also bought by Tencent.

Everyone knew it was bought, but no one cared because it really brought in traffic, making many people pay attention to Short Video and Weikan.

Just one hour after the trending topic was posted.

Douyin's official Weibo account posted a new Weibo.

It was a statement accusing Weikan of plagiarism.

At first, not many people paid attention to this accusation statement, but soon, Qin Mo also made the same move as Tencent.

However.

Qin Mo did not buy a top spot on the hot search list for this Weibo; he only invested a very small budget, pushing it to the fifth from the bottom position on the hot search list.

After all, he knew the weight of this statement itself.

Therefore.

Just less than twenty minutes after this Weibo was posted, this topic was launched like a rocket by Weikan's promotional hot search and the label "Tencent plagiarism," which carried its own traffic.

Just half an hour passed.

A viral hot search instantly surged to number one on the Weibo hot search list!

'Douyin sues Weikan for plagiarism!'