13: Chapter 13 Penguins Continue to Apply Pressure

Sun Qiang's methods were simple.

He had Weikan's staff contact every manufacturer currently advertising on Douyin, offering very direct terms.

"As long as you terminate your cooperation with Douyin and sign with Weikan, you will receive a significant discount on ad placements for the first month. If you refuse to terminate your cooperation with Douyin, you will never be able to place ads on Weikan in the future."

While Douyin had ridden the coattails of Weikan's promotional momentum, Weikan was now playing a card that would pull the rug out from under them.

After all, in just a few days, Weikan had already accumulated tens of millions of pre-registrations and downloads.

Once it officially launched, its user base and scale would likely dwarf Douyin's by an unknown margin; the two were simply not in the same league.

Consequently, most of these profit-driven manufacturers abandoned Douyin.

Only a small number of manufacturers stayed behind, either due to integrity or because they doubted Weikan would achieve the same high conversion rates as Douyin.

After all, Weikan's advertising costs were significantly higher than Douyin's.

"What's the situation with the thirty-something manufacturers that stayed?"

Qin Mo had not expected so many of them to remain.

Lin Xiao turned the computer screen around.

"Almost all of them were in the first batch that advertised on Douyin."

He paused.

"Some factory owners even stated that since Douyin helped their factories back then, if they left now that Douyin is being targeted, they wouldn't be acting like decent human beings."

The list on the screen wasn't long; scrolling from top to bottom revealed only thirty or forty names.

Zhang Guoqiang, Old Chen, and those small business owners who had invested five thousand or ten thousand yuan in ads on Douyin early on and watched with their own eyes as their inventory cleared out—almost all of them had stayed.

Qin Mo looked at the list without saying a word.

Outside the window, the sky over the Magic City was still gray.

"For those manufacturers who breached their contracts, create a separate folder to archive their information," Qin Mo finally spoke.

"In the future, when they come back to us, revoke all discounts and increase the price by fifty percent."

After saying this, Qin Mo couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Others might not realize it, but he knew that without Douyin's Recommendation Algorithm, Weikan would struggle to even retain users, let alone place ads accurately.

The day Weikan officially launched, everyone would realize the gap between Douyin and Weikan.

All those manufacturers who switched to Weikan would regret it.

...

Meanwhile, in Lucheng District, Wenzhou.

Old Chen was squatting at the factory entrance smoking a cigarette, sitting on an upside-down plastic crate, fingers clutching the cigarette, squinting as he watched workers load boxes onto a truck.

After that last batch of inventory shoes had sold out, he had reopened two production lines; now, he wasn't just selling old stock, but also starting to make new styles.

An old-model Audi pulled up across the street.

Fatty Guo pushed the door open and got out, his leather shoes clicking on the concrete as he strolled over, the smile on his face identical to the one from his last visit.

But there was an irrepressible smugness radiating from every fold of his fat.

"Old Chen, still busy?"

Old Chen looked up at him but didn't stand up, keeping the cigarette in his mouth as he remained squatting.

"I heard you don't plan on signing with Weikan?"

Fatty Guo didn't stand on ceremony; he pulled a plastic crate over from the side, sat down, and crossed his legs.

"I told you long ago that your precious Douyin couldn't be trusted."

"Tencent has entered the fray personally. Weikan has Tencent Video and the Tencent Messaging App behind it. Once Weikan goes live, do you think Douyin will have any way to survive? Who will you sell your ads to then?"

Old Chen stubbed out his cigarette on the sole of his shoe.

He stood up from the plastic crate and brushed the dust off his pants.

"Boss Guo, there's no other reason I'm not advertising on Weikan; I just feel a person should have a conscience."

"Douyin helped me clear my inventory back then, and that's how the dozens of people in my factory kept their jobs. If I run away now that Douyin is in trouble, would I even be human?"

Fatty Guo was stunned for half a second, then burst into laughter, the sound carrying from the factory entrance to the other side of the road.

"You blockhead, do you really treat business like making friends?"

"Let me tell you, I've already breached my contract with Douyin, forfeited the deposit, and signed a one-year exclusive contract with Weikan. I've even transferred millions in advertising fees already."

"I'm just waiting for Weikan to go live so I can lie back and count my money."

"As for you, this shoe factory of yours is probably going to close down for good."

"But don't worry, I'm a benevolent person; I'll offer you a decent price to acquire it."

Old Chen looked at him.

"Boss Guo, don't you think it's expensive?"

"Weikan hasn't even launched yet, and the ad prices are already so much higher than Douyin's."

Fatty Guo waved his hand, his face full of bravado.

"Expensive? Expensive is exactly the point! Being expensive means you can get ahead of everyone else. Besides, Weikan is backed by Tencent; when the time comes, the user base will be hundreds of times larger than Douyin's. What's a little advertising fee compared to that? This is called securing it in advance!"

Although he had considerable assets, this time, for the sake of Weikan, Fatty Guo had invested a large amount of the factory's cash in one go.

Furthermore, to accommodate the massive traffic from Weikan, he had opened several more production lines and taken out quite a few loans, waiting to make a killing!

...

That same evening, inside Jiang Youyou's apartment.

After showering, she was sitting on her bed looking at her phone, her dark hair hanging loosely, but her expression changed instantly after opening the main streamer group on QQ.

The notification in the group had been sent five minutes ago by the official Douyu operations account; the wording was polite, but the meaning was anything but.

"Effective immediately, all contracted streamers under Douyu are prohibited from mentioning, discussing, or displaying any positive content related to 'Douyin' in their personal live streams or personal social media accounts."

"This includes, but is not limited to, Short Video, interface screenshots, and the software name."

"At the same time, to support the launch of Tencent Group's key product 'Weikan,' all streamers are required to conduct at least one live promotional session on the day Weikan officially goes live."

No one in the group objected.

Douyu had long been acquired by Tencent, and no one streaming here dared to go against the boss.

Furthermore, the operations team even sent many streamers smear pieces against Douyin separately, telling them that not only did they have to promote Weikan, but they also had to find ways to smear Douyin.

After reading the notification, Jiang Youyou threw her phone onto the bed, bounced up, grabbed it, and called Qin Mo immediately.

The phone rang five times before it was answered, and on the other end was Qin Mo's voice, as calm as ever.

"Youyou?"

"Senior, Tencent has prepared a ton of smear pieces; once Weikan launches, it's going to be plastered all over the internet, specifically targeting Douyin."

"They've also restricted all of us streamers on Douyu. We can't mention Douyin unless it's negative propaganda, and we can only promote Weikan!"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line.

Then Qin Mo's voice sounded, unhurried and steady.

"Trust me."

Jiang Youyou was stunned for two seconds, then threw her blanket aside and slumped to the side.

"Can't you say a few more words?"

Qin Mo thought for a moment, then added another sentence.

"On the day Weikan launches, remember to film a new video."

Jiang Youyou hung up the phone and rolled her eyes at the ceiling.

But the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curl up.

Because she could tell that when Qin Mo said "Trust me" just now, his tone was exactly the same as when he said "This time is different" last month.

And the last time he said that, Douyin was indeed different.