14: Chapter 14 Countering Moves

Tencent moved quickly.

Stealing away a large number of Douyin's business partners was merely the first step in their strategy against Douyin.

"Douyin's capital chain is broken; they are withholding creator incentives."

The next morning.

This topic made a surprise landing on the Weibo trending list, hitting the sixth spot.

Clicking on it.

The top post was a long article from a blogger claiming to be a Douyin creator.

"I've been filming videos on Douyin for two months, and my followers have grown by over a hundred thousand. According to the platform's incentive rules, I should have received over ten thousand yuan in creative incentives, but I haven't seen a single cent."

"Contacting customer service always results in a bot reply, and calling the human support line always puts me in a queue. I'm just an ordinary college student. I've spent over a thousand yuan on props and clothes in these past two months, and now I'm almost out of living expenses."

"Douyin scammed me!"

The article was well-reasoned and tearfully written. With Tencent's push, it didn't just trend on Weibo; it surged to the top of trending lists across all major platforms.

Douyin withholding incentives from a college student—every point struck a sensitive nerve with current netizens.

Two days ago.

A large number of netizens were still mocking Tencent for plagiarizing others again, but now they were all cursing Douyin.

The comments section was quickly manipulated to set a narrative.

"Is Douyin going bankrupt?"

"I used to think Douyin was pretty good, I didn't expect it to be so dark behind the scenes."

"Creators work so hard filming videos, and the platform wants to stiff them on even this little bit of money?"

"No wonder so many people were poached to Weikan recently; Douyin is digging its own grave."

"A company that can't even pay a college student their hard-earned money should close down sooner. Tencent copied them well!"

In less than an hour.

Seven or eight more creators with significant followings posted on Weibo simultaneously, all with identical content.

Douyin was withholding incentives, so they had decided to terminate their contracts and switch to Weikan.

Some posted their electronic contracts signed with Douyin, while others posted screenshots of their backend data, proving their videos indeed had hundreds of thousands of views.

However, not a single person mentioned that the contract specified quarterly settlement, and not a single person took a screenshot of the settlement terms in the contract.

No one told the netizens that the first settlement cycle hadn't even arrived yet.

But because of Douyin, this group of people had indeed transformed from ordinary people into internet celebrities within these two months, building up a significant fan base. Several of the bloggers were even quite famous creators on Douyin.

With this group coming out to accuse them together.

Netizens almost instantly sided with them.

Following that.

A topic named "Weikan Creator Onboarding Program" hit the trending list.

Clicking inside revealed an announcement from Weikan's official Weibo account, with very straightforward wording.

"Effective immediately, any creator on the Douyin platform with over ten thousand followers who switches to Weikan will receive a sign-on bonus advance, with amounts ranging from five thousand to fifty thousand depending on the follower tier."

"Payment is made upon signing, with no settlement cycles."

At the same time, a large number of uniform posts appeared in the comment sections across all major platforms.

"Douyin can't pay out money and still owes a bunch of creators their incentives."

"Treating creators so poorly, who would dare film videos on Douyin in the future?"

"Weikan is pretty good; at least Tencent isn't short on money."

"How can a small company like Douyin compare to Tencent? It's bound to go bankrupt sooner or later."

...

Inspur Technology.

Zhao Lei slammed his phone onto the table, his face ashen.

"Can these people have any shame?"

"When we signed the contracts, it was written clearly in black and white: quarterly settlement! The first quarter hasn't even arrived yet, and they're running out here saying we owe them money?"

Lin Xiao pushed up his glasses, his voice cold.

"I've checked the backend data for the seven creators who posted on Weibo."

"They have all already submitted contract termination requests to the backend, and they submitted them before posting on Weibo."

"It doesn't take much thought to know that they have likely already signed with Weikan. Under Tencent's instruction, they are posing as victims to post on Weibo, accusing us of owing them money."

Zhao Lei was stunned.

"They breach the contract themselves, and then they try to frame us?"

"It's not just a breach of contract."

Lin Xiao turned the computer screen toward the two of them. It showed the contract termination request records for those few creators, with the request times clearly listed—the earliest was three days ago, and the latest was yesterday afternoon.

"When they posted on Weibo, they all skipped one thing: they signed contracts with quarterly settlement."

"Yet not a single word mentioned that the settlement cycle hadn't arrived, and not a single word mentioned that they had already joined Weikan before applying for contract termination."

"Netizens don't know any of this; they only see them saying 'filmed for two months and didn't get paid'."

"This is deliberately manipulating the narrative."

Zhao Lei stood up and paced around his workstation, his fists clenching and unclenching.

"They clearly breached the contract and ran off to Weikan, and now they're using the trending topic to splash dirty water on us, making it look like we forced them to leave because we wouldn't pay them."

"The bigger problem is that many uninformed users are really being led by the narrative."

Lin Xiao opened the comment sections for Douyin on various app stores.

The latest one-star negative reviews were almost entirely about unpaid wages. The rating had dropped from four and a half stars to just over three, and with every refresh, it dropped another point one.

"Users are already following the trend to leave negative reviews. There are also some creators with fewer followers who are waiting and watching. They don't know the truth, and seeing this group of big bloggers scolding us, they are also hesitating whether to leave."

"After all, they really haven't received any money either."

"Before, when Douyin had just launched, we didn't have much capital, so we could only use quarterly contracts."

"But now, in their eyes, this quarterly contract seems like a plan we made to run away."

Meanwhile.

On the other side.

