20: Chapter 20 A Billion-Dollar Acquisition?

The next morning, Weikan's daily active user data was updated.

After the weekly check-in event ended.

By noon that day, fewer than two million users had logged into Weikan, whereas at the same time the previous day, that number had been nine million.

When the day ended.

The final data was released.

Daily active users plummeted from ten million to three million.

The commercial joint event had expired yesterday.

Various gifts and redemption codes expired yesterday, leaving a large number of users with no incentive to open Weikan anymore.

Those who had come to check in for Q-coins and skin lottery tickets finished their seven-day tasks, long-pressed Weikan on their phone screens to drag it into the delete bin, and returned to the Douyin they had been scrolling all along.

Another day passed, and Weikan's daily active users dropped below two million.

For the vast majority of software on the market, such a short-term drop might be explainable.

But Weikan was not "the vast majority of software."

It was backed by Tencent, watched by the entire nation from the very first day it launched, and its previous purchased trending searches and official blog posts had all been loudly proclaiming its terrifying daily active user numbers.

The problems hidden behind its thirty million downloads and ten million daily active users were all exposed in the first two days after the event ended.

Discussion posts about "Weikan's daily active users slashed in half" began appearing on social media; although it hadn't formed a large-scale trending topic yet, Tencent's internal PR team had already sensed the shift in the wind.

And one must know, Douyin's daily active users had already surpassed 1.2 million.

The gap between them and this software that had been online for less than ten days was less than a million!

Meanwhile.

Those manufacturers who had poured their entire net worth into investing in Weikan finally lost their last shred of patience.

They had waited for over a week, not for the "gradual improvement in advertising effectiveness" that Weikan had promised, but only for a string of sales data that made their hearts jump with fear.

The conversion rates they had thought were low during the first three days were already the highest they would see for the following week!

On the side of a road in Lucheng District, Wenzhou, Fatty Guo sat in his old Audi and dialed the Weikan business manager's number once again.

This time, the phone rang for a full fifteen rings before it was answered.

"Hello, Weikan Business Cooperation Department."

"I'm from Guangyuan Shoe Factory. I invested over a million in ads, and it's been a week! The sales aren't even as good as what I get from investing on Taobao. When you asked me to invest, you told me that users nationwide were using Weikan..."

"Hello, sir. Regarding follow-up solutions for advertising effectiveness, our official blog has already released the latest announcement. You can go check it."

"If you need further communication, please call our business hotline during business days."

"The volume of phone inquiries is currently quite high, so we suggest you first review the announcement on our official blog."

The veins on the back of Fatty Guo's hand, which was gripping the phone, bulged, but the call had already been disconnected.

He stared at the call-ended prompt on the phone screen for a good while, tossed the phone onto the passenger seat, leaned back into the seat, and closed his eyes.

The announcement released by Weikan officially read:

"The Weikan team has noted user feedback regarding content recommendations and is currently conducting comprehensive internal optimization."

"Once the optimization is complete, Weikan will meet everyone again in a better state."

"For the first batch of advertisers, we will automatically extend your advertising period by fifty percent after the optimized version of Weikan officially goes live. Thank you all for your support and patience."

This announcement barely managed to stabilize some of the advertisers who were still hesitating.

The money would not be refunded, and while extending the advertising period sounded like empty promises, it was at least better than nothing.

Some manufacturers still felt that the user base was there, and if Tencent really managed to pull the data back up, they would lose out if they ran away now.

But this empty promise couldn't fool everyone.

More manufacturers began to turn back and contact Inspur Technology.

The first batch consisted of the thirty-plus companies that had previously cooperated with them; they already had personal experience with Douyin's advertising effectiveness, and Weikan's poor performance only made them more determined, so they rushed to invest more.

The second batch was those small and medium-sized manufacturers who had previously breached their contracts and left; some were too embarrassed to call directly and first sent exploratory emails.

By the third batch, even some brand merchants who had invested big money on Weikan began to use their connections to ask if there were any available advertising slots on Douyin.

Although these big companies trusted Tencent's methods more.

However.

At least until Weikan finished its optimization, they wanted to come to Douyin to give it a try.

After all.

These big companies were not afraid of any of Weikan's bullying clauses.

And as these manufacturers flowed back.

Zhao Lei had previously said it might take two months to restore cash flow.

But now, just one week later, Douyin's business phone began ringing non-stop again.

Some of the manufacturers who had breached their contracts initially called back humbly to ask if there were any spots left, their tone completely different from when they had terminated their contracts.

The staff at Inspur Technology's business department replied uniformly according to Qin Mo's instructions.

"The advertising price has returned to the original rate, and scheduling is not guaranteed."

"Breaching merchants will be charged an additional fifty percent on top of this."

"If you have an intention to advertise, please resubmit your application, and we will review it uniformly."

...

Three days later.

A black Mercedes business van parked downstairs from Inspur Technology.

Zhou Rui got out of the car and looked up at the office building in front of him.

When he left, Inspur Technology was still huddled in a small office on one floor, with only two people sparsely sitting at their workstations, and the desks were piled with takeout boxes and instant coffee packaging.

But now.

The entire floor had been rented by Inspur Technology, and looking up from downstairs, one could see the Douyin logo hanging on the glass windows of that floor.

He was wearing a custom-made dark gray suit today, the buttons on the cuffs were newly bought, and his leather shoes were polished to a shine.

Behind him followed a female secretary in a professional suit, carrying a black briefcase in her hand.

"General Manager Zhou, will Qin Mo agree?"

The secretary asked in a low voice.

Zhou Rui adjusted his tie, a smile with just the right amount of restraint hanging on the corners of his mouth.

"A few months ago, before I left Inspur Technology, the company even had to rely on mortgaging a car just to survive."

"At that time, the only thing on the company's books that could be exchanged for money was his old car."

"It sold for over two hundred thousand, which helped it last one more month to get Douyin up and running."

"Now, if I give him one billion, he's not a saint; there's no reason for him to refuse."

Speaking of this, Zhou Rui sneered and shook his head.

"But I actually think one billion is too much. Once Weikan develops big data, how could Douyin possibly survive? If it were me, giving him one hundred million would be generous enough."

"General Manager Sun is still too generous."

"And now, not only is there one billion, but I am here in person. No matter how aloof Qin Mo is, he cannot refuse to hand over Douyin."

The secretary nodded and didn't ask any further.

Then the two of them strode into the office building and pressed the elevator button for the floor where Inspur Technology was located.