Qin Mo sat up straight in his chair and picked up his phone to glance at the trending topics, his expression showing little fluctuation.

"Tencent's move is indeed cleaner than the previous ones."

He spoke unhurriedly.

"First, they forced the manufacturers to choose one of two, cutting off our advertising cash flow."

"Then they poached creators, framing us in public opinion, and getting this group of creators to cause a run on us."

"They calculated two things. First, the quarterly settlement hasn't arrived, so we indeed haven't paid any creator."

"Second, netizens won't check the contract terms; they will only see the fact that 'someone is accusing us'."

"The most critical point is."

Qin Mo paused.

"If we settle in advance, it will cause Douyin to lose its cash flow instantly. After all, the manufacturers have already been poached, and currently, Douyin doesn't have many sources of income."

"Tencent wants us to spit out all the money we've earned."

"But we really have no choice but to do so. One month is enough for Douyin's reputation to hit rock bottom; we can't wait that long."

"This move is an open conspiracy."

After saying this.

Qin Mo turned his head to look at Lin Xiao.

"How many creators do we need to settle with right now?"

Lin Xiao switched to a spreadsheet and scrolled down several pages before reaching the bottom.

"There are several thousand in the first batch due for settlement. Based on their respective data, the total amount is around two million."

"It wasn't this many originally, but after Su Xiaomo's video went viral, it attracted a large number of creators. In these past two days, because of Weikan, Douyin's users have doubled. This massive amount of new traffic has also given this group of creators huge earnings."

"After all, we set the incentive prices extremely high initially to attract creators; it's several times that of ordinary platforms."

"Two million."

Qin Mo repeated the number.

"How much can we move from the company's account?"

"Less than three million."

Lin Xiao's voice was a bit dry. Having lived through hard times for the past two years, needing to take out most of the company's liquid capital all at once made his hand gripping the mouse tighten involuntarily.

"But this money is reserved for server expansion and the next round of promotion."

"If we pay it out in advance, we won't have much in reserve. If those manufacturers don't flow back and return to Douyin in the first two months of Weikan's launch, we might really face a broken capital chain."

"Two months is enough."

Muttering to himself, Qin Mo didn't seem to think this was any trouble at all.

He spoke directly.

"Contact the finance department; pay out the incentive money in advance."

"Douyin's reputation cannot be smeared; that's something money can't buy back."

Qin Mo's tone was no different from when he said "It's time for a meeting."

But Zhao Lei thought he had misheard.

"Boss, what did you say?"

"Pay in advance."

Qin Mo repeated.

"Clear all the incentives for the first batch of creators in advance. Have it in their accounts within today."

"But the settlement time is still a month away..."

Zhao Lei stopped halfway.

He saw Qin Mo's expression and knew this wasn't a request for an opinion.

"Weikan is using traffic and capital to fight us, and we accept that."

"They have money, channels, and a user pool accumulated over a dozen years. They use these things to crush us, and we can withstand it."

Qin Mo stood up and walked to the window.

"But if they use Douyin's reputation to make an issue, then we cannot retreat a single step."

He turned around and looked at the two of them.

"The premise of 'the innocent are self-evident' is that no one is splashing dirty water."

"Now the whole internet is questioning whether we owe money. If we do nothing and wait until the settlement day in a month to prove our innocence, by then, the users who were led by the narrative will have already left."

"The poached creators will have already established themselves on Weikan, and those who are still waiting and watching will run away because they can't afford to wait. Time is not on our side."

"But this money."

Lin Xiao was still hesitating.

"Money can be earned back if it's gone."

"And you already said that if the manufacturers flow back in the first two months of Weikan's launch, we can restore the capital chain."

"Actually."

Qin Mo paused.

"It won't take that long at all."

Qin Mo looked at Zhao Lei, his voice not loud, but every word landed firmly.

"But if people are convinced that Douyin is a platform that withholds wages, peeling off that label will be a hundred times harder than earning two million."

Zhao Lei was silent for a few seconds, then slapped his thigh and stood up.

"Fine, pay it!"

"I'm going to have the finance department process the batch payments now. Everything will be in their accounts within today."

He turned and walked to the door, suddenly stopped, and turned back.

"Boss, there's one question I can't figure out."

"Speak."

"Tencent is making such a big fuss—poaching manufacturers, poaching creators, buying smear pieces. All of this combined has cost them at least several million, maybe even over ten million."

"What are they after? Just to kill off our software that only has a few hundred thousand daily active users?"

Qin Mo didn't answer immediately.

He looked out the window at the Magic City.

"Because they are afraid."

He said.

"They aren't afraid of us now; they are afraid of us growing too fast."

"Tencent has been in the internet industry for over a dozen years; they know too well what kind of products are threatening."

"Weikan is in their hands, but they aren't sure themselves if they can retain users the way we do."

"So, before Weikan launches, they want to crush us as much as possible."

"With manufacturers gone, creators gone, and users led by the narrative to leave negative reviews, only then can they compete with us for users on the same track on the day Weikan launches."

Qin Mo couldn't help but take a deep breath.

"Even if Weikan can't beat Douyin after launch, relying on these tactics can buy them a lot of time to regret."

"There's a reason Tencent has reached this point."

Zhao Lei stood there silently for a moment, then pushed the door open and walked out.

That afternoon, the finance department's batch payment system started running at full speed.

Thousands of payments were transferred out of the company account simultaneously, each with a note attached:

"Douyin creator incentive, settled thirty days in advance. Thank you for your creation